The blog of EagleSoft Ltd!
At EagleSoft Labs, I post about the development of my various retro homebrew and video game mods, Indie video game projects, software, and electronics. I also review software, and post about other geeky/nerdy stuff.
Homebrew development for the Sega Genesis port of Ultra Air Hockey begins!
Only a few months later after the original, PC version of Ultra Air Hockey was released in April, and development for the Sega Genesis/Sega CD ports of Ultra Air Hockey has already begun! The Sega Genesis port of the game is being written with BasiEgaXorz, a TinyBASIC compiler for the Sega Genesis/CD/32x. Graphics are being converted into the tile-based format that the Sega Genesis, music has been converted to the Echo Stream format, for use with the Echo Sound Engine, and sound effects are DAC converted versions of their .wav counterparts from the original/definitive PC version.
So far, everything but the game play itself has been coded, and even then, there are some bugs to fix. Below is a video of progress so far, and a video of a test ROM showing the Echo Sound Engine in action. Game play should be coded within the following months, hopefully to be completed by the end of summer.
No, it is not dead yet; Sonic CD Breakout is still in development!
The previous demo release of this fangame, Sonic CD Breakout, occurred almost half a year ago during the Christmas 2013 season. (If you have never heard about my fangame, go check it out here.) Due to real-life responsibilties (including university life, a job, professional development as a future software engineer/video game designer, and other things), development has slowed with Sonic CD Breakout. However, development has not halted altogether!
Sporadically, within the past half year, I have been worked on optimizing the game, and have been working on 2 new rounds: Desert Dazzle Zone (DDZ), and Quartz Quadrant Zone (QQZ). The former is a fan implementation of a scraped level from the 2011 remake of Sonic CD, which was supposed to replace the scrapped Round 2 level from the original 1993 Sega CD version of Sonic CD. In the fangame, I used some fan art from others to make fan created past, good future, and bad future versions of DDZ. The past timezone is based upon an island level, the present based upon Dust Hill Zone from Sonic 2 Beta, the bad future timezone based upon a railroad zone, and the good future based upon an osasis zone. Enemies and the boss from the Desert Dazzle Zone are used in the levels too. (People with fanart to be properly credited in the Demo #3 release)
Past timezone artwork source
(From a Sonic hack)
Present timezone artwork source
(From Esrael's Sonic 2 Delta hacks, based on scrapped Dust Hill Zone from Sonic 2 Beta)
Bad Future timezone artwork source
(Sunset Park Zone 16-bit remake art)
Good Future timezone artwork source
Enemies and Boss
The latter is a standard Sonic CD Level, and futures most of the enemies and gimmicks from the original zone.
Also in development are a fan recreation of the Sonic CD Beta Special Stages, which appear to be based upon the Sonic 1 Special stage concept, with layers that can be traversed, similar to the Knuckles Chaotix bonus stage levels. I designed the special stage levels to be like stationary Sonic 1 special stages (even some of its ripped art), but with bricks that let the player go up or down a layer.
Currently, only the 1st acts of DDZ and QQZ are created, and only a training special stage level is made (for the Training Zone). These levels can be seen in action in the video below. I plan on releasing what I have as Demo #3 for Act 2 of the Sonic Amateur Games Expo (SAGE) 2014.
Stay tuned for more development previews for Sonic CD Breakout summer 2014!
At the beginning of the month of May 2014, EagleSoft Ltd was temporarily closed for renovations. After approximately a week and a half of deliberation and work, acolleague and fellow Eagle Scout (Grant Miller II) and I redesigned the layout and looks of this website, so that it could look presentable and professional as my software engineering portfolio website. We added a set of tabs to the top of the page for site navigation, added featured projects to the home page, and reorganized the files of the website.
Enjoy the new website, and stay tuned for upcoming projects! We plan on soon performing any aesthetical, content, and layout changes for this blog soon, maybe during the month of July 2014.
Finally, with a lot of leisure time available and very little university/real life responsibilities to deal with (other than one uni class and a part-time job), I need to renovate EagleSoft Ltd, and, eventually, its corresponding blog (EagleSoft Labs).
Why? For the following reasons:
I am going Indie, and EagleSoft Ltd, & EagleSoft Labs need to look simple, yet professional! (Something along the lines of spaddlewit.com)
I need to get out of the hobbyist mental attitude, and begin gaining professional experience for personal/future employment reasons.
Planning for Android development, especially for porting Ultra Air Hockey!
A few university friends and I are working on creating a newer, professional, brand image for Eaglesoft Ltd. Renovations may be complete by the end of June. Sorry for the inconvenience; however, I hope you will return once the changes are finished! Thank you.
