NES Metroid "HD" Pack for Mesen

[Aclectico]

**A new pack version (V 2.1) is available as of 3/4/2024**

-Trailer:
https://youtu.be/PWlcPiLc8l0

An HD pack is now available for the NES game, Metroid. This pack replaces graphics, sound effects, and music. It is a hack that builds upon many prior hacks and it uses Metroid mOTHER as a base. Credit should go to the original authors for work done on prior hacks.

The pack includes, but it not limited to, some of the features detailed below. Many of these features are carryover from prior hacks that have previously been developed for Metroid. Items denoted with an asterisk are brand new features that have been created exclusively for the Mesen pack.

•   Increased resolution**
•   Increased frame count for movement animations**
•   Scrolling backgrounds and foregrounds**
•   Updated sound effects and music**
•   File resources for alternate sound and graphics**
•   New title and ending screen**
•   Automap**
•   New secret area in Brinstar**
•   Pause screen powerup status indicators**
•   Animated environments
•   Beam stacking
•   Saving
•   Full health on startup
•   Enemies disappear during door transitions
•   Improved bomb laying mechanic

The README contains details the work performed by each author below that helped make the HD pack possible:
Aclectico, KYA, Sour, mkwong98, Omegachaino, dACE, snarfblam, Infinity's End, DemickXII, Psyklax, Maximum Potion, VariaZim, WIP, Exaelart, Riklaionel, elgwen, strugglepoo, Luminist, Jorge Fuentes, Patricio Herrera, kottpower, PikaXRichMixer, Rundas45, delta7890, P0ZN0, Spooniest, Norma2D, Kercy, Phill Gonzales, HaddianKey, Raidouzero, Chad, Hydorah, Miguel Blanco, JUD6MENT, VGmusic Revisited, Noble Demon, Cubear, and Physix. Note: while, TeamSCU did not have direct involvement in Metroid: HD, elements of the pause screen UI were taken and adjusted from Prime 2D.

***HD Pack Download Page (Version 2.1): https://metroidconstruction.com/hack.php?id=381

Installation Tutorial:
https://youtu.be/IPz62W69eGU

*Note: This is merely a mod and the download will not work all by itself. The pack must be used with a USA Metroid ROM that has a SHA-1 checksum of ecf39ec5a33e6a6f832f03e8ffc61c5d53f4f90b or it will not operate correctly.

#Changelog#
--Version 2.1--
- Increased the speed of the running physics in the default pack. The "AlternateArtAndMusic" folder now contains assets that can be used to revert settings back to the slower speed of a vanilla Metroid NES game if needed.
-Altered default HUD artwork, Power-Up notifications, and timer that shows after defeating Mother Brain.
-Added alternate HUD options to "AlternateArtAndMusic" folder.
-Reduced volume of default jump sound.
-Reduced volume of footstep sound.
-Fixed palette glitch that can occur in Blue/Gold Brinstar room.
-Added new Screw Attack sound effect options in the "AlternateArtAndMusic" folder.
-Minor adjustments made to Zero Suit artwork.
-Added classic green hair Zero Suit (Justin Bailey) Samus in the "AlternateArtAndMusic" folder.
-Added a "no map" Pause Screen option in the "AlternateArtAndMusic" folder.
-Adjusted Power Beam and Ice Beam graphics for Zero Suit Samus.
-Fixed glitch that sometimes occurs when Dragon enemies are hurt.

[Flower]

Looks cool, never tried out your custom texture pack. if i will replay original Metroid, I'm gonna do it with this.
But, what's up with that???

[Axatax]

That's disturbing IMHO that someone can work on a Metroid hack, post it to a Metroid hack site, and then it's "rejected".

I guess that's the site owners right to do so, but maybe the criteria for acceptance or rejection should be made more clear.

This makes me nervous to post my hack.

[Sapphron]

Calm down lol, I rejected it because it couldn't be uploaded in its current form. The file sizes were too big and I talked to Aclectico about it earlier today and we're sorting it out

[Axatax]

OK, Sorry -- I over reacted.

I think everyone on the internet right now is just very sensitive (incl. myself) with this-or-that being "banned" and I jumped to an incorrect conclusion.

[alexman25]

OK, Sorry -- I over reacted.

I think everyone on the internet right now is just very sensitive (incl. myself) with this-or-that being "banned" and I jumped to an incorrect conclusion.

Just bare in mind, your hack will never be rejected for its content. Whether good, bad, or somewhere in between, the hack itself is almost never the issue.

[Aclectico]

Yep - Sapphron has been working with me on this issue. Version 1.3 had some file size issues that caused problems. In that revision, I split the download into two different zip files and that seemed to resolve the problem.

With the new version, file sizes were slightly increased and I was hoping I was still under whatever the threshold file size limit happens to be. I'm guessing the changes pushed it over so I just uploaded a new version split into three. We will see if this does the trick.

[Flower]

Well well simple answers ;) alright then.
I'll keep that in mind before i upload my uncompressed wav-files from my hack's bgm to metconst lol  :twisted:

[Aclectico]

Looks like the pack is up and running again. Based on my limited experience, I'm guessing there is a file size limit for uploads that is somewhere between 200MB and 250MB. That's assuming the errors I encountered when attempting to post various versions are all file size related.

Based on some feedback from Kennon and Sapphron when attempting to address the issues with versions 1.3 and 1.4, it sounds like this hasn't really be a problem in the past. Understandable given most hacks are relatively small .ips patches - Always fun to find new ways to break things  :lol:

[Kremit44]

Just wanted to say thanks to the creator and all who helped make Metroid HD IMO the new best way to play Nestroid. It was a real treat. Thanks Aclectico.

