In August 2017,
Sega unleashed Sonic Mania upon the world.
The game was a 2D platformer,
made to replicate the gameplay and feel
of the Sonic games from the early and mid 1990s.
Complete with remixed versions of old stages,
all new stages,
and even a new coat of paint for old characters,
upon release, Mania would go on to be
the most critically acclaimed Sonic title in over two decades.
Sega traditionally relied on
their in-house Sonic Team to develop Sonic titles,
especially major releases.
However, Mania was developed by a team not of industry veterans,
but rather of life-long Sonic fans,
who had cut their teeth by creating fan games and rom hacks in their spare time.
The two most famous of them, in the Sonic fan community at least:
Christian Whitehead and Simon Thomley.
Whithead rose to fame with the creation of his
Retro Engine, which could replicate the look and feel of
classic Sonic titles
along with his popular fan game, Retro Sonic.
He would begin working with Sega for official Sonic projects
beginning with the 2011 re-vamped re-release
of the 1993 game Sonic CD.
Thomley, or as he is known online, "Stealth",
was also a rather prominent member
of the Sonic rom hacking and fan game community.
Arguably he is one of the fathers of this
section of the Sonic fandom,
with his earliest attempts to create a Sonic game of his own
beginning in his youth.
In the early '90s,
after first experiencing the original Sonic the Hedgehog
on the Sega Genesis via a display at a local Sam's Club store,
he became obsessed with this franchise.
He was enamoured with the fast, momentum-based platforming of the title.
He would attempt to re-create Sonic's style of platforming himself,
first using his parents' old Apple II computer,
and later a PC running Microsoft DOS.
Today we're talking about a Sonic project
that began as one of Thomley's earliest:
Sonic the Hedgehog: Project Mettrix
is a fan title that Thomley
worked on from 1997 until 2016.
This is his story through this game.
Thomley's first game was called "Hunt".
A primitive title created by a 12-year-old Thomley in 1991,
this Apple II game featured a red rectangle,
which had to be moved through a variety of puzzles.
It was a rudimentary platformer
taking some obvious cues from Super Mario Bros.
The rectangle itself could not even jump,
but rather,
could only be moved vertically by crude, rectangular elevators.
As basic as "Hunt" was,
it was a start for Thomley,
who would initially become fascinated with programming as a child,
cutting his teeth on computers such as the Texas Instruments Ti-99/4a.
By 1996, his programming skills had grown exponentially.
He had become proficient in the programming language "C",
and had tried numerous times,
albeit unsuccessfully,
to create a Sonic game of his own with his friends.
He had become gripped by Sega's mascot,
however, unlike most,
it wasn't the character himself or Sega's "in-your-face" marketing tactics that had drawn Thomley in,
but rather, Sonic's gameplay.
Sonic the Hedgehog is a game
which relied not only on a player's mastery of level layouts,
but also on momentum and the physics of the game's world.
Also in 1996,
Thomley set up one of the early homes for the Sonic fan community online:
the Sonic Stuff Research Group, or SSRG.
This became a hub for ROM hackers to
share their resources, tools, and projects.
It was through his work on the SSRG that
Thomley would be among the first to experience
unreleased prototypes of Sonic games.
These were such as the Simon Wai Sonic the Hedgehog 2 prototype,
which included references to and playable sections of levels
that would not make it into the final release of the game.
Enter Ron Echidna,
or as she would later be known, "Aimee".
Much like Thomley,
she had a desire to bring the Sega Genesis Sonic experience to the PC.
However, she had run into some issues.
Her own project,
at the time titled "Sonic and the 7 Rings",
was being developed using a rudimentary game development tool from Clickteam
called "The Games Factory".
After encountering numerous issues, many of which were caused by the constraints of Clickteam's software,
Aimee searched out a programmer who was proficient in the "C" programming language
and who was also interested in creating a Sonic fan game.
In 1997, she stumbled upon Thomley.
He seemed like a perfect fit for her project.
What initially began as a project of just porting "7 Rings" from "The Games Factory" to "C"
instead became a much more involved project for Thomley.
Shortly after joining Aimee on development,
the game was retitled to "Sonic the Hedgehog: Project Mettrix",
mainly just due to that title sounding better to those involved.
At this point, a plot for the game had not been decided on.
Emphasis during development was put on gameplay above all else.
The main inspiration, gameplay-wise:
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles.
This had been the final, biggest, most grandiose
Sonic adventure on the Sega Genesis.
Thus a build of Mettrix was created
featuring Sonic the Hedgehog,
Tails the Fox,
and Knuckles the Echidna.
All three were playable and nearly identical to their Sonic 3 & Knuckles counterparts.
The small Mettrix team soon realized, however,
that they were, in fact, going to need some sort of story.
Even if it took a backseat for the majority of the adventure,
they felt the need for some sort of reasoning
for these characters to be going through the wide variety of
stages and situations.
