The First Rule of Criticism

As a denizen of forums such as Sonic Retro, I am no stranger to seeing amateur (though often extremely talented) game designers, artists, musicians, and storytellers post a work-in-progress - with or without an explicit request for critique - which is then quickly followed by wildly varying and often contradictory feedback.

One such example is the Sonic Fan Remix project, which garnered comments that ranged from 'OMG! So much better than Sonic 4!' to 'Ugh, Sonic 4 is better than this.' You'd be hard pressed to find a broader spectrum, considering that the project managed to straddle the yawning chasm that divides the extremes of opinion on Sonic 4.

So what is one to do? Surely one cannot please everyone, not amidst calls of 'keep everything but X' and 'I like X but nothing else'. Short of mass brainwashing, getting everyone to agree is an insoluable problem.

It is tempting, then, to develop the attitude that it's all so much blather, don mirrorshades, and ignore criticism. However this isn't altogether helpful, because it is not uncommon for some criticism to be very useful. Clearly, one must heed some of it and discard the rest, and this is the standard practice.

But how does one determine the utile from the futile? Most creators have long since developed an intuition about criticism, and feel their way through feedback, managing just fine. But - as with most intuitions - when the brain is feeling stubborn that day and fails to provide a ready-cooked response like 'This guy's complaint is bullshit!', one can be set adrift with no clear path to resolving the anxiety a particular criticism has set abubble.

When intuitions fail us, rules - rote systems, invulnerable to the pitchings of mood - come to the rescue. And I have a rule, a deceptively simple one, but one which has proved its worth to me many times. I call it 'The First Rule of Criticism.' It has come in particularly useful to me, because my core personality is a volatile and unfortunate mix of extremely egotistical ('Holy crap, I just came up with the best thing ever! I rule!') and extremely empathetic ('I can see exactly why they hate this, even though I love it... what should I do?').

The rule is this: 'Only take criticism that you agree with.' It seems simple - obvious even - and that's probably because it's been intuition all along. But once it's a rule, you can rely on it to pull you out of nuanced situations that intuition fails to navigate.

But why should this rule be? What makes you the ultimate arbiter of right and wrong? Isn't the very nature of criticism someone disagreeing with you?

Well, no. It's not. And here's why: There's no objective truth when it comes to art. You can dig and dig, and you will never find one. Like, never. I meant it; you can put the shovel away.

And this isn't just some metaphysical relativistic mumbo jumbo philosophy that I'm asserting because I believe in it really hard, because I want everyone to be equal and happy. No, it's a physical reality.

Leaving aside that no one can even seem to define what art is for a moment (which is a whole other discussion) let's consider art to be 'a form of communication for which the primary purpose is the elicitation of emotions'. (You can contrast this with education, propaganda, and the many other forms of communication and find that it's a pretty solid definition.) And the reality is that different individuals have different emotional responses from the same stimulus. It's a fact about our brains; beyond our shared humanity and the mutable, transient whorls of culture, we have almost nothing in common. I'm the only member of my family that likes Jazz music, for example... and surely some of you have friends who either love Dubstep or are driven by it to grievously harm themselves or others.

So why make art if the demons that drive you are potentially shadows and smoke to everyone else? Well, the first reason that comes to mind is that - for most artists - they have to. It's not up for discussion. But for me the best reason is that art is both the best way to explore and understand one's own psyche and passions, and to connect with those who have been shaped in such a way as that they are resonant with yours. Art is, after all, a form of communication, and without it you may never discover those who truly understand you.

This is perhaps why there are "fandoms", communities that form around pieces of art and entertainment, with fiercely guarded borders. They are no mere casual alliance - they are a deep identity.

Ergo the rule: 'Only take criticism that you agree with.' Art is not about reaching the most people, it's about reaching the right people - and the first and most important person that fits that definition is you.

So I will leave you with a finer point on the rule, to help put it into practice: When you are confronted with a criticism, e.g. 'I hate the way your character is dressed', the natural response is to view it as a problem to be solved. How do I make this problem go away? (for me, this is almost pathological - as a programmer, I see every bad thing as a bug to be squashed). But that, to reiterate, is a poor response - it will only generate anxiety as you come against an insuperable wall with the lyrics of Rick Nelson's 'Garden Party' grafittied on it. The correct response is to ask yourself, 'has this criticism identified an actual problem that I have with my art, and has it given me any helpful insight for resolving it?'

If the answer is no, then it's time for the mirrorshades.

Cool Game Music

The conversation around classic video game music often centres around the usual suspects, for example the big names who were involved with the Japanese video game industry. But I like to be a little more [puts on shades]... eclectic.

Years ago a chance encounter with a demo of Shakii the Wolf got me interested in its composer, who I now know to be a member of D.A.C team, the providers of music for many DOS games out of South Korea.

In the interest of sharing my enthusiasm for these obscure but great tunes, here are links to the OSTs for a pair of those games that I ripped myself.

Illusion Blaze, a sidescrolling shmup:

Pee & Gity Special, a sidescrolling brawler:

(I may be one of the only legitimate YouTube accounts that has a dozen videos with "pee" in the title...)

There will be more forthcoming as time permits. Enjoy!

2012 Sonic Hacking Contest Reviews

I was privileged to be a judge for the 2012 Sonic Hacking Contest. Now that the official results are in, here are my personal reviews of the submissions. You can read more about them, and download the public ones, here.

Note: This is the first year that I was able to play any 3D hacks, thanks to my new laptop, but I don't feel like reviewing them. I just don't have that much to say about 3D Sonic gameplay, as it barely interests me.

Four Fantastic Adventures

Amongst this year's crop of Hacking Contest submissions, these in particular stood out.

Sonic ERaZor

Hack of Sonic 1 by Selbi

I really warmed to Sonic ERaZor last year, and this year I like it more than ever.

Finally, all of the levels from Sonic 1 are represented in some way, each more twisted than the last, rounding out the experience so that it feels like a whole game and not a work in progress. The new tutorial shows you the ropes, neatly sidestepping any confusion the unique mechanics may have caused - and the quirkily written textboxes that impart the pearls of wisdom are an impressive programming feat in themselves.

The inclusion of a second special stage has me extremely happy, since the first was easily my favourite part of ERaZor last year. The challenge was satisfyingly brutal (yet fair enough I eschewed savestates) and the concept for the stage was novel - not just more of the same gameplay from the first. It couldn't be better.

In addition to how fun the game is, there are also a couple secrets to be sought, making the replay value not insignificant. In sum, it's one of my favourite hacks not just in the competition, but of all time. Verdict: Way Past Cool!

You can also read my review of last year's build.

Sonic 2 Recreation

Hack of Sonic 2 by redhotsonic

At first I found the title a little ambiguous, but once I saw the hack in action it made sense; Sonic 2 is being used as a base for a brand new adventure that bears very little resemblance to the original. In fact it's more stylistically similar to the handheld Dimps titles than the classics - though thankfully not in any bad way.

