The Old Development Blog (English)

News for Feb. 20th, 2008
Wednesday, February 20th, 2008

Menu screen redesign :


The previous one, which was SNK material, has been scrapped in favour of a modified real one, adapted to a Genesis-like palette featuring moving water waves and flashing city lights.

There are some other similar changes planned, specially for the intro and the ranking screen.

News for Mar. 19th, 2008
Tuesday, March 18th, 2008

Since I (Bomberlink) don’t have much free time as of late, news updates won’t pop up so often but will have a little more content.



1. Enemies can block back attacks now, since it was very easy to knock blocking enemies down that way before. (added)



2. Many people will be reminded of the Genesis BIOS when looking at this image. This message’s function is clear, it replaces the one under the logo and is more specific and safe.



3. A WIP sample of what the new cutscenes will be like, coming again from Arth’s pencils.



4. The palette editor has been improved, having added 2 new features and 2 indicators.
“RESET” deletes the custom palette file and restores the original colours without having to set them manually again.
“UNDO” restores the last changed colour. Beware you can’t “UNDO” a “RESET”.



5. Autosave. There’s a slot reserved for saving the game at the current stage start, keeping score, lives and other game parameters.
The autosave will only trigger when:

The game is closed with Alt+X.
The game is closed through the window’s close (X) button.
A sudden/forced closing.

The autosave *WON’T* be triggered when getting a Game Over or quitting a game through the Pause menu.

Unlike in emulators, the autosave is not a “save state” feature. There are savepoints at every stage start only, and copied/restored autosave files WON’T work. If an autosave file exists it will be loaded right after the logo so you don’t have to go through the menus.

6. Small colour modification in the game logo, added a fade in.
(+)
7. Small rank screen modification, added a new background.
(+)

News for May 17th, 2008
Friday, May 16th, 2008

Example of what a blitz or special attack for Adam could be:



As we said, both his special moves and running animation are going to be improved.

ENGINE

The damage values for the enemies’ moves have been corrected following the internal SOR2 list, and SOR3 enemies’ moves damage have been modified based on the SOR2 ones. Bosses’ moves damage are still to be modified.

The most significant change is the nerfing of the basic punches, something that will help Max and Skate’s playability.

** Damage level still varies depending on the character stamina.

SOUND SYSTEM

The stab and blood sound effects have been replaced for the correct ones.
The sword and club hit sound effects have been added, they all sounded the same before.

Several hit sound effects have been added to:

- Abadede’s uppercut.
- R. Bear’s punch combo.
- Y. Signal’s backhand.
- Falcon’s middle kick.
- Hakuyo’s energy ball and high kick.
- Many of Barbon’s moves.

VISUAL EFFECTS

The blood effect has been added to:

- Jack’s double slash.
- Galsia 1/2/3 running stab.
- Zamza, all of his attacks except the uppercut.
- Yamato, flying attacks.
- Ninjo, all of his attacks except punches.
- Sor 3 ninja, sword attack.
- Souther, all of his attacks.


BUGS

1. Zan doesn’t burn when a Big Ben spits fire to him (added).
2. Pressing the Start button on a gamepad when a character dies pauses the game (old bug, modified, now you have to press the C button).
3. Player characters can be hit by bullets and explosions while calling the police (fixed).
4. The damage inflicted by the police varies depending on which player character calls them (fixed, it will indifferently inflict a full health bar).
5. Screen update problem that made palette swaps revert back for a single frame (fixed).
6. When playing a 2 player game, the character chosen by the second player on the character select screen could not thereafter be used in Survival mode (fixed).
7. There was a little bug when saving the state for the first time (fixed).
8. Problem with dead players’ hit boxes (fixed).
9. The number of lives for Mania difficulty level is now modifiable like in SOR2 (modified).
10. The CD-playing function has been taken out, it was troublesome and wouldn’t be useable for the game ports (modified).
11. Axes and shurikens can be deflected by jump-kicks and specials (added).

News for May 26th, 2008
Monday, May 26th, 2008

JETSKI


This is a test of what the new jetski scene will be like. It’s not complete yet; I want to improve the water, put more layers in and make some corrections.
It’s an alternative route to the jungle stage: we’ll go down the river, passing waterfalls and caves to finally reach the sea (something like the unfinished v4 scene). The main goal is to create a completely different level to the motorbikes one so it’s not redundant.

SUMMARY

- Added all of the original damage values for SOR1/2/3 enemies and bosses.
- Added all of the original damage values for player characters Axel, Blaze, Skate, Max, Zan and Adam.
- Added the correct damage values for weapons like knives, swords, bats et al.
- Improved the life restoring abilities of some items.
- Player characters roster goes up to 10. 3 of them won’t be revealed until the v5 is out; you can here see a summary of the main characters and their different selectable versions (they are not skins, all of them have exclusive moves done independently):
https://i.imgur.com/wVHyyFl.png

MAX FIXES

- His special moves and attacks have improved a lot since the original damage values were added, specially the Atomic Drop which now eats about 70% of a lifebar.
- He’s somewhat faster, though obviously not as much as the rest of the characters.
- BUG: Can’t jump left or right when holding an enemy if the SOR2 jump type is chosen (fixed).

SPRITES FIXES

Some badly ripped enemies are being ripped again, like Mona/Lisa, Bruce and Robot X. An example:

News for July 10th, 2008
Thursday, July 10th, 2008

Enemy palette editor


For the time being, only the alternative enemies palettes can be edited (as many as a kind of enemy has) but the original palettes remain untouched (ie. blue Galsia, yellow Signal, etc).

Enemy names editor


A new addition will be the ability to change every possible enemy name (NOT the characters’). As with the palettes, you can’t add new ones but in this case you can edit all of them.

Both of these editors are compatible with SORMaker.

Typography fix


The new typography corrects the colours and restores the shadow that was erroneously erased since the beginning. As you can notice in the above image, the texts are easier to read no matter the background.

Items improvement


A lot of the items featured in the v4 are directly taken out from other games, like Final Fight. For the v5 a lot of them are being redrawn into a more SOR-like style, so for example the orange has been modified and now “is served” on a dish, as the proper SOR apple does.
- There are other planned improvements, specially for changing some graphics effects.

Statistics
When pressing the pause key, besides the usual continue/quit options there will be new information so the player knows the kinds and number of enemies that have been killed and the kinds and number of items that have been taken. Moreover, the system will assess our playing style and will give us better information when ending a game.

