Metroid: Space Complex (Metroid 1 NES Hack WIP)

[Metalwario64]

Is that desert going to have Ninja Gaiden III style parallax scrolling?

[Mindflower]

Is that desert going to have Ninja Gaiden III style parallax scrolling?

Hello metalwario, the desert is going to have animated background tiles AND a parallax scrolling layer.
I worked it out meticulously and actually right now i am implementing it, as we write.
greets.

[Metalwario64]

Hello metalwario, the desert is going to have animated background tiles AND a parallax scrolling layer.
I worked it out meticulously and actually right now i am implementing it, as we write.
greets.

Nice! This hack is going to be incredible!

[lexluthermiester]

Hello metalwario, the desert is going to have animated background tiles AND a parallax scrolling layer.
I worked it out meticulously and actually right now i am implementing it, as we write.
greets.

I'm curious, with everything you're changing and adding in, how big is the final rom going to be? Are you using the same mapper or changing to something like MMC5?

[Mindflower]

I'm curious, with everything you're changing and adding in, how big is the final rom going to be? Are you using the same mapper or changing to something like MMC5?

If you ask me now, the answer is i am working on the MMC3 Mapper resulting in a 728kB ROM. Upgrade to MMC5 is not planned, cause Editroid doesn't support it.
So yes, space can be a problem.
Everything has to be planned carefully and space has to be used efficiently.
For example i constricted all the parallax frames of the whole game to one part of the chr sheets. Parallax scrolling is using 32 frames, every frame is using up a quarter chr sheet) it is implemented this way).
There are 64 chr sheets, and parallax scrolling in my hack alone uses up 8 of them.
So much to the maths. ;]

[Cyneprepou4uk]

https://wiki.nesdev.com/w/index.php/INES_Mapper_012
Same as MMC3 + 256K CHR

[Mindflower]

https://wiki.nesdev.com/w/index.php/INES_Mapper_012
Same as MMC3 + 256K CHR

Hu, interesting. If this could work with my latest rom, this sounds like heaven.
August 08, 2020, 07:54:23 AM - (Auto Merged - Double Posts are not allowed before 7 days.)

Is that desert going to have Ninja Gaiden III style parallax scrolling?

...work in progress.

[lexluthermiester]

If you ask me now, the answer is i am working on the MMC3 Mapper resulting in a 728kB ROM. Upgrade to MMC5 is not planned, cause Editroid doesn't support it.
So yes, space can be a problem.

With everything you've been doing I figured it was getting to the upper limits like 512Kish, but 729K? WOW! Isn't the MMC3 limit 768K?

[Mindflower]

With everything you've been doing I figured it was getting to the upper limits like 512Kish, but 729K? WOW! Isn't the MMC3 limit 768K?

Right that's what i meant, the actual file size of the resulting nes-file is 728kB.

[lexluthermiester]

Right that's what i meant, the actual file size of the resulting nes-file is 728kB.

Ah, I see. That's leaving you just 40K left to work with. However, if you think about it, the whole of SMB1 fit into 40k, so relatively speaking that is still a solid amount of space left.

[ultimaweapon]

Every time I see your updates Mindflower, I'm blown away by your work. I'm waiting for this hack more than any other out there.

[Mindflower]

just a quick update,
desert has gotten worked on.

[Mindflower]

Time to breath some fresh air into this forum thread.
It's a desert update again!
There are many things that got worked on extensively, bg tiles, parallax scrolling, enemy and Samus sprites and overall polish.
https://youtu.be/YSwf_qv93MI


Also the team and followship behind Space Complex recently gained some momentum, which is really nice and (sometimes) overwhelming at the same time.
Most things focus on the discord to be honest.
https://discord.gg/UhRqEJs

Cheers.

[Vanya]

That is looking slick!

[Dreamwhale]

Time to breath some fresh air into this forum thread.
It's a desert update again!
There are many things that got worked on extensively, bg tiles, parallax scrolling, enemy and Samus sprites and overall polish.
https://youtu.be/YSwf_qv93MI


Also the team and followship behind Space Complex recently gained some momentum, which is really nice and (sometimes) overwhelming at the same time.
Most things focus on the discord to be honest.
https://discord.gg/UhRqEJs

Cheers.

This looks amazing! Rarely have I seen NES graphics looking as detailled and organic as yours. The updated sky is a significant improvement, imo.

For the sake of readability: Have you considered making the interactive and non-interactive dunes more distinct? At the moment I sometimes find it hard to quickly discern which ones you can land/walk on - even though I "rationally" know it's always the lowest one, my direct perception sometimes is conflicted. Maybe you could make the non-interactive ones less detailed/lighter or darker (e.g. removing the highlights)/more interrupted outlines at intersections etc.?

edit: I've made a quick mock-up, but I've got no idea how to upload it 

[StarWyvern]

 Buntyhunters: etroid, the lost M 

[Mindflower]

This looks amazing! Rarely have I seen NES graphics looking as detailled and organic as yours. The updated sky is a significant improvement, imo.

For the sake of readability: Have you considered making the interactive and non-interactive dunes more distinct? At the moment I sometimes find it hard to quickly discern which ones you can land/walk on - even though I "rationally" know it's always the lowest one, my direct perception sometimes is conflicted. Maybe you could make the non-interactive ones less detailed/lighter or darker (e.g. removing the highlights)/more interrupted outlines at intersections etc.?

edit: I've made a quick mock-up, but I've got no idea how to upload it 

You made some points. My initial thought is that i use the darkest brown shade ONLY for the walkable dunes you can stand on to make them stand out from the rest.
I used the same dune-outline tiles for the fg and bg dunes to efficiently save on CHR space.
So i will think of some more solution to make them easily visually separate even more.

I would love to see your proposal aka your picture edit. Do you have a discord account, this would be the easiest way to share pictures.
or maybe do some quick mediafire - upload.

Greets.


Overall glad you like this, it did eat time and effort beyond belief to do it.

[scarlet]

This looks and sounds *amazing*.  Wow. 

Are the songs your original work or are they 8-bit versions of other songs?  They're beautiful.

[Mindflower]

This looks and sounds *amazing*.  Wow. 

Are the songs your original work or are they 8-bit versions of other songs?  They're beautiful.

Thanks for the props Scarlet! The songs are entirely original compositions from me.
You can find the entire Proto-OST of Metroid: Space Complex on my mediafire.
Cheers

[ultimaweapon]

I agree with making the walkable dunes darker and have it lighten up. Your soundtrack is awesome too.