The Old Development Blog (English)

Motorbikes 25-3-06
Saturday, March 25th, 2006

From the hand of Adrian Matos (Adrimus) comes one of the most interesting features of SORR : the re-creation of the sprites representing the characters riding a motorbike, for the lost stages from SOR3


Big Max driving with only one hand. He is so big that he almost doesn’t fit on the moto

Our goal will be to drive at full speed:

(thanks SupremeRuler

Of course, it won’t be a relaxed trip, as our characters will be attacked and may be hit :


But the stages are not limited to driving without being hit ; our characters will be able to attack too :

Here, we see Axel preparing a retro attack.


Skate preparing an artistic move

The stages (2 in total) will be varied, with obstacles on the ground and several enemy types attacking in different means of transport.

15/05/2006

IMAGE GALLERY updated with new artworks :


Until now, all the artworks that have been added have been created exclusively for SORR. Other artworks may be added. The total of images should be about 50.

COLOR EDITOR (work in progress : 65%) :

We will be able to make a custom color palette for each playable character. On quit or changing character, you will be asked if you want to save the palette or not.

In the end, you will be able to change all 16 colors of the sprite. Of course, the choice of colors will affect all animation frames, so you will have to choose wisely in order to not get weird colors in some parts of the set.

To move the arrow, you will use either the keyboard or the joypad. The frame in the center shows a wide color palette, and the vertical bar on the right will be used by pressing “A / SPECIAL” to change the scale of colors (in the screenshot, the scale of grey). Pressing “C / JUMP” will make you select the color.

Update 24-5-06
Wednesday, May 24th, 2006

PROFILE EDITOR (WIP : 45 %)


NAME allows you to enter your (nick)name so that your score is recorded in the “RANKING” without being forced to re-enter your name every time.
DATE OF BIRTH keeps some surprises for the player, while AGE will be displayed directly according to the date of birth.
COUNTRY and SEX are simple entries.
FAVOURITE CHARACTER forces the program to highlight your favourite character first when you enter the “SELECT PLAYER” screen (meaning not Axel for player 1 or Blaze for player 2).
PROFILE SELECTED FOR shows which player the profile has been selected for (player 1 or player 2). Obviously, there is only one profile selectable for each player (all other profiles will be marked as “NONE”).

We can save up to 9 different profiles, in case there are several people who will play the game.

If online features are implemented in the future, the invitation of somebody to play online will include information according to this profile.

Update 25-5-06
Thursday, May 25th, 2006

STAGE SELECT (WIP : 25 %)


This feature allows you to reach any stage section of the game, reminding the look of the stage select cheat screen from SOR3, but showing a picture and the name of the scene Very Happy

I won’t say how this feature is unlocked, you’ll have to figure it out by yourself

Update 7-6-06
Wednesday, June 7th, 2006

Enemy names

After extensive play of SOR2 (in Mania difficulty ), SOR3 (for the western names) and BK3 (for the japanese names), I have managed to get a complete list of all enemy names As you may know, there can be several names for one type of enemy according to their color palette (SOR2) and/or their difficulty/life bar size (SOR3/BK3).

Type of enemies currently complete :

Galsia (SOR2)
Donovan (SOR2)
Y.Signal (SOR2)
Electra (SOR2)
R.Bear
Falcon
Jet (SOR2)
Vice
Slum
Barbon
Jack

23-6-06
Friday, June 23rd, 2006

We have thought often about how the police call from SOR1 could be implemented in SORR in a more realistic way. In SOR1, we could make a police call where, by magic, none of the heroes were hit by the devastating blast.

In SORR, there will be two types of police calls :


When you press the “police” button while not moving, a helicopter (not shown in this screenshot) comes and drops a rung and cable ladder to save the heroes from the big blast.

