Note: You can check out the interview with JCorvinus here; both for the fact that there’s an small introduction about SADX and mods (the reason behind these interviews), and with the relevance it has in some of the tredreammentioned topics, like early SADX mods and Sonic RDX. If you already have checked that out (which would imply that you are already aware of the topic), then go ahead 🙂
Hello there! Today I arrived with yet another interview, from yet another important person in the SADX modding community: ItsEasyActually! Previously known as darkspines35 (and still going under that name in Sonic Retro forums), he is the developer of the Dreamcast Characters mod for SADX, which not only filled the missing spot between restored levels and lightning in the Dreamcast mods for SADX, but also was something that was attempted for quite a long time, and was only achieved through years of researching, evolving modding tools, and converting properly the original data into the game.
On top of that, he also released in October 2018 a brand new Windy Valley Autodemo Restoration mod, not only improving upon the original attempt by JCorvinus in 2014, but also faithfully restoring camera, object layouts and more details from even more data obtained from the Autodemo in the stage (thanks to research and tools advancements in both the Autodemo and SADX). The result of this further-polished restoration of this fabled lost level is nothing short of amazing.
So of course, to know more about the guy behind these two amazing feats was pretty interesting, and was quite an experience to talk about it. And now, without any further ado, please enjoy!
This interview was conducted on May 06, 2020.
First of all, I’m very grateful that you accepted; to be able to talk with people as skilled as you is really an experience; I did feel the same back when I joined X-Hax IRC; and like many others, I loved your work with SADX mods.
Heh, well thank you. It’s wonderful to actually see someone in the community actually doing something along these lines. I appreciate your work. I actually just finished reading your interview with Josh [JCorvinus], very nice stuff.
Very appreciated! Alright so, I know that this one can be a bit of a hard question to start; but what can you say about yourself to begin with?
I’m pretty much just a laid back guy who cares way too much about a certain blue hedgehog.
What would you say that you are skilled with?
Ooh, that’s a doozy. I think I’m most skilled with just 3D modeling and bits and pieces of creativity here and there. Nothing too specific as I’m one of those “jack of all trades, master of none” types. One of my passions though, and something I hope others see me as skilled with, is working with people.
What would you say or remember that was your first experience with Sonic?
That would be playing Sonic 1 way back on the Genesis. I remember struggling pretty badly with the game, but I loved it. I distinctly remember loving the vivid colours in Sonic and the overall look of the game compared to Mario at the time.
Since how long have you been part of the (online) Sonic community?
I got my start on a really old website called The Glowing Bridge working with Sonic Rom hacks. That was around….2005? I wasn’t super active on there, and I didn’t do a whole lot of rom hacks either. I did eventually find myself super involved with the community in 2007 when a close friend of mine introduced me to Sonic Adventure DX texture mods. I joined a forum called SonicForum.net and have been deep in the community ever since.
Can you provide detail about those two sites you mentioned (The Glowing Bridge and SonicForum.net)?
Sure! I’ll share what I can remember of the two.
The Glowing Bridge was a website akin to that of Sonic Retro and Sonic Cult at the time. Pretty sure there were overlapping members between the two as well. Unfortunately I was not on the website too long before it eventually went under, but I know the name of the website was a direct reference to The Hidden Palace Zone from Sonic 2. Specifically the green glowing bridge that was unique to the level.
As for SonicForum.net, this was a community that was mainly SADX modders. I met a lot of folks on this website, some of whom are still around under new aliases (I’m one of them, used to go by darkspinessonic35/darkpines35 in the community), most of whom have vanished from the scene. I learned a lot of my early stuff from this website with modding SADX specifically, in particular editing model’s vertices and SET (Object Layout) editing. The site itself was unfortunately home to a lot of drama which eventually led to its downfall. Little too much toxicity from the folks who ended up running the site when the admin decided to leave the scene.
That sounds like a pity.
It was, but I think it was for the best at the time.
How would you describe the scene of SADX modding in those years?
