Hyper Metroid

[lorensj81]

Okay, I have been playing this now , got alot of stuff like 7 tanks, supers space jump etc and now I want into Maridia... How can I get into that area without mockballing? (I read no advanced techniques was required)

[RealRed]

[spoiler]Springball has the added ability of allowing you to run as a ball.[/spoiler]

[lorensj81]

[spoiler]Springball has the added ability of allowing you to run as a ball.[/spoiler]

[spoiler]Ok, so that item is hiding somewhere, have to go back to Norfair I guess now that I have space jump?[/spoiler]

[CaRmAgE]

Decided to give this a shot today.  You definitely caught me off guard with that intro.

[spoiler=Wrecked Ship]You also caught me off guard with Phantoon.  I still won on my first try, but I had 9 energy left.  Yikes.[/spoiler]

Kind of disappointed where almost all sequence breaks I've done so far, I got the item necessary seconds later (except two ceiling HBJs I did for an expansion and Energy Tank; SZM has spoiled me).

[spoiler=Items (in order of collection)]Missiles
Morphing Ball
Bomb
Wave Beam (IBJ'd; did not find it as hard as people were saying)
Charge Beam (back-flipped)
Grapple Beam
Hi-Jump Boots
Varia Suit
X-Ray Visor
Ice Beam[/spoiler]

EDIT: Is the backflip required?  I just thought I'd ask, since I don't remember seeing it in the readme.

[Technomagus]

Backflip is only required to get one or two expansions, and even then not really, since Space Jump more or less supplants it.

[CaRmAgE]

[spoiler=Items (in order of collection)]Missiles
Morphing Ball
Bomb
Wave Beam
Charge Beam
Grapple Beam
Hi-Jump Boots
Varia Suit
X-Ray Visor
Ice Beam
Supers
Space Jump*
Spring Ball*
Gravity Suit*
Power Bombs
Screw Attack
Plasma Beam
Speed Booster
Spazer (with 2 gates to go; about time, too; I think this one is way too far off the beaten path)

EDIT:

[spoiler=Spazer]Did not realize you could just space jump from below (thought it was one-way), so I take back what I said.[/spoiler]

*At this point in the game, open exploration seemed to be gone which made finding my way really frustrating.  I think it had to do with all the power bomb doors, power bomb blockades, and locked doors that kept getting in the way, especially the power bomb doors that weren't blocking anything (as in you could get to the other side via some other route; it felt like they were just there to annoy me).[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Escape]I liked how you implemented so many different regions into the escape, without the need to implement the Redesign "you-just-lost-all-your-stuff" mechanic.  However, making progress in Brinstar wasn't clear, because I thought saving the animals was a dead end (as that's the only reason I went into Brinstar in the first place).  It wasn't obvious that I couldn't speed past the '1' gates, and I was supposed to keep going through Brinstar.  Very minor, though, as you provided plenty of time to escape (still had a minute left).[/spoiler]

EDIT (x2): Whoops. Forgot about my opinions of...

[spoiler=Tourian]I liked the look of the decayed parts of Tourian.  I also liked that you actually had an excuse for why a Metroid came out of the floor, instead of one coming out of the floor just because.  The only part I didn't like was the Rinka "defend your position" room.  I guess it was meant for those who did not have Screw Attack?  If so, I understand.  But as for me, it was just boring, mindless space jumping until the gate opened.

Curiosity question: If I did not collect that hidden expansion in Norfair, would it still be there during the escape?

EDIT: The first time I fought Mother Brain and she did her blue hand explosion attack, it fizzled out immediately.  I think she hit her own head![/spoiler]

EDIT 2: Was looking back at older posts, and I decided to mention:

1. I find it funny how so many people had trouble with that [spoiler=Major Item]Grapple Beam[/spoiler] room when Nintendo did the exact same thing in SM to conceal the path to Kraid.  (To be fair, I did backflip across on my first playthrough.)  Maybe do something similar to Technomagus's suggestion of the Speed Booster room?  In other words, extend the ledge portion of the room, so players don't see the grapple points immediately upon entering the room.

