DF Retro: Sonic The Hedgehog Ported To SNES: Tech Demo Analysis!

[@iwantthemoonback1722]

A Sega game, on a Nintendo console, played through a Sony TV...

[@IncogNito_00]

And the ROM downloaded on a Microsoft OS

[@jamiewilliamson9829]

And don't forget the Super NES sound chip is by Sony.

[@dnakatomiuk]

Using a Atari Jaguar controller

[@ahmedp800]

Irony Combo Breaker.

[@jessragan6714]

Play Astro Boy for the Game Boy Advance. The first thing you'll see are logos for Nintendo, Sega, and Sony. :D

[@cheek077]

Looks and runs better than the GBA version, so that's a plus.

[@MrHomelessHobos]

@MultiTarded not called for. Really gross

[@mazimadu]

How so, I don't recall the GBA having slowdown. Still I played advance 2, which is too fast

[@arciks11]

@@mazimadu Not Advance games. Port of 1st genesis game to GBA

[@mazimadu]

@@arciks11 (remembers that trash) (Mind melts, eye flood, then dried)

[@jessragan6714]

Funny thing is, someone made a tech demo of Sonic for the Game Boy Advance to demonstrate how the game COULD have run on the system. I think the guy who did that helped make Sonic Mania or something.

[@mrnicktoyou]

The larger colour palette of the SNES is obvious but the higher resolution of the Sega is also quite noticeable. All these years later and I still love this era of gaming.

[@Skylancer727]

Yeah what system to buy the games on was kinda a wash between games. Some looked better on one and other times they reversed. It's why they basically sold just as well as each other with the winners splitting between countries. There really wasn't a real "winner" as they were so close that it was pointless to argue. Though I can say that Genesis later adding the 32X and CD the Saturn each less than 2 years apart really killed Sega. Why buy a Sega device it will be dated in 8 months?

[@delaorden]

As a kid I would have thought that the SNES version was better because characters were bigger

[@Sifer2]

I actually don't care for the use of the color palette here. The better sound is nice though. Still larger resolution is a must for Sonic. Even if it had not been a first party exclusive is would have been better on SEGA.

[@briengakaplan-b1550]

SNES games were always more colorful but the Genesis animation was better since it had a faster CPU/higher res.

[@evdestroy4121]

smaller sprites would've really killed the visuals imo, the sprites in the classics really help show off stuff like sonic's motion and attitude and shrinking them would result in a real loss of detail. Think Game Gear Sonic 1.

[@DeskoDev]

TiagoSC? Doesn't surprise me, he's a legend.

[@alencarbravo1]

TIAGOSC also did a port of Megaman X to the Genesis/Mega Drive

[@noobguy57]

I need to check both of these ports out, these all look and sound super interesting

[@robotfan]

That port is amazing!

[@Ivo--]

We need Gamehut to weigh in on this

[@Shadow-xb2ce]

Yes! Yes! Yes!

[@RichardLarge88]

For some reason there's something about that wider colour palate that screams "over saturated" to me. I don't know if it's because I grew up with Sonic on the Mega Drive but even without the resolution difference I think I prefer the aesthetic on the Genesis. Still, this is very impressive, great work by that developer.

[@KuraIthys]

Probably just poor colour choice. There's no exact match for the colour between the two systems. So if you bring a game over from the Mega Drive to the SNES, and actually care about it looking 'the same' You have to expend a lot of effort tweaking your exact colour choices to find which of the 32768 possible snes colours actually matches one of the 512 mega drive colours. Mega drive is 9 bit RGB, and SNES is 15 bit RGB. Naively you could just assume that if you want, say, pure blue, that you'd replace 0,0,7, with 0,0,31. But, in practice that probably doesn't match. Then there's how the monitor is adjusted, which can give varying results depending on the hardware. To do it right you'd have to go through every possible colour on the Mega drive, examine it on a monitor, then try and match it visually (on the same monitor) on the SNES. That's a lot of work, so I'm guessing the developer didn't do it. (plus unless you have two identical monitors/tv's, and you know with certainty that their settings are identical, you have to guess, since you can't have both systems plugged in at the same time.)

[@dhgmrz17]

IDK, I kind of like the more vivid colors. It might be that Sonic's more vivid colors is closer his more modern design which I tend to be more use to since I grew up with adventure games.

[@jessefisher1809]

I also like the snes graphics more and I've been playing sonic 2 for 20 years.

[@sameash3153]

Looks better with these colors

[@bosyogurtlight]

@@sameash3153 Sonic in SNES? Nah

[@AStartShow]

I'm like, this background music, sounds familiar, then I realised it's from Sonic Chaos Remake haha.

[@tristanweide]

Fancy seeing you here.

[@Chillalil]

-when do we get a son of a glitch video on this port-

[@xXSpongeBroBrownPantzXx]

A+Start *you made that lol* also I wanna see more levels in that :)

[@FlowPlex]

@@xXSpongeBroBrownPantzXx I mean he didn't program it from what I know of. He glitch tested it.

[@williamruiz5965]

Hi!

