Proto:Metroid Fusion/0911 Prototype

The 0911 prototype of Metroid Fusion is European in origin.

Intro and Title Screen
HwZw4zTWWqg The intro to the game is mostly the same. The only difference is that there is beeping heard during the the intro. The title screen contains a date and time in the top-left corner which reads 0911 10:23. This is most likely the build date for this ROM which can be read as mm/dd and time so this ROM was built on September 11 at 10:23 AM.

There is a slight ambiguity to what year the ROM was built, but considering how similar it is to the retail version (and considering the copyright date) the year is likely 2002. (For comparison, the final European version of the ROM was released on November 22, 2002.)

Unused Text
Text that goes unused for one reason or another. They are listed by the address in the ROM they appear at.

Debug Text
PAUSE STOPGRADATION BD W-BCIRCLE Test POWER BOMB A1 POWER BOMB A2 POWER BOMB B The text displayed here is surrounded by other text that is used by this prototype's debug config menu. This suggests that this text was once a part of that menu. It isn't known in specific detail what each option was suppose to test. Their names only give a general sense to what their purpose was for. That excludes the second string since who knows what that string even means in a general sense. It isn't known if they can be loaded back into the debug config menu and, even if they can, it isn't known if there is any functionality left to these options.

Text During Gameplay
Ice effect added to beam. Use beam to freeze enemies. Text for when the Ice Beam is acquired. All the abilities acquired are accompanied with text about the ability except the Ice Beam. This isn't too surprising since the Ice Beam is the last ability to be recovered in the game and, under normal conditions, its ability to freeze enemies goes unused since the Omega Metroid is the only enemy you use it against and it cannot be frozen.

Uplink to Adam? Yes No An interesting piece of text that is located right after the text "Save Data? Yes No". Since this unused text is found right after, it suggests that, in earlier versions of the game, talking to Adam was confirmed or denied using a similar textbox that the "Save Data" text appears in. In earlier prototypes, standing on the button in the Navigation Room might have brought up this text similar to how the "Save Data" text appears when Samus stands on a save pad. In the final (and this prototype) version, Adam asks if you want to confirm the mission objective which will either give you a full briefing on the mission objective or a very short summary.

and Weapons system resupply complete. Energy tank recharge complete. These two pieces of text reconfirm what was established in the final ROM about how some recharge stations would only refuel weapons or energy. They are still unused in this prototype.

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Line 1 Line 2 Looks like test or placeholder text that would have been used for the objective on the map screen.

Adam's Script
,, , and Target eradicated Empty Demo use Diffusion Missiles: Not used Not used These pieces of text appear throughout the areas of Adam's script and are not used in normal gameplay. These can be seen by trying to talk to Adam in Navigation Rooms you are not suppose to be in or when you are not suppose to talk to Adam during an event.

Lady what are you doing!? To the Operations Room! This should have been used when Adam instructs Samus to change the orbit of the B.S.L but it goes unused.

Not much time before the station impacts SR388. Get out of there. Hurry, get out of there! This piece of text should be used after Samus changes the orbit of the B.S.L. In the final (and this prototype), however, after Samus changes the orbit, it is impossible to uplink to Adam during normal gameplay. It can be seen by changing the event to 104 while in a Navigation Room. The first two sentences are displayed if you confirm the mission objective while the last sentence is displayed if you don't confirm the mission objective.

Boss Graphics
These are minor aesthetics that the bosses in this prototype lack that really don't affect how the battles are fought. B.O.X. Security Robot:

When fighting the Security Robot in Sector 6, the graphics for the brain of the bot that come out just before it transforms into a Core-X are different. What is strange is that the graphics for the brain that are in the final US version are actually loaded into memory in the prototype but they aren't displayed.

Boss Palettes:

In the final version of the game, a lot of the bosses change their color palettes as they take damage to show that they are taking damage. In this prototype, not all the bosses do this. Some examples include Neo-Ridley and the Omega Metroid. There are probably others as well.

Room Palette Changes
Main Boiler Room

The palette of the platforms were changed from a red color to an orange color.

Yakuza's Room

Yakuza's room had its background changed from a purple to a bluish color.

Ridley's Room

The background is redder in the final version.

Other Changes
Ship Interior:

The background image while in Samus' ship was changed between the prototype and final.

