Versions

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Through SRB2's development, several releases, or versions, were made. A major version contained a multitude of improvements over the last version, such as game engine, and levels. The below is a general list of versions.

Contents

SRB2 2D

SRB2 TGF was the first, 2D version of SRB2, first created in March 1998. The zones were largely intact, as was the limited story, which has been slightly expanded upon for the 3D game. At the time, SRB2 was suprisingly advanced, in contrast to its much buggier predecessor; the game featured bouncing off enemies or monitors, the ability to spin, water and mine cart sequences, which were new at the time of the game's conception. Unfortunately, the larger levels caused a large amount of slowdown and the game was still somewhat buggy as a result of being a 'Click' game. The game was then moved onto a C-programmed engine ("SRB2 C'"), courtesy of Stealth; progressed continued well for a time until Stealth was unable to help with the project any more, whereupon, based on work done with Sonic Doom, the game was moved onto the Doom Legacy source port build in October 1998, which it is still with to this day. The introduction seen on loading the current SRB2 on April Fool's day was taken straight from the 2D versions of the game.

SRB2 Halloween

SRB2 Halloween is the first public release of SRB2. According to SSNTails, it had only been 40 days since they started coding SRB2 in Doom Legacy v1.28. It consisted of only one very basic playable level. The level featured use of Doom Legacy's water and a maze-section comprised of see-through bar textures.

Halloween could be considered a very basic precursor to what is known as SRB2 today. A lot of the features back then still retained their Doom origins; at this stage, Sonic was the only playable character and could do little more than collect rings and jump. The release was intended more as a proof of concept than anything particularly playable.

A later version of this, which is still available from srb2.org, also included another level.

SRB2Xmas

The SRB2Xmas releases were the next major releases in the SRB2 timeline. At this point in development, a lot of progress has been made. Game elements were a lot more in-tune to the classic Sonic games. The familiar HUD, for instance, was implemented from v0.93 onwards.

This time around, there were more levels to play through — enough to be considered a complete game on its own. There were also secrets that existed, such as a level based on Sonic Adventure's Emerald Coast, and also a very early version of what is now known as GFZ1.

SRB2Xmas v0.90-94

SRB2Xmas v0.90 was the first release of the game, and featured 6 levels. These were:

Lump Name Name
MAP01 Springin' Around
MAP02 Blustery Day
MAP03 Snow Mountain
MAP04 Gleaming Glacier
MAP05 Egg Base
MAP06 Havin' Fun?

Unfortunately, 0.90 was released in a rather incomplete state, resulting in many SIGSEGV errors and the game was widely criticized because of this. 0.92 was brought out shortly afterwards, and each subsequent release bought more stability to the game as well as many more new options. Some of the more significant features between each version is as follows:

  • v0.90 (Release Date: December 24, 1999)
    • Ability to jump over enemies and land on top of them, destroying them and bouncing off.
    • Very early version of the thok where just holding down the spin button while jumping would constantly propel you forward.
  • v0.92 (Release Date: February 24, 2000)
    • RINGS on HUD in correct location
    • Item Boxes
    • Homing attack (later removed)
  • v0.93 (Release Date: March 24, 2000)
    • Full Sonic 2-like HUD. Initially, the time counter did not display time as it does in the final game (mm:ss), showing the time only in seconds.
    • Tails and his ability to fly (although no sprites were yet drawn for Tails, so he was using his Sonic 3 one at this stage)
    • Thok today as we know it. Except no limit to the number of thoks per jump.
  • v0.94 (Release Date: April 24, 2000)
    • Analog Control option
    • Ability for Tails to chop up robots with his flying move
    • Armageddon and Elemental Shields. The Armageddon Shield was activated in v0.94 by double-jumping as opposed to pressing the separate spin button.
  • The game featured two 'additional' difficulty modes, though they have since been renamed and modified since SRB2Xmas 0.93. 'Cakewalk' mode (which is now 'Easy') featured fewer enemies, but in addition, falling into death pits on this mode actually threw you back out, meaning you could cross large jumps and trivialize certain levels (such as Snow Mountain Zone) using this. 'Very Hard' mode has since been renamed to Ultimate, and had robots auto-respawn a short period after their destruction, as per Doom's 'Nightmare' skill level.

