To better explain a lot of the core elements that make up Sonic the Hedgehog 02: Archives, I feel that I know enough about its development and presentation to give a proper insight that you might not attain from most others; having studied MD '92's development full~time since 2006, there is a lot that is easy to understand with Archives' handling, though even I don't know if Team Conquest and Technical will put in literally everything that was originally planned for STI's original vision. ~ Zone Order: In its original vision, MD '92 was most likely set to have 023 to 025 zones, if all of the concepts were put in (Green Hill '92/Emerald Hill, Ocean Wind, Secret Jungle, Sand Shower, Metropolis, Warp Point, Tropical Sun, Hilltop, Blue Lake/Blue Ocean/Azure Lake, Rock World/Icecap, Madness Mountain, Dust Hill/Mystic Cave, Oil Ocean, Casino Night, Chemical Plant, Craig Stitt's Carnival Concept (what ultimately became Balloon Park), Genocide City, Green Hill '92 on Fire (Cutscene?), Fire Mountain (Lava Reef), Emerald Isle (Neo Green Hill/Aquatic Ruin), Olympus (Cutscene), Sky Chase/Castles in the Sky, Sky/Wing Fortress, Death Egg '92, and The Last Battle in Space (Super Sonic versus Giant Robo Eggman and Doomsday Dragon), with Hidden Palace '92 being an Extra Zone when Sonic gets Chaos Emerald 07); what we have in the Sonic Hacking Contest XXII Demo is simply what is in a presentable condition, so obviously all we have at the moment is the full Regular Present, One Quarter of Past: Part 0I (Tropical Sun II is not meant to be played until Sonic returns to the Past after Rock World II in the Ruined Present; TS II is the last act before going to Warp Point 04), and the penultimate zone of Past: Part III (EI/NGH/AR) before Sonic goes to Olympus (Brenda Ross' Purple Temple at Night concept from her Video Portfolio, assuming those Sand Shower/Rock World ground elements and Green Hill clouds are not simply for show), wishfully the zone order doesn't get butchered because the storytelling was always meant to be very episodic in nature and the concept of returning to zones at specific points is something that wouldn't be touched upon by Sonic Team specifically until Planetary Pieces (Unleashed/World Adventure). ~ Artwork: MD '92 was always destined to repurpose zone assets using different styles to tell the player which zone belonged to which part of South Island, and the way that everything was reworked in this was to better conform to the Concept Art that was made for them (though as we have seen from Development Screenshots, Rock World has gotten a massive glow~up from its original vision); if you are familiar with Sonic the Hedgehog: KawariNo, the Art Direction is incredibly similar to it in many aspects, it is meant to deliver better plot progression while also helping us get the best possible visual detail within the confines of the Megadrive, this ultimately helps every zone feel more natural in the long run and for zones that were in the Retail Build of MD '92 they truly are getting the best treatment that I feel bad Absolute didn't do with its endeavour (outside of community mods). ~ Music: The soundtrack functions in the regard that Act 0I of returning zones is on par with Masato Nakamura's Demo Tracks, while Act II conforms to the Tempo and sound delivered in the Retail Build and Simon Wai Demo; all of the Roland TR-626 Percussion Samples are at their original pitch, which is Seven Keys lower than the Retail Build due to Sonic Team having had to speed them up due to the Sega Chorus taking up too much data and pushing the PCM Samples into 04 Bit chunks, as opposed to full 08 Bit. The Simon Wai Boss Track appears as if it will only be used in the final zone of each major saga (Metropolis for Regular Present, Rock World II for Ruined Present, Tropical Sun II for Past: Part II (Flooded Past), Genocide City III for Future, and Death Egg '92 for The Last Battle in Space), and as we have witnessed with Secret Jungle repurposing Version 00 Revision 08's track for Act II all of the unused zones will get slight yet unique instrumental reworkings for each act. ~ Layout and Badniks: Retail zones have been reworked to utilize portions of the Nick Arcade and Simon Wai Demo layouts, while the unused zones are completely original, though some influence from the Concept Art and Sonic 03 is present; select Badniks have elements from MD '9I, the first two 08 Bit entries, CD '93, and Sonic 03: Part 0I & Knuckles, so it truly does feel as if a little bit of everything before Chaotix is front and center, an ideal way to repurpose virtually every enemy concept to get as close to what we would've gotten initially. Although I have no involvement with Archives' development, all that I hope is that everything that is being done is remaining very close to how MD '92 would've been under zero restrictions while remaining wholly faithful to all of the source