Metroid Editors/Help Thread

[snarfblam]

As far as the bosses go, they don't show up in testing. I'm not sure why this is. The testing feature does molest the game's initialization routines, which causes a few odd bugs (another is that metroids don't move around on the screen). These bugs generally only affect the level the test starts in, so as a work-around for testing the boss room, this is what I've done: Place a copy of the boss room near an elevator, start in another level (at the top of the elevator), go down the elevator and into the boss room, and he should be there. Not ideal, but it works.


Now, for the password [tracking] data generator. The game can only keep track of a certain number of items on the map (52, to be exact). Just to be sure we're clear, we aren't talking about tracking what items the player has, but rather what items should be removed from the map because they've been obtained (or opened, since red doors are tracked in this data as well). The game tracks inventory separately.

So the game can only keep track of so many items on the map, and you have too many. This could be because you have duplicate items on the map, too many missile or energy containers, or too many red doors. I'm guessing it's the red doors. If you really, really want to have more red doors than the original game, one thing you can do is not track certain power-ups where there isn't any harm in the player getting it again. For example, in the password data generator, look under Brinstar for the Maru Mari (assuming that's where you've placed it). Double-click it and it wont be tracked anymore. This means that the item will come back after the player dies, but so what? That frees up password data for another item or door.

The alternative is to not track some red doors. They will come back when the player dies.

[Grimlock]

As always, very informative responses!  Thanks for the quick reply too.   :grin:

[Grimlock]

I have begun play testing my nearly finished Metroid Mod and I'm running into an issue with the palette in Norfair that was not a problem previously.  The color of the "monsters" are altered when I run the mod directly through the emulator (JNES) but are unaltered when I test by (control-left click).  Here are a few screen shots, interestingly all the colors seem to be different....  (green is the intended color –Ctrl-Click, pink is running the game through the emulator directly)

I should note that I can play older versions of the MOD and the problem does not exist... I'm thinking I must have altered something on one of the areas that I shouldn't have, any ideas?

[snarfblam]

Hmm... maybe the palette data got screwed up. Have you messed around at all in the advanced palette editor? If you post a screenshot of the advanced palette editor with Norfair data (like this) I can take a look and see if everything checks out.

[Grimlock]

Here's a screenshot of the palettes from that area, I haven't messed with the advanced editor.  My most recent editing has been in the Kraid area.  I did notice that there is some kind of link between room 11 and room 12 in Kraid, when I tried to change one from the other I did get some kind of error.... I wonder if it could be related.

Let me know if you need me to expand the advanced editor like in your example (to show more info).

I can send a copy of the older ROM that doesn't have the problem and a copy of the latest one with the error if you would like to take a closer look, just PM me you email address.

Thanks in advance for your help.

[snarfblam]

From what I can see, the palette data looks fine. The stuff I can't see at the bottom of the advanced palette editor could be causing an issue if it is screwed up, I just don't see how it could get screwed up. There was a minor palette-related bug I fixed in Editroid 3.0. I can't remember the exact details. Try opening the ROM in 3.0, expanding it, and then check the palette, and if it doesn't look right, fix it. Then play the ROM and see if the issue is still present. If that doesn't fix the problem, I can test your ROM with a debugger and try to figure out exactly what the problem is.

[Grimlock]

Ok, it looks like I resolved my problem and uncovered a minor error in Editroid 2.1 at the same time.

Now that I am using 3.0 the palette "Sprites 2" is displayed but was hidden in 2.1.  Check out my previous screen shot from V2.1 and compare to my screenshot from 3.0:

[snarfblam]

Sprites 2 was added in Editroid 3.0 because it adds a secondary sprite palette to every level. (In the original game, only Brinstar had a secondary sprite palette, and only two colors were actually changed.) Sprites 2 shouldn't show up unless the ROM is fully expanded.

There was a palette-related bug in Editroid 2.1, I just can't remember the details. This is all I have written down on the matter: "Fixed bug where palette editing can potentially corrupt other palettes (never actually seen it happen)". I do know that fully expanding the ROM will fix any corrupted palette headers.

[Burktross]

I'd appreciate if anyone could help me with editroid.
Recently I started making my own remake of Metroid 1.

I'd decided that, instead of spamming generic rooms, I'd make every screen a unique room.  Somewhat little into developing it, monsters that i placed didn't appear when entering form another room.  They were fine when testing directly into that room though.  I Don't know what's wrong with it, I'd appreciate any help.

(Yes the rom is expanded)

EDIT: Toying around with the spite slot inconsistently fixes it. (what is a sprite slot anyway?)

EDIT 2: This only happens when using test room when not inside that room, then going in.  Save + play and standalone launching works fine. (Now this only adds some of the enemies)

[snarfblam]

Sup dude. So check this out.

TL;DR: You have two screens connected. You have the same sprite slot used in both. If an enemy gets loaded into the slot in the first screen, the enemy can't get loaded in the same slot in the next screen (unless the player kills the enemy in the first screen and frees up the slot).

Recently I started making my own remake of Metroid 1.