[@SianaGearz]

The most amazing thing IMO about Sonic the Hedgehog on Megadrive is that it fits into 512KB ROM, which is just so hilariously little. It uses compression extensively, maps and graphics are all compressed! So it uses runtime decompression, on the CPU, and STILL has a fairly high scrolling speed. Without the capacity constraint, there's no reason it couldn't be ported to SNES. A significantly faster CPU of the Megadrive is for sure the crucial ingredient in fitting a big game onto a small cart, and why Sonic was so impressive at the time, not in any individual detail necessarily, but just overall. Of course other impressive games at the time were also compressed, case in point, Super Mario World is compressed - but this fundamentally puts a limitation on number of new tiles you can decode with every scroll, or the scrolling speed, depending on CPU or addon hardware. On Yoshi's island, the decompression is via SuperFX, which is what it's mostly used for there.

[@Ralph007es]

1- The scrolling speed is the same. 2- Compressing data at this level only works with small ROMs. 3- SNES can have 118 megabits of ROM, megadrive only 32.

[@HaroldoPinheiro-OK]

@@Ralph007es 32 would be the maximum ROM size using linear addressing; if you are willing to use bankswitching, the ROM can be as big as you want.

[@deabreu.tattoo]

That's very insightful, m8

[@SianaGearz]

@@Ralph007es Yeah it can scroll as quickly as it wants to as long as there are no new image tiles - so to do more elaborate and less repetitive graphics, it has to slow you down. For the most part there really isn't a lot of movement speed to be had in SMW. There is no fundamental limitation to the ROM size with compression. I think, if i remember right, all the latter Sonic games retained compression, in spite of growing cartridge sizes. Naturally you run into two potential conflicts, one is decompression speed if you're doing this on the CPU, and on the other, budgetary conflict of increasing ROM size and including accelerator chips. There is no fundamental limitation on the cartridge size in either console, since both have a write capability to cartridge address space, so a mapper can be implemented. Pier Solar is an 8MB game that came out a few years ago on Megadrive. There is the complete memory bus on the cartridge slot, so if you don't care that your game works on 32X or with MegaCD, you get 10MB of continuous address space before you collide with things within the console. If you must take addons into account, you get 4MB. Continuous address space results in uniform addressing which is nice and is an unusual feature of 68K, since it's a mixed 16/32-bit processor and all registers are 32 bits wide to begin with, so it can address the complete 24-bit external memory bus straight from a register storing an address. 65C816 is more or less a classic 16-bit processor where individual instructions deal predominantly with 16-bit addresses, which makes the whole memory map pretty awkward, and the timings are pretty awkward too, which has spawned various memory mapping schemes where the software largely just peeks at anything through a 64KB window, but it stands to reason that you should be able to reach almost 8MB of usable space with just a couple little keepouts less than 64Kb in total, but you need an address decoder. I think 4MB games didn't need one.

[@ScottWozniak]

...and most of the memory went to the startup SE-GAAAAAA soundbite.

[@AllardRT]

The same guy is also making a Mega Man X port for the Genesis.

[@notsyzagts7967]

old news

[@MisterVercetti]

Not a true port unless it has an exclusive bonus Maverick: Blast Processor

[@JMDAmigaMusic]

Would love to see Rockbot on sega Genesis too

[@stayelusive]

Oh that soundtrack is going to be amazing, just look at savaged regimes genesis soundchip cover for proof

[@BDreGaming]

No one can chuckle quite like Christopher Lambert

[@Gencoil]

There can be only one.

[@rodrigomolinsky]

That made me lol

[@SpontaneousWeasel]

Mortel kum-bet

[@fcukugimmeausername]

I can hear him chuckle when I read this lol

[@StillTheVoid]

Tommy Wiseau... That is all.

[@stingymcduck5450]

Someone, in 2021: "What do you remember from 2020?" Regular dude: "well, obviously the corona vi..." Richard: "SONIC ON THE SNES! THAT WAS CRAZY"

[@Outta-hz1ej]

honestly Sonic On SNES is crazier than the Wuhan coof

[@gabrieleduardo7304]

2020 If ya ask for me will be remembered as the year that da infamous sanic statue got repaired and sonic played"emulated" on a freakin Snes.

[@RadicalSharkRS]

Nice hat.

[@tuberoyful]

Lame

[@morriaensland5052]

Not gonna lie, the SNES version of GHZ's track sounds pretty good.

[@MrBonderd]

“ You will never see Sonic on Super Nintendo” -Actual quote from myself in 1993

[@Carsonj13]

People have used emulators to put Sonic games on SNES carts for years now. This is just the first attempt at a straight portjob using the native hardware.

[@MrBonderd]

Carsonj13 correct, it was a joke. Also in 1993 emulators did not exist 😂

[@Carsonj13]

@@MrBonderd You didn't actually say that you'll never see Sonic on Super Nintendo? HMM!?

[@adesignersperspective]

if i had heard you say that in 1993 i would have mentioned how you will also never see texture-mapped polygons - which star fox had in 1993 - on the genesis... which, well, you still haven't (;

[@pokepress]

Well, Howard Lincoln told Washington Night Trap would never be on a Nintendo system.

[@mlc4495]

I love how it was felt so important for Richard Leadbeater to be brought in here as he was former editor of Official UK Sega Magazine back in the early 90s.

[@Loundsify]

Was mean machine financed by sega?

[@mlc4495]

@@Loundsify No, I don't think so as that was an independent magazine.