2. Based on what you said about GT, I am assuming [spoiler=Early PBs Locked Door(s)]either the locked doors in the "first" Super Missiles room or the Spring Ball room[/spoiler] become unlocked once GT is beaten?  Regardless, maybe in order to solve all problems, don't have the crumble blocks at all, and allow players to go back if they underestimated their own abilities to fight GT.

3. As for teaching the "new" controls, do you use graffiti like when teaching back-flipping (which is the only one I found; using the same color as the wall makes it blend in too much)?  Regardless, I would definitely agree with improving the teaching to players that it is possible to slow down and even turn around during speed boost spin jumping and still keep your boost echoes.  This would alleviate a majority of the choke points players are having with finding their way to Draygon.  I would imagine a similar issue is happening related to spring ball and the Spring ball/Speed Booster rooms.  (For those who don't know, Hi-Jump/Spring Ball increases movement speed while "running" in the respective modes.)

EDIT 3: My mistake. Right above, it should say Gravity Suit/Spring Ball.  Gravity Suit increases ground speed, not Hi-Jump.

[lorensj81]

Need help in Maridia.
[spoiler]Maybe I missed something obvious, I got the suit and opened gate 13 but now I only find speed booster blocks and powerbomb blocks?[/spoiler]

[CaRmAgE]

Need help in Maridia.
[spoiler]Maybe I missed something obvious, I got the suit and opened gate 13 but now I only find speed booster blocks and powerbomb blocks?[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Hint]You need to enter Maridia from a different entrance.
[spoiler=Solution]Look for an entrance in the far back of the Wrecked Ship.[/spoiler][/spoiler]


I have tried several 100% item/map speedrun playthroughs since my last post.  My first run was 2:03. [spoiler=Speedrun 1 Order]Missiles
-Gate 1-
Morphing Ball
Bomb
*Bomb Torizo*
*Spore Spawn*
-Gate 4-
Hi-Jump Boots
-Gate 2-
Spazer
Wave Beam
Gravity Suit
Super Missiles
X-Ray Visor
Charge Beam
*Kraid*
Space Jump
-Gate 5-
*Phantoon*
-Gate 10-
Varia Suit
-Gate 11-
*Botwoon*
PBs
-Gate 13-
-Gate 14-
Spring Ball
Plasma Beam
Ice Beam
-Gate 7-
Screw Attack
*Crocomire*
*Golden Torizo*
*Ridley*
Speed Booster
-Gate 9-
-Gate 8-
-Gate 6-
Grapple Beam
-Gate 3-
*Draygon*
-Gate 15-
-Gate 12-[/spoiler] I made the following errors:

-I did not know of Bomb Torizo's weakness at the time, and he fell off the central platform.
-I fought Phantoon on my first visit to WS.
-I got Screw Attack immediately after Ice Beam (what a wuss I was).
-After getting to the Tourian elevator @ 1:45, I realized I missed an expansion at Ridley's hideout.

My second speedrun ended at 1:59 with Space Jump moved to after PBs.  With my time at the first Tourian save point being almost identical to my time at the elevator in my previous run, even with improving the four points above, I don't see how waiting to get Space Jump after PBs saves time at all (Maybe it saves time in an any% run, idk).  The problems I see:

-You would otherwise have to go out of your way for Charge Beam before Botwoon.
-You cannot get Ice Beam on your way into Norfair, so all the Norfair bosses take longer to kill.

[spoiler=Speedrun 2 Order]Missiles
-Gate 1-
Morphing Ball
Bomb
*Bomb Torizo*
Charge Beam
*Spore Spawn*
-Gate 4-
Hi-Jump Boots
-Gate 2-
Spazer
Gravity Suit
Wave Beam
Super Missiles
Varia Suit
-Gate 11-
*Botwoon*
PBs
-Gate 13-
-Gate 14-
Spring Ball
Plasma Beam
X-Ray Visor
*Kraid*
Space Jump
-Gate 5-
-Gate 8-
*Crocomire*
*Golden Torizo*
*Ridley*
Speed Booster
-Gate 9-
Grapple Beam
-Gate 6-
-Gate 3-
*Draygon*
-Gate 15-
-Gate 12-
*Phantoon*
-Gate 10-
-Gate 7-
Ice Beam
Screw Attack[/spoiler]