News for July 27th. 2008
Sunday, July 27th, 2008

Seeker


You might wonder where did this enemy come from. Well, for the first time we are taking something out of the SOR Master System/Game Gear versions.
It is a strange enemy who doesn’t attack the player characters but chases them around the scenario. The quirk is that when the player hits it, it immediately explodes so it has to be hit from as far as possible; a well timed jab does the trick.
They are dangerous when coming in groups due to possible explosive chain reactions.
The enemy has been redrawn by Kaleth, and there will be more things into v5 coming from these SOR versions.

The truckman



Are you tired of seeing Galsia’s face on the new SorR enemies? No problem, here you have the new truckman, coming right from Valkyrie Ace.

Scene improvements



Wet floor effect, small texture improvements and more detail into the scenery. This is one of the first collaborations from Ricky.

Stage 6 SOR 1



But in v5 there will be more than improved known scenes, there will be some new redrawn stages like this one from Shinobi.

About the end of August I’ll be able to continue developing the game on a more or less constant basis, so you’ll see more news. V5 will not only consist of adding new material, basically most of the enemies have to be reprogrammed: their AI routines, improve the way they move on the screen, their attack conditions, add the attacks they’re missing like grabs and throws, create hash tables so there’s no “unblockable vs. unblockable attack” situation, improve animations and much more.

News for Sept. 3rd, 2008
Wednesday, September 3rd, 2008

Here’s a summary of the work done last month. Extra things have been done, specially some material that I’ll be showing as I program it into the game.

Working with palettes


As I commented on the last entry there is a new palette file system for enemies too. This is something that will take some time to completely do because there’s more than 500 different palettes for enemies.

- Every kind of enemy will have a total of 7 alternative customizable palettes.
- Most of the v4 palettes are kept, but some will be added for enemies that had none (for example, Cody).
- There’s no number limit for on-screen palettes (SorMaker).

Optimization
We want V5 to be released for other systems with limited resources, so I am still optimizing CPU load and memory usage.
The enemy code went from 507KB down to 390KB.

Cutscene viewer
We’ll have a cutscene viewer in SorMaker, a separate EXE whose function will be playing any cutscene you create as we’ll see it in the game. It works through script, although it has no commands but follows a very simple schema:

data\drdahm.png (pathname of the picture file, it might end accepting animated images using FPGs)
0 (comment number to show alongside the image, with 0 meaning no comment)
60 (time the image will be shown expressed in frames, so if the game runs at 60fps this example would be shown during one second)
data\00.ogg (pathname of the audio file that will be played)
0 (number of times the audio file will be played, with -1 meaning infinite loop)
I knew something strange was
going on! (comment, 30 characters per line, 2 mandatory lines per comment. You can type a blank line into a comment.)
1 (flag that tells the program to jump to the next comment if it’s a 1, or to end the cutscene if it’s a 0)
175 (time the comment will be shown expressed in frames)
939 (FPG file graphic number. The portrait for the comment)

Well, I don’t know if I made myself clear, but an example will be provided so you can understand the method better.

Outcome of the above script:


Team attacks
One of the things to be missing from v4 were the team attacks, but now we’ll enjoy them even for characters that didn’t have them before.


Improved enemies
Sonic has been working on redrawing a lot of enemies, with Nora from SOR1 between them. He has drawn the new enemies animations with a lot of detail:


New SOR3 redrawn scene


New textures, columns, colours and glass have been added to this scene.

And more material from the Game Gear Streets of Rage version


Done in 5 scroll layers, the lava uses 2 layers to simulate density.

Suffices to say that these scenes have to be seen in motion, because the JPG distorts the image a lot. (click on them to see them with the correct aspect ratio).

Artworks
- The 36 artworks that Arth drew for v4 will be available from the in-game shop as a single pack (let’s remember that they can be bought with the points you get when ending a game).
- There’ll be a menu to select the new artworks, either the ones that Arth drew or the new ones that are included.

Bug fixing
1. If we keep the attack button pressed while changing scenes, upon release the character will do an attack move. (fixed)
2. If an enemy shoots you, the enemy’s lifebar is not shown. (added)

News for Sept. 16th, 2008
Tuesday, September 16th, 2008

Lately I’ve got more time on my hands, and since the new material starts to be quite complete I’ve been managing the files and making a definitive steps list to finish v5. I hope this steps list works as guide for all the people who wants to know about the game progress.

The list consists of 20 steps. I’m currently working on the first four at once since they are very alike, and the rest of them will be worked on in order:

1. New palettes (90%)

There are currently 256 palettes done. Some enemies have as many as 7 different palettes but others don’t need more than a couple of them (since they don’t appear more than twice in the game). Using the palette editor you can create or edit the rest of them to include them in SorMaker.

Some palettes have been corrected as well:

- Barbon: part of the trousers was wrong.
- R.Bear: part of the gloves was wrong.
- Zamza: outermost colour was wrong.
- SOR3 Garcia: knives looked like blood-stained when using a red palette.

** Enemies from steps 2, 3 and 4 have no palettes yet.

2. Work on badly ripped enemies from v4 (80 %)

- SOR3 Jet used 32 colours and was missing frames. (fixed)
- Robot X was resized and was missing frames. (fixed)
- Mr. X. (working on it)
- Zamza used a palette missing a colour, so the rest of palettes were not useable. (fixed)
- Neo X used more than 16 colours, had dirty outlines and was missing frames. (fixed)
- Bruce had dirty outlines and was missing frames. (fixed)
- Mona and Lisa do actually use DIFFERENT SPRITES, they’re twins but their sprites are different. They are missing frames. (working on it)

3. Replace old v4 enemies with their new versions (20%)

- Nora (FPG pending).
- Antonio (sprite set not finished).
- Souther (complete).
- Juggler (FPG pending).
- Rudra (sprite set not finished).
- Haku-oh (FPG pending).
- Truckman (sprite set not finished).
- SOR1 Garcia (sprite set not finished).

4. New files for new enemies (75%)

- SOR1 Bongo (sprite set not finished).
- SOR1 Yasha/Onihime (complete).
- [spoiler] (sprite set not finished).
- Big Ben (complete).
- Kusanagi (complete).
- Storm (complete).
- BKIII Signal (complete).
- SOR3 Electra (complete).
- SOR3 Soozie (complete).
- Slash (sprite set not finished).
- Seeker (complete).

