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Super Metroid (100%) TAS by JXQ

Essentials:
This run satisfies the following criteria:
  • 100% item collection
  • Aims for fastest time
  • Takes damage to save time
  • Abuses programming errors
  • Manipulates luck
  • Emulator Used: SNES9x 1.43 +v9
    • Use WIP1 Timing - on
    • Allow Left+Right/Up+Down - off
    • Volume Envelope Height Reading - off
    • Fake Mute desync Workaround - off
    • Sync samples with sound CPU - off
Overview:
Super Metroid is probably my favorite game of all time. Back in its prime, I would play it on the SNES, trying to design a route to the fastest 100% completion. (Back then, "fast" was something like 1 hour 45 minutes game time...shame) TASing this game was the big rock I never knew I could climb, but I did it, and I'm very happy with how it turned out!
This run was attempted almost a year ago by Michael Flatley, and it was the first in-progress run I followed on the forums here at Nesvideos. About a third of the way into the run, Michael unfortunately abandoned the project. However, were it not for his efforts, several of the ideas and tricks here would not have been realized at this time.
Tool-assisted or not, this game has a huge variety of sequence breaks and glitches to exploit in the interest of getting the fastest time. I have put together some information on the Super Metroid tricks page that explains how many of the frame-precise techniques work for this game, and a few of the other glitches that may not be obvious at first glance.
Details:
First of all, this game has an in-game timer that runs only during actual playing sequences (and a few other unusual spots). This is handy for console speedrunners of this game, but I don't believe it's necessary in a TAS, so I instead optimized to overall movie length. Because of the rules of the in-game timer, there are certain situations that could be done differently in order to lower the in-game time at the expense of a longer movie length.
I spent a long time planning a route and testing things before really starting the run. I studied several of the console and tool-assisted speedruns for route ideas and strategies, and ended up with my own unique route that takes advantage of things like being able to manipulate the items dropped by enemies. I have a good amount of confidence in this route; I'd be surprised if it could be improved more than a little bit.
The rules of Samus's movement had to be re-learned each time I got an item that changed something about her movement. The Morph Ball, Speed Booster, Space Jump, and Spring Ball all affected what strategy was optimal in a given environment. This makes for a varying style of play as the run goes on, which helps keeps things entertaining throughout.
Although I did optimize this run pretty tightly (I gained over fifteen seconds on Michael Flatley's progress by the time I caught up to him), it's definitely improvable. This game is very difficult to fully optimize, and I'm sure I didn't find everything there is to find, not by a longshot. I would estimate this run could be improved by 15-30 seconds.
This run's in-game timer ends with 39 minutes, 55 seconds and 22 frames. (The in-game timer can be viewed in memory more accurately than the displayed final time.) Since the seconds are so close to the next minute, I would also estimate that time shown at the end cannot be improved to 00:38.
Suggested Description & Screenshot:
In accordance with standard procedure, Samus discarded all of the items she collected on previous adventures before embarking on this one. This run aims for 100% item collection in the fastest time.
Super Metroid has a wide variety of time-saving glitches to exploit, many of which are explained on the Super Metroid Tricks page.
Suggested Screenshot - Frame 187172
Thanks to…
  • Michael Flatley, for his important discoveries and partial progress.
  • Graveworm, for helping me learn the basics of the game and giving me seemingly impossible goals to aim for.
  • Nitsuja, for the invaluable improvements in SNES9x 1.43+ v9.
  • OmnipotentEntity, Saturn, and Truncated for watching my progress closely and giving helpful feedback and encouragement.
  • Angerfist, Fabian, Highness, Kaz, Nach, Bablo, Kyrsimys, OgreSlayeR, Baxter, Guybrush, moozooh, Gorling, Zurreco, xou, Fredrik, yarbles, Torgen, Atma, Oddity, and MANY others for giving me all sorts of extra encouragement. I feel like I had an army backing me on this run!
Enjoy the run!
Spittin' so much fire, I wear a Varia Suit - JXQ
Edit: To those of you who like to see the animals get saved, I've done an alternate run that simply re-does the last few rooms of the escape. You can find it here.
Bisqwit: Amazing … mobility. Accepted without doubt.

