09-09-2023 Written By Clownacy.

”I’d like to take the (release early release often) approach with this hack to mitigate the problem of scope-creep and other setbacks delaying the completion (and therefore release) of the hack, so I’m releasing the current prototype for feedback and so that people who don’t mind the hack’s unfinished state get a chance to have fun with it. There was a silly bug in two-player mode that prevented objects from loading, so I’ve uploaded a v0.2. I’ve also optimised BuildSprites as a step toward reducing the game’s lag, and enhanced the sound driver so that SFX fade-in along with the music after the 1-up jingle finishes. I’ve also added DAC fading, so that the drums properly fade in and out along with the rest of the music. Doing that was fun because my usual technique of filling half of Z80 RAM with volume lookup tables is not feasible with a Z80-based SMPS driver, so instead I had to come up with a way to efficiently perform PCM sample volume scaling at runtime. I was able to pull-through and implement 16 levels of DAC volume, with logarithmic volume selection for smooth and even fading! One thing I’m proud of is that my hack only uses Sonic 2’s sound driver: that Sonic 1+2 broken hack made by ColinC10 in 2010 actually uses both Sonic 1 and Sonic 2’s drivers, switching between them depending on which level you’re in. This results in quirks like the Spin Dash not making the correct sound in the Sonic 1 zones.”

It’s a hack of ”Knuckles In Sonic 2” with not only Sonic and Tails ported over but also Sonic 1’s zones all into Clownacy’s Sonic 2 assembly, and the entire ROM only uses Sonic 2’s sound driver.

It is an initial (work in progress prototype) hack by Clownacy that is fully playable from start to finish who shared it on SSRG originally and for fear of it getting lost to time, it’s being archived here.

What Can You Do In This Hack?

• Can now play as Sonic, Tails or Knuckles.
• Can now play through all of Sonic 1 and Sonic 2 continuously.
• Only Sonic 2 Special Stages are used.
• Getting 50 rings and jumping in the halo of stars above the checkpoint is how you enter the Special Stages much like regular Sonic 2.
• Shields are now grey instead of blue.
• 2 Player VS. game is playable.
• Sonic 2 Options screen is available.
• Level Select cheat screen now includes all of Sonic 1’s zones.
• Sound test is edited to include all of Sonic 1’s soundtrack.
• Wood Zone and Hidden Palace are included and accessing them is possible through the level select screen although they’re completely broken.
• Sonic 1 soundtrack is optimised for 50Hz.
• Works 100% on real hardware (confirmed).

In the ZIP file you’ll find yet again two ips patches, a v1 and a v2 of the same ROM, apparently v2 has some small corrections in it over the v1.

Any ”Knuckles In Sonic 2” ROM will patch with these patches as they work perfectly on real hardware through an EverDrive as tested by me (Adrian Gauna) so a specific UPMEM emulated ROM is not necessary which makes it easier for you guys.

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