[SM] Blackout v1.04

[JAM]

Blackout: the new level of difficulty.

Inspired by ÊÐæÏ@!Ðúi. Dedicated to oldbie Super Metroid players.

You've played Super Metroid a lot. You know about weakness of all enemies. You know all shortcuts. You know all tricks and techniques and can do all or most of them. You made a lot of runs: TASes, speedruns, single-segmented runs, 14%, low%, 100%, max%, gravityless Maridia, suitless Norfair, no tricks, reverse order, no boss/mini boss etc. You've played this game over and over. You have memorized all the rooms and the whole game map and even position of every single enemy, so you bet you can beat this game even with your eyes closed. Well, then this hack is for you. Go ahead and try.

In this hack you will have to move in complete darkness without able to see a thing. I'm not the complete sadist, so you still can hear sounds and see Samus, HUD and use map and mini-map to understand where you are and how much ammo/energy is left.

Layout isn't changed at all. Every enemy is on his place. Damage is not changed. Item placement is the same. All doors are when they supposed to be. So, you can perform every trick from original game.

Everyone who beat this hack can call yourself a guru of Super Metroid. Or just a Game Master. First 10 players who will beat it and 10 players with best results will be placed to the Hall of Fame. Just post time and percentage when (if) you beat it.

Small hints:
1. If you don't understand where to go, fire around you. Beam shots are visible. When shot hits something (enemy, wall or platform), you'll see.
2. Collect X-Ray Scope as soon as possible. With it you can see a bit. Perhaps, this is the first hack in which this item is most valuable.
3. Ice Beam also helps a lot.
4. Power Bombs helps a little.









History:
v0.99 (released on 01.04.2012 06:47 GMT+4)
•Made all rooms blacking out.

v1.00 (released on 01.04.2012 07:48 GMT+4)
•Changed palette of Graphic Set 26 to let player see nothing but HUD and Samus when loading the game. Well, except landing site room.

v1.01 (made on 24.04.2012 12:45 GMT+4)
•Fixed Spore Spawn room
•Fixed Ridley room

v1.02 (made on 26.04.2012 14:55 GMT+4)
•Enemy glow bug after loading the game is fixed.
•All Wrecked Ship rooms were blacked out correctly.

v1.03 (made on 03.05.2012 15:42 GMT+4)
•Crateria outside rooms was blacked out except the sky.
•Ridley room's BG was blacked out.
•Graphic Set 26 was blacked out correctly.

v1.04 (made on 29.05.2012 6:45 GMT+4)
•Mother Brain room is blacked out correctly. Now sight returns to you only after getting Hyper Beam. Escape section is still partly visible.

Hall of Fame (metroid heroes)
Hall of Fame (players)

Hooray! 2000th post in this board!

[Zhs2]

My favorite part is when some of Samus' poses cause her to no longer be blacked out. also unheadered

[Quietus]

I knew what this'd be before loading, but was determined to be stubborn about it.  I gave up going back up the big shaft. :heheh:

As a bonus, when loading ZSNES, I was greeted by another April Fools' Day joke, with the message "Antoinewg was here". :^_^:

[JAM]

Zhs2
This is not a bug, this is a feature =) I'm not the complete sadist, so you still can hear sounds and see Samus, HUD and use map and mini-map to understand where you are and how much ammo/energy is left.

Quietus
Hint: shoot around you. When you see that shot is hitting something, jump over there. This is how I made it. As for me, I've beaten Torizo and saved after that.

[Lunaria]

I should give this aprils foals joke a try later, just for shit and giggles.

If it's actually playable as JAM proclaims then it may, in fact, be a very hard and new challenge for experts at super metroid! :3

[Quietus]

It's definitely playable, and most certainly possible to complete.  It's more of a patience test.  I quit in the shaft because of the nightmare of trying to land on tiny platforms. :heheh:

[passarbye]

It's definitely playable, and most certainly possible to complete.  It's more of a patience test.  I quit in the shaft because of the nightmare of trying to land on tiny platforms. :heheh:

same here.
actually it would be better if some of the areas had certain glows from plants and such, instead of it just being pitch black.