material that we have on hand, there are a few portions that I do have some genuine concern about (mostly getting in every unused zone concept, the intended zone order mentioned above, and both Genocide City and Death Egg '92 getting their intended tracks (which were Death Egg '92 for GC and Wing Fortress for DE, respectively; the remix of The Machine in this is not bad, but it is not Lore Accurate to Genocide City's original vision, to current knowledge)) but what I have witnessed thus far is genuinely promising and this will become my Daily Runner for MD '92 to replace Long Version (Revision 08 and 0I0) and Delta (Revision 023) as my Go To for the first time since 2007 and '08. I also have done a good few Analysis Pieces on both the Speedrunning and Remixing side of Archives' presently released material, which I will have linked below for reference; if you ever want to master the Speedrun or discover unique ways to jam out to the soundtrack, then this is definitely an effective area to start, we intend to have this entry become part of many Tournaments after the project is complete and wishfully the player base that made MD '92 so memorable for events will be able to adopt this in the era of the New Standard that will redefine this title's impact in the generations to follow. (: ~ [Royameadow] Sonic the Hedgehog 02: Archives (SHC XXII Demo): Preliminary Speedrun Routing (Any%, MAX Frequency): ua-cam.com/video/2YYsH7pdYXI/v-deo.html ~ [Royameadow] Sonic the Hedgehog 02: Archives (SHC XXII Demo): Metropolis II Routing Optimization: x.com/Royameadow/status/1842061588095787211/video/1 ~ [Royameadow] Ainsley Seiger versus Various Artists: Jetto Visits Warp Point Zone (Audio): x.com/Royameadow/status/1859154154217783464
Holy crap you're gonna give me a heart attack from all this text. On the other hand, I did read all of it, and learned a lot of new things too! Thanks!
@@DiscoPantsStudios You are very welcome, I'm always happy to help inform others in the community on many of the specifics that they might not know about and it genuinely means a lot that you invested the time to read everything; it's always been a force of habit from my time working on School Newsletters years ago that I make sure to be as thorough as possible when I speak to make sure that virtually no major detail goes unnoticed, hence the length of most of my replies and articles, it genuinely puts a smile on my face to know that having all of this information in one place is being acknowledged positively and that definitely will make the rest of the day feel better for me, I wholly cherish this impact in full and that will be kept in memory for all the correct reasons. (:
To better explain a lot of the core elements that make up Sonic the Hedgehog 02: Archives, I feel that I know enough about its development and presentation to give a proper insight that you might not attain from most others; having studied MD '92's development full~time since 2006, there is a lot that is easy to understand with Archives' handling, though even I don't know if Team Conquest and Technical will put in literally everything that was originally planned for STI's original vision.
~ Zone Order: In its original vision, MD '92 was most likely set to have 023 to 025 zones, if all of the concepts were put in (Green Hill '92/Emerald Hill, Ocean Wind, Secret Jungle, Sand Shower, Metropolis, Warp Point, Tropical Sun, Hilltop, Blue Lake/Blue Ocean/Azure Lake, Rock World/Icecap, Madness Mountain, Dust Hill/Mystic Cave, Oil Ocean, Casino Night, Chemical Plant, Craig Stitt's Carnival Concept (what ultimately became Balloon Park), Genocide City, Green Hill '92 on Fire (Cutscene?), Fire Mountain (Lava Reef), Emerald Isle (Neo Green Hill/Aquatic Ruin), Olympus (Cutscene), Sky Chase/Castles in the Sky, Sky/Wing Fortress, Death Egg '92, and The Last Battle in Space (Super Sonic versus Giant Robo Eggman and Doomsday Dragon), with Hidden Palace '92 being an Extra Zone when Sonic gets Chaos Emerald 07); what we have in the Sonic Hacking Contest XXII Demo is simply what is in a presentable condition, so obviously all we have at the moment is the full Regular Present, One Quarter of Past: Part 0I (Tropical Sun II is not meant to be played until Sonic returns to the Past after Rock World II in the Ruined Present; TS II is the last act before going to Warp Point 04), and the penultimate zone of Past: Part III (EI/NGH/AR) before Sonic goes to Olympus (Brenda Ross' Purple Temple at Night concept from her Video Portfolio, assuming those Sand Shower/Rock World ground elements and Green Hill clouds are not simply for show), wishfully the zone order doesn't get butchered because the storytelling was always meant to be very episodic in nature and the concept of returning to zones at specific points is something that wouldn't be touched upon by Sonic Team specifically until Planetary Pieces (Unleashed/World Adventure).
