Shadow-SX-1.0

You will need to provide your own clean rip of the Shadow ENG NTSC ROM to run with the emulator.

The only files provided on GitHub are the configuration files needed to apply the settings and changes to run Shadow SX.

Changes Compared to the Original

In Game Timer (IGT) Quality of Life changes

Checkpoints no longer pause the IGT

The game will no longer pause the timer while in the checkpoint menu. This prevents the use of the checkpoint for saving IGT while waiting for another in game event to play out. More important though, is that this change allows the use of IGT timing for runs that utilize the Chaos Control Glitch.

Deaths no longer reset the IGT to the last checkpoint time

One of the biggest headaches when timing IGT runs on console was having to manually calculate the time from deaths to checkpoints. With this change, the time continues without interruptions after death. The time you end the level with is the final time now.

Restarting a stage during a "Story Mode" playthrough no longer resets the IGT

This change, while applies to every level, is mainly targeted to the shorter Boss Fights where one might reset quickly early on if a setup doesnt go to plan. Like with the Death fix above, the timer will simply continue form that point on until the end of the level or boss fight.

This does NOT apply to levels or bosses that are started with "Select Mode" as this would quickly become annoying for Individual Level (IL) runs and attempts. This applies only for Normal Story, Last Story, and Expert Mode playthroughs.

Preventing timer slow down during boss fight Chaos Control

A neat mechanic for boss fights was slowing down time when using Chaos Control instead of speeding through the level, which makes sense considering that boss arenas are small enclosed areas. When time slows down, the IGT slows down considerably. Since SX changes the IGT to be more of a RTA without loads timer, the IGT will now longer slow down. Everything else should remain unaffected.

IL Quality of Life changes

The following changes were made to not only improve the quality of life for IL attempts, but also to keep Story and IL runs more in sync.

Partners no longer have intro cutscenes

When you first encounter a partner character, there's a quick intro that plays to introduce them. This gets annoying after many attempts so the intros have been turned off. This also allows the player to focused more on movement for the sections they would normally be stopped in, just like if they were doing multiple IL attempts.

Infinite Lives for Select Mode

Kinda self explanatory, no longer needing to worry about lives makes IL a lot more bearable. This only applies to the Select Mode. The Story Style game modes work the same as the original. To account for the handicap that is available in the Egg Dealer fights, holding D-Pad Up while selecting one of the Egg Dealer levels will enable a mode where you will start with infinite 0 lives.

Secret Doors Open Faster.

If you have all 5 keys for a level, the Secret Door will now automatically open, just like it would if you had opened it normally, and reentered the area after a death. This was how one could speed up IL in the original game. Now it's available to everyone without needing to interact with it first. This also allows for Story Mode and ILs to use similar strategies.

Expert Mode from Select Mode

Holding D-Pad Up while entering a level will place you in the Expert Mode Variant of the level for easier access and practice of those level layouts.

Emulator Changes

The following changes were made to the default Dolphin configuration to improve game performance.

Recommended Settings

Included in the download is a set of recommended settings that have been tested to provide a good gameplay experience. If that is not the case for you, reach out to let us know.

Overclocking with Dolphin Settings

Since Shadow SX and the console Shadow releases will not be comparable, Shadow SX will utilize the Dolphin Emulator's ability to run at a higher clock frequency for better performance and a smoother experience. This should play similar to running on Nintendont on a Nintendo Wii.

Improved Loading Times

The Dolphin Emulator has a setting to allow faster reading of the ROM data. So instead of having to match a similar rate to the GameCube disc drive, the emulator can read and load data much faster allowing vastly shorter load times. Normally getting from the end of Westopolis to the beginning of Glyphic Canyon takes a little over a minute on Wii. With this change, it now takes 48 seconds.

Reduced Bloom

When playing on Dolphin, the bloom effect is a bit stronger than what is visible on console. A change was made to reduce this back to expected levels.

Optional Changes

These changes are optional settings:

Race Timer

Along with re-managing the IGT time, I have been able to set aside some space to keep track of the current total time for a Story or Expert Mode runs. Currently this is a option that will swap out the IGT timer spot when enabled.

Options for Skipping Cutscenes

New file runs will now be able to skip cutscenes without needing to view the cutscene first like in the original. There is an option to disable this change if you wanted to run a New Game run like you would on the original, notably for runs like All Endings and 100% No Library where cutscenes have an effect on the run.