Rough around the edges is the best way I’d describe it. It was well before the days of the ModLoader, so all of our game modifications were limited to editing vertices, textures, and the object layouts. Some cool stuff was definitely done back in those days though. Plenty of awesome object layout edits and lots of cool re-textures to the game. I do know that a lot of us in that early scene looked up to jcorvinus (known as Dude) at the time and a few others. He was the first person to make a complete overhaul to a level, something that all of us wanted to do at the time.
Around what time did you learn about or join X-Hax?
I think it was around the time MainMemory officially joined the scene which was 2009. I know as the previously mentioned forum died out, I made the move to Sonic Retro and got a little bit closer with members of x-hax, but I wasn’t modding the game as often. I remember really old conversations with JCorvinus on AIM (man I feel old) just before this. I got to know him and PolygonJim pretty well at the time I feel like. When MainMemory made those posts on Sonic Retro back in 2009 for SADX Modding (specifically a truly playable Super Sonic), it caused a surged in the SADX community. It got me back into modding the game, and got me on the x-hax IRC and x-hax Forums. I guess that’s about the time I “joined” the crew officially.
What were the tools that you used often to develop your mods?
Back in the day, it was specifically 3DS Max and Photoshop . I remember two really old community developed tools, PVMEdit which only allowed us to use bitmap files and SetEdit for editing the object layouts. Both were a bit of a pain to use and limited, but they really got the job done at the time.
Nowadays, I use Blender, Photoshop, and Visual Studio alongside all of the wonderful SA Tools programs we’ve developed over the years.
What can you comment about the programs/tools in SA Tools?
They’re a constant work in progress, and they get better every week. I’m actually working on some projects for it currently. Specifically getting more objects loaded into our level editing program for users to play around with.
That sounds very nice! What were your first mods in SADX?
Oh man, having to pull out some old memories for this one. My oldest mods were definitely texture mods for Sonic and Knuckles specifically. I think I even made my own Shadow texture edit at some point for the really old Shadow mods based on the Super Sonic model swap mod we had at the time.
Now that you mention Shadow mods, did you know (or were involved with) JCorvinus’s Shadow Adventure mod back then?
I only knew about it. I had no involvement in the original mod. I did, many years later, make a fix for that mod so Shadow’s head wouldn’t flip around during cutscenes though.
What can you say about your work with Dreamcast Characters?
Ah, one of my crowning achievements. I worked on that mod solely when it came to finding the original models in SA1 and when it came to porting the models over.
Which others were working with you on that?
I did get help initially from MainMemory for the Weld Data that would cause the game to crash, and I got some help with SonicFreak94 to fix up a few problems that came from Tails “Jiggle physics.” Specifically his ears and cheek would clip through his face, and SonicFreak94 helped create a solution. I also received help from PkR for ensuring the mod would correctly with the Lantern Engine mod for the most accurate look to its original Dreamcast version.
Since when did you start working on the Dreamcast Characters mod?
I had tried to make that mod many times, dating way back to when MainMemory made the first iterations of the SAMDL program. It wasn’t until I saw PkR working on his Dreamcast Conversion that I got back into the scene after a year or two long hiatus. It was early 2017 when I really started developing the mod in full. The Solution file has a date of 1/26/2017 if you want an exact date, haha.
Would you say it was pretty difficult to achieve the results you got?
The overall mod was difficult at first. I had to learn a lot about programming during it, and I ended up learning a lot more about the game than I expected to. I’m very happy with the final product though. I’m still working on some new fixes and updates for it behind the scenes, but I don’t know when those will be out at this time.
What did you think of the projects that wanted to restore Dreamcast levels and the sort? (SADX 99 Edition and Dreamcast Conversion)
I always wanted to restore the game to its Dreamcast origins. In fact, until I played it again on an emulator around 2010/2011, I had long since forgotten just how different the Dreamcast version was. I was thrilled to see restoration projects pop up from time to time. I always wanted to see them succeed and was always ready to offer help if they ever needed it. I’m very happy that PkR has been worked so hard on the Dreamcast Conversion mod and how successful it’s been. I’m even more thrilled that SonicFreak94 could restore the original lighting system to SADX.
