Super Metroid ROM Hacking Research for Gamasutra

[kitsuta]

Hey all,

I'm Victoria Earl, a freelance games writer. I'm posting here to gather research for an article about the Super Metroid ROM hacking community. The article will be for Gamasutra, where I've been published previously. Essentially, I love taking classic games and figuring out what makes them great, and Super Metroid is my next subject.

For this article, I'm researching what motivates fans of Super Metroid to join the ROM hacking community. I'm particularly interested in how one goes from playing and enjoying the game, to mastering the game, to finding out about ROM hacks, to learning and making ROM hacks. I've looked around the forum and have some general ideas, but I'd love to get direct statements from ROM hackers about how they got into the hobby and the community's history.

So if you want to be part of the article, post here! You can post your own story or anything you think may be relevant to the topic, like what you think draws people to make Super Metroid hacks or how active you think the community is. I'd also like to hear if you have any involvement in the speedrun community or have attempted speedruns, and if that had any impact on you getting into ROM hacking. I will also be covering some of the more prominent hacks, like Redesign, so if you'd like to see any particular hacks covered by the article you can point them out here.

I will only quote and name people if given explicit permission, so be sure to let me know if I can quote posts you make in this thread and/or posts you've made elsewhere on the forum. Also let me know if you'd like me to use a name in addition to your forum name. I'll probably end up using fairly short quotes, but don't worry if you have a lot to say - any information will be helpful, so don't hold back!

Anyone is welcome to contribute - I'd love a broad range of opinions from veterans to people new to the hobby. I'm also hoping to cover the discovery of the Golden Torizo code, so if JAM and Scyzer give me permission to quote their posts from November 2010 and/or elaborate on any details that were not found initially, that would be awesome.

Let me know if you have any questions, and I look forward to hearing from everyone. Thanks!

[Quietus]

Sounds interesting.  I've been around both the hacking and speedrunning communities for some time now, so I can probably fill you in on quite a bit.  I'll update this post later with a proper wall-of-text for you. :^_^:

Right, first off, feel free to quote anything you need / want from me.  I'll address this in two halves, since you hit on both speedrunning and hacking, which are generally NOT linked.  I'll start with:

Speedrunning

[spoiler=For space!]Speedrunning for Super Metroid has always been a competitive scene.  The game being so highly rated, and still ranked in any 'best ever' lists means that the fan base is huge, and therefore more players are interested in mastering it, which leads you to speedrunning.

In the early 2000s there were a number of players who were competitively running the game.  I remember Smokey being one of the main runners, and he held the NTSC record for a while with an any% completion in (I think) 0:36.  This record stood until 2006, when Hotarubi blasted onto the scene with a 0:32.  100% runs struggled to breach the hour mark for a long time, until Red Scarlet finally recorded a 0:55 in 2004, using all of the most up-to-date tricks.  Red Scarlet's 0:55 was unofficially beaten by Hotarubi in 2008 with a time of 0:50.  Hotarubi did not wish to submit this run, as he felt that 0:49 was definitely possible.

Behemoth came along later, and launched a long thread on Metroid2002's (the primary site dedicated to running the Metroid series) forum to discuss obsoleting the records, even though he was running the PAL version of the game.  I was regularly involved in discussions with him about new tricks and uses for the old tricks.  I even got a little mention in his submission text - yay! :cheers:

Behemoth eventually succeeded in 2011, with a time of 0:48, which is the equivalent of about a 0:43 for the NTSC version.  If you haven't already, I suggest you view it here.  His skills are mental.  This meant that Red Scarlet's 0:55 record was officially smashed, and was replaced.

That's how the records currently stand - Hotarubi's 0:32 for any%, and Behemoth's 0:48 for 100%.[/spoiler]

As I mentioned above, I've never really seen a connection between mastery of the game and the hacking of it.  Which leads me on to:

Hacking

[spoiler=For more space!]I think for most people, myself included, the idea of hacking any game stems from the love of that game, and the wish to experience more of it.  Since no direct sequel was ever made, hacking was a natural direction for Super Metroid to take.

Hacking for Super Metroid started off very slowly, with awareness being minimal, and SMILE landing on the scene.  Interest grew slowly, with a few hacks being released, making progressively more changes to the game.  While some of these were well received, it wasn't until Drewseph's Redesign appeared that things really started heating up.  Even in the early stages, Redesign came across as ambitious, and people were itching to play it.

Once Redesign was released it came in for some serious criticism, most notable for its difficulty.  Early versions had parts that even veteran players said were bordering on impossible.  Crocomire's lair (and the Power Bombs within) was particularly slated, with one mistake resulting in death.  Thankfully, this has since been changed!

The hack redefined standards, including things such as physics changes, new items, a bigger world, and even a bomb counter through some ASM work from Kejardon.  Once word started to get around about this hack, interest in hacking exploded.  Tonnes of people wanted to make their own Redesign, their own hack, their own vision.  It was Redesign that got me interested in the hacking scene, let alone just Super Metroid.

Since then, hacking has progressively expanded within the game, and has now reached a point where purely cosmetic hacks (popular near the start) are now considered basic, and hex edits and newly written ASM are the norm.  Things that early on would have seemed impossible, such as a new HUD, a take-off and landing routine, and brand new enemies, are now done, and feasible if enough work is done.