Operations Room:

When changing the orbit of the B.S.L station near the end of the game, the prototype text states that you have 10 minutes to escape even though the timer is set for 3 minutes. While the final fixes this text, there are unused clips in this prototype of the voice over the intercom counting down the minutes starting from 10.

Level 4 Lock Sprite

These are images of the spites that appear on the map/start menu that indicate whether or not the Level 4 security locks have been open. They are blown up here to show off the minor, but present difference, between the proto and final versions. The main difference is the pixels on the left side of the 4. In the early LOCK sprite, some pixels are red, while in the final LOCK sprite, they are black. In the early OPEN sprite, the pixels are a solid shade of red while in the the final sprite, there are two shades of red.

Main Deck
This is the room that precedes the data room where you acquire missiles, and is the same room where you fight the SA-X. This is just a simple aesthetic change.

This is the room the SA-X comes out of when you go down the main elevator shaft. The prototype version contains a Missile Tank like the final, but it was already collected in the picture. In the prototype, you get the Missile Tank by shinesparking through the wall in the middle.

The change that was made here was the floor was raised on the right side, which makes obtaining the Missile Tank easier since all you need to do is speed boost through the middle wall. No shinespark required.

Sector 1
This is the room right before the Fake Chozo Statue where you obtain the Charge Beam. The change here is that the metal pillar that sticks out is absent in the final for fairly-obvious reasons: in the Fake Chozo Statue room, there is an Energy Tank that is directly above (in the ceiling) where the Fake Chozo Statue sits. To obtain it, you are supposed to shinespark up from where the Chozo Statue sits.

The idea would be to use the metal pillar to build up speed to shinespark, but the problem is that you just barely have enough room to shinespark and obtain the Energy Tank using the pillar. The other reason why it was removed is that a nearby Power Bomb Tank one room away requires that you shinespark to obtain it. For that tank, however, there is plenty of room to do so and it is close enough to the Fake Chozo Statue room that it makes the metal pillar redundant.

Sector 2
A room that is located after obtaining Bomb data but before the boss Zazabi. A simple puzzle element was removed here. What you are suppose to do is morph ball into the little crevasse and drop a bomb. When it explodes, the metal pillar will pop out and allow you to continue on.

Sector 3
This hidden room is just before the security room that unlocks Level 2 (green) hatches. The change here is aesthetic: the left wall in the prototype contains a ladder that is revealed when bombed, whereas in the final it is replaced with a ledge. This might have been done because the ladder looks a little awkward next to the breakable blocks leading into the hidden room.

A Missile Tank is also in the prototype room, but was already collected in the picture.

This is a room near the beginning of Sector 3 that is past a long, hot hallway with lava. The layout of the puzzle to obtain an Energy Tank is different, albeit just an aesthetic difference. The Energy Tank was already obtained in the prototype.

Unused Rooms
Rooms that are normally unreachable in the final version of the ROM are easily accessible in this prototype version of the ROM. They can be accessed by using Selection menu under the Debug Config menu. They are listed by the Sector and Entry Point they can be accessed from the Selection menu.

Zombie Hangar Room
Main Deck h 3 g 5: This is the same version of the room found unused in the final ROM which is still unused here.

Alternate Ridley-X Boss Room
Sector One h 54 g 114: This is the same version of the room found unused in the final ROM which is still unused here.

Early Yakuza Boss Room
Main Deck h 54 g 120: This boss room is present in the final ROM and this ROM. It was first accessed using this version of the ROM, however. The interesting thing to note is how different the room is from the final version. First off, the tiles used for the room match the tiles of the preceding rooms. The second thing to note is that the room us much shorter than its final counterpart. Of the two exits, only the door on the right works. A video of this room is shown below.

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X Rally Points
An X rally point is an object, usually unseen, that floats around in most rooms that have enemies in them. When an enemy is destroyed, X parasites become free. The X parasites will then move to the X rally point and orbit the object for a little while while before leaving the screen completely. When the game is loaded from the debug config menu, X rally points become visible in game by using the graphics for normal bombs. The rally points have a few different types of movement. Some of them will bounce around a room, being deflected by walls. Some of them will hover around in one particular vicinity. Some of them stay in absolutely one position. As seen in the proto video for Nightmare below, Core-X will move to the rally points that stay in one position.

Unused Rally Points
Some rooms have rally points with no enemies in them which means they go unused in normal gameplay. There could be a number of reasons why they go unused. Rooms that have them may have once had enemies and when the enemies were removed, the rally points were left and forgotten about. They could have also been placed with the intention of enemies appearing in a room, but enemies were never placed.

