To everyone who downloaded Sonic 2 HD..

[Apricity]

I guess after frequent disputes from the team, questionable program specs from LOst & 4 years to get a 2 minute demo of a zone they said they'd completed 2 years prior, I really should've just given up on Sonic 2 HD.

Over the years it practically became something we instantly think of as one of the defining parts of fangaming, rarely can I go to a sonic fangame oriented site without it being mention (I think here is one of the first). After a cheap trailer and four years an alpha is finially released. Albeit about 2 minutes of gameplay and a level that was already finished but hey, what could go wrong...?

Oh yeah LOst decided it would be a fantastic idea to buckle a keylogger with the game aswell.

http://www.sonicretro.org/2012/04/public-service-announcement-keylogger-cleaning-up-sonic-2-hd/

http://kotaku.com/5900549/sonic-2-hd-contains-keylogger-delete-immediately

So yeah, I woke up to some people panicking about this but I don't see a topic on it already and I think everyone needs to know as we are a Sonic Fangame community.

Keylogger doesn't necessarily imply that the software is malicious but since it wasn't mentioned anywhere, I assume its motives are questionable. Better to be safe than sorry until LOst or other members of the Sonic 2 HD team explain.

(Overbound/Whoever: If there already is a topic and I'm being a spaz & missed it just lock and delete this topic, throw me a pm though just so I know:) )

[luksamuk]

That's probably part of the "you-can't-make-a-screenshot-bitch" feature that LOLst has given up implementing due to team complaining, as gossip says.

[Sparks]

I sure hope this doesn't affect the public image of Sonic fan gaming in general. This is the last thing it needs with SAGE creeping around soon.

[Serephim]

Over the years it practically became something we instantly think of as one of the defining parts of fangaming

lol? I never cared about this project. I deemed it "canceled" the moment it was announced. Too much organization required coupled with a community that justifies nitpicking at everything? The day it's completed is the day i'll find a way to kick myself in the teeth. Sonic 2 HD should be no huge feat for anyone other than the artists -- all the assets are already there for christs sake, you're just following a blueprint.

And in regards to the thread topic? I stand by what i said in the last topic -- fags, the lot of them. Any idiot who puts DRM in a fangame is obviously too stupid to be trusted.

[XeroNazoBlaze]

The lead programmer got kicked off from the dev team. Good riddance.

[Djawed]

Hasnt this been confirmed to be false alarm allready? (I mean that the keylogger thing is really harmful)

Well im deleting the game anyway since ive played it enoug allready

[GSF]

Oh, hilarious retro antics - actually there was a thread that got a bit derailed with this.

In short, my interest for this project was already zero to begin with, but with all this, it's now in negative levels.

Grab your favorite emulator (or console, much better) and just play Sonic 2. It has aged very well, and does not need any HD recreation to be enjoyed.

Also for extra lulz, head to retro forums and hit the sonic 1 level select code finishing with Enter.

And on the topic of keyloggers: I don't care if it's to prevent screenshots (and there's always a way around for that), there's no excuse for bundling a game with such function.

[Falk]

<Guess_Who> ahhhh

<Guess_Who> if you use directinput and a 360 controller

<Guess_Who> it responds when out of focus

* TimmiT has quit IRC (Ping timeout: 121 seconds)

<Guess_Who> but it only happens with directinput, not raw keyboard input

Until further information is uncovered please refrain from entering passwords or bank account information with your 360 gamepads, even when S2HD is out of focus. I'll update this post with more information as it becomes available.

[Apricity]

I guess "all" was the wrong choice of words, there was an overwhelming amount of fanboys for it. I guess the only reason I associate it so strongly with fangame is because it was the first fangame I ever saw.

Eh, I guess I shouldn't have made such a sweeping statement when I'm not really part of the sonic fangaming community anyway.

I'm glad I'm a PS3 bitch ;D

[Sparks]

The S2HD team disassociated from Retro over a year ago into its own separate project that only took base at Retro if I recall correctly. Pretty much all of the bullshit revolving S2HD right now is because of LOst. He has suddenly "disappeared" from the scene too, which is only adding fuel to the fire. There's really a lot of hard work and dedication put into the project so it's a shame the whole thing is being derailed by one guy and his questionable tactics. They made the right move to boot him from the team.