This has also changed the hacking community, as the emphasis on learning has shifted from learning one program (SMILE) to learning any number of things depending on what you want to do - even learning an entire language for the ASMers.  The basics are still there, and some members are well-versed in those.  I'd include myself in this category, and am happy to help with the basics.  Once it gets into the ASM side, I'll tell everybody to go and pester Scyzer, who I believe was once labelled (lovingly, I'm sure!) as Girly-Kej. :^_^:

Essentially, there are now almost no limits, and if people can dream it up, it can be done.  The only problem that may have arisen with this is that some people could be put off when they see the work required for an amazing hack, and they may disappear, even though they could have produced a really fun, purely cosmetic hack.  I think this is the minority, and people are generally happy to help newcomers, providing they show willing.  Nothing infuriates us more than people plagiarising others' work, or people who want everybody else to make their hack for them.[/spoiler]

Thus ends what is probably my longest post ever, but I felt that I had a lot to tell you.  Good luck with the article. :^_^:

[Zero One]

Feel free to quote me.

I'm not the newest member by far, but I don't think I've been around very long. I originally signed up in 2009, but then completely dropped out after only a few days, which is rather bad. But, now I'm back by some good coincidences. Super Metroid is a truly amazing game; certainly one of my favourites, but probably what actually drove me to hacking SM is simply because Metroid is an awesome series and I wanted to make a Metroid fangame that does the series justice. You get such a great buzz when you see your own graphics, rooms and code running in Super Metroid and I can't imagine what it must be like to release your own take on the series to everyone. I certainly can't wait.

The community is great; I've met a few people from MetConst that I can't see myself being without. It's an exceptionally helpful community with, not only plenty of documentation and tutorials on how to hack Super Metroid to your liking, but people who are quite willing to assist you with graphics, code and play-testing. It's very active with new people joining frequently and the older people digging further into the game and adding custom enemies, bosses, music, whatever. Provided you make sure you follow the rules, you'll be welcomed.

I'm not really involved in the speedrun community; I wasn't even aware of the existence of a Metroid chatroom on the SpeedDemosArchive IRC network until recently, but I have done a few speedruns before. My first was terrible, at 2:30, but now I've managed to drop that down to 1:32, which is a pretty good improvement. Still aiming for sub-1:10. Dessyreqt's route seems to be commonly used and it's a very good route, though I'm sure others have their own routes that they tend to follow.

I can't imagine myself not hacking Super Metroid, because it is so enjoyable. You get plenty of feedback and assistance from great members.

[begrimed]

Haha, I was just telling my girlfriend like a week ago that it was only a matter of time until someone did a piece on us. You have my permission to quote anything I say or cite anything I've done. I've made a couple of small hacks, but my most notable endeavor is Project Base (there's a thread for it on here too), which is an ongoing 'restoration' of the original game made by me, with a LOT of help & contributions by many other members here over the years. It's one of a growing number of hacks that are a testament to how far this community has come since it sprang up a few years ago. Other notable hacks are Phazon Hack, Eris, Super Zero Mission and Ice Metal: Uninstall. Drewseph has been working on an extremely in-depth rework of Redesign as well. There are a few other awesome hacks still in development also.

I've been around here almost since the very beginning and have contributed a lot over the years (references and how-to guides, discovering tons of new edits, some public-use patches, funny glitch compilation videos, etc.), so feel free to hit me up with questions or whatever if you want. This is a cool thing you're doing, and I'm sure it'll drum up some interest in what we've got going on here.

Just sniff around these forums and send a PM to members of interest. They'd be happy to offer their insight and anything else you need from them, I'm sure.

Edit: I forgot to address something you mentioned about how we got into hacking. For me, it's like a constant blast of nostalgia working on this game. I probably put hundreds of hours into it as a little kid, and it was the first game I ever completed 100%. ROM hacking also becomes educational once you start getting deeper into it. You learn things that can be applied outside of this hobby. Understanding a little bit about programming by working with hex and assembly, becoming more artistic by editing graphics, animation frames and color palettes, problem solving and coming up with creative work-arounds, and some other things I'm sure. I've also made some very like-minded friends here over the years, so there's that. :D

[Weterr123]

I can give you my perception as a veteran player of the original, who has only recently (in the last several months) discovered rom hacks and become a part of the community.

For me, learning to hack my favourite game of all time has become a hobby of mine, placing several other hobbies on the bench! I'm still very new to it though and so I ask a lot of questions and take part in any conversation I can that will enable me to learn something new or give me an idea.

I myself am not concerned with speedrunning, although I am interested in the routes taken by speedrunners - ie, non-linearity is a big thing for me and many metroid players, and I applaud hackers who can successfully make their hack non-linear with several ways to play it - this itself is a skill I admire and want to learn myself.

In regards to hacks you may cover, the big ones are Phazon 0.3, Eris 2012, Super Zero Mission, and Ice Metal Uninstall, in addition to Redesign. These ones are also full overhaul hacks that change a great deal of things, they are very polished in their design and look exceptionally smart. There are others of course, but these are the main ones in my opinion.

Lastly, I'll mention what motivated me to come here and learn this stuff. Simply put, Super Zero Mission inspired me. I loved the Gameboy Advance's Metroid: Zero Mission, because it took the original Metroid, and essentially remade it with Super Metroid's game engine with it's own flavour. Like Spinjump restarting for example, or chaining shinesparks together. Super Zero Mission took Super Metroid, took Zero Mission, and fused them basically, with all the best bits. Super Metroid with shinespark chaining. Nice. Super Metroid with spinjump restart to fall, but doesn't matter because you can start walljumping again with falling all the way to the bottom?! Yes please. All that, but absolutely huge unknown map, very clever story, especially with the bosses, and that unfamiliar "not knowing" feeling all over again. THAT's what inspired me. I would love to be able to create something like that for people who are just like myself and still crave that classic game from 1994 for the SNES.

