Update: Questions? See the FAQ at the bottom!
Metroid + Saving replaces the password system with a saving system with three files. The file selection menu shows the player’s equipment, and as an added bonus, the player’s health is now saved. No need to grind for health every time you resume your game.
Now included is a scrollable map when paused and the ability to combine the wave and ice beams.
To use this hack, apply the appropriate IPS patch to your Metroid ROM, using a tool such as Lunar IPS. The source code is also included. If you’d like help incorporating these features into your own ROM hack, feel free to contact me.
FAQ
Can I save without dying?
Yes! Pause the game, and then press UP + A on the second controller. This also works on the original unmodified game (as well as The Legend of Zelda, and probably others, too).
How do I access “JUSTIN BAILEY”? Is suitless Samus gone?
No! The way you’re supposed to access suitless Samus is by completing the game in under three hours. This hasn’t changed. Of course, you can no longer use a password to play as suitless Samus without beating the game first.
How do I access “NARPASSWORD”? Is super-cheat-o-matic mode gone?
YES! “NARPASSWORD” is no longer available, since this cheat can only be enabled via password. You’ll have to find another way to cheat. Sorry.
The “EMERGENCY ORDER” text no longer shows during the title sequence. Is this a bug?
Nope! The “EMERGENCY ORDER” screen was transformed into the file selection screen to minimize the complexity involved in creating the hack.
The music does not loop during the title sequence. Is this a bug?
YES! Because the title sequence was modified (see above question), the part of the program that restarts the music is never executed. I knew about the problem, but chose to ignore it because I kinda hoped nobody else would notice. But they did!
Can I use this mod with Editroid?
Mostly! You’ll want to apply the patch to an unmodified ROM before you begin editing with Editroid. If you do this, the only problem you’ll have (as far as I know) is that the “Test Room” feature will not work correctly. This happens because both Metroid + Saving and Editroid’s “Test Room” feature hack the startup code in incompatible ways, causing the ROM to crash on startup.
If you already have a hack and want to add this mod to it, it won’t be quite as easy, but I may be able to lend a hand.
When I edit the world with Editroid, the map doesn’t change. Is this a bug?
Nope! The map is hard-coded in the ROM. I’ve released a tool to edit the map, available from romhacking.net.
This hack is awesome 😀
But would it be possible to have also a map ingame when start is pressed? I saw the minimap project, but 9×9 grid to navigate is not enough. It would be awesome to have the whole map or the map of an area watchable when the game is paused, like in Super-Metroid.
I am not familiar with assembler language, but as far as I could understand, the Minimap project has the right pieces of code for such a map included, but the part with showing the map when start is missing and the map is just too little.
It would be really cool to have a map feature that is available on the console with powerpak and not just only through an emulator and a script.
The size limitation is a compromise. I would love to have a full-screen pause map like in SM (and, who knows, some day that might happen), but for now this is much quicker and easier to write. Time saved on the map feature means time spent on other goodies.
That said, I should point out that the map scrolls.
Also, what is this about a script. Are you referring to MDbTroid?
Yes, I think it was MDbTroid, where you could acces a fullscreen map on pause, but it is a script, which can not be run on the actual console.
I really hope someday, that there will be a map on pause because this would make the game really a lot more anjoyable 😀
Okay, I’m going to ask the enviable: “Can a ROM patched with this be edited with Editroid 3.0/ will there be a future version of Editroid compatible with this?
The only issue that I’m aware of is that the “Test Room” feature will not work with a ROM using this patch.
Yeah, I’ve had that problem too but now here’s another one: I’m re-arranging rooms and the mini-map seems to not show any of the added/ deleted rooms.
awesome 😀
the map you included just makes the game more enjoyable 🙂
thanks!
I am just curious about the maps width and height, is it a hardware limitation that it is not able to show the whole map? or is it just too hard to implement a whole map view?
whoops, sorry, just noticed you can scroll in the map 😳 i was too excited about the hack 😀
This is a really great addition to Metroid. 🙂 Just one question, though: You say the player’s health is saved … but how can this be if the only way to save is to first die? Your health will always be zero, right? Is there another way to save in the middle of a game?
yea… I was wondering that as well. Also, it would be super awesome if there was some way to merge this and MDbTroid. Would love to have those graphics and these gameplay tweaks…. thanks!
Would it be much work to give a pal rom the same treatment? I love patches like this one, but timing gets messed up on my pal nes with my everdrive n8 🙁
Now this is truly a great Metroid hack. If it were possible to enable the extra FDS channel and make suitless Samus new game selectable, it’d be perfect.
Not having suitless Samus selectable is gay as hell. There’s no point in playing as her if you’re already going to start the game with all of the powerups you’ve collected in the previous playthrough.
Well, you can just edit Samus’ graphics if you’re so hetero.
This ips hack is great! The only small complaints i have for it is that there is no option to turn off ice beam merging with wave beam. When loading the game ask the question like “merge beam” OR make a different version with that disabled. and if you hit “no” and you obtained while another one is equipped you could have just made the other one disappear on the main menu. It sucks that due to this you already had probably used up most of the game asset’s to make this work though. I am very aware of game limitations like rom storage but this is still good!