Mr Lange

Wow. I'm disappointed in DarkVampireDee. Nobody did anything to him. All he got was helpful criticism. He wasn't harassed, no one called him names, no one attacked him, and even when he was getting reactive, people were still mild and reasonable and trying to help. The only thing he was "standing up to" was a community eager to support him. His reaction was extreme, irrational, and uncalled for. Whatever happened to this project is his fault, nobody else's.

I'd suggest Fraps, since it's likely that the game uses hardware accelerated rendering. But, it's commercial. If not Fraps, I would recommend Camstudio. It's free and works as well as stuff like Bandicam, so you get none of those watermarks and junk.

Reminds me a lot of Trip World.

This is entirely inappropriate. You don't just say you have a project and call for everyone else to do everything for you when you have nothing to show. This is even worse because it's in the form of a demand, or unwarranted expectation, of others to do everything for you. Have something substantial to show, demonstrate you have abilities of your own, legitimately present your project with media and a description, then try again with a more reasonable request.

The main difference is that a hack is a modification of existing rom data, which is a program that runs on exclusively on a console, and a fangame is a program created from scratch that runs on a personal computer or other desired system. Technically, it has nothing to do with whether physics are already there or not, and a hack or a fangame does not necessarily mean it is Sonic related anyway. The difference between hacks and fangames is very significant. Given a hack is a program exclusive to the console, it inherits all the limitations of the console, which are usually very strict and difficult to work with. Formats for assets and code are unconventional and require unusual means to work with and programming may require dealing unfriendly forms of code, which can complicate things greatly given a console's limitations. Even something as simple as replacing a sprite or adding a bit of code can destabilize the game in unexpected ways or produce unwanted results that require a lot of work to fix. Generally speaking, adding a spindash in a hack is much more complicated than adding a spindash in a fangame. A fangame is only limited by the computer you're working on, which especially nowadays, gives the developer enormous freedom in what they can accomplish. Assets and code can be as conventional and friendly as the developer needs. Formats and language can be chosen to the developer's preference. Far more robust and intuitive tools exist to create the game that cover more aspects of development. The resulting program can run universally on the devices it was designed for, most likely being personal computers. However, fangames cannot run on consoles like the Sega Genesis, and this would be virtually impossible to accomplish. This is not counting the exceedingly rare exceptions where a fangame was explicitly designed for a game console, by making a game from scratch that runs exclusively on the console (with these, the line between fangame and hack may be a bit blurrier, but these would still be fangames and not hacks). Given all that I explained above, it seems like fangames are really the "lazier" way to go. No worries about formats, no strict limitations, easier means of programming, convenient friendly tools. But these things do not make it lazier. With such means, you can still put any amount of effort into creating your game, as much as you would a hack. And again, it's important to emphasize that a hack is a modification of an existing game, and can only run on the console belonging to the modified game, whereas a fangame is designed freely from scratch that can run on personal computers, without needing to adhere to the severe limitations imposed by a console. In fact, the only thing that even defines a fangame is that the game is based on an existing franchise in some way. A fangame is really just a game that happens to be about something you're a fan of. The form of that game can be anything. In that sense you can call a hack a fangame, but you cannot call a fangame a hack. However, it is best that hacks are not referred to as fangames given that a fangame is much more broad and a hack is much more specific. Saying something is a fangame will imply it's a game for personal computers and most likely not a hack or rom. Saying something is a hack when it is not is wrong period. To put this in perspective, here is why it is so absurd to refer to fangames as hacks. Here is one of the most impressive and advanced hacks ever made. While it looks nice and interesting, it will never exceed the limitations imposed by the console. It will always look like a Sega Genesis game and the game's capabilities will always be restricted to the console's heavy limitations. This includes only 2d graphics, color counts, resolution, memory used by code and graphics, the ability of the synthesizer sound chip, and number of sprites visible on screen. It can be played on the console and via emulators. Here is a fangame. It is light years beyond anything the Genesis is capable of, and it is absolutely impossible to accomplish even a small fraction of this game on the Genesis. It features multitextured 3d models, skeletal animation, scalable resolution, CD quality sampled audio, 3d sound effects, and the list goes on. The capability of this game could go far beyond even this. It was created from scratch in Unity, and only runs on PCs.

Then what do I do with all that extra space?

