Super Metroid: Eris

[Zhs2]

The Galactic Federation has lost contact with Eris Station.
Samus Aran has been dispatched to find out what's wrong.


LEVEL DESIGNER
Digital Mantra

CODING
Jathys
Rakki
Deep Space Observer

BETA TESTERS
Manaka143
Interdpth
Kriole

SPECIAL THANKS
Jathys (Thanks for making this happen)
Squishy ichigo (The Genius of 'I'm a Genius')
Deep Space Observer (Always reliable for help)
Grime (For sharing your awesome tiles)
Manaka143 (For putting up with a boyfriend that hacks all day)

Download

Some Reviews:

[spoiler]

"Like most romhacks, the difficulty is ramped up, only this time, it's the damage output of Planet Eris' inhabitants rather than ludicrously precise jumping with instant death as a result of your failure. Personally, I find this kind of difficulty to be a whole lot better really as it requires skill in choosing your enemies and knowing when to flee rather than just run n'gunnin. For once, exploration takes the priority in the game play rather than arbitrary difficulty. There are hidden goodies everywhere in this well decorated landscape. The missile pickups are dramatically cut down to the point where you'll be needing to hunt the missiles down rather than just say "cool, more missiles". There's a few new gizmos for you to play around with as well, but I won't spoil that for anyone. The world itself is just beautiful. This is the first hack I've seen to use this many customized tiles. The music in the areas was carefully chosen to impact the ambient affect and it really shows. The creepy areas look and sound creepy and the lonesome places do the same.
Give it a try, but don't be alarmed by the difficult enemies, it's truly a marvelous experience."
-BusterLogic

"Holy fraking shit this was epic. I've never played a game that's actually made me feel this excited and this worried for the character when I'm playing it. All of the exploration made me frustrated, but it was a good kind of frustrated. I felt lost, and all of the stone statues everywhere made me stop and think sometimes, "What happened to these people to turn them to stone?" I absolutely enjoyed going into the deep and fighting the rest of the bosses. Amazing stuff. I loved the whole hack, and I think it really deserves a sequel."
-CyclopsCaveman

"This game was like what a true "Super Metroid II" would have been like! As someone posted earlier, it felt like I was in places I never, ever should be in! I think it felt like that, sort of like it feels when your in a weird dream where the places are familiar, but oddly different. The long elevator down to Spore Spawn is like a nightmare come true, and the water reflections were truly beautiful. Other parts felt like I was Samus running around inside Castlevania!"
-Jinx

"Not even Redesign left me this speechless."
-Bloodsonic

"This hack is extremely epic, I can't help but stare at each and every room, difficulty is tough but it just makes finding stuff that much better! Wow, I'm pretty much speechless, absolute masterpiece."
-daltone

"It's the kind of hack that I've wanted to see for years, a complete re imagining of super metroid. Thanks so much for this."
-shiidii

"This game is the definition of Epic. The exploration is intense most of the time, but that makes it even more of an accomplishment when you find stuff.. one of the best, if not THE best hacks ever made."
-squishy_ichigo

"This hack is definitely the BEST HACK EVER even it's 'just' a minihack!!!
Every Metroid fan have to play this!
You can't even describe this with a million words!"
-Black Falcon

"The areas were done beautifully. The mix of layers is superb, and made the hack look like completely new GFX were used, though they weren't."
-Sadiztik Fish

"I would say this is tied with Redesign as the single best hack of Super Metroid ever made."
-Televangelist

"Wow, just wow is all I can say at this point, Dmantra you have set a new standard for metroid hacks.
This is by far my favorite Super Metroid hack I have ever played. As far as quality and innovation go I'd say this is on equal footing with Redesign."
-Thane

"Just a word from someone who has seen, worked on, and played (some of) Eris:
Usually when playing hacks, I *feel* like I'm playing a hack (you all know what I mean).  Being constantly reminded that something is a hack depresses me and I generally lose interest after a while (there are exceptions to this, of course, but they are few and far in between, imho). Eris is an exception to this.  Even though it does have a "mini" feel to it (as DMantra already pointed out), it actually feels like I'm exploring a new world (ie- not just playing a rehashed version of the same thing again).  I don't play many hacks (ironically), but this is one I definitely will be playing through when it's officially time."
-Jathys

_______________________

[/spoiler]

Danidub, the great mapmaker has created some spectacular maps for Eris.
Check out the areas map if you'd like to know what I named each area *and* room.
Check out the items map if you're looking for stuff.