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Posted: 6/25/2006 5:10 PM
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Graveworm
Former player
Joined: 9/29/2005
Posts: 460
Can't really remember how it went when I tested this, but is there anything that could make the Phantoon -> Ridley -> Kraid -> Draygon route faster than just doing it in the intended order? Also, you'd only waste a couple of frames waiting for Botwoon to die, wouldn't you?
Posted: 6/25/2006 6:00 PM
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Saturn
Player (206)
Joined: 2/18/2005
Posts: 1451
Graveworm wrote:
Can't really remember how it went when I tested this, but is there anything that could make the Phantoon -> Ridley -> Kraid -> Draygon route faster than just doing it in the intended order? Also, you'd only waste a couple of frames waiting for Botwoon to die, wouldn't you?
Yes, maybe 10 - 20 frames would suffice to trigger Botwoons death in the room so it's not a big problem anyway. You just have to keep this in mind when fighting him. And about the route, Phantoon first appeared to me slightly faster at the end mostly because you have to add a nice speedup in the late Kraids lair (speedbooster) and the faster pass of the green bubble room (power bomb) to go down after the items instead of bombing yourself through the morph ball maze. I gained around 5 sec at the end but my tests weren't 100% optimized so the results may vary in some frames. I'm not sure though whether Ridley or Draygon last is faster. Fact is in Draygon last you gain very much time in the route but lose alot of time on bosses without Plasma. If you want Plasma go Ridley last. I still don't know for sure which route is the fastest after Phantoon so this needs to be tested. I'm sure though that both routes will be very close in time so it probably wouldn't matter on the ingame timer anyway.
See my perfect 100% movie-walkthroughs of the best RPG games on http://www.freewebs.com/saturnsmovies/index.htm Current TAS project (with new videos): Super Metroid Redesign, any% speedrun
Posted: 6/25/2006 6:15 PM
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Graveworm
Former player
Joined: 9/29/2005
Posts: 460
Most of the time not having plasma is lost in the mother brain battle and Ridley battle. Also, if the plasma beam is skipped, could you gain some time from having more special weapons, like more Super Missiles or something like that? I don't know if it's possible to get any that could help save time in the Ridley battle, but maybe with Ridley + Mother brain, some Super Missiles could be taken to save time. Also, how much time is saved going, Ridley's liar -> Maridia -> Crateria -> Tourian, compared to Maridia -> Ridley's lair -> Tourian? For the Kraid's lair late thing, that's of course nice, but there's only one room, (two visits) in which there's going to be a big time difference , right? (Could Plasma beam hurt Kraid? I've never gotten around to try, but I have vague memories of reading that it didn't.) It also takes about 30 seconds, (I think, can't remember) to get the Spazer, which will most certainly be wanted if there's no plasma available for Ridley, or you might be able to pick up an extra pack of Power bombs somewhere, and use 5 special attacks with Wave only on Ridley, and get the Ice beam on the way to Draygon after Ridley. (Which will lose even more time.) The difference between the routes might not be that big, even though there's probably something I've missed. I'd very much like to continue discussing routes with you, so I hope we can come up with something new and fast.
Posted: 6/25/2006 7:35 PM
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Saturn
Player (206)
Joined: 2/18/2005
Posts: 1451
First to let you know, I am comparing in ingame time only. Without Plasma (assuming you have 15 Supers) you lose around 20 sec on Ridley and 40 sec on mother. I don't think there is any super that are worth the take even for both bosses. If doing Ridley first you save time especially on the norfair elevator in both directions and this save is almost similar to the loss in the Ridley fight. If doing Ridley first it's best to take the Ice Beam right after entering Norfair first time and exit the room by using the Norfair Gate Hater trick (see a demo-smv here), then get HJ Boots, speed and wave and enter Ridleys lair. If skiping Plasma you should definitely collect the Spazer as well which btw is around 10 sec in delay not 30. About Kraids lair you're right with the route saves. Plasma hurts Kraid as well and if shooting a charged Plasma as soon as possible followed by a Super you can kill him even 30 frames faster than the 1 missile + 3 supers method! If the in game timer will be the same in both routes I would take Draygon first (Plasma route) for the sake of entertainment since its much better to see you run through more rooms than to spend alot of time on the bosses, however if aiming for real time like JXQ did, I'm pretty sure that Ridley first would be faster because of much less room transitions.
