This is the FINAL part of The History of Sonic Adventure DX Modding article. If you haven’t read already the introduction of this article/topic, you can do so by clicking right here. You can find the previous parts as well after that. I’d really recommend you to read everything before if you haven’t, since…well, this is the final part and you’d miss out a good chunk of context 🙂
Of course, not everything in SADX modding was directly involved with Dreamcast; the main idea behind modding in most cases is allowing for custom content and shenianigans to happen within your favorite game, and this could be seen in the early instances of character model replacement. Of course these would improve substantially with a bigger understanding of the model format, improved tools (SAMDL), and of course, more resources avaliable on the internet for character models (as well as higher quality standards). For example, there were many model ports from other modern Sonic games (or custom models inspired by older iterations):
While custom stages weren’t as widespread as custom characters (yet), JCorvinus’s Mushroom Zone all the way back in 2011 (and 2014) proved that custom stages are definitely possible, and outside of the Autodemo restorations, you can see the potential for entirely new levels from the work of Kell and his SADX Heroes Mod, which not only imported whole levels from Heroes, but also added new items and enemies. Its quite a surreal experience to see this much added on top of SADX.
Being [a Seaside Hill port] my very first mod, and without any C++ knowledge, I had to manually merge all the chunks and edit the geometry a bit to look good enough, but I was rather proud. I posted it on twitter and the support it gave me made me continue. From then I learned more of C++ to make tools to help me convert Heroes assets (like paths, object layouts, etc), found out how to make a chunk system into SADX, and it’s how the current Heroes Conversion was born.
Kell
Another HUGE highlight that would come from Kell and Sora would be SA2 Conversion, which went the extra mile from adding a recreated HUD and rank system from SA2 to adding very faithful maps and even grinding! These are truly remarkable mods that can really show the potential that’s in both SADX modding with current tools, and the scale of custom levels in the game.
I originally wanted to port Final Rush, as it’s my favorite SA2 Stage, while Kell was working on City Escape. That made me realize that if each people would make a separate mod for a SA2 stage, that would create a lot of issues, specially if each mod adds some specific SA2 features, such as grinding or a custom HUD etc. (You know, mod conflict is definitely something nowdays haha.) So I asked Kell “hey look, you are making City Escape, I’m making Final Rush… what if we just make a single mod to port every SA2 Stages?” And here we are today I guess haha.
Sora
I met Sora in early 2019, I have no idea why we started to talk but it happened. Watched some of his speedrunning streams, he’s entertaining lol. And just like me, seeing cool mods made him want to start and he asked me for help on how to start. After the last big release of the randomize we shared interest in porting SA2 stages: me City Escape, and him Final Rush. And it went overboard. 😉
[…] We both work on everything in general, and in almost all cases we work on what the other did to improve it. What I meant by field is, for example, I know a lot of things regarding object definition, while he knows a lot of things about the game’s progression code and SA2, and we learn things from the other as we go along.
Kell
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.
ItsEasyActually
There would be a fair share of impressive mods that expanded upon game abilities too, and not just involving character/level replacements. For example, Kell would also bring the aforementioned Chao Gameplay mod which let you use your Chao as your partner, and also a New Tricks mod where Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Amy would get some extra moves.
Well with the great enthusiasm around Heroes mod, it got me to learn more about modding. I found out how to use a disassembler to look at the game’s code, which was already well labeled by MainMemory and SonicFreak94, and how to modify it freely. I wanted to do other cool things than level ports. It led to research around the object and collision systems of SADX to make custom objects and New Tricks.
Kell
I’ve been very impressed with Kell’s Sonic Heroes mod. It’s completely insane, it does a lot of crazy things to get Heroes levels and objects working in SADX, and I can appreciate the technical aspect of it. The Chao Gameplay mod is also quite crazy. I also like Exant’s mods a lot, and I hope he will be the one to make a proper Dreamcast Chao restoration in SADX.