The character calling the police will jump and hang himself at the ladder automatically, and then we will be able to press the “police” button one more time to make the actual attack (an area damaging attack), in a safe position. But if you play with a 2nd player, you will have to care for him, because that 2nd player will have to go under the ladder and jump manually in order to hang to it and not to undergo the same fate as the enemies Hopefully, the 1st player, while hanging, should be able to move the helicopter manually towards the 2nd player to catch him… or not

However, if we press the “police” button while walking or running (forward + POLICE), the police car will come instead :


Its purpose will be to run over the enemies. In this case, Blaze jumps automatically to avoid the car. This attack should damage less enemies than the helicopter attack since it’s more an in-line damaging attack (while the helicopter attack damages the whole area). So to compensate that, the car will drop bonus items like ammo or food for example before leaving

Of course, depending on what location you are in, you won’t be able to call the police car and/or the police helicopter (for example, only the helicopter will come if you are on a boat or on a roof, and you won’t be able to call neither of both when you are inside a building).

At the score count at the end of the stage, you will get a bonus if you didn’t use the police call.

Update 26-6-06
Monday, June 26th, 2006

Stage select complete :


The “EXIT” option has been deleted. We will be able to go back to the previous meny by pressing the “B” button. You will press left/right to change stage and up/down to change scene. Very useful for the beta testers of the game

Some changes :

- “FULL” scanlines option deleted (looked bad)
- “CPU COMMENTS” replaced by “GAME RULES” (explained hereunder)
- removed “70 FPS” option (was not useful)
- “DOUBLE BUFFER” graphic option deleted (doesn’t work in full screen)
- we can now delete the saved game “savegame.sor” without the game crashing at start
- fixed some parameters when starting the game for the first time
- “STORY ELEMENTS” option included in the “MOVIE THEATRE” option.

GAME OPTIONS -> GAME RULES :


- SOR2 : timer + life loss when performing a special move
- SOR3 : no timer + SOR3 special gauge system
- COMBINED : timer + SOR3 special gauge system

Reset the options by section : this already existed, but it was not very clear. Now for each section of the options, you will have this :
- DEFAULT GAME OPTIONS
- DEFAULT VIDEO OPTIONS
- DEFAULT AUDIO OPTIONS
- DEFAULT CONTROLS

Update 1-7-06
Saturday, July 1st, 2006

Movie theatre (work in progress : 75 %) :

Fixes 9-7-06
Sunday, July 9th, 2006

Options for modes (100 %)
Volleyball mode (90 %)
Flags mode (50 %)
Duel mode (30 %)

Lifebar improvements :

New :


Beta:


Improvements :


- Shadows
- Resizes
- Positions

Update 10-7-06
Monday, July 10th, 2006

Volleyball mode (100 %)


Options for volleyball :
- Time of the round (25, 50, 75, 99 sec)
- Number of rounds (1..3)
- Special (ON,OFF)



In Volleyball new rules:

- You can only move left or right.
- The ball belongs to the character made a point.
- You can only hit up 3 times in your zone.
- Special attack cost you like. And will be limited up some used. But that will be restored in the next round.
- When time off, and each player have same number of points, it will be a sudden death, when first point, wins.
- The background will be in different times at day.

Battle mode:
- Time added
- A lot of fixes

Rules:
- At round end, if you cannot finish your opponet it will count actual level of life. If is the same, it will count the score. If its the same, a sudden death happens, where the first hit wins the match

Update 18-7-06
Tuesday, July 18th, 2006

Stadistics of modes (for battle, flag, volleyball) 100 %

Sor3 :


SorR :

Update 26-6-07
Wednesday, July 26th, 2006

more news

Now the chars can be shocked electrically


Skate specials 100 %


- With knife
- With bat
- With wood

Zan can throw energy balls if you press special button while running

Update 29-7-06
Saturday, July 29th, 2006

Secret char 1 100 % completed

Weapons :

Gun 100 % completed
7 bullets


Machine gun 100 % completed
15 bullets


Rocket launcher 100 % completed
Only 1 shoot

(ooops

Motorcycle implemented

(Level test , only for specific scenes)

Update 12-8-06
Saturday, August 12th, 2006

All enemies 100 % ripped, some enemies with new moves, are not 100 % programmed yet.

Enemy list :

Sor1 : 3

Sor2 : 19

Sor3 : 23

New enemies : 4


—
Total 49

Big update 19-8-06
Saturday, August 19th, 2006

STAGES


MODES

Volleyball


Flags


EXTRAS

Profile editor


Movie Theater


Color Editor


GAMEPLAY (ONLY TESTS)

Stages 27-8-06
Sunday, August 27th, 2006

Stages status : Almost completed
- Graphics 100 % (waiting some improvements)
- Layers 100 %
- Programming 90%
- Effects 99 %
- Details 95 %

Update 7-9-06
Thursday, September 7th, 2006

As we are approaching the release date, I’ll clarify some doubts:

- Contents -

Everything that was officially promised will be there.

