Super Metroid: Eris

[squishy_ichigo]

How come you never hang out with us on irc Quietus? :<

It makes me a sad panda....



edit: got you those pics DMan! :D
[spoiler]
Cart:

Box Cover:

[/spoiler]

[Quietus]

How come you never hang out with us on irc Quietus? :<

It makes me a sad panda....

Honest answer?  I don't really do chat.  I used to, in the early days of ICQ, but I kept being badgered in the middle of playing games. :mad:

On-topic(ish): The story's pretty good, I did find some errors (typical me, looking for them) - most obviously 'ominus', rather than 'ominous', and the missing comma at the end, making it sound like you get to fight Samus. :heheh:

[Riffman81]

How come you never hang out with us on irc Quietus? :<

It makes me a sad panda....

Honest answer?  I don't really do chat.  I used to, in the early days of ICQ, but I kept being badgered in the middle of playing games. :mad:

On-topic(ish): The story's pretty good, I did find some errors (typical me, looking for them) - most obviously 'ominus', rather than 'ominous', and the missing comma at the end, making it sound like you get to fight Samus. :heheh:

Yeah... I'm glad you caught those mistakes. I'll be fixing those.

[Digital_Mantra]

Actually the story behind Eris is quite different than what's written. Nothing to do with Mother Brain. Metroids are indigenous to Planet Eris and collected by the team for energy harvest. Space Pirates are there just because they're always around.

The real story which was never really disclosed is that Samus got a transmission from Eris Station that something was going wrong. She also had Chozodian empathic dreams of an alien planet and deep within it's core she heard a child humming and playing.

[Riffman81]

Actually the story behind Eris is quite different than what's written. Nothing to do with Mother Brain. Metroids are indigenous to Planet Eris and collected by the team for energy harvest. Space Pirates are there just because they're always around.

The real story which was never really disclosed is that Samus got a transmission from Eris Station that something was going wrong. She also had Chozodian empathic dreams of an alien planet and deep within it's core she heard a child humming and playing.

Interesting... If you want, write the description/story you would like me to put on the cover. To be honest, I just put something there for the sake of it. I just didn't want to have blank space on the cover. I wasn't expecting to have this hack put on a SNES cart at all actually. It was by luck that I sent it to a guy that could actually do it. The guy at www.gamereproductions.com told me that none of the Super Metroid hacks could be done... I guess he was basing this on Super Metroid Redesign, assuming the ROM was to large or something. However, after searching different forums, I found someone who could do it. It seems Super Metroid requires special EPROM chips in order to be dumped on a cart. Unless of course you want to use a Super Metroid cart as the donor cart. Anyway, it plays great on the SNES console, and I believe this has to be one of my favorite SM hacks I've played. Very nicely done. I read here that your re-working it? Will there be any major changes?

[personitis]

Just thought you'd like to know that some guy posted some decent looking box art for Eris

That's hella good. O_O

[Prime Hunter]

I just finished playing through this a few minutes ago with a 5:14 time, 58% items, and the child being saved. Overall, this is probably my favorite hack that I've played so far, and that includes Redesign and Golden Dawn. I mentioned some of my early impressions over on the M2K2 topic for this, but seeing as this is where DMantra will more likely see them I figured I'd post my final thoughts here.


It's probably been said by nearly everyone who's played this, but Eris is the best looking world so far that's come out of the Super Metroid engine. There was a striking balance between being beautiful while being deadly at the same time, and the fact that the icy setting was almost always around to remind me of that fact did wonders to immerse me into the environment.

I understand the decision to make the enemies insanely tough, and maybe it was just me because I only finished the game with a grand total of FOUR energy tanks (one of which is the one after Ridley/Crocomire), but in some cases they were a little tougher than necessary. I will say that I love that kind of challenge over constant death traps and spikes at every turn though, and again it could just be me, but E-Tanks were hard to come by. I did find some early on that I never managed to collect because the tricks involved were beyond my vision/abilities, so that didn't help either. But I must congratulate you bringing back a feeling I haven't had since 2004 and the end of Zero Mission. The moment I finally grabbed the Chozen Armor and could immediately start blowing everything away that had plagued me since the beginning of the game is one that will remain with me for a while as far as Super Metroid hacks go.

I know you're already addressing this, but the Morph Ball was hidden a bit too well for me and I only found it once I knew the ice could be broken. But from there, it was smooth sailing until I got to the Power Bombs, as the item progression felt natural and having traversed a good portion of the early sections a few times by then helped me figure out where to go. Unfortunately, the one place I didn't go back to check just happened to contain the Ice Beam, which I also felt was hidden too well based on how many areas open up beforehand with the PBs. Some tricks I never would've thought to try to get items (Spring Ball and Space Jump, mostly) and again they felt a little too hard compared to the rest of the journey. Other than those few slip ups though, I liked the open world setup of Eris for the most part.

