Looking for a download of Sonic & Knuckles collection

[Raidein]

Yes, I know this is in the wrong forum, but I didn't know where to put it so I just threw it here because I really can't tell.

As the thread name said, I'm looking for a download of Sonic & Knuckles Collection for the PC, preferably in a .zip or .iso, no torrents please. I can't do torrents. The reason for this is because all the downloads on this site for it are all dead links and I can't use them.

[Elija2]

Is there a particular reason you want the Sonic & Knuckles Collection over just playing the games in an emulator?

[jkid101094]

I actually own it on disc but I have no idea where it is. I wish I could help ya, hun.

[Raidein]

Is there a particular reason you want the Sonic & Knuckles Collection over just playing the games in an emulator?

Modding the sound and stuff, plus some other things like some functions added only to this version.

[Elija2]

Maybe try this?

[jkid101094]

Modding the sound and stuff, plus some other things like some functions added only to this version.

I completely forgot about that. I remember thinking I was super cool when I realized where the game's sound effects were. Funny how it took me like...14 years to realize how easily they could be replaced. You could probably do higher quality mods on the PC version since it's a port and not an emulation. Makes me wonder why it doesn't have a larger hacking community.

[Elija2]

I completely forgot about that. I remember thinking I was super cool when I realized where the game's sound effects were. Funny how it took me like...14 years to realize how easily they could be replaced. You could probably do higher quality mods on the PC version since it's a port and not an emulation. Makes me wonder why it doesn't have a larger hacking community.

I don't think it really makes a difference. It's essentially the same game other than it being native to PC instead of native to Genesis. Any hacking you could do in the PC version you could also probably do in the Genesis version.

[Ioshyriku]

Any hacking you could do in the PC version you could also probably do in the Genesis version.

I remember seeing a mod that had CD quality audio for the PC version, I don't think you can do that on the Genesis version.

[jkid101094]

And Eli shows he knows nothing about how modding works.

If you hack the Genesis version you have to deal with the limitations of a 21 year old game. Since the PC version was built from the ground up, however, your only limit is what you know how to do.

[Elija2]

And Eli shows he knows nothing about how modding works.

If you hack the Genesis version you have to deal with the limitations of a 21 year old game. Since the PC version was built from the ground up, however, your only limit is what you know how to do.

Please don't insult me.

Just because a game is on PC doesn't mean it's super-easy to mod. Even on PC you still have to deal with the limitations of the engine which are essentially the same as the Genesis version aside from MIDI music.

[jkid101094]

The game being on PC and loading music externally implies that the game is running on an engine made for PC. What this means is that the engine for S&KC isn't using the same methods of loading files as the Genesis cartridge. I can almost gaurentee you that not only are memory limits a non-issue but so are things such as palettes. A very large factor in rom hacking is ram, and while I'm not as well versed in PC modding I know for a fact that PC games can avoid it's problems completely.

[Elija2]

I don't think that memory limits are an issue with Sonic hacks, but if they are then that's easily solved by playing the hack on an emulator.

[jkid101094]

That's not how it works, hun. All that data has got to be stored somewhere regardless of what emulator you're using. Think of a game as one of those plastic boards that you build Lego sets on. The original programmers start with a blank slate and arrange their blocks (or files) how it's most convenient for their project. What you download as a rom is that complete board. Hacking the game is like taking Legos off that board and replacing them with new pieces. Sure, you're free to do whatever but only in the confines of what's already there. I can't, for example, move a 2x2 brick and replace it with a 4x4. I'd need to move the pieces around to make room, but doing so would throw the entire board off by causing anything reading it to lose track of where everything is. That's where repointing comes in handy.

Compare that to a computer game, which is an open assortment of files. Instead of pointing to a specific place on a board to find files the game simply has to read a file with a certain name, therefore the file has no size limit outside of what the individual game can read. The two different structures make hacking a completely different experience between systems and has to do with why console mods are so much harder to make.

Of course this whole thing is more about cartridges vs. CDs than console vs. PC Hacking but in this case the console game is a cartridge while the PC game is a CD.

[Elija2]

That doesn't explain how there are mods for N64 games that add HD textures that an actual N64 clearly couldn't store, let alone load into memory.



I think you're overestimating the differences between how PCs and consoles (or cartridges and CDs) load data. Yes, the way NES games load data is different from the way games now load data, but that's only because of hardware limitations which all hardware back then had, even PCs. The format doesn't matter, what matters is how the game is programmed and since this is an exact port of the Genesis games I doubt it was programmed much differently.

[jkid101094]

That doesn't explain how there are mods for N64 games that add HD textures that an actual N64 clearly couldn't store, let alone load into memory.

Those textures aren't saved to or even loaded by the game itself, though. They're stored in a separate directory and then taken by a plugin for Project 64 and plastered on what already exists. I'm not exactly sure about the specifics of how the textures work but from what I can gather the ability to do these things is a perk exclusively built into Project 64.

I think you're overestimating the differences between how PCs and consoles (or cartridges and CDs) load data. Yes, the way NES games load data is different from the way games now load data, but that's only because of hardware limitations which all hardware back then had, even PCs. The format doesn't matter, what matters is how the game is programmed and since this is an exact port of the Genesis games I doubt it was programmed much differently.

Then can you please explain to me why Nintendo DS games use a file system for storing data, yet still can only be modded like a cartridge?

Go dig through any DS rom and you'll see a file system like in CD based games, but if you try to replace any file with something larger, the entire rom will go to hell. This is what happened to me when I attempted to replace Pichu's cry here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIAXJ77GGVc&index=8&list=PL2850424B8760A325

Now do the same thing with Brawl. Chances are it'll work perfectly fine. Why? Because that's the way CDs store and load data. I've seen people replace two minute loops in Brawl with a song that goes on for 30 minutes and have everything work out fine. I'm sure you could ask anyone else that has experience in both kinds of modding and they'll tell you the same thing.