...And that's about it. You will see me probably talking about Super Metroid as a life experience around the site haha  :grin:

[Charmander106]

This is the best I can do, but feel free to use this anyway you want. I don't care if you use my name, but call me Webber1900 if you want to use my name.

I started my ROM hacking back in 2007 when I had some curiosity behind the people who made Redesign. One of the reasons why I got into hacking was that I dreamed of becoming a game maker and make games for people to enjoy and have fun. I also have nostalgia when I hack because of the fond memories of playing Super Metroid and Zelda A Link to the Past. I would even get up on school nights and play me some Super Metroid. Even when I started ROM hacking I still got up just to get some hacking done. Another reason for wanting to ROM hack was my interest and my hobby the ability to create my own stuff, whether it be drawings, characters, stories, animation, Artwork Covers, and even the look of my web browser. I always have fun doing it. The only hack I have ever released was Super Metroid Challenge. Though just a small challenge hack, it was fun to make and play it as well. I even got some nice feedback on it as well back then when I used to visit the Metroid 2002 Forums.

That's about much I can give but it just really fun to see our own creations up for people to enjoy and have some amazing experiences, and even have some friends to help you along the way.  :^_^:

[MetroidMst]

You can use what you want from my what is probably going to turn into a book down below. If you find any tidbit of mine of the forum otherwise, feel free to use it as well.

I have to agree with Quietus, speedrunning and hacking have very little in common to me. So with that, I borrow his format and talk about each separately. I will say though, that each one has helped somewhat in the other function. Hacking obviously gives me some knowledge about the game that can be used for speedrunning, and speedrunning gives me some things to think about when making a hack.

SPEEDRUNNING
[spoiler]I was never much into speedrunning myself. I knew of it, but I am usually far more interested in completion percentage than I am speed. It is only just recently that I have been interested in it, and I have found it is actually really engaging. It basically started when this community decided to have a race day. My brother and I decided to go against each other for practice, with no route planned, and I was very surprised at my time being as low as it was. Then we got a route and practiced more. My best is down to a 1:06 currently, and my goal is to get under 1 hour.

I would say speedrunning has kept Super Metroid in the collective gaming conscience. Without the myriads of alternate paths, tricks to master, skills to hone, Super Metroid becomes a fun game, with just a single mission and ending. Speedrunning has turned what is essentially a single player, single mission game into something more. It has almost broken the barrier of the game engine with the competition involved with speedrunning. Without speedrunning, I doubt Super Metroid would be as widely acclaimed as it is today. When people list it in the "all time greatest games," they invariably bring up speedrunning at some point to help their case for placing it on the list in what is usually a very high spot.[/spoiler]

HACKING
[spoiler]I was introduced to Redesign by a video on YouTube, which my brother showed to me. I was against hacking at first, because the word "hacking" had a negative connotation in my mind. But I quickly gave in and started working with SMILE. Less than stellar attempts at room building aside, I was having fun. It have a lot of drawings/colorings of Metroid stuff I made since Super came out. I have always wanted to make my own Metroid game, and now I have the opportunity.

My idea about "hacking" also has changed. I realize now that people who hack a game do it because they love it. I have spent almost four years working on Fear, and I am still at least another year away from being finished. No one would bother using that much time for something they don't care for. It has also given me a much larger appreciation for what the original developers had to do. I have come to learn that most of my ideas are not possible on this hardware, so I have to find workarounds for them.

It has also changed my mind on what Metroid can be. Searching For Items is the second hack I ever played, and it has had the biggest influence on me. Instead of Samus going to stop the Metroid menace, she was just stopping by a planet to grab some items. I get the feeling destroying the planet wasn't really the goal of her visit. So that opened my eyes to new ideas and motivations behind Samus, which has led me to the story behind what I'm working on, and the stories of my future planned projects.[/spoiler]

[Cloud20]

No problem if you want to use what i will tell here :D

First, I apologize if I make English mistakes, because is not my first language, we are not many frenchies here :)
Super Metroid, a game who followed my childhood dreams and imagination for a long time. The game was released on 1994, and I was around 6 years old when I tried it for the first time. It was totally astounding to see a video game twisting your perception on this way, it had an universe so incredible, an immersive level design and music who stay stucked in your head FOREVER. In Short, a masterpiece. Like I said, it improved a part of my creativity and imagination during several years. At this time, I secretly wondered "If the maze was different?" I didn't expected one day will be true.

Many years after, the interest of this game was awakened with a video project I made for the university, the video involved a serie of glitches drawing a final picture of myself controlling a sound console in the goal of finding the good "frequency". The use of colors reminds me Super Metroid, so i discovered SNES emulation in 2010. After rediscovered Suoer Metroid, I knew the existence of hacking practice, and begin to play Redesign and many other hack.
The hack who pushed me to give a try with SMILE was MockingBird Station with a mega Tourian-like area.

So I began to "hack" at this moment, and keep an eye on some events about hacking community. With a hack almost finished, my 1st contact was Quietus who greatly helped me, it was hard for me because I dared not speak with people. Anyway, I never planned to release the hack because I never thought one day to integrate and contribute to the community, I was too shy for it. Finally, I released here the first version of Darkholme Hospital and registered here around april/may 2012. Encouragements and criticism from an unknown community about my hack gave me the force to persevere, and after, it's with pleasure when i can help, in return, someone here.

