I've been interested in level design for a HUGE part of my life, possibly before I've even discovered the Sonic hacking scene. As a child, I also had this bizarre obsession with overly large levels.
I think younger me would have loved this ROM hack.
This is a test of both my own level design skills, and of the many changes I've made to the core engine of Sonic 1, allowing for incredibly large levels. The level featured in this build sports 96x32 chunks (the chunks are still 256x256), although horizontally, it could go up to 128. It also features vertical level wrapping.
The hack also includes an experimental extended camera system, where the screen is panned based on Sonic's horizontal velocity. If you dislike it, you can disable the camera system in the options, in favor of the original camera system.
The level's map is included as a bonus. Just a warning: the image itself is REALLY large. So large, in fact, I decided, for your browser's sake, to host it in a zip folder, so view it at your own risk.
The moveset is as follows:
Spin Dash: same old.
Drop Dash: can be recharged if a charge is cancelled mid jump.
Super Peel-Out: can be released at any time, and it'll work.
You can download the hack right here. Feel free to play this hack however you want! You can take your time exploring, you can try speedrunning it, you can try breaking the ring counter collecting as many rings as possible, or you can just come up with some other arbitrary objective.
Have fun!
Project Lead: giovanni.gen
Level design and programming: giovanni.gen
Additional playtesting: fuzzybit
Additional code:
Additional artwork: rosie_eclairs (Sonic 1: Expanded)