[@Loundsify]

@@mlc4495 he worked for Mean Machine though?

[@Gambit771]

I don't recall that magazine calling it 'genesis' apart from I'm the rarest occasion they were talking about murica or to take the piss.

[@mlc4495]

@@Gambit771???

[@ReinaHW]

Sonic on the SNES in 2020, it's the sign of the end times! The end is nigh and so on with lots of blah blah blah.

[@mlc4495]

Meh. I remember games mags saying it was a sign of the apocalypse when Sega brought Sonic to the Game Boy Colour back in 1999.

[@ReinaHW]

@@mlc4495 21 years later: Well bugger

[@Trashboat4444]

@@mlc4495 You mean Neo Geo Pocket Color right?

[@mlc4495]

@@Trashboat4444 Must be my old age because I was nearly sure I had read back then of Sega bringing Sonic to the Game Boy Color. Obviously that was a project moved to the GBA later on. And yeah, I remember well Sonic Pocket Adventure for the actually awesome Neo Geo Pocket.

[@GaJ42]

Phhht Bootleggers put sonic on the NES long ago

[@zaakaryvoid991]

6:23 Wow Richards Christopher Lambert Raiden laugh and Sonic running on SNES in the same video. A nice dose of 90's nostalgia in this one!

[@alexsilva28]

I lol'd hard

[@remigusker6024]

Given, how, out, of, control, 2020, has, been, Sonic, on, SNES, seems, fitting., Edit: Commas added for yeetlejuice.

[@yarc9]

Sonic sold really well on Nintendo systems

[@Phenom98]

Commas: am I a joke to you?

[@Liam3072]

And yet I somehow fear this could trigger an apocalypse... we're already THIS close...

[@cheeseboi588]

Y e e tlejuice Commas are not required.

[@HCIbn]

Everyone is just blaming COVID-19 for everything now😡

[@derzw3rg]

Genesis does what Nintendo also does.

[@Gambit771]

What Nintendo tries to do

[@tuberoyful]

NINTENDONT

[@purebaldness]

John "smooth" Linneman & Richard Leadbedder. DF dream team

[@offspringfan89]

Yep, John "Retro" Linneman and Richard "CRT" Leadbetter make a great duo 👍

[@jaynelson1762]

Love to see DKC and Yoshi’s Island run on the Mega Drive.

[@lioneart19]

There's a hack called Donkey Kong 99 for MD. It's not as good as it could be, though. Yoshi's Island uses a super advanced chip on the cart to run on Snes, so it'd lose a lot.

[@Sonictheoofhog4]

And Super Mario world.

[@lioneart19]

@@Sonictheoofhog4 check a hack called Super Mario World 64.

[@ikeaaron]

@@lioneart19 maybe the Sega CD could help. There's really good and underutilized scaling hardware in it that I think would be able to render those sorts of effects. I'm sure there'd be serious concessions in on-screen colors, though.

[@mineland8220]

@@ikeaaron What about the 32x? The games that were there looked great, and i remember some things scaling in knuckles chaotix

[@MorbidThrasher666]

Fanboys would have lost their shit back then including me,lol. I love both systems though.

[@Rationalific]

It's videos like this that make Digital Foundry by far my favorite channel about video games. And, unbelievably, although it has been 29 years since Sonic's release, it was not even a week ago that I was thinking about what Sonic would have looked like on the SNES. And I don't think about that often. AMAZING timing! John Linneman is a man after my own heart. We're both classic Sonic fans, and I couldn't be happier with the video I got to see today!

[@madfinntech]

7:14 God damn I love the sound of that Mega Drive YM2612 chip, in the right hands godlike music! Don't get me wrong, the tracker stuff is also awesome!

[@iKaGe01]

The Megadrive used a tracker type format

[@ifusion]

I’d love to see a collaboration on a series between Coding Secrets/GameHut’s YT channel and DF for a Retro episode.

[@MegaManNeo]

We need a time machine now, going back to 1991 and showing this to the public. Hell will freeze over.

[@brainwheeze6328]

B-but blast processing!! :O

[@MegaManNeo]

@@brainwheeze6328 Greetings from 2020, the year nobody will forget.

[@lazarushernandez5827]

Nah, this was brought over from the alternate timeline where Nintendo didn't lock 3rd parties down and console makers ported their 1st party games on competing hardware. You should see their Bonk's Adventure on the Megadrive. 😁

[@briengakaplan-b1550]

But then you'd have to break the sad news to everybody what happens to Sega 😭

[@RicochetForce]

I don't know what you get you killed faster: Telling everyone Sonic is now on Nintendo platforms in your time... or that Sega crashed and burned and they produced shitty Sonic games for years.

[@nooneofconsequence1586]

Tiago is known for defying this reality rules. Last time I've checked, he was working on a Mega Man X port for the Sega Genesis.

[@dontomaso11]

That fantastic raiden reference. It feels like you have to be born earlier than the 90s to pick that one.

[@RAZKEN.]

That Raystorm BGM track is truly amazing! Had to look up a extended version a while back and it have stuck me ever since!

[@dreamcastfan]

Man, I’d love Contra Hard Corps on the SNES.