Wanna read more? Now it's time to talk deeper about hacking
[spoiler]In a depressing period around august 2011, I followed a lot of thriller and other horror movies. That influenced clearly my perception of hacking, Darkholme Hospital is an hack offering something completely different in SM universe, because in a first time, the storyline take places on Earth. If SM is a Sci-Fi story, DH is a thriller involving an history where the enemy/menace is totally unknown and unexpected from what we know about metroid series. I made the hack in a process of progressive tension and tilting to something clearly creeping and deeply marking for the player. The ambiance is more like a film than a video game, the more you descending, the more the danger is perceptible. Now with the release of Digital Cube inspirated by Cube movies series, I see every of my hack like a cinematographic chapter, feeding with time an alternative and very personnal mythology to Metroid universe. Hacks tools like Smile and TLP also brings a lot of possibilities, but theses tools will be nothing without the contribution of members and the share spirit from here

Darkholme Hospital Topic : http://forum.metroidconstruction.com/index.php/topic,2113.0.html
Digital Cube Topic : http://forum.metroidconstruction.com/index.php/topic,2306.0.html

[/spoiler]

More again? Now it's about community :

[spoiler]Community is incredible, grouping some experts, novices, from differents universes, differents artistic activities, ages and locations. I'm glad to see a worldwilde community linked by a powerful and engaging passion like this. It's clearly a good news in a time of some tools like Facebook make enter us in the consommation of people and a social cannibalism by networks, the difference here is we are all attracted by something who involving us in a big creative project. IRC afraid me in a first time, but permits me to improve the notion of collaboration with people who I consider now like colleagues, amazing partners, and friends. Satisfied from our exchanges, a lot of creativity and innovative ideas was born from our discussions. [/spoiler]

[Quote58]

Feel free to quote anything from me here or elsewhere on the forum.

Background:
[spoiler]I haven't been a registered user in this community for all that long, since the end of 2011, however I've known, and been hacking, far longer. In fact, since close to the beginning.
I've loved super metroid for as long as I can remember. It's easily my favourite game of all time, I have yet to find one which matches the brilliant level design, interesting story, badass character, and fun, of metroid. Super metroid has a special place in my heart, I have so many great memories of playing it. I was never really one for speed running though. I am now, but more on that later.
I have ties with m2k2, so I knew about metroid hacking when it begun to really take off, and like Metroidmst, I was hesitant. The word hack made me feel uneasy about it all. I wasn't too comfortable with using roms in the first place, so hacking a beloved game seemed wrong. However, once I'd tried a couple of the first fairly good hacks, I started to come around to the idea.
The first hack to really change how people thought about super metroid was redesign of course. I was never much a fan of it, mostly due to the physics. I loved it in concept though, the designs, the ideas, the asm and hex editing.
So I played many hacks as they popped up, some good, some bad, but I hadn't really thought about doing it myself. I enjoyed playing hacks, but there was something a little overwhelming about actually doing it myself. I remember my brother showing me SMILE and thinking it looked really complicated.
There was one hack though, that I found so interesting, and so well done, that got me to take another look at SMILE. Super metroid Phazon hack was released back in, 2009? maybe 08. I any case, it took me from playing hacks, to wanting to make them.
It took a while to get the hang of using SMILE, but once I understood the basics, I loved it. The idea that I could see every room in front of me, and having the ability to change it all. It was awesome.
So I spent a couple years hacking, using materials from metconst such as docs, gfx, tutorials, etc. I got much better with level design as I continued to hack. I had tons of ideas for different stories, challenges, graphics, etc. And it was wonderful to see some of them through.
I really looked up to some of the members on metconst/m2k2. Seeing what some of them could do with gfx, asm, level design, it was amazing. there were so many people who had done so much, I was afraid to join without some real content. But eventually I joined, as I really wanted to comment on certain hacks and such. I had never joined a forum before, let alone used irc, so I was pretty nervous about joining. [/spoiler]

Community:
[spoiler]I was welcomed into the community. And things started fairly well, I improved in level design and such over time, and I've really loved this community.
But why is this community so great? Because everyone shares a passion for super metroid, and most for hacking as well. And the difference between this community and m2k2, is that this is always changing. There are a ton of hacks out there, and there are new ones all the time. There's always something being worked on, videos being made, resources being released, etc.
One of the best things about the community, is the fact that it's worldwide. It isn't just america, or the UK, it's everywhere. Russia, Australia, France, Canada, all over the place. It's great to see everyone welcomed in a community dedicated to a game series as awesome as metroid.
Irc is also a great, and large part of, the community. It isn't always the best place to be, but it's another way the community brought together.
Speed running is something the community does as well, though not directly connected to hacking. I don't have a great time, I think my best is around 1:29 or so, but it's a really fun way to compete with other members of the community. It's the multiplayer super metroid never had.[/spoiler]

My own Hack:
[spoiler]I'll fill this in when I have time[/spoiler]

So, to answer the question.
How does one go from loving a game, to mastering it, to hacking it? Well, we really care about the series, and we all have ideas about how it could continue, how some parts should've been done, and just general ideas. and when you love a game that is so non linear, and so full of opportunities to advance you're skill, you often end up spending a lot of time getting better and faster. and when tricks like infinite bomb jumping showed up, people practiced doing it, because it could change how you progressed through the game. So for mastering it, it's partly to find other ways of enjoying the game.
And once you've mastered it, and seen what others have done, it's not a stretch to want to put those ideas about the series into it.

I'll probably add to this later, but I don't have time at the moment.

Edit: Making a hack has been an amazing experience which was not only fun, but also insightful, and educational, and I could talk about it with a nice wall of text, but unfortunately school is insanely busy right now so I haven't found time to do so. When I have a break from life I'll write about my experience when making my own hack. It's called 'Advent' for the record.