You'll start in Portal Zone, which contains entrances to zones and an options menu in a way reminiscent of Sonic Advance 3. You can choose to play as Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles in a variety of combinations, as well as Redhotsonic (a red version of Sonic who's significance is best known to the creator of this hack, but is not really that interesting).

There are four zones in this build, all of which are laid out really well and are fun to play. The bosses are a mix of interesting twists on Sonic 2 bosses and original ideas, both implemented impeccably. The final zone, Chaos Angel, is a paean to its namesake from Sonic Advance 3, complete with the harrowing automatic platform ride. It's far more fun here with the classic physics than the borked Advance 3 engine, I must say.

But it's more than just a solid core. There's also a tasty shell of cool features, like sound distortion when underwater, and the ability to cancel Tails' flight in a manner similar to Cream's aerial mechanics in Advance 2. Thematically, the hack is not as tight as I would like, but it shows huge potential. With the talent on show in this build I have confidence in its future. Verdict: Way Past Cool!

Sonic Classic Heroes

Hack of Sonic 1 / Sonic 2 by flamewing

Previously known as Sonic 2 Heroes, Sonic Classic Heroes wasn't renamed for a trivial reason - now all the zones from Sonic 1 and Sonic 2 are present in one mega-adventure with Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles racing through them together as "Team Sonic".

This hack is about far more than just having all three characters at the same time, however. Since you can switch between them, it's basically like having "Knuckles in Sonic 1" and "Tails in Sonic 1" hacks together, plus so much more. Everybody's signature moves are present, as are the three elemental shields from Sonic 3 - and even the Golden Shield, complete with homing attack when Sonic wears it.

What's more, both Sonic 1 and Sonic 2's special stages are present, each accessible from any zone using the methods of entry from their respective games. (The Sonic 1 stages award you Chaos Emeralds; the Sonic 2 stages, Sol Emeralds.) It adds an interesting new level of strategy to save up 50 rings for Lampposts in Sonic 1 zones, since I'm used to the comparatively easier task of saving them for the end of the entire level.

(On a side note, I always get a little thrill whenever I notice a hack has applied this fix I popularised, especially a hack I like and respect; not necessarily because my code was used, but because it means the creator and I are on a similar wavelength when it comes to Sonic gameplay.)

Collecting the numerous emeralds allows you to become Super Team Sonic, and Hyper Team Sonic, turning the screen into a psychedelic free-for-all of sparkling, flashing Mobians and Flickies. It's a sight to behold, and you almost feel sorry for Robotnik when the boss fights come around.

In addition to the cornucopia of features above, there's a cavalcade of tiny fixes, improvements, and other niceties. For example, Robotnik in Chemical Plant Zone now drops Mega Muck on himself when struck a blow, and the little animals in Sky Chase now sport parachutes. There's also a nice surprise tying Sonic 1 and 2 together after Scrap Brain Zone.

As is to be expected in a hack with the sheer volume of changes that Sonic Classic Heroes boasts, there are a few minor glitches but nothing that takes away from the enjoyment of this must-have experience. I think it will go down in the annals of hacking history as one of the greats. Verdict: Way Past Cool!

You can also read my review of last year's build.

Sonic 1 Megahack: Ultra Edition

Hack of Sonic 1 by vladikcomper

This hack is a mixed bag. At first you're presented with ghastly n00b palettes, and the same old Green Hill Act 1, albeit with a homing attack. But when you reach the end of the act, you meet a brilliant, challenging boss. And then the process repeats - barely modified acts punctuated by some of the best boss fights ever in a hack, filled with humour and wacky gimmicks.

The overall experience is very short, since the zones have been reduced to one act in length. Honestly, I felt even this was too long - I think it should have just been a boss rush.

Despite the unevenness and weird choices, though, I really took a liking to it. It had Sonic doing some of the weirdest things he's ever done in a hack outside Sonic ERaZor, and it was brilliant. It feels good to be surprised by fresh and interesting challenges in a hack. Verdict: Way Past Cool!

Five Godawful Heaps

This year there are fully five atrocious hacks, most of which appear to have been submitted with the express intention of nabbing the Big Trophy (for worst hack submitted). At least, I hope that was what motivated these entries. If any of them was in earnest, I would have to feel a deep shame for their creators.

Even in jest, however, these entries still manage to be embarrassing. At this point it just isn't funny anymore, especially considering the number submitted. Such a joke was barely funny the first time, and it is only diminished with repetition.

I'm starting to think that even having the Big Trophy in the contest is a mistake - it only seems to encourage this kind of behaviour, leading to competition amongst some hackers to see who can vandalise Sonic 1 the most severely. It's my assertion that this is only unhealthy, and aside from irritating judges it also possibly devalues the artform as a whole.

I think there should be a "no intentionally bad hacks" rule to go along with the "no simple palette hacks" rule; but since that has not (yet...?) been implemented I'm duty-bound to nominate one of these sorry articles for the Big Trophy.

Sonic's Grand Adventure

Hack of Sonic 1 by Ravenfreak

Ravenfreak is a talented hacker, having distinguished herself with some impressive modifications of and research into the 8-bit Sonic titles, and is also a fellow Tech Member at Sonic Retro - so, honestly, I'm a little disappointed in her submission.

Sonic's Grand Adventure is essentially a molestation of Sonic 1, offering borked controls, palettes, music, text, and well, everything, really. To be perfectly fair, there are a few changes that got a chuckle from me, despite my impatience with the joke: "Spring Tard", "Tard Light", and "Crapy Brain" Zones, as well as upsidedown text in the HUD.

It's not worth a playthrough unless one is heavily masochistic, and it's not even as incisive a parody of n00b hacks as it could be. I really expected better. Verdict: Pass!

Ashura in Sonic 1 (2002)

Hack of Sonic 1 by Sonic Kid (Sotic Team)

From experience, I've learned to be wary of anything associated with Ashura. This hack only reinforced that habit.

Technically, there are a few other modifications (to simple things such as the music/level pairings and the text) but this is ultimately little more than a palette hack, meaning it barely qualifies to be a contender in the contest at all.

It's not so-bad-it's-funny, or even technically clever, for instance by incorporating bits of the Ashura phenomenon in interesting ways. I'd say it's a waste of time for everybody involved. Verdict: Pass!

Sonic BUGS

Hack of Sonic 1 by GreenSnake

Sonic BUGS appears to have - at least - some kind of theme. It's as if every possible bug the game could have is present simultaneously: the Sonic object fails to collide properly; the wrong amount of Rings awards an extra life; there is egregious lag when Sonic gets hit; Sonic won't even die when he falls off the screen.