[lorensj81]

Need help in Maridia.
[spoiler]Maybe I missed something obvious, I got the suit and opened gate 13 but now I only find speed booster blocks and powerbomb blocks?[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Hint]You need to enter Maridia from a different entrance.
[spoiler=Solution]Look for an entrance in the far back of the Wrecked Ship.[/spoiler][/spoiler]

Thanks but...
[spoiler]I explored that part of maridia but still cant find speed booster or powerbombs?[/spoiler]

[Technomagus]

Need help in Maridia.
[spoiler]Maybe I missed something obvious, I got the suit and opened gate 13 but now I only find speed booster blocks and powerbomb blocks?[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Hint]You need to enter Maridia from a different entrance.
[spoiler=Solution]Look for an entrance in the far back of the Wrecked Ship.[/spoiler][/spoiler]

Thanks but...
[spoiler]I explored that part of maridia but still cant find speed booster or powerbombs?[/spoiler]

Pay attention to the terrain.  X-Ray will help if you already have it, otherwise one thing to keep in mind:  Every tileset has a reason.

[advancedpillow]

Need help in Maridia.
[spoiler]Maybe I missed something obvious, I got the suit and opened gate 13 but now I only find speed booster blocks and powerbomb blocks?[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Hint]You need to enter Maridia from a different entrance.
[spoiler=Solution]Look for an entrance in the far back of the Wrecked Ship.[/spoiler][/spoiler]

Thanks but...
[spoiler]I explored that part of maridia but still cant find speed booster or powerbombs?[/spoiler]

Speed booster is in [spoiler]Norfair[/spoiler].

[lorensj81]

Speed booster is in [spoiler]Norfair[/spoiler].

[spoiler]And i thought I looked through all of norfair before going to maridia.[/spoiler]

[RealRed]

Carmage:
[spoiler]
You might find it worthwhile to save most of brinstar until later.
What you can do is take a quick trip after bombs to charge beam, then go

Highjump (IBJ from the HUGE crateria room, skip spospo)
Spazer
Supers
Wave
Gravity

Once you get gravity you can focus your efforts on the eastern end of the map.
Use supers to grab varia without fighting phantoon, on the way over to maridia.
Since you already have charge, you can get upgraded in maridia and tear through norfair. Once you get speedbooster you can simply do a quick planetary run-around with the contents of brinstar following norfair cleanup.

if you're doing 100%, you might be able to take down botwoon without charge beam since you might be well armed with ammo... But then you're forced to visit brinstar again later when you want to fight Ridley. It just seems to be that getting charge immediately after bombs is simply the only option.

I'm not sure what you're using space jump for. It's rarely necessary. Why do you feel that you need it sooner rather than later?

For ice beam, while it would add 135 damage to your CWSP combo, the added damage is more or less negligible for the time you'd spend stopping by the ice shrine. with 465 damage per charged shot, you can still crush Ridley very quickly and effectively, and hitting gate 7 and getting ice on the way to tourian is just ugh too convenient.

Oh, and fight fricken phantoon immediately after botwoon! This opens the WS during the cleanup run, and your wazer combo will own him in a few hits.

My current best time for a 100% run is saved immediately before MB with 1:30. You can shave off lots of time.

[/spoiler]

[CaRmAgE]

Carmage:
[spoiler]
You might find it worthwhile to save most of brinstar until later.
What you can do is take a quick trip after bombs to charge beam, then go

Highjump (IBJ from the HUGE crateria room, skip spospo)
Spazer
Supers
Wave
Gravity

Once you get gravity you can focus your efforts on the eastern end of the map.
Use supers to grab varia without fighting phantoon, on the way over to maridia.
Since you already have charge, you can get upgraded in maridia and tear through norfair. Once you get speedbooster you can simply do a quick planetary run-around with the contents of brinstar following norfair cleanup.

if you're doing 100%, you might be able to take down botwoon without charge beam since you might be well armed with ammo... But then you're forced to visit brinstar again later when you want to fight Ridley. It just seems to be that getting charge immediately after bombs is simply the only option.