Main Deck



This long hallway is the first part of the Main Deck right after leaving the Docking Bays.



This is a hidden room with an Energy Tank. It can be found right before first boss of the game, Arachnus.

Sector One



This room is found near the beginning of the sector. The room contains a hidden Power Bomb Tank which is obtainable with Screw Attack. This room also links up to Sector Two.

Sector Two



This room is found past the data room where you acquire Normal Bombs.

Security Robot (First Encounter)
In both versions of the game, the Security Robot shoots out grenades which will create walls of fire. In this prototype, it is possible to destroy these grenades with missiles. This feature was removed from the final version.

Mega Core-X
In the final version of the game, the Mega Core-X is surrounded and orbited by smaller "minions" of itself. In this prototype, they are absent. Interestingly the graphics for these "minions" aren't loaded into memory in the prototype. Unless they are just buried somewhere in the ROM, this shows that they were added last minute.

Nightmare
At this point in development, Nightmare is almost a fully-functioning boss, but there are a number of differences:
 * Nightmare doesn't make any sounds whatsoever.
 * No boss music plays.
 * When Nightmare manipulates gravity, Samus' missiles are unaffected. In the final, missiles are pulled to the ground the second Samus fires them, which makes it impossible to use them efficiently during the battle. Samus still can't space jump, however.
 * When Samus' suit transforms from Varia to Gravity, a beep (also heard in this build when the Varia Suit is acquired) plays.

SA-X
In this version of the game, the SA-X can take 20 charge beam shots before it transforms into its second form. In the final version, it can only take 16 shots. The attack pattern of the SA-X was slightly changed between this proto and the final. In this proto, when the SA-X takes damage, it will always screw attack in an arc towards Samus. Once you know that attack pattern, it is pretty easy to dodge by walking under it. In the final version of the game, the SA-X will do this but it will also screw attack in the horizontal direction towards Samus. During the battle in the prototype, there is a bunch of placeholder music/sound effects used.

Unused Music and Sounds
Using the Sound menu in the Debug Config, it is possible to find these unused sounds and tracks in the game. They are named after the number at which they are accessed from the sound menu.

Music Beeps and Boops
A lot of the music in the sound test are beeps and boops. Some of them are used in the prototype as placeholders.

021

This is used as placeholder music when the SA-X is present in the room but isn't chasing when you first meet it.

081

This "music" is used when you fight the SA-X right before Samus changes the orbit of the B.S.L.

082

Found in the final version and in this proto.

096

Used for the intro of the title screen in this proto.

Real Music
Music that is more than just beeps and boops.

001

This piece of music doesn't sound like any other track heard in the game. Given its rather messy nature, it's possible that it no longer maps to the correct instruments.

031

This track sounds very similar to two tracks that are used in game but there are differences. Essentially it is a combination of track 30 and 43 which are used in the game.

056

This track is very close to what is heard in the final version. It is used in this prototype after Samus changes the orbit of the B.S.L. What makes it different from its final counterpart is that there is a beeping siren heard in the background. In the final, that beeping is absent.

062

Another unused track that is similar to the used track 60 but remains distinct. It would have most likely been used when Samus was exploring the lower part of Sector 4 after defeating Nightmare.

085

Both these tracks are of the latter part of the credits music which is track 085 in the sound test menu of the prototype. These parts of the credit music are played when the player reaches the achievements screen showing playtime and the rate of collected items. They are almost the same except at about 30 seconds for each track. The final sounds more satisfying. It should be noted that, in the prototype, no other music plays after track 085 is finished while ambient music does play in the final.

094

Found in the final as well as this proto. It is still unused here.

Voice Over Intercom
Unauthorized Entry, 711

This sound is found next to sounds that are used when Samus tries to enter (or is already inside) the Restricted Lab. It repeats over and over again and may have been intended to be used when Samus gets past the gate into the Restricted Lab.

10 Minutes to Destination, 731

9 Minutes to Destination, 732

8 Minutes to Destination, 733

7 Minutes to Destination, 734

6 Minutes to Destination, 735

5 Minutes to Destination, 736

4 Minutes to Destination, 737

3 Minutes to Destination, 738

These group of sounds should have been used after Samus changes the orbit of the B.S.L but the timer is set to 3 minutes, not 10 minutes.

