Sonic Nexus 2008 Demo is Out

[The Taxman]

Here:

http://rsonic.randomsonicnet.org/Nexus2008PC.zip

Ok, I'm pretty sure there was meant to be a more epic post behind this, but Slinger had to go to class so yeah...

Here we are kidlets, 2 acts of Sunset Shore Zone, running on the new 2008 edition of Retro-Sonic. The 2008 edition of the engine, along with the RSDK is capable of more cool stuff than the previous 2007 engine, which is why Sonic Nexus has been able to be developed independent of RSXG (which is coming later this year probably ). I'll go into more detail later about this stuff, but right now it's pretty late and I'm trippin' out here. So in the meantime download and enjoy.

Be sure to visit the Nexus website often for future updates.

Credits for this particular build:

* Produced and Directed by Slingerland

* Programming by The Taxman

* Graphics by Damizean, The Taxman, and Slingerland

* Game and Level Design by Slingerland

* Sonic Sprites by The Taxman

* Enemy Sprites by Aerosol

* Music by Hunter Bridges

* Flash intro cutscene by RgxSuperSonic

P.S. The Mac OS Version will come soon, so hold tight!

Cheers!

-The Taxman

Slinga edit: The Time Attack Challenge is open! Post your time attack runs as video responses to

Slinga edit: Mac version is out and now available on the Nexus homepage.

[tentril]

A link to the demo seems pretty epic to me. Downloading this now.

[DimensionWarped]

By the by, I want anyone who has any performance issues regardless of how shitty their computer is to let me know. I don't care if you somehow adapted a Commodore 64 to run Windows. I still want to know about it if the game gets at all patchy.

[The Taxman]

By the by, I want anyone who has any performance issues regardless of how shitty their computer is to let me know. I don't care if you somehow adapted a Commodore 64 to run Windows. I still want to know about it if the game gets at all patchy.

whatareya gonna do about it though? I'm the one who has the source ;P Seriously though, this game should run super fine on 400-500mhz and up

[DimensionWarped]

Well Tax, obviously I'd run it by you, and then if you'd allow me to, I might even try to help you find the source of whatever hit to the performance is. Besides, I'm assuming most of the issues are going to arise out of scripts if/when said issues pop up. And I have plenty of access to those... well, at least I will once you bring me back up to speed some time after I get home today.

[Damizean]

Even though I've tested the engine and the first act a lot when it was in development, damn, it's so goddamn awesome it almost made me feel like I was playing SCD in an emulator.

I love it, a lot! Thanks a lot for your help Taxman

[The ParadoxX]

Guys, I have no words to describe the awesomeness of this...

Tax, you've got the most kickass sonic engine ever! It's so accurate that I couldn't see anything that makes it differ from the official one, great job man, and thank you for being such a good C++ professor ;D

Slingerland/DW/other people, Sunset Shore has the better level design I've ever seen in a fan game... Also you've got a great presentation with that opening, great job guys!

I just missed a boss in the final of the level... That would close this kickass demo with golden keys!

[LarkSS]

Seriously though, this game should run super fine on 400-500mhz and up

Just wait; I bet my computer will find a way to get some lag in there. ;>

[Asuma]

This is the best thing since The Fated Hour and ETCF.

Epic.

The only bugs I encounter were layer bugs and 99 rings equals an extra life.

[Rawr]

Wow. That was absolutely awesome! I really liked the music, the level design, everything. Graphics were good, game played amazingly well (I'm still not on my own computer, so I had no moments of slowdown on the one I'm using right now), and the parts of the level like with the glider thing didn't slow the experience down. The pacing was great!

I really can't wait until this game is completed, and this is what kind of quality of a fangame that I eventually want to be able to create. Good job

[GHFan]

Meh, I'll get really excited when the RSDK comes out. Yeah, right.

Awesome game, by the way.

[Slingerland]

Time Attack Challenge "hub video" is now online (click "watch in high quality"):

Post your time attack runs as video responses!

[Rael0505]

Watch out for JEV3, guys.

[Minon]

Beautiful. Very smooth frame rates with smooth animation frames to match. Some thoughtful gimmicks that work well and fit in nicely. And great music, can't ever leave that out.