By the time the next blog update is posted they’ll probably be complete.

—

Does someone remember the original SOR cover?

We’ve looked at it after all, and the new Slash will be very alike:




This will be the new Juggler design:



Groovemaster is working on new music remixes for the game, here you have a WIP sampler. Songs featured, in order of appearance:

- SOR3 Disco
- Alien Power
- SOR3 Mona/Lisa

News for Oct. 8th, 2008 – Step 5
Wednesday, October 8th, 2008

I wanted to write an update earlier, but I found more material to be corrected before going on to the next step; on the other hand recreating all of the animations, so they’d look like the original ones as much as possible, for the 23 new files has been a quite time-consuming task although much less than expected.

1. Finishing new palettes (98%)
361 palettes done, almost all of them but the 5 remaining enemies’ ones.


2. Fix v4 bad ripped enemies (100 %)
Completed. Additionally, these ones needed exceptional fixes:
- SOR3 Shiva was missing frames. He had frames from SOR2 Shiva and several other errors.
- SOR2 Jet was missing frames and the way he got hit was incorrect.
- Slum was missing his kick move.
- Garnet had some bad frames, specially the walking ones.

3. Swap old v4 enemies for their new versions (90 %)
I’m lacking three enemies to complete this step.

4. Create new files for the new enemies (90 %)
I’m lacking two enemies to complete this step.

While I wait for the required material to complete the previous steps I’m already working on the next one:

5. Miscellaneous enemy tasks (20 %)
- Look for little palette errors due to small colour differences between sprites from a single set and fix them.



With the help of a small tool over the game you can see a colour error on Slash’s leg here.
- Finish implementing dismemberment for the enemies (although some enemies will not be dismemberable).
- Implement the electrocution frame for the major part of the enemy roster:



Every electrocutable enemy will have its custom electrocution frame.
- Implement the possibility of enemies getting burned, ie. on the bar on fire scene.

News for Oct. 14th, 2008 – Step 6
Tuesday, October 14th, 2008

Yesterday I kept myself amused by typing the FGFX.dll code into Fenix code. It’s the library in charge of the palette management, and though the Windows and Linux versions will keep it
this could make porting the game to other platforms easier.

As I said on the last update I’m improving the sprite animations.
For example:
v4 v5

1. Finish new palettes (98 %)

New palettes. Ash jumps for joy.

2. Fix bad ripped v4 enemies (100 %)
3. Swap old v4 enemies for their new versions (90 %)
4. Create new files for the new enemies (90 %)
5. Miscellaneous enemy tasks (98 %)

- Over 120 sprites have been fixed due to mismatched palette colours, stray green or fuchsia pixels around the sprite and small errors like shadows to be erased and erroneously shared colours. Thanks to Criss and Daors for helping me with this messy subject. I’ve yet to receive some corrections.

- Cutting and dismembering implemented

* There will be 15 dismemberable enemies, the more basic ones.
* There are 2 dismemberment possibilities: explosions and sword slashing.
* I still have to receive 7 of those 15 enemies and make some adjustments in the enemies pieces and their palettes.

- Electrocution for enemies implemented

Zan is going to be a visually appealing character because of everything he can do. The classic electrocution sound will not be played in this case. We might alter the original so it’s not so shrill.
* There are 42 different custom electrocution sprites. Some types of enemies will use a generic one, though more custom ones might be added later.

- Enemies can burn (finally!)

* There are 3 different kinds of burning animations. Every type of enemy will use the one more fitting to their body size.
* Enemies will actively avoid the fires (not done yet, that’s an AI task).
* This will work either for “perennial” fires and Storm’s molotov cocktails.

As I’ve said, I still have to receive some material to finish this step. In the meantime I’m working on the next one:

6. Finish menu / interface (5 %), goals :
- Finish the enemy palette editor.
- Finish the enemy name editor.
- Finish the shop mode.
- Improve the controls menu.
* New, easier and more intuitive interface.
* 6 button support (like SOR3).
- Add some options to the artwork gallery.
- Add new options and move some options to more fitting submenus.
- Maybe some redesign in some menu options.

This step is going to need quite a lot of work, so it won’t be so fast to finish like the previous ones.

Indeed, Bongo couldn’t hold it back.

News for Oct. 30th, 2008
Thursday, October 30th, 2008

Small update. Since it was the winner on the polls, the new portraits will be classic SOR style:


The whole character roster will have 5 different facial expressions, SOR1/SOR2 versions included.


1. Finish new palettes (98 %)
2. Fix badly ripped v4 enemies (100 %)
3. Replace old v4 enemies (90 %)
4. Create new enemies’ files (90 %)
5. Miscellaneous enemy tasks (99 %)
* Fixed all of the enemy jetskis sprites
* Fixed some portraits

6. Finish menu / interface (60 %)
- Unified palette editor (enemies and characters) (100 %)


* Improved background design
* The 4 palettes have been improved. New palettes are: 64 colours, 256 colours, colour scale and a better 16-bit colour palette.
* A button for palette change has been added, so now you can edit the 7 enemy/character palettes. Since the button is very close to the Undo and Reset ones, to avoid pressing those by mistake you can change palettes pressing the A key.
* A button for changing from characters to enemies has been added.
* You can click on the current character sprite to get a specific colour. The red square marks the chosen colour, and when you click on the colours panel that colour will be changed.
* Backup folder created. If we delete or mess the essential palettes up, doing a reset will overwrite them from an external folder. As an added feature you can drag new palettes to that folder so they are backed up too, with a flag telling us which palettes are not backed up.
* Manual RGB colour selection. As you can see in the image, putting the mouse cursor over the R/G/B fields will enable you to directly type a value in, thus not limiting you to the 4 default palettes.

- Name editor (100 %)

* Improved design
* Added a panel for rapidly selecting enemies.
* The “default names” button is akin to the palette editor Reset button: it will restore the enemy’s original names from a backup folder.
* A total of 16 names are editable. The ones void by default are not used in the game unless the random name function is set (see options). SorMaker mods can use them all.
* Names can be 11 characters long, since longer names could overlap the “remaining lifebars” number for enemies that have it.
* The “save” checkbox shows which names have been edited. You can uncheck it to restore the original name of a specific position (the file saving is seamless).

