Metroid - Rogue Dawn

[Odb718]

For some reason Grimlock's link didnt work for me, but I found the channel
https://www.youtube.com/user/Optomon

[Lazymoth]

This hack looks beautiful! Metroid 1 has always been hard for me to get into, since it's just a bit too archaic for me both with regards to its controls/physics and its frequent and obvious repeating screens. This looks amazing, it seems there's none of that homogeneity at all (seriously, these areas look like they shouldn't even be possible in M1 to me.)

I can't wait to play it, you and snarfblam are making hacking Metroid 1 seem a lot more interesting than I ever thought it could be!

[Grimlock]

Thanks Lazymoth, maybe we'll see more activity with M1 after we get this hack launched.  I think most people will be surprised at how far of a departure this hack is from the original M1.  Once we're all done I'm going to put some time into writing up some tutorials in case anyone decides to give M1 editing a go.

[Lazymoth]

I would love that! I definitely want to try my hand at it someday, so I will look forward to tutorials from you.

The MMC3 mapper in particular sounds like it just opens up a whole new world of possibility for what can be done with the engine!

[Grimlock]

Woohoo, check it out, front page at Retro Gaming Magazine!!!

Front page:
http://retrogamingmagazine.com/

The article:
http://retrogamingmagazine.com/2015/05/19/metroid-to-receive-unofficial-prequel-rogue-dawn-on-nintendo-entertainment-system/

I got over 2000 hits on my YouTube video today, I was wondering where it was coming from so I did some looking around on the net...

Here's another article at "Retro Collect":
http://www.retrocollect.com/News/unofficial-nintendo-nes-metroid-prequel-rogue-dawn-in-development.html

Article at "Nintendo Life":
http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2015/05/unofficial_metroid_prequel_uses_the_original_nes_hardware_to_impressive_effect

Wow, this is pretty amazing!  It's like it just exploded over night, I didn't expect Rogue Dawn to get this kind of attention, I'm actually pretty flattered!  :whoa:  :grin:

[biospark]

"The animation on the main character in the preview video above is quite "interesting".  It needs work that is for sure."

Is the running animation final?

[Quietus]

Well done, Grimlock.  Other hacks have had the same, but it's not often. :^_^:

[Grimlock]

"The animation on the main character in the preview video above is quite "interesting".  It needs work that is for sure."

Is the running animation final?

It's definitely getting some attention, I'm going to probably review it pretty closely when I start dedicating more time to sprite work.

[Grimlock]

It's been a while since I posted any new screenshots:

As always these are a work in progress and may differ from the final release.

Glorious Rain!!! 
8 frame 256 meta tile animation with splashing drops and animated water.
[spoiler][/spoiler]

Ancient Chozo/Metroid worshiper ruins
[spoiler][/spoiler]

Ancient Chozo/Metroid worshiper ruins
[spoiler][/spoiler]

But wait there's more...

I also want to announce that Snarfblam has recently made an impressive breakthrough with slope detection!!!  It's going to be truly remarkable when we get it integrated into the level design!!!

[Quietus]

This is seriously impressive.  With a few tweaks to the way Metroid plays, I may even consider giving it a whirl. :^_^:

[Quote58]

Jesus christ this is amazing!

Slope detection is the only thing that had me worried about your hack, since your level design really needs it, so this is now probably my most anticipated hack.

[MetroidMst]

I am even more uber excited for this. My experiences from the NEStroid hacks I've played recently haven't been that stellar, so I am really looking forward to this.

[RealRed]

So how about that new music? Any progress in that department?

[advancedpillow]

This is at the top of my most-anticipated games list. :bounce:

[Grimlock]

So how about that new music? Any progress in that department?

The music is currently the least developed area of the hack.  Optomon created a few tracks that sound pretty good but I really don't have anything to show off yet... we're aiming for a summer release so hopefully we'll have something soon.

[Lazymoth]

I would love to see a GIF of that rain (here's a nice free program for making GIFs if you don't have one.)

[Grimlock]

I would love to see a GIF of that rain (here's a nice free program for making GIFs if you don't have one.)

I think I'm going to leave it to in game discovery but I might do some GIFs when the hack is released.



I just did a count of the number of screens in R.D. vs vanilla M1:
   
Brinstar:   M1: 46    RD: 93
Norfair:    M1: 45     RD: 159
Kraid:      M1: 36     RD: 155
Ridley:     M1: 41     RD: 78
Tourian:   M1: 20     RD: 98

Totals:     M1: 188    RD: 583

I hadn't compared previously so I had no idea how vastly expanded this hack was compared to the original.  Of course to be fair a lot of the M1 screens are used multiple times so it doesn't give a full picture of the size of the areas.  What it does show is the number of unique screens in R.D. vs the original M1.  Every screen in R.D. is original and unique.  When I have time I'll count the actual in game screens in M1 and do another comparison.

[altoiddealer]

Just putting it out there, might be a crap idea...

If you are using any custom music, have you considered using the 8-bit Red Brinstar tune used in Extra Mario bros?

Also

[snarfblam]

I wonder why I never thought of that.

stuff

[altoiddealer]

snarfcasm detected   :bounce:

[Narpas Sword]

My favorite tune! Fantastic in 8bit.

Great work!

[SpiderWaffle]

On the subject of music choices, I always thought Blaster Master had some under appreciated music. I think stages 4, 5, and 8 could work with Metroid.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkPSDBlLO_o#t=16m
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkPSDBlLO_o#t=21m57s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkPSDBlLO_o#t=49m4s

Side Note: [spoiler]one of my favorite things with game was the possible music corruption you could get when hitting something repeatedly under heavy lag, such as when fighting the stage 6 boss, "Ice Crabulous" normally with a powered up gun. You would get very different music that was often like a totally new psycho techno remix of the existing songs muxed together in an intriguing, complex way.

Happens in the above referenced playthrough here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkPSDBlLO_o#t=48m35s
but his music was kind of lame

Here he tries to show it off, gets alright music, sometimes you get some really crazy sick stuff, and best part is it stays like that!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wkqwi4lAAqg#t=2m50s[/spoiler]

[mrrichard999]

Hey with all the new upgrades to the ROM, do you have even more sprite tiles to use in Editroid now or is that still the same as before?

[snarfblam]

There have always been unused sprite tiles. If you want more that what's normally available you can use bank-swapping. Of course, that will render some sprites mutually exclusive. If you're going the bank-swapping route, there is one change you'll see in Editroid 4.0. Sprite tiles will be swapped in two 2k banks instead of one 4k bank, which very conveniently allows Samus (normal versus Justin Bailey) and enemies to be swapped separately. If you wanted to go through and manually remove the redundancies, you could fit what normally takes up 40k into 14k. But, of course, CHR ROM will also be doubled in size.

[mrrichard999]

The new Editroid and new version of Rogue Dawn are definitely on my summer wish list :D.