[RGX]

Glitch:

http://www.freewebs.com/jlcthemouse/nexus.png

[DimensionWarped]

I've got to say man, that's not exactly a whole lot of information. Still, yeah, I've encountered similar glitches. It mostly has to do with level tile pieces and can be pretty easily fixed in each case.

[LarkSS]

Ew, you use Norton.

Well, gave it a try, and I gotta say I can feel all the effort that went into it. This is a really nice piece of work you guys have here. Also, it's one of the very few applications that I have on my PC that can actually run at its optimum frame rate. Congrats on that. =P

Also annoying bug:

When I attempt to go up this ledge spinning, I'm stopped instantly and sent back down. Lazy Lark was forced to go left for the spring instead of being able to spindash. i-i

[DimensionWarped]

I encountered that one too. I'm not sure about the origin on that one. Probably tries to put the player back into the helix mode, but when the speed is translated to horizontal it disactivates it... in a very short time frame. In the meantime, super peelout works for it for some reason.

[Kain]

There are a few minor holes in the layer. But other than that, the only thing I encountered that could even begin to be called a bug was extremely inconsequential. Also, when jumping up an incline, I hit a spike at just the right angle and speed where I guess my bottom sensor was touching it despite the fact that I was moving upwards and I got hit. It seems to me this happened before in an earlier official Sonic game (Sonic 1 or 2) and it's a bit of a fluke, but I still call it a (minor) glitch. Anyway, now that the nitpicking is done, implementation is dazzling. Not just for the engine, but the gimmicks as well. The parabolic zip-line maintaining momentum made it an absolute ace of a gimmick, even if it's the slightest bit of an eyesore. I'm surprised you got so many gimmicks in in between the last time I saw this mid-SAGE and now. Obviously y'all have been putting a very good amount of work into it. There's a nice big array of badniks who all have nice design and implementation (though the rolling one did look weird as it went up/down steep slopes and went straight through spikes). There were places that the badniks cluttered up the space, but it was by no means haphazard (they weren't plopped right in the middle of a nice-speed section, for example) and fitting for the Sonic CD grassy level design.

The design is likewise wonderful. A quick obligatory example of the first thing I noticed is how every time on the first drop (the three-hole one), the most naturally thing for some who's pressing right to win (and what happened to me all the time) was to successfully jump over the first one, not have enough height to make it over the slightly-higher second platform and fall onto an incline which, with your downward speed, will send you flying backwards into a badnik who'll get you if you don't jump/roll quick. Just extremely well-thought-out consequences and rewards for speed and platforming with not a bottomless pit to be found. The paths will intelligently and seamlessly transition in between sections of speed and sections of platforming whenever you're met with a strategic spring or gimmick. Even with the GHZ first-level limitations, direction, transition, flow, and gimmicks are all put together to make this not only technically impressive, but enjoyable as well.

Presentation gets all stars as well. Graphics are fitting and hit a great mark in between familiar and original. Opening cutscene is a wonderful bonus. And music is simply orgasmic.

Anyway, love where this project is going.

I'll go ahead and put the layer holes I found in spoilers so you can find them:

Act 1:

-First Layer Hole : After falling down the first pit, there's a point where you run up a wall merging into the upper path. If you happen to be losing momentum right at the in-between point and jump off, this happens.

-Second Layer Hole : When keeping up high, after doing the awesome circle-around-the-ceiling thing, you'll come up to a loop which will lead you down a roll path into a hang gliding gimmick. This is on the other side of the loop. Not so much a hole as a minor graphical thing.

-Third Layer Hole : Bellow the second half of the circle-around-the-ceiling bit. Spindash into the box of rings for maximum effect.

-Fourth Layer Hole : Sticking to the bottom path, you'll encounter this area above a spring and bellow a checkpoint. Right before the section with the falling platforms above spikes.

-Fifth Layer Hole : Towards the end, like a segment and a half before the big roll tube, you can find this. I believe it's above the last corkscrew.

[Ayling]

Everyone note that it took Lark five and a half minutes to get to that point

Jk man, I guess you were exploring.

Anyway, I love this so much. I'm getting below 1'30 on these levels, so I'm gonna go time attack it sometime soon.