A few different stories were drafted.
Though never intended as a Sonic the Hedgehog 4,
the plots all took place following the events of Sonic 3.
The earliest plot
featured the evil Dr. Eggman
discovering a machine which would grant
all of the planet Mobius' animals with super intelligence.
Somehow, through a means which was never agreed upon by Aimee or Thomley,
Eggman would build and re-engineer this machine
to instead turn the animals into robots.
The name of this nefarious contraption: "The Mettrix".
However, the plot that was ultimately settled upon
was more par for the course for a mid-90s Sonic game.
After somehow escaping unscathed at the end of Sonic 3 & Knuckles,
Dr. Eggman would once again build up a robotic army
and set off to the mysterious floating Angel Island,
home to both Knuckles the Echidna and the mysterious, yet powerful, Master Emerald.
Instead of wanting the emerald to power up his Star Wars inspired Death Egg like in Sonic 3,
Eggman instead hoped to build a machine of nearly unspeakable power,
capable not only of destroying Sonic and friends once and for all,
but perhaps destroying even the world itself.
The device was codenamed by the mad doctor
Project: Mettrix.
Like in many 2D platformers,
the plot here was rather simple.
As per the team's wishes,
it served merely as reasoning for why Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles
had to traverse through a variety of zones to defeat the evil scientist in question.
In addition, Mettrix expanded on the concept of
different characters taking different paths through the game
which had been introduced in Sonic 3 & Knuckles.
For example, the player would begin each adventure in Wood Zone,
an area based off a scrapped level from Sonic the Hedgehog 2,
which served as a glorified character select.
From there, if the player chose Sonic or Tails,
they would go through the lush Shining Island Zone.
However, if Knuckles was selected,
they would instead go through Guardian Castle Zone.
This was one of several points in the game where
different characters would experience their own, exclusive stages.
Despite being a DOS game,
the levels here have a very Genesis-esque look and feel.
Everything is vibrant and colourful,
and this is bolstered by a strong midi soundtrack from Andre Schroder.
Most importantly, especially in later builds,
characters control flawlessly.
Despite having some noticeable bugs,
Project Mettrix was debatably the best
fan-made Sonic experience out there in the late 90s.
In 2002, however,
development on the project would slow.
Around this time, Aimee mysteriously disappeared from the internet,
leading to most if not all development at this point
being handled by Thomley.
This would be further slowed by him taking on other fan projects in addition to Mettrix.
Around this time,
during an attempt at porting both the original
Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic 2 to the Sega CD,
Thomley would learn of the Sonic romhack
Sonic the Hedgehog: Megamix,
which had began as a simple palette and level edit of Sonic 1.
He would join this project and co-found its development team, Team Megamix, in 2004.
From here, the project would shift to become more of a
complete overhaul of the 1991 title,
eventually featuring new graphics, music, and playable characters,
and eventually even itself being ported to the Sega CD.
Upon the departure of the original lead,
Thomley would find himself in the leading position here.
Megamix would soon begin to take up much of Thomley's free time,
though work did continue on Mettrix.
Aimee briefly returned online in late 2004 with
renewed interest in the project she had begun in 1996.
She would help create new levels,
mainly the prehistoric themed Bronze Lake Zone,
and even helped prepare a build of the game to be released for the
2005 Sonic Amateur Games Expo.
She would disappear again shortly afterwards.
This was the last of her involvement with Mettrix.
However, progress on Project Mettrix was continuing again.
However, Thomley was not completely satisfied.
He had decided in 2003
that the original DOS engine was not up to snuff for what he ultimately wanted to accomplish with the project.
Thus he began working on a new game engine
known as "E02" alongside the old version of Mettrix.
He re-christened the old versions of the game as "E01".
The final E01 version of Mettrix would be released in 2005.
It was the most stable and complete version of the game yet,
even if not everything Thomley had wanted.
All three characters were playable,
each with their own functional paths through the game,
and in addition to this,
the last E01 versions of Mettrix would finally
see ports to Microsoft Windows.
Despite this, due to the non-standard screen resolution of the title,
the game will not run properly, if at all, on modern versions of Windows.
Thus, the best way to experience E01 Mettrix in all of its glory
is by using a DOS emulator such as DOSBox.
From here, Thomley hoped to create an even bigger,
better version of the game using his E02 engine.
In 2006, the first demo of this new version of Mettrix
would be released for the Sonic Amateur Games Expo.
Consisting of only a few playable levels,
this build was meant to show off the power, stability, and versatility of E02 itself.
The Sonic community was impressed by this game engine,
especially once Thomley also released a Mega Man 7-style fan game demo titled
Mega Man: Triple Threat,
which also ran using E02.
The Mettrix E02 build would not change much in the coming years.