So in the end, other than a few minor annoyances and design choices, Eris may be the first hack I go back to when I finally start replaying the ones I've finished. Definitely sets the new standard for what the top hacks are going to be judged against from here on out in my mind.


On a final note, I ran into the game killing bug at the end, and after many failed attempts at re-patching the game and it still crashing I simply went into that room and changed the music to get through it like I saw someone suggest. (Changed the second music option in CA08 from 07:MUTE to 00:NO CHANGE and the room was fine after, just in case others run into this later on.) This was from the version of the game that's on this site right now I'm pretty sure, since I just downloaded the game either yesterday or the day before.

[Riffman81]

@PRIME HUNTER: I never experienced that dreaded bug that has been mentioned time and time again while playing this hack on PC with ZSNES. However, I did have this hack dumped on to an SNES cart, but have yet to complete it on actual hardware. I'll have to do a play through of the cart version I have to see if it happens.  I really hope not, as Dmantra says it's been fixed.

I agree, this hack was well done! Very beautiful layouts, and a nice challenge with finding some of the items throughout. Saving the child at the end of the game was a nice touch as well. If the game killing bug shows up on the cart version I have, I'll just dump Eris .V2 once Dmantra completes it. But, hopefully that glitch is a thing of the past and has been taken care of.

[Riffman81]

Sorry to bump this thread, but I wanted to let everyone know that I did complete this hack on the SNES cart I had made... well, almost. It seems that game killing bug that has been mentioned in the past is in the ROM image I have. I didn't experience it on the emulator, but I did encounter it doing a play through on actual hardware. The game plays flawlessly up until the ending escape sequence. Once I enter the room with the child, there is no music, and when I try to leave, the game freezes.  No big deal... as I can just dump a fixed ROM on the cart once I get it. So, does anyone know the correct location for the fixed .IPS patch? I know an .IPS patch for Eris is here on the site, but is it the updated one? I think I got the patch I have from Dmantra's site, but I couldn't tell you when that was.... it's been awhile back.

EDIT: I didn't realize I was the last person to post, therefore I double posted. I apologize and if had paid more attention, I would have just edited my previous post. Wont happen again.

[Digital_Mantra]

Wow.. this is very surprising news to me and I'm sorry to hear that this old issue re-surfaced for your cart. I'll look into this.
I'm 90% sure that the music fix for that room is up on the site. The bug was when everything was muted. Was there any sound in the room?
If there wasn't sound, then shit. If there WAS sound, then this must be some very random asm issue regarding the child,
as that's the first room of 5 with a PLM trigger that allows her to stay with you.. I think..

edit: Holy Shit.. The ips file on the site has the room muted! Which led me to a revelation. I had fixed it, but I also had to backup the site one day because of an issue, and I guess the newer file was never properly archived and given that the file names were the same.. shit.

The newer version of Eris may have to be released a bit early. It's nothing to get excited over as there are very very very few changes in the long run, but this bug is one change that is important.

I wonder why some people didn't encounter this..

[Zhs2]

EDIT: I didn't realize I was the last person to post, therefore I double posted. I apologize and if had paid more attention, I would have just edited my previous post. Wont happen again.

Hardly likely that anyone would have noticed a month new edit. You aren't doing a disservice here by double posting.

[francis]I hate page breaks.[/francis]

[Riffman81]

There was no sound in the room. I tried changing the music in SMILE, but got a message saying the room is to large when I tried to save the change... in fear of messing something else up in the ROM, I didn't make any changes, and will wait until the new version is released before I get this one dumped to cart again. I'm also going to redo my box art I made awhile back, and the cart label. I'll post it here in the thread for everyone as well, just in case anyone else has a cart of this hack made up.

I'm not much of an expert on ASM, but I do believe the problem is with the music being muted, as others that have changed the music in that room have had success finishing the game. As I said in my previous post, the game didn't give me any issues on the emulator (I use ZSNES) but running on an actual console, I did encounter the glitch.

Now, about the revamp your doing with Eris... if I may give my thoughts on it... I think the original version was great, I personally didn't see anything that I would want changed. I liked the overall design and flow of the game. It's a great challenge and very enjoyable. I almost forgot at times I was playing a ROM hack. It felt like a new Metroid overall. That's one of the reasons I had it dumped to a cart, that and it looks really cool sitting next to all the other games in my collection.   :grin:

[Power Missile]

Before I go into detail how much I've enjoyed this hack, let me elaborate on why the music has not been working.