A lot of that going around lately. There's MDbtroid by Infinity's End, with some awesome features added in. You definitely want to play that if you haven't yet. There's Roidz. It's not released yet, but the graphics upgrades look really sweet. And there's my own, which is also still in progress and moving like molasses. Welcome to the party!

[DemickXII]

The enemy slot explanation was very informative to me. I might have to go into 'Roidz and tool around with them. Things could get pretty cool with this...  :^_^:

[Burktross]

 Apologies fellow nestroid modders.  Late responce is late.

I have a one screen room.  Every zoomer inside has a different slot.
[spoiler]
red circled ones that is.  On save + play, 1 more appears, or at least, sometimes[/spoiler]

Does it matter if a door is between the screens?

[snarfblam]

If you move into that screen from another screen, and there is already an enemy loaded into slots 0, 1, 2, or 3 in the screen you're coming from, it will prevent an enemy from loading in the screen you're moving into. Normally the game keeps an enemy loaded until it is scrolled a certain distance out of view (not sure exactly how far). When going through a doorway, I think the enemies are unloaded when the screen stops scrolling. Either way, the basic principle is the same.

I can't really explain the exact behavior you're seeing.

[spoiler=Editor]
In slots 0, 2, 1, 3

[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Test Room]

[/spoiler]

[Spoiler=Test Room 2]
From a connecting screen where slots 0, 2, and 3 are in use.

[/spoiler]

[Yuki]

I can't seem to find where to pick an emulator for Editroid 3.0. is there a menu I'm not seeing or something?

[Quietus]

I think it just loads the rom with your default file association.  Right-click any ROM, and select 'Open' or 'Open with...', and browse for your emulator of choice.  Ensure you tick the 'Always' option at the bottom.  When you then test your room, it'll load this as the default.

There may be some hidden way, but that's how I did it with a quick test. :^_^:

[Yuki]

Oh, cool. Seems simple enough, thanks for the help

[xorxif]

Quick question regarding Editroid (I'm using 3.6,)

Are the number of rooms available to choose from for each area hard coded? For example 46 ($2E) rooms you can create for Brinstar, and no more?

If more can be added (through the editor, or manually through a hex editor,) will editroid be able to see them and list them in the screen browser?

[snarfblam]

In order to increase the number of rooms, you'll first want to expand the ROM. Create a backup, and then expand the ROM:
[spoiler=Like this][/spoiler]

You'll see a warning explaining how your ROM might break. If you do this to a vanilla ROM or a ROM that's only been edited with Editroid and/or a graphics editor, you should be fine. (Still create the backup just in case).

After you've expanded the ROM, new options become available in the Add/Remove menu. Enjoy.
[spoiler][/spoiler]

[RT-55J]

When expanding the combo table past the original 64 entries in the expanded rom, is there anything not immediately apparent that I could end up breaking? By that I mean: is there anything meaningful in the garbage blocks, or is the garbage just garbage?

[snarfblam]

If the ROM is expanded, feel free to overwrite the garbage. If the ROM's not expanded, only the first four rows will be functional anyways, but I'd recommend against writing over any garbled stuff.

[Grimlock]

Snarfblam, do you know if Editroid would work properly on a Windows 8 tablet?  I don't currently own one but I'll be replacing my kindle fire at some point.  I'm holding out for a tablet with wacom like capabilities, with a stylus.

[Meeptroid]

Help! I cannot figure out how to make vertical shafts work! I need to know how for the hack I am currently working on (I'm using Editroid 3.7)

[Grimlock]

Help! I cannot figure out how to make vertical shafts work! I need to know how for the hack I am currently working on (I'm using Editroid 3.7)

You need to make sure you are using the correct door type.  With Snarfblams "Doorway Scrolling Patch"  (Tools>Doorway Scrolling Patch) enabled you will have two types of doors.  One will transition to a horitontal scrolling room and the other will transition to a vertical scrolling room: 

Solution:

The first thing you'll want to do is press the "INSERT" key to see what color the door tube is.  Pressing "INSERT" toggles the "Display Physics" option under the view menu on and off (View>Display Physics).  If you end up deactivating a room then you need to press the "numlock" key (if using your numeric keys on the right side of your keyboard)

Green = Transition to a vertical scrolling room.
Yellow = Transition to a horizontal scrolling room.

With the screen still open select the door type (Should be green or yellow) and press "+" or "-" to cycle to the next structure.  Most likely the door type you are looking for is the next structure over.

Post again if you have anymore problems and I'll give you additional instructions.  I would recommend reading the full content of this thread as well as the Editroid thread, it'll help you avoid other problems like this one.  Also Snarfblam has some detailed information on the Wiki page you should read through:

http://www.wiki.metroidconstruction.com/doku.php?id=metroid

Snarfblams Blog post on door scrolling in Metroid:

http://snarfblam.com/words/?p=183

[Meeptroid]

Ok, thanks Grimlock, I needed for working on Metroid: Mission Tower Alpha.

[RetroNova10]

I'm modding Metroid for the first time, and I've been able to figure everything out until this very moment. I want to know how to change the locations of powerups/items. I've tried "dragging" the item from the map that shows items over to the room (As someone said previously) but it just drags the selected viewing portion of the map.

An answer would be super helpful!