[@schtive81]

Some developers were atuclly mindfull of the stretched sprites in SNES games. For example, Earthworm Jim 2, Jim's sprite in the SNES game is intentionally thinner than Jim's Genesis sprite, just so it could be the same size when stretched to 4:3. Or Moral Kombat 2 and 3, which used thinner sprites on the SNES.

[@GameStation-1]

This would make for a great episode on Console Wars. Dan: "I love Sonic the Hedgehog. It was such a great game for SEGA Genesis." (Holds Genesis cartridge). Pat: "True. But it was better for Super Nintendo." (Holds Super Nintendo cartridge). Dan: "No. It was better on SEGA." Pat: "No. The Super Nintendo version is far superior." Dan: "What!? Are we doing this!?" Pat: "Does it snow in the North Pole?" Dan and Pat: "Best Sonic the Hedgehog game!"

[@goofball2237]

Naw the genesis one looks better, but this is still a tech demo so who knows what'll happen

[@joaonitro5149]

@@goofball2237 snes version looks better imo. Sonic isnt purple and there is more shades of blue in the sky.

[@doniarts]

I have always wanted to see someone do this so the fact that it's a reality :') brings tears to my eyes even if it's just a tech demo, man this is lovely.

[@dshadow01]

"And if you guys enjoyed this, as always, be sure to like, subscribe, ring the notification bell, all that good stuff... *and* *more* " _me nervously looking at my first-born son_

[@chriswy697]

This would be like NiGHTS running on the Playstation 1

[@SonnyBCreative]

that would be interesting

[@robotfan]

When sega went 3rd party, they considered porting it to ps1 in like 2002/3

[@chriswy697]

@@robotfan source? Love to read about that

[@robotfan]

@@chriswy697 i think it was either in ign or game informer magazine. I just remember reading it while i was riding in the car with my friend. They talked about ports of lots of saturn games as budget titles for ps1

[@Filtertipboom]

the updated version isn't Japan only it did release in the UK. it's known as REV01. theres no clues on the cartrage or box art so you have to put it in a console and start it up to see but it is indeed the same as what was released in Japan

[@TwoBlackMarks]

While I have not seen the full video yet, and went straight to the comments, I have never seen a REV01 Sonic in real life for an PAL console, I have seen Genesis carts that is REV01, first time I saw it, was actally an LGR video where he played SEGA, and I was suprised to see the moving clouds. I have only tried maybe 10 PAL copies, not so many, but never seen a REV01 version, yet. Not really searched for it either though, but always checked when I had he chance.

[@Filtertipboom]

@@TwoBlackMarks I've been lucky I picked up a new one a few years back to replace my badly sun faded case and that is REV01 had no idea when i bought it. picked up 2 others since 1 PAL with a bundle that is REV00 and an NTSC i got cheep becuase i wanted the NTSC label buit sadly REV00 as well

[@TwoBlackMarks]

@@Filtertipboom Yeah, that must be some re-releases or "batch 2" later in the Mega Drives life. Especially since they seem to be pretty rare. It is kind of strange, Sonic 1 in Japan often is the revision, and it just came shortly after US and EU, so when did the revision actually come out? It could be that sales for Mr.Needlemouse was better than expected in Japan, so they needed to make a new batch in Japan to meet demand, and that`s why the new revision is normal there. I think most Sonic 1 copies in other places probably was bundled with an console, maybe not in Japan, since Japan did not really want to bundle it with the console, atleast in the beginning. As far as I know atleast.

[@Filtertipboom]

@@TwoBlackMarks It would be yes Sonic 1 is one of those that wasn't even re timed for PAL so it runs slower then it's meant to at 50hz. I n same cases the ROM will be the same for example Streets of Rage 1 pop it in a modded console with a region switch and flip it while it's on it just hot swaps to Japanese I think Sonic 1 is one of those games

[@GameplayandTalk]

"This is against the laws of nature itself."

[@gueeds23]

Developers were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should

[@SAMTHEMANTHATCAN]

Haha god that could be applied to so many things in gaming. Transformation & lighting during the early 00s, Bloom effects during the XBOX360/PS3 era and ray tracing today. Theres probably loads more im forgetting but those 3 spring to mind. By the way, those effects all have a place and can be a good thing.

[@SAMTHEMANTHATCAN]

AsylumSaint I was aware of that lol

[@theboy181]

When you guys cover things like this it reminds me of how cool, you all really are! Thanks for your your thoughts!

[@zach.0]

I love how blue Sonic is in the SNES version.

[@Starfals]

Thats a fun project ;p Digital Foundry is always having cool videos, not just port reports and comparisons.

[@stephandolby]

I feel that although some of the effects could be improved upon (such as the water transparency), keeping the graphics at 100% scale despite a drop in resolution would've been problematic even factoring in tweaks to object placement. A Mario title may work much better on the Mega Drive than a Sonic game would on the SNES... graphically, at least (particularly because the Mega Drive can support the SNES's base resolution, but not vice versa).

[@davidaitken8503]

The problem with putting a Mario game like Super Mario World or Yoshi's Island on the Genesis is there is no real way to pull off many of the impressive level designs and boss battles in those games on Sega's hardware. Sonic on the other hand, isn't really doing anything that the SNES can't pull off in terms of gameplay.