[LarkSS]

Btw, when I change Windowed mode to 640x480, the screen looks like this:

http://larkss.supersanctuary.net/PublicPics/SFGHQ/Other/scalinefilter.png

Also, I can't seem to run the game like this:

http://larkss.supersanctuary.net/PublicPics/SFGHQ/Other/itwontrun.jpg

...because when I do this happens:

http://larkss.supersanctuary.net/PublicPics/SFGHQ/Other/udf.png

...and it just sits there with that same black screen.

Edit at ayling: I was aiming/screenshotting/posting at the same time; I barely finished that act before the time expired.

Edit2: Are you guys planning to add a 'record' feature ingame that basically records the movement of Sonic so you can easily share and playback your run without worrying about capturing issues? That would help a lot since my computer doesn't like to work with screen capturing at all.

[DimensionWarped]

Those graphics on the parabollic zipline are kinda placeholdery. It's meant to be a vine setup and the arc not so extreme. In any event, we'll release this stage finished up with whatever minor patches we have to fill before too long, hopefully with the boss stage ready to go. From there on, we are hoping to get Pristine Palisade and Cosmic Chaos finished within a month and a half to two months of finishing SSZ. Depending on whether or not we have a restructuring of SAGE to a semi-annual schedule, we may be doing another Christmas demo with the new engine... but nothing too fancy in the way of releases. It'd just be a stage and a boss, recycling gimmicks from the real game.

The level I'm looking forward to working on most is Angelic Airway followed by Wicked Works (aka the Eggtimer Fortress). So we are saving those for last.

I'll keep you all posted with periodic progress indicators on our blog site.

EDIT:

Btw, when I change Windowed mode to 640x480, the screen looks like this:

http://larkss.supersanctuary.net/Pub...linefilter.png

Quite strange. I can't replicate this one unfortunately. Might have something to do with your windows skinning stuff. I have no idea really. Full Screen Mode work?

Also, I can't seem to run the game like this:

http://larkss.supersanctuary.net/Pub.../itwontrun.jpg

I'd say it probably can't find the necessary data files. I tried it and sure enough, it just gives a black screen. I'm not sure why this would matter since it's basically just like any other folder... weird. Runs fine when you open the folder from the quick launch bar as well.

[Damizean]

The first issue is probably related to your graphics card and having problems to switching to the mode Retro Sonic asks to it. Wich color depth mode are you trying to run it in?

Also, I can't seem to run the game like this:

http://larkss.supersanctuary.net/PublicPics/SFGHQ/Other/itwontrun.jpg

...because when I do this happens:

http://larkss.supersanctuary.net/PublicPics/SFGHQ/Other/udf.png

Easy explanation: Sometimes, when running an application outside it's direct folder or externally by other programs, the "work directory" for the program isn't properly set to the real location of the exe. That's why Retro Sonic, seeing it couldn't find the game file binary, is trying to access the resources in "developer" mode, and failing because this "work directory" isn't the correct one.

[LarkSS]

Quite strange. I can't replicate this one unfortunately. Might have something to do with your windows skinning stuff. I have no idea really. Full Screen Mode work?

Fullscreen at 640x480 doesn't work either. ( Same glitch. ) 800x600 and 1024x768 work in fullscreen though, even if the framerate is hideous at those resolutions. =P

[Cyber Rat]

So, this is my first encounter with the game I've heard should shake mountains in the fangame community, and I must say, I am impressed. While almost all fangames have that certain fanmade touch (dialogues, fancharacters, story, etc. which is NOT a bad thing, mind you), this one looks completely true. No talking, no introduction of any fancy mechanics, you run, you jump, and you spindash, and you just need to stop Dr. Robotnick, the only thing it's missing is cute little animals jumping out of the badnicks after they are destroyed.

I really really like this game, it's simple, it's fun, and I really had the same feel like when I played Sonic 1 and 2 back in the days. I also think this is a really big win for the community, because it feels like SFGHQ has made one not-so-small step towards the Sonic 4 we all want to achieve. I am not saying that the other games of SAGE didn't accomplish that, SFA is a great game too, but it has the feel of a fangame because of the characters, the Fated Hour because of the mechanics and NPCs (and racism ), EC:TF because of the implementation of a fanfic-type story, Nexus is completely filtered of all interference of 'fanstuff', and has just the bare bones, the Sonic we all used to play.

Great job guys.