Glossy Effect on Characters

The glossy effect on characters can be left alone, reduced, or removed.

Replace Button Images for UI

Different Textures are available that allow swapping out the default GameCube buttons with PlayStation or Xbox images.

Modern Controls for UI

When using GameCube controls, no changes are needed. But if you are using a PlayStation or Xbox style controller, turning this option on will allow you to control the game just as you would on the Xbox or PS2 versions of the game.

Custom Shadow Colors

Use the color adjuster tool in the Shadow SX Launcher to customize the color of Shadow for a more personalized experience.

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That is all for now. Let me know if there are any issues by contacting me (BlazinZzetti) on Discord.

Thanks for playing and I hope you enjoy!

Shadow-SX-RC-1

Release Candidate 1

With this release, everything as far as the ROM is concerned is now complete. RC2 will hopefully arrive in the next couple of days, but should be just changes to the external supporting files. As it will be mentioned below, there is one bug that may or may not get a fix, but the plan is to move forwards to the 1.0 release regardless.

Here are the major changes since Beta V5:

Game ID update

The ROM hack will now use the Game ID: GUPX8P. This allows the game to create a separate save file compared to the original game making it much easier to keep best times separated as some times are impossible on SX given the changes to the timer. I even manged to update the graphics and meta data for the save file so it easy to see which file is for SX.

New Messages Translated

With the help of ChatGPT and Google Translate, I was able to get translations for the other languages supported in the game for the new messages the SX adds. Please let me know if there is an issue with any of the translations. It goes without saying that this method of translations has its faults.

Update UV maps for Shadow

The re-UV maps for Shadow are now done. However, due to the tools available as of this release, 1 cutscene (Sonic and Diablon Dark Intro) had to be reverted back to the original settings. It won't look bad unless you have a bright main color with your custom textures. Generating these within the SX Launcher will be available in RC2.

Behind the Scenes Timer Update

It was noticed some time ago that the bosses would act a bit different in SX compared to the Original when restarts would happen. I found what the cause of that was and now fixed it so that it's back in sync with the original.

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As always, and especially now, any playtesting and feedback would be appreciated. The next update, RC2, should finalize everything for the supporting software and textures. The plan to have 1.0 out before SGDQ 2023 is still on track.

That is all for now. Let me know if there are any issues or changes you would like to see by contacting me (BlazinZzetti) on Discord.

Thanks for playing and I hope you enjoy!

Shadow-SX-Beta-V5

Last Story and Expert from Select Mode

Implementing a feature from the Reloaded Mod, you will now be able to use Select Mode to enter into Expert variants of stages along with the The Last Way and Devil Doom. Hold D-Pad Up while entering a stage to activate Expert Mode. Navigate to Final Haunt, and then go down once for The Last Way and then Right from there to get to Devil Doom.

Faster skip into game

An idea from the Reloaded team, but implemented a bit differently, you are now able to skip past the intro credits into the title screen on first boot. Not necessary, but nice when you want to get into the game fast.

Shadow UV Map Update

Both the playable and event cutscene Shadow models have been updated to work better with custom textures. I will need to make one more pass on the event models to fix a minor issue, but otherwise they look great now. The ShadowSXLauncher will soon have the ability to generate custom textures for these models for some more personalization to the game.

Bug Fixes

If you played Last Story and then played Story Mode, the timer would end up displaying the time from Last Story. This is now fixed. Also completing missions in select mode could end up modifying the race time of a current run, this has also been fixed.

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I did quite a bit of refactoring of the custom code this time. While I have tested everything out, there's a chance something slipped by. If you notice anything weird, please reach out. Updates from here on out should be release candidate worthy and any 1.1 release should be to add improvements not possible at the moment.

As mentioned above, I need to give the Shadow UVs another pass, but besides that, we are essentially at the point of release. There's only a handful of things left to do as far as final preparations, which amount to non gameplay changes and updating the launcher a bit more. The next release you see here will be the first release candidate for the project. I'm planning on having 1.0 released before I leave to attend SGDQ 2023.

That is all for now. Let me know if there are any issues or changes you would like to see by contacting me (BlazinZzetti) on Discord.

Thanks for playing and I hope you enjoy!