PkR
Another ability-enhancing mod that is noteworthy is the Sonic/Shadow/Metal Sonic Gameplay Overhaul mod was made by Benji23245 for the Sonic Hacking Contest 2018 event, which even added some few extra graphical effects and boosting!
And about old mods, there would be a good bunch that would actually be preserved (and if it isn’t already ported to Mod Loader, current tools would possibly allow them to them yourself); Darkspines147 helped me out in this research with some old website links, TheGershin converted 9 old character mods to ModLoader (which means that you can use them now), and anipalary ported Fiamonder’s Crisis City to ModLoader too, making it one of the few salvaged stages avaliable!
So, with everything we have seen through all of this history, through all of the efforts that were done, through all of the years spent by these people only because of their passion for this game and the cause of making it proper justice as the original incarnation deserved, exactly 16 years since SADX released in 2004; and even figuring out methods to help the Steam/Dreamcast Collection users by essentially converting the 2011 port into the 2004 version, but pre-equipped with all the mods you would need.
The Steam ports for both games are very broken and bugged, so for SADX, the “BetterSADX” mod basically uses an older PC port of the game that functions a lot better and is more playable.
Roaxes
There’s always a level of dedication in every community that decides to crack open a game and expand it further than what they have seen before, but it is noteworthy the extents that the Sonic community has reached on this for many games (Sonic Retro, the massive amount of impressive romhacks of the classic Genesis games), and of course, the sub-community behind everything about Sonic Adventure (and SADX) would be no exception. From the amount of research done to understand the internals of the Dreamcast release and the discovered prototypes with valuable info, to essentially overhauling the original PC port with modern solutions and faithful content, as well as new cool stuff like the aforementioned Heroes and SA2 level ports.
I like to mod SADX because I can see the reactions of people, it’s very cool to see someone having fun thanks to something you made. Being a beta there was some things that went wrong, but it’s necessary for us to improve. All in all the comments were very enthusiastic and it makes us want to continue!
Kell
I never had ported any stage before [SA2 Conversion], so I had no idea how that worked. I had to learn how to make SADX loads custom geometry, how to create custom objects, how to make an object interact with player (when needed) and also how to edit gameplay. I learned a lot with how SADX was working with its code just by making this mod alone. This is easily my most ambitious project and I cannot thanks enough MainMemory, ItsEasyActually, SF94 and many other people who worked on SA Tools, because without them and their help, this project couldn’t even exist. […]
I was really scared when we released it, I was afraid people wouldn’t like it for some reason, we also found few bugs 3 hours before the public release, so we had to fix them fast haha. In the end, the majority of people enjoyed it and were impressed, that made me really happy, we’ve been working hard for months, so reading positive feedbacks was amazing.
Sora
Everything that had been done before and has been achieved today is nothing short of admirable, specially from a point of view where, even when you weren’t someone as skilled with programming or reverse engineering, you could still see all the painstakingly arduous trial-and-error behind testing and figuring out all about both versions of the game, as well as their intentions. Despite that my involvement was mostly about the initiative of Dreamcast textures in SADX and nothing else, it still brought joy to many in the community; but of course, the people that worked hard on both modding the game inside-out to provide ideas, toools, and the fantastic ModLoader, as well as doing their best to restore MUCH more than what I could have dreamed of (like, with the Dreamcast Conversion, Characters and Lightning, you could compare it to original Dreamcast screenshots and they would be strikingly similar), and I really admire these people because of that.
X-Hax was a very cool place to be in, and on top of the people there being very knowledgeable about SADX modding (after all, the inteviewees are from there :p), they were nice too; and it was a fun ride with everybody there. Of course, everybody else also had great memories from their stay in X-Hax.
I personally don’t have any experience with them, but I thank them for all the help they’ve given us in growing the Sonic Adventure 2 modding community, especially with helping out on the Chao part giving assistance for coding of many mods, whereas before the Chao part was on its death knell.
Roaxes
I messaged MainMemory on Twitter and he helped me get started making mods, which is how I made my first mod, Chao World Extended SADX (CWESADX).