8 characters, 2 of them are secret ones.
45 locations amongst multiple paths.
8 whole stages.
New intro and cutscenes.
A total of 4 different endings.
50 enemies, some of them having new attack techniques, some of them having intros, with every original name included.
36 breakable objects.
10 weapons.
3 different guns.
New and complete OST, composed of around 30 different tracks.

- Download and date -

Every registered user will be notified through e-mail the moment the game is ready for downloading.

The download size will be around 70MB.

The game will be a single file, so in principle this version will not let to view or modify the files.

–

There could be some delaying, I know it does not look good, but there are always last hour unexpected events (like some undelivered goods that I’ve got to do myself). The release date could be delayed a week more than expected, being this month the expected time to release the game.

Regards.

Palettes 5-10-06
Thursday, October 5th, 2006

PALETTES COMPLETED

- Same alternative palettes for Sor2 Bosses
- New palettes for basic enemies
- 16 color structs (not 4 like beta)
- Total : Up to 100 new palettes

EXAMPLES :



.. ELECTRIO Laughing

Screenshots 23-10-06
Monday, October 23rd, 2006

IN-GAME screenshots with enemies

Update (13-11-06)
Monday, November 13th, 2006

— SORR progress —

New title screen :


BETATESTING
- AI reprogrammed from scratch (won’t be the same as in beta 4)
- CPU friend improved
- 47 bugs fixed
- Better gameplay

ADDING ENEMIES IN STAGES
33 stages programmed
4 stages written
(37/43)

IMPROVING STAGES (example)



SOUNDTRACK
- 34 tracks (more to come)
- Tracks with INTRO + LOOP
* New remixes for : select player screen, game over, stage clear

Ranking over the million (up to 9999999) to support higher scores Wink

When the releaseeee !!? (25-11-06)
Saturday, November 25th, 2006



Hey ! Calm down Razz

With the game almost completed, I can say SorR will be launched on 31 DECEMBER 2006 (official and definitive release date) Very Happy

–

SCREENSHOTS



NEW REMAKED LEVELS

Sor2 => SorR



Sor1 => SorR

Insane days, patch after the release 2-1-07
Tuesday, January 2nd, 2007

CURRENT BUG FIXES AND THINGS ADDED :

SorRv401 => SorRv401a

SDL , LATEST SDL FILES ON THE NET FOR FENIX

1. I found a very important bug that screwed my score menu up
After I completed the game; the score menu was shown with my score in the list; then it came back to the main menu. For some reasons I was waiting there and a in-game demo came playing; then when it ended the score menu was shown again and the score of my last play was appearing a second time in the score menu !!
I tried waiting again and after a second demo, there was 3 score of my last play in the menu….
(fixed)
2. When you have to continue, if your newly chosen character is caught in an explosion before he reaches the ground, the lifebar doesn’t show up and you cannot move or proceed.
(fixed)
3. I can’t enter my birthday in the profile editor – 29/2/1984
(fixed)
4. Missing instructions on savegame struct, you can’t unlock volleyball , palettes, battle , flag , cheats, second secret char
(FIXED)
5. I grabbed Electra by the edge and got hit, but she couldnt return to normal. I had to use police call to continue.
(fixed..not sure)
6. When the enemies are under the pepper effect, you can´t grab ´em.
(fixed)
7. Stage 8, I was fighting Bear Jr., and after he killed me he jumped off the bottom of his screen, dying.
(fixed)
8.In the motorcycle stage, wouldn’t it make more sense if the barrels gave you points?
(added)
9. Weapons are way too effective, I’m almost invincible with an iron bar or sword, eg. even the R. Bear boss wasn’t able to anything against it.
(fixed)
10. If you have 10 lives, the number to the right of the healthbar will show as 0.
(fixed)
11. In the new 4.0 patch, there’s only one bug I found so far: in battle mode, even if you put ‘yes’ for grabs, you still can’t grab your opponent.
(FALSE, anyway checked)
12. I got to the helicopter as Axel, but when I defeated al the enemies Axel wouldn’t jump out, he just coninued trying to walk upwards. The buttons were disabled, all except alt + x
(fixed)
13. English improved