Map Station

Stuck? Need help but don't wanna sift through several help threads on google? You're in luck!

Eris Item Progression Mini-Walkthrough Guide

by Acheron

[spoiler]

-Get morph ball first. You shouldn't go swimming without it... except maybe in a pool where you walk on water.

-Now's not a bad time to get missiles. They aren't very far from where you are--check the room with the fallen soldier.

-If I were you, I'd be jonesin' for some bombs about now. There's an area above and to the left of your ship with a tileset similar to Draygon's room from SM; remember this place, which I call the junction, because you'll come back a lot. For your first trip, head all the way through it to the last door, then take the portal-like exit to a new, purple-ish area full of mushrooms and chozo statues. Explore around the Chozo kitchen and you'll find your bombs.

-Well, you need to get grapple, sure, but I would consider another trip up to the junction I just told you to remember. There's a very helpful item that you'll want to get up there; explore the room, and look for a hidden morph path.

-Grapple? Just head back to the main ship area and look for a morph ball passage between the upper and lower left-hand doors. It'll get you on your way to another underwater area that you should have little trouble exploring.

-You should have morph, bombs, grapple, some missiles, and evasion from the junction. Now you can head up to get charge, which is required to move on. Have you considered a trip back to your ship?

-Well, now that you've got charge, you'll want to go back to the elevator near where you got morph ball. Use your ability to break bomb blocks to get rid of an eyesore in the way, and your charge beam to remove a bouldery obstruction, and enjoy what lies ahead. You'll find a helpful item... ten of them, actually.

-Aren't you tired of all those speed booster blocks? Head back to the junction (where you got evasion) northwest of your ship; this time, take a trek out the upper-left-hand door, not the lower left one. You'll find some white, pirate-infested ruins... check for a very obvious super missile door in a room with giant Ridley-statue heads. That'll lead to something fast.

-Speed booster will open up a new path near where you got bombs. Look for a room with a large tide that has some speed booster blocks in the way, and follow that path all the way through.

-Power Bombs definitely open a lot of doors, and you'll need them to get moving forward. You have a couple of items you can get, but I'd grab ice beam first: it's very, very close to grapple beam's location.

-Cold enough to freeze metroids, even. Try getting rid of the plethora of all the strange purple ones that have made a home in the area east of where you got your ten-pack of supers. It's a big room, so be sure to kill them all, then check the upper-right door for a new way out.

-Heading out the west door after getting the high-jump boots will lead to a new area. Be sure to explore it and try find a couple of power bomb packs. Once your max capacity is five or six, you should be good to go. Head to the top of this snowy area, and look for a hidden passage in a wall that you have to drop into some sand falls to find. If you see a gray door and you've noticed bubble containers, you're in the right room. Use your power bombs to get rid of them and open that door up.

-With spring ball in hand, continue exploring to the east. Try to go as far up and to the right as you can. If you a find a room with snails and water, you're doing fine. There's two ways to get to the top of the snail room, and once you're there, use a PB to shatter the glass tube and find space jump.

-Next, get wave beam. It's conveniently located not too far from where you fought Kraid to get high jump boots... just check side passages along the same path you came through on your trip up to the snowy area you've been exploring. Specifically, look for a power bomb door one room west of the shallow lake, and follow that path through.