[I learned] 3D graphics programming, a lot of lowlevel stuff, reverse engineering, C, a little bit of modelling; and a bit more of experience in tool development because I contributed a bit to SA Tools.
Exant
[…] Everyone’s been nice to me, and I’m happy to be part of it. It was also nice when you dropped by, and I miss those early days.
[…] There’s a lot of stuff going on in SADX modding, and I’m glad to have been part of it. I’m also glad you were there for a while. I hope you consider rejoining and making C++ mods someday – we need more SADX modders.
PkR
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.
ItsEasyActually
[MainMemory] brought a ton of value to the community by developing previously non-existent tools that were vital for getting more people interested in hacking. She is a good friend of mine and got me started on reverse engineering SADX PC.
PkR is the best frog.
SonicFreak94
If anyone wants to learn how to mod SA1 or SA2 it’s definitely the place to be.
Speeps
The work done there can’t be described by words. There are so many people collaborating, updating tools and in general creating amazing things which inspire many people. It is really difficult to start modding the game, but seeing how others do it, fills you with such determination that perhaps one day you gonna make something cool too, especially when you are supplied with tools which will help a lot with that.
Krzys
It was a long journey to cover all of this, but I’m really glad I did, and that everybody else, on top of what they did for SADX, helped me out as well. Without them, all of this wouldn’t have been possible.
It’s really nice to know people still care about this game. Definitely one of the best, IMO
JCorvinus
I appreciate that you’ve been doing this. It’s honestly awesome that someone is taking the time to do this.
ItsEasyActually
I was happy, and I’m especially glad that you’re doing this with multiple people to get different stories and perspectives that form a bigger picture. I’ve never been interviewed regarding my modding work before.
PkR
And you might be wondering (or not), with all of this, what will be next for all of these people and SADX? Well, like with many other things, there are things that still can be improved, that can be learnt, and of course, even when a long journey is coming to a close, life still goes on. Some have used their experience for their professional jobs and ideas (but still keeping an eye over X-Hax and SADX), while others are still working on plans for the blue blur, either directly or indirectly related to Sonic Adventure DX.
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.
ItsEasyActually
I’m working on the next CWE update and a revamp of CWESADX.
CWESADX will mostly be fixes and things being redone like the 3D emotion balls. CWE however, not sure how much I can talk about, but all I’m gonna say is look forward to being able to “decorate” your Chao more than before.
Exant
I’m working on several projects right now, some of them aren’t mods but most of them are related to SADX in some way. And I still update Dreamcast Conversion every once in a while, this is my main project after all. I guess I could give you a quick preview of an upcoming update for SADX Mod Installer, which will work together with the Input Mod and let you customize keyboard and gamepad controls in SADX.
PkR
Editor’s note: At the time of this being published, the Gamepad remapping tool from PkR is already avaliable in SADX Mod Loader/Installer 🙂
My professional job is working on a general-purpose spatial compute platform called Holos. We’re currently exploring and building out training and education use cases, but when it’s fully mature you should be able to use it for anything. Unlike other spatial compute tools, we lean very heavily on body tracking, embodied cognition, and we try to make our tools feel very much like video games. it’s very important to us that work tools feel joyous to use, and feel like an extension of the self instead of just a tool. Work should invigorate the soul, and be extremely educational. Work should never be boring or depressing.
Outside of my professional VR work […], I am working on a quasi-secret project codenamed “Sonk the Ejog” That’s all I can say.
JCorvinus
There are lots of things I wanted to do, and still kind of want to do, to Sonic Adventure in general. In fact, you made me want to work on SA2 netplay again! I started porting that to SADX as well. And I’ve already got multiple players working (8 in fact)…
But honestly, I think I’ve moved on to developing my own thing. I am working on a Sonic Adventure framework in Unity with some old x-hax friends because we all want a consistent, clean framework to make Sonic Adventure style games. It’s coming along nicely, and I can’t wait to make stuff with it.