This fails to be interesting, however, considering the end result is just another "purposefully bad hack". It took extremely little if any talent or creativity to create, and I would probably even take offense at its very existence but it's not worth the effort since hacking is all in good fun, anyway. Verdict: Pass!

Sonic the Sleeper in: The Nostalgia Dreams

Hack of Sonic 1 by Joseakadaman

Practically making my point for me, this hack is barely distinguishable from the one before it - judging from screenshots, anyway.

I had higher hopes for it due to the intriguing title, so I actually felt angry that it was yet another attempt to troll the judges. My capacity for charity is only so great - Verdict: Pass!

Gumball the Cat

Hack of Sonic 1 by cthboy

(I would show off images of levels other than Green Hill, but it's just so perfect for illustrating the truly bad palettes these people come up with, as it's usually the first level that's the most heavily modified.)

Judging by the earnest imperative to "have fun!" in the readme, and the fact that this is a character hack replacing Sonic with Gumball Watterson from the popular children's cartoon The Amazing World of Gumball, I guessed this might have actually been a kid's honest attempt to hack Sonic 1. A cursory Google of the creator's name basically confirms this.

Call me heartless, but it is partly for this reason that I think this is the worst of the worst submissions this year. It's also because it's truly awful, and so terribly incomplete that even using the word "incomplete" feels like employing a euphemism.

Seriously, you can play vanilla Sonic 1 while squinting and pretend any cat you fancy is running through the levels and it would still be a more polished experience than this. Verdict: Pass!

And The Rest...

Not necessarily the least, however. There are some really good (and really bad) hacks yet.

Flickies' Island Defense

Original Sega CD game by bgvanbur

Flickies' Island Defense isn't a hack of any game in particular, but a homebrew game for the Sega CD in its proof-of-concept stage. Posed as a rudimentary tower defense game, the gameplay isn't terribly exciting, but the dedication necessary to implement even such simple mechanics is impressive.

In the end, though, I wish that the same effort had manifested in a faster, more enjoyable style of play, even with the same level of simplicity. It's only a few extra bytes of RAM and lines of ASM that separate a static point-and-click interface and a field of more dynamic, action-oriented objects. So while I respect the technical achievement, there's nothing here to satisfy the gamer part of me. That's an important part of hacks, too. Verdict: Okay.

Sonic 1 CD Special Stage Edition

Hack of Sonic 1 by MarkeyJester

This is a proof-of-concept hack, and the concept being proven is having Sonic CD style special stages in Sonic 1, running without the need for the Sega CD at all.

Collect 50 Rings, jump into the stars that appear over a Lamppost (the only other change in the hack) and you'll be transported to a slightly slower, lower res version of one of the Sonic CD special stages, replete with UFO's, time-sucking water, and those annoying bouncing bumper walls.

From what little I know of hacking Sonic CD from my brief excursion into manually disassembling it, porting the special stage would be no mean feat. But this isn't merely a copy and paste job - MarkeyJester has created the necessary 3D effect from the ground up in order to recreate the stages. You can get a window into his process from his explanation.

I am extremely impressed with this, both from a technical standpoint (it's pretty mindblowing!) and because of what it could mean for future hacks. I'm no fan of the original Sonic 1 special stages, so the idea that 3D stages with custom background and floor texture art with any kind of moving objects on top are possible is really thrilling.

Everything about it can be gleaned from a video, but you might still want to play it just to feel the magic. Verdict: Way Past Cool!

Flicky Turncoat DX

Hack of Sonic 1 by GT Koopa

The little animals that Sonic usually saves (erroneously all termed "Flickies" in some translations, reinforced as a convenient synecdoche in the title) have all gone psycho and are now harmful to Sonic - even when he frees them from Badniks. As he battles his way through the baseball themed Pocky Field Zone, he must be extremely careful how he destroys enemies, or he'll collide with the escaping animal and take damage.

I think it's more than my personal dislike of baseball that makes me find this hack unsettling and underwhelming. The core idea of the evil Flickies doesn't seem to add much of value, resulting in what amounts to a mediocre level with a frustrating additional feature.

The art and music are average, and there's nothing exciting on the technical front, either. But I give it a point or two for creativity. Verdict: Okay.

Sonic 2: Flicky Turncoat Edition: Boss Rush Edition

Hack of Sonic 2 by GT Koopa

Another hack with the Flicky Turncoat brand, this is a brief Boss Rush through Sonic 2, with Flickies in control of the game's bosses, tweaked to kick the difficulty up a few notches.

I was allowed to select Marine the Racoon in the character select, and of course I had to try her out. I was disappointed to find that the character wasn't fully implemented, and was merely Tails with one or two sprites rather crudely edited to look like Marine. Of course the hacker can hardly be blamed for an unfinished feature, but I do wonder why the choice wasn't disabled in that case.

Ultimately the changes to the bosses weren't clever or exciting, with a couple exceptions. Verdict: Okay.

Sonic 1: Sonic CD Edition

Hack of Sonic 1 by Animemaster

Sonic 1 (or at least the first little bit of Green Hill Zone), with Sonic CD inspired features added, including time travel. The second act even has what looks like the beginnings of a Metal Sonic race.

However, it is woefully unfinished. Not even a single zone/boss cycle is complete. Partial layouts, camera event issues, and dozens of egregious game-breaking bugs make it unplayable. Nothing else demonstrated, like art, music, or even the core concept, is very original or interesting either. Verdict: Pass!

Sonic 1 Lunacy

Hack of Sonic 1 by Masochistic Maniacs

My opinion of Sonic 1 Lunacy has barely changed from last year. It doesn't seem to have changed much at all. The new level is far more complete, yes, but aside from how cool the art for it looks (which we've already seen most of) as a whole it's boring.

I still don't think I get the point of the whole thing. Normal and Hard modes are just awkward layouts spammed with enemies, and Lunacy mode is a kind of Kaizo Mario insane. It's not for me. Verdict: Pass!

You can also read my review of last year's build.

Metal Sonic Hyperdrive

Hack of Sonic 1 by MKDarkon

Metal Sonic Hyperdrive was submitted last year and this year it has visibly improved. There's neat new title art, a bit of polish on the level art, and some general changes that kick up the professionalism a notch (like the removal of those damn kirbys).

But it's not enough. It still isn't really that fun to play, due to awkward layouts that don't fit well with the air dash and acceleration physics that Metal Sonic has. Some areas take good advantage of the wall jump, but the ability itself still hasn't been polished - its glitches and drifty feel make using it frustrating.

I personally dislike a lot of the palette and music choices, too. The ones that aren't tired hacking cliches are still offputting. But I give it a bit of credit for being a playable game with a coherent theme. It's a cut above average. Verdict: Okay.

You can also read my review of last year's build.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2: A New Adventure

Hack of Sonic 2 by Shade Vortex

Merely Sonic 2 with new layouts (for the early levels, anyway). The problem is, the layouts are terrible. Someone needs to play Flying Battery Zone a few hundred times and read a bunch of Hirokazu Yasuhara interviews. Verdict: Pass!