- Menu changes
* Deleted Cheats. They were obsolete, there will be new ones.
* Deleted Unlocked secrets. Not needed because of the shop mode.
* Menu redesign concept. It’s neither an in-game shot nor final.

There is still a lot to do but this is the idea: simplifying the menu, grouping editors in a single option, moving minigames into another one and putting the movie theatre and stage select options into the main game modes (so now you will be able to choose a particular stage with a CPU partner, something not possible before because of the menu distribution).

News for Dec. 2nd, 2008
Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008

Halfway through this month the whole site will be down for a few days, we’ll be migrating to a new server. There are some news about the game development as well, even though we’ve not put much time into it in November:

1. Finish new palettes (98,5%)
- Seven new palettes added for the truck driver.
2. Fix bad v4 enemy rips (100%)
3. Replace old v4 enemy versions for their new ones (95%)
- Truck driver completed and put into the game

He does not only like to drink, because in case of handling a bottle he’ll use it to hit the players and stab them when it’s broken.
The truck driver is a work started by Valkyrie Ace and finished by Criss.
4. Create new files for new enemies (90 %)
5. Enemies miscellaneous tasks(100 %)
- Finished cuts and dismemberment. In the beginning they were going to have the severed body graphic only when flying, but in the end they will have it on the ground as well:

This is a sword cut, and the explosion type is an horizontal cut.
Both of them can be disabled using the “Blood Y/N” option. There are 16 enemies that can be cut.

6. Finish menu / interface (80 %)
New game options added:
- Weapon style
* SOR1: we can switch our weapons for the ones on the ground and we don’t lose them when holding an enemy.
* SOR2 (the one used in v4): we can switch our weapons for the ones on the ground but we drop them when holding an enemy.
* SOR3: we can’t switch our weapons for the ones on the ground (unless we push the punch+jump buttons) and we don’t lose them when holding an enemy. Weapons have durability bars.
(This option replaces the “Auto save Y/N” one, autosave will always be on now)

- Scoreboard style
* Time. The classic countdown you can see in SOR1 and SOR2.
* Combo. The special system from BKIII that lets us perform special attacks without a health penalty when the gauge bar is full or else get a health penalty based on the gauge level. I specifically say BKIII because the v5 system is based on the BKIII one, more strategic and demanding than the SOR3 one regarding the health penalties. The recharge times and gauge are exactly the same.

* Both. Being far-sighted I’m sure that a few people will want both systems to work at once. This option maximizes the strategic side because the gauge bar needs time to recharge whereas the countdown does not stop.

The combo system is not only present in the story mode, it will work in the minigames too:

(This option replaces the “Time Y/N” one)

- Jump style has been updated with:
* SOR1: the same as the SOR3 one but the player can turn around in mid-air.

New video options added:
- In “game speed” you can choose maximum, before it could only be unlocked with the “sorrspeed” cheat.
- In “graphics mode” the HQ2X, scanline and normal 2x filters have been added. They can be switched pressing the F1 to F5 keys.
- “Scenery shade” added, enables or disables the dynamic shade generated in some scenes. This option replaces the current “Scanlines Y/N” one, which is now merged into the “graphics mode” one.

New sound options added:
- “Ambiance sound” plays a new sound channel depending on the scene. For example, in the beach scenes you will hear the waves. It’s not just a fixed sound; it can be interactive, it can sound far or near, be unbalanced or cease to sound. Who’s never wondered about how would Electra sing in the SOR2 bar?
(This option volume is dependant of the SFX volume. This option replaces the “2D positional sound” which was something experimental)

- “Last breath”:
* SOR1/SOR3: when dying, the enemies scream in the moment they are hit for the last time. Some people say it gives more power to our hits and the enemies death.
* SOR2 (the v4 one): enemies scream when blinking/disappearing on the ground.
(This option replaces “Inverse stereo” since it’s dependant of “2D positional sound”)

- “Voice type”:
* SOR3: there are some differences between the SOR3 and BKIII voices, something that doesn’t happen in the previous games. This option will make use of the SOR3 voices only.
* BKIII: makes use of the BKIII voices only.
* Mix (as in v4): Mixes both of the previous options. Characters like Zan have a wider variety of voices.
(This option replaces “Sound engine” which was of little use)

This step is taking time to be completed, but no doubt it is one of the longest ones along with the next couple (finishing the player characters and enemies completely).

—

Scene selection redesign

This redesign was part of the 11th step, but I slipped in and got the work done in advance. Long story short, the scene names have been translated into Spanish and the scene selection is now dynamic so it can be put into SORMaker mods. A mod can have 8 stages spanning up to 16 scenes each, for a total of 128 possible different scenes.

Speaking about scenes, this is a new one from Kaleth.

(It’s based on the stage 1 from the Genesis/Megadrive Ninja Gaiden Beta)

News for Jan. 5th, 2009
Monday, January 5th, 2009

This is a small update to say that there will be several other updates this month, and maybe a new server change between the 13th and 15th if this server keeps going down.

Punch out!

You’ll have to keep an eye on SOR1 Signal since instead of hitting horizontally only he can hit vertically as well, as you can see in the above image.

1. Finish new palettes (98,9 %)
- 6 new palettes for SOR1 Bongo
- 4 new palettes for SOR1 Signal
2. Fix badly ripped v4 enemies (100 %)
3. Replace old v4 enemies (95 %)
- Antonio and Rudra still need to be completed
4. Create new files for the new enemies (100 %)
- SOR1 Bongo complete
- SOR1 Signal complete
5. Miscellaneous enemy tasks(100 %)
6. Finish menu / interface (82 %)
I guess this will be already finished for the next update.

