There's a hole in the sky
Through which things can fly.
-Aperture Science Motto
After parsing through the user's manual for her Power Suit, Samus discovered that the Chozo have endowed it with the power to interact with the fabric of reality immediately surrounding the planet SR-388 by simply switching between her beam and her missiles. What luck that she should receive an assignment to go to that planet!
Eager to try out this new power, she realizes a few things: it's tricky and seemingly random to pull off, plus, if she's not careful, she could easily end up in a solid wall, stuck there until someone hits the power switch on her universe. Eventually, with the aid of various other tools, including time manipulators, she attained a mastery over this latent ability and used it to eradicate the metroid species in record time.
The select glitch in this game is a well known glitch that involves mashing the select button to move tiles around the game map. Doing so can give the player access to other parts of the map s/he shouldn't have have access to, including this game's version of "secret worlds." I could easily go into further detail, but I have the mechanics of this glitch detailed at Metroid 2 Tricks.
This was a rather fun run to make. One of the first things I did when rerecording tools came out for the Gameboy was to test this game out, and figure out how to get the glitch to work. I am very grateful to whoever decided to include a map viewer in VBA, because this glitch would otherwise have been impossible to pull off consistently and helped very much in my research of it.
After my two year break from normal life, I found a map editor which allowed me to confirm some theories I had about how the game map worked, and made route planning much, much easier.
What was my least favorite part about making this run? Easily, the last metroid in ruins 3 and the metroid immediately following. Trying to do a bunch of damage boosting while doing some tricky glitching was in no way fun. Those two easily took me a month to do.
Notes About the Run
Watching this movie may induce feelings of confusion and disorientation. Do not worry; this is perfectly normal.
Much of the route was discovered by accident. I was simply going through the game, using the glitch wherever I could, and just stumbled upon bits of the route that fit together pretty much perfectly.
There's a part of this movie where I spend ten seconds filling up on missiles on the same enemy. This is unavoidable as I need the missiles I get from him, and that enemy is the only chance I have to refill at the point.
In Cardboard's run, health is tight while missiles are plentiful. A side effect of this route is exactly the opposite, where I can be very liberal with my health, but have to be very conservative with my missiles.
The results of the Metroid Queen fight are frustrating. I discovered that her first lunge in each set of two will never be with an open mouth until her health is less than 100. This means that for the first two rounds I could only bomb her once.
The end result of the run is a ratio of nearly two metroids per minute.
The only two types of metroids I do not encounter at least one glitched version of are the gamma and the queen. Every other kind, including the regulars, get glitched up at least once.
Brownie points to whoever can tell me what's truly bizarre about the way I get to the credits. No, it's not the direction I approach the ship, nor is it the way I enter it. :) (Edit:CtrlAltDestroy got it)
Takes damage to save time
Manipulates luck
Abuses errors in programming
Uses VBA 19.3
Ending Time According to the Game
Thanks
Cardboard, for his run which served as a good reference point and inspiration for tactics. While I didn't seek to copy his run and tactics exactly, watching it was good for motivation and pushing me in the right direction.
The developers of VBA, particularly the person who decided to include the map viewer. This run would probably not exist without it.
Texel, for the really handy M2Edit program, which was a great assistance in route planning.
Everyone who posted in the Metroid 2 Topic, for providing support and for giving me an expanded base of knowledge of various tricks and what not.
Everyone on the IRC, who tolerated my use of the channel as a place to think out loud, and also for additional support and motivation.
Megaman-caliber brokenness. I'm not a big fan of this game, but this is definitely a great movie.
I recommend using a screenshot of the hatchling "IJKYZ." around frame 15,900, or the fully grown "HGFEDXWVU" toward the end.
Wow, that was a blast to watch. I don't know what the heck happened, but with all those glitches and secret worlds flashing across the screen, I really didn't care. It's great to see that the select trick was finally done justice!
Also, this was several years in the making, wasn't it? I remember a very long time ago when you first mentioned that you figured out how the select trick screwed with the buffer.
I guess the last metroid is not in captivity.