This is the same case with SFI, where you weren't able to get through the Big Metroid without it freezing up on you.  It's because whatever music you selected seem to break the sound and with that, the transition sequence as it is ignored.  To fix this problem, all it needs is a change to the appropriate sound, which can be any, so as long as it won't break the game. I'm not too sure why it cancels them out anyway.

So all one has to do to fix this problem is go to the room (7CA08) and change it to whatever music.  It doesn't matter if the room is too large; SMILE gives a random negative number for it for some reason.  I sure do not think (and hope not) it will overwrite anything just by changing a song.

Anyway, I loved dropping down the shaft before Ridley.  That was great.  I enjoyed Phazoon as well, especially with the screen screwing up when hitting him.  Everything's too easy though when you find the Plasma Beam.  I guess you might want to have to fight your way through it too earn it.  Draygon's room could use a bit more of a makeover.  There's too many things that I like to list, but those were the most significant points.

[CraigRobbo]

Okay, i think im either being dumb or doing somthing really wrong.

I downloaded the ISP and patched an (e) and a (ju) version of super metroid and neither of them will play after they are patched in snes9x.

Help?

Craig

[Zhs2]

First off, patching a European SM rom with ANY hack these days is sure to not get you any results, as none of them are based off of the European SM rom. Second off, pay attention to whether or not your rom has a header. The easy way to do this is to look at the file size - if your ROM is any multiple of 512KB, then the rom is unheadered. If not, and the rom is exactly 512 bytes extraneous, then your rom has a header. I'm guessing you'll find that you need to add a header to your JU SM rom, as Eris is one of the few hacks that was based off of a headered SM rom when the patch was created. SMILE as well as SNESTOOL are both capable of headering your rom, although SMILE is recommended for beginners. Good luck!

[Quietus]

Are you using a headered ROM?  DMan's hack is one of the few to use a headered ROM as opposed to the usual unheadered.

...Ninja'd.

[Buccaneer]

First off, patching a European SM rom with ANY hack these days is sure to not get you any results, as none of them are based off of the European SM rom

I should've known this way before, as I have been playing in a (E) rom all this time, since a few days. No wonder why red Brinstar tiles looked like a garbled mess... And mostly why I couldn't end any game at all: as long as I got near to the ending, the game was getting freeze without any chance of getting further... Until now.

Anyway... I just finished Eris, in a eye-popping time of 7:02, kind of a loser! But I really got in love with the visuals and the overall blending of the palettes. Soon after I repatched things with the (JU) rom, I took my time to revisit the whole world and enjoy this fine craft of game. However, I wasn't aware that...
[spoiler]The lower levels, just after collecting the 4 artifacts[/spoiler]
... Were so gorgeus! Truly, you got some insane atmospheric effects down there. Congratulations, Digital Mantra. I was wondering if the game was intended to be played with some moody Goa music, instead of the always reliable Super Metroid themes. No internet irony intended, I just felt that pleased with this hack, and understand why it got such an enrooted "You love it or hate it" on itself.

[CraigRobbo]

Are you using a headered ROM?  DMan's hack is one of the few to use a headered ROM as opposed to the usual unheadered.

...Ninja'd.

Hi.
I think your right, but for the life of me i cannot find  headered rom.

Is there any way to convert?

Craig

[Qactis]

SMILE as well as SNESTOOL are both capable of headering your rom, although SMILE is recommended for beginners. Good luck!

[Quietus]

Just for the sake of making the above crystal clear: Open the ROM in SMILE, and click on Tools > Header > Add Header.  Job done.

[Digital_Mantra]

Eris 2012

What's new since the 2009 version?
A lot of things, even though you're still exploring the same planet. Major aesthetic touch ups in numerous locations.
Many items have been moved around for a refreshing 100% experience.
Hints and blockades are given early on, as to prevent a 'world is your oyster' situation when you're underpowered.
Upgrade order has a more strict guideline, giving the game a more challenging and rewarding feel.
While many loved the non-linearity, that is still present in most of Eris.
There's some new coding, a re-vamped HUDD screen, menu/map, a new 'Final Report' Lore and a few extra rooms.
It's easier when it was too hard, and harder when it was too easy.
In general, things just look nicer, and play better as if you were on a console.
This is still Eris, just much better.

[Lunaria]

Cool~

I might replay eris if it's indeed not as hard as it was before. :p

[altoiddealer]

I am very excited for this  :grin:

But yeah some parts were just insanely difficult

[Charmander106]

This is going to be awesome, and nice 2012 trailer!

I think you should also redesign the title screen too but that's just me. Can't wait for the update!

[passarbye]

very nice 2012 trailer. looking to play this one for hours. :)