[@NotaPizzaGRL]

@@davidaitken8503 Most of the Mario World battles were pretty simple apart from the Mode 7 stuff which added nothing to them. If the Genesis can have fullscreen warping bosses like in Alien Soldier or even earlier games like El Viento then Mario's should be no problem. As far as Yoshi's Island goes, most of that was done with the Super FX2 chip not the base SNES hardware so it's not like the SNES could have done it solely on its own. As far as level designs go, games like Monster World IV had the kind of branching that SMW had. Personally, I would rather not have to deal with the repetitive level design of SMW on any console.

[@davidaitken8503]

@@NotaPizzaGRL I've never been terribly impressed with most of the boss battles in SMW but stuff like the leaning platform at the end of the first chapter most certainly did add to the experience. I guess you can technically still do the Reznor battle without the rotating backdrop connecting the platforms but it seems you would lose a lot in the presentation with that completely missing. I'm aware that Yoshi's Island used the Super FX2 chip. The SNES was designed with easy implementation of enhancement chips and the Genesis simply wasn't. Virtua Racing was the only game Sega tried to use an enhancement chip with and it turned out to be too expensive. I don't really see what your point is. That was one of the big advantages of the SNES hardware, the ability to be upgraded through the software itself. We're supposed to pretend Yoshi's Island, Kirby Super Star, Super Mario RPG, etc. don't exist? I don't really see how Super Mario World has repetitive level design compared to its' peers like Sonic, which has far less variety in the way its' levels are structured.

[@NotaPizzaGRL]

​@@davidaitken8503 What I'm saying is that the SNES couldn't do Yoshi's Island without help. Most of Super Mario World consisted of the same five or six types of levels repeated across multiple worlds. I remember playing it and thinking "I already played this when it was SMB 3" whereas Sonic felt quite different from many platformers prior to it. You had different paths to the goal, different themes that gradually told a story throughout the game, and it just had a distinct personality to it. The focus on momentum also changed the focus of the game. As far as the upgrades went that was to compensate for the weaknesses of the base SNES hardware. Also considering how Nintendo operated back then it also allowed them to charge more to have carts produced and to pass that cost onto the player. I haven't seen the SNES do games like Alien Soldier, Panaroma Cotton, Star Cruiser, or Dynamite Headdy and all of those were done without needing support chips.

[@davidaitken8503]

@@NotaPizzaGRL The problem with Sonic levels is that they are cut and paste jobs with the same large chunks repeating over and over again. Regardless of how distinctly different the levels may seem at first the reality is they are all structured very similar to one another. You won't find any vertical levels, forced scrolling, puzzle-like Ghost Houses, swimming sections, or hidden exits. With no overworld map to tie it all together and the completely linear structure you won't have anything as cool as Switch Palaces actually changing things within the levels. The almost complete focus on the momentum was very limiting. Mario games don't just focus on one thing. One level may be about running through obstacles quickly and keeping your momentum up, while another may focus on extremely careful maneuvering on narrow platforms that move slowly across the screen with enemies and obstacles attacking you, while yet another may be about jumping and flying from one suspended platform to the next while avoiding pits. There is just a much, much, greater emphasis on variety in Super Mario World. "As far as the upgrades went that was to compensate for the weaknesses of the base SNES hardware." Um.... Okay? What other type of upgrade is there? What do you think the Sega CD and 32X were? Paying a few extra bucks per game was certainly preferable to buying expensive add-on hardware, but more importantly, it didn't split the market between the haves and have-nots which is never very effective and was the primary reason most of the best games for those failed add-ons were nothing more than upgraded versions of games already available for the base Genesis and not wholly original titles. Nintendo built the SNES to be upgradable through the software and I'll never understand how some people talk about that as if it was a bad thing. It was one of the reasons for the systems long-term success even after the 32-bit machines were released. Most SNES games didn't use support chips, contrary to what some would have you believe but I don't see why it matters anyway? Support chips existed. Pretending they didn't or that any game that used one somehow didn't count makes absolutely no sense.

[@TheRenalicious]

Seeing the Nintendo and Sega logos together on the same screen in F-Zero GX is still as mind blowing as it was back in 2003. Back in 1993 it probably wouldn't have had the same impact as I wouldn't have known any different.

[@gamesandplanes3984]

Damn, that game was good.

[@NCozy]

When people say Sonic fans are awful, this is living breathing proof that they aren't. Even if there's a few bad apples, you gotta admit this is cool.

[@notsyzagts7967]

I believe the argument is more about system loyalists being arrogant, than Sonic fans specifically. It's rare that a fan of one or another system is going to be this easy on the competition but it is possible. It's even more rare for a person to not be biased towards any one company.

[@NCozy]

@@petrolhex7774 Plus the romhacking and fangame community in general is pretty dope, only because SEGA won't cease and desist stuff like this from amateur developers.

[@manoftherainshorts9075]

This developer is a chad. > shows up on retro gaming forums > casually ports Sonic to SNES > refuses to elaborate > leaves

[@ryanmalin]

This was a nice treat for a relaxing Sunday morning 🌄 😌

[@chrisw8069]

Now Super Mario world (or even Mario All Stars) needs to be ported to the Genesis/Megadrive. The source code was leaked after all.

[@RatzaChewy]

Globalisation: when an American says Mega Drive while a Brit says Genesis.