I’m focusing all of my efforts on that when I have the time and energy. Right now I also have a full-time job programming though, so it’s become a little difficult to manage. Once I get used to things I will absolutely get right back on track no matter how long it takes. It is still under development in my absence.
SonicFreak94
I recently released a new version of Better Tails AI and people seems to enjoy it, that’s a mod I care a lot so I’m glad its getting well received. I also want to continue improving the game in other ways. I used to want to add to Tails and Knuckles a Spin Dash, but Kell was faster than me haha. I also plan to do Super Knuckles at some point since Super Tails was really fun to do and I got request about that. I also have few secret projects that I will share eventually. I don’t know for how long I will continue to make SADX mods, but I’m still having a lot of fun making them at the moment.
Sora
Well I’m reaching a point where I want to do other things. I’ll obviously continue on improving Heroes Conversion, New Tricks (Tails’ spindash is obviously coming), and probably make some other small mods.
Kell
At least for the [Chao Island] discord part, there’s a bot in development to sort of automate the daycare channel, as for many updates for the site in general, alot of the updates are taking place in the wiki part of our site by the Wiki dev team, which that page specializes in more in depth information then what you’d see in the normal info center page tab, which is more geared towards getting to the point quickly and simplifying stuff.
For recent updates though there are definitely still a lot of pages with missing information that needs filled some day, such as the lost chao locations page and more that we’ll hopefully have some day. I hope to see the site continue to progress rather then stall for several years like it had prior to the recent revamp of 2018.
Roaxes
Sonic Adventure research impresses me in how there’s still things to be found; PkR keeps finding things to restore in Dreamcast Conversion (like bubble effects in the Chaos bosses), ItsEasyActually keeps documenting SADX data in SADXLVL2, and in May 21 2020, there was yet another Autodemo related find (thanks to Speeps and ItsEasyActually), having digged up the Mystic Ruin’s jungle area landtable from Autodemo and realizing several differences from the final release. Another thing that was recently found by ItsEasyActually were some unused Sky Chase paths from the Autodemo, including one for the unused Dragon! This was thanks to a recent release of a debug build of SADX 360, which contained some extra information of the game.
And it would be weird to actually leave out Sonic Adventure 2; many users had alot of experiences with that game, made research for it, and enjoyed the Chao Garden as well. Despite that modding that game would only be a thing since 2011 (when the Steam port released, after 10 years of being released in the Dreamcast), there was a good headstart happening thanks to the expertise of many X-Hax members with modding through SADX (and many X-Hax members previously or currently did a lot of mod work for SA2), and MainMemory both adding support for it in SA Tools, and creating a Mod Loader for it as well.
While the initial years were somewhat limited, it is clear that many big breakthroughs will be upcoming for this another beloved gem of a game, specially around this time. For example, there was the aforementioned Chao World Extended mod which expands a lot the Chao Garden features, the very first custom level released for Sonic Adventure 2 (which was an import of the whole Emerald Coast from SADX, no less) happened in 2018 from Main Memory, and the first custom-modeled Chao Garden was made by [DEXTERITY] in March 2020. Of course, I should be covering the story behind all these mods for SA2 in the future 😉
So what could I say myself about all of this? Essentially, when the original Sonic Adventure got shafted in its ports to other platforms (specifically the PC version), all these years of research paid off in the results that we know now, as many of the missing things were restored properly in a high-resolution compatible package, practically porting the original Sonic Adventure aesthetic on top of the 2004 PC engine, to deliver a great experience once again. And it was truly a pleasure to cover a lot of it with detail, as well as give an insight through these skilled people’s perspectives.
Even though mods may be seen as “simple” by some people, everybody involved had their own life, their own goals, their own virtues and issues; experiences that showed them what awaited them, motivations that pushed them to improve further, and to show not only all the other eager fans of what could be done with enough time and hard work, but also to themselves about what they were capable of.