Shadow-SX-Beta-V4

Improved Options Management

This update improves the optional settings to make them much better to change and also allows those changes to persist between saves.

Bug Fixes

There were a few bugs with the new Total Run Time Message that were fixed in this update. First the message was interfering with weapon unlock messages and then I had incorrectly assume my Last Story check was working only when the game attempted to unlock the Shadow Rifle. So now all cases should be working again.

Shadow UV Map Update 1/2

A long awaited change I wanted to get in is a updated shadow model that is able to handle custom colors better. So things like the shoes, bracelets, and nose will not be incorrectly colored. This update currently only affects the playable shadow model as the process for updating the model seen in cutscenes will require a bit more time and effort to get working.

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Like with the last update, the only things left I would like to add before a 1.0 release are not essential to the gameplay or would majorly change how you would play each level. So, feel free to get some practice in while I get things finished up.

That is all for now. Let me know if there are any issues or changes you would like to see by contacting me (BlazinZzetti) on Discord.

Thanks for playing and I hope you enjoy!

Shadow-SX-Beta-V3

Update Notes

This update adds 2 new blue messages.

It was quite the endeavor to get these working, so any playtesting would be much appreciated.

New Intro Message

A message will now appear right before the usual auto save warning with a link to the main mod webpage and instructions to enable optional settings in game.

Total Run Time Message

A message that appears before auto saving after reaching the credits. This message will show the total IGT time of each level played up until the credits.

Last Story Race Mode

This was missing in past releases, but now is implemented and will work with the new end of run message.

Shadow SX Launcher

Options to adjust the settings of the ROM that now exist in the ROM itself have been removed.
Updates provided by dreamsyntax to make it more compatible with different setups.

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Like with the last update, the only things left I would like to add before a 1.0 release are not essential to the gameplay or would majorly change how you would play each level. So, feel free to get some practice in while I get things finished up.

That is all for now. Let me know if there are any issues or changes you would like to see by contacting me (BlazinZzetti) on Discord.

Thanks for playing and I hope you enjoy!

Shadow-SX-Beta-V2

Console Compatible!

The main point of this update is to provide a console compatible build of the mod. Although I'm sure Dolphin will be the most popular way of playing this mod, there were a few issues I couldn't work around that made me want to have known stable way of playing.

I have a few more things I want to try adding before the 1.0 release, but those will be mainly quality of life and cosmetic things. Gameplay changes should be final.

As of this time, I only have a few things set aside for an eventual 1.1 release, and that is adding Expert stages selectable from Select Mode, and any memory management fixes the hacking community may find. Basically non-essentials that wont require a major leaderboard split.

Now for the changes made since Beta V1.1:

Console Compatible Fixes

This is mainly changes needed to not crash while running on console and some clean up to prevent future changes from breaking more complicated logic. This also moved everything from a Gecko / WiiRd based modification to a more direct ROM patching setup. The only Gecko / WiiRd codes that remain are those needed to toggle optional settings and the bloom reduction code for Dolphin.

ROM Patching

In order to make things as simple as possible for Console play and to minimize required files for Dolphin, a patched ROM must be made. The files and instructions required for this process are included in the download and is pretty simple.

Infinite Lives Update

While reworking codes to be console compatible, I updated the infinite lives code to only work while in Select Mode. This means that Story Mode style runs will now need to keep lives in mind while playing. This is more a disadvantage for newer players, but not one that cant be quickly addressed by practice. This also means that it's technically possible to fight Egg Dealer with 0 lives in Story again. With a bit more work, I was able to add a cheat code of sorts to allow a player to run 0 Lives ILs of Egg Dealer fights from Select Mode. Simply hold D-Pad Up while selecting the boss in select mode will trigger additional code to keep your lives at 0 during your IL session. This only applies to Egg Dealer.

Cutscene Skipping Update

There originally was a toggle-able option that allowed the player to skip cutscenes regardless of if they have been seen before. With this update, the option is now on by default and can be turn off by Gecko / WiiRd code.

Shadow SX Launcher

The launcher program has also seen a handful of fixes. You'll want to delete your Config.xml file next to the exe for a clean slate, though I would recommend setting up a new folder for this release to avoid any issues past changes could have caused.

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That is all for now. Let me know if there are any issues or changes you would like to see by contacting me (BlazinZzetti) on Discord.
Thanks for playing and I hope you enjoy!