Debug Config
oR6YIrF6Phg A debug menu can be accessed by holding the B button and pressing L when the game is showing the intro before the file select screen. This is what will appear afterwards. This menu contains six options:
 * SECTION
 * SAMUS
 * BLDCNT
 * SCROLL
 * Sound
 * DEMO
 * etc
 * RESET

SECTION


This section contains a bunch of options of where to start the game from. Choosing an option in the left column will start Samus off somewhere inside the B.S.L research station. Starting from the top, ステーション (Station) is the main deck, SR388 is sector 1, ネッタイ (Tropics) is sector 2 and so forth. Choosing the column on the right will load a test room, the title screen or a save game. TEST 0 and 1 are identical to each other, while TEST 2 has slight differences. Pressing the SELECT button will bring up a mini menu that says h # g # and it allows to start from any entry point in the game. It can be used to access all rooms in the game, used or unused.

If the game is started through this menu, a free movement mode becomes available. It is activated by holding L + R, followed by pressing Select. Samus can now be moved around the room freely using the D-pad; movement is also sped up if R is held. Pressing Start will force the game to keep Samus in the center of the screen regardless of how the camera is suppose to move in a room. The mode is disabled by pressing Select again.

Samus


KeyLevel: This option will unlock door hatches. For example, setting the value to 3 would unlock all doors up to and including Level 3. Interestingly, you can set this value all the way up to 7.

GetMap: This option has seven spaces. Setting one of the spaces to an O will give map data for one of the sectors in the B.S.L. Setting it to a - will not display the map data for a sector.

H-SHOT and ナナメ -SHOT (Diagonal-shot): This option can either be set to the L or R Button. Essentially it just switches the L and R button for gameplay. Gameplay wise this would mean that you can point at an angle using the R button and fire missiles with the L button.

 マップ (Map) and ミサイル (Missile): Similar as above, this will switch the select and start buttons with each other.

BLDCNT


It isn't know specifically what every option does on this screen but they seem to change the transparency of objects such as water or heat effects.

SCROLL


This menu has two options of how to scroll the screen while Samus is moving. The two options are Center and FrontWide A.

Center:



This option will keep Samus in the center of the screen while she is moving left and right.

FrontWide A:



This option will scroll the screen so that Samus is more to the edge of the screen so that more of what is ahead of her is displayed. It can be slightly awkward to use, especially if the player constantly moves left and right since the camera will shift all over the place to adjust for this.

Sound


This is a sound test. The first option, BGM, will turn the background music on and off in game. The second option sets the music to monoaural ( モノラル ) or stereo ( ステレオ ). The last option lets you test all the music and sound effects in the game. Values 0 through 99 are all music and sound tracks. From 99 up to 744 are sound effects, while anything over this is blank. Pressing A or R will play the selected track while pressing L will stop the selected track.

Demo


The first option is DEMO SW. It isn’t known what this option does yet. The next two options will play cutscenes during normal gameplay. The last two options will play demos that are shown during the intro screen. The オートデモMODE (Auto-Demo Mode) option can be set from 0 to 3. Setting it to 0 will let you freely play whatever demo in オートデモNUM (Auto-Demo Number) is selected as if it were a save file. Setting 1 is almost the same as setting 0 except pressing start will bring back the title screen. Option 2 and 3 seem to play the demo like normal. The オートデモNUM option can go from values 1 to C.

etc


This menu has 4 options.

Main-End OBJ:



This option is normally set to OFF when the Debug Config menu is started. Turning it to ON and starting the game reveals that it is used to show game and audio activity during gameplay as shown in the screenshot above. There are three sprites, one on the left side of the screen and two on the right, that only appear when this mode is turned ON. The left sprite is of Samus' missile count and the right sprites are of Samus' energy meter. All sprites stick to their respective sides of the screen and only move up and down. The more game or audio activity there is, the farther down the screen the sprites will move. The left sprite represents game activity and the two sprites on the right represent audio activity. The upper of the two sprites on the right show the current audio activity and the bottom one shows the highest audio activity level yet.

Game Effect:

Unknown. This option is normally set to ON when the Debug Config is started.

Map Scan L-R:

Unknown. This option is normally set to OFF when the Debug Config is started.

STAFF ROLL:

This amazing option runs the credits.

Reset


This will clear all save data when selected.