And of course, videogames have been an important part of many people childhood, including myself and the rest of X-Hax, with the fascination of Sonic Adventure’s existence and experience, having fun with any of the games was thanks to SEGA and Sonic Team, with all the love they poured on tthe Sonic games and the original Sonic Adventure (and yes, also because of the 2004 PC port; because as inferior as it may have been, it was the introduction for many to Sonic Adventure, and was the base for everything possible through Mod Loader).
As mentioned before, if you are interested in getting involved youself with SADX modding, X-Hax has a Discord server now, in which you can learn from the best (and reach out to me as well if you want) and the most about this. SA Tools is pretty complete as well with documentation, and it can be a good starting place (the page does show specific cases); but the X-Hax discord can be useful for asking about that as well.
After all, the amount of effort that can be put by several people united by the same joy and passion of giving new life and improvements to their favorite game is something undescriptable amazing, and this level of dedidcation really deserves to be cherished by the community. Just how the love and talent that these fans had made an old PC port of this Dreamcast gem turn into much more is so heartwarming, from making the original game justice with extra polisihing and Dreamcast Conversion, to adding so many cool features and mods.
And while time may go on, not only there can be new people willing to keep the flame on after years, but also all the great memories will stay on our minds, and the amazing feats every person made here will be forever inmortalized as not only another milestone of dedication from the Sonic and SADX fans, but also as doing everything to give us the best way to enjoy the game that is Sonic Adventure DX.
Thank you so much for checking this out; this took me several months to do (since April 15, and since then was either having setbacks or adding extra information) but it was worth all the efforts I’m really looking forward delivering more articles like these, as I know there is people that enjoy it as much as me; and there are stories that are more obscure or niche than it should be, which is why I took it upon myself for this one. It was quite a big undertaking between fixing paragraphs and getting the interviews, but in the end it was quite worth it.
If this is the first time you are checking out this site, then know that I often like to cover game or emulation related topics, and recently had done some few interviews with emulator developers (before I made the interviews with the X-Hax members), and on top of some few articles already avaliable, I was working on some more. (one was the Evolution of Arcade Hardware and Technology, of which I had done an introduction post. I’m also planning in documenting some emulation history for some few consoles, like Dreamcast and Xbox). If you like what I’m doing, then you can support me as well on my Ko-fi page; it would really help me out.
And of course, you can also check out what everybody has been up to here; and they also deserve a lot for all of their efforts, and it was such a pleasure to having featured many of the responsible for the mods we have now. I wish them good luck on all of their future projects, and thanks for all these awesome years. So, of course, it would be a great fit as well to have their special thanks and messages to this huge community, including you.
Thank you everybody who supported me in this article project!! It was supposed to be published at December 31st, but ended up going out that night so I’m wishing everybody here a Happy New Year 2021, and prepared a VERY special gift; as a way to say thanks to all who had been on this long, long ride with Sonic Adventure (and Chao Island), and also as a way to cap off the amount of effort I put in this huge article. Really looking forward to bring more content like this.
See you next time!
[…] 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.
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.
ItsEasyActually
Did y’all know Chao were meant to react to other Chao’s farts? Also check out CWE!
Special thanks to most of X-Hax for teaching me modding so that I can make my stuff, to mindacos for listening to my rambling, and to Justin113D for making the Blender plugin because it’s hella useful.
Exant
Well, [special thanks to] MainMemory of course, she’s always been there to help me and she’s made the perfect tool ever, the SA Tools team altogether, and my modding buddies Sora and Benji. Oh and ItsEasyActually, haven’t mentionned him, but he’s always very supportive and always tries his best to help.
Come mod SADX! :p
Kell
I’d like to thank everyone who plays my mods, and everyone who has helped me make them. I appreciate all the feedback and help I’ve received on my mods and other projects. I’d also like to thank SF94 for being so fun to chat with, for making Lantern Engine and many other things, and for the existential comments that cracked me up when I stumbled upon them in the disassembly.