Sonic The Hedgehog AGX

Hack of Sonic 1 by Blazer

This feels like a hack in the vein of the old builds of Megamix - large new layouts, extensive art edits that still maintain the basic feel of the zones, and super highspeed gameplay with lots of dashing.

What's there is competent, besides the horrendous wall jump, but it fails to really differentiate itself. Verdict: Okay.

Sonic 3 and Amy Rose

Hack of Sonic 3 & Knuckles by E-122-Psi

E-122-Psi, whose character hacks I've praised in the past (Sally in Sonic 1 in particular), has put classic Amy Rose in Sonic 3 & Knuckles. Since the change of character is the whole point, the rest of the game remains the same.

While it's cool to see a bunch of Amy's hammer abilities from the Sonic Advance series remade, I'm not personally fond of them. Especially since she's also incapable of spinning or rolling, which is just anathema to me. So while it's cool to see it done, I wouldn't ever actually want to play the game like this.

It's great to see a character hack of Sonic 3 and Knuckles, as they are comparatively rare, and such a complete and competent one at that. The collision for the hammer sometimes feels off and leads to unfair hits, but it doesn't ruin the experience. It's a definitely worth a play for those who like Amy's controls. Verdict: Cool!

Sonic 2: Battle Race

Hack of Sonic 2 by ColinC10

From the title I had hoped against all reason that this was a hack which finally allowed all of Sonic 2 to be playable in split-screen 2-player mode. But such is not the case. Instead, it turns the standard Sonic and Tails game into what can only be called a "battle race".

Rather than focus the camera on Sonic and let player 2 taste dust, the camera now tries to keep both characters on screen - up to a point. If one or the other gets too far ahead, the other will "die" and be forced to wait to respawn, gaining the remaining player a point. At level end, the player with the most points wins the round. Wins and losses are kept track of on a scoreboard, so the humiliation of losing 100 games running can be screen captured for posterity.

While not as exciting as ColinC10's submissions in the last couple years, I would be lying if I said this wasn't hella fun. I played it with my brother, and we had a hooting, hollering good time, not unlike a session of Super Mario Kart. Verdict: Cool!

Untitled S3K Hack

Hack of Sonic 3 & Knuckles by D.A. Garden

This is merely Sonic 3 & Knuckles with new, authentic feeling layouts. Aside from being at a greater degree of completion, it hasn't really changed from last year.

The layout for Angel Island (the only one that's polished) is extremely good, but that's all there is to say, really. I'm sad to see the awful (and unnecessary) palette changes are still here, though. Verdict: Okay.

You can also read my review of last year's build.

Sonic the Hedgehog: Tribute

Hack of Sonic 1 by TheBarAdmin

This is two zones, one loosely based on Seaside Hill / Ocean Palace from Sonic Heroes, and the other on Route 99 from Sonic Advance 3.

The art is a mix of neat original graphics, nicely reworked borrowings, and a few really ugly - though fortunately rare - pieces that leave me scratching my head. As far as a couple of partially original levels go, they're pretty good. Verdict: Okay.

Predisposition

Hack of Sonic 1 by Team Evanesco

As far as I can tell, this is nothing more than an attempt to recreate a Sonic CD act (Stardust Speedway). Unfortunately a few amateurish-looking changes to the HUD art and palettes makes it feel cheap, and non-functional objects (no plane switchers, wrong behaviour on the enemies and boosters) make the act a shadow of its former self. Verdict: Pass!

Sonic 2 Adventure Control

Hack of Sonic 2 by MainMemory

A hack of Sonic 2 overhauling the controls to behave like Sonic Adventure. You can even charge up a Light Speed Attack, which is pretty neat. I don't really like the way Sonic Adventure controls, but the hack is well done. Verdict: Okay.

Sonic 2 Secret Rings Edition

Hack of Sonic 2 by MainMemory

Sonic 2 with new mission objectives, such as collect no rings, destroy no enemies, escort Tails, and others. This would be interesting enough on its own, but there's a strange leveling system that increases your speed stats, as well as the obligatory homing attack. Pressing the A button also makes Sonic do some kind of crazy boost that can sometimes break the game. (I'm not sure if this is a debugging feature or not.) While the concept is sound and executed solidly, I can't really get excited about it. Verdict: Okay.

Sonic 2 Secret Rings Control

Hack of Sonic 2 by MainMemory

Not to be confused with the previous hack, this doesn't appear to have any missions. Instead, it's Sonic 2, but Sonic seems to have been infected by the brainworms from Limbo - he walks inexorably in one direction, and you're only able to make him jump. Okay, so you can try to force him backward, but he won't be able spin when he jumps back, so he's very vulnerable and also very slow. It's an interesting idea, but not one that held my attention long. Verdict: Okay.

My Nominations

See how my nominations differ from the real trophy recipients! Why do you care? Who knows!

Hidden Palace Trophy: Sonic ERaZor

Grand prize / 1st place. This is given to the overall best hack in the contest.

Wood Zone Trophy: Sonic Classic Heroes

2nd place.

Dust Hill Trophy: Sonic 2 Recreation

3rd place.

Big Trophy: Gumball the Cat

Worst hack submitted. Why was this even submitted?!

Simply an embarrassing "effort".

Green Hill Trophy: Untitled S3K Hack

Hack (or specific level of a hack if non-applicable) that plays most like a Sonic game.

Angel Island felt amazingly authentic.

Windy Valley Trophy: Sonic the Hedgehog: Tribute

Best art in a hack submitted.

Despite a few rough spots, really beautiful. The incredibly smooth slopes are nice, too.

D.A. Garden Trophy: Sonic ERaZor

Best music in a hack submitted.

The tunes don't feel thrown in, but really suit the mood and encourage playing.

Lava Reef Trophy: Untitled S3K Hack

Best level layout in a hack submitted. This was the Palmtree Panic trophy last year, but it has been reverted back to its previous name.

Angel Island wasn't just authentic, it was also a damn fine layout on its own.

Genocide City Trophy: Scar Night Place (Sonic ERaZor)

Hardest level in a hack submitted.

I know Sonic 1 Lunacy wants this trophy, but a challenging level has to also be fun to play, or there's no challenge at all - because the power switch gets hit and the player walks away.

11000101 Trophy: Sonic 1 CDSS Edition

Best technical hack submitted.

Holy frapping crapstack! That is all.

Knuckles Trophy: Sonic 3 and Amy Rose

Best new playable character in a hack submitted.

Amy's hardly new, unless we're speaking relatively. But the best implemented character hack deserves the win.

Fang Trophy: n/a

Best new enemy/badnik in a hack submitted.

Nothing stood out this year that I wouldn't classify as a boss.

