Sonic Robo Blast 2C (+ SRBGold)

[BomberBlur07]

Sorry for the long post coming up, but this thing is definitely interesting.

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Hello all!

Recently, Unknownlight has discovered an interview made with Sonikku. While answering one of the questions, he said:

Actually, the change to 3D was not so much to do with choice. We felt that ‘The Games Factory’ was far too limiting for what I wanted SRB2 to do, and thus, moved to C. However, once the programmer for the ‘SRB2-C’ project went AWOL, and on his return, progress went at a snail’s pace.

But what was SRB2-C? Taken from the wiki:

While these levels were much more rudimentary than their modern counterparts, they nevertheless brought The Games Factory to its limits. Many of Sonikku's more complicated ideas could not be replicated with the limited scripting engine, and the game would slow down immensely in the larger levels. The Games Factory was thus abandoned in July 1998 when programmer Stealth offered to write an entirely new engine in C for the game, still in 2D. However, progress on the engine halted two months later when Stealth was unable to help with the project anymore. At this point, SSNTails, who had created the Sonic-themed Doom addon Sonic Doom 2, suggested moving the game to the 3D Doom Legacy engine, which it still uses to this day.

This coincides with what Sonikku said in the interview (with C standing for the programming language). However, there was no links at all.

I also found this short conversation with Glaber and SSNTails. It seemed like we were missing nothing, however it would still be cool if we had it. It seemed to be lost though. The discussion got revived 10 years later with the same people.

Spoiler: Message log

<Glaber>A topic on the SRB2 MB reminded me about another "lost" version of SRB2
<Glaber>Did SRB2-C ever get far enough along for there to be anything playable?
<SSNTails>what is srb2-c?
<Glaber>according to this interview with Sonikku (https://www.sonicstadium.org/2002/0...bo-blast-2-developer-johnny-sonikku-wallbank/) it looks like it was the version right before Halloween Tech, but after TGF
<Glaber>some of the screen shots in the interview may have been overwritten
<SSNTails>Ahhh yes
<SSNTails>Ok so there was indeed a C srb2
<SSNTails>It is the grandfather to Project Mettrix
<SSNTails>Same engine
<SSNTails>Stealth remade TGF GFZ in it
<SSNTails>You can still download it from stealth’s website maybe?
<Glaber>so it was litterally just SRB2 TGF's GFZ being ported to C?
<SSNTails>If not, use internet archive
<Glaber>I don't know the web address
<SSNTails>Stealth.emulationzone.org
<SSNTails>It miiiight work in dosbox
<Glaber>ok, that's just good timeing
<SSNTails>Let me know if you find it
<SSNTails>Would be a hoot to check it out again
<Glaber>nothing yet, but I found some screen shots
<Glaber>https://web.archive.org/web/20010116133600im_/http://stealth.emulationzone.org/srb1.gif
<Glaber>https://web.archive.org/web/20020109202508if_/http://stealth.emulationzone.org:80/srb22.gif
<Glaber>https://web.archive.org/web/20020517153159if_/http://stealth.emulationzone.org:80/srb23.gif
<Glaber>I also got 2 zip file names
<Glaber>srb2gold.zip and srb22d.zip
<SSNTails>Yep that’s it!
<SSNTails>What is gold though?
<Glaber>not sure, but both download links are actualy dead
<Glaber>even with the wayback machine
<SSNTails>Try his new website with way back
<SSNTails>He kept it up there for a long time
<Glaber>doesn't look like the wayback can find it.
<Glaber>but we have the filenames of the zips at least and Stealth is still active on youtube
<Glaber>his personal site is now the site for Headcannon
<SSNTails>Yep
<SSNTails>Hah I wonder if you could fish his url
<SSNTails>Maybe it’s on there and not linked
<Glaber>I did try http://stealth.hapisan.com/srb22d.zip, but it gave me a 404
<Glaber>same happened with the other zip
<Glaber>at least I was able to dig up the screen shots

Again, there were no hopes of finding it, Wayback hadn't archived it. It seemed like it's lost.

Until recently.

On March 1st, 2019, RoyKirbs (a.k.a. roy on the MB) apparrently got ahold of a copy of this release and showcased it on YouTube. He also shared a link of it, as well as the Gold release of SRB1 (which I will come in a bit).

When I found it, I immediately showed it to a server and we started researching. And here it is, Sonic Robo Blast 2C! And it's definitely more interesting than it looks.

