SRB2 version 2.2.4 patch release

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Sonic Team Junior
Posted by Rob Tisdell on 05-12-2020 01:36 AM.

Hey all,
We found a critical bug where players couldn’t complete the tutorial using the simple camera mode, so we fixed that. Also, we solved some issues in ACZ where you could get stuck on paths with certain characters. Not much else noteworthy, but you can find the changelog here.

To use this patch, all you need to do is copy the contents of the zip file into your existing 2.2.1, 2.2.2, or 2.2.3 folder and allow Windows to overwrite any files it asks about. Again, we are no longer supporting 64 bit builds. If you have a 64 bit version of SRB2 set up, you absolutely must get a fresh install of 2.2.1 and patch 2.2.4 over the new 2.2.1 install. 2.2.4 will not work if you try to put it in a folder with a 64 bit build.

Linux users, binary packages should be properly updated where they normally are found on the Downloads page.

Mac users, I know I said yesterday that we’d have an update for you guys soon, and in fact, we do have a functional 2.2.3 build for Mac and I was gonna make that public tonight, but now we need to get 2.2.4 squared away for you guys. Sorry! We’ll have that ASAP.

View on SRB2.org
 
Random pointless musings...

While it's far too late to change anything, it'd be nice if SRB2 had a consistent version numbering scheme. For example:

  • X.0.0 updates would be for updates that require a reinstallation and are incompatible with previous save data
  • 0.X.0 updates require a full installation but use existing save data
  • 0.0.X updates are patch files

Renumbering the 2.2 era so far would look like this:

2.2.0 --> 3.0.0
2.2.1 --> 3.1.0
2.2.2 --> 3.1.1
2.2.3 --> 3.1.2
2.2.4 --> 3.1.3
 
Random pointless musings...

While it's far too late to change anything, it'd be nice if SRB2 had a consistent version numbering scheme. For example:

  • X.0.0 updates would be for updates that require a reinstallation and are incompatible with previous save data
  • 0.X.0 updates require a full installation but use existing save data
  • 0.0.X updates are patch files

Renumbering the 2.2 era so far would look like this:

2.2.0 --> 3.0.0
2.2.1 --> 3.1.0
2.2.2 --> 3.1.1
2.2.3 --> 3.1.2
2.2.4 --> 3.1.3
While I do agree that the whole version numbering is strange (I mean the 2.0 could've been simply called the 1.1.0 instead as the previous version was the 1.09.4) I think this is a bit too late to retroactively change the version numbers (even if the 2.2 is so much of an update that it should've been called the 3.0, pretty much like how Terraria 1.4 used to be called the 1.3.6). On another side why isn't this small fix not called the 2.2.3.1? I know, that's a lot of numbers here.


2.2.3 didn't even last a week!
Basically like the 2.2.1
 
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I've got a problem. I've updated to 2.2.4 on linux and all the digital music is gone. Only MIDI songs are available. Do I have to re-install the game?

Thanks in advance.
 
While I do agree that the whole version numbering is strange (I mean the 2.0 could've been simply called the 1.1.0 instead as the previous version was the 1.09.4)

The version numbers before 2.0 were a mess, which was the whole reason we switched to "2.0" in the first place.

We had (starting from the Final Demo versions):

  • 1.01
  • 1.02
  • 1.03
  • 1.04
  • 1.08 (there was no 1.05 through 1.07)
  • 1.09
  • 1.09.1 (four betas were released)
  • 1.09.2
  • 1.09.3 (over forty betas, starting from 1.09.3.0 until something like 1.09.3.48)
  • 1.09.4
  • 1.09.4a

And the final version was intended to be "1.1". Which is very odd if you think about the fact that "1.01" was the first Final Demo version number. In what version numbering system does it make sense to treat "01" as different from "1"?

This is what we were trying to get away from when we changed to a 2.X.x numbering system. Now, whether we should have called 2.2 instead 3.0 is another discussion altogether, but hopefully I've cleared something up here.
 
The way I like to explain it is that the first 2 is actually very arbitrary and only exists to kill off the 1.X versioning system—so you can think of 2.0 as version 0, 2.1 as version 1, and 2.2 as version 2, with the rightmost numbers denoting patches for each of those updates (so by that metric we're currently on version 2.4). In that sense it's more of a 2-number system! The extra leading 2 makes it denser than it needs to be already, so we'd prefer not to add yet another number.
 
I've got a problem. I've updated to 2.2.4 on linux and all the digital music is gone. Only MIDI songs are available. Do I have to re-install the game?

Thanks in advance.

Sorry about that, music.dta didn't get included, working on getting new data packages up.
 
Sorry about that, music.dta didn't get included, working on getting new data packages up.


Would you mind adding builds for 20.04 Focal Fossa aswell? :p


EDIT: Nevermind, got in touch via Discord. I'm hyped! :)
 
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Thank God they updated the MIDIs, it was weird they weren't updated along with the OGGs, but whatever.
Let's just hope that 2.2 doesn't have too many patches like 2.1
 
When I try to boot the game it says that the application was unable to start correctly. Should I just reinstall the whole game?
 
Ever since Final Demo, major updates have come every 4-5 years. As much as I pray for the next version to be released sooner (2-3 years) I'm not holding out hope.
I don't really know because I discovered SRB2 during the 2.1 days. I also think that the two biggest parts of the 2.2 were the slopes and full revamps of some levels (like Castle Eggman). If the 2.3 is about adding two acts for Red Volcano (and a proper boss for Egg Rock) it would probably be a bit shorter.
This is just simple assumptions because I don't know what is truly planned for the next update nor if there will be even more features to implement in the game.
 