Did you have an inspiration behind working on the Dreamcast Characters mod?
My inspiration behind the Dreamcast Characters was actually wanting to get in on a piece of the restoration at the time which is probably a little selfish sounding, but I have a reason haha. PkR was working on levels, I wanted to do the characters. As I previously mentioned, I had tried numerous times to port the Dreamcast models to SADX over the years prior to the ModLoader. It was one of those things I absolutely wanted to make happen, so as soon as I knew it would be possible, I knew I had to make it happen.
Another great mod you had worked on was the Autodemo Windy Valley Restoration. What can you comment about that one?
Oh absolutely. This is gonna be a bit lengthy.
So, I always had an interest in the original level. I’d always seen the screenshots, the prototype gameplay, I just knew I wanted this level restored in the game. Unfortunately, I always considered it a bit of a lost cause due to the fact that we did not have the level data to work with.
When Orengefox released the AutoDemo to the world, I began digging through the files to see if it was in there. Based on the file date, I knew there was a hope to see it, but I did not have high hopes. Once I got the file open, I was insanely happy to see that it was the actual prototype level. The only disappointing part was that the level itself was lacking its textures. Those are still something I hope we eventually get one day out of another prototype.
Anyway, that same friend who got me into modding SADX joined me in a collective effort to try and recreate textures for the level. We were not great at it at the time. We were both in late stage high school, and while we aspired to be artists, we were not perfect by any means. The old restoration efforts went into a mod that was a joint effort with JCorvinus and MainMemory to restore the level in some capacity in SADX. Unfortunately, we did not have the abilities we have now, and a lot of stuff were left out of the mod in the end. That was the one released way back in 2014. It was buggy, incomplete, and very inaccurate. I was happy to see it out in the wild, but I really wanted to redo it at some point.
That’s when, while working on the Dreamcast Characters, the idea to properly restore the level came to me. I saw PkR doing cool stuff in-game with objects, and I realized I could just start coding in the object data if I found it all. I had also been linked to a project in the works by supercoolsonic. I wasn’t sold on it at first, but I finally looked into it more. I reached out to him on Steam and we decided to partner up. I think our first conversations can be seen on his old GitHub repo for his original project.
He and I got the levels put back together, and we used textures created by some fine folks in the community and that same friend whom I worked with previously. Then began the long task of restoring objects. We ended up running into a slew of issues because, in short, SADX really sucks with collision. We had to modify a lot of the original data to work with the new restoration techniques to account for the crummy collision in SADX. We ended up restoring springs, and all of the propeller objects next. It all kind of happened at the same time, but these were all the “easier” objects to restore thinking back on it. Once most of this was complete, we had the hard task of restoring the floating platforms.
We actually got some help from Kell, who was working on some amazing Sonic Heroes level ports at the time, to help with coding the moving “Raft” objects. He was very kind in helping us get some code setup for those. Once these were done, honestly, it came down to a lot of playtesting the level and making sure everything worked how we wanted it to. All in all, I give a lot of credit to supercoolsonic for his work on the level. He arguably did a lot more for the project than I did in the end, and I’m proud to have worked with him on the restoration efforts.
Overall, I’m so thankful for the whole group we put together for it. NiTRO (the close friend I’ve referenced a couple of times) for all his artwork efforts with the level overall and keeping me going, DaGuAr for some of the restored textures put together, Kell for all the help with the moving platforms, MainMemory & SonicFreak94 for their work on the disassembly and reverse engineering efforts, PkR for his DC Conversion work we would occassionally reference, and even JCorvinus for the original mod ours was based from. Honestly, I’m so thankful for all the fans too. Without them, we wouldn’t have had nearly as much reason to do this mod as much justice as we did in the end.
Amazing! Do you remember details about the process in extracting the data, or the tools that helped you the most there?
