Sonic Hacking Contest: The Complete History

[@DA_Garden]

The controversy with the 7th contest (2009) can be summed up as such: Entries to the contest used to fall under three categories. Public (where the entry could be downloaded and played), Partial Private (where some screenshots and videos were provided, but no download), and Private (where nothing needed to be made public, and the entry was judged by judges only). Sonic Boom won that contest, but the public were rightfully annoyed as the contest was won by a project they knew nothing about. No screenshots or videos were provided for the public to see what had won, and all we got was a description and statements from the judges confirming why it had won. It took a few years, but SHC finally phased out this controversial category.

[@The1SunshineFeeler]

@@DA_Garden Thank you for the context, D.A. Garden! I love your work!

[@DA_Garden]

@@The1SunshineFeeler Aw, thanks for the kind words. I appreciate it.

[@apersoniguess_]

The fact that there was even a category that was essentially "yeah these guys made the best game, no you can't see it but trust me bro" seems so ridiculous I'm surprised it existed at all

[@That1One-Guy]

It’d be cool if you did something similar to sage but I’m gonna guess you probably want to rest from sonic for a while so maybe next year. Great video as always

[@ryananthony2869]

Old Sonic mods and hacks always had a certain charm to them.

[@SunkythePootis]

Nice summary of SHC's history, but there are 2 corrections I'd like to mention for The S Factor: There's actually 2 types of power sneakers that can either speed you up or slow you down. Problem is, it's rather hard to notice the difference between the SOAP shoe (which slow you down) and regular Sonic shoe (which speeds you up) monitors without looking at the monitor very closely. While Sonia doesn't have a spin dash, she does have a spinning tornado move (done by holding the A button) that can earn speed quickly. That alone makes Sonia the much preferred character in S Factor. This doesn't excuse the rest of the hack being bad though, because there's no redeeming the later special stages and White Blaster Act 3, no matter how you approach them.

[@SonicntZane]

you got the shoe type mixed up lmao

[@FgThRngd]

Shout out to Megamix Mania for winning *TWELVE* trophies in 2023

[@benjaminscott3526]

The blue blur may have been my childhood growing up but man I now view the Sonic Hacking Contest differently now thanks to this. Then again, when it comes to the modding scene, of course I’m going to check it out. We did recently got Unleashed’s QTE ported to Generations after all. Good video, the Sunshine Feeler.

[@emeraldwrldz]

BEST VIDEO EVER! 🔥🔥🔥🔥 Even that Top15 reference was was perfect. 😂 Out of all Sonic videos this one is by far the greatest you ever made. Nicely done, TSF. 👍🏼

[@giovannidotgen]

Hello! This is Giovanni, second in command of the Sonic Hacking Contest. Thank you lots for making this video! I love to see people dedicated to the Sonic Hacking Contest, and the community in general. I've been following the event since 2015, for the greatest part as a general user, and this event means a lot to me. Thank you for giving the SHC more light! We hope to deliver something awesome for this year, and what's to come!

[@The1SunshineFeeler]

@@giovannidotgen You’re welcome! I wish you and everyone else involved tons of luck with this years contest!

[@FilipinoWaylon26]

