SM: Search and Destroy

[lenorator]

Here's my first (and probably only) ROM hack for Super Metroid!



It started off as a hack for Oatsngoats' ROM hack contest, but it devolved into what it is now. Admittedly, the majority of the hack is easy and uneventful because I didn't have many good ideas for enemies that fit the "uninhabitable" theme. The only remote difficulty is in the first few rooms and the ending, and even then, said difficulty is rather artificial and could be implemented much better. But hey, I gotta start somewhere!

Also, as a warning, I haven't tested this on console. I had to tweak the echo settings for the credits music because the ending utilizes very high feedback, and discrepancies between emulators originally caused it to snowball out of control and clip. It's possible that the actual hardware differs from both of the emulators I tested in such a way that still causes the echo to exceed intended volumes. If so, skill issue

[nodever2]

Welcome! You should upload this to our main site as well :)
https://metroidconstruction.com/submit_hack.php

Out of curiosity, about how long is this hack?

[Ob]

14/15 items, igt 0:29, real time ~1 hour.

Pretty decent. The rooms are solid, both from platforming and the tiling, palettes, and use of fx. The music and sprites are all customized, and the menu/ending are nicely changed to reflect the lack of metroids or exploding planets. There aren't any mechanical changes like respin, but it does have updated map tiles to help with navigation.
There were some frustrating parts; choosing the "wrong" missile door early on, the finnicky precision in the first stretch, and a grapple trick. Though, that last one is more personal preference/comfort than being a problem. The final fights / boss are neat, though I died several times and found running back to be a bit of a slog.

Get it on the main site and I'd give it 4/5, really clean for a first hack.

[lenorator]

Out of curiosity, about how long is this hack?

About an hour I think? I'm not good at SM so I don't really trust my judgment.

[dewhi100]

first time hacks not being trash is always unexpected, apparently this one is decent so great job.

oats handicapped everyone with that "uninhabitable" constraint. As we saw, creators were still able to work roughly within it (mostly by reinterpreting it as "uninhabitable surface" lol). Truly uninhabitable = no life = no enemies. Thankfully nobody constrained themselves to that nor did oats actually care. The current Starbase contest is much better in that regard.

[junkrares]

Yes. If you're drunk in interplanetary orbit doing cheap E-tanks off your arm cannon, then I have just the place for you.

Tourian's hottest club is "Search and Destroy."



It's a barren planet full of dumb robots, acid rain, rock fountains, and falling boulders -- with a familiar yet troubling feel. This place has everything!

• Hell runs,
• Low energy beeps,
• A functioning X-Ray Scope,
• GT with no beams and 10 super missiles,
• And a ghost that's inhabited a broken energy recharge station.

Yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Search and Destroy.

PS: I played this on actual hardware and noticed no echo buffer issues.

[H A M]

When will the .it, nspc and spc files for the music come out? I don't wanna play this...

[OmegaDragnet9]

When I get finished with V E R T I C A L I T Y, I'd like to give this hack a try.

[lenorator]

When will the .it, nspc and spc files for the music come out? I don't wanna play this...

The tracks "Acid Rain" and "Lower Caves" were mostly unmodified after converting the '.it' files with mlTroid, but the other tracks had their song data in their '.spc' and '.nspc' files written in hex and only used their '.it' files for the following purposes:
1) To compose the songs and to reference them when rewriting (with the exception of the "Game Over" music, which was done completely in hex, so it doesn't have an '.it' file).
2) To convert them to '.spc' with mlTroid and use them as starting files/templates so that I wouldn't have to figure out the note pitches myself, and so that I could just modify the instrument table, sample table, and sample data without having to write them from scratch.
As such, many '.it' files sound jank because they made some sacrifices in order to convert nicely, and trying to have them sound accurate to the final versions of the tracks seemed futile.
The reason songs were written in hex is because:
1) I wanted to optimize them. Granted, none of the final files are perfect, and this wasn't necessary, but it certainly was an improvement (especially with the percussion in "The Lab"). Again, I didn't bother with "Acid Rain" and hardly modified "Lower Caves" because they converted very nicely.
2) There were issues with the converted files (such as inconsistent/inaccurate volumes in "The Lab" and inadequate note durations), and I had to implement certain commands that aren't supported by mlTroid such as dynamic tempo and instrument subtransposition to name a couple.