Sonic ERaZor - The Dumbest Bug I've Ever Made...

This is a short video explaining what caused the hard crash in RedHotSonic's recent video about Sonic ERaZor. An alternate title might be "Why Your Code From 13 Years Ago Probably Sucks".
Watch RHS' full video here: • Sonic ERaZor - But doe...
Music: • Messiah: A OneShot Met... (VII. The Refuge)

[@maxrichards5925]

This is a cool video on why that bug exists. Btw I recently played your hack on my everdrive pro & had an issue in that water level with the camera. For some reason after the first checkpoint where you’re supposed to fall down, I kept dying because the camera wasn’t scrolling down fast enough I think. The only way I was able to fix it was by resetting back to my everdrive’s menu & booting it up again. It was kinda bizzare. Besides that I didn’t have any other issues besides the ones RHS mentioned.

[@selbi182]

Were you able to recreate it? Is it a hardware-only bug?

[@maxrichards5925]

@@selbi182 I only had this happen on my model 2 tower of power so I think it’s a hardware issue. Not sure if it can happen on emulators or if I can recreate it, but I’ll try to recreate it again later today & post my results in RHS’ discord 👍

[@VAdaPEGA]

The moment I saw the H-Scroll table get messed up, I knew roughly what problem it was, though I do wonder why objects are running in a static screen O.o (After H-Scroll is Object RAM, an invalid ID or object Routine got loaded and ran garbage code, resulting in either an illegal instruction, an address error or an infinite loop.(in case of an infinite loop, the error handler won't trip)) Actually more importantly, why does the entire text block need to be loaded into RAM in the first place @.@? Edit : oh no i'm overanalizing this now, the more I think about it, the more questions I have... I wish I wasn't cursed with the knowledge of "roughly but not quite knowing what I'm doing".

[@selbi182]

The exact details of what causes the actual glitchy appearance of the screen isn't something I've looked into too much, though there does seem to be some code related to H-scroll directly underneath the code that handles the ID stuff. As for why things are the way they are... good fucking question. I have no idea anymore, it's been too long :V

[@DominicPROTASer]

Ngl the piracy fact was actually a good thing, because like what you said about no sram batteries in knockoff carts, it would lock up, and ngl you should keep that bug in if you end up making a new ERaZor release, see what I mean?

[@selbi182]

At the end of the day, I don't earn anything with this project to begin with, so the only thing I can ask for is to have as many people enjoy it as possible. That's why I don't want to exclude anyone who likes it enough to spend money on it (regardless of who receives it). Also, I've already fixed it :V

[@DominicPROTASer]

​@@selbi182I understand why you want people to enjoy it, even if you don't receive money from a knockoff cartridge brand.

[@Joshwoakes]

I also encountered another a bug with the same text screen (and this bug also happens in the tutorial with the text boxes) whilst doing an experimental TAS run. The bug results in things such as graphical corruption, temporarily hanging and crashing. It's triggered by spamming start as fast as possible or in terms of TASing every 2 or 4 frames. I'm guessing this is also overflow related and the game not taking account for button spam and not checking if the ID has already reached set a point on time. So yeah, my suggestion would be either add some kind of delay (that can't be bypassed) before the button press is registered or somehow make so it caps using a equal to or greater than check if needed, when a counter reaches the point where it's suppose to transition\finish and trigger the said transition\finish. However it would be nice if you could add the option turn off the story elements and text screens but that's up to you.

[@selbi182]

I'll play around with turbo buttons to see if I can replicate and fix that. Thanks for the report!

[@selbi182]

One more question, what do you mean with that last part specifically? Obviously the cringy story text screens, that's a given, but what else?

[@Joshwoakes]

​@@selbi182 with the option turn off story elements and text screens? I meant like in a future update you could add a mode or a setting that you can toggle on/off. Which gives the option to make it so that all text screens and cutscenes are automatically skipped but keep the hub world in use. In other words a basically a "No Story" mode. But again, this was just me giving you an optional suggestion for a future update. The other suggestion was me trying give a rough fix based on what I think was happening with the bug I reported and I could wrong.

[@selbi182]

@@Joshwoakes I will implement an option to skip the story text screens, but I see no value in removing the cutscenes as well.

[@TheTartKnight]

I wanted to play this hack after watching RHS's video but after watching this I don't want to, instead I'll wait for your QOL update so I can play the best version, I am waiting eagerly.

[@selbi182]

That's honestly the best call and I appreciate your patience :)

[@TheTartKnight]

@@selbi182 granted, I will play in emulator like the pleb I am, but I still I would appreciate those QOL improvements whatever they would be.

[@alexfield290]

As the one who first pointed the problem of using SRAM here out, even I wasn't aware that it was heavily modified from the level select. Also, yeah, accidental anti-piracy protection; just put an SRAM check somewhere. (Puggsy does something similar, except it's the inverse; it checks for SRAM somewhere, and if it detects it, it halts after several levels)

[@AeriaVelocity]

This is cool to learn about from the guy himself, I don't understand any low-level ASM stuff but you explained it well

[@PeanutNoceda_oficial]

1:20 it happened to me (it happened to me with the 2014 version) by the way, you are my idol, Im big fan of your hack: Sonic ERaZor (I make videos of your hack on my channel)

[@arbi9506]

love the oneshot ost in the background lol

[@selbi182]

Specifically the metal version. I love that album so much

[@user-gd2rd5jj2e]

The only other bug I encountered was the slowdown/cram dot bug on rhs’ livestream of the game with the crabmeat in ghz. If you leave the exploding projectiles it shoots on screen long enough it will happen. I could reproduce it on real hw, regen, and Kega.

[@gwtun]

hey selbi, can i get your permission to use the dying animation from erazor in my hack? i'll credit you for it

[@selbi182]

Sure

[@gwtun]

@@selbi182 thanks man

[@matheusbrancobs]

very interesting!

[@goldinfluencestheselfish]

Not to be out of context but, did you completely remove special stages 3-6 from release 3 to the current version? Just because i tried every sort of PAR code to find them but i found nothing

[@selbi182]

Correct. At some point I deleted every single stage that was unused.

[@goldinfluencestheselfish]

@@selbi182 also, i found a way to access the original sonic 1 credits, i access zone id $06 and i die, the credits start playing, but i still can't figure out a way to get the "end" screen with eggman jumping on the thing

[@ianproductions5540]

So categorically disgusting 😔

[@selbi182]

What is?

[@ianproductions5540]

​@@selbi182the secret that redhotsonic referenced in his video

[@selbi182]

​@@ianproductions5540 It took me all the way until now to realize what you were referencing hahaha Might actually do something with that phrase...

[@henryyengibaryan9510]

Hi