Oh 100%. In the beginning, we used just the native tools SA Tools (SAMDL and SALVL). We did use the really old model dumping tools by SANiK. That was actually how we found out Act 2 was still in the level. I think I did a lot in terms of dumping the original models way back when we did the original mod back in 2014. supercoolsonic and myself developed our own disassembly using IDA to properly map the file after a while. It made locating the data so much easier and faster. supercoolsonic himself ended up digging through the main binary for the game as well when we realized some data was in there and not just in Windy Valley’s file. He did a great job with that. It was actually this disassembly that helped us identify the original path data. As I’m sure anyone playing the level has noticed, only the windy path in Act 1 works well. Unfortunately, it seems that Sonic Team destroyed their path data in Act 3 haha. We should probably fix that ourselves at some point…
Screenshot of SADXLVL2 
Screenshot of SAMDL
Additionally, I have to thank evilhamwizard for his native AutoDemo restoration efforts. He used IDA and did a wonderful disassembly of the AutoDemo’s data and restored the level to a somewhat playable state in the AutoDemo file. I ended up referencing that a lot in the early days to help better understand the way objects worked. His videos and images helped greatly with how objects worked, and the disassembly he made cleared up most of our questions in the end.
And with one object in particular, the T_Spring object (yellow spring in Act 2), I ended up making that in Blender. The object is missing its model data in the game, so we took the collective opportunity to develop our own asset using the collision data as a rough guide for the general shape of the object.
It is very fascinating all the effort done to bring that fabled level back to life; I also remember watching the screenshots many times[19:00]Can you talk about other mods you have worked on? (or research in Adventure/Adventure 2?)
Absolutely, although I don’t have a lot of other mods that panned out in the end.
The Speed Highway restoration mod, I helped only in the beginning. supercoolsonic handled the majority of that one. The process for restoring it was a lot smoother since the textures were still in the game, and most of the objects in-game had counterparts that could be reworked.
The same goes on for other AutoDemo mods that have been worked on or are currently in-progress, like the AutoDemo Chao Gardens. supercoolsonic will likely continue our partnership well into the future with our modding efforts.
Going way back into the past though, one of my other big mods was the SA2DX mod a guy named Fiamonder and myself were working on. We did not have the current era of tools to work with, so we were making our own versions of levels for the game. We had gotten as far as a Sonic model and Shadow model into the game via early SAMDL model importing. We had a near complete Radical Highway level we were working on. We ended up parting ways, and the mod never saw the light of day. I’m pretty sure it’s been lost to time at this point as well.
As for other mods, I have a lot of unfinished projects or barely started projects I’ve had on the backburner. I hope to one day show those off and release. I’d go into more detail on those, but honestly, I have no idea when, or even if, they’ll ever be finished
I understand that feeling, I also have ended up with many ideas or projects in the backburner; it was only recently that I revisited my website since 2017 😛
Among those project ideas, were these any kind of custom original levels or ports? I was wondering if you had thought on something like that while working on the Autodemo Windy Valley mod (considering its pretty much a whole new level)
I absolutely want to make some brand new levels for the game. In fact, one thing I will share is that I have this dream to recreate the three level tropes that were not done in the final game. There are text references to a Desert Level (a proper action stage, not the Sandboarding minigame), Mushroom Level, and a Jungle Level. I’ve bounced around ideas for a bout two years now for all of the level tropes. Maybe one day I’ll finally act on those dreams.
Working on the Beta Windy Valley mod absolutely gave me ideas for this. I hope to channel its level design when making any of these levels in the future.
Speaking of a Mushroom Level; what mods have you tried out for SADX before? Any notable mentions or favorites?
RDX is like, the pinnacle of the old way we made mods. I haven’t played it in years, but maybe I should again one day. His mushroom level is also quite a pleasant level to play to this day.
Of course the Dreamcast Conversion as previously mentioned, I honestly don’t play the game without it. Same goes for the Lantern Engine mod. As for other mods, MainMemory’s awesome SA2 Sonic mod is great. I’m looking forward to when the other characters are finally added to that mod.
