Author: Sonicfan1991

It’s time to go back in time to visit the good, the bad and the ugly and this time we’re time travelling to early 2017 with this ROM hack patch.

Sonic 1 Redux is an old work-in-progress hack from 2017 by Sonicfan1991 that sadly never got completed, only the first zone ever saw an art and palette overhaul leaving the other 5 zones just as recolours. The hack also has some badly ported Sonic music that is missing the snare drum and other weird things but thankfully doesn’t screech or hurt your ears. The spindash is added which is always welcoming and it has the Modgen Sonic sprite.

The build featured in this patch is the second build by Sonicfan1991 (v0.2) as the first build is even more incomplete and was the build that Youtubers Razor/Zenon and AmyRose Playthroughs rushed to record a playthrough of. This patch surprisingly doesn’t have any recorded videos of it, all the videos on Youtube are of v0.1.

Emerald Isle Zone:

This zone is the only zone that ever saw completion, it features a nice foreground/background blend of the same colours and has different level layouts in it. The large, square rocky mountains moving on two different rows is quite nice.

The Rest:

The rest of the game from Marble Zone onwards including the Special Stage is exactly the same as in the original vanilla Sonic 1, the only difference is the colour palettes are all different and the music is also different.

Background Development Story:

This hack got absolutely hammered left, right and centre back in the day over at SSRG with far too many armchair critics making their opinions known on the page, (mostly negative).

The things that were complained about:

1. The hack was criticised heavily for using a Mod.Gen Sonic sprite instead of the basic, generic Sonic 1 sprite or the Sonic 3 sprite.

2. Other negative criticisms from other users whinged about the foreground and background art being the same colours with someone saying that it was not something highly accepted on SSRG. That person obviously never played ”Mr.Nutz” as that game has a fair ground level where the foreground and background look the same.

3. The music ports also got hammered for being glitchy.

4. The title screen got picked on for having a plain green background.

5. The fact that it is mainly a palette recolour hack gave it lots of negative feedback which is nearly always the case with Sonic colour hacks.

6. Lastly poor Sonicfan1991 even got threatened for a ban if they did not respond accordingly with the non-stop negative constructive criticism.

Why is this ROM hack being put up here?

Well because I (Adrian Gauna) like to be selective with what I put out and I saw initial potential in this little ROM hack by Sonicfan1991 as I like the first zone and it’s art very much and also because I have a rather large library of Sonic hacks and I enjoy digging out random old hacks to share for folks who may have missed these the first time round and may be discovering these here for the first time. Also the original download links to these old hacks won’t stay up forever so they need to be archived here for history.

In my opinion, this little ROM hack copped far too much negative feedback from the public than it should have, there were too many armchair critics inserting their opinions as though they were facts and not really respecting the author’s vision of the hack they had in their head, yeah some areas it was right to be criticised but for others, it clearly wasn’t. I have seen and played far worse Sonic 1 ROM hacks than this one and compared to crap over the years like Sonic 1 Omachao Edition, The Grandma From Coco in Sonic 1 and Sonic 2 XL, this hack looks like a gem next to those.

To the mob holding pitchforks ready to burn the author alive over their personal choices for colour, layout, sprite and music, if you don’t like it, don’t play it.

Also to these newbie authors who post these 15% finished products on forums like SSRG you should all be fully aware of what is coming at you! Unless you post a finished entry that is 100% completed and has amazing new gimmicks and aesthetics added not seen before, then be prepared to get hammered in the forums for something that shouldn’t really be posted there to begin with.

INSTRUCTIONS: 

Inside the ZIP file you’ll find the patch, it’s in Lunar IPS format and just needs to be patched to regular Sonic 1. The game is ticked as ”unfinished” but is fully playable from start to finish with no weird glitches or crashes.