Experiments with AR

2005-06-05 11:17:33 am

I'll be back. Maybe...

As most of you probably know, I often use certain cheat code devices to investigate the workings of this game and Fusion.

I have discovered some strange things while using the "always shine-charged" code (and the invulnerable code, of course):

The game started behaving oddly when I sparked past the ship into the Tourian escape area: the area started exploding as if the escape was occuring. However, when I reached Tourian, I found that the door leading to Mother Brain's back was locked. I then went to Norfair, and Shinesparked through the lava to collect an early pack of Power Bombs. Still using the code, I returned to Crateria (this time via the non-elevator shaft from Brinstar). I found that the escape area now appeared as if Mother Brain had been defeated already, and the elevator down to Tourian didn't work at all. When I returned to the landing site, there was no ship there. However, I went back to the Power Grip room and found that the event had been reset (this is probably as I shinesparked out of the pit before the pillar had finished rising the first time). But when I returned from this, the ship had returned.

I then decided, as I had the Power Bombs, to get the Expansion in the Landing Site. However, I found that it didn't actually exist: it appeared there but acted as air when I tried to pick it up. I decided then to go to Chozodia. I went in through the lower entrance, and got into the main area by shinesparking through the Bombu shaft. However, when I tried to escape through the glass tube, I could not: the Power Bomb did not affect it. I then went to the Chozo Guardian's room to get my Plasma Beam and Gravity Suit (as the lava damage was annoying me). I tried to enter through the exit of the room before the Guardian, and got a very Fusion-ish response: the door acted like a wall and refused to let me through, as did the tunnel to the missile pack off that shaft. In the battle, some very odd things happened: the Suitless sprite replaced the Varia one while the Guardian was appearing, and when it was defeated it left a Varia sprite behind where the last shot had hit it.

Of course, after all this, I had still not beaten Kraid. So I went to Norfair, through the tunnel, and arrived in Kraid. I then shinesparked into Kraid's room through the bottom, and found that the loaded room was the Kraid-less version. I collected the Speed Booster (finally!) and exited through the top, to find the door closing Eyed behind me. I killed the eye door, and re-entered to find a very angry Kraid. Now, failing to do the quick kill, I spent a long time trying to line up my missiles correctly before realising that it would be easier if I temporarily turned the Shinespark code off (I was still left with the shine-charged sprite, which, oddly enough, had been purple instead of red for the whole game). Anyway, I killed Kraid, and escaped back through the Norfair tunnel (I still had no Space Jump).

Now I must find out what will happen when I go to Tourian... and investigate more of the workings of this game's event system.

Edit: I've now found that, having already gone to Chozodia, after killing Mother Brain (in which the game acted completely as normal), there were extra pirates, thus requiring passive-aggressive elimination tactics to pass through some areas. However, the largest problem came when I found that, in fact, the Chozo Shutters had closed. Using the Power Bomb codes, I passed most of them, but when I came to try to regain the suit, I found that the shutter there had closed, blocking me from regaining it and hence making it impossible to complete the game.

As a result, EVEN IF Early Power Bombs were possible, there is no practical use for this, since any power-bomb-requiring objects outside Chozodia do not exist, and entering Chozodia will disrupt the event system, making the suitless sequence impossible.

Edit 2: I forgot...
Using the Get The Fully Powered Suit code (the door didn't work anyway... stupid Fusion-ness), I completed the game. Then I did it again with as much AR as I could (and time=0). Soon I'll find the way to warp from the first room to the last room. *grins evilly*

Last Edit: The ending pic below is what happens if you go all-out ARing and don't pick up any items. I'll get a HARD one up to replace it.

Thread title:

As most of you probably know, I often use certain cheat code devices to investigate the workings of this game and Fusion.

I have discovered some strange things while using the "always shine-charged" code (and the invulnerable code, of course):

The game started behaving oddly when I sparked past the ship into the Tourian escape area: the area started exploding as if the escape was occuring. However, when I reached Tourian, I found that the door leading to Mother Brain's back was locked. I then went to Norfair, and Shinesparked through the lava to collect an early pack of Power Bombs. Still using the code, I returned to Crateria (this time via the non-elevator shaft from Brinstar). I found that the escape area now appeared as if Mother Brain had been defeated already, and the elevator down to Tourian didn't work at all. When I returned to the landing site, there was no ship there. However, I went back to the Power Grip room and found that the event had been reset (this is probably as I shinesparked out of the pit before the pillar had finished rising the first time). But when I returned from this, the ship had returned.