Eggman Trophy: Evil Rings (Sonic 1 Megahack: Ultra Edition)

Best new boss or miniboss in a hack submitted.

Any of the bosses in this hack could have won, but I liked this one especially.

Spin Dash Trophy: Gravity Control (Sonic ERaZor)

Best new ability in a hack submitted.

The only thing that would make it better is if it was controlled by blowing into the DS microphone. =P

Carnival Night Trophy: Underwater Sound/Music (Sonic 2 Recreation)

Most innovative game play feature in a hack submitted.

It's cool to see this feature from Sonic Rush / Rush Adventure recreated on the Genesis.

Emerald Trophy: Sonic ERaZor

Best Special Stage in a hack submitted.

As if there was any doubt.

Crystal Meth Trophy: Sonic Classic Heroes

Most replayable hack submitted.

This is how I'll have to play Sonic 1 and 2 forever, now. =P

Robotnik's Revenge Trophy: Sonic 2: Battle Race

Best new concept based on existing concepts in a hack submitted.

It's a tough job to make Sonic an appealing 2-Player game, and while this was far from perfect it was fun as hell.

Casinopolis Trophy: Sonic ERaZor

Most entertaining / fun hack submitted.

The variety is what makes it really excellent.

Vector Trophy: Sonic 1 Megahack: Ultra Edition

Most humorous hack submitted.

Anyone who plays it to the end can see why.

WTF?! Trophy: Flickies' Island Defense

Most unique hack submitted.

It stands apart from the rest as a totally different kind of game. I wonder what will become of it?

Christmas Present Trophy: Sonic 2 Recreation

The best hack submitted that no one saw coming.

I can't really speak for what everybody else saw coming or not, but I was very surprised and pleased with this, a treat at 4 levels long.

Tails Trophy: Sonic Classic Heroes

Most improved hack from last year's contest.

I'm so happy that it's nearly doubled in size. =)

Generations Trophy: Sonic Melponterations

Best Sonic Generations mod in the contest.

I'm impressed by the obscure level choice (rather than something from Unleashed) and the lack of outstanding glitches, and also the classic remix of Sky Troops' music. It made me laugh out loud in a few places, too. =P

Twisted Sister

Let me begin by saying how much I love my Nintendo DS Lite: A lot.

I'm sure it's partly because it's the current vessel for my adoration of handheld gaming in general, having sold my Sega Game Gear years ago. There's something magical about a personal system you hold in your hands - no cords, no mess, no TV to switch to the correct input function. Just you and the games.

But it's also because it's one sweet little machine, with some of the best software ever. Ghost Trick? Yes, please. The Mario & Luigi series? Most definitely. Professor Layton and the Umpteenth Sequel? Can't get enough.

Which is why I was more than a little annoyed when I found that quite a number of the first party Nintendo titles and other high profile games were terrible. Not all of them, obviously (I just praised Mario & Luigi a paragraph ago) but enough that I felt my DS high evapourating. Metroid Prime Hunters? Boring. Starfox Command? An insult. Okamiden? Contender for worst game I've ever tried.

So I began looking in unlikely places for the next DS experience that could recapture the magic. I went through Wikipedia's entire list of Nintendo DS games. The next great thing doesn't have to be part of major franchise, after all - it could be something obscure.

Case in point:

Giana Sisters DS, a remake of a Super Mario Brothers clone that I'd never heard of, originally for the Commodore 64.

Let me continue by saying how much I love my Commodore: Also a lot. It was my first computer, where I played my first video games and where I learned to program, so I'm left with a strong nostalgic fondness for software of the era.

So, despite it being potentially a crappy knockoff, I decided to give Giana Sisters DS a fair chance. If it was even a passably good platformer it would be a good addition to my DS library; better than the bevy of talky, overwrought offerings with poorly designed control schemes that I'd been slogging through, anyway.

To make a long story short, I was completely surprised when I played it. Far from being merely passable, it was exceptional. With every level cleared, it climbed my personal ladder of great platformers, eventually settling in the top echelon with the likes of Yoshi's Island, Klonoa: Door to Phantomile, and Ristar, as if it had always been there.

It is extremely rare for me to develop another "favourite game". Since Skies of Arcadia (a decade ago), I had assumed it might not happen again. Maybe I got cynical in my old age or something. But this year it's happened multiple times: first with Ghost Trick, then with Limbo, and now with Giana Sisters DS. (So maybe I'm actually getting soft in my old age. =P)

Despite being a DS game, I was impressed with how much Commodore flavour it managed to preserve. I know I've never played the original (I plan on it now, though), but I have played countless other games on my Commodore, and spent many happy hours entranced by the warm, friendly glow of their double-width pixels on a CRT monitor. Maybe it's the timbre of the music, maybe it's the lack of dialogue, maybe it's the solid-as-a-rock controls and physics, but Giana Sisters DS captures that transfixing immediacy that those classic games had, that sense of ultimate connectedness of being in a universe that might as well contain only you and the game.

It was probably amplified by being on the DS, not only because I was holding the experience in my hands, but also the newly added bonus feature of the bubblegum: Giana can blow a bubblegum bubble, step inside it, and fly around (ain't platformers grand? =D). Her altitude is controlled by blowing into the DS microphone, and though other DS games employ the microphone in similar ways, this was the first great use of it I'd encountered. It created a novel, almost intimate, connection with the game world that other methods of controlling intensity - such as tapping a button less or more quickly, or tilting an analog stick - have always failed at. Simply by blowing harder or more softly, intentions are immediately translated into the gameplay; only a psychic connection could do better. And, humorously, it results in one of the few gaming experiences where going "FFFFFUUUUU" might actually help.

So I liked it a lot. Which makes it all the more happy a coincidence that the team is Kickstarting an awesome-looking sequel only a month after the game became one of my favourites.

Their design philosophy behind the game - or at least what bits of it are revealed on the Kickstarter page and their site and forum - seems to be spot-on, as well, which I appreciate as a budding game designer.

But don't let me hold you up here. Go check it out and consider backing it!

AeStHete GM Release Later This Year, Placeholder Site Up

For those who don't know, I've been working on a Sonic engine in Game Maker for a long time (read: since 2006). Originally it was going to just be for my own Sonic Freedom project, but as I got deeper into the Sonic community I really wanted to make it open so that others could use it to make their own games as well.

Thus was born AeStHete, which could best be described as a "template" game. Basically a bare-bones Sonic fangame containing nothing but the engine, a bunch of objects, and a host of level creation tools. Anyone who downloaded it would create their own game by "hacking" AeStHete in much the same way ROM hacks are made - replacing assets and editing engine code.

However, I got caught up in the draining process of adding features to make it "nicer"; I wanted to make it all things to all people. So I sunk many months of work into the interface. But at heart I just want to make games, so this wound up frustrating me and slowing progress.