SRB2Xmas v0.96

This was a special, limited edition CD version of the game that contained a series of extra levels, CD music and bonus artwork.

These were the levels included:

Lump Name Name
MAP01 Springin' Around
MAP02 Blustery Day
MAP03 Snow Mountain
MAP04 Gleaming Glacier
MAP05 Egg Base
MAP06 Egg Arena
MAP07 Close Corners
MAP08 Christmas Factory
MAP09 Snow Valley
MAP10 Final Boss
MAP15 Emerald Coast (Secret Level 1)
MAP16 Sonic's Nightmare (Secret Level 2)

Demo 1

Demo 1 is the first of what could be considered the starting main set of SRB2 demos. Since the Xmas versions, more progress has been made yet. The game engine had a more solid build to it at this point, and was rewritten into the Doom Legacy v1.30 source code.

An incomplete Greenflower Zone Act 1 is the only playable level in this demo. However, the inclusion of GFZ1, an official level of the game, makes this demo significant as it starts what could've been seen as the main set of demos towards SRB2's completion.

Demo 2

Demo 2 added yet more improvements over Demo 1. Among the most significant of these is the amount of playable content added to SRB2.

Demo 2 introduced Greenflower Zone Act 2, Greenflower Zone Act 3, and Techno Hill Zone Act 1 in addition to the previous demo's GFZ1. This became a more complete representation of what the final SRB2 would be like in terms of Single Player gameplay.

Also starting in the Demo 2 era, internet play (or netgaming) was initially experimented with. At around this time, SSNTails created the first official Match map, titled "smatch.wad" (which is now known as Meadow Match Zone, and is still included in releases to this day.)

Demo 3

Demo 3 added many improvements to the netgame aspect of SRB2. For the first time, a full roster of Match levels was introduced.

Demo 3 also introduced Tag mode, where in a netgame, one person is "It" and the other players try to run and hide from the person so they wouldn't get caught. One multiplayer level was devoted to Tag mode. At the time, Tag was extremely popular amongst netgamers, who had, in the past, played only in Match mode, as it was the only available competitive mode at the time.

Match Levels

These were the match stages in Demo 3. Note that the names didn't exist at the time.

Demo 4

Demo 4 made accomplishments in the way of both Single Player and Multiplayer types of play. Several elements of the game were introduced with this demo.

Special Stages, and therefore a proper way of collecting Chaos Emeralds, were introduced in Demo 4. The first Special Stages were created by Sonikku. Collecting all 7 emeralds also unlocked the secret "Castle Eggman Zone".

In the aforementioned sense, Castle Eggman Zone Acts 1, 2, and 3, were introduced in Demo 4. The introduction of the Chaos Emeralds and a "certain unlockable" for them was heavily hyped in the period before Demo 4's release. The developers would jokingly tease the community by ever-so-subtly calling the certain unlockable, "Cas**HACK**".

In the netgame aspect, Demo 4 introduced Capture the Flag mode, where there are two teams of players who try to retrieve the opposing team's flag. Demo 4 included a much larger map selection than Demo 3.

Single Player

Match Levels

Note that the multiplayer levels and special stages didn't have title cards in any of Demo 4.

Capture the Flag Levels

Other

  • MAP15-MAP21: Special Stages
  • MAP22-MAP24: Castle Eggman Zone (All emerald reward)

Demo 4.1

Demo 4.1 was a minor release that fixed a major bug found in Demo 4.

Demo 4.1 also introduced the placeholder Knuckles sprites, modeled in 3D by DOHlberg (now known as Silve) and then captured into sprite form for SRB2's use.

Demo 4.32

Demo 4.32 was an engine upgrade from Doom Legacy v1.30 to v1.32, finally resolving some of the SIGSEGVs in 640x400 dealing with FOFs, among other bugs. This was also the last time the code would be rewritten into a new codebase. 4.32 also revised the multiplayer levels, replacing some stages.

Match Levels

Note that the multiplayer levels and special stages didn't have title cards in any of Demo 4.

Capture the Flag Levels

Demo 4.35

Demo 4.35 was just extremely minor bug fixes of 4.32 (4.33 and 4.34 also existed).