PkR
Shoutouts to Exant, MainMemory, PkR, Sonikko (Birb), -[DEXTERITY]-, End User (he helped a huge amount with working with SA2 events), ItsEasyActually and the rest of the X-Hax community. Also Mooncow, the Chao Island discord server and my friend Sable. Special Thanks go to my girlfriend, Windii.
I can’t think of anything really inspiring but if you’re interested in modding or researching a video game, take the time to check out its local modding community! Every game has one and the people who take part in it will gladly help you out.
Speeps
Hmmm I’d say [special thanks to] Mooncow, DarkyBenji, ChaoGardenBuster and Mindacos for breaking my shell and getting me to actually communicate with the community, and I still play games with them to this day as friends.
Keep going strong, that I hope they continue to find our site and community both useful as a tool and fun to chill and communicate with, and thanks for those who have taken the next step to actually help us out in making the community great, such as Erubbu, Nostalgia Ninja and ex admins like Nacho Pikachu and Runasutaru for helping keep the community from going out of control and keeping it a positive atmosphere.
Roaxes
I absolutely want to thank the whole Chao Island community and Chao Island team for all the support and inspiration they have given me. For all the fun, talks, streams and even random jokes which made no sense! For every person who has taken their time to make this community shine brightly with joy and happiness!
Sonic Team, you know we miss Chao, and we would really enjoy a little bit of it more of it in future games if possible. In meantime, make sure you check out all the amazing contributions people make for decades-old games!
Krzys
I want to thank X-Hax in general, specially: MainMemory, ItsEasyActually, PKR, Exant. They are really cool and are always around to help. Obviously, every other people who worked on SA Tools because without them I wouldn’t have started modding this game. So yeah, I’m really happy we are able to make our dreams true by editing Sonic games, so a big thanks to them. Also my friend Raytwo who is always around to help me about programming stuff.
Don’t wait people making the mod you wish, come here and learn to make it yourself! Work hard and don’t give up, anything is possible!
Sora
The constraints we’re under as modders and fangame devs are completely different from the constraints professional developers are under. Consider the development environment before making critiques.
I’d like to thank SEGA and Sonic Team for giving us such wonderful games. We’d have nothing without them. I’d like to thank Melpontro for being my friend through the whole thing. I’d like to thank MainMemory and SF94 for doing such hard work on the tools. And I’d like to thank anyone who has ever played my mods. Your feedback, especially the LP videos that show your genuine experiences, was immensely valuable in learning how to create entertainment for people.
JCorvinus
Never give up. Everyone says it, but it’s true. Anything is possible if you try hard enough.
SonicFreak94
Credits:
HUGE thanks to the following people (that had excerpts from their interviews featured many times):
- JCorvinus (aka CorvidDude, Dude)
- ItsEasyActually
- PkR
- SonicFreak94 (aka SF94)
- Speeps (aka SPEEPSHighway)
- Exant
- krzys2
- Kell (aka conankell)
- Roaxes [interview to be published]
- Sora [interview to be published]
Bonus special thanks to the following from the X-Hax members: Sonikko (Birb), -[DEXTERITY]-, Justin113D, mindacos, End User, Mooncow, Sable, Windii, Melpontro, DarkyBenji, AWildDreamer, Roaxes, Shaddatic SEGA, Sonic Team
Banner feedback: MainMemory, End User, Speeps, LilShootDawg
Assistance in proof-reading and grammar: Luuthian
Special wallpaper feedback: Nova
Sources: Dreamcastify, Youtube, X-Hax Discord, Twitter, old pages in Internet Wayback Machine, Chao Island, Sonic Retro, and hours of research 🙂
Special thanks to:
- Sonic Retro, Kart Krew, r/emulation, 1cc and Power Bomberman Discords
- blueminder (for the coffee support :D)
- Dizzy (for supporting me the years before I reworked this site)
- Everybody in both X-Hax and Chao Island
- PkR (again because you’re amazing)
- And of course my family and friends; you all are the best and I’m really happy to have you here :,)
ARCADEX MACHINA 