History of the Blue Sphere Generator

Can you believe the history of the Blue Sphere generator is over a decade old? Someone actually figured out the algorithm that long ago, in the early 2000s!

The Koji Nishio/koryan at Sonic Kontrol Era (2000 - 2003)

In 2000, koryan at Sonic Kontrol has released the original CGI-based Blue Sphere Generator.
In 2002 [Last Update: 2002.7.1.], koryan at Sonic Kontrol has released the code analysis page.
On April 17, 2003 [Last Update: 2003.4.17.], the section was updated with a Javascript version of the generator and a CGI backend/HTML frontend version of the generator. The original CGI script still remains. At that time, the code analysis still existed.
On May 4, 2003 [Last Update: 2003.5.4.], the section was updated with a second version of the CGI backend/HTML frontend version of the generator and removed the code analysis script.


* The orignal implementation only works properly in Internet Explorer. This was natural in its early time (so was CGI), and today, sites for only one browser would be a highly discouraged practice.
** Original website: http://www.din.or.jp/~koryan/sonic/gbs.htm [koryan's Sonic Kontrol - SONIC-G.B.S.]

The DrSpud Era (2004 - 2007)

In 2004 [Page last modified on Mon, 24 May 2004], Dr. Spud finds the Sonic Kontrol GBS page, and the Blue Sphere Generator section opens up. The frontend was PHP (for reasons unknown) and the backend was Javascript.
In 2007 [Page last modified on 2007/05/13], the Blue Sphere Generator page gets a major update and some cleanup code. The frontend is HTML this time, and a new feature was added: Non-Sonic 1 Cartridge option.


* There were subsequent updates on the page in between 2004 and 2007, but they were mainly for updating the custom level list. The code itself got two known updates. The title displayed on the page showed up in 7/17/2005.
** Somewhere along the line, nineko grabbed a copy of the code and mirrored it on the Internet. That original PHP code is technically lost from the Internet (unless you can somehow get it from nineko). The one I have gotten in 2012 is HTML'd and cleaned up by me.
*** Original website (now dead): http://drspud.no-ip.com/bluesphere [drspud's Blue Sphere Generator Code Page]
**** Mirror (broken): http://digilander.libero.it/projectchaos2/BS/index.php [nineko's mirror site]

The CW Cyrix/Ami Sapphire Era (2008 - 2014)

In March 2008, after the drx 2008-02-23 mass prototype release, I browse the Sonic Retro wiki, as usual. Ended up on the Sonic 1 + Sonic & Knuckles entry and noticed nineko's mirror to the Blue Sphere Generator.
On August 16, 2011, I finally bother to look for the script to make public on my website. Ended up on archive.org with drspud's old URL. Managed to find a good page to download. Realized it was the newer version of the script, and not the one from nineko's mirror. Still good; released it on my website.
On July 17, 2012, I finally archive nineko's mirror, though it became HTML'd and not the original PHP format. I clean up the HTML, zip the entire archive, and release it on my main website.
On April 2013, the domain 07scripts.net (re)surfaces on the Internet. [only found out about the domain's history in June 2014.] In it contains only a customized Blue Sphere Generator. The entire text for the link and entry: "Blue Sphere Level Generator for the Blue Sphere Game in Sonic Mega Collection".
In 2013 (likely August), I have noticed 07scripts' version of the Blue Sphere Generator after a very cursory Google search. Initially confused as to how to use it, I bookmarked the site and left, lol.
On January 7, 2014, I revisit the 07scripts generator page and finally figured out how to use it. I then archive the 07scripts version of the generator and clean up the HTML for offline use.


* At the time, in 2011, it was nigh impossible to get the script .zip archive off the page from archive.org. Only the page in July 31, 2007 was downloadable.
** If I hadn't cleaned up the HTML on the nineko mirror archive index, a whole bunch of extra HTML would've displayed even after the resulting generation.
*** Managed to grab the 07scripts version by only three months before the domain expired...
**** Original 07scripts' Blue Sphere Generator website (now dead): http://www.07scripts.net/bs/ [Blue Sphere Generator]

The Roman Dorado Lopez/romandorado Era (2021)

In 2021, a Github repository has been created called BlueSpheresGeneratorReleases.
This repository aims to fix some issues with the web version of the generator and provides a true offline version of such. However, it is Windows only, and is a little over 50MB for the full version, and almost 40MB for the minimal version.
I have downloaded and created a local copy of the repo... ~200MB. I don't expect this to disappear for a while, though.


* Github Repository: https://github.com/romandorado/BlueSpheresGeneratorReleases