Shadow-SX-Beta-V1.1

An update to address some of the things I missed in the Beta V1 release.

There were no changes to the game or the code modifications, here's what's different in this release compared to Beta V1:

Fixed Files Related to First Time Setup.

There were some Tabs where I meant to use spaces for the visual elements of README.txt I didn't catch them before due to my editor not showing the issue where a program like Notepad would show it. Also the file included in Beta-V1 was not in sync with the latest and was missing an instruction to properly name the Shadow ROM to work with ShadowSXLauncher.exe.

While they shouldn't have affected the end result, I updated some of the dolphin files to not include data not being used. Other than setting the default aspect ratio to Auto instead of Stretch.

Update to ShadowSXLauncher.exe

Fixed a bug where the option for setting your preferred gloss effect on characters wasn't working correctly.
Added missing option for Race Mode.

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That's all for now!

Shadow SX Beta V1

First Beta release of Shadow SX! The majority of the changes I want are in, and now we just need to focus on the finishing touches and getting player feedback on how things are currently.

Along with a few adjustment to the default emulator settings, below are the changes since Alpha-V2:

Fast Secret Door Opening

If you have all 5 keys for a level, the Secret Door will now automatically open, just like it would if you had opened it normally, and reentered the area after a death. This was how one could speed up Individual Levels (IL) in the original game. Now it's available to everyone without needing to interact with it first. This also allows for Story Mode and ILs to use similar strategies.

Infinite Lives

This one is pretty minor, you no longer need to worry about running out of lives. Fantastic for practicing and ILs. A nice bonus for Story Runs.

Option to Always Skip Cutscenes

Optional setting to always skip cutscenes. A quality of life change that will allow new file runs to be faster in real time.

Custom Textures

Custom Textures to show the game as Shadow SX and a few adjustments to have some of the textures look better when using higher internal resolutions. Also included are replacement UI textures for different controllers like PS2 or Xbox, and a few for adjusting the amount of gloss highlighting seen on character models.

Launcher Program

ShadowSXLauncher.exe is a Windows application that allows you to more easily boot Shadow SX as a standalone window instead of having the Dolphin Interface opened as well. The application also has shortcuts to the game file directories and quick access to configurable settings which will manage options and custom textures.

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There's a handful more I would like to do before we have a proper full release. But besides that, the majority of the changes I want for the game are in. What is really important now is to dial in the emulator settings to be something the majority of players will have no trouble playing with. Please reach out if you have any issues or recommendations for what those settings should be.

Shadow SX Alpha V2

This updated Alpha contains a few updates to the game code.

Bloom Reduction

Thanks to a code from "TheHatedGravity", I reduced the amount of bloom that seen in the game to better match what is seen on the original console. While likely not a 1:1 match, with this change, it's pretty much as close as possible outside of using more complicated modifications to the game or Dolphin.

Partners No Longer Play Intros.

I decided to add this feature globally instead of having it as a IL specific change as it will allow runners to focus more on the movement around these interactions to the level instead of either eating the time loss, (RTA), or trying a complicated maneuver to skip the intros.

Prevent timer slow down in Boss Fights.

When using Chaos Control in a Boss Fight, the timer will increment at a much slower speed. This can be an issue when trying to compare run times to other runs as CC could have been started at different times but have similar movement resulting in different end times. With this change, the timer continues tracking time as if the slow down wasn't happening.

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The timer change required quite a bit of research and changing to how the timer is displayed in game. Thanks to that, I was able to add the following change now instead having it as a bonus feature later on.

Race Mode

For Story and Expert, the game will now save a running total of past levels in save data. When Race Mode is enabled. The game timer will now show this saved time + the current level time, effectively creating a way for seeing the current run time for the whole playthrough.

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I have a few more game changes I would like to implement to allow for a better IL grinding experience, and a handful more for practicing in general, but those will have to wait for another update. This project is otherwise very close to being done as far as game modifications go.

While working on this, I have also been working on the pre-game UI (Dedicated Launcher / Dolphin Configuration) and in game textures swaps to show that this is not Shadow, but Shadow SX. The next release will likely be these changes bringing the project into the Beta phase. Until then, I hope you enjoy what has been accomplished so far!

Shadow SX Alpha V1

First public release.