[@Gambit771]

When a Brit says it in Germany you know it is muricanisation. At least he didn't say super N - E - S.

[@davidaitken8503]

Lets just hope people don't start saying, "snezzz" like those annoying Brit You Tubers.;)

[@clintbrew]

I thought it the other way round genesis was American while megadrive was uk

[@RatzaChewy]

@@clintbrew That's the whole point.

[@salamand3r-]

They're probably trolling the audience :D

[@Butterstix2014]

This is really cool, and honestly makes me wanna see Super Mario World ported to the Genesis.

[@dalton2k538]

"Dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria!"

[@dovic2293]

avgn :D

[@dalton2k538]

Dovic ... It’s a Ghostbusters reference.

[@pokepress]

I was gonna say “plumbers and hedgehogs” myself.

[@ToxMod]

I don’t know what’s more nostalgic, the gameplay or the music,good stuff either way

[@BlooKurby]

I love how much more vibrant the colours look for the SNES palette, sonic looks WAY better.

[@SydneySE_]

Moar Moar Moar of this stuff! Love your passion for retro stuff John and equally love it when you bring on Richard on with you.

[@bebopblue]

I realized on the GBA, Zelda aLttP and Super Mario World had to crop out most of what could be displayed. So you know what else the GBA had a port of... Sonic. Even if it could run right, you had so much less on the screen.

[@ArmandoDoval]

At least the GBA had similar horizontal resolution as the SNES. Ports of SNES sidescrollers were a lot less impacted than top-down games like Zelda and Final Fantasy.

[@The90sGamingGuy]

Wow i never thought i would see the day when Sonic running on an SNES. 16 bit era of gaming is my favorite and always interesting to hear about the technical stuff about games from the era.

[@MonochromeWench]

MegaDrive has some flexibility with sprite sizes that SNES didn't so that would explain why the tech demo does things differently with the way sprites are handled

[@KuraIthys]

Yeah, the SNES sprite engine is... nasty. It sounds good on paper. (128 sprites. Max 64 by 64 - that sounds better than the Mega Drive, superficially), but the devil is in the details. And that's where you see the real downfall of the SNES when dealing with sprites. Mega Drive has 16 possible sprite sizes. It can display all 16 of them onscreen at once. SNES has 4 possible sprite sizes. As if that wasn't bad enough it can only display TWO onscreen at once. Sometimes I question if the slowdown on SNES is the CPU, or the way these sprite limitations force developers to do silly things with sprites that create a ton of needless work.

[@yod1213]

@@KuraIthys I've seen so many SNES games where it looks like there is no where near 32 sprites/256 pixels per scanline and yet the SNES will still flicker. Why is that?

[@AutomotiveCNC]

Can't wait for a SNES port of "Alien soldier"! VISUALSHOCK! SPEEDSHOCK! SOUNDSHOCK!

[@charlieni645]

Looks like Nintendoes after all.

[@battleroyale1056]

Way Too Late!!!

[@lasarousi]

Always has done

[@xmaverickhunterkx]

@@battleroyale1056 There are some games as fast or faster than Sonic for SNES.

[@Longlostpuss]

@@xmaverickhunterkx Really? Name one. I never saw or played a 2D game on SNES that was able to scroll as quickly as Sonic when he popped the super sneakers.

[@AutomotiveCNC]

Mega drive/Genesis renders much more pixels than SNES at a higher framerate (proven on many multi-platform games), and is also capable of handling more scrolling layers and objects on screen.

[@Valientlink]

This is huge. I've always been fascinated by ideas like this. It would be cool if this became more common in the next decade. I want to see Chrono Trigger on Megadrive lol (hey, it COULD be done if you're a madman right?)

[@StaticTV80]

Do you really think so

[@gamesandplanes3984]

Of course it could be done.

[@StormsparkPegasus]

Honestly I think the systems were mostly capable of running each other's games, with minor adjustments here and there. Even sprite scaling/rotation could be done on the Genesis/Mega Drive with a LOT of extra effort (though the Sega CD was more capable than the SNES in that regard).

[@bmx7596]

I would hope Sega CD was more capable at everything

[@StormsparkPegasus]

@@bmx7596 It mostly was, but the SNES still had a better color pallette.

[@shinyhappyrem8728]

@Stormspark: What do you mean? The SNES can't do sprite scaling either, it can just warp one BG layer

[@granvillimus]

@@shinyhappyrem8728 You're technically correct. SNES used mode7 to rotate and scale a single background layer. That said, it is possible to do this with sprites as well, but it isn't a native hardware feature like mode7 and requires bruteforcing the CPU. This is what the Genesis did in a couple of games (the Marble Garden Act 2 boss in Sonic 3 and a couple of enemies in Mega Turrican) and a handful of homebrew games. I'm not aware of this being done in any commercial SNES games without special chips. There is a homebrew SNES game called Alisha's Adventure that does it (which originated as an attempt at a Gunstar Heroes port before being reskinned as an original game).

[@davidaitken8503]

I can think of about 3 dozen SNES games just off the top of my head that wouldn't work on the Genesis at all.

[@suchtieps3]

DF thanks for the Memorys you bring back of my childhood with this Video :). I think i got a Sega Mega Drive 32bit not the 16bit version.

[@vincientj]

John casually showing off having an NT Mini Noir...