I then decided, as I had the Power Bombs, to get the Expansion in the Landing Site. However, I found that it didn't actually exist: it appeared there but acted as air when I tried to pick it up. I decided then to go to Chozodia. I went in through the lower entrance, and got into the main area by shinesparking through the Bombu shaft. However, when I tried to escape through the glass tube, I could not: the Power Bomb did not affect it. I then went to the Chozo Guardian's room to get my Plasma Beam and Gravity Suit (as the lava damage was annoying me). I tried to enter through the exit of the room before the Guardian, and got a very Fusion-ish response: the door acted like a wall and refused to let me through, as did the tunnel to the missile pack off that shaft. In the battle, some very odd things happened: the Suitless sprite replaced the Varia one while the Guardian was appearing, and when it was defeated it left a Varia sprite behind where the last shot had hit it.

Of course, after all this, I had still not beaten Kraid. So I went to Norfair, through the tunnel, and arrived in Kraid. I then shinesparked into Kraid's room through the bottom, and found that the loaded room was the Kraid-less version. I collected the Speed Booster (finally!) and exited through the top, to find the door closing Eyed behind me. I killed the eye door, and re-entered to find a very angry Kraid. Now, failing to do the quick kill, I spent a long time trying to line up my missiles correctly before realising that it would be easier if I temporarily turned the Shinespark code off (I was still left with the shine-charged sprite, which, oddly enough, had been purple instead of red for the whole game). Anyway, I killed Kraid, and escaped back through the Norfair tunnel (I still had no Space Jump).

Now I must find out what will happen when I go to Tourian... and investigate more of the workings of this game's event system.

Edit: I've now found that, having already gone to Chozodia, after killing Mother Brain (in which the game acted completely as normal), there were extra pirates, thus requiring passive-aggressive elimination tactics to pass through some areas. However, the largest problem came when I found that, in fact, the Chozo Shutters had closed. Using the Power Bomb codes, I passed most of them, but when I came to try to regain the suit, I found that the shutter there had closed, blocking me from regaining it and hence making it impossible to complete the game.

[size=18px][u]As a result, EVEN IF Early Power Bombs were possible, there is no practical use for this, since any power-bomb-requiring objects outside Chozodia do not exist, and entering Chozodia will disrupt the event system, making the suitless sequence impossible.[/u][/size]

Edit 2: I forgot...
Using the Get The Fully Powered Suit code (the door didn't work anyway... stupid Fusion-ness), I completed the game. Then I did it again with as much AR as I could (and time=0). Soon I'll find the way to warp from the first room to the last room. *grins evilly*

Last Edit: The ending pic below is what happens if you go all-out ARing and don't pick up any items. I'll get a HARD one up to replace it.

attachment:

0%hard ZM.PNG

Supuh

2005-06-05 03:30:16 pm

dang, looks like they decided to use a little event++ in zm

Skreemaster

2005-06-05 03:38:15 pm

I'll be back. Maybe...

I don't think it's that; you can certainly get the items in any order (even in complete reverse order), and most doors aren't affected. I think what closed the Chozo shutters was fighting the Guardian before losing the suit, not just entering. But entering early sets off a trigger which sets up the first Pirate setup (i.e. Pirates that are stupid and lose you easily so the shutters can be opened), so when you return, the second setup is triggered (Pirates that can find you in hiding places, follow you through secret passages, and generally be objectionable), so you have to do passive-aggressive tactics to get the shutters open. In fact, it probably isn't actually possible unless you're immune to damage. But everything except the Tourian Escape Shaft and Chozodia works fine with Walk Through Walls/Fly Through Ceiling.

Supuh

2005-06-05 03:42:26 pm

could you ar the game so you get behind motherbrain before shes dead in the tourian escape shaft and shinespark through the wall behind her that leads to the missle tank while the things not all exploded? ive always wondered what would happen since the speedbooster blocks are there, but you cant bust em since you cant get a charge there...

Skreemaster

2005-06-05 03:53:52 pm

I'll be back. Maybe...

You can't go through the Brain. It's too thick, and there's no empty space behind it. Also, the door's locked. But when I went down to Tourian the back way, I tried to get in there. The room transition doesn't work, and there's a platform in the way.

Supuh

2005-06-05 04:07:16 pm

aww... that stinks

tomatobob

2005-06-05 05:27:16 pm

One shall stand, one shall ball.