[JAM]

Description was updated.

Crys understood is right. It was done as a new challenge for expert players. For these who know every room good enough to travel in complete darkness.

actually it would be better if some of the areas had certain glows from plants and such, instead of it just being pitch black.

Some bosses and enemies are partly or completly visible.

Guess who?



As for glows, I didn't touch any glows at all. What I've got in several rooms:







I think I'll make 2 versions: hard and expert. Current one may counts as hard.
In hard version there'll be visible HUD, bosses, door tubes and glows.
In expert version you can see only Samus and travel in complete darkness.

[MetroidMst]

I love this idea. It provides a challenge without actually changing anything. I think I'll wait for expert and see what I can do in that one.

[Quietus]

You guys are such n00bs.  My RBO will be on Youtube within the millennium, so you may as well wait.

[MetroidMst]

within the millennium

This inspires minimal confidence. Though seriously, it would be an interesting view.

[FullOfFail]

Ha, might have to give this a go. I might be able to do it up to Maridia.

EDIT: Woah, that is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyy harder than I thought it was going to be. I can't make it past Ceres, can't get back up the steps to the elevator before the timer runs out. Samus would disappear half of the time, making it even harder to find my place.

Edit 2: I somehow managed to beat Ceres, and made it up to where you get the morphball and missiles. I ended up dying when I tried going back up the long shaft though, the fact that the platforms are invisible is hard enough, but the space pirates were invisible too. I recorded it, but camstudio is giving me issues. I'm a masochist and all, but this is a bit out of my league.

[JAM]

To be honest, I've cleared Ceres shaft in 4th try (although I was able to hit Ridley 100 times and have 32 energy left) and Crateria shaft in 2nd try after 10 minutes of trying.

These 2 parts are the hardest so far. 3rd for me is the room after Crocomiro. You'll see when you get into this room. Because a lot of people have problems with Crateria shaft, I made a video. I've succeed this time beating the shaft.

Recorded with ZSNES v1.36

[Xaggoth]

2:02, 46%.  I spent extra time grabbing more e-tanks than a regular run, and I picked up grapple and x-ray.  There are a few completely black rooms that I really needed x-ray for.  It took me three tries to leave ceres, and like 20 minutes to climb up the damn tourian shaft.  The only sequence break did was early supers, which I did blindly on the first try, not gonna lie, I felt kinda badass after that.  Brinstar and norfair are both pretty easy to navigate with a couple exceptions, maridia mainstreet wasn't much fun either

Phantoon ended up being the hardest boss for me, all of his fire is invisible and I came close to dying. Aa few rooms that are very frustrating are the norfair mainstreet (only because I went through it multiple times) and the large grapple room before draygon, everything gets pretty easy once you have space jump.  [spoiler]I was really expecting the end escape to be hell, but no, just a regular escape...[/spoiler]

I would try the expert changes, but that sounds kind of awful to play.

[Prime Hunter]

Glad I gave this a second attempt. I tried it a few days ago and gave up at the escape shaft after somehow getting through Ceres on my first try, (I died once on the way out this time) but I decided to give it another chance today and got 01:50, 52% in the end. I probably won't play it again now that the novelty has worn off, but a proper hack with a similar kind of theme would be interesting to see one day, I'll admit. (Like that one demo where everything was a silhouette. That was really cool.)


Anyway, the main places I had issues were:
- Climbing the escape shaft the first time after morph
- Getting across the elevated platforms to get early wave beam
(ended up abusing save states a little here, but given enough time I probably could've made it across without them)
- The Ninja Pirates (seriously, they probably gave me more trouble than Draygon, Ridley, and Mother Brain did!)

For anyone else who is planning on trying this out, Ice Beam and the X-Ray Scope are your friends. Wave Beam is not. (Go figure, the exact opposite of how things normally are most of the time.) Overall the game isn't as hard as you'd expect once you get going. In the beginning when you aren't as maneuverable and durable things can be nightmarish if you screw up. which will likely happen. Granted, Norfair is definitely the most forgiving area since most of the rooms can still be seen thanks to the glow effect. The bubble rooms and the lower area beyond Crocomire don't have that luxury, unfortunately.