-Now that you have wave, go back to those white ruins to the northwest. There's a room not too far from speed booster with a hidden passage you can traverse using power bombs and spring ball. Get through those, then try to think of a clever way to use your space jump and evasion items to get through the purple thorns that block upward progress. After that, wave beam will open a path to Draygon and a suit upgrade you've probably been dying to get.

-That just about does it for item acquisition, so now you just need to hunt artifacts. A map has already been provided in the thread for that, so I'll leave it up to you to use that. Once you have four artifacts, go back to the area you got bombs, and a new path will open.[/spoiler]

[zephyrtronium]

ERIS IS DONE WTF WTF WTF WTF

* uNsane downloads

Anywho, since DMan only released a headered patch, I figured I would pull out ips_hdr.py and make a patch for unheadered for other people, but then I opened up the patch and saw that it apparently actually makes modifications to the header, and that therefore converting it to unheadered would be very bad.

[Phazar]

HOLY CRAP!  ERIS IS OUT?  BEFORE AEGIS?

I'm going to have to play this, as I've been looking forward to it for awhile.  Although I kinda expected it to be released alongside Aegis, but oh well.

[GF_Kennon]

Wow this was an epic hack, anyway i got this on my first run through, though i spent most of my time looping the whole place  :laugh:



A very hard hack, and i died more times than i can remember, but it was one of the best i have ever played, ill miss you DMan.

[personitis]

*raises eyebrow* Yes... will play later.

Edit1: NOOOO!!! SMILE won't apply the patch right! =( My emulator closes when it tries to load the game. And yes, my ROM is headered.
Edit2: Yay, it work now. ^_^

[Bioniclegenius]

Wait, apparently I'm the only one who doesn't know this. Why is Eris out early?

Also, this is difficult. I keep going back through the same rooms and not finding anything new at the beginning!

[Digital_Mantra]

This is not a shameless bump. Check the first post for much more clarity.
I've included reviews, danidub's maps, and acheron's mini-guide.
The first post should now cover pretty much everything anyone needs to know or see. 
:^_^:

[RealRed]

Oh, cool. Now it's just too bad this topic didn't get as much love as the one on m2k2. ohhh well...

[FullOfFail]

Woah, those map are CRAZY detailed, wasnt expecting that. Eris is my favorite hack to date, I even like it better than Redesign. But I really don't like to compare the two (a) because the time's inwhich they were released is so long apart (b) they're not even in the same category. It'd be easier to compare Cliffhanger to Redesign since they both use the regular tileset (for the most part). My only problem with Eris is that you encounter hard ass enemies so early. Since I use savestates, this wasnt really an issue, but if I didnt, it'd be crazy hard. Though I do admit, doing James Bond maneuvers to avoid enemies was entertaining. As far as design goes, it's top-notch. You totally get sucked into the environments, and the music always suits it very well. If I was like a GBA game developer at Nintendo, I'd probably give you a call and see what you can do with full control over a game.

ha! never even realized that formation in that blue room was a tree before. nice one. I need to open Eris up in smile and check it out, it puts it in better perspective.

[personitis]

ha! never even realized that formation in that blue room was a tree before. nice one. I need to open Eris up in smile and check it out, it puts it in better perspective.

Have fun. It's ever so slightly "locked."

[Crashtour99]

No it's not...
I had no problem at all opening it up in SMILE.  And I didn't do anything to unlock it since I have no clue how to lock or unlock a ROM. 

[personitis]

No it's not...
I had no problem at all opening it up in SMILE.  And I didn't do anything to unlock it since I have no clue how to lock or unlock a ROM. 

:pwuh: Really? Cause when I do it mentions something about the gfx and then I can't view rooms properly. Sure, you can open any hack in SMILE, but how'd you view Eris?

[Digital_Mantra]

There's no need to open Eris in SMILE. I've made a complete map for it awhile ago.



http://digital-mantra.com/Planet Eris (9998x7693).PNG
Beware, opening this full size version might freeze your computer..

