 |
| Register | Login | |||||
 |
Main
| Memberlist
| Active users
| Calendar
| Chat
| Online users Ranks | FAQ | ACS | Stats | Color Chart | Search | Photo album |
|
| | ||
|
| Register | Login | |||||
|
Main
| Memberlist
| Active users
| Calendar
| Chat
| Online users Ranks | FAQ | ACS | Stats | Color Chart | Search | Photo album |
|
| | ||
| 0 users currently in ROM Hacking. |
| Acmlm's Board - I3 Archive - ROM Hacking - About my upcoming hack, Metroid Begins... |
New poll |  |  |
| Add to favorites | Next newer thread | Next older thread |
| User | Post | ||
Kirk Bradford Myers Shyguy                  Since: 01-23-06 From: Baltimore, Maryland Last post: 6574 days Last view: 6574 days |
| ||
| Hey, everybody. I originally posted this in response to a question Nightcrawler asked in a different thread...but the post was turning into a beast and getting dangerously off-topic. So I thought I'd just create this one and take the opportunity to tell you all a little about my upcoming Metroid hack. This post is going to be a bit long, so please bear with me...
Metroid Begins, to be released on August 6th 2006, is not going to be a completely new Metroid game but instead is basically going to be a re-make of the original game in the spirit of Metroid: Zero Mission, sort of like a "twentieth anniversary" edition of the original game only much better in every respect. In fact, it's original working title was Metroid Improvement until I could come up with something a little less sterile. Guess I can give thanks to the new Batman movie for inspiring the name change.  My goal was to take Nintendo's little magnum opus and perfect it, giving it the fine-tuning it so desperately needed and giving it more license to make sense within the series as a whole. It was basically supposed to be my take of "Zero Mission" before there ever was an actual Metroid: Zero Mission. In essence, this is the version of Metroid that I feel Nintendo should have given us back in 1986, and would have if they'd have put me on their quality control team, hee hee... 
Here's a descriptive list of the most significant changes in the hack, of which I have been plugging away at off and on for the last four years... ==================== * The level design, which constitutes the heart of what Metroid Begins is and is based on the original game's maps, has been given an overhaul and completely tightened up, almost to the point of linearity from the later Metroid games...but not quite. You will need most of the items, including all beams, and your wits to get through this one. It will be very hard to jerk the game around and sequence-break. Yet you'll hardly be boxed in to one path either, and you'll be forced to make some tough yet necessary decisions. Prepare to make some sacrifices to get a better time, and prepare to backtrack all the way to hell to get 100% of items! The level design has also been optimised to prevent against many errors present in the original game...forget getting hopelessly stuck in corners and having to invent new cuss words while you furiously hit RESET. And forget falling victim to dirty tricks. (Remember that ledgeless pit?) Ahem, well, okay...there are a few new dirty tricks.  But nothing nearly as difficult to recover from. Basically, don't be surprised if you recognize many things and areas from the original Metroid. It's just that now, the way to get through them is...different...  And don't be too shocked when you learn that some things are not what they appear to be... 
* The new level design has been painstakingly created around the existing doors, items, and other things that the password system reads without moving any of these from their original places, save for Brinstar's Ice Beam which doesn't register in the password system anyway. This means that, unlike quite a bit of Metroid hacks out there, all known passwords will work with this version with no problems. Yay...  (BTW, if I tell anyone where I hid that wayward Ice Beam now then I'll have to kill them. Oh, well, there's always the one in Norfair. Then again...)
* Metroid Begins has been given a complete graphics overhaul. All new color pallette sets in all areas created by myself that I feel are better than the original ones are used, yet stay true to the spirit of the original game. Also, new sprite and tile graphics have been included, ripped from a Jorge Fuentes hack called "Metroid Omega" and slightly modified by myself to fit within the framework of Metroid Begins. I've also added a couple of graphics goodies in the mix myself where needed, and a freeware font by Toma to make the game compatible with PocketNES. The reason I used Jorge's graphics in my hack was because, quite frankly, well... that cat owns my ass at graphics creation!! My goal in creating Metroid Begins was to give the hack only the best it deserved whatever it took, even if it meant throwing my own ego out in the trash to do it.  I hacked for the game itself, not for my own glory...and the game is much better as a result.