As a former Judge and former Media Manager, I would like to mention a few things. - The reason why Sonic Boom winning was controversial wasn't because "it kinda sucked" as you so eloquently put it, it was because of the old entry system. In the before times, the Contest had three entry types: Public Entries, where, entries were accessible to the general public. Partial Private, where people could see media of it, but were not able to play it. Private, hacks that were mentioned for the running, but no media was presented. Sonic Boom was a Private Entry and won. People were pissed that essentially a ghost won, until they played it. Your personal opinion aside, everyone got to play the hack after, and while still annoyed by the circumstances, all agreed it deserved to win the Contest for that year because it was absolutely brilliant. You may not like it, and while I agree that some things can be a bit too experimental in the gameplay department, in 2008, what hack was technically, visually, and musically advanced for that Contest? It made Sonic Megamix look like baby's first hack. - I'm not mentioned at all for the creation of the Media Panel. The Media Panel wasn't a group effort, it was literally my idea from start to finish. At the time, Ayla wanted to find a way to expand the Contest but didn't know how, so I proposed the Media Panel as a way to garner more viewers. At the time, streaming was starting to get more popular, so I suggested SomeCallMeJohnny and had to use the archaic KZbin email system, hoping and praying he'd see the message much less agree to join up. Tails Channel only joined at the behest of Spanner once he saw my idea actually was happening, as he had little hope that the Media Panel would get off the ground. I know it seems a bit of me trying to stroke my ego, and to an extent it is, but getting no mention in creating what arguably made the Contest the monolith it is in the community today is actually pretty annoying, not to mention the 7 years, (I took 2 years off) of recruiting streamers for the thing. Cinossu got a mention for creating the site, I got no mention for creating the Media Panel. Sorry, this is me just being petty lol. - I don't understand your statement for the 2016 Contest. What do you mean the judges "missed the mark" that year? That year had like 30 Sonic 1 hacks iirc, and most of them were terrible. Being a meme hack only made it worse. - Sonic Pocket Winter (Which I will refer to as SPW) didn't win because it wasn't the "safe option", it didn't win because it was a small concept hack. SPW is an excellent hack for a game that has like 3 hacks, which awesome. However, outside of Winter Hill Zone, it's vanilla Sonic Pocket Adventure. The addition of a playable Tails and Knuckles definitely added a replay factor to it, but it's still Sonic Pocket Adventure. Sonic Scorched Quest won because it was a full hack that changed so much of Sonic 1. It had an introduction cutscene, it had level layout changes, new music, new bosses, ect; It wasn't a concept, it was a full hack. While I won't say you are wrong in your opinion of preferring SPW, to say that Scorched Quest won because it was the "safe option" is very much insulting to Team Painto and all the hard work they put into an amazing hack. - I'm glad that you acknowledged that Metal Sonic Rebooted was a controversial win, even if you do like it. I absolutely hated that hack and did not give it my vote for the HPZ trophy that year.

[@The1SunshineFeeler]

@@FilipinoWaylon26 Thanks for this information! I was already informed about the Sonic Boom situation in an earlier comment. I was also being sarcastic when I said its quality could’ve been the reason it was controversial and I didn’t mean for my comments about Scorched Quest to be insulting lol I’m also sorry for not mentioning the media panel thing, I had no idea. As for Metal Sonic Rebooted, I’ve known that it’s really hated but I never really understood exactly why, if you’d mind explaining.

[@AquiNoHayNadaParaTi.4]

Pretty cool recap of the SHC, my man! Also, leaving a comment so the algorithm can recommend it to more people

[@MarkeyJester]

Very good video! I'm bummed out the boss is what kept next level from being first on your list lol But I can certainly accept Shima as first, so we're cool~ Corrections? Two come to mind, Ayla didn't start the contest on SonicRetro per se, at the time I think it was called SImon Wai's Sonic 2 Beta forums. However, I do know there was another site which merged with Simon Wai to form SonicRetro, but I can't remember what it was called if it wasn't SonicRetro, I think you've got the right site, it just wasn't called that at the time (nit picking I know). Stealth was not the team runner for Megamix at that particular time, he was an important part of it, definitely, but Tweaker was the lead, if not half of it by that point. He did give it up and let Stealth maintain control at some point in 2009/2010 approx? Not to say Stealth didn't have lead control of any capacity, but it was initially Tweaker.

[@sonkunhyperspinretroarch4867]

Thanks for making this. I made a HyperSpin wheel called Sonic Hacking Contest gathering mostly Megadrive Sonic rom hacks throughout the years to have all in one place. Gonna see if there's some gems I missed in this video.

