Thursday, November 16, 2006

Retro Games Metroid




The first game in the Metroid series, released initially for the Famicom Disk System on August 6, 1986, and later for the Nintendo Entertainment System in August, 1987.

Pirates have stolen a new life-form, recently discovered on the planet SR388. The life-form, called 'Metroid', is in a state of suspended animation, and according to analysis, was the cause of the complete destruction of SR388. Let loose, the alien could destroy countless other systems. You play as an androgynous figure called Samus Aran who must destroy the pirates and save the World.

Metroid provided one of the first nonlinear game experiences on a home console, five different endings ensured replayability. The endings vary depending on how much time the player takes to finish the game. Strangely the gender of the character is not revealed until the end of the game and only then if you finished within time. The two fastest endings feature Samus Aran in various stages of undress, with the fastest ending featuring Samus in a bikini.

The hidden worlds of Metroid (also called secret worlds or hidden zones) are part of gaming legend. These "secret" Worlds arose unintentionally from the way the game uses level data. As a result hidden room data is essentially random. This causes the hidden worlds to have certain strange properties. Notable amongst these are erratic scrolling and doors that lead into walls or worse still doors which lead nowhere, thereby freezing the map scrolling and trapping Samus.

The normal area of the game is 511 rooms. The total area of the hidden worlds is 1720 rooms, making a grand total of 2231 rooms. This means if you play the game without any knowledge of the hidden worlds the player will only explore about 23% of the total area of the game.

In the late 1990s, the Metroid Database's message board served as a forum for the largest known expedition to these glitch areas. Known as "The Great Secret World Hunt," hardcore Metroid fans used Door Jumps, Game Genies, and emulators to access more hidden areas than had ever been revealed before.

The most complete overview of the game including maps, posters, box art, walkthrough, music, folklore, fanart ad infinitum can be found on mdb (metroid database.)

Metroid on MDB

Clickable inkies

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

This was one of those special games I played as a youngster. I never owned a Nintendo console as a child (played at the neighbour's house), so every minute spent on the NES was well appreciated.

I did finally beat the game (tattered notebook full of scribbled passwords included).

Unknown said...

is it true you had to enter a password to save the game? never experienced any of the metroid titles... i've got a treat ahead of me

gnome said...

Now, THAT's what I call spam! Oh, and lovely post elderly... You know it is, dont you?

Unknown said...

...! (rubs his eyes.....) Gn.. Gnome


Gnome ....your back!!!!!!

Horraaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyy!

You've missed out on about 36 cups of teas.... fear not I've kept them all for you........ here ya go.....buddy!!

NSonic79 said...

I only played the original at a Sears demo station. But even when I got an NES I never got around to it.

I plan to make ammends with the Wii release. If you all haven't tried it yet then you are in for a treat.

Unknown said...

I plan on making amends too, for i should surely enter purgatory for half an eternity were i to leave this mortal coil and not have honoured the Metroid series in some way....

fatherkrishna said...

A wonderful review Elderly, how did I miss this one? All power to the retro gamer!

Unknown said...

Greetings Fatherkrishna, just got your email, I can well understand how something like that can get under your skin.....

Dunno how you missed this, but until recently it was only visible to Gnomes... which would explain it partly.....

(pours drop of the quare stuff for fatherkrishna....) get on the outside a that.....

Steven M. Liss said...

Loving Metroid the most of all the Nintnedo franchises growing up put me in a special place. I had friends who loved Zelda more but not so long ago there were only one, two, then three Metroid games in exixtance and each was progressively better than the last. It made the Metroid feel so special. Metroid prime was excellent but I can't help but feel Nintendo has whored out Metroid. Enjoy guys!!!!

Unknown said...

thanks for the comment Steven.... where did the screenshots on your blog come from... their ace..