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The numbering is funny. It feels a bit like nerd/developer humor; massively underselling the thing as a way of being both sardonic and self-effacing but maybe I'm imagining it.

I like it in the way it kind of implies the game will never be finished, but also will never be abandoned. Seems appropriate for Sonic. I was in a conversation comparing/contrasting Sonic and Mario, and the thing with Sonic is he's all about unrealized potential from day one to present. There's no Sonic game that is without some significant scar or blemish, whereas at least 3 or 4 Mario games are as close to perfect game design as we've seen in anything. Every Sonic game, including SRB2, is a failed experiment.

It always seems like Sonic games are just about to turn the corner; they're always so close to getting it just right. SRB2 fits this perfectly. And again it's kind of unique to Sonic; with the exception of maybe Mario Sunshine, you generally don't feel like a Mario game is "on the right track." It's a fully complete thing without needing asterisks or patches or updates.

It's also funny in the art vs. commerce aspect of video games — not funny haha, funny interesting. SRB2 is a platform more than it is a game; the mod levels have already accumulated at least two additional 1P campaigns, not to mention the multiplayer/SRB2Kart aspects that I have still barely touched yet. Sega and EA have basically re-sold updated versions of their SRB2 game platforms as new releases annually for full price.

I just think SRB2 could stand to beat its chest a bit more and do away with false modesty because I think this is work to be celebrated and shared.

A very unique appeal of Sonic is that, because he's such a failed potential type across the board, it's the fan / newer generation of creators that are doing the best work on the franchise. Doing better work than the franchise deserves, even. Mania. SRB2. Utopia. The comics. Here's a fun, free, flirty dissertation topic for you — Sonic the Hedgehog fan vs official media proves creativity/ingenuity flourishes in socialist systems over capitalism systems. Should be obvious but that's not the world. Anyway Sonic official vs fan makes a compelling argument for workers/fans/consumers seizing the means of production.

That's the hot take, here's the ambitious proposal —

"SRB2" should graduate to being the name of the engine and/or the overall franchise. Expand the ambition and organize the talent! SRB2 is not an auteur project; the original creators left, and it's now a legacy project expanding the original scope. It is a community project, that's the dang beauty of it.

SRB2 could already be a series of different campaigns/games if the mod levels were simply organized/grouped, even just from among what's released. There could be an entire S23K for a Classic 3D Sonic, there's enough good SRB2 levels for two and a half campaigns already. The ones still coming can still come on; they can lock on to the larger campaign or whatever. You could have more fun with the story, it would need to be a bit improvisational not knowing what the next pack of levels might be, and of course it never really matters, the levels speak for themselves, but it's the kind of thing that allows people to help and hooks players in a different way. The countless talented Sonic fan artists could submit more storyboards, like the prologue in SRB2, for the mod pack sequels.

The forums are great for opening the door of suggestions and discussions to the existing degree but it's too limited, there should be a way to sign up to help and continue pushing the project's momentum instead of another several years between updates. Maybe there is such a list on the programmer only boards? I can only guess at the workflow based on what I've seen from posts here but, point being, there are other ways to support and help indie fan game project development. And a lot of people on the boards capable and willing, sharing the same motivation.

I just think it could be more visible beyond the forums, having the mods organized into different games/chapters in the series would certainly attract more curious players than "hey SRB2 went from 2.2 to 2.4" Just a thought.
 
SRB2 could already be a series of different campaigns/games if the mod levels were simply organized/grouped, even just from among what's released. There could be an entire S23K for a Classic 3D Sonic, there's enough good SRB2 levels for two and a half campaigns already. The ones still coming can still come on; they can lock on to the larger campaign or whatever. You could have more fun with the story, it would need to be a bit improvisational not knowing what the next pack of levels might be, and of course it never really matters, the levels speak for themselves, but it's the kind of thing that allows people to help and hooks players in a different way. The countless talented Sonic fan artists could submit more storyboards, like the prologue in SRB2, for the mod pack sequels.

Yep, you're basically describing the SUGOI Trilogy, which is ~130 levels spread across multiple campaigns with a really stupid story connecting it all.

It's locked to 2.1, and it likely won't be ported, unfortunately.
 
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Ha! That's cool, I'd heard about SUGOI a bit but didn't really know that's what it was. That's clever to take a Kirby boss as a final Sonic boss.

The story bit of the ending is kinda funny for the time. I kinda feel like things like that actually date a thing more than the gameplay... or I'm just a bit burnt out of meta/weird in general and especially with Sonic. It's been done, a lot. What hasn't really been done, outside of Evan Stanley/Ian Flynn and some others, is something that rolls it right down the middle.

Not childish fanfic, or weird parodies of childish fanfic, but literally just the classic formula of taking a simple shonen adventure story, applying the Studio Ghibli style art direction, pilfering some pop culture bit and incorporating as both parody and genuine stakes, to walk that fine Sonic tight rope of extremely stupid yet intoxicating.

It's like there's been a cultural shift the past 10-20 years -- just thinking about cartoon protagonists -- very specifically away from anthropomorphic animals and toward humans (kids or adult superheroes) fighting monsters. A fear of association with furries maybe?

Which is odd, because anthropomorphic animal still hit, both young and old (Paw Patrol; Bojack Horseman), and even the old IP still connect (Sonic; Ninja Turtles; even arguably Batman is popular in part because he's dressing specifically as an animal -- same for PJ Masks with kids).

I know this all seems way off-topic, but it's just a bit of a tangential drift inspired by 2.2.4 reminding that Sonic could be good.
 

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