SRB2 2k3

SRB2 2k3 is a demo showcasing major improvements to the Multiplayer aspect of the game. It could be considered a strong precursor to the Final Demo series of SRB2 demos, as the improvements shown in this demo are also very characteristic of how advanced the Final Demo series became in comparison to Demo 4.35 and other past demos.

SRB2 2k3 implemented a thought-out system for the multiplayer roster, so there were maps specifically designated for their respective gametypes. The MAP70-79/MAP80-89/MAP90-99 numbering system of maps came into play at this demo.

SRB2 2k3 also implemented weapon rings and the ill-fated Chaos multiplayer mode.

Among other notable internal improvements made in this demo were the inclusion of high-resolution flats (those bigger than 64x64), and also the introduction of level headers. The introduction of level headers also made 2k3 the first demo in which multiplayer maps had names. Formerly, the multiplayer maps did not have names, as giving maps a name required extensive graphic resource editing for the title cards. Then, with the level header system, maps could be named simply by typing out an entry in the header, which would prompt the game to automatically generate a title card.

2k3 also had a secret NiGHTS level. It was an extremely early version of Spring Hill Zone. At this point in development, the NiGHTS system was still in the process of being coded. Hoops were placed as per a very preliminary generation algorithm of hoops.

Chaos Levels

Capture the Flag Levels

Match Levels

Final Demo 1.01-1.04

Final Demo 1.01 was a huge release for SRB2, adding Techno Hill Zone Act 2 and Act 3 to the game, as well as majorly revamping a lot of the earlier content, refining the concepts and tweaks included in 2K3. It was quickly patched three times, incrementing it to 1.04. Many EXE files and WAD files were added on top of the patch, making things rather complicated in this era to get a netgame running. Castle Eggman Zone ceased to be a secret level, and was added onto the end of the demo, upping the total acts to nine.

Also, many unlockables were introduced here, including Nights.

Final Demo also finally introduced real mod features, expanding on the level header system in 2K3, allowing designers to name maps, assign sky textures, weather, and level order, along with an ending. This began the start of serious mods for SRB2.

Single Player Levels

Other

Chaos Levels

Capture the Flag Levels

Match Levels

Final Demo v1.08

1.08 was introduced to try to deal with some of the complications that all the patches in 1.04 were causing. It fixed a few of the issues in earlier versions, and was current for a very large period of time. By the time 1.09 came out, almost two years later, all the quirks and bugs in 1.08 were painfully obvious.

1.08 had a few gameplay changes, the most major of which was removal of the multi-thok, restricting players to only one thok per jump as Sonic.

The multiplayer levels were changed around pretty heavily, adding a large number of stages, in an attempt to get 10 stages in each category, although CTF only had 8.

Chaos Levels

Capture the Flag Levels

Match Levels

Other

v1.09

1.09 was highly anticipated at the time of release, finally fixing the annoying bugs in 1.08, such as the homing ring crash, as well as adding some major modding features to the game. Mystic Realm v.4.0 was released along with 1.09, which was a major addition to the game, with tons of new stages to play.

Many changes were made to the gameplay as well, including:

  • Knuckles lost the ability to glide multiple times per jump
  • A secondary fire key which always shoots red rings was added.
  • The enemy Buzz was added
  • The Whirlwind Shield was added, replacing the Basic Shield.
  • A real Super Sonic sprite was added as opposed to a Superman joke.
  • The Chaos multiplayer mode was removed.

The multiplayer levels, like previous versions, were majorly changed, and many intentionally dropped.

Capture the Flag Levels

Match Levels

v1.09.2

This was a small bugfix release to 1.09, as well as adding some enhancements for modding.

v1.09.3 Betas

v1.09.3 was a public beta, distributed on the message board, to attempt to weed out some of the kinks in the game before releasing 1.09.4. While a success in its goals, it lead to a large amount of confusion on the message board with the endless updating of the EXE.

v1.09.4

Main article: Version 1.09.4

v1.09.4a

v1.09.4a is a small patch to 1.09.4 which fixes a few security flaws in 1.09.4's netplay.

It can be obtained from the forums here. Anyone hosting on the master server is highly urged to update their copy to prevent people from using exploits to crash their server.

SRB2 Final (v1.1)

Main article: Version 1.1

See Also

Retrieved from "http://wiki.srb2.org/wiki/Versions"
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