i don't think the designers chose to not include a map. it just probably would have been too much work to include one for an nes game.
Would it have been too much to try to make one as blank and bleak as the Legend of Zelda one? I mean, that was just a huge gray panel on the display bar (But the devs gave a map because many would get lost in an open world...ish). Unless the display in Metroid was already simple as it needed to be (since I guess most of the dev time was making puzzles and intelligence patterns)... and the original intent was to explore unguided.
You can play the NES metroid with a map now. InfinitysEnd over at MDb made a hack called MDbtroid. If you play it on an FCEUX emulator, you can run a LUA script which not only has a map screen and mini-map, but also lets you enable/disable items. I played through it a couple of months ago and it worked great. Was nice to have a map and also be able to switch back and forth from wave to ice beam, without having to re-acquire ice before tourian. Here's the link:
Where have you been? InfinitysEnd created that lua script months ago which contains a menu/sub-menu with a map and the ability to enable/disable items.
You're being kinda picked on and made fun of, almost like a hazing. You gotta come up with a drow-dropping line of harsh wrongness to serve in return. You're sinking fast, man!
You're being kinda picked on and made fun of, almost like a hazing. You gotta come up with a drow-dropping line of harsh wrongness to serve in return. You're sinking fast, man!
Moi? Nahh, I only come up with that shit when it comes, never any random time.