Joined: 10/27/2004
Posts: 1978
Location: Making an escape
CtrlAltDestroy wrote:
Wow, that was a blast to watch. I don't know what the heck happened, but with all those glitches and secret worlds flashing across the screen, I really didn't care. It's great to see that the select trick was finally done justice!
Also, this was several years in the making, wasn't it? I remember a very long time ago when you first mentioned that you figured out how the select trick screwed with the buffer.
I guess the last metroid is not in captivity.
In a way, you are correct. Work had begun in the winter of '05, but it was mainly research. I probably would have continued, but I had that two-year mission coming up, so postponement was necessary. The actual run wasn't started until earlier this summer.
And yes, it is nice to see the glitch done justice. That's pretty much to only reason I made it. ;P
A hundred years from now, they will gaze upon my work and marvel at my skills but never know my name. And that will be good enough for me.
Joined: 11/18/2006
Posts: 2426
Location: Back where I belong
I always like glitched runs, but sadly, they usually only last 5 minutes or so. A full length run like this one, entirely glitched out, is awesome. It was fun to watch all the way through, and had a ton of entertaining moments. A very well deserved yes vote from me!
This run was damn cool.
I'm wondering if someone will find quicker routes at some point in the future, given it sounds like you found most by accident. What I'm trying to say is, this game/run deserves more attention than Super Metroid, IMO.
Sage advice from a friend of Jim: So put your tinfoil hat back in the closet, open your eyes to the truth, and realize that the government is in fact causing austismal cancer with it's 9/11 fluoride vaccinations of your water supply.
I love the main corridor theme.[gripe] Why have areas with no music, just annoying little animal sounds?[/gripe]
Samus, Alphabet Hunter
Watched the run, enjoyed it (will vote yes in a moment) have a few questions.
Was amused around frame ~32000 how you killed what looked to be the same metroid three times in a loop. (Dratted level design that's not very distinct)
At about 37800, can't you fall down the hole and fire up at the metroid instead, saving a death animation? This is the only one I saw that isn't obviously neatly-pulled-off or much-too-far-to-screen-transit.
That damage-boost plus glitch did look pretty difficult to accomplish, each time you did it.
What's the second item you grab whose tiles you don't allow to load? (right after ice beam, also in a Chozo statue hand, frame 13000) I know the first was Spider Ball, because then you started using it.
in the corridor beginning at 58200, could you have killed any of those enemies for energy without wasting time (or, I suppose as importantly, missiles). At least the low health warning is tasteful in this game.
Amused at the most visibly obvious bit of screwing-with-map around 60500, where you go right and then left and a block disappears.
Around frame 66000 (I think, might be off...) why do you go through a warp and back? I'm guessing earthquake changed it and you had to reload to get that?
Very good quick way into the second-to-last area at 70000. (Okay, I like this music too, because it's music.)
Are the Queen's projectiles undodgeable? It looks kind of messy just getting hit by them...does she not eat you if you do?
How many of the metroids you killed weren't in normal map boundaries? (Ones I'm guessing at: ~51500- but then I recognize several bits of map, just wrong tileset)
What happens if you glitch directly to the Queen and kill her? (Can you?) I have the feeling that you only get to fly away in ship when Queen is dead and Metroids == 0...
What's going on with the enemy at 63500?
For brownie points: Well, the hatchling was already mentioned, as was getting in from bottom...No clue.
Joined: 12/27/2006
Posts: 532
Location: Göteborg, Sweden
I have never voted yes on a Metroid 2 submission, because I dispise the game, and I'm always bored when watching it. But I actually enjoyed this, and that's saying something. :) Yes vote.
My published movies
[03:45:05] <Naohiro19> Soulrivers: ...
[03:45:19] <Soulrivers> ?
[03:46:35] <Naohiro19> <Soulrivers> No! <Naohiro19> So? <Soulrivers> Yes!
[03:46:48] <Naohiro19> joke
wow-o, that just completely blew me away. For a game that has a lot of empty moments, this run kept me thoroughly enjoyed. I bow down to you.