I don't regularly follow S2HD anyway, but the stuff that they do publish out inspires me a good bit, such as all the nice touches and they added to the original Sonic 2, as well as the character graphics being more true to the box art. It influences me to do similar things in Sonic Zero. The real shame I find is this kind of team effort isn't being put into an original fan game.

I think they should clean up the DRM and keylogger nonsense, have an apologetic re-release, and then let the project die.

[Kessler12]

Never downloaded it, never cared...

[XeroNazoBlaze]

I really hope the comunity come with a new and original project. I personally don't like Retro that much because elitism, but gotta admit they have excellent researchers and talented artists and programmers.

[OverbounD]

The art looks nice but the animation is wobbily like wet noodles.

[P3DR0]

I really hope the comunity come with a new original project. I personally don't like Retro that much because elitism, but gotta admit they have excellent researchers and talented artists and programmers.

Have to agree. Take a look at that Sonic 4 As You Imagined It. It has similar graphical style as S2HD (HD sprites and stuff) but it's a whole new game.

[Chaos-Fusion]

I never followed the project that much in fact, I forgot it even existed till tssz news brought it up. Well, back to forgetting about it's existence. Keylogger or whatever it is, as long as it hasn't done any major damage, no worries

[Serephim]

I really hope the comunity come with a new original project. I personally don't like Retro that much because elitism, but gotta admit they have excellent researchers and talented artists and programmers.

I have to agree with this.

But the tragedy is, all that talent is completely and totally useless with a bad direction. I do believe Sonic Fangaming (in general) puts all of its raw talent and power in the wrong areas, with good intentions but ultimately for terrible reasons. The Sonic Fangaming Community has worked on backwards engineering sonic games for years, but instead of this helping people to create better shit, it's just worked to alienate the community. Even here, the concept of "noob" and "oldbie" works way harder than it should. Not nearly to the point where we reject members from joining us though...that's just some real serious douchebag internet E-peen stroking fuckshit right there.

I guess it's to be expected, since the standards of a "good fangame" have risen high enough that we use even more sophisticated engines than the original games themselves used, when back in the past a "good fangame" was simply one that didn't get you stuck in walls and had working springs.

I think the status of Sonic 2HD just proves to me that im somewhat right about my position on this....

You take an already completed game. You have all the level design, gimmicks, badnick and boss designs, menus and music compositions already done for you. All you have to do is upscale the graphics and emulate the engine (which we've had dissected for YEARS now). And somehow, throughout this process, all this USELESS drama and garbage shows up over completely trivial shit. You nitpick over every fucking detail as if the ORIGINAL content was somehow designed and drawn by the almighty Super Jesus himself or something. And most importantly of all, you never finish.

[DimensionWarped]

I was kind of worried that this would be an overblown misunderstanding that assassinates someone's character... and that's what it turned out to be in the end.

No, Sonic 2 HD does not contain a key logger. It uses an outdated Microsoft API (DirectInput) which processes keyboard input regardless of whether the window is in focus or not. It's hardly alone in this transgression, as several ePSXe (popular playstation emulator) and pcsx2 (PS2) plugins do this too.

Don't get me wrong, I don't like the way Lost handled himself for Sonic 2 HD. That doesn't make him this kind of dickhead though.

[Serephim]

People tend to omit such details when they report shit though.

Like i said though. This is the same fangame project with DRM, so i didn't put much past anyone.

[TailsSena]

I was kind of worried that this would be an overblown misunderstanding that assassinates someone's character... and that's what it turned out to be in the end.

No, Sonic 2 HD does not contain a key logger. It uses an outdated Microsoft API (DirectInput) which processes keyboard input regardless of whether the window is in focus or not. It's hardly alone in this transgression, as several ePSXe (popular playstation emulator) and pcsx2 (PS2) plugins do this too.

Don't get me wrong, I don't like the way Lost handled himself for Sonic 2 HD. That doesn't make him this kind of dickhead though.

I use PCSX2, and it doesn't have any kind of keylogger that I've noticed, so I say it's legit.

[Candescence]

I really hope the comunity come with a new original project. I personally don't like Retro that much because elitism, but gotta admit they have excellent researchers and talented artists and programmers.

The Mobius Engine is a start. Sure, it's not an actual fangame, but if you build the right tools for users, then that's a stepping stone for an actual game project.