[Crashtour99]

:pwuh: Really? Cause when I do it mentions something about the gfx and then I can't view rooms properly. Sure, you can open any hack in SMILE, but how'd you view Eris?

I had no problem viewing it either, it was just like opening up a normal ROM.  The only reason I opened it was so I could add a platform and get the hell out of the white norfair area (accidentally went down there too soon and got stuck  :sad:)

I never was all that good at some of those fancy moves that people pull off.

[Digital_Mantra]

Alright so as some of you on irc may know, I'm revamping Eris. Fixing up some aesthetics, adding things here and there, and making some of the tricky stuck parts way more obvious.

What I would like to know from those that have played and beat Eris, is what would you like to have seen changed. It could be an area you were stuck in, a room you felt lacked the right amount of aesthetic, etc.

In the long run, I also intend on adding new enemy gfx but since I'm total rubbish at that, it'll have to wait till I find someone with enough motive to make the enemies more.. alien and disturbing.

As for new tilesets, I doubt I'll be dabbling much in that.

So far what I've done:
-Added more aesthetics to several rooms (not going overboard)
-Made getting morph more obvious, as that room now has a bottom to it you can see in map so you know that there is something beneath the water
-Made the whole charge destroys boulder in the phazon hollows more obvious with the subtle hint of a hidden charge icon right before the boulder.
-Made the path to Evasion more suspicious.

I plan on making it an easier game, with subtle hints and several aesthetic renovations so far.

Basically an Eris Ver.2.

Thoughts on your personal dilemmas or suggestions are more than welcome and I shall take many into account.

[Sylux]

Making the hidden paths a bit more obvious would solve 90% of what I didn't like about Eris, honestly.

[personitis]

As frustrated as I am with finding hidden paths, I enjoy the challenge if that says anything for ya. Though I'm still playing through Eris... I'd also assume you're planning on keeping the original first release of Eris as an "Normal/Hard Mode" patch?

[DSO]

I'll be around if you ever break your hack again <_<

I say do the best you can. Make me work harder to crush you. Also more Zorfnol.

[Digital_Mantra]

Sylux: Yes I plan on that in several cases.

person701: Yes the first release will remain intact however it won't be considered a normal/hard mode. This is just Eris v.2. Nothing special, though I have made it so you don't need grapple to get charge. I'm trying to reduce the amount of times you have to circle the planet to get this to get that.

DSO: It's not much of an overhaul, the changes in level design are simply subtle nuances because I'm bored. There won't be any 'wow this room looks so much different' reactions. To players who've beat Eris many times, they'll easily catch the changes.

Another thing I'm doing is making it somewhat less non-linear at the beginning. The non-linearity will begin after bombs rather than the second Samus leaves her ship. I'd prefer it if people simply got morph and missiles without a lot of time venturing in the wrong direction.

[Evangelizes]

Hi, I've renamed the .smc and .ips and put them in the same folder. When I try to load it freezes. I've also tried patching with an .ips patcher, and no luck. Am I doing something wrong? I've tried snes9x, zsnes 1.36, and zsnes.15

[Zhs2]

Take note that this is for a headered rom. If your rom is unheadered, that may most likely be the problem.

[xKonvicted]

Have to say this is up there in one of the best hacks ive played so far, really brought back the feel of exploration and backtracking. 2 thumbs up. Hope to see more exploration hacks like this in the future.

[Yakamaniac]

every rom i tried even headered ones it wont go as far as the title screen it just keeps freezing and the still music plays

[Altzan]

Tried it out, and got eaten by a metroid in the first 2 minutes.  :metroid:
Looks excellent so far, at any rate. Good job!

every rom i tried even headered ones it wont go as far as the title screen it just keeps freezing and the still music plays

What I did: "acquired" Super Metroid (JU) and opened it in SMILE. Added header to it and closed it. Then I applied the patch.

[Yakamaniac]

thank you