NO FIXED
3. bug with secret character shiva, he can’t throw or slam the 2nd player even with damage on, the other player is just stunned for a moment in the grabbed animation state before reacting like they’ve been knocked over.
5. I’m in 2P mode and playing as Blaze and Shiva, and I’m at the end version where you fight Shiva and Mr. X. After fighting Mr. X, it froze (like how things freeze right after you beat a boss), but the music is still playing, and it’s stuck like that. There’s an enemy somewhere on the bottom right of the screen looking like he’s about to leave the area but he hasn’t, maybe that’s the reason, since usually when you beat a boss the small fries will leave the screen running before the stage ends. I dunno tho.
6. fix the invicibility problem of enemies when they get up (or maybe its a feature of the remake?).
13. In level 7 (I think, it’s the one with the barrels falling), at the second barrel-falling part, it looks like some invisible punch kept smacking the barrel to the right. I think it was because there was a lot of fighting going on in the area, and someone smacked a barrel to the right, but it got stuck so now it thinks someone’s hitting it at that same spot every time.
14. Okay, these are some retarded barrels — I’ll lose an entire life getting hit by one and I’m barely near it, but they’ll go RIGHT through the baddies. That and it’s kind of difficult to time a hit so you’ll actually hit the barrel at all.
Those barrels are working for Mr. X.
A lot of more…

//———————————————

PATCH 401

NEW FEATURES
————
1. Extra points when enemy dies
2. Secret 1UP’s added
3. SKIP intros (Not in-game cutscenes)

GAME
—-
1. SorR unpacked
2. 196 RAM NEEDED => 96 RAM
3. Fast load
4. No savegame data problems
5. No running package problems
6. New SDL pack for GAME CRASHES
7. BSO available in OGG file
8. Improved gameplay
* there are inviciblity frames between the moves of byatko, phoenix and soozie enemy types,etc
(fixed)
* Improved hits in enemy jumps
9. Improved difficulty
* Fixed timings, attacks
* Easy 5 continues
* Normal 3 continues
* Hard 2 continues
10. SDL upgraded to 1.0.2.7