Bugtrack updated with old recorded bugs now fixed or newfound ones
1. Executing the max speed cheat makes the countdown freeze (added).
2. Bug in throw moves. When hitting twice and then throwing the enemy, if the Zan/Skate/Max don’t execute the breathing animation afterwards the grappling hit counter is not reset, so grabbing an enemy again makes them execute the last hit instantly. (fixed)
3. Characters can burn while dying (fire, enemies). (fixed)
4. When finishing a stage, if enemies don’t leave the screen in time their shadows freeze on the ground. (fixed)
5. Scenery-cast shadows don’t work when choosing a shadow type other than reflected. (fixed)
6. Under specific conditions, bullets make enemies bounce in mid-air. (fixed)
7. Life drop when player characters hit each other in 2P and VS modes is excessive. (fixed)
8. When getting a weapon from the ground you can see a different name on the HUD. (fixed)
9. When Max grabs an enemy and jumps, the enemy is not positioned correctly at the beginning. (fixed)
10. When holding an enemy and jumping with Max, if you keep holding the jump button Max jumps again. (fixed)
11. Collision boxes issues with Max. (fixed)

12. When holding an enemy and jumping with Max at a screen border makes the enemies held permanently. (fixed)
13. When losing a life and knocking down all of the enemies they lose their weapons. (fixed)
14. You can’t grab a Galsia from behind when he’s holding a knife (he’s just annoying). (fixed)

News for Jan. 9th 2009 a.k.a. the Bugdate!
Thursday, January 8th, 2009

Another small update. I’ve been cleaning the code thoroughly since Monday, I still have to code a platform engine for cliffs and a hardness map for the collisions. The game will then be practically bug-free.

New implementations
1. When getting hit by any kind of object thrown by an enemy, the enemy’s name and lifebar will be shown. (added)
2. Support for incomplete lifebars. (added)

Any percentage works, v4 did only work with incomplete lifebars when the enemy had a single lifebar.

3. Any kind of enemy that can block in SorR will block pipe/pole/bat hits as well.

Fixed bugs
1. If you jump off the elevator and have no more lives the screen will turn black until you continue.
2. Jet’s entrance is ruined if you die and fall from above when he is appearing.
3. When electrocuting any Jet, they will keep electrocuting when if hit again.
4. Ash hits when jumping backwards.
5. If you get knocked down while holding an enemy, that enemy might stay held.

6. SOR2 Galsia/Donovan falling position on the elevator is not the same as in SOR2.
7. The lifebar is overflown sometimes.

. Enemies can turn even when they’re being hit.
9. A lack of collision resets affects some specific attacks like Bongo’s flame.
10. Thrown barrels or rolling tables don’t throw the player the correct way sometimes.
11. The life drop for being hit by a barrel or a table varies depending on the game status (disproportionate).
12. The B+down jump move hits players twice.
13. Some items are shown before its containers when they’re broken.
14. If you evade Gold/Silver/Bronz’s throw and move vertically they’ll move vertically as well even though they’re still crouched.
15. Zamza lands on his feet when thrown, unlike in SOR2.
16. Collision correction between thrown enemies and players.
17. Collision timing correction for thrown players.
18. Holding time for any kind of enemy that can break from holds (except Barbon) can be wrong under some conditions, specially if you grab them right when they fall from above.
19. Enemies’ shadow can be seen reflected in the air when thrown off a cliff.

News for Jan. 18th 2009 – Step 7 complete
Monday, January 19th, 2009

Another update, I couldn’t finish step 6 without finishing step 7 first because they’re somehow related.

All of the portraits finished: 53 custom ones plus SOR3 ones.
Added the SOR1 pause chime.

Select character screen updated



Characters ordered by game (SOR1/2/3).
Fixed some character attributes.
Pressing the police call button will swap between the different versions of a character (when possible). The arrow under the character portrait will show the possibility.

Dynamic menu management



Question mark boxes are out. The selection boxes are now centered on screen and only shown when the characters are available.
There are 6 buyable characters, for a total of 12 selection boxes.
Extra characters are positioned depending on when they are bought. If you don’t want a screen full of characters just buy the ones you like.
When choosing, the character will smile.

Game over option


This is just that simply wasn’t in SOR2. You can now finish the game from the continue menu.

Updated in-game character selection



Small redesign, more centered.
Pressing button A swaps palettes. Since they can be custom palettes a palette sign is needed.
Pressing the police call button changes the character version, shown in the portrait.

News for feb. 4th, 2009
Thursday, February 5th, 2009

Redesign of menu screen.
Image
The background it’s slightly modified, it might have extra changes, but overall it’s practically finished.
- Re-arranged and polished menu and sub-menu screens.
- The Stage Select is now embedded into the main menu, obviously won’t appear until it’s unlocked.
- Now able to select stage in player mode and CPU, something that couldn’t be done in v4 due of the menu’s disposition.

New controller menu.
Image
I’ve re-written all the mapping and controllers’ code.

- Buttons will be highlighted with its corresponding action while assigning keys.
- Added new support for 6 buttons (SOR3)
- The image from the “player 1″ side shows the controller currently used. In case of two connected controllers, the second controller will always be assigned to “player 2″.
- Now all the actions can be modified one by one. It’s not necessary to modify everything to change just one.
- The repeated buttons or keys now alternate to the former position (keys cannot be used twice).

Shop 99% done.
Need to obtain a couple of GFX, but it’s pretty much finished. No spoiler screenshot available.
- There is 34 items to buy.
- From the store, you can view the galleries and the cutscenes in the game.

STEP 15, MISCELANEOUS (75%)
While waiting for the shop’s GFXs, I’ve gone to another step related with the 6th. This step consists in improving CPU friend and in the following:

Cheats 100 %
With the v4′s cheat’s lack of success, 16 new cheats have been added taking over the old ones. The cheats in v5 are centered in specific things and in gameplay changes.
- They can be activated from the store menu once purchased, it’s not necessary to input the code in the logo screen.
- All the cheats can be accumulated. There can be 15 active cheats since there is a couple which are incompatible together. There could be some crazy effects.
- The cheats can be saved in the configuration. It’s not necessary to activate them every time.

Cheat 9 : ”All the katanas can be turned into Light Sabers”
Image

Special effects in the Light Saber:
- Specific sounds.
- Random cuts in the enemy.
- Attack damage increased over the original katana.

Name of the sound track 100%.
It will be added a txt with all the tracks’ names. At the beginning it was only for the menu, but can be renamed so it appears in the beginning of each stage in Story Mode. This feature can be moved by deleting the txt file.
Image
At the difference of the screenshot, if the same tune is played in between the change of stages, the text won’t be displayed.


New game modes (5%).
- Flags Mode is gone, substituted by Events Mode.
- Added a new secret game mode (both still unfinished).

STEP 8, CHARACTERS COMPLETED (5%)
Evidently, the step 15th woudn’t be completed without following my own order. This is one of the three major tasks to complete, which are characters, enemies and stages, in that order. The goals to achieve are:

1. Improve character files loading (100%)
2. Add/encode the new characters.
3. Add the whole functions of the 6 button configuration (SOR3).
4. Add new sprite animations.
5. Add special moves with stars (SOR3).
6. Add Team Attacks.
7. Improving collision boxes.
8. Enhance physics.
9. Revamp animations.
10. Correct sounds.
11. Optimize code.