Bouts of sickness, a month's stay in hospital, severe family and financial issues also got in the way. My only way to stay sane was to shelve AeStHete, and work on a focused, specific fangame: Sonic Time Twisted. And after that's finished? Well, I have other games I want to make, also - Sonic and otherwise.

Now, I've given the source of various AeStHete builds to others who were interested, in the hopes it would help them with their own projects. But I always have to do so with the caveat that I can't offer a lot of tech support: they'll have to figure out the code for themselves.

What I'd like to do soon is make the latest source of my GM version completely public, since I don't know how long it will be until I can get the ideal C++ version finished.

Without further ado, here's the site where it will be released later this year. More details will be coming soon, so stay tuned!

!Science - "Constant"

Developer Spotlight: Rieko Kodama

Wow, it's been a long time since I last did one of these Developer Spotlight posts. Actually, it seems I've only ever done one. How embarrassing.

Anyway, this time our spotlight is on Rieko Kodama, who's played an integral part in both of my favourite game series, Sonic the Hedgehog and Phantasy Star.

I'm also compelled to spotlight Kodama because of the recent G4TV.com article, "The Unsung Female Game Designers of Japan", which includes her but misspells her name as "Reiko", as well as getting some information wrong - or at least misleading.

Like before, I won't give an overview of their career, since others have done that already (and better than I could do). Instead I will celebrate my favourite examples of their work.

Phantasy Star

She's responsible for the "Total Design" (as the game credits put it) of Phantasy Star I. This includes the design of the world and most of the characters (but not the enemies), as well as the 2D art and battle backgrounds.

screenshots from The Phantasy Star Pages

At a time when most console RPGs were your standard medieval fare, she crafted a Star Wars-esque universe with robots, space travel, and cool, credible characters.

Alis and Lutz have 90% percent of all subsequent RPG heroes beat by miles. And in today's era of overdesigned characters with a billion zippers and chickens in their hair, designers could learn alot from Kodama's strong, economical designs.

(Tyron and Myau, however, are not her designs. Tyron was actually concieved by Naoto Ohshima, the designer of Sonic.)

And, contrary to the G4TV article mentioned above, she did not write the game; that job was Kotaro Hayashida's, who Kodama also collaborated with on Alex Kidd.

She would go on to contribute to Phantasy Star II, and - as the director of Phantasy Star IV - revitalise the series after a weak third instalment and create the best 16-bit RPG in history.

FUCK YEAH. I can't even watch that without getting chills.

Sonic the Hedgehog

Not content to help shape Phantasy Star and Alex Kidd, Kodama also contributed to Sega's next hit series, Sonic the Hedgehog. She was a zone artist for the first two games, making her responsible for some of the most iconic levels in video game history.

sadly, I'm having to guess at which levels are hers from the style, since very little is known about the games' artists' work.

From a brief interview in the January 2007 issue of Nintendo Power:

Rieko Kodama

It was still hard to display polygons back then, but the graphics in Sonic the Hedgehog were designed incorporating polygonal styles.

I drew the whole field using CG-like images. We intentionally created the designs as if they were illustrated artificially with CG tools. To tell you the truth, we drew them bit-by-bit because the software for computer graphics had not been developed much at the time. [Laughs]

So, she had a hand in created both my favourite video game worlds. But that still wasn't enough!

Skies of Arcadia

As the producer of Skies of Arcadia, Kodama is not only responsible for the best 16-bit RPG ever, but also one of the greatest 3D "modern" RPGs as well.

In a genre where most characters are emo, reluctant, and boring, the exuberance of the cast in Skies is a sheer joy. And I've never played a game that was a better "power trip" - I mean, what other game lets you discover that the world is round? A truly awesome experience and an exemplar of what a game should be.

Interviews

Here are some of the best Rieko Kodama interviews and my favourite insights from them.

Video Fenky

Rieko Kodama

Well, for the ending sequence, I absolutely wanted to include a picture of Alisa and the four-member party, but by that time we had pretty much used up our four megs, so there was no space to put a picture in anywhere. But then, however, Naka squeezed the program code down a little and went up to me and said "I freed up a little space, so get me some art to fill it with," so...

Really, it was a tiny amount of memory, but I wanted to repay him for cleaning up the code, so I stuck in this picture.

G Wie Gorilla

Rieko Kodama

Throughout the Phantasy Star series, I have included a story of “fellows” with the same purpose, uniting their strength to fight and survive regardless of their sex, whether they are humanoid type or not, whether they are from the earth or from the other space. So, I feel that Phantasy Star should be a world where everyone can bring out their best.

The Next Level

Rieko Kodama

I also enjoy reading fantasy books, like The Lord of the Rings. I like the movies, too. I have a particular fondness for Western style-fantasy.

Rieko Kodama links:

Sega Retro
Sega-16
Wikipedia

I know it seems like a minor thing to nitpick - but if supposed gaming enthusiasts can't get these things correct, when all it takes is a quick check at Wikipedia, what are we supposed to think? It's a pet peeve of mine - I've seen relatively high profile gaming media make mistakes this bad and worse all the time: claiming that Koji Kondo did the music for Sonic 1 (he's actually the composer for Mario and Zelda); mistaking Shun Nakamura for Masato Nakamura; G4TV calling Yuji Naka "Yugi" Naka on live television... But what can we expect when Sonic 3's own manual calls him "Yuju" Naka? I can understand CNN or the WSJ doing this, but gamers should know better.

Sonic 2 HD: Huge Debacle

So, I downloaded Sonic 2 HD, all excited to play the alpha after such a long wait.

When extracting it, my antivirus, Comodo, threw a hissy fit, quarantining the executable. Even after doing everything in my power to disable Comodo short of uninstalling it, the file would still somehow get quarantined.

In the end, I wound up specifying the download path for the Sonic 2 HD folder as an exception so the antivirus would totally ignore it, and that worked.

Game still won't run, though. It somehow fails to find the DLL files that are sitting right there in the same folder. I'm assuming this might still have something to do with my antivirus, but I don't really feel like going through the hell of uninstalling and reinstalling it just to play Emerald Hill with pretty graphics.

But I'm still a bit steamed at being stymied in my attempts; I don't like feeling left out of such newsworthy developments in the Sonic community. Videos salve the wound a bit, but not completely.

So I was totally prepared to blame Comodo for this snafu. It's not like it's the first time it's acted like a punkass dickbag. I had to lock horns with it in a bloody, protracted battle just to run Game Maker comfortably.

But it looks like the only reason why I, and countless others, are having such trouble with running Sonic 2 HD in the first place (due to balking antiviruses or other weird hurdles) is due to the incompetence and general dickishness of Sonic 2 HD's main programmer, LOst, and his insistence on hamfisted DRM.