Thats's some pretty crazy stuff there Skree. I gotta try messing with AR sometime.

XtraX

2005-06-13 08:41:07 am

early Powerbombs would be useful for skipping Tourian/the entire suitless sequence;)
It would be useful for 100% because Chozodia after getting Gravity/Plasma/Space Jump would be much faster due to not running all the way to the first Power bomb.

And we might be able to skip Ice Beam/Varia Suit/Gravity Suit/Space Jump^^

Skreemaster

2005-06-13 08:50:57 am

I'll be back. Maybe...

Oh, if I didn't say this before, the Black Pirates outside the escape ship can't be damaged without the Plasma Beam, even though normal Pirates can.

Kaos

2005-06-14 02:53:08 am

So it seems that ZM is actually as tightly locked as Fusion with the exception of the 'sequence breaks' that you were intended to be able to do.

Jigglysaint

2005-06-14 01:33:56 pm

Sorry to disappoint guys, but I've been fooling around like that for the last 6 months. In fact, I can tell you guys to a degree why those things happen and why.

To answer just about most of the discoveries, let me tell you about somthing that MZM does reguarding rooms and doors.

In the rom there is some data that comprises of 4 bytes. The first byte, which is between 00 and 06(making 7 in total). is the area the door event is placed. 00 is Brinstar, and 06 is Chozodia. The second byte is the door index that is to be replaced. In the door data, doors have an index value, and it's used to point to other door indexes. The third byte is the event condition. For example, if you want, lets say, a flood to occure in a room just before picking up an item, that room would have 2 roomstates. When you go and pick up the item, and the event is correct, instantly that door's index is replaced by the fourth byte(which is the new index value), and you will enter the new room, which would appear flooded.

Let me give you an example, Kraid's room. When you enter Kraid's room via the eye door, you enter into his room the normal way, which is the boss fight. When you kill Kraid, an event is set and the eye door is told then to read the new index value for that door, which leads to the empty room. As for the other things, the speed booster blocks in the room to the right always lead to the empty room, and enter into into kraid's room from the left does the same thing. It's just the eye door that will always lead you to the active kraid room(in fact, you can kill him over and over if you disable the event)unless activated.

As for the Tourian exit, there are 2 states. First of all, if you enter before killing Mother Brain, you can't use the elevator, mainly because the elevator doesn't exist. see, an elevator is actually just a block type, with one that sends you down, and one that sends you up. This room doesn't have that block, so you can't use it. As for the escape sequence, normally you can't get to it because it's self contained. What I mean is that from the exit of Tourian to the ship, they are all seperate rooms from the main game. However, with power bombs you can enter Brinstar with the timer running and mess with that somewhat. The third state is for the wrecked tourian. A little intesting thing that if you were to enter Mother Brain's room again after beating her, no sprites will show up. Also, if you enter the ship room from the tourian escape tunnel, it will always be in the rainy sequence, because that door does not have a state change event, wheras the other two in the ship room do.

As for the power grip, there are 2 events. The first is to check whether or not you picked up the power grip. If you do, then when you enter the rising pilllar room, it goes to the correct room and starts the rising platform sequence. Notice the only exit out of the room is to the left. You enter from the left before getting the PG, the room will exist as if all the events are triggered. Come in from the right and it checks to see if the platforms have appeared, and makes the change accordingly.

And finally, the suitless sequence final room is set up that if you get the full suit, that giant slab is there to prevent you from entering the guardian room even again. You can actually fix your game if you just make it able to pass that wall, because the guardian will appear again for more beatings.

Sorry to disappoint guys, but I've been fooling around like that for the last 6 months.  In fact, I can tell you guys to a degree why those things happen and why.

To answer just about most of the discoveries, let me tell you about somthing that MZM does reguarding rooms and doors.

In the rom there is some data that comprises of 4 bytes.  The first byte, which is between 00 and 06(making 7 in total). is the area the door event is placed.  00 is Brinstar, and 06 is Chozodia.  The second byte is the door index that is to be replaced.  In the door data, doors have an index value, and it's used to point to other door indexes.  The third byte is the event condition.  For example, if you want, lets say, a flood to occure in a room just before picking up an item, that room would have 2 roomstates.  When you go and pick up the item, and the event is correct, instantly that door's index is replaced by the fourth byte(which is the new index value), and you will enter the new room, which would appear flooded.