[Lunaria]

Well, there where not really that many super metroid hacks at all when I started hacking all those years ago. It began with me as a fan of super metroid wanting to make my own fan game in the same veins. However, I am not one for coding so I turned to hacking instead. It's a much more open once an level editor is available since then someone who is just a designer can go in and make a hack without having to code.

Over time I have gone more and more tired at how much of the mainstream games these days are way too linear so that played a big part many of my design choices for my hack. (Ice metal) Making a big and large game with the focus on free exploration as a player was the main thing with it. This was designed this way since I'd like a game like this and therefore I wanted to make something I'd enjoy.

Of course, much of the enjoyment goes to waste when you where the one who made it! ;P
But I am hoping someone will do something similar that I could enjoy!

[Fizzer]

Super Metroid was that one game that I played over and over, more than any other, throughout my childhood. I remember my parents doing a similar thing as well. It was the elusive 100% completion that kept them coming back. Super Metroid isn't an especially long game by today's standard, but it's world is so deep and secretive that you can play it a hundred times and still not know everything; I remember so many times up until I was about 12 that I would be approaching the end of my newest playthrough, thinking "This time I've definitely found everything. I've looked everywhere, I've found places that I've never been before, this has to be it!", and then when I actually come to the final screen I see "Your rate for collecting items is 83%. See you next mission!". My parents had the same experience.

There's something magical about Super Metroid that separates it from every other game of it's kind, including the others in the Metroid series and the games that have tried to recreate what Super Metroid did. I'd like to bring up this review: http://www.actionbutton.net/?p=591 as it analyses some of the qualities that I feel make it as magical as it is very well, and I don't think I could put it any better than it does. I know you can't quote the review, but it can give you a good idea of how I feel.

I first discovered the hacking scene via Super Metroid Redesign, not long after it was released. I heard it mentioned once, and then I saw one of its maps - like Super Metroid, but different, and so much bigger. I had to find it and play it. Redesign is truly a masterpiece, as polished as an official Nintendo game, and reliving a "first playthrough" of Super Metroid through it all those years ago was one of the richest experiences in my memory. Not only did Redesign give me the wonder of my childhood back, but it showed me that in the corners of the internet, the ROM-hacking community existed. When I was younger, as well as playing Super Metroid, I used to draw it. I'd draw every type of enemy, every type of item, and the whole of Zebes spread out over dozens of sheets of paper. I did that so many times. Of course, I made my own maps, levels, enemies and items as well. Naturally, I was overjoyed at the opportunity to to use Super Metroid as a base for my own creations, I downloaded SMILE, started posting on forums, joined Jathys' IRC channel and so on. The first time I made a superficial edit to a room in SMILE, saved it, and then played the game and saw my change actually appear in it, I felt wonderful.

I never actually released any worthwhile work, I could never get anything finished other than the odd miniature project that didn't get the care I would have liked to have given, but for a few years the community really became my home. This is back in the days of M2K2 and #jzd, when the hacking scene was smaller and less advanced than it is now. The people in those places became my best friends, and I've still never laughed as much at once as I did nearly every day while talking in #jzd. It was truly a golden era for me.

You can quote anything I've said, if you'd like to. I'll just close by saying that Drewseph has been working, for a long time now, on a heavily revamped version of Redesign. Redesign has always been hailed as the king of all hacks, but many people have had complaints about the physics, the difficulty, and the lack of hints as to where to go next. This new version of Redesign fixes all of these issues, and is in general a much shinier, sleaker Redesign of fantastic quality, with thousands of retrospective additions and improvements which make the game wonderful to experience. It's a release that everyone should be eager for.

[Mon732]

I stumbled across MetConst purely by accident when I was looking for Super Metroid maps and noticed one that looked different. It was the map for Redesign and I eventually ended up here.
I had some experience with ROM hacking before, having tried it out with Super Mario 64 previously, though that was mainly through changing bytes via cheat codes so isn't strictly 'hacking'.

The reason I got into hacking Video Games was because I love finding out how they work, every game does things in different ways and some of the things that go on behind the scenes is both impressive and sometimes bizarre, the reasoning behind the Super Missile being two projectiles stuck together for example has always boggled me.

I think Super Metroid was my third metroid game, having first played it on the Wii.

I've never really been into speedrunning, I like to play games at my own pace which often isn't the fastest. I attempted one when we had a speedrunning race but never finished it, it was still a good laugh though.

Feel free to quote anything I've said in the forums.

[E1SUNZ]

.

[Daltone]

You have my consent lol.

I hacked it cuz its super metroid, cmon.

[Crashtour99]

Hello Victoria, and welcome to our little corner of the net.  Feel free to use anything I've said on any of the forums if you like.

I first played the game back in '94 when it first came out.  Being one of my favorite games, I would occasionally do speed-runs against myself.  Over the years however I somehow lost the hardware and it faded into memory.  I really only got back into playing it when I got a computer and internet connection, and found out about emulation.  In the process of trying to find a Super Metroid ROM to play on my computer, I came across a gaming article about Redesign.  I thought "Wow, someone actually did this?  Well now I've gotta try it out!".  So after giving it a play through I was inspired enough to try this SMILE thing out for myself.  That was about the time I joined M2K2 and found out that this place had just been created a few months earlier as a dedicated resource for SM hacking.