Yeah, DRM. In a Sonic fangame. As if the obfuscated code and other anti-hacking measures are going to do a lick of good when a barrel full of Sonic Retro monkeys are let loose on it for a couple months. No, it's only going to hamstring the product, preventing people - like me - from enjoying it. If I would enjoy it, that is... but that's the thing, I don't get to find out, do I?

What really pisses me off about this is that the first thing I did when I joined the Sonic Retro was take time out of the development of my own project and start the Sonic Physics Guide, in the vain hope that it would catch on and be helpful.

I noticed a lack, and I wanted to fill it. I never really expected it to amount to much, but beyond my wildest expectations the link I added to the wiki was moved to a more prominent location, others contributed to and improved upon it, and now I quite often get messages and emails thanking me for it. And what thrills me the most is when I see others say things like, "why didn't you use the Sonic Physics Guide?", as if it's just de rigueur these days, a basic expectation.

And why did I bother to do it? For an "altruistic" reason, which - like most altruism - boils down to being basically selfish. I wanted better Sonic fangames! And it's worked - I'm not going to take credit in the sharp rise in quality of Sonic fangames over the last couple of years, but I'm fairly certain that the Physics Guide has at least helped iron out a wrinkle here or there that would have otherwise plagued these games.

Anyway, I'm not here to toot my own horn. In fact, the opposite - I would never have bothered making a guide without the Sonic Community Hacking Guide as an example of what could be done. The whole point is that, by working together, and building off of each other's new discoveries and ideas, fangames benefit across the board.

So I'm just really disappointed by this whole Sonic 2 HD debacle. I'm not really that angry that the code is obfuscated - hell, that's the programmer's choice, whether I agree or not. No, what really puts the sour taste in my mouth is that the horrid DRM is preventing people from playing the game, or playing it comfortably. And that it held the game's development back by maybe a year or more(!) And that it's a compromise the team had to settle for, in lieu of some much worse solution. I mean, come on, Yuji Naka idol worship is all well and good, but when it comes to emulating his egotistical behaviour towards the Sonic X-Treme team, it's gone too far.

You know, I'm the guy who probably broke a few thousand Sonic fan's hearts when I had to step down from the Sonic Fan Remix project because I hated working with 3D. My AeStHete engine which is supposed to be all cool and open and everything is still unreleased, because I'm having more fun working on Sonic Time Twisted than making my engine palatable for a public release. I'm obviousbly not some badass programmer god who can do no wrong.

But I don't feel I'm overstepping any bounds when I say that LOst is an embarrassment to the profession. Making your team miserable, and your product suck, is not cool.

Top 4 Creationist Arguments

Creationism has millions of adherents, countless think tanks, and has been around for centuries. By now it should have an unbeatable combo of irrefutable knockout arguments, right?

Damn straight. Hold on to your pants, folks, 'cos you're about to be rocked by Creationism's Greatest Hits, the creme de la creme of anti-evolution arguments.

#1: Complexity!!!1!

The universe is beautiful! But it's also really confusing. So God must have made it. I mean, you couldn't make a universe could you? So there.

In other news, God made Windows Vista.

#2: But... you know... God.

He is God, you guys.

#3: Eeeew, monkeys!

They're right, you know. Monkeys are pretty gross. What with throwin' the poop and shit.

#4: Lalalalalalala!

...There's actually no way to argue with that one. These guys are good!

I don't know about you guys, but I find all of this really persuasive. If only evolution had arguments like this on its side! All we've got is stupid crap like evidence.

And more evidence.

And even more evidence.

And... well, you know.

How can we possibly compete?

Most Astounding Fact

When reading through my blogroll, as is my wont, I found this video at Bad Astronomy, of Neil deGrasse Tyson telling us what he thinks the most astounding fact about our universe is:

The fact? That we are all made of stars.

It's a powerful fact; a beautiful, moving fact. It's also a fact that recently caught Miley Cyrus a fair amount of flak when she called Lawrence Krauss's way of putting it "beautiful".

But I don't think it's a very astounding fact - that is, not to me at least. Of course, I have a skewed perception: I've known it for as long as I can remember. It's one of the perks of being raised by a mother who read Carl Sagan books to her kids instead of Dick and Jane. Next to "billions and billions", his most famous line must be "we're made of star stuff". (It took about 2 seconds to find on YouTube!)

Anyway, Tyson puts it very well and I think it's a great video. It makes me look forward to the new Cosmos sequel he'll be hosting. But this is my blog, after all, and if you think I'm going to get through a whole post without making it all about me, me, me... well, you'd be overestimating my self-control. =P

So what is the fact about the universe that I find the most astounding? Well, I'm glad you asked.

Googolplexity

Like a lot of kids, I went through the phase when superlatives were the coolest things ever. Dinosaurs, the biggest land creatures ever! Jupiter, so huge the Great Red Spot could swallow the Earth whole and still have room for afters! Absolute zero, where everything just stops! Any kid who's been through this is surely aware of the stupidly huge number googol (one followed by a hundred zeroes) and its bigger brother, googolplex (one followed by a googol zeroes). Like the fact that we're all star stuff, or the continent of Pangaea, googol and googolplex are quite familiar faces to anyone who was a kid like me.

Which makes the hidden power of googolplex all the more astounding.

Googolplex is so freaking big that it's literally impossible to write out in long form - the number of zeroes wouldn't fit in the universe. ...Well, let me put a finer point on that: it's impossible to write out in base ten; just declare a "base googolplex" by fiat and you can write it out as 1. That would be sort of unfair, though, wouldn't it? But it's good that I brought up bases (or radices, for the verbose), since the subject is an essential part of the astounding fact I'm on my way to imparting.

Your computer, for instance, uses base two (more popularly known as binary). The number we sensible people would write as 255 is 11111111 in binary. But even programmers like me, who "talk" to computers on a routine basis, don't often handle a lot of binary. No, base sixteen, "hexadecimal", is the most common way programmers look at raw data. Since hexadecimal needs 16 distinct symbols, and our damn ten-fingered ancestors didn't have the decency to furnish us with that many numerals, we have to borrow a few letters that don't really want to be there (much like your sister when playing Rock Band 3), and 255 looks like FF. (The saddest cases amongst us, when we encounter "fffffff" in forum posts and YouTube comments, will obsessively convert to decimal numbers. We (*koff* they, I mean they) also get bonus points if we remember to factorial when it's exclaimed.)

So any data on a computer can be expressed in good ol' decimal, as well. It's not convenient for programmers, for a number of reasons, but it can be done. So, technically, any string of data - a program, a file, even (of course) a song or video - is just a really big number; this is just the corollary of the trivial observation that any number can be stored as a string of data on a computer.

So, what kind of program would googol be? No, it wouldn't be Google's source code (seriously, dude, that's a terrible guess). One followed by a hundred zeroes doesn't represent enough bytes of data even to store this blog post! Even a hexadecimal number with a hundred zeroes (which would represent a significantly greater value than googol, considering hexadecimal 100 is equal to decimal 256) could only represent about 50 bytes.