Let me give you an example, Kraid's room.  When you enter Kraid's room via the eye door, you enter into his room the normal way, which is the boss fight.  When you kill Kraid, an event is set and the eye door is told then to read the new index value for that door, which leads to the empty room.  As for the other things, the speed booster blocks in the room to the right always lead to the empty room, and enter into into kraid's room from the left does the same thing.  It's just the eye door that will always lead you to the active kraid room(in fact, you can kill him over and over if you disable the event)unless activated.

As for the Tourian exit, there are 2 states.  First of all, if you enter before killing Mother Brain, you can't use the elevator, mainly because the elevator doesn't exist.  see, an elevator is actually just a block type, with one that sends you down, and one that sends you up.  This room doesn't have that block, so you can't use it.  As for the escape sequence, normally you can't get to it because it's self contained.  What I mean is that from the exit of Tourian to the ship, they are all seperate rooms from the main game.  However, with power bombs you can enter Brinstar with the timer running and mess with that somewhat.  The third state is for the wrecked tourian.  A little intesting thing that if you were to enter Mother Brain's room again after beating her, no sprites will show up.  Also, if you enter the ship room from the tourian escape tunnel, it will always be in the rainy sequence, because that door does not have a state change event, wheras the other two in the ship room do.

As for the power grip, there are 2 events.  The first is to check whether or not you picked up the power grip.  If you do, then when you enter the rising pilllar room, it goes to the correct room and starts the rising platform sequence.  Notice the only exit out of the room is to the left.  You enter from the left before getting the PG, the room will exist as if all the events are triggered.  Come in from the right and it checks to see if the platforms have appeared, and makes the change accordingly.

And finally, the suitless sequence final room is set up that if you get the full suit, that giant slab is there to prevent you from entering the guardian room even again.  You can actually fix your game if you just make it able to pass that wall, because the guardian will appear again for more beatings.

Skreemaster

2005-06-14 01:48:56 pm

I'll be back. Maybe...

Do you have any idea why doors such as the one back into the guardian room (it shouldn't be necessary to kill the door as there is a block in the way anyway) and the one at the top of the Chozodia Ruins top left shaft* don't work?

*(In fact, you could probably get up there without AR by wall-jumping cunningly... I can't test it because all my carts are at home and I haven't found a working emulator for Linux yet...)

Jigglysaint

2005-06-14 09:18:23 pm

I might have goofed on that part. I know I removed the wall, but I think I forgot if the door is still there or not. It wold make the sense the door would no longer be there since Chozodia has a lot of door indexes.

Sasuke_Kun

(user is banned)

2005-06-15 04:28:54 am

It's incredible what you can do with emu's. You can just mess the game up beyond all recognition. Of course, that is what this site is all about when concerning Metroid.

RT-55J

2005-06-15 09:52:10 am

Armor Guardian

Who would of thought that flightless birds could be so versital (I KNOW I MISSPELLED IT)?

MotherBrainII

2005-08-31 02:01:23 pm

Skreemaster, can you print the codes used so I can try this myself? I am having trouble finding any working AR codes.

SAL

2005-08-31 02:59:16 pm

Go to [url]www.GScentral.com[/url]

Jack

2005-09-03 01:26:39 am

Or, with an emulator (VBA, maybe?) www.codebreaker[s?].com

Oh, but the thing that scared me the most was going down an elevator with the Play As Suitless Samus code. Totally unexpected. (shiver) She gains a pink suit and morph ball (Screw Attack Animation is same as Grav) but still can't shoot any beams. Also, don't collect any Misc. Items with that code on. Freezes the game.

By the way, did you try the "Walk Through Walls" code?

MotherBrainII

2005-12-23 05:08:35 am

Sorry about being REALLY slow, but gscentral's codes don't work either.

rain

2005-12-23 09:17:45 am

Since the topic has been revived I would like to say that it is, in theory, possible to get into the missle tanks behind the mother brain (not the one under her though) if you kill mother brain while standing next to her you can build a charge most people use for a quicker escape. However, if you jump on the plat form or somewhere else with the charged spark, you could thoeretically (wow sp) spark through the wall.

Im sure if you used a code to let you have the speed booster before kraid you could do the same thing while he is dieing.

JaggerG

2005-12-23 09:25:24 am

Shifty Leader

That M2k2 guy

both have been tried. The wall behind MB is unbreakable until it blows up (or you need screw attack, I forget).

DeathNoble

2005-12-23 10:08:03 am

Wouldn't matter anyways. Samus passes through tanks/upgrades while the counter is going and doesn't collect them.