Both executables require MS-DOS. To run them, DOSBox is recommended. After booting it up, you get an animated intro, apparently made by SSNTails. Once you get past it, you are sent to the selection screen. Most of the options are placeholders though. Options work, and level select has pretty interesting stuff such as an early name for Egg Rock: Robotnirock. This name is previously only heard in the Original Soundtrack (from 2000).

On the Single Player option, you will be sent to the GFZ1 from the TGF release. The spindash is already implemented, and can be charged with DownArrow+Ctrl. The score tally is a placeholder too.

GFZ2 is more of the same, it has been ported from TGF. The shield is there too. With Q,W,E and R keys you can activate other shields too.

Q:Basic Shield
W:Elemental Shield (?)
E:Attraction Shield
R:Armaggedon Shield

The special stage token (the B token) also works, but the special stages don't.

After clearing it, you will be sent to GFZ3 with no boss. To clear it, press Tab to bring up the debug menu. Ctrl and Alt cycle through the objects and Space places it. To clear GFZ3, place a signpost.

There is actually a cutscene between GFZ and THZ. It's a cutscene SSNTails showed on YouTube.

THZ1 is actually more incomplete than the TGF version, it has no objects and music. Again, it lacks a signpost.

THZ2 again lacks objects and some platforms require debug mode, due to lack of springs. This stage is actually interesting because it has never-before heard music, likely inserted by Stealth himself. After clearing it, the game ends.

This version of the game apparently had Super Sonic, but I couldn't find the key yet.

Sonic Robo Blast Gold is an early version of a cancelled remake of SRB in the same engine. It only has KBZ1 and no boss. The debug mode works, but you cannot place a signpost.



Alright, that's it. It is definitely an interesting piece of SRB2 history nevertheless. It's cool to look at how SRB2 would be like if they went on with the C engine.

And here is the download link, as promised:
https://mega.nz/file/MDpRhCjK#w4NJH8YxnU2Wq6gdjsKfBEBcUgC2l0vFhxNGPMu3bXo

 

[Icarus]

So in a way it's like a prototype of SRB2.


I wonder if somebody would remake the entirety of the final game in 2D

 

[Jonster]

Well, that was an interesting read. The idea of having a SRB2 proto and a cancelled SRB1 port ost for years, but then finally found and shown in a youtube video is very.... sonic to me.

 

[NotTheFinalDemo]

Buuuuuuuuuuuuump! I tried this using DOS on PCem, to no avail, next tried dosbox, and got the same error.

The error, you may ask?

How do you fix this?

 

[NotTheFinalDemo]

SSNTails told me how to get this running and, huzzah! It works!

Now I get to enjoy a better version of TGF.

 

[Julia]

I noticed that the music in SRB2-C is different. I MUST find the soundfont used for it.

 

[Icarus]

Is that an official release of the game?

 

[lnferno]

Is that an official release of the game?

SRB2-C is an official engine PoC made by Stealth back before the jump to Doom Legacy, but right after the jump from TGF.

 

["MIDIMan"]

I noticed that the music in SRB2-C is different. I MUST find the soundfont used for it.

I believe the "soundfont" used for the music in SRB2-C is a program known as WinGroove. Unfortunately, said program can only run on Windows 98 and below, due to it being a 16-bit application (rather than 32-bit or 64-bit).

It is possible to run Windows 3.1 on DOSBox and maybe run WinGroove there, but you'd probably be better off using an unofficial soundfont someone made using samples from the program. Keep in mind that MIDIs played back with this soundfont will sound higher quality than the music in SRB2-C (they were rendered with a sample rate of 11025hz, likely to save space), plus it might be slightly inaccurate.

 

[Julia]

I believe the "soundfont" used for the music in SRB2-C is a program known as WinGroove. Unfortunately, said program can only run on Windows 98 and below, due to it being a 16-bit application (rather than 32-bit or 64-bit).

It is possible to run Windows 3.1 on DOSBox and maybe run WinGroove there, but you'd probably be better off using an unofficial soundfont someone made using samples from the program. Keep in mind that MIDIs played back with this soundfont will sound higher quality than the music in SRB2-C (they were rendered with a sample rate of 11025hz, likely to save space), plus it might be slightly inaccurate.

Hey, you're right! It IS WinGroove! Thanks for the help!

 

[glaber]

Also the music track for THZ2 here is from System shock

 

[ROBLOXNoob246]

apparently it doesn't work on windows 10, so if you want to play it, use DOSBox.

 

[glaber]

you would have had to use dosbox anyway. The programs are dos based.

 

[Lamibe]

Windows 32-bit can perhaps run it but it's better to use dosbox as it's higher compatibility and is more accurate.