Redesign I think is probably what attracted people the most to hacking Super Metroid back when this community was first getting underway.  These days it shares that role with the 3 other most prominent hacks, Ice Metal: Uninstall, Phazon Hack, and Metroid: Super Zero Mission.  Interestingly, each of these 4 hacks have very different play styles and game mechanics, so a person just getting into playing ROMhacks has a pretty good chance of finding at least one that they really enjoy.  And I think that's one of the main driving factors behind making a hack, creating something fun that people will enjoy.

[Digital_Mantra]

I hacked it cuz its super metroid, cmon.

^

[Weterr123]

as im bored and depressed at home now nothing better to do

...but you have awesome hacks to play right at your fingertips, specifically where you are sat now reading this.

Samus needs you bro  :lol:

[kitsuta]

Thanks for your responses, everyone!

I'll be working on the article for some time, since I have to reconfigure it a little based on the information given in this thread. I'll let everyone know when I've finished - until then, responses are still more than welcome. Thanks again!

[Cloud20]

And thanks to you Victoria to give us the opportunity to talk a little bit more about our passion around Metroid :)

[Metroidz]

I hacked it cuz its super metroid, cmon.

^

That probably answers the question "Why don't more people hack SM or MZM" xD
Well I TAS'd Metroid 1 when I got my computer and learned how to use ROM's, played through SM up until I got permastuck near Ridley, tried to find a guide online, stumbled across Super ZeroMission on Youtube, thought it looked cool and got SMILE, came here after looking for general advice, of course elsewhere all you get is "Why do you want to mess with an 18 year old game, that stuff is for n00bs you need to do cool stuff like play sports and watch American Idol, that stuff is cool lolololololololroflcopter" (And for the records, YES that was an actual response from some troll on a Youtube video) of course somebody actually had the common sense and sent me here, they said "If anybody is interested in making a Super Metroid hack this site is a must have" and gave me the URL to the forums here.

[JAM]

Hello, Victoria!
Sorry for late reply. Feel free to quote my posts. And fix grammar if needed.
I want be a part of this article, so I will write my own hacking story. Will post it here when I finish.

Because you have started your article, I'll post my story part by part.

I can say only about myself (and about several notes), so it's time to tell my story.

My evolution is

Code Select Expand

regular player => expert player => speedrunner => cheat code maker => hacker
Note that my way to hacking was through many games, not just Super Metroid. But now this is the game which I can hack more than others.

[spoiler="Part 1"]
Introction to Metroid universe
First time I saw Super Metroid in 1994 in TV show related to console gaming. I've also read about it in magazine. I liked this game so eventualy I bought the cartridge.

And I had no idea how to enter Maridia before I heard a tip of blowing the tube with Power Bomb. There were only few people who have internet at that time, so my friends helped me. And I didn't know about the exit from Lower Norfair because of the wall that X-Ray can't scan. Well, at least I could run, so noob bridge wasn't problem for me.

As you see, I wasn't the expert player and my first result was 79% or so. But even then I was dreaming about 3 things: found 100%, mix Spazer and Plasma and save big Metroid.

Then I've played the game again and again, finding more secrets, improving my time. I still couldn't make several things line Wall Jump, but I could do Bomb Jumping. After few runs I finally got 98%. And that was the max I could find for the next few months. I've played the game over and over trying to find the last 2 percents, but finally I gave up.

Eventually, I was able to pass the whole game in 01:48 with every single room visited and result of 99%. 99th percent was founded accidently. I was caclulating of how much hits of every weapon type needed to kill every enemy. In Wrecked Ship when I laid the Power Bomb to count hits requred to destroy ghost, the single block in left wall was destroyed. The room is main Wrecked Ship's main shaft. But I haven't found last percent by myself.
[/spoiler]

[spoiler="Part 2"]
Speedrun discovering
In the year 2001 at one of the ROM sites I've accidently found Super Metroid hacks. At that moment only hard hacks were existed: Hard hack and Extreme hack. And Hard was harder than Extreme.

Almost in the same time I've accidently founded Han's site about Super Metroid speedrunning. I thought that passing Super Metroid in time under 01:30 was impossible. Well, at least if passing them in my style (visit every room, run every path etc.). I've downloaded several runs. But I've watched these runs for other reason: I still couln't find the last percent by myself.  I guess I've scanned every single block at Zebes by X-Ray but still couln't find that secret. And I knew why. It was Missile upgrade hidden in Maridia room with Turtle-like thing and Energy Tank. This place can't be scanned with X-Ray because it is in the air =)

So, in my next run I've got 100% at first time finally. At that site there were also pervertive runs like low percent (15% and 14%) runs which amazed me. I never thought about passing the game with low% and doing it fast. I was interested in these videos and in tricks I've never used before like Crystal Flash, Wall Jump or Mockball. At that site there is a section with speedrun advices and techniques description. I've downloaded the demos and finally learned these techniques. Finally I could pass Super Metroid with time under 01:20 with desire to improve it.[/spoiler]

[spoiler="Part 3"]
Speedrun attemt
In the year 2003 I've watched many speedruns and thought about making speedrun. At that time, I've found site metroid2002, related to many metroid games. I've noticed speedrun section. There were videos related to most existing tricks. I said were because now there are just stupid uncomfortable mov videos which you can only watch while ZMV videos you can stop at any point and try to make the trick my myself, using the same conditions. I've learned most of tricks eventually. After watching Red Scarlet's run I've found several places in where I can run faster, use another trick etc. I could won 2 minutes in total.