[@bluespheresguy2306]

Very good video i liked how thorough the research was 😊

[@jackhumphries1087]

It would be interesting to hear the history of SAGE after this

[@tivvy2vs21]

On the old sonic stuff research group site, theres a section with some single level rom hacks that are loaded as save states but trying to download them redirects to the homepage. Ive been lookin for them for a while, but i doubt ill be able to

[@neonkenomi320]

I'd love to see you discuss the Sonic romhacks with the most absurd and bizarre backstories in the fandom, surely there's gotta be few that aren't as well talked about or brought up. Also, considering Sega wants to eliminate any existence of the Streets of Rage: Remake, what is your take on that situation compared to now?

[@IntrestingYTObserver]

Really entertaining video. I've never heard of a lot of these hacks before but they all seem pretty cool. In other news, I finally got around to buying Darkstalkers. Is there any de facto 'beginner character' I should play first? Also, I did not know people hated that sprite lol.

[@The1SunshineFeeler]

@@IntrestingYTObserver Nice to know my videos got you to try the Darkstalkers games! Just pick whichever character looks the coolest. The only ones who I would say aren’t beginner friendly are Victor and Anakaris.

[@IntrestingYTObserver]

Thanks for the response. I'll try out all the characters in training mode, but I'm normally drawn to rushdown characters in these kinds of games.

[@zakkuth7447]

I actually have the earlier build of South Island Adventure lying around on one of my portable consoles. I can try tracking it down online if you're curious

[@The1SunshineFeeler]

@@zakkuth7447 Thanks!

[@zakkuth7447]

​@@The1SunshineFeeler my response doesn't show up for me, idk if it's an issue on my end. Anyway, no problem! The hack is called "Supersonic in South Island Adventure by Hivebrain V0.2 (S1 Hack)" and it's a part of the GoodGen romset. You can find it separately but I'd rather not, since GoodGen contains a lot of pretty cool early and obscure Sonic hacks!

[@luisz0339]

Great video! Also, Metal Sonic Rebooted was controversial? Why? I love it as a kid.

[@FilipinoWaylon26]

I didn't, and I was the judge to not give it the HPZ trophy. To this day, I still think the hack is mediocre at best and Dragon Edition should've cleared that barely original mess

[@tntsonic7482]

I legit was just looking on yt to see if there was a video on this topic and I see this was just uploaded lmao

[@Stoplookingathatistolethis]

Ay yo Tails alt account dropped

[@mightymadness5355]

CORRECTION: one of 3 biggest events. You forgot S.A.G.E. and the srb2 oldc

[@Change51]

WHY DOES IT LOOK LIKE VEGAS?!?

[@kenn_k]

13:25 garrulous has been around since at least 2013???

[@The1SunshineFeeler]

@@kenn_k He would join later. When I said “would most notably include” I didn’t mean just in 2013, but since 2013 :)

[@definitelynotsmart]

im going to consume SHIMA's art style it looks so wonderful and delectable + i really like how they altered knuckles' glide mechanics

[@lupinthenerd439]

Good video! Definetly I'll check the top 5 someday

[@LKitesar]

Ayla is just like me. Visionary, but comically flakey and a fan of X.

[@Sodaslushy]

What if someone remade sonic 1 but with a pourkour system and rail grinding and air tricks homing attack ect.

[@Sodaslushy]

This guy's gonna be big soon

[@RadeonGD]

ITS OUT

[@JaxCoolKartunes]

Amazing!

[@bluespheresguy2306]

When wil the 2024 one be

[@The1SunshineFeeler]

@@bluespheresguy2306 25:30

[@mcdouglas0928]

you deservie more views

[@moonhead9282]

thank you TSF

[@Change51]

Sonic Erazor won again

[@Skibster-w9l]

7:57 One problem though, you are not Sonic.

[@Reviebadbecauseyes]

if feeler only sunshine

[@Change51]

YES FINALLY

[@om4gaa]

yes

[@baraksha1]

I actualy loved Sonic 1 The Next Level so much I actually got a vinyl record of Alex Lee Take It

[@Eastompoo2]

FINALLY

[@symphomaniac]

The 2016 contest was fucking miserable. Too many unfunny memes

[@bluebellsforever]

10:54 FINALLY !!!!! Someone understands that !!!!