BUGS
—-

1. During the inner pirate ship area of Stage 3, the music kept “restarting” everytime I entered a new section. Shouldn’t the music be non-stop while going through that part of the stage/area?
(fixed)
2. On Stage 3 when fighting Ken and Roo. When you kill Ken and Roo’s goes to hop off, his animation only goes “once” and doesn’t loop (makes him look like his sliding.)
(fixed)
3. In the truck, the rightmost end of the area isn’t lined up properly. Noticeably the wall.
(fixed)
4. Zan walked up infinitely stopping my no death progress ;_; (Baseball)
(fixed)
5. Im got the max icon on the high scores again and I was Axel.
(fixed)
6. Always in the same zone, the knives can pass through the right wall if launched. (stage1)
(fixed)
7. Game freezed on the helicopter (Rudra problem + Yamato problem)
(fixed)
8. The AI gets stuck on stages that you have to walk downwards at an angle to continue.
(fixed)
9. AI bug on the Rooftop
(fixed)
10. Unfortunately it wouldn’t let me in the Kiss Kiss Nightclub in the SoR1 street stage after the fight with Barbon n the first level
(fixed)
11. In the SOR2 Stage 6 elevator, if the Big Ben uses a roll attack to his right, he never stops rolling and becomes invincible, forcing you to die.
(fixed)
12. Sometime at the start of stage 2-rooftop area, if some enemy is launched to the left the game doesn’t let you continue moving to right.
(fixed)
13. In stage 2.1 when you jump into the gap to the left and the player sprite comes back it stands in the air above the gap.
(fixed)
14. LAG in combo BLAZE
(fixed)
15. When doing combos, you can’t stop after the 2nd hit. They automatically do there ender.
(Blaze,Skate,Adam,Max)
(fixed)
16. with Skate, it plays out the animation with Skate sitting on top of the victim’s head, and the victim only gets the last 1 or 2 hits
(fixed)
17. On that same elevator level mentioned above, Zan’s throw doesn’t throw the enemies off the side, no matter what distance it is done at (yet his reverse throw does it fine).
(fixed)
18. If you make a police call when fighting the two Rockets, the Rockets move around as if you didn’t do anything and sometimes will even attack you when you can’t move or anything and go off screen so they don’t get nailed.
(fixed)
19. Bug , black line on diagonal scrolling first stage
(fixed)
20. In the arcade level scene with the “pirates door”, A “Y-signal” is walking around in the walls now and then.
(fixed..not sure)
21. In 2p mode with damage other players off, if you grab the other player and headbutt them, they will be unable to move until hit or screen continues forward.
(fixed)
22. I was playing with Max as my CPU partner. We were at the end of the bar, he grabbed Electra and jumped, I jumped kick and he landed down, she was stuck in the air hunched over
(fixed)
23. Also I noticed the wierd “mis-aligned” backgrounds with the truck. Namely the upper part of the truck if the ground rumbles you can see the “moving” layer behind it. Also the right side is also mis-aligned somewhat (can see the part where you exit through.)
(fixed)
24. Intro showed playing battle in helicopter stage
(fixed)
25. When fighting SOR2 Shiva at the end of Stage 8, it seems strange that you are able to walk ‘behind’ Mr. X
(fixed)
26. PLAYING 2P MODE, sometimes the kickboxers *and another enemy i can’t remember which* use their move it takes a full life bar
(fixed)
27. NINJA INSANE HARDEST
(fixed)
28. In the Warehouse Stage, a barrel hit me and I was about to die before a donovan hit me. Axel was stuck frozen lying on the ground with 0 energy in the status bar and I could not continue playing
(fixed)
29. Some items replaced
(+)
30. Minor AI bugs fixed
31. Wrong position of the ” ? ” icon (select screen)
(fixed)
32. Theres a “pink” pixel amongst Zamza’s hair that isn’t translucent.
(fixed)
33. Electra Bugs first stage
(fixed)
34. Grenades explode only if they are in the screen so not if the half ou the grenade is out
(fixed)
35. Come here items, I want to pick you up Sad .. (stage2a,stage1,stage3b)
(fixed)
36. Song not stopped when you play credits or intro on the movie theatre
(fixed)
37. Time counting with timer disabled
(fixed)
38. Skate palette rolling
(fixed)
39. Yeah, the rooftop glitch, you know…..
(fixed)

Update 21-1-07
Sunday, January 21st, 2007

I started my work again

SorR v4.01b => v4.02

NEW FEATURES
- LINUX port maked & added for the new patch
- COLLISIONS improved
* Collisions with pixel precision
* Fixed bullet collisions
- MULTIPLE LIFEBARS added (by nightwolf)
- SOR2 star lifebar added (by nightwolf)
- New secret mode added (by nightwolf)
- A bug in the processes inheritance system has been found on Fenix, all of the crashes for all of the systems are fixed
- Hacked savegames detection (just a advice showed if you are using one)
- SOUND engine improved

BUGS (14/50)