I've played the game over and over but finally recorded only 2 parts of 10. I spent about 2 months with 2 hours of playing per day. They were almost perfect with very few errors. I already won about 15 seconds from Red Scarlet's time, but I really hated the game at that time. I understood that even if I finish it, it could be just an intermediate record. Because even if you beat the world record, anyone will see your run and can find some places to improve (because it's really hard to pass the game without errors while using only save stations). And finally, it will be beated.

Besides of that, after someone recordred a speedrun using 20% slowdown (Frame Skip = 0) which is kind of cheating. Staff of m2k2 have stopped allowing speedruns made by emulators. I haven't used save states during recording of speedrun, but that means I have to start over. Besides of that, I'm living in PAL region, so I have PAL SNES with PAL cartridge which means I'll have to pass the game from scratch using slower cartridge. It's slower because in NTSC version you can perform 60 actions per second while in PAL version -- only 50 actions. In NTSC version you can move faster, but danger environments like acid or lava will also damage you faster. And becides of that, my joystick is not in perfect condition to make speedruns.

All these circumstances finally made me think like: "Screw these speedruns. Let's play something else." Now I know how hard it to be a world champion. No matter, in sport or Cyber-sport. Like it was said in Constantin: "You not believe, you know. It's different."
[/spoiler]

[spoiler="Part 4"]
Cheat code making
In the year 2004 I've played many other games. Mostly many of NES games. Some of of them was from ROMs like 100-in-1. In one cartrige there were several Super Mario Bros games. Actually, it is the same game, but with some alterations, like: start from World 2 or have 50 Lives or have low gravity and so on. I even have a cartridge in 1990's with 11 variations of Mario, based on worlds. Except 8 exiting ones, there was also variations that are leading to worlds 9, "shield symbol" and H. Level 9-1 is submerged level 6-2 and level 9-2 is a submerged castle level. Level "shield" is existing castle level in underground style with that type of blocks. Level H-1 is looping underwater bonus level. You can reach the tube in the end of level, but this tube warps you to the start.

I was thinking is there other worlds like that? Having a good emulator with cheat code support I've started messing with cheat codes. So, I've discovered a way to search for a cheat code and found address for World and Level. This allows me enter any level after dying. In general, some levels are more or less stable when some of them can crash from almost any thing from loud breath to magnetic storm at Saturn. I finally discovered that there are hidden worlds of Super Mario Bros and there are 256 world with 256 levels in total. But there a lot a repeated levels, like 1-6 = 2-1 and so on. But these hidden worlds are like secret worlds of Metroid like where you're walking into the game code. Exploring hidden worlds required from me to find other codes like a lot of lifes, to swim in the air, to became invulnerable, to set 900 seconds when the level start and so on. At this time I was able to make a cheat code for almost any NES game and some GEN and SNES games. For example, I've found a way to jump over 500 km/h up to over 3700 km/h which allows to drive the F1 car 3 times faster than sound. [/spoiler]

[spoiler="Part 5"]
Hack attempt
I don't knew at that time about the hacks because a few years ago mostly hard hacks are existed and new hacks were stopped added to the ROM sites. And this is the problem of hacks. There aren't so many sites related to romhacking in general, like ROM sites. Sonic hacks can be downloaded from Sonic hacking communities, Super Mario Bros hacks can be downloaded from Super Mario hacking community and so on. Some hacks were made of people at certain ROM sites and these hacks can be downloaded only from these sites. If don't know about these sites and communities, you will not play some awesome hacks and this sucks.

In one of the sites related to ROMs I've found a hack called Sonic 2 Omega.
This hack is having unused zones used like Wood Zone, Genocide City Zone etc. I've downloaded it and pass several zones until the game freezes. I liked that hack so I was searching for a fix but there wasn't one. So then I was searching the net for a tools, hacking communities etc. For everything that helps to fix the hack. Eventually, I've found a site named Simon Wai's Sonic 2 Beta related to ROMhacking. I've found the tool I need and fixed that bug by skipping the freezed area but I was also interested in how to change the stuff. Someone tells me that this is how one became a romhacker. He was true.

Sonic editor by Esrael was pretty simple at that time, although you could do most of stuff using it. For advanced stuff hex editing was requred. I knew hex, but nothing about what thing need to be changed to do what I needed. I've read a lot of Sonic 2 hacking community's forum and slowly learned of doing simple stuff. But that community is not newbie friendly. I'll explain. You're registering as a trial member. During trial period you have 20 posts. Every post should contain some hacking information. Not requests like "How to do this or that?". Something that was founded by yourself. If you've proven yourself as valuable member of community you'll became regular member. If not, you'll be banned. Rough, huh? Yes, but this teaching you to discipline. I was playing with Sonic 2 ROM for some time. Even discovered some things by myself like how these teleporators in Metropolis choose where to move you next. Some of paths were left from beta and unused in final version. I've also messing with Sonic 2 Beta version but I've lost the interest later and never registered at that forum. Because to do the stuff I wanted to do like adding 3 extra zones, ASM knowledge is required.

I tried to learn some stuff about Super Metroid hacking. I've downloaded Equipment disassembly by Kej trying to understand the code and have readed it again and again but at that point this doc was like a translation from chinese to japanese. So, I gave up at that point and have just downloaded Super Metroid and Sonic hacks. Next few years I was just playing the games, mostly hacks. In the year 2008 I've passed Metroid 1 at first time. Now I understood the meaning of old Tourian. I also noted of how many textures are similar to Super Metroid.[/spoiler]

[WIP]

[spoiler="Part 7"]
Present time
What does it do for me now? Well, several things. When I look at game code sometimes I discover things that no one (except developers) found yet. Like GT code and enemy F153. It feels really cool when it happens. Like being a cyber-archeologist. Sometimes I just starting to understand why developers did some things and did not other things. For example, they haven't mix Spazer and Plasma because of bank size limit. They simply had not enough space to code the tilemaps for mixed beam. And also, it feels really cool when I program some things than no one in the world did before. And understanding little endian format (which SNES used) helps me to make a small edits even for PC games, not only for SNES ones.