News for Feb. 16th, 2009
Monday, February 16th, 2009

ONLINE
I didn’t have in mind to do this because the program structure was not thought to have it, but seeing that this last week’s progress and the last tests have been very favourable I can announce this new feature. Not everything is finished, I still have to work on the game synchronicity (just started it) and of course betatest it.


(running on the same computer, but I’ve tried it on different ones as well).

Its innards are quite simple, just a peer to peer connection. The following online options have been added to the game menu:

Server

A submenu will be shown to configurate the game. As you might guess the number of lives, difficulty level and game style will have to be the same on both ends. These options don’t affect the main game options and are persistent.
It’s mandatory to open the TCP/UDP port number 5394, in UNFILTERED mode to be able to establish a connection.



Client

In the mod folder there’ll be a text file:


If playing as client, we’ll just have to type the server IP in that file. Don’t mind the 5395 port in there, it’s used for same-computer connections (testing).
The client must connect after the server has been created, otherwise it possibly won’t connect or synchronize.

On both cases cheats will be disabled and the game will be forced to run at 60fps.
All of the SORMaker mods will be playable online.

STEP 8
While the character material is coming I have set myself to program the online code although I’ve completed some other tasks as well, specially organizing material, such as making the SOR3 6 button system work.

Sound

16 more sound channels added, totalling 24.
Now every voice has its own sound channel. That’s doesn’t only prevent voice overlapping, but if characters or enemies are hit while shouting they will STFU. In V4 it was too common to die while shouting GRAND UPPER!
Moreover, there are some ear-piercing sounds like electrocutions or explosions which will all sound through the same channel to prevent overlapping; no more broken ears. A common example is to fall from above after being killed and hear a loud BOOM when every enemy on screen falls to the ground at the same time; now it’s a cleaner sound.

News for Mar. 13th, 2009
Friday, March 13th, 2009

Step 8 (40 %)
I’ve been working on technical improvements for the last three weeks and that is a kind of work I can’t really show, but luckily I have other kind of content I can.

First of all get a sample of the remixes to come, courtesy of Groovemaster303:

- Beatnik on the Ship (WIP)
- Moon Beach
- Stealthy Steps (WIP)

Adam redesign:



He’s been improved both on detail level and movements, because many of them have been redrawn based on his SOR ones.

Motorbikes redesign:


The SOR3 bike is being used now. All of the poses have been changed, like a more natural way to seat, attacks, et al.

The whole roster of characters will have weapon special moves:



If you press the attack button again at the right time you’ll immediately perform another attack.

The whole roster of characters will have moves for the star system:


A step further from BKIII/SOR3, you’ll be able to choose between upgrading the current Forward+Forward+B move or just perform them using the X button.

The whole roster of characters will have team moves:


Taking all of the new things into account, the v4 material is approximately a 40% of what the v5 material is.

Quotes for the battle mode will be present:


This concept is one from before November 2008 and the actual or definitive one will be quite different, but you can see the general idea.

- BKIII/SOR3 has a total of 150 quotes. SORR might come to exceed 900 because of the much bigger player character roster and its combinations.
- Victory poses will be added, like in any fighting game.
* We are very grateful for the excellent work that Redcomet and his team did on the translation of BKIII.

9. Improve animations(75 %)
This is one of the most laborious things I’m doing. Animation does not only have to seem correct but be exact, since the sprites are designed to have specific offsets. The feet position, the gravity center and even the sprite perspective are the things to fiddle with here, as well as getting the original animation timings.
Every character takes about 3 hours of work, so as you might guess just a bunch of the animations from v4 were exact. Did they look good in v4? They will look better now.

News for April 21st, 2009
Tuesday, April 21st, 2009

STEP 8 (70 %)
And here it is, a new update packed with new features. Like in the last one we start with remixes, Moon and The Poets II from Groovemaster303 and Shinobi Reverse from Duke1401, which you might have listened to already if you are a forum regular.

- Moon
- Poets II
- Shinobi reverse


Shiva shows his new animation for weapon attacks.


Thought Electra had enough with just her whip? Then imagine a combat system with 2 weapons at once.

Collision boxes


I’ve used the original hit effects from SOR, so we can clearly see where the hit comes from. Every hit is now located right. Both SOR2 and SOR3 use different collision systems, but I decided to base the v5 one on the SOR2 only for all of the characters because it’s a more refined system; the hit location can be different in every frame, so for example Max hits with his head when rolling forward.

Fix sound effects
Hit SFX have been added/fixed for every move of every character. Moreover, there is a bug in SOR3 that cancels the special moves SFX, but these sounds do exist and will be there in v5.

SOR3 weapon system


One of the new features from SOR3/BKIII was the chance of breaking a weapon. Every weapon in particular had a different name and a different endurance bar, so this has been added to the SOR3 weapon system. The new features for v5 are:

The weapons will only wear down when hitting something. Originally they would wear down when performing a special move without hitting anything as well.
Grenades in SOR3 mode can now explode in your hands, because their lifebar will drain automatically as a countdown.
The guns usefulness has been improved: the number of bullets left will show up on screen, the bazooka will have now 3 missiles and the rifle will have more ammo.

* One of the cheats will allow to use the SOR3 weapon system without wearing them down.

SOR2 score system
The score we’ll get will match the SOR2 original one for all of the characters, so to get an extra life we’ll have to kill the same number of enemies.

BATTLE MODE QUOTES (BKIII)


There was a design concept on the last update, this is the final one.
There will be new quotes for every character combination possible, but in this screenshot original ones from BKIII are shown.

STATS GRID


There was too much info to show everything on a single screen, so after pressing a button on the quote screen this grid will be shown. In this case I chose to bring both Shivas face to face so you can see the portraits on the stats grid are dynamic too, they change depending on the character version we play. Empty boxes appear to keep the design complete even though we have no characters to fill them with yet; the order for the portraits will be the buy order as in the select screen.
Unlike in v4, the screen will remain until a button is pressed.

