Sonic the Fighters - Bit Perfect Disassembly

[biggestsonicfan]

Looks like I forgot to cross post this a while ago, but I have been working on a disassembly of Sonic the Fighters for nearly 2 years now. The disassembly is now in a format that it can be run through an i960-coff assembler and create a working binary identical to the distributed Sonic the Fighters EEPROMs from an arcade unit.

Here is the github repo if you'd like to look around at it.

 

[Undead Sega]

Looks like I forgot to cross post this a while ago, but I have been working on a disassembly of Sonic the Fighters for nearly 2 years now. The disassembly is now in a format that it can be run through an i960-coff assembler and create a working binary identical to the distributed Sonic the Fighters EEPROMs from an arcade unit.

Here is the github repo if you'd like to look around at it.

Amazing stuff man!

I was wondering, since you are the closest person who has accessed the code, what do you know about the 3D models of the characters? What format are they in? Are they extractable by any chance?

 

[la-li-lu-le-lo]

This is pretty cool. Would it be possible for this to eventually be used to port the game to other systems?

 

[biggestsonicfan]

Amazing stuff man!

I was wondering, since you are the closest person who has accessed the code, what do you know about the 3D models of the characters? What format are they in? Are they extractable by any chance?

That is something I am working on now behind the scenes.

This is pretty cool. Would it be possible for this to eventually be used to port the game to other systems?

Unlikely, as there are many processor specific calls in the code, but I wouldn't put it past someone who really set their mind to it.

 

[dark]

Just jumping off this thread, I was wondering if the version on the Gamecube sonic collection is an emulated rom or if it was reprogrammed/ported to the gamecube?

If its a model 2 rom, then it would be a new revision since it has subtle differences to the original. There could also be implications for running other model 2 games on the gamecube via the emulator.

 

[WedgeStratos]

Just jumping off this thread, I was wondering if the version on the Gamecube sonic collection is an emulated rom or if it was reprogrammed/ported to the gamecube?

If its a model 2 rom, then it would be a new revision since it has subtle differences to the original. There could also be implications for running other model 2 games on the gamecube via the emulator.

I've been wondering that myself. I somewhat doubt it, Model 2 emulation is only somewhat consistent now, and there's still definite issues. Top Skater has some glitches that have reared its ugly head a few times in ElSemi's emulator, try to imagine a <500MHz PowerPC chip running Model 2 games... The way the game behaves, as well as what appears to be graphical differences (maybe intentionally desaturating the image or a result of a different renderer) leads me to believe the Gems Collection version might be a port. There's also the 360/PS3 re-release, but that HAS to be emulated. Though, Honey The Cat being playable there makes the question more prevalent then.

This is pretty cool. Would it be possible for this to eventually be used to port the game to other systems?

Unlikely, as there are many processor specific calls in the code, but I wouldn't put it past someone who really set their mind to it.

Disassembly, not a decompilation. This will produce the machine code that a Model 2 board can read, but our biggestsonicfan here would have to pull a plumber-sized Mips out of his cap to then produce source code that could be worked around.
Eventually is the key word. Not now, but not never.

 

[la-li-lu-le-lo]

Disassembly, not a decompilation. This will produce the machine code that a Model 2 board can read, but our biggestsonicfan here would have to pull a plumber-sized Mips out of his cap to then produce source code that could be worked around.
Eventually is the key word. Not now, but not never.

Something I think would be really awesome is if someone would do all of that with a Model 3 game like Scud Race, and then port it to the Dreamcast. That team that ported Super Mario 64 to PC already proved that similar things are possible. Reverse engineering and then porting Scud Race to the Dreamcast would be a much more difficult and complicated task than that, but given enough time and enough people working on it, it could happen one day. The only thing that would prevent it from ever happening is if no one is willing to actually do it. My own knowledge of programming is pretty limited (I only know a little C and Visual Basic), so it's probably not something I'd ever attempt.

There's also the 360/PS3 re-release, but that HAS to be emulated. Though, Honey The Cat being playable there makes the question more prevalent then.

I'm pretty sure all of the Model 2 ports on the 360/PS3 are based on emulators, though with notable changes and improvements. Supposedly people were also able to figure out that the Daytona USA arcade game that came out a couple years ago (some people call it Daytona USA 3) is actually based on an emulated version of the original Model 2 game at its core, with new content and graphics built on top of it.

 

[Undead Sega]

That is something I am working on now behind the scenes.


Unlikely, as there are many processor specific calls in the code, but I wouldn't put it past someone who really set their mind to it.

That's brilliant man!

Any update on the 3D models progress by any chance??

 

[biggestsonicfan]

Just jumping off this thread, I was wondering if the version on the Gamecube sonic collection is an emulated rom or if it was reprogrammed/ported to the gamecube?

If its a model 2 rom, then it would be a new revision since it has subtle differences to the original. There could also be implications for running other model 2 games on the gamecube via the emulator.

It actually is a ROM, yes, not a port. It is, unfortunately, not a new revision, and no, other model2 games would not be able to run due to hard coded variables baked into the executable that the Gamecube uses to talk to the ROM and other game data. It should be noted though that the Model2 arcade hardware used 2 CPUs, one for regular processing and one for audio. To reduce processing power for the Gamecube (PS2, PS3, and X360 versions as well), all songs are prerecorded and played back as audio files the hardware can easily process in the background instead of emulating the audio CPU.

That's brilliant man!

Any update on the 3D models progress by any chance??

Yes, actually!