1. Okay, I figured out why I wasn’t able to grab my opponent in 2P Battle mode…
When you put “no” on Damage Between Players, you can’t grab the other person in 2P Battle. HOWEVER, you can still punch/kick/whatever them, just no grabbing.
When you put “yes” on Damage Between Players, you CAN grab them.
I didn’t think Damage Between Players was supposed to affect 2P Battle, but apparently it does?
(Now fixed)
2. In the last scene in Stage 8, it seems the timer is never reset, and thus you’re almost guaranteed to die of a time over if you try to get through in one life.
(fixed)
3. And, not sure if it is intended, but whenever I fall off the screen (in the Rooftop Run or on the Buildingside Elevator) I lose 2 lives as opposed to
(Fixed)
4. I fall off the screen (in the Rooftop Run or on the Buildingside Elevator) when i have 1 live and I lose a continue.
(fixed)
5. I was playing as Shiva and fighting against Nail in the jungle. Once I killed all the other minor enemies, Shiva walked right off of the right side of the screen and advanced to the next area without having to kill Nail.
(fixed)
6. Abadede replaced on stage8 by other boss
(+)
7. Score counter
(fixed+improved)
8. SShiva running
(improved)
9. I just defeated a Orihime and Yasha with the Police Call attack, and it went to slo-mo as they were defeated and now it’s running like that for the rest of the game.
(fixed)
10. In the arcade level scene with the “pirates door”, a “Y-signal” is
still walking around in the walls now and then.
(fixed)
11. Stage 8: the cutscene with Mr X sometimes starts even though there are still two enemies left (outside the screen). They then punch you and you´re helpless because you gotta watch the cutscene.
(fixed)
12. Stage 8: at Mr X´s throne room, Shiva says “I´m ready to fight” even if he´s not here.
(fixed)
13. The first (8-12?) barrels in the motorbike level don’t give you points.
(fixed)
14. When fighting SoR3 Jet on the harbour, he fell under the ground after I used a police special. Axel and Blaze then started walking towards the water and the music faded out. Wouldn’t let me pause and exit and I had no control at all and had to quit
(fixed)
15.

Update 26-1-07
Friday, January 26th, 2007

Better performance :
(same Pentium M 735 1,7 GHZ)
4.01b

4.02


Less ram needed : <64 MB

New feature added (was planned)
Blood option : cut the people off (some enemies)

Bugs, bugs, and more bugs (31-1-07)
Wednesday, January 31st, 2007

BUGS (32/x..)

15. “Damage between players OFF” has weird effects: enemy projectiles won´t hit you (seem the game does count them as “friendly fire”).
(fixed)
16. Yamato doesn’t hit you with his jumped sword attack after a parry
(fixed)
17. Zan doesn’t have the flaming effect when he gets hurt by fire.
(fixed)
18. Stage 8: “After Zan blew the door up, I walked through the door and lost a life in combat with Galsia and Donovan. When I came back falling down from heaven (SOR death style) the Galsia and Donovan enemies fell onto the floor – but so did SOR2 Shiva. This means that SOR2 Shiva was ‘activated’ earlier than he should’ve been.”
(fixed)
19. Bongo fire hit from behind too
(fixed)
20. “Looks like the death of any end-stage boss deducts exactly 1400 points from my score.”
(fixed)
21. When you throw an enemy off the stage (on the lift, for example) you don’t earn points.
(added)
22. I don’t know if it’s a bug (indeed,is weird) but if you do the running attack with Blaze knife armed against 2 or more enemies, she will hit them a looooooot of times
(fixed)
23. Blaze hits 2 times when using a pipe or equivalent weapon
(fixed)
24. If you turn off the timer you always get the maximum 9900 points for time bonus.
(changed)
25. Shiva’s hadouken doesn’t give you points when hit
(NO, score counter problem)
26. Sometimes enemies hit you while police call
(fixed)
27. At the end of the level, the bonus scores are the wrong way round – In SORR the “Clear Bonus” is based on the difficulty and the “Level Bonus” is based on the Stage (1-8 ) – But in the original SOR games it was the other way around.
(fixed)
28. 2. I’m in 2P mode and playing as Blaze and Shiva, and I’m at the end version where you fight Shiva and Mr. X. After fighting Mr. X, it froze (like how things freeze right after you beat a boss), but the music is still playing, and it’s stuck like that. There’s an enemy somewhere on the bottom right of the screen looking like he’s about to leave the area but he hasn’t, maybe that’s the reason, since usually when you beat a boss the small fries will leave the screen running before the stage ends. I dunno tho.
(fixed)
29. If you lose all your lives and are prompted to continue, DO NOT PRESS ESC to try and return to the menu, or you will be trapped there forever! The arrow keys will work, but the Select key won’t because the game still thinks you’re dead, so you have no way to quit or close the program other than through the task manager.
(fixed)
30. The QUIT option on the pause menu is no longer selected by default in case you were pressing the down arrow
(fixed)
31. Stage 8: It sometimes happens that Super Shiva simply won´t fight you (and as the timer is still running, the game then ends with the bad ending).
(??? tested many times, maybe fixed..)
32. R. Bear’s shadow is bugged when he does his ugly ass attack, it doesn’t follow him properly
(fixed)
33…