May I answer the brownie question? Usually when you enter the ship, the activation device is in the center, but you proceed to walk right in order to activate it. :)
Joined: 8/15/2005
Posts: 1941
Location: Mullsjö, Sweden
I'm confused with the route and such in a normal Metroid 2 run, as I don't know anything about the map in this game.
But this is just insane to see and I have basically no idea what's happening, just great :D.
Joined: 11/18/2006
Posts: 2426
Location: Back where I belong
So do people think we need three Metroid 2 runs published, or should this obsolete the current any% run? Currently the any% and 100% are very similar in content due to the linear nature of the game, and I'm personally in favor of having an "any%, glitched" and "100%, non-glitched", but I'd like to hear others opinions on it.
So do people think we need three Metroid 2 runs published
Yes.
mmbossman wrote:
Currently the any% and 100% are very similar in content due to the linear nature of the game
It's not really that linear (less so than Metroid Fusion, for instance), unless you mean it in the context of getting from start to finish. The reason the two runs have not much difference timewise is that getting the auxiliary items lets you catch up significantly by the time you beat the last boss.
Warp wrote:
Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.
Joined: 10/27/2004
Posts: 1978
Location: Making an escape
eternaljwh wrote:
a list of questions
Good, legitimate questions. I shall answer.
The second glitched item I pick up is the bombs. If you think that's bad, a 100% run would pick up what looks to be the spazer but is actually the space jump! ;P
That zeta was too far off for shooting up to be practical. Besides, zetas and omegas are invulnerable to missiles moving up or down, so it wouldn't have worked anyway.
No, those guys are too tough to be worth killing. What I should have done, though, was either find a way around them or freeze them before landing. Ten more hit points would have been wonderful on the gamma after the glitch warp around there. (also, these guys don't drop missiles; enemies drop only health or missiles, but never both, which is why that one enemy I farmed earlier was my only chance: everything would have just given me health)
Spider floating. Jimsfriend found that alternating between spider ball and normal every frame in midair allows you to stay floating.
That's just the way the game is set up. Kill the alpha, trigger the earthquake, head back and find an omega where you came from.
The only way I know of to dodge Her Highness's projectiles is with the high jump boots. Aside from that, the way I took damage there was very deliberate as it caused her projectiles to exit stage right instead of up, saving eight frames per round.
Believe it or not, all the metroids I kill are on the normal map. There is nothing, no enemies, items, or metroids, in the secret worlds aside from Samus and some landscape tiles. All the messed up areas you saw were parts of the regular map with a different tileset.
Warping to the queen wouldn't do. It is possible, but she won't be active until all the other 46 metroids are destroyed and you enter her room the way you normally do. Not like glitching to the fight would matter: In order to finish the game, memory address D089, the variable that counts how many metroids are left, must read 0, so I'd have to take care of the other 46 anyway.
SatoshiLysih wrote:
May I answer the brownie question? Usually when you enter the ship, the activation device is in the center, but you proceed to walk right in order to activate it. :)
Not quite, but you are on the right track. Here's a hint: the activation device inside the ship at the end of the game is actually just a regular missile recharge station. If you can tell me why it was on the right instead of in the middle, you'll have completed the challenge! :P
Glad you all have enjoyed it so far! Thank you!
A hundred years from now, they will gaze upon my work and marvel at my skills but never know my name. And that will be good enough for me.
Joined: 10/27/2004
Posts: 1978
Location: Making an escape
A winner is you, CAD!
In truth, the way to end the game is to finish off all 47 metroids and recharge your missiles. Any missile recharge will do, it's just that ordinarily you're limited to the ship at the end when you do so. You see, when you touch a recharge station, it first checks to see if D089, the memory location for the number of metroids left, is zero; if so, end the game, if not, fill missiles.
So I just glitched back to the beginning of the game because it was so much closer! ;P
The original plan was to work over to the station outside the final ruins, but tileset issues set in and wouldn't let me.
A hundred years from now, they will gaze upon my work and marvel at my skills but never know my name. And that will be good enough for me.