[@someguy3186]

Think he even showed the gold one a long time ago.

[@mrnelsonius5631]

I wonder if the SNES version has noticeable input latency compared to the Genesis. This was the big reason back in that era I preferred Genesis, even though I didn’t yet know what input lag was haha. I could feel it, and even though SNES could have more colorful sprites and sometimes look more detailed, everything just FELT faster on the Genesis, more responsive, and years later watching stuff like this I learned it was basically buffer latency differences causing this phenomenon between the systems. Amazing interesting work by the dev. The 16 bit era forever owns my gaming heart (maybe shared with the Doom and Quake era ;)

[@mrnelsonius5631]

Also, as a professional musician and audio enthusiast Genesis’ sound system STILL sounds so musical and colorful and advanced. I love listening to music generated through it

[@digitalchewie]

I think a black hole just opened up in my living room!

[@charoleawood]

Thank you for doing these! What else were you going to do on a Saturday but faff around? Your time could not have been better spent doing anything else but to play Sonic on the SNES and call up your good buddy Richard Leadbetter and then share it all with us. Chef's kiss*

[@MelissaAtwell]

Wow, the music on the SNES version has some problems keeping a steady tempo! 😮 For us musicians, you can feel that the tempo lags ever so slightly at random points in the music. The Genesis version is rock solid in tempo. Fascinating!

[@MrBlitzardo21]

I noticed that too, and i'm not even a musician.

[@cireza_]

People always say that SNES and MD are both 256 lines, however it is pretty clear that a few lines are also missing on SNES (can be seen during the resolution comparison at 4:58). SNES only displays around 10 rings when hit, while MegaDrive displays tenths of them. Lower resolution, and some slowdown, without surprise. This is a great effort, and I think it further demonstrates the strength and weaknesses of both systems.

[@gilbertgotfried]

Wow I guess Nintendo can do what Genesis doe- *music kicks in* Never mind.

[@docnims]

As someone who still owns all my copies of SSM - seeing the name Richard Leadbetter brought back a wave of nostalgia!

[@goldenmindcavity]

06:23 lmao

[@matheuswerly5320]

The Sonic at 10:09 is so nostalgic for me. I never thought it would be a Chinese hack game. Great times when even my father would play games.

[@Chillalil]

It's actually Peruvian, but a bootleg's a bootleg so does it really matter?

[@gamesandplanes3984]

That game looks great.

[@nathanddrews]

What is this sacrilege? Blast Processing! Nintendon't!

[@PicksterTG]

Would be interesting to know what Richard would have made of this when working on the Official Sega Magazine back in the day!

[@chop46878]

This is like if someone got Halo CE running on a PS2

[@tuberoyful]

I'm SO done with y'all "strange" gamers which is it? Soknee with Nintendont or SEGA and Microsoft?

[@SatoshiMatrix1]

Skilled programmers can do absolute magic on otherwise seemingly limited hardware. Speaking of Sonic, one that never gets much of a mention these days is Sonic Pocket Adventure for the Neo-Geo Pocket. It's a sort of demake of Sonic 2 but man does it play great, way way better than any of the Sonic games on GameGear.

[@Shadow-xb2ce]

Sega '91: Sega does what Nintendon't! TiagoSC 20: Well, not anymore!

[@wallacesouza4061]

ThiagoSC mago das programação 16bits, e do BRASIL!! ThiagoSC is the Wizard of 16 bits console programming

[@fcukugimmeausername]

It may have taken 30 years, but finally the SNES has a good side scroller.

[@Ryuujin1078]

(Chuckles)

[@notsyzagts7967]

Fanboy bait is obvious.

[@macklin4839]

Gatsz Stony it’s a joke lol

[@GamingMyWholeLife]

Now I need to see Super Mario World running on the Mega Drive. Would be curious to see what adjustments would need to be done to make that happen!!

[@batmangovno]

2020 is wild. Maybe we're gonna get a new Sega console this year, who knows, anything goes.

[@superlbc]

We are! A Game Gear Micro....

[@reisu_3708]

5 years from now - Super Mario 64 on the Playstation 10 years from now - Sonic Adventure on the PS2 15 years from now - Uncharted on the Xbox 360

[@Tailslol]

i wonder if the demo could use one of the additional chips of the snes. just to help the calculation

[@sev2300]

Man! Green Hill Zone’s sound track hit me with a tsunami of nostalgia!

[@carlosnascimento9269]

This would've been heresy for 12 year old me.

[@Aqua_Xenossia]

I love this, in part because it’s common to find all sorts of amazing tech demos for the MD/Gen, but rather rare to see what the SNES and its sleepy little CPU could pull off with greater understanding of hardware today.

[@quag311]

*Console Wars wants to know your location*

[@PeruvianPotato]

Still a severely underrated channel

[@davidaitken8503]

Console Wars is one of the worst channels on You Tube. The reasons presented for and against games are absolutely idiotic. It's clear they don't adequately play many of those games.

[@SVTRonDogg]

Best comedy game YT channel

[@sintiendomevivo]

Thumbnail alone looks disturbing xD Great video DF Retro ;)

[@BdR76]

12:24 "Super Mario World on the Mega Drive" actually there is a bootleg game *Super Mario Bros* for Genesis but unfortunately it's pretty awful.