Oh wait, the thread title says Sega Genesis, and given the last two answers, I'm guessing this is exclusive to Genesis games. Forget what I said then.

Easy: Street Fighter Medium: Klonoa

...Wow Stardust I'm disappointed. That is both insulting AND wrong. Hacking can take a lot more work than fangame development. Sonic Megamix, Sonic 3 Complete, Sonic Classic Heroes, Sonic 2 Retro Remix, do you really think these were the result of laziness? The amount of effort that has gone into such hacks is difficult to fathom. There is no set bar of what takes more work. That depends on the developer and the game they create. But to say hacking is somehow lazier or easier than fangame development couldn't be more wrong.

Mr Lange/0920-0992-1966/North America/USA/Pacific (GMT-8)/Mario/5 (black and white)

I should've tried this before writing that up. I just tested a gamepad with a joystick, and it plays different. The game seems to cap the turning speed by the joystick amount, and steering is a lot more manageable this way. This time I beat the game without too much trouble (even with the few flips and falls I made along the way), whereas I hadn't even managed to complete the game yet via keyboard. Using a joystick has a much slower maximum turning speed given the cap, and using a keyboard has a much faster turning speed. This means that the game is quite different depending on what you're playing with, which is a pretty big issue, seeing as you can exceed the intended limits of the game with another mode of input, not to mention it makes the game a lot more difficult for those who can only use keyboard controls. I would check how the game is handling inputs, and see if you can set keyboard controls to have the same maximum as a fully held joystick. The maximum cap with a joystick is so different, that in some areas the issue was actually opposite, in that the car turned too slowly at some places. But, this is still much better than the all or nothing madness that is using a keyboard, and it encourages the player to moderate their speed.

Great stuff, you picked some really choice shots here for these renders. Lookin forward to the rest.

Doesn't matter what you personally think. Many items are very unfair. All it takes is for a powerful assist trophy or master ball to spawn near someone, which is not uncommon, and spawn positions are random. Same goes for recovery items, as someone can randomly obtain a heart container. Then there's the Starman which also spawns in random places and grants total invincibility. Smash balls can be acquired by accident. Explosives can spawn next to someone right as they perform an attack. There's too many factors that make items unfair due to their randomness and ability to transcend the rules of the core game. Then there's stages with hazards that interfere greatly with the core gameplay, and can turn a fair competitive match into a massacre for one person having made a small mistake that would otherwise not be so terribly costly. Team matches, even without items and regular stages, are a very different form of competition than one on one. It's a different test of skills and can severely hamper two otherwise good players who do not work effectively together, especially if their mains do not mix well, whereas their opponents can have a killer combination even if they would otherwise perform not so well individually. This means that, given your setup, the fair, truly competitive matches will be given to players on a nearly random basis because the first rounds filter any players, good or bad, by unfair, anti-competitive design. This makes for a very lousy Smash tourney. The final rounds could end up being between very skilled players and not so good players, instead of boiling down to an interesting bout between those who performed the best.

Items. Regular stages. Do I really have to explain this?

So in order to participate in the serious actually competitive one on one matches, you have to win unfair anti-competitive team matches? Forget it. I'll join when you have a good setup that's thought out and not just random nonsense.

I gotta say I really enjoyed this for what it is. It has that superfx chip feel down pretty well. Are those artificial framerate drops? If so, I have to applaud that; it does a lot for the feel here. It's probably the only scenario in which framerate drops are preferable. I love the loose and wild "I don't give a shit" mechanics. It's fun how the game has little in the way of strict limitations and lets you go crazy along the terrain without unnecessary rules; instead, you have a time limit and a solid world that suggests a directive and lets the player do what they will with the mechanics provided. This is a good and fun philosophy to work with. This has a bad side though, as the carefree mechanics have some really rough spots that are easy to encounter. In particular, contacting a wall while driving can easily flip the car, or cause a wacky rotation that requires a lot of effort (and time) to correct and get back on course. A few more guides in how the car works could help this without sacrificing the wild freedom the game has. The car handling isn't too bad. I'd say the worst problem is the steering. It seems to work by accelerating the rotation, but it's a really steep, fast acceleration. This causes an all or nothing kind of steering. Tapping doesn't turn the car enough, holding slightly longer turns the car too much. It makes those narrow, open sided roads needlessly frustrating. I would try to average out the steering more.