[Aclectico]

Thanks for the kinds words - I've continued work on the pack off and on for a while now and there have been a few changes that are now ready for download. An overview of the new features is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vo5e4nF1zBs&t=7s

#Changelog#
-Version 1.5
   -Increased frame count for heat wave effects in Norfair and Ridley's lair.
   -Most enemies now disappear during door transitions - No more cheap Rinka door deaths (special thanks to P0ZN0).
   -More predictable bomb laying mechanic (again, special thanks to P0ZN0).
   -Fixed glitch with the wave beam and ice beam icons shown at the file select screen.
   -Fixed graphic glitch that occurs with frozen Rinkas when the player is using the Zero suit.
   -Fixed graphic glitch that occurs with energy pickups in Tourian when the player is using the Zero suit.
   -Fixed graphic glitch that occurs with red doors in Tourian when the player is using the Zero suit.

*Be sure to check out P0ZN0's Super Mochtroid hack here: https://metroidconstruction.com/hack.php?id=624

[Aclectico]

The Mesen Enhancement Pack for Metroid has been re-written from the ground up and is available as of 1/26/2024. A download link is available at the start of this thread.

It takes advantage of several new features now available with the Mesen 2 Emulator. Special thanks to Sour for implementing these features. Examples of some of the new enhancement pack coding options are below:

-"<addition>" functions: Pack authors can now add artwork beyond native 8x8 sprite tiles (used for Samus animations, boss battles, and more).

-"<fallback>" functions: Cross reference functionality now allows pack authors to drastically reduce hires.txt file coding bloat. Metroid HD: 2.0 contains 260,147 lines of code in the hires.txt file. Without fallback functionality, an estimated 1M lines of code would have been required.

-Palette options for "<addition>," "spriteNearby," and "tileNearby" functions: This also helped to drastically reduce coding bloat.

-New Transparency Options for "<background>" functions: "Alpha," "Add," and "Subtract" options give pack authors more artistic freedom ("Add" options used for lava and fog effects).

-"originPositionCheckX" and "originPositionCheckY" functions: Allows authors to create unique sprite art depending on screen location (used for Dragon fireballs).

Before/After Comparison Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXCX9hxL8Og&t=3s

[Aclectico]

An updated pack version (2.1) is now available that has various adjustments based on community feedback.

Metroid Construction Download Page: https://metroidconstruction.com/hack.php?id=381

A video detailing some of the updates is available here:
https://youtu.be/eX63601bTV0

An updated playthrough video is available here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEXH5-O_jp8

A video with a playthrough of the Justin Bailey variant is available here:
https://youtu.be/evBaV_GWbMM

Changelog below:
--Version 2.1--
- Increased the speed of the running physics in the default pack. The "AlternateArtAndMusic" folder now contains assets that can be used to revert settings back to the slower speed of a vanilla Metroid NES game if needed.
-Altered default HUD artwork, Power-Up notifications, and timer that shows after defeating Mother Brain.
-Added alternate HUD options to "AlternateArtAndMusic" folder.
-Reduced volume of default jump sound.
-Reduced volume of footstep sound.
-Fixed palette glitch that can occur in Blue/Gold Brinstar room.
-Added new Screw Attack sound effect options in the "AlternateArtAndMusic" folder.
-Minor adjustments made to Zero Suit artwork.
-Added classic green hair Zero Suit (Justin Bailey) Samus in the "AlternateArtAndMusic" folder.
-Added a "no map" Pause Screen option in the "AlternateArtAndMusic" folder.
-Adjusted Power Beam and Ice Beam graphics for Zero Suit Samus.
-Fixed glitch that sometimes occurs when Dragon enemies are hurt.

[kode54]

Would it be okay to ask for a copy of the iNES header for the correct ROM image?

I have a valid USA dump, consisting of the PRG ROM (128KiB), and no CHR ROM.

The SHA-1 of the raw PRG ROM is:
fdbfc7871962f72a1ef57e5a7e456164fb93430b

The SHA-256 of the raw PRG ROM is:
649db8035018f2512ccea70aca6606c3b3a6988cd9ed43953b38dc5103dec7bb

Do I need to byte swap my dump somehow? Or is there a different dumping tool I should be using to produce the required header? I *think* I have an iNES 2.0 header, but I'm not sure.

The ReadMe listed SHA-1 sum makes no indication of what the iNES header should be, the only portion of the file which can vary between valid dumps. Or is not present on a headerless dump.

Edit: Looks like it's iNES vs iNES 2.0, indeed:

Wanted header:

Code Select Expand

0000000  4e  45  53  1a  08  00  10  00  00  00  00  00  00  00  00  00

iNES 2.0 header:

Code Select Expand

0000000  4e  45  53  1a  08  00  10  0a  00  00  0a  09  00  02  00  00

Edit 2: Bug report: The file named "HudGraphics.png" should be named "HUDGraphics.png". Or the manifest should specify "HudGraphics.png" instead. This breaks running on Linux on case sensitive filesystems.

[Aclectico]

Thanks for the feedback. A couple of other users reported Linux issues and the ultimate problem eluded me. I'm relaying your note to someone who ran into this recently in hopes it will solve Linux compatibility completely. Assuming it does, I can look into updating the main repository sometime.

Also, sounds like you resolved your header issue as well? Header should be iNes:

4E 45 53 1A 08 00 10 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00