Kell and his fantastic Heroes level ports. I know he’s working on some SA2 level ports with Sora, and I’m looking forward to playing those when they come out. While I still haven’t played it yet (at least by the time this is published), Kell’s Chao in-game mod (cannot for the life of me remember it) is one of those really cool ideas turned into a mod. I should give it a shot sometime.
What would you say that was your best contribution to the SADX community?
Oh man, that’s a toughy. While I’ve done some work in trying to make things user friendly with some of the tools. I’ve also been doing my best to help newcomers to the scene whenever I can, and I’ve contributed a lot to the Object Definitions for SADXLVL2’s object editing….I’m also super proud of the work done on the Dreamcast Characters and the ability to give that to the community….but all things considered…
I think my best contribution was the AutoDemo Windy Valley mod. I think it really is one of those once in a lifetime things I got to be a huge part of, and I’m so proud of the project as a whole.
Giving the fans something they have all wanted for years was just one of those treats I was so happy to be able to achieve, and I know the community was in love with the mod and still is. It brought a new friend and work partner into my life with supercoolsonic, so it had more perks than being a collective dream brought to reality.
What can you comment about the people you met in X-Hax?
I’m glad to have them all as some aspect of my life. I’m so glad that we’ve all built a community with this shared interest we all have in the blue blur, specifically to two games that touched all of our lives. I’ve made some great friends over the years through x-hax. They’re all great people, jcorvinus for really pioneering the scene originally along with SANiK, and both MainMemory and SonicFreak94 especially, for all their efforts in ensuring we have the tools to mod the game like we do. I hope that the newcomers keep up the dream even after I’m long gone from the scene.
Do you have any greetings or special thanks for someone? Have a message for the Sonic community?
Thanks to literally anyone and everyone who has ever supported me and what I do. That goes for my spouse, the fans of the games, and literally anyone who just supports modding communities at large.
To the Sonic Community at large, honestly, I just want them to follow their dreams. If they have an idea and they want to turn it into a mod, do it! We’ve seen some insanely cool stuff, not just in our little corner with SADX and SA2, but in games like Sonic ’06 and Sonic Generations. I want to keep seeing those ideas turned into mods. They’re awesome.
What would you say about your experience with 3D modelling programs when working on these mods? And how much you learned from it?
I’ve learned so much honestly. I remember starting out learning Blender back in 2005, and I’ve kept up with it as a side hobby that fines its way into the modding world as well when the time is right. Thanks to my knowledge with 3D models from games, I’ve learned a lot about topology, both good and bad. I’ve equally learned a lot about rendering techniques, especially more modern ones with the use of PBR.
At this point, thanks to Justin113D, I’m able to make much better use of my Blender knowledge. Back when I was using 3DS Max, it was out of necessity since Blender had problems. I ended up using 3DS moreso to create plugin scripts for various model formats ranging from the Sega NN Library to the BFRES format used on the Wii U. I never used it for properly modding games other than vertex edits back in the hey-day of SADX modding. I’m hoping to make great use of the SA plugin for Blender in the future as I start working on new mods. Especially since that’s where my real knowledge base is with 3D programs.
Nice to hear that! What other games have you modded or tried modding? Any games with level editors you have messed with?
Well, the only other game I’ve really ever modified besides SADX and some SA2B is Luigi’s Mansion on the Gamecube. I did some preliminary work with reverse engineering the model format, and some others used my documentation to create model rippers. I ended up using some of my basic knowledge to try and modify the game to utilize some beta assets. It….didn’t go according to plan to say the least, but it was a nice proof of concept.
I also helped jumpstart some of the Generations modding scene. I remember when the Xbox 360 Demo was dumped, I helped fix up the MaxScript for Unleashed to work with Generations models. It was never perfect, but the format was documented, and with some help from Link, we had the ability to import levels into 3DS Max. I don’t know how much it helped with making tools in the end, but I know it at least helped jumpstart the scene to some extent. I think I’ve done a lot more behind the scenes work with helping folks document formats rather than actually mod games myself. A recent one I’ve been helping with is the Skies of Arcadia community.