I'm not sure what you're using space jump for. It's rarely necessary. Why do you feel that you need it sooner rather than later?

For ice beam, while it would add 135 damage to your CWSP combo, the added damage is more or less negligible for the time you'd spend stopping by the ice shrine. with 465 damage per charged shot, you can still crush Ridley very quickly and effectively, and hitting gate 7 and getting ice on the way to tourian is just ugh too convenient.

Oh, and fight fricken phantoon immediately after botwoon! This opens the WS during the cleanup run, and your wazer combo will own him in a few hits.

My current best time for a 100% run is saved immediately before MB with 1:30. You can shave off lots of time.

[/spoiler]

[spoiler]
1. My comment was mainly directed at some other poster who suggested getting SJ after PBs, which I thought was a ridiculous detour.  I try to avoid detours whenever possible, but if SJ is not needed for Ridley's hideout, then I guess the detour for Charge Beam is unavoidable.

2. I never thought of going for HJ via the back way.  I guess I assumed fighting Spore Spawn would be faster than taking the detour.
Now that you mention it, I don't know why I felt the need to get Gravity Suit before Supers since you only need HJ.  Silly me.

3. If you looked at my second speedrun, you'll see that I did skip phantoon on that run.

4. I tried that already (on a failed run).  The ammo I had was not enough to finish him off once he went super speed.

5. I mainly used SJ to keep my running speed in large rooms with uneven floors (like the large room before the "first" supers).  And, as I mentioned, I wasn't sure if navigating Ridley's hideout without it would be too slow.

6. With the route I took, it was on the way, and I already had SJ, so there was no reason not to grab it.

7. I assumed the fight would take too long without plasma, but you do have a point.

8. I did lots of little mistakes in both runs (they were both single-segment), particularly failing the Spazer IBJ several times, so I'm sure there's plenty of room for improvement.[/spoiler]

[RealRed]

[spoiler]Getting plasma after powerbombs is extremely time saving because all bosses become considerably easy. Kraid, for example, dies in 2-3 charged shots.
You can use super missiles in maridia for some absurd time savers. take a look at this video.
Ridley's lair has a few spots with difficult walljumps but saving SJ for later isn't too costly.
[/spoiler]

EDIT: something went severely wrong with the formatting of this post. uh... Hope I didn't lose anything important.

[Draconis Kenjishiya]

Having taken a rather obnoxiously large hiatus from hacking in general, I returned to the games I've been playing and I beat this one, finally. Here are my final thoughts:

Pros:
As I said before, the Ammo system stood out to me most as a wonderful change. I wish more hacks did this. It made collecting standard Missile tanks actually worth a damn, useful to everyone, not just completionists. The Gate system was the best one I've seen, compact, easy to understand and identify on the map. I absolutely loved the graphics in Maridia, Wrecked Ship, and Lower Norfair. I remember actually silent-mouthing the word 'wow' when I saw the underwater ruins in Maridia.

I also applaud the middle-ground difficulty of your hidden items. I much prefer side-rooms with Chozo statues to random Missile tanks hidden in walls.

Cons:
The sound that the Morph Ball made, but this was fixable, so, I did so =P
The open-endedness was both a boon and a flaw. On one hand, being able to explore the vast majority of the world with your newest item lent itself to finding expansions everywhere, however, more than one time I felt like you could have had that yellow door cap a few rooms earlier, or that I felt stuck in a forced loop because of a mistake. Balancing that must be difficult, though.

Excellent hack, would recommend to a friend.

[Vahn54]

I have to say, I started this hack and I'm around half way through
Pros-
I like the flow of the hack so far
I noticed how elevators are quicker
Ibjing is comparably as easy to execute like SM: Redesign Axiel's Edition
Spring Ball is more important to have
Getting Space Jump early
An allowance of a 5th Reserve tank

In between-
Opening gates out of order. Wonder if you can get them in order?

Cons-
Missing item get music

Pretty good hack.

[CaRmAgE]

In between-
Opening gates out of order. Wonder if you can get them in order?