But what about a googolplex? It's got a googol zeroes! I mean, that's got to be enough digits to fit a program in, right? Well, I hope so - even if we considered all the storage devices ever manufactured by humanity altogether, we wouldn't even come within ten orders of magnitude of needing a googol zeroes to represent the data. Remember, we can't even write a googol zeroes in the universe.

So, googolplex is big. Yawn. Anyone can look at a 1TB hard drive on their desk (or Radio Shack if they're unlucky enough to lack one) and be briefly titillated at the thought of how many floppy disks it replaces. (Hint: more than you can carry.) Big numbers can be reduced to mewling kittens simply by giving them names; hell, even infinity can be tamed by giving it a name and a wiggly little symbol. But the thing about a number, when thought of as a string of data, is that by counting down from it to 0 (or by counting up from 0 to it, which makes a bit more intuitive sense when imagining the process) systematically traverses every permutation of data that can possibly be represented by the number of zeroes it has. Try it; count to 100 - there are only 100 possible 2-digit numbers (counting 00, of course).

So, let's count to googolplex. 1, 2, 3, 4... Well, let's just imagine we kept going. By time we finish, we'll have traveled through every possible permutation of data capable of being represented by the intermediate numbers. Sure, at first we'll have "boring" numbers like 8, 13, and 42. But by the time we reach 10,000, we'll have every 4-digit PIN ever used. And by 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 we'll have every possible 8-digit alphanumeric password.

Does that number seem large? Yeah? Does it fit in the universe? Okay, then. Just to keep things in perspective. We've got a long way to go.

Before "long", we've got the digital representation of every novel ever written. Or that will be written. Or even could be written. And every possible combination of the first half of one with the second half of another. Also, every novel possible with increasingly bizarre typos. Not to mention the overwhelming proportion of total nonsense. (In fact, we'll get to this milestone much quicker if we don't use ASCII encoding, which wastes a whole byte per letter. That's 256 combinations where only about three dozen are really needed!)

Lost amongst those novels? Your autobiography. Detailed and accurate to a degree even you wouldn't be able to achieve. Also, your autobiography if you'd lived a thousand years ago, or a thousand hence. Alternate yous that commit unspeakable atrocities or perform amazing feats. Accounts of your journeys to Mars and beyond.

You'd have the Library of Babel on steroids.

The concept is so mind-numbing, I've known people to flat-out disbelieve it upon their first encounter with it. But it's ineluctable; it's even demonstrable to an extent (the 4-digit PINs are an example). It's simply a fascinating fact about large numbers.

But we're still not done. That's just text; we've got so much further to go. Before long, we've got mp3's of every possible song. Digital video of all possible movies. Hell, digital video of everything that's ever happened in history. Always, remember, with a disproportionate heap of total garble, of course.

Long before we hit a googolplex, we'd have danced throughout the total cultural output of humanity. Indeed, of all the sentient species in the universe. Embedded in the ever-ticking stream of numbers would be videos of alien worlds. Real ones - and fake ones. Alpha Centauri Idol? It's in there.

Let that sink in. If you're like me, you probably can't. You could literally spend the rest of your lifetime - and our universe's - and you'd still never be able to list the things that you'd create simply by counting to googolplex. All that did, does, will, or can exist. Lurking beneath the surface of a humble number - a number most of us meet as children, throwing our arms wide and saying, "I bet it's this big!", and quickly forget, relegating it to the bin of cool science-y superlatives with the blue whales and blue giants.

Of course, you could never actually undertake this extraordinary performance. Any computer that could display the results wouldn't fit in the universe (more so if you wanted to store them!) and sifting the Harry Potters from the Graxfasczzaxses would be impossible.

But that's not the point. The point - the astounding fact, that promised astounding fact - is that this journey, this parade of numbers, can be easily imagined. Like infinity, we've tamed it with a name - googolplex. And though none of us will ever see the destination, we can all of us embark on it effortlessly. 1, 2, 3, 4...

One simple rule, maybe the simplest possible rule: Add One. Two little symbols: "+1". And from it? Everything, with the full force of what those ten letters can possibly convey.

Is it any wonder that, knowing a fact like that, another little rule like "copy me" could have created us?

And after all of this? That's just googolplex's zeroes. The amount it represents is huger still - after all, "100" only has two zeroes. And it's not even the biggest number humans have had the chutzpah to name. There are numbers mathematicians kick around that are so much larger than googolplex that the conventional notation that makes short work of it - 10^(10^100) - can't express them. Like googolplex's zeroes, these numbers would have too many exponents to fit in the universe.

...610, 611, 612, 613, 614, 615, 616...

P.S.

Going back to Neil Tyson's fact for a moment, Starts With A Bang! posted about it, too, and at the head of the post was a cool quotation from Richard Feynman:

Is no one inspired by our present picture of the Universe? This value of science remains unsung by singers, you are reduced to hearing not a song or poem, but an evening lecture about it. This is not yet a scientific age.

Well, sadly Feynman is dead, but I like to think we're now living in the dawn of that appreciative age he dreamed of. This blog's very title is a fragment of poetry I wrote, inspired by the picture of the universe revealed by science. In fact, my "About Me" box says I'm a songwriter (though it's something I never really post about, since I'm in a stage of my life where it's taking a backseat to programming), and well over half of my songs are inspired by science. It's without a doubt my greatest muse. Maybe I'll stop playing Sonic long enough to post some eventually. =P

Sonic's Narrow Escape

This post has been updated with a clearer screenshot from Sonic Retro's coverage of the subject.

A few days ago, some photos of the earliest known prototype of Sonic 1 from Beep! magazine were posted at megadrive.me.

The shot that interests me the most, however, is this one:

That blobby thing to the left of Sonic is almost certainly the butt-chinned baddie from the lower right of this concept image:

Yes, it's purple with yellow gloves in the concept art but blue with red gloves in the screenshot. But bear in mind this is the matter of a simple palette swap, from line 1 to line 2:

There may have been more than one version of the baddie, or maybe they hadn't decided on which colour scheme to use yet. But I digress.

I find this discovery pretty gobsmacking. Yes, I've been aware of the concept art for a long time, and that it took the team a while to really nail down what Sonic and his world were going to be like. But to see an actual screenshot of the running game (albeit a prototype) that predates the concept of badniks - well, it's awesome, but also sort of terrifying. We came this close to living in a world where Sonic did battle with proctological monstrosities instead of the metal menaces we've come to expect.

Maybe someone from Sonic Team played Mega Man and was inspired to give Eggman a mad scientist makeover and an army of robots. Whatever the cause, thank goodness they did. Sonic narrowly avoided a long career of being groped and probed.