Sonic Riders

In Sonic Riders, you play as Sonic and his friends (or the newcomer Babylon Rogues) as they ride (obviously) air-based hoverboards, skates, and bikes in a race to win the World Grand Prix.

Notable for being the last Sonic game to be released for PlayStation 2 in Japan, and the last one released for Xbox and GameCube in general.

Prototype Info

Unused Code#

Windows Screenshot Functionality#

If you create a folder called "ScreenShot" in the PC version of Sonic Riders and press the F11 key, the game will save a screenshot to the folder.

Note: Out of the box this feature doesn't work on modern OS, because the developers set the DISCL_EXCLUSIVE flag in the call to DirectInput's SetCooperativeLevel function. This causes the game to swallow keyboard input messages, blocking hotkeys, including their own.

You can patch this behavior out by modifying 0x513764 (push 05) in the DRM-free version version of the game with e.g. push 01.

Test Level#

A test level was found in the PC version of the game. It is a long, ovate track with no interactive objects, aside from some item boxes and the lap finish line, and some missing textures. Invisible walls prevent you from falling off the track. It was discovered by Yacker, a veteran coder from the Sonic Riders Competitive Community, while modding the PC version of the game.

Watch on YouTube

Development Text#

Present in the PS2 version's executable are a couple of strings related to the libraries used for this game.

At 0x34BE90:

SEGA NN Library for PlayStation2
nn Ver 1.18.43 Build:Oct  7 2005 16:13:05
1.18.43
%s Version %s
(C) SEGA Corporation Creative Center Graphics Sect.

At 0x34d041:

PX Ver.1.46.04 Build:Jul 15 2005 19:12:36

At 0x3518D1:

PX Plus Ver.0.87.02 Build:Aug 22 2005 15:30:24

Oddities#

Chao's Lower Body#

The Chao that runs the shop has its lower body fully modeled but this can't be seen normally due to the fixed camera showing you the front only.

Platform Differences#

This needs some investigation. Discuss ideas and findings on the talk page. Specifically: Is there any more changes?

Sonic Riders, like many 6th-gen Sonic games, was first developed for the GameCube before being ported to the Xbox and PlayStation 2, with the Xbox version serving as the basis for a Windows version. There are several differences between all versions, much of which are specific to the Windows and PS2 versions.

• The PlayStation 2 version runs at the console's native resolution of 640x448, while the Xbox and GameCube versions runs at their consoles native 640x480. While all versions target 60 FPS, the PlayStation 2 and Xbox versions are more prone to frame drops, especially the Xbox release when being played on an Xbox 360. The Windows version runs at a max of 1024x768.
• The GameCube version supports Dolby Pro Logic II audio for the game and cutscenes, with the PlayStation 2 version additionally having support for Dolby Digital 5.1 during CG cutscenes. The Xbox version supports full Dolby Digital 5.1 throughout the entire game and all cutscenes.
• Unlike Sonic Heroes and Shadow the Hedgehog, the PlayStation 2 and Xbox versions lack the ability to switch the voice setting despite how much of the disc goes unused; the PC version does include a voice setting, however, in spite of it not releasing in Japan.

PlayStation 2	GameCube	Xbox	Windows

Graphics are significantly scaled back on the PlayStation 2 with blockier models, more basic lighting, and lower resolution textures, likely in an attempt to maintain the framerate. However, barring the textures, these changes do not apply to any cutscenes, which retain their smoother models and lighting.

• Texture animations are bugged on all platforms except GameCube, such as the lighting effect at the beginning of Metal City. The Xbox and Windows versions also suffer from various layering issues, causing some textures being drawn either too in front or behind.
• Like previous games, the Xbox version uses higher quality sources for the audio and FMV cutscenes in comparison to other versions, however many copies of the Xbox version also have issues with the FMVs appearing choppy. For unknown reasons, some systems and the Xbox 360 don't suffer this issue at all.

PlayStation 2	GameCube	Xbox	Windows

The options screen is significantly toned down on the Xbox version, as the language and audio settings can be set in the Dashboard. Only Vibration and Game Data settings remain. The GameCube version also refers to Vibration as Rumble.

GameCube	Xbox

GameCube	Xbox

Some characters' facial expressions are different between GameCube/PS2 and Xbox/PC.

To do: Replace the above Xbox screenshots with ones from the original console; the screenshots contain a backwards compatibility issue on Xbox 360 where character shadows in cutscenes are untextured.

PlayStation 2	Windows

In the last non-CG cutscene in the Babylon Story Mode during certain shots, some characters (mostly Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles) use their side mouth models in every version except PlayStation 2.

Windows Port#

Like other Windows ports of Sonic games, Sonic Riders has a pretty poor port. Some of the bugs present are only in the Windows version, while other bugs originate from the Xbox version.

PlayStation 2	Windows

In the Windows version, every character in the non-CG cutscenes that has eyes has their eye pupils fixed to a forward-looking position and not moving around. This is not seen in any other version of the game.

No Music Volume Decrement#

There's no decrease to the volume of the background music in the PC version. This bug occurs in places such as:

• Pausing the game: The music is supposed to turn down on the pause menu. However, this doesn't happen in the PC version.
• Skipping the credits: The music played during the credits (High Flying Groove for Heroes' story, Catch Me If You Can for Babylon's story) is supposed to fade out when skipping the credits. In the PC version, music plays until it's suddenly cut off.
• Playing SEGA CARNIVAL/SEGA ILLUSION Jingles: In the tracks SEGA CARNIVAL and SEGA ILLUSION, when entering a game's area, a jingle plays that's based on the main theme of that game. The BGM should turn down for the jingle to play, and then turn up again. In the PC version, the jingles play as the BGM volume is still up.

Missing In-Game Lines#

In the gameplay, characters have lines for landing a trick correctly, as well as incorrectly, attacking others, being attacking by others, etc. In the Windows version, almost every character has lost lines for at least one of the above in the English voice bank; however, the Japanese voice bank has no missing in-game lines.

To do: Upload some video footage of these bugs.