As for Golder Torizo code, it happens accidently. If I remember right, I was looking for a code that refills ammo and energy when travelling from Ceres to Zebes. I thought it was in Ship AI, so I started searching from enemy banks for operator that stores something to value used by Missiles. I haven't found what I was searching, but have found something different.

I've found the code that I haven't saw in the whole game. There is no object in the game that just stores certain value to Missiles. Mother Brain's Hyper Beam slowly decreasing Missile number, Missile Recharge station set max value instantly and Ship refills ammo slowly. There is just a code that runs this routine, but pressing A+B+X+Y anywhere in the game does nothing. So, I've posted this foundation to the forum. Then Scyzer posted where this code in executing (it is the part of initiation code of Golder Torizo).

In general, they stop making consoles like Sega Genesis and SNES long time ago, but we have emulators. I think that most consoles are not dead only because of romhackers. There is almost no new cartriges for these consoles, but if count every hack as a new game, I can tell that at least dozen of new game are made in every month. Even if there are small changes, every hack for the game you really love make you look at that game from different angle.
[/spoiler]

EDIT: Just 4 or 5 days and I'll finish the missing parts In most cases when I talk about time it should be shifted to the left (ASL). Sometimes even twice. Only part 6 is needed to be finished curretly.

[Quote58]

So a new hack just came out and on irc, people started playing it. The conversation really reminded me what makes metconst special. While people were playing it, there wasn't just a bunch of trolling or conversation that wasn't related to metroid. We were just talking about the hack, and metroid for a while. While it's fine to have conversation about common interests aside from metroid on irc, it was nice to see this.
It was just a reminder to what metconst was at the start, and still is at it's core.

[FullOfFail]

When the IRC wants to be, it's the greatest place ever for things related to Metroid. Particularly for help.

I suppose I can delve in my background a bit. You may use anything you'd like if you feel it's relevant:

[spoiler]As with most people here, I grew up playing Super Metroid. One of the benefits of being really young is the imagination you have, even with 8 bit and 16 bit games, it was so immersive, it felt as if it was virtual reality. My most vivid memories are of Red Brinstar. I remember getting the spazzer, and being able to shoot 3 projectiles at once blew my little socks off, which may or may not explain why I was always barefoot around that age.

But I digress.

I've always been interested in game design. Some of my earliest memories of my life are of drawing Megaman levels on paper. I've experimented with various editors over the years (the FarCry one, RPG maker XP, etc.), but nothing ever *stuck* atleast until....

I first learned about hacking from watching some random youtube video and seeing Redesign, this was in 2007, if I remember correctly. My initial reaction was "Wait... there's a editor for this!?" and almost instantly googled it and found Smile. I went from being completely oblivious about it to getting my feet wet within a matter of seconds. Didn't even watch a full minute of the video. Naturally, I had no clue what I was doing, and don't think I even knew about mk2k at that time, much less a hacking sub-culture. Due to not knowing anything about how to hack, I got tired of screwing up roms and quit. I like the trial and error way of approaching things, but it just doesn't work that well with hacking, you really gotta know what you're doing.

In 2008, I picked hacking back up. But still not knowing anything about a hacking sub-culture I would just use Youtube as a venue of information. One of the people I would always ask questions to was Person701. One way or the other, he told me about Metroid Construction and the IRC. The first time I joined the IRC, I don't think I even introduced myself before I bombarded the chat with questions. Squishy_Ichigo and Grime was always kind enough to reply, and I'm forever in their debt.

The rest is just a matter of history. I've been talking to most of these guys/gals daily for years since then. It's hard to explain exactly, but essentially we're like a very dysfunctional family. One day you're arguing with someone, the next you're giving them compliments. We're all opinionated and super-critical of eachother's work, but in a completely healthy and constructive way. It's primarily due to this that the standards of level design has risen dramatically within the community.

Although we may often disagree about the details, we can usually concur on what makes a good hack. Most of which is probably not even related to room design specifically, but rather the map layout and how the areas connect and you progress through the hack. It really goes back to the classic gameplay over graphics debate.

I would talk more about my current hack, but I don't think it's all that relevant to this topic, so I'll end it here. Thanks for reading.[/spoiler]

[MetroidMst]

I will add some more.

If you notice we have a "Top Hacks" contest at the end of the year. While the winner doesn't really get much other than a digital trophy and some extra recognition for their efforts, I think it shows where the community as a whole is going in a way. Yeah, the contest is a little silly without any actual awards given out, but it does promote what hacks did really well, and encourage hackers to aim for something. I think that shows as a community here, we want to keep pushing for better quality, and want to show our appreciation for the work and effort that goes into them, while the rest who didn't release anything continue to plug away on our own projects. I have mentioned different aspects of hacking, and the difficulty within making hack at other times, and to finally see it released and people playing it is something else.

Also, I think I forgot to mention this in the other post, but you can use whatever you want from me you find.

[kitsuta]

Apologies for the lengthy delay in updates, but I have good news. I just got an email from the features editor saying the article will go live on Friday!

I'll edit this post with a link later. Thanks for your help, everyone!

EDIT: There's been a delay in publishing! I'll update you guys as soon as I know when it's going live.