SRB2Kart The Documentary

Part 2 - Development

Road to release

CTRL+F will be your best friend to scroll down entries from previous months or years. Anything below the [RETROSPECTIVE] section are entries that have been added way past the days listed. Basically talking about days past gone by because I have enough memories or stuff I mentioned in other places to write about those days that I found interesting to log in here. Otherwise, this should chronicle stuff from the days as they happened.

January 2012

After a few years of starting as a rudimentary side mode to a different mod altogether that grew in popularity and polish with one major update, but also after the original SRB2Riders project being abandoned, Super SRB2Kart Z would be in the hands of the people, and would initially be the base of what would come later..

You see, SRB2Kart originally started as a large update to Super SRB2Kart Z that went through many changes, and this is evident when you take a look at what this proper predecessor of the game.

The game still runs in SRB2 2.0's engine, so the handling, drifting and sticky walls are still like Riders 2.0, but it patched out the off-road Star and drifting oddities. This along with having a roster of new and polished custom maps included made it quite the improvement.

Tracks such as Casino Resort, Canyon Rush and Sub-Zero Peak made their debut here, with layouts mostly similar to the final versions. A few old Riders-era maps were also polished, with Pipe Speedway being the most updated with a much more familiar layout than before (though it does not have the elevation changes or final spiral at Daytona Speedway, its still much closer looking than what was in Riders)

Some familiar maps like Darkvile Garden and Toxic Palace had some key differences in their layouts, but otherwise were pretty close to their later versions, including in the general texturing and music used. And two tracks originally released for Riders 2.0 as custom tracks, Blue Mountain Zone K and Volcanic Valley Zone, were very different, though VVZ's music was the same, and those two old layouts returned to SRB2Kart as Classic variants hidden in Map Hell.

On the note of items, the Fireflower and Boo were added alongside the explosive Black Shells and Blue Lightning (Blue Shell stand-in); the last two not making the cut in future versions...

But the most noticeable additions were the Shields, also exclusive to KartZ, which used their own item slot and almost all had an unique effect when activated.

August 19, 2006: SRB2 Final Demo v1.09.4.

Origins: SRB2Riders

The project was initially started by Dark Mystic as a SOC mod, assisted by Princess Plushima (previously known as "Draykon") and Chaos Zero 64 on the side of coding and mapping, and while the release thread is dated June 28, 2006 FIX THIS IN THE VIDEO YOU GOOFER, the first post was edited to reflect Riders v1.46.4X, the LAST version of the original mod that got released in June 29, 2009.

There are messages after it that quote older posts and refer to earlier versions of the mod, but these old messages and mod versions are now lost to time; likely due to a message board change back then, which would explain why the first post is NOT marked as edited despite how the version mentioned is from much later than the marked date.

SRB2Riders was originally made out of separate characters and map files paired with a single script file (SOC) to modify the game and packaged together by the small team. There is evidence of how the SOC file itself used to be updated on its own for gameplay tweaks on the Message Board thread, with the evidence of mentions of Riders5.soc files and so on.

Some players also contributed with small things for the project, as seen in the thread with other members sending in their sprites and the credits inside the mod's files.

But at the time, SRB2's limitations did not allow for huge gameplay changes through SOC, so the older versions can be assumed were much more basic than what would later get released...

You see, Chaos Zero 64 eventually started working on a source code version of the mod, modifying the game's engine as much as possible to fit their needs instead of doing it through the limited SOC files, and this led to the release in February 27, 2007, of a new version of SRB2Riders, which in CZ64's words, was much more improved than before.

Features from Sonic Riders like the Air Gauge, boosting and mid-air tricks for extra air were implemented, and it had JTE bots to race against in the Single Player mode. These changes certainly pushed the mod to be way more than it used to be...but sometime after that, there would be a certain new addition important to this story.

An update from June 3, 2008 introduced a Mario Kart gamemode to SRB2Riders...and this is the very first seed of what SRB2Kart would eventually become. Though don't get ahead of yourselves; it definitely didn't play like it yet.

Super SRB2Kart Z

The handling and controls weren't very altered as with the Riders mode, and instead played closer if not virtually like re-skinned vanilla SRB2 gameplay but without normal jumps. You could hop but not drift, items were completely random (regardless of position), didn't have the single player bots, and you could even cut over off-road without a speed loss by hopping over and over with the right timing.

There are other details I noticed from investigating this build, such as...

Even though it isn’t possible to confirm this due to how the older versrons can’t be found anymore, it seems that the first Riders versions with the Mario Kart mode might only have included 8 maps made by CZ64, Chromatian and FlareBlade.

This is because out of the 10 tracks that were seen in this last version, two of them actually had standalone releases in the Message Board in 2009 intended for the Mario Kart mode: Crawla Cape by Violo, and Dusty Dunes by DaicheS9. It is possible that they were noticed by CZ64 and added to the mod, which is doable from how Crawla Cape seemingly was modified by CZ64 to have less lag as he mentions it on Crawla Cape's thread.

You can watch all the maps being explored in Riders 1.0 by following the playlist linked below, where you'll also likely notice the gameplay quirks.

The most noteworthy maps from this very first version would be Peach Castle, which actually survived virtually intact until the current SRB2Kart release as a hidden Map Hell map, becoming the oldest unchanged layout playable in the game, and Pipe Speedway, which is a very early version of what would later become Daytona Speedway, noticeable with the first half with the left circle turn and right turn with an earlier off-road shortcut to take with a mushroom/sneaker being already present, but otherwise being very plain in visual details and the rest of the layout.

Both Riders and the Mario Kart mode enjoyed a fair share of popularity back then, even in their primitive state, and aside from the aforementioned Violo and DaicheS9, there were a few other players such as Super Chris who made maps for Riders 1.0's Kart mode.

But the Mario Kart mode wouldn't REALLY take off until its next major update. See, in July 24th, 2009, SRB2 v2.0 was released, which added and polished many old details in the bae game, and was the logical step to continue SRB2Riders with.

It would take a few years until a port to the new version was finished in June 23, 2011, but aside from having the advantage of an improved base engine and new features to improve the Riders mode (such as the Riders countdown behaving like the original game, having to run through the finish line after the beam vanishes), the most noticeable change was that the Mario Kart mode was significantly reworked.

SRB2Kart 2.0 indev

Not only the handling and acceleration were changed, but drifting and mini-turbos were implemented as well. If you have played KartZ before, Riders 2.0 plays the exact same regarding the physics, sticky wall collision and even the insta-thrusts from miniboosts- only that drifting has an oversight with being off-road invulnerable.

It still wasn't perfect, as there was an oversight where drifting over off-road didn't have a speed penalty, and the Star off-road oversight is still present, but otherwise is a noticeable improvement. Other details that can be mentioned are:

In any case, this update made the Mario Kart mode so popular that it eventually eclipsed the standard Riders mode in popularity, which is made evident with the amount of custom tracks that it received back in the day.

There actually were enough to the point that someone would be inspired to make a full track pack just for this mode...

D00D Kart 64