MISCELLANEOUS


Since new functions have been added, a new menu was needed to handle them all:

Game title (Streets of Rage / Bare Knuckle)
It’s a nod to the original version. It will change the logo and specific details.
Song titles (Yes / No)
In a previous update I said that to show them in-game we had to change the name of a file, but we won’t need to do that thanks to this option.
Stage opening
* SOR: does a screen fade like the one in SOR2 and 3.
* Theatre: the one in v4.
* Lines: another screen fade graphics effect.
* Fast fade: a faster effect to speed the transition between stages up.
Stage destruction (Yes / No)
Explosions can damage the scenery with this option on. We might take into account that, in some places of the game, parts of the screen might be destroyed, or even the ground might be destroyed to fall off to another floor, but those are scripted events and won’t be missed if this option is disabled.
Star system moves
* B button: the Forward+Forward+B attack is replaced.
* X button: this option is for people who want the basic attack to stay in the Forward+Forward+B. In this case, Forward+Forward+X will execute the upgraded move in case we have any star, otherwise the character will do nothing.
(This option will replace the language selection one in the screen, which has been moved).

News for June 3rd. 2009
Friday, June 5th, 2009

I decided to keep working on unfinished tasks so there will be varied updates. Here goes the summary:

Route map for V5 (80%)
Stages are being rearranged. Many of them are changing place, shape and connections. There are 2 main interconnected routes, with fork which can become new sub-routes. I hope to get twice the stages I had with v4.

On top of new stages, there’s a plan to update scenes:

(Stage4-1 Sor2)

But it’s not all about changing scenes but also adding new effects and details which were not present in the original ones:

The sun blinds when it’s uncovered by the scenery (this scene still has to be improved).

Cutscene viewer (100%)

The old menu has been redesigned and a new tab for watching the cutscenes grouped by stage has been added.

Palette editor (100%)

A button for choosing the different versions of a character has been added. There are new palettes for characters too, being more complex and based on alternative palettes from SOR2, SOR3 and BKIII.

Improved hit boxes

As expected, collisions are being improved for both characters and enemies.

Logo change option (not finished)


The game logo can be changed on Miscellaneous option (the SOR logo will be the default one).
Some little details will change as well, such as the window name.

Store points count (99%)


Points are based on collecting certain items during the game.
There bonus and penalties based on some factors, such as using the stage selector.

Other improvements and bugfixes
1. If you hit an enemy the moment it lands from a jump it slides before flying backwards (fixed).
2. After using a continue with the start button, the game pauses if the button is kept pressed (fixed).
3. Characters falling off a precipice are shown above the talk boxes (fixed).
4. CPU partner can choose whether continuing or not (absurd AI), and it can choose palettes or versions (added).
5. When an enemy is thrown off a precipice and its healthbar is shown, if you jump you get slowed down (fixed).
6. The ESC key was kept pressed when keeping it pressed in the menu (Note from translator: what?) (fixed).
7. When loading a savestate of a gamepad-played game and not finding any gamepad, the game shows an alert (added).
8. Better fades: game over, demo mode, etc (added).
9. Enemies can’t hit you while you are sneexing (added).
10. When you are thrown shots can hit you (fixed).
11. You can pause the game in the stage clear message (fixed).
12. Enemies are now unharmed by their own throws (added).
13. If a character finished the stage while dying without having time to respawn, it will reappear just to die instantly (fixed).
14. The revenge menu in the battle mode could be paused, resulting in you controlling two menus at once (fixed).
15. Objects like trash cans break when the stage boss dies (fixed).
16. Bug in the fading of the select character screen (fixed).
17. Objects sync in vertical scroll improved (added).
18. With the no SOR3 items mode activated, if there is food and a weapon at the same place you might end getting up the weapon before the food (added).
19. When a biker is knocked down offscreen its bike doesn’t come into the screen (fixed).
20. Bikes sliding out of the screen don’t explode (fixed).
21. Grenades that rebound against a wall/object don’t explode and can be picked up again (fixed).
22. The menu remembers the last positions in every submenu, making navigation faster (added).
23. Bug concerning the versus select character screen (fixed).
24. Added weapon reflexes on the ground (not shadows) (added).
25. Enemies that laugh when the played dies get knocked down when the player respawns without finishing the animation (fixed).
26. Bug concerning the AI outside the story mode (fixed).
27. Added support for more enemy names than the default ones (when typing new ones in the name editor) (added).
28. Added a block in the stage selector, now you have to visit them before being able to select them (added).

29. Added filters and graphic modes in the initial configuration menu (added)

30. If there’s an earthquake when the stage clear message is going to be shown, the screen elements might get out of the screen (fixed).
31. If a ninja jumps and goes out of the screen before throwing shurikens they don’t appear (fixed).
32. When you continue you can choose locked palettes (fixed).
33. When continuing, the last selected character will be shown instead of the favourite one, which will be used for the select character screen (added).
34. Improved the way in which characters go out of the screen when they don’t have to go to a specific spot (added).
35. When entering a scene you can now see how the lifebar fills up from scratch as in the original games (added).
36. If you hit a container object on the screen limit, its item might disappear (fixed).

From now on, the blog updates will consist of monthly compilations.

News for Jun. 24th, 2009
Wednesday, June 24th, 2009

Almost as usual here’s a new remixes sampler, this time from Gecko Yamori. Rather than remixes, they are new tracks inspired on the following:

Cycle I
Attack the Barbarian (beta)
Wave 131

Newly added/redesigned stages

(SOR3 Shrine)


(SOR1 Factory)


(SOR3 Shrine outside)


(This one was the last scene lacking to complete the SOR2 route)


(City Hall from SOR3, might be a completely different place in v5)


(SOR1 Inner City)


(Some changes and a dynamic screen on the background)

I’ll show some videos from time to time, since the game is taking shape and I can show more advanced things already, but don’t expect too many spoilers.

Full screen rotation on the pirate ship:

(The angle has been corrected, now emulating a real funfair boat)

A sample of the most complex SOR3 stage (not complete yet):


Added a free movement camera.
Added a scroll lock.
Added support for several floors on a single stage.
Objects are kept in memory when going in and out of rooms.
The camera has been improved for slow movement.

News for July 29th, 2009
Tuesday, July 28th, 2009

New lot of remixes. This time they’re 3 new remixes by Duke1401. They’re still in WIP state:

In the Bar
Expander
My Little Baby

Working on characters


This video basically shows the level of character recreation for the next version. It doesn’t try to show something exact or synchronized but the level of fidelity, because they’re different apps that respond differently to input.