~ Artwork: MD '92 was always destined to repurpose zone assets using different styles to tell the player which zone belonged to which part of South Island, and the way that everything was reworked in this was to better conform to the Concept Art that was made for them (though as we have seen from Development Screenshots, Rock World has gotten a massive glow~up from its original vision); if you are familiar with Sonic the Hedgehog: KawariNo, the Art Direction is incredibly similar to it in many aspects, it is meant to deliver better plot progression while also helping us get the best possible visual detail within the confines of the Megadrive, this ultimately helps every zone feel more natural in the long run and for zones that were in the Retail Build of MD '92 they truly are getting the best treatment that I feel bad Absolute didn't do with its endeavour (outside of community mods).
~ Music: The soundtrack functions in the regard that Act 0I of returning zones is on par with Masato Nakamura's Demo Tracks, while Act II conforms to the Tempo and sound delivered in the Retail Build and Simon Wai Demo; all of the Roland TR-626 Percussion Samples are at their original pitch, which is Seven Keys lower than the Retail Build due to Sonic Team having had to speed them up due to the Sega Chorus taking up too much data and pushing the PCM Samples into 04 Bit chunks, as opposed to full 08 Bit. The Simon Wai Boss Track appears as if it will only be used in the final zone of each major saga (Metropolis for Regular Present, Rock World II for Ruined Present, Tropical Sun II for Past: Part II (Flooded Past), Genocide City III for Future, and Death Egg '92 for The Last Battle in Space), and as we have witnessed with Secret Jungle repurposing Version 00 Revision 08's track for Act II all of the unused zones will get slight yet unique instrumental reworkings for each act.
~ Layout and Badniks: Retail zones have been reworked to utilize portions of the Nick Arcade and Simon Wai Demo layouts, while the unused zones are completely original, though some influence from the Concept Art and Sonic 03 is present; select Badniks have elements from MD '9I, the first two 08 Bit entries, CD '93, and Sonic 03: Part 0I & Knuckles, so it truly does feel as if a little bit of everything before Chaotix is front and center, an ideal way to repurpose virtually every enemy concept to get as close to what we would've gotten initially.
Although I have no involvement with Archives' development, all that I hope is that everything that is being done is remaining very close to how MD '92 would've been under zero restrictions while remaining wholly faithful to all of the source material that we have on hand, there are a few portions that I do have some genuine concern about (mostly getting in every unused zone concept, the intended zone order mentioned above, and both Genocide City and Death Egg '92 getting their intended tracks (which were Death Egg '92 for GC and Wing Fortress for DE, respectively; the remix of The Machine in this is not bad, but it is not Lore Accurate to Genocide City's original vision, to current knowledge)) but what I have witnessed thus far is genuinely promising and this will become my Daily Runner for MD '92 to replace Long Version (Revision 08 and 0I0) and Delta (Revision 023) as my Go To for the first time since 2007 and '08.
I also have done a good few Analysis Pieces on both the Speedrunning and Remixing side of Archives' presently released material, which I will have linked below for reference; if you ever want to master the Speedrun or discover unique ways to jam out to the soundtrack, then this is definitely an effective area to start, we intend to have this entry become part of many Tournaments after the project is complete and wishfully the player base that made MD '92 so memorable for events will be able to adopt this in the era of the New Standard that will redefine this title's impact in the generations to follow. (:
~ [Royameadow] Sonic the Hedgehog 02: Archives (SHC XXII Demo): Preliminary Speedrun Routing (Any%, MAX Frequency): ua-cam.com/video/2YYsH7pdYXI/v-deo.html
~ [Royameadow] Sonic the Hedgehog 02: Archives (SHC XXII Demo): Metropolis II Routing Optimization: x.com/Royameadow/status/1842061588095787211/video/1
~ [Royameadow] Ainsley Seiger versus Various Artists: Jetto Visits Warp Point Zone (Audio): x.com/Royameadow/status/1859154154217783464
Holy crap you're gonna give me a heart attack from all this text.
On the other hand, I did read all of it, and learned a lot of new things too! Thanks!
@@DiscoPantsStudios You are very welcome, I'm always happy to help inform others in the community on many of the specifics that they might not know about and it genuinely means a lot that you invested the time to read everything; it's always been a force of habit from my time working on School Newsletters years ago that I make sure to be as thorough as possible when I speak to make sure that virtually no major detail goes unnoticed, hence the length of most of my replies and articles, it genuinely puts a smile on my face to know that having all of this information in one place is being acknowledged positively and that definitely will make the rest of the day feel better for me, I wholly cherish this impact in full and that will be kept in memory for all the correct reasons. (:
@@Royameadow **Dies**