I don't think we're ever expected to open them in order. [spoiler=Gate order significance]Mainly, the gates are numbered based on location.  So, if you're missing a gate, you'd have an idea on where to start looking.[/spoiler]

[andy]

I'm having trouble with the VERY beginning...  When I leave the room where the first encounter with Ridley takes place, it's very buggy, and I cannot even see myself...
I've tried both the headered & unheadered, with the same result...  :P Any possible causes?  Lol

I'm sorry for replying so late, but it seems you didn't get any solution to your problem. Today it happened to me too.
I've patched the "Super Metroid (JU) !.smc" with "Hyper Mertoid UH v1.00.ips". On my way back from Ridley's den on Space Station, I've noticed the glitches - disappearing Samus, missing background textures, etc.
I've used the JIPS.jar patcher. It produced the file that was 3511350 bytes long. Then I've switched to Lunar IPS.exe (through wine), and the resulting file was 4194304 bytes long.
The latter file works fine, and there are no more glitches.
So if I may suggest something - try another patcher.
I'm supplying the md5 checksums for reference:
21f3e98df4780ee1c667b84e57d88675  Super Metroid (JU) !.smc (the original file)
51c91e0372d47207a325e8eca40e0587  Hyper Metroid (JU).smc (file patched with Lunar IPS - works fine)
d496c80e0ab63a1437d0919fe4ba6c94  Hyper Metroid.smc (file patched with JIPS, broken)

I hope this helps a bit.
PS. great hack, RealRed!

[Parabox]

JIPS is a piece of shit and LIPS works fine through wine, even does file associations. Surprises me it's not multiplatform or open source, and that there's no good Linux-native patching utility.

EDIT: As I've got an SD2SNES I've been applying a lot of translation patches and some of the formats are a little far-out for just SNES ROMs, each working worse under wine than the last.

[Quote58]

Surprises me it's not multiplatform or open source, and that there's no good Linux-native patching utility.

I had been using a perl script that applied patches very quickly and easily in linux, however I have since changed distributions and no longer have the file (and don't remember where I got it from).

[Shionkreth]

I liked it a lot starting out, but after a few hours in I'd describe my experience playing it to someone else as: "Can I go here? Nope. Can I go here? ..Nope. Can I go here..? Nope...".

[Quietus]

"Can I go here? Nope. Can I go here? ..Nope. Can I go here..? Nope...".

This is exactly how the original game was, and is how most hacks play out. It is the only way to provide the player with some direction. Even more recent Metroidvanias use the same formula.

[Grimlock]

"Can I go here? Nope. Can I go here? ..Nope. Can I go here..? Nope...".

Imagine how long these games would take if players were able to go anywhere without restriction (and how difficult).  Certain items are designed to grant access to additional areas by allowing you to defeat obstructions.  Anyway I'm guessing you probably already know that and probably just couldn't figure out how to progress, I haven't played Hyper yet but I plan to as soon as my project is complete (as well as a bunch of other hacks).  You have to have a degree of patience with these exploration games, also never assume a dead end is always a dead end just because it appears that way.

[Shionkreth]

"Can I go here? Nope. Can I go here? ..Nope. Can I go here..? Nope...".

Imagine how long these games would take if players were able to go anywhere without restriction (and how difficult).  Certain items are designed to grant access to additional areas by allowing you to defeat obstructions.  Anyway I'm guessing you probably already know that and probably just couldn't figure out how to progress, I haven't played Hyper yet but I plan to as soon as my project is complete (as well as a bunch of other hacks).  You have to have a degree of patience with these exploration games, also never assume a dead end is always a dead end just because it appears that way.

People are responding like they seriously think I've never played the original, other metroidvanias or other hacks... surely they can't be thinking that. Obviously every metroidvania has areas restricted to guide progression, I'm just finding for this hack I've got literally over a dozen dead ends having gone everywhere I can get with movement tricks but am blocked off by super missile doors, power bomb doors or water, and am finding it frustrating and slow is all. I don't know why people feel they have to defend it; no one said it was bad, that's just my feedback as someone who's playing it, and every developer worth their salt values player feedback.