Consisting of a fully functional version of Shining Island Zone,
Act 1 of Bronze Lake,
a remake of Green Hill Zone from Sonic 1 and the Sonic 1 special stage,
plus a test zone, along with all three playable characters from previous versions of Mettrix,
Stealth would turn his attention away from porting the entirety of Mettrix to E02,
to instead porting E02 itself to a variety of systems.
By 2008, in addition to Windows,
E02 and Mettrix would have versions compatible with Mac OSX and Linux as well.
Soon after, homebrew versions were also made available for the Sony PSP and Nintendo Wii.
In 2009,
this E02 porting job would gain Thomley the attention of
Christian Whitehead.
Whitehead and Thomley had previously met in 1997
after Whitehead had discovered an earlier version of Mettrix.
They had since fallen out of contact,
though Whitehead had kept up to date with Thomley's work.
By 2009, Whitehead was working on an updated re-release of Sonic CD.
Whitehead wanted to make a demo version to pitch to Sega themselves.
However, versatile as his Retro Engine was,
he wanted Thomley's help in getting the demo to a point that he was comfortable with on smartphones.
In particular, he wanted help in getting the game's
pseudo-3D special stages faithful to their original versions.
This was in addition to other aspects, such as the Palmtree Panic Zone boss,
which was the first boss of the game.
An agreement was made and Thomley got to work.
Within a year, Whitehead's pitch had been made and accepted by Sega.
Upon the release of his version of Sonic CD in 2011,
it was met with critical acclaim.
Thomely, however, would not work on this project after the initial pitch demo.
Though he would initially try to join Whitehead in developing the port past this point,
Whitehead would decline,
citing lack of experiencing or existing relationship with Sega at the time.
This did not stop Thomley with coming up with his own idea to pitch to Sega.
In his free time,
he had created his own demo version of Sonic CD
which ran on the Nintendo DS.
Unfortunately, due to a variety of external factors,
he never got to make his own Sonic CD pitch.
Fortunately, Thomley would get a chance to work with Sega again a few years later.
Whitehead, after the critical and commercial success of his version of Sonic CD,
was going to make an updated port of the original Sonic the Hedgehog for iPhones and Android devices.
But - he wanted Thomley's help.
Thomley agreed.
Thomley had established his own game studio in 2011, named "Headcannon".
This was the name he would work under for this project.
This version of Sonic 1, released in 2013,
would also receive critical and commercial acclaim.
It would be followed later that year by a similarly styled port of Sonic the Hedgehog 2.
In a move that harkened back to Thomley's earlier work,
the smartphone version of Sonic 2 featured a fully playable version of the Hidden Palace Zone,
which had been playable in prototype versions of the game
but was scrapped from the final original release.
Throughout this time, work continued off and on on Project Mettrix.
With the registration of Headcannon in 2011,
the E02 engine itself was renamed to the "Headcannon Game Engine".
However, the final update to this engine,
which a download of was required to even play E02 Sonic Project Mettrix,
would occur in April 2016.
This was shortly after Thomley famously cancelled the Sonic Megamix project,
of which he was also the only development team member left on.
In his final post on the official Team Megamix blog,
he cited part of the reasoning for this cancellation as
involving various upcoming projects.
He also, however, did state that he would someday release the Megamix engine to the public,
after he had time to go back, clean it up, and improve it to a point he was satisfied with.
In July of that year, Sega officially announced Sonic Mania -
a new game which would serve as a celebration of the Sonic series itself.
It would feature new levels, old levels,
classic Sonic gameplay,
and even references to obscure and widely forgotten Sonic titles.
To put it bluntly,
it was equal parts a new Sonic game
and a celebration of the franchise as a whole.
This title would be successful enough to get an updated release,
titled Sonic Mania Plus, in July 2018.
One of the prominent members on the mania project was Thomley.
While Sonic Project Mettrix was never formally cancelled,
it can be assumed to be on an indefinite hiatus.
However, the game itself, both in the later E01 versions and E02 demos,
is a blast to play and is definitely worth your time.
As for Thomley himself,
his story shows what happens when you take something you're passionate about,
in this case Sonic the Hedgehog and game development,
and stick with it.
From a young age, he didn't just want to re-create the Sonic experience,
but actually contribute something to his favourite franchise.
With Sonic Mania he was finally able to do this.
He had gone from a Sonic fan to part of what is considered one of the best Sonic games of all time.
However, the work he would go on to do on Sonic Mania,
and indeed with Sega in general,
would not have been possible without the work that was set in motion by
Project Mettrix.
This is part of Thomley's story and the tale of an extraordinary fan game.
If you would like to learn more about Thomley and his work,
read the companion article to this video over on infinitefrontiers.org.uk.
Also tune into the Stuff We Say Podcast,
where Thomley and myself sat down to discuss his work,
fan games,
Sonic itself,
and more!
And, of course,
check out his own channel,
where he currently creates his own videos!
So with that,
thank you very much for watching,
subscribe and share this video if you found it interesting,
and I hope to see you...
next time!
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