As for games with level editors, not counting MineCraft Creative Mode, I’ve played around a lot with Super Mario Maker and its sequel. Despite preferring Sonic to Mario, I have a soft spot for the plumber too. It’s always a treat to try and thread the needle between gimmicky level and feeling like a proper Mario level. Maybe, just maybe, we can get a Sonic Maker type game one day.
What would you say that are your favorite Sonic titles? (Outside of Sonic Adventure of course)
It’s less of an absolute favorite and more like a small list. In no real specific order (and not counting SA1 and SA2):
Sonic Mania – Sonic Unleashed – Sonic 3 & Knuckles – Sonic Generations
Where would you put SA1 and SA2 on that list?
That’s a toughy since that list isn’t in a specific order. I’d say in a contest, I’ll play SA1 over SA2. I prefer the cheestastic story in SA2 a lot more, but I do prefer the level design we got in SA1. I’d probably pick Mania or S3K over both of them to play though.
Have you made (or tried) any mods for Sonic Mania?
The most I’ve done for Mania is make a Special Stage model import script for 3DS Max. Unfortunately I haven’t played any mods for it yet. I hope to give some a shot, maybe even make some of my own, in the near-ish future.
Any plans for the future related to SADX modding or another personal project?
I’m definitely hoping to continue with the current projects I have on hand, but the biggest project right now is getting SADXLVL2 supported with all objects from the game for other users to be able to work with. One project I want to see completed though is getting the SADX models converted to NJCM (format from SA2). If we can manage that, then making character mods directly for SADX will be a lot nicer.
On the personal side, I’m hoping to get better at programming. I recently started writing a little library for the Sega NN Library, but I don’t know how far I’ll go with the project. Other people out there have already done a better job with that library as it is, but we’ll see.
Now that you mention supporting things in SADXLVL2, what are your contributions in these tools? Does it remind you to another level editor? Do you think it has got as good as it can, or that it can be improved further?
My contributions have mostly been in the “data mapping” department where I’ve helped label things to be exported. I did the majority of the AutoDemo data maps, and I handled mostly all of the SA1 ones as well (mostly cleanup with SA1, but adding stuff to them as well). I believe I added most of the object definitions for Emerald Coast, and I added all of the ones for Windy Valley. The current one I’m working on is Speed Highway after a poll a ran recently.
The way this level editor works actually reminds me of a weird mix of Blender and 3DS Max. I like it though. I do think the tools can absolutely be improved. The rendering pipeline, and maybe some UI changes. As it stands right now, I’m pretty content with the way the tools all function. I wouldn’t want to make any major changes to them just yet. The biggest hope I have for the future is updating it so we can edit cameras better. That will come down to more to us figuring out the camera system to a much better extent than we already know.
On that note about camera editing, did restoring the cameras in Beta Windy Valley work like, restoring or converting the original camera data from the autodemo? or had to be recreated from what data was remaining?
The cameras were a pain. Unfortunately, we were unable to use the original camera layouts. The cameras, as with the level, are from a build of the game prior to the AutoDemo itself. Due to this, we couldn’t just “match up” the camera types like I had hoped. I also think there were some slight changes to the camera system from SA1 to SADX, but I’m not certain.
I’m glad what we do have in there works well enough. supercoolsonic ended up handling all of the camera changes in the end as I didn’t get around to it in time, so I’m not well versed in what changes were made specifically. I just know he did a top notch job with what we have to work with.
Just on a side note, have you played Sonic Robo Blast 2 v2.2?
I have! I played it way back in the day when it was still very incomplete. I have since played the updated version once I got this new computer I’ve been using. It’s a fun game, but I haven’t beaten it. I am considering maybe trying to make some levels in it one day though. Not sold on that idea as I have a lot of other stuff on my plate haha.
I have actually dome some few things for SRB2 (and SRB2Kart); one was a project attempting to port the levels from Sonic X-treme (the famous “New Worlds” fisheye build) into SRB2, and the other one was a track pack for Kart. What other communities or games have got you curious before?