See my perfect 100% movie-walkthroughs of the best RPG games on http://www.freewebs.com/saturnsmovies/index.htm Current TAS project (with new videos): Super Metroid Redesign, any% speedrun
Posted: 6/25/2006 8:22 PM
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Graveworm
Former player
Joined: 9/29/2005
Posts: 460
Saturn wrote:
First to let you know, I am comparing in ingame time only.
And I don't. :)
Saturn wrote:
Without Plasma (assuming you have 15 Supers) you lose around 20 sec on Ridley and 40 sec on mother. I don't think there is any super that are worth the take even for both bosses.
If you're killing Ridley before Draygon, you wont have 15 super missiles here, sadly enough.
Saturn wrote:
If doing Ridley first you save time especially on the norfair elevator in both directions and this save is almost similar to the loss in the Ridley fight. If doing Ridley first it's best to take the Ice Beam right after entering Norfair first time and exit the room by using the Norfair Gate Hater trick (see a demo-smv here), then get HJ Boots, speed and wave and enter Ridleys lair. If skiping Plasma you should definitely collect the Spazer as well which btw is around 10 sec in delay not 30.
I was thinking about getting Ice beam when going back up because then one wouldn't have to switch on and off if using power bomb combos, but you'd probably have Spazer at those points, so that wouldn't matter anyway. (Didn't think of that, so Ice should probably be taken the way you did in your movie. By the way, I've done a movie that looks almost exactly the same, it's pretty fun.) About getting Spazer, I'm probably wrong, I couldn't remember how much time would be lost, but it's more than 10 seconds, maybe 10 seconds in game, (I think it's less) but a bit more with item pickup and another 2 door transitions.
Saturn wrote:
If the in game timer will be the same in both routes I would take Draygon first (Plasma route) for the sake of entertainment since its much better to see you run through more rooms than to spend alot of time on the bosses, however if aiming for real time like JXQ did, I'm pretty sure that Ridley first would be faster because of much less room transitions.
Considering the bosses in this game is so easy, fighting with less weapons and making it look a bit harder would probably be more entertaining than going there with plasma and killing the second last boss in 20 seconds. (40 seconds isn't much better, but it's one step in the right direction.)
Posted: 6/26/2006 12:32 AM
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Saturn
Player (206)
Joined: 2/18/2005
Posts: 1451
Graveworm wrote:
Saturn wrote:
First to let you know, I am comparing in ingame time only.
And I don't. :)
I just focus on the real game speed you can see not on the speed of room transitions as they are different depending on how you enter them. In some cases the transition would be faster if you enter it some frames later doing a different move (like when JXQ skiped the mockball to sacrifice a frame when entering the spazer room for a faster transition and there are sure other cases) which is out of question for me.
Graveworm wrote:
If you're killing Ridley before Draygon, you wont have 15 super missiles here, sadly enough.
In this case I considered to take the 2nd hidden Super in Wrecked Ship and skip the one in Maridia which exceptionally is worth here.
Graveworm wrote:
I was thinking about getting Ice beam when going back up because then one wouldn't have to switch on and off if using power bomb combos, but you'd probably have Spazer at those points, so that wouldn't matter anyway.
If collecting 5 Power bombs you will only have one or even none for the Ridley fight if not slowing down to recollect them. And even if you would get all 5 PB charged shots in you would still lose much more time for the rest of his HP if not having Ice and Spazer. Wave alone is twice as weak than Wave/Spazer/Ice which makes the fight 20 whole sec longer.
Graveworm wrote:
Considering the bosses in this game is so easy, fighting with less weapons and making it look a bit harder would probably be more entertaining than going there with plasma and killing the second last boss in 20 seconds. (40 seconds isn't much better, but it's one step in the right direction.)