Besides recreating all of the original moves, there will be new ones as well:

Max powerbomb

SOR3 sunset



Colours are swapped very fast in the example. The game will show it slower and smoother.
There are no predefined palettes. A time of the day is assigned and the colours adapt to it (it could be used for battle mode rounds).
Still WIP. I have to add more colour variety and fix some strange ones, like those at the end of the video.

GP2X WIZ port done

First of all I want to thank Gamepark Holdings for sending me a console to make this happen.

Although the game already works, the port will have the 2P code erased and the rest optimized to work at full 60fps, use of the touch screen for the palette editor et al.

The Wiz

News for Sept. 15th, 2009
Tuesday, September 15th, 2009

CHARACTERS

There are still 5 characters to be completed. 2 of them are quite advanced, like Adam here batting Big-Ben.

ENEMIES

Characters and enemies are two of the basic pillars for the game. While I get the rest of the material to finish the characters this will be the bulk of the next updates.

SCENES

At the same time we’re working on remaking some stages, so there’s no point on using the step list anymore since everything is being worked simultaneously.
New scroll planes and different textures have been added to the stage, but I don’t discard making some changes (JPG blurs the image a bit).

PROFILES

Every playable character will have a profile. Characters without portraits will have now their own personal ones just like Shiva here. (The info shown in the image is WIP).

IMPLEMENTATIONS AND CORRECTIONS

+ Vsync added.
+ “Collision type” option added:

Sor2 : Hits are shown wherever the character collision box is.
Sor3 : Hits are shown on the clash point between two characters.
Pixel : Hits work like in SOR3 and collisions work at pixel-level precision.
(although this last option is more realistic it can affect gameplay, since SOR is based on collision boxes that don’t have to necessarily be in contact with the player).

** We’re studying the way to add 16:9 and 3x zoom support.

Complete list of corrections :
1. Menu scroll bug after playing a game and going back to the menu. (fixed)
2. Having Caps Lock on won’t let you type in the profile editor. (fixed)
3. The enemy lifebar doesn’t show up when that enemy burns you. (fixed)
4. A stage selected with the stage selection cheat is left marked if you go back to the menu and choose any other game mode. (fixed)
5. Improved the position for some holds in fast moves. (+)
6. Barrels on the conveyor belt could be passed through. (fixed)
7. Debugging holds on the conveyor belts. (done)
8. SOR1/2 characters will be able to do the → + A special move while holding an enemy. (+)
9. Walking over an item when there’s a nearby enemy, pressing the attack button will make the player attack the enemy instead of stopping to get the item. (+)
10. Even when you die there could be enemy lifebars on your scoreboard (specially because of cheats). (fixed).
11. When there are bikers and a player loses a continue, those die one after another. (fixed)
12. When a player holds a weapon in SOR3 mode and is thrown by another player, the weapon will appear sticked on the fall (TN. What?). (fixed)
13. You can pause a battle before the Round 1 Start message appears, but the proper message doesn’t pause. (fixed)
14. Firearms counter blinks when there are no bullets left. (fixed)
15. Like in SOR3, characters leave their weapons before going to a new stage. It’s not available in the SOR2 weapons mode or if there’s a cheat activated. (+)
16. Different flying heights for enemies after being hit are not used when they die. (fixed)
17. Characters don’t have different fall height levels when another character hits them. (fixed)
18. Player 2 in volleyball mode never ran out of hits. (fixed)
19. Added momentum for the SOR3 jump type. If a character doesn’t run sufficiently the momentum will be reduced. (fixed)
20. Added lag when Y is pressed so the player can’t spam the combo finishing move (like in SOR3). (+)
21. Several bugs on Bongo’s flame. (fixed)
22. Added a recovery time span after a fall, where the character can’t be hit or held (SOR3). (+)
23. Same walking and running speed as in the original games. (+)
24. Only SOR3 Axel can throw a knife while walking. (+)
25. Characters can enter a stage running now (SOR3). (+)
26. Removed the stage’s initial lag, where characters didn’t react for an moment. (+)
27. Enemies have a strange way to hit characters in the air. (fixed)
28. There were some death bugs that caused a Time Over. (fixed)

Sat Sep 19, 2009 4:12 am
ENEMIES (9/64)
Enemy code has been cleaned along with a bunch of fixes, including original timings, values..
* Custom recovery time for every enemy
* Custom sounds for every hit
* New physics for all the jumps
* Added new vault/grab/throw system
* Attack activation (ex: Slum kick not frequent on first stages)

Garnet & Soozie

- Added Soozie
- Improved animation
- Accurate AI reaction
- Fixed damage values (specially multi-slap)
- Added missing slap
- Added multiple idle poses
- Can jump on different areas of the screen

Bronz / Silver / Gold

- Improved animation
- New behaviour added
- Fixed throw

Electra Sor3 / Bk3

- Improved animation
- Added Slum kick breaker
- Added front / back Vice grabs
- Added basic combo
- Accurate AI reaction

Fri Sep 25, 2009 3:20 am
ENEMIES (20/64)
- More code cleaned, new things added.

Signals

Signal bk3
- Original timings and values from bk3
- All the moves added
- Accurate AI

Signal sor1 (missing on the pic)
- Damage values based on sor2 version.
- Throw, front attack, slide actions.

Signal sor2
- Fixed timings
- Improved align on the throws
- Fixed different attacks based on distance

Galvice & Cody & Ninjo

Galvice
- Improved animation
- Added front / back grab attacks
- Added new sounds
- Improved range of attacks

Cody
- Added new combo
- Improved animation

Ninjo
- Improved animation
- Improved range of attacks
- Jump smooth

Electra sor2 & Nora

Nora
- Multiple actions added : sneak attack, fake dead, 2 different whip attacks, jump attack

Electra sor2
- Added missing frames on whip attacks
- Improved singing intro with separated sprites (microphone/clothes)
- Improved collisions, whip can hit several times

Tiger & Hakuyo

Tiger
- Improved animation
- Added missing frames
- Added missing sounds
- Added missing jump
- Fixed combo attacks
- Improved AI behaviour

Hakuyo
- Improved animation
- Improved combo attacks
- Improved AI reaction

Seeker

- Jump around the char moving Z axis
- Explodes when hit, could damage a big Z area
- Produces chain explosion when more Seekers are close