Well, I’ve had some loose interest in the Mario Hacking scene. I never got too far into it, mostly just seeing the cool stuff happen from the sidelines. I’ve also had interest in The Last of Us community, specifically the stuff Freako’s detailed on his channel for TLoU and the Uncharted titles. Pretty neat stuff honestly. Another cool scene that I just kind of watch is the Smash Bros. modding community. They do a lot of cool stuff, but I’ve never taken up full interest in doing something myself or really playing them.
How do you think that emulators have helped in all the research for SADX hacking? And what have been the emulators that have you impressed you the most? (both Dreamcast and whatever else you think)
I definitely think that DEMUL played a good role in helping us with figuring out some stuff in regards to SA1/DX. It allows us to use Cheat Engine, so we’ve been able to take a deeper dive into the game that way. It was very useful in helping to discover beta content. Most of which has been very well documented by Speeps both on their YT channel (SPEEPSHighway) and on the TCRF Sonic Adventure articles.
What did you think when I reached out to you for this interview?
I was wondering if you might after I saw your interview with JCorvinus. Kind of hoping for it actually. Thank you for the opportunity!
Thanks to you, for both this wonderful conversation and for all the stuff you have done!
Well thank you again for the opportunity. I wish you luck in your endeavors to continue to document the history of SADX modding.
Do you have anything else to add? (Can be anything, final words, personal experiences, etc)
Mostly just for folks to keep an eye out for whatever cool stuff happens in the future. I know some folks have some cool mods being worked on currently, and I know some of my stuff has some hopefully nice updates coming in the near future.
Alright! That was wonderful! I guess that there would be people that would like to have an closer insight upon some of the process on how the mods were made; but that would both take quite a while right now, and I’m sure that it would also take some time for you to prepare that; but if you’d like to talk about that in another occasion, I’m good with it 🙂
I’m up for anything honestly.
In any case, I’m really happy that you took this time for the interview, I always consider that the experience from people behind such big mods and things is important, on their backstory, on how they achieved, and the meaning of what they achieved. And of course, I really find cool to be able to ask about that with people that know well about their stuff.
I appreciate that you’ve been doing this. It’s honestly awesome that someone is taking the time to do this.
Since I joined the X-Hax IRC, it was quite fun there, and despite that I wasn’t a developer like the others there, I really was impressed with all the advancements that went on real time there (as well as being able to try out what was in beta stages). And I would have to thank PkR for that; he had both helped me in restoring models in SADX 99′ Edition (and then he would get inspired enough to work on separate mods that restored Dreamcast models and landtables by himself, and that would go on until the Dreamcast Conversion happened. The rest speaks for itself), and invited me to the X-Hax IRC when we was helping me about that.
I’m really looking forward completing my research about the history of SADX modding; and I must thank you as well as the rest of X-Hax for both all their work on these years, and for their insight on that story (specially from these interviews).
I also get easily fascinated with people that have been in the scene since early years (2000-2010) specially when around those times, there were several changes, like Sonic 2 Beta Forum turning into the Sonic Retro we know and love now.
Absolutely. I wish I had been around back in 2004, but I was a little kid back then. The Glowing Bridge was a branch of the whole scene IIRC.
At least you had better luck than me, I was born in 2002; but I guess that’s why it always calls my attention to know more about these past communities (and those who evolved into the present). But hey, thank you for all this! Please stay safe and good luck on all your stuff; greetings from Venezuela!
Anytime!
Thank you so much for reading; these two interviews (as well as maybe some few extra ones upcoming) will play a bigger role in my article documenting the History of SADX Modding, as it was quite a long ride to get where we are at now since the earliest years (and I was present around the time most of these newer mods were being developed, which is why I always was interested in this topic), and I’m really looking forward bringing this one completed.
Of course, there is still emulation-related content on the works, so stay tuned for those 😉
If you are enjoying this content, you can share it with your friends, and also support me on Ko-fi. Really looking forward getting to deliver more content and, in a close future, adapting the articles into videos. Anyways, see you next time!
ARCADEX MACHINA 