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v0.5.0 - Widescreen and Knuckles fixes (Windows + Linux)

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@mstan mstan released this 28 Sep 15:58
· 3 commits to main since this release
v0.5.0
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Sonic 3 family v0.5.0 — Widescreen and Knuckles fixes

Windows x64 ZIPs and Linux x86_64 AppImages for Sonic 3, Sonic 3 &
Knuckles, and Sonic & Knuckles. Supply your own matching ROM; none is
included.

Changes

  • Blue Spheres objects now sit at grid corners in widescreen, including during
    movement and turns. Spheres, bumpers and rings share the ground projection.
  • Repaired widescreen backgrounds in Flying Battery, Sandopolis and other
    stages, including transitions between background banks. Angel Island's fire
    transition, first miniboss art and hollow-tree reveal are also corrected.
  • Tails' title-screen plane and the Knuckles parade extend beyond the original
    4:3 area. Restored the missing red pixels on Knuckles' title-screen hair.
  • Extra Knuckles now accepts any number from 1–74, with 16 as the
    default. The cap reserves room for stage objects; busy scenes can use fewer.
  • S3K and S&K save states resume the current gameplay moment and restore the
    Knuckles crowd instead of reloading the stage. Use Shift+F1–F9 to save,
    F1–F9 to load, or controller LB/RB for slot 1.

Widescreen and the Knuckles mod remain opt-in under Mods. Choose
Widescreen → Adaptive to follow the window. The crowd is local play only.

Running and upgrading

Extract the complete Windows ZIP and run its EXE. On Linux, put the AppImage
in a writable folder, make it executable (chmod +x), and launch it. Use
--appimage-extract-and-run when FUSE is unavailable.

Preserve settings.ini, rom-*.cfg, *-mods.ini and *.srm when upgrading.
Save states require the same build and mod/widescreen configuration; use normal
cartridge saves (*.srm) to carry progress between releases.

Validation and limits

Validation covers all 13 attract selections across the three games, native
and wide titles, Blue Spheres, empty/existing save files, Knuckles gameplay,
and the packaged launchers. Release checks compare Windows/Linux gameplay
pixels, RAM/VRAM and attract state/audio hashes. The owner approved the Blue
Spheres alignment. This does not certify every stage or boss.

Widescreen remains experimental. A longer IceCap Act 1 route still triggers
an existing development stack-check failure and is tracked separately. Some
objects react only to the original players; monitors break only for Player 1.
The Knuckles crowd is inactive in special/bonus/competition stages and demos.

Linux targets Ubuntu 24.04 (glibc 2.39) or compatible x86_64 systems with OpenGL.
Older distributions and Steam Deck remain unvalidated. SHA256SUMS.txt covers
all six packages; each includes licenses and exact source/dependency metadata.

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