The bosses must be owned in order to make a greater impression for the watcher. If standing on a point and shooting all the way in the same direction (like against Mother) a whole minute long then this is a sure fast forward part. Instead showing more action and going detours for the same end-time is a much better choice IMO. EDIT: btw: here is a AVI demo of the Botwoon technical skip I mainly did for those who can't handle Snes9x and playback smvs. I simply used JXQ's Botwoon fight and mixed in my own input to return to the room again: http://rapidshare.de/files/24116505/Super_Metroid_-_Botwoon_Skip.avi.html
See my perfect 100% movie-walkthroughs of the best RPG games on http://www.freewebs.com/saturnsmovies/index.htm Current TAS project (with new videos): Super Metroid Redesign, any% speedrun
Posted: 9/8/2006 1:06 PM
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SpiDeY
Joined: 11/29/2005
Posts: 317
Location: Sao Paulo - Brazil
I've been hearing of this game since I had a SNES. For a unknown reason, I had never played it. Some days ago I got the ROM, and started playing. Simply addictive. But viewing this movie after finishing the game myself (6 hours game time/54% LOL) , with everything fresh in my head was a unique sensation. My face went to WTF not only every time you used a trick, but also every time you got an item. "Oh, there is an item there!!" I was saying to myself. This was for sure one of the best TASes I've ever seen. A classic, a masterpiece. Congrats JXQ :)
Posted: 9/9/2006 6:45 AM
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JXQ
Experienced player (761)
Joined: 5/6/2005
Posts: 3132
NES TAS of 2008 Speedy TAS of 2008 SNES TASer of 2007 TAS of 2007 SNES TAS of 2007 Funny TAS of 2007
Thanks SpiDeY, I'm glad you enjoyed the run, and more importantly, enjoyed the game! I think it's one of the most well-designed platformers out there. I also just realized that Fabian's prediction has come true. :) I think I owe him some moon sheckles. I don't remember the terms, or if this was the correct bet, or if there even was a bet.
<Swordless> Go hug a tree, you vegetarian (I bet you really are one)
Posted: 9/9/2006 3:26 PM
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Heisanevilgenius
Active player (407)
Joined: 3/22/2006
Posts: 708
Funny TAS of 2009 Innovative TAS of 2009
Yeah. Super Metroid has to be my favourite game of all time. I remember when I first played it, I borrowed it from a friend and it wasn't even his. He had borrowed it from his friend. A lot of borrowing was going around. After I played it once, I was instantly addicted and played it about ten times in a row, trying to beat my previous time and still get a high item percentage. Eventually I was getting 96 to 98% in four hours before I finally returned it. Not exactly an impressive feat as far as speedruns go, but this was a day or two after playing it for the first time. Love the atmosphere. That's what makes the game what it is.
Posted: 9/11/2006 2:50 PM
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Fihlvein
He/Him
Joined: 7/28/2004
Posts: 135
Location: Finland Realms
Take Super Metroid, one of the best games all time and give it to JXQ and the result is this. Just fantastic.
Posted: 9/23/2006 2:59 AM
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JXQ
Experienced player (761)
Joined: 5/6/2005
Posts: 3132
NES TAS of 2008 Speedy TAS of 2008 SNES TASer of 2007 TAS of 2007 SNES TAS of 2007 Funny TAS of 2007
Thanks guys! I hope to do a version 2 of this run somewhat soon, after I get a couple other projects completed (and started, heh). Although I don't think I could improve the in-game timer, it definitely would still be noticeable in the finished product.
<Swordless> Go hug a tree, you vegetarian (I bet you really are one)
Posted: 9/23/2006 7:38 AM
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Saturn
Player (206)
Joined: 2/18/2005
Posts: 1451
Well JXQ, are you sure v2 is worth all the effort if you can't improve the in-game timer? I dare to say it's possible at least. Maybe by analyzing the route which could be faster in-game on costs of realtime like defeating Crocomire with Plasma and geting Springball with the Ice Beam glitch etc. After the Grapple Beam for example you would save much more frames if Space Jumping to the Missile in the big room instead of sacrificing time to charge a shinespark and then sacrificing more time by waiting for the cooldown after the shinespark crash. Though if aiming for realtime again I doubt it's possible to get 0:38.
See my perfect 100% movie-walkthroughs of the best RPG games on http://www.freewebs.com/saturnsmovies/index.htm Current TAS project (with new videos): Super Metroid Redesign, any% speedrun
Posted: 9/23/2006 12:30 PM
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JXQ
Experienced player (761)
Joined: 5/6/2005
Posts: 3132
NES TAS of 2008 Speedy TAS of 2008 SNES TASer of 2007 TAS of 2007 SNES TAS of 2007 Funny TAS of 2007
It's definitely an option worth considering (going for in-game time), especially now that we have the memory watcher to keep track of in-game time just like a frame counter. But personally it's not my instinctive choice. It's a pain, because in certain ways I'd like to go for real time and certain ways I'd like to go for in-game time. An example of going for in-game that I prefer is a door entrance that is very high on the screen (the entrance to the room before the speed booster is an example). The more the screen is moved up before entering