K9.5 Remake (A WIP SORMaker mod converted from an educational title(?))

Greetings to the SoRR Community! Here is another mod suggestion from Mr.Chewy-McFluffster2010!

Previously, I have seen other mods which were downloaded via external links to hosting sites, most of those mods contain actual conversions of arcade beat-em-ups like Final Fight or Double Dragon but with SoR characters in their place.

I have decided to create another mod, seeing as my current work has been temporarily suspended — this time, I am making a modified conversion of the K9.5 series originally developed and published by Lightspan Partnership but to make it more exciting, it will be played very differently, unlike the original PlayStation-exclusive educational title destined for North American schools that teaches the player various words and phrases to enhance reading/language arts skills and help complete the corresponding adventures.

The project, which tells the story of Axel Stone and his former police colleagues, Adam Hunter and Blaze Fielding, team up with Shiva and Electra as they enter a cartoon world populated by anthropomorphic dogs while being offered a chance to meet the all-canine rock stars.

When I said this game is to be played differently, I mean just that! In this edition, there will be at least one beat-em-up section at the beginning and/or end of each level (which follows the standard Streets of Rage rules) and eventually help the rockers complete their task using alternate route events set in SORMaker.

I am going to create a playable demo of the mod, which has one level at present. I will create more when I get the chance to complete it. It will also feature real full-color cartoon-style FMV footage with synchronized audio dialog to replicate those of the original. I demonstrated that routine using jPSXDEC to convert the video frames into static images, re-numbered them using XnViewMP before placing them into FPG Edit in the correct order, making sure the control points are placed at a certain position so that the frames are centered when the game enters a cutscene (viewing them in full-screen is recommended whilst playing). That is a never-before-seen feature which took me a decent amount of time to develop. Most mod creators just use several pictures to give a visual presentation of the cutscenes.

If you like this, please send a comment on this thread.

I say go for it

Far out idea, Don Vecta! Not many educational games get the SORMaker treatment but this one might be a smash hit!

I understand that some of the arcade conversions had the word 'REMAKE' appended to the title, I decided I would do the same for this one. The rules will also be changed when playing the game, which is based on the adventures of the rock star dogs — so I am going to turn it into a fighting game; the "boring" mental challenges will be replaced by "exciting" beat-em-up segments because it would be difficult to emulate the language arts quizzes like the original (as the answers would be the same every time, making the game too easy to beat).

Instead, I will only put the important mid-level tasks in-between the battle scenes (in this case, the game's original canine cast of characters will be hiding in a safe place during the battle scenes, exclusive to this mod, until the battle has been completed). However, these will require the use of alternate exits, which act as switches or routes depending on the levels.

The following link takes you to the EverybodyWiki entry for one of the examples if you are interested (the page was removed from Wikipedia):
https://en.everybodywiki.com/K9.5:_The_Tail-Wag_Tour

Also try to check out the rest of the Internet for screenshots and video clips taken from the original games and you will understand the differences between those and my mod, which will be created specifically for v5.1 of Streets of Rage Remake. In the demo version, it will display a message at the beginning, which will later explain the features that will be included in the final release.

Once I get the demo ready, I will upload it to my OneDrive account so anyone with SOR Remake can try it out (some online storage services may delete the file after a period of inactivity). Also read the text file that goes with it that contains the ASCII art for the title once you have gotten it, which looked like it has been written using the Gill Sans Ultra Bold font.

Please note that according to the Wikipedia description, the educational game was previously available only to teachers and principals working in schools for educational use, meaning it was illegal for retailers to sell that product to the public.