[@BdR76]

Just realised the Super Mario Bros bootleg for Genesis is pretty accurate actually. I was thinking of the "Super Mario World" hack on Mega Drive which is awful

[@bmx7596]

You guys should do a full look into the SNES port of Doom. Randy Linden just did an interview and its absolutely fascinating how he got it running.

[@Jambobist]

Finally a good game on the SNES!

[@NotaPizzaGRL]

​@Dean Satan VMU: WHAT A DISAPPOINTMENT Actually this tech demo is pretty neat. I envy people who can code in assembly.

[@kamranki]

Runs pretty well on SNES! A lot better than I had imagined it. Also, SNES version can look much better but a lot of art will need to be re-done in higher colors.

[@StaticTV80]

Cropped resolution and over saturated on the snes

[@gyga100]

"YES GENESIS, NINTENDOES"

[@StaticTV80]

Still has that snes slowdown and cropped resolution

[@Gambit771]

Nintentries.

[@davidaitken8503]

@@StaticTV80 As opposed to all of the SNES games the Genesis could never do. The fact that it can be done can't be diminished with constant whining about cropped this and slowdown that.

[@StaticTV80]

@@davidaitken8503 the SNES is just to slow it was designed for RPG'S and that's what it does best, even though the Genesis has some great RPG'S also

[@davidaitken8503]

@@StaticTV80 Nope. It was not designed just for RPGs and I've explained to you all of the reasons your assertion is factually wrong. You continually claim the SNES is too slow yet you never provide any real evidence to support that belief. There are probably over 50 games I can name just off the top of my head without having to look up any information that prove your assertions wrong. Games that not only match the fastest paced Genesis games, but also exceed them in speed. Regurgitating specs you read on a website doesn't prove anything. Games prove what a system is truly capable of. Face it. You don't know much of anything about SNES games.

[@Sonictheoofhog4]

Since they done Sonic 1 in the Super Nintendo, they should do super Mario world on the Sega Genesis.

[@victorlgcarvalho]

This just reveals that every Nintendo user always wanted Sonic in secret... 😂😂😂 Also, Genesis' is still smoother... 🤣🤣🤣

[@davidaitken8503]

Actually, I always thought Sonic games were a little on the simple side and needed more depth. I still like them but I've always enjoyed Super Mario World, Donkey Kong Country 1,2,3, and Yoshi's Island much more. The first two Bonk games on the Turbo Grafx 16 were better too.

[@ryzmaker11]

sonic on mega drive was such a groundbreaking game at the time. it looked and sounded fantastic and played like nothing else! no wonder that everyone wanted their own sonic clone but no one really succeeded except maybe data east with high sea havoc on mega drive and even that was rather a hybrid between sonic and strider... anyway compared to other platformers, sonic was a breeze of fresh air. it looks and sounds better than PC kid (AKA bonk) on PC engine and it also has more innovative game design with fast and complex physics, massive areas with crazy level design, original bonus stages... (which is one of the key points here, that the sonic games have their own, unique kind of depth). sonic also looks better than super mario world despite the SNES hardware being 2 years newer (!) and both are comparable in terms of sounds. super mario world was more conventional though which is why sonic made such a huge impression and sonic 2 was even crazier... (faster, more complex level design, insane 2 player split-screen modes using the system's interlaced resolution of 320x448 pixels...) sega did something almost unparalleled with the mega drive which is releasing a console way before its main competitor but that still ends as being as powerful, if not more

[@davidaitken8503]

@@ryzmaker11 You're praising the first Sonic game in the series for being fresher than the fourth game in the Mario series? Wow! Way to grab that low hanging fruit. Which series is still innovating with each iteration and which one has been stuck in reverse for decades? Sonic the Hedgehog looking better than Super Mario World has little to do with the technical side of the two game systems and more to do with the two distinct styles of game they are. Sonic is a simplistic, flashy, arcade style game and Super Mario World is a massive, expansive adventure complete with an overworld and multiple paths to reach the end of the game. Both games were 4 meg cartridges so while Sonic went for a more quality visuals at the expense of game world size and level variety Super Mario World took the opposite approach. Both design philosophies are valid and is the primary reason why Sonic's visuals are generally better.

[@xarph]

Richard with the Ned Beatty scene from network. YOU HAVE MUDDLED WITH THE FUNDAMENTAL LAWS OF NATURE MR TIAGOSC, AND I WON’T HAVE IT.

[@uselesstilxmas]

Back when no one cared about resolution, performance and patches. Just playing the Game

[@2drealms196]

People did but it wasn't as crazy as now. I remember my arguments with friends about SNES vs Genesis. I had the SNES they had the Genesis. We were too young to understand most specs but one thing stood out was the "better" colors in SNES games (aka larger color palette and ability to display more colors at once). Arguing graphics of DK1/2 vs Vectorman. Then the Nintendon't advertising campaign. N64 vs PS1 "64bit" vs 32bit.

[@fewsecondsbassstuff2471]

Really impressive. This dude is a genius, I hope for complete game one day... I hope Street of Rage II too!!!

[@alpiston]

Let’s see Sonic 3 & Knuckles now

[@superkooper6594]

I really hope this becomes a full project

[@yohanntoutain2682]

Calm down SNES fans, don't wet your pants!