I'm not sure whether to congratulate myself or not on the fact that I know Super well enough to complete this. Is that really an achievement when you stop to think about it? :lol:

[JAM]

* JAM hacks his own site to get rid of annoying ads.

Done.

As I promised, first players who completed the game for now goes into the hall of fame.

I'm thinking of making 3 rooms with Hotary (glowworms) visible in version 1.02 as in original game and make bosses don't blacking out the doors.

Also, some bosses (like Crocomiro) are blacked out partly. What to do with them? Leave as is or make completly visible/invisible?

2:02, 46%.  I spent extra time grabbing more e-tanks than a regular run, and I picked up grapple and x-ray. 

I've just got X-Ray. I'd say, it's hard to get X-Ray without Grapple or Space Jump. I died in the room before X-Ray once.

[spoiler]I was really expecting the end escape to be hell, but no, just a regular escape...[/spoiler]

I kept all defaulf glows and during escape section, there are a lot of them which makes rooms almost visible. I remove them in expert version for sure. Should I remove them in hard version?

- Climbing the escape shaft the first time after morph

Yeah, possibly the hardest place in the whole game.

- Getting across the elevated platforms to get early wave beam
(ended up abusing save states a little here, but given enough time I probably could've made it across without them)

But since you get Speed Booster, you can jump up from lower level high enough to ignore platforms.

- The Ninja Pirates (seriously, they probably gave me more trouble than Draygon, Ridley, and Mother Brain did!)

Haven't checked for them yet. But I will.

I'm not sure whether to congratulate myself or not on the fact that I know Super well enough to complete this. Is that really an achievement when you stop to think about it? :lol:

You know, one blind guy has completed Urban Strike if I remembered right. He loved this game and knew every little thing from it before he lose sight. So, you and everyone who beat this hack are as rough as that guy. We also have metroid achivements topic. And beating the game without almost see a thing is achivement =)

[Xaggoth]

Also, some bosses (like Crocomiro) are blacked out partly. What to do with them? Leave as is or make completly visible/invisible?

I actually thought Crocomire looked pretty cool partially black, there's certainly no reason to make him completely visible.  In an expert version, I guess you would want all bosses to be completely blacked out? 

I've just got X-Ray. I'd say, it's hard to get X-Ray without Grapple or Space Jump. I died in the room before X-Ray once.

X-ray with grapple was very easy, there's not much of a reason to wait for space jump.  I don't think you can get up there with speed booster and you have to use ibj to get out of the two holes?  I don't recall, I wouldn't want to do either of those in the dark.

I kept all defaulf glows and during escape section, there are a lot of them which makes rooms almost visible. I remove them in expert version for sure. Should I remove them in hard version?

The glows make sections way too easy, compared to crateria, brinstar and maridia at least.  It certainly looks cool, maybe add glows to the other areas in the regular version?  The glows made tourian very easy as well.

But since you get Speed Booster, you can jump up from lower level high enough to ignore platforms.

This is what I did, but it's hard to hear when the door opens, and I hit the bottom of the platforms many times.

- The Ninja Pirates (seriously, they probably gave me more trouble than Draygon, Ridley, and Mother Brain did!)

Haven't checked for them yet. But I will.

I thought these guys were fine, the typical way of dealing with them is memorizing where to stand in the room anyways, and there are good sound queues.

[MATHGODpi]

1:34, 45%. Interesting hack. It was challenging and nostalgic at the same time, without being too frustrating. Nice work.

I was both surprised and relieved when I got to Ridley's room and it wasn't blacked out at all.

- The Ninja Pirates (seriously, they probably gave me more trouble than Draygon, Ridley, and Mother Brain did!)

You gotta listen to them carefully and time your shot (listen for their "version" of screw attack). This usually means letting them hit you (though it is possible to avoid being hit).