* Little things here and there. New title screens, story, and start and password screens created by myself. Also, slight ASM/game mechanics hacks to fit in with new level design and to facilitate better balance (Samus jumps higher with Hi-Jump boots, pickup amounts on energy balls and missiles left behind by dead enemies has changed slightly, etc.). All five endings have been re-drawn, a combination of Jorge's graphics and my own, and the ending story has been re-written and the credits have been slightly re-vamped. * The game not only embraces the usage of the Mid-Air Bomb Boost Jump but in fact requires it in order to complete the game. Hi-Jump Boots are required to get through this adventure, but by themselves they will be just shy of enough, hence using the Mid-Air Bomb Boost is essential. * Many errors, tricks, and cheat arounds facilitated by poor design of the original game have been eliminated and made significantly null and void, with a few more to be eliminated in the works. (As of this writing, you can still do the wall/door trick, I am working on a workaround for this...) * The introduction of a new feature not present in the original Metroid (due to the old level design) which takes advantage of a harmess quirk in the original programming of the game...Warp Zones! Much like the tunnels in Pac-Man, they allow travel from one side of the screen to the other in vertical passageways, and allow players in horizontal passages to travel through holes in the ceiling and re-appear out of the lava below, and vice versa. Many of these areas must be traversed in order to complete the game, and some require use of the Wave Beam/Long Beam combo to pass. Also...expect to see some strategically-placed one-way doors and also one way vertical passages which not only travel only down but also travel only UP!
* Some notable changes in Tourian: More Metroids than you can shake a stick at. Mother Brain room has been redesigned to prevent from travelling backwards and is a dramatic one-shot affair preceded by a one-way door...no turning back! Escape from Tourian is also much harder than it was before...you may be using quite a bit of the allotted time to get out of Dodge before everything goes critical. And just wait until you kill Mother Brain and the entire screen goes into "red alert"...
==================== The background story, as you've probably guessed, is basically the same. However, I wrote a new version of it to accompany the hack, written from the unique perspective of a time traveller named Kirk Bradford Myers from 1500 or so years ahead of Samus Aran's own future who knows of the lure and fables that surround Samus's first mission to Zebes and how they have been exp Anyway, "he" explains that "he" created Metroid Begins as a testament to "his" own version of events that happened on Zebes on August 6 3986 based on "his" own research and findings. A different take on the story with the ending results being the same. Writing it from this perspective allows for the possibility of Metroid Begins as well as the other two games to sit on the Metroid timeline believably without conflicting each other, as it writes itself and the other two games off as "versions of events" rather than the actual truth which remains in question...
Just have a couple of things left to do (Touch-ups in ending credits, test for full compatibility with PocketNES) before actual playtesting can begin. Then I can finally get some screenshots up here and make you all drool, instead of just blowing promises into the wind. Take care, all...
Kudos! |
|||
fetts Octorok    Since: 01-17-06 Last post: 6403 days Last view: 6283 days |
| ||
| Sounds great. Cant wait to try it out.
Will u be posting screen shots anytime soon? |
|||
|
MP2E Newcomer Since: 01-27-06 Last post: 6497 days Last view: 6497 days |
| ||
| Why don't you call it Metroid: Generations? that sounds so much better (give me credit for title if you do though) |
|||
|
Kirk Bradford Myers Shyguy Since: 01-23-06 From: Baltimore, Maryland Last post: 6574 days Last view: 6574 days |
| ||
| Thanks for the good word, peoples...
Hey, Fetts. Screenshots are going to be made during final playtesting, which should be occurring very shortly, within the next couple of weeks, considering that the only thing I have left to do before then as of this writing is to ensure PocketNES compatibility. I want to create and post screenshots when I am 99% sure that nothing else level-wise and graphics-wise is going to be changing in the game. Believe me, I'm just as anxious to get screenshots up as you are to see them, but I don't want to jump the gun on anything.
Metroid: Generations sounds like a very interesting title, MP2E...however, I feel it is inappropriate for my particular hack since it is basically a re-make fo the original game. Metroid: Generations sounds like it could be a good title for a direct sequel or even a prequel to Metroid Begins, so I'll keep it in mind and, if I do end up using it, I will give you credit for it in the future.
I plan to do two playtests. The first one involves walking every single area of the map forwards, backwards, sideways, upside down, and inside out, while collecting 100% of items. After I've determined that my level design is on track with no major snafus, then I'll do a timed run to determine the manner in which I'll have to change the times required to achieve certain endings. Because trust me, folks, you are never going to get through this one in an hour. Not unless you cheat. After that, things should be pretty much finished.
With the time that remains before final release, I'm going to be ripping a page from GameMkr24's little book of ideas by writing a manual to accompany the game, much as he did for Zelda Challenge: Outlands. It will contain a new take on the Metroid story, partial maps, and information on all the new features needed to get through the game. Hopefully I can get this all done by the August 6th deadline this year...the .IPS itself will definitely be finished by that time. Kudos to all! |
| Add to favorites | Next newer thread | Next older thread |
| Acmlm's Board - I3 Archive - ROM Hacking - About my upcoming hack, Metroid Begins... |
| |