[Smiley]

Holy shit! I made it out of Ceres on my first try! I'M SO FREAKING AWESOME!!!
Can't wait... climbing up that Crateria shaft... :neutral:

E: Here's a video of me doing Ceres if anybody gives a shit about it.
Super Metroid - Blackout 1/x

[Quietus]

Holy shit! I made it out of Ceres on my first try!

Hehe, I did this to, but I've run Ceres so many times that I'd have been surprised if I didn't make it out in one try.

[Vener]

Holy shit! I made it out of Ceres on my first try!

Hehe, I did this to, but I've run Ceres so many times that I'd have been surprised if I didn't make it out in one try.

Lol . Me to

[MATHGODpi]

fwiw

[spoiler]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUwXAzc_8yA[/spoiler]

Did a second run... 1:03, 36%.

[JAM]

I've noticed one more tip. Use Special Ice Attack. It makes protective ring around you and if one of shot hit something, be aware. Also, this is good way to detect Atomic in Wrecked Ship. 4 shots is enough to freeze and destroy him.

I'm entering Maridia currently.

I actually thought Crocomire looked pretty cool partially black, there's certainly no reason to make him completely visible.  In an expert version, I guess you would want all bosses to be completely blacked out? 

Then I'll leave Crocomiro as is in hard version and make all bosses blacked out in expert version completly. Still have something to with Spore Spawn and Ridley.

X-ray with grapple was very easy, there's not much of a reason to wait for space jump.  I don't think you can get up there with speed booster and you have to use ibj to get out of the two holes?  I don't recall, I wouldn't want to do either of those in the dark.

Yeah, I know. I've got X-Ray and almost travelled back, but fall on spike in the right end of the room. And you can get back by jumping on spikes. And yes, sometimes you'll need to do blind IBJ if you want to use shortcuts. Blind IBJ is not hard. If you can do it in general, you will able to do blind IBJ.

The glows make sections way too easy, compared to crateria, brinstar and maridia at least.  It certainly looks cool, maybe add glows to the other areas in the regular version?  The glows made tourian very easy as well.

I'd like to, but there is no way to add glows to Maridia at all and to add glows to Brinstar, tile editing is required. I just don't know of how to create new glows because there is no glows in Maridia at all.

Phantoon ended up being the hardest boss for me, all of his fire is invisible and I came close to dying.

Phantoon wasn't so hard for me. But you need about 399 energy (collect 3 energy tanks) to beat him without big problems. If you have Spazer then you shoot these invisible balls easily. Also, if you have enough ammo, use Crystal Flash when needed.

[JAM]

Version 1.03 is out.
I did almost all I wanted for the hard version. Version 1.04 will be "Dark escape" version and it'll be the last one before split to hard and expert versions.

Adn I've checked this out.

- The Ninja Pirates (seriously, they probably gave me more trouble than Draygon, Ridley, and Mother Brain did!)

I had almost full 10 Energy Tanks, but I have to use Crystal Flash to stay alive... in my first try. When I was backtracking from Ridley, it took 2 Energy Tanks to defeat them.
So, in my opinion, Ninja Pirates are not that hard if you remember how they are acting and if you're using X-Ray sometimes.

More screenshots



More glows from Norfair


and Brinstar


Creepy, isn't?


Norfair, again




Wrecked ship glows


Red eye in the darkness


Power Bomb flashing


X-Ray using


Can you make it?




Beautiful, isn't?


Wrecked Ship entrance


Time for Maridia. What this reminds you?


Maridia sands


Silhouette of the enemy



Using X-Ray with help of Ice Beam







This one was hard to get. Really. It took 20 minutes and exactly 25 tries before I understood of how to find correct location of Super Jump start.

[Silver Skree]

This was a pretty fun challenge. Made me feel good to do the entire thing on one attempt, without a single death at any pont.  :grin:
(I don't have any real hard proof to back that up, but whatever)
...Although I did come to 01 energy at one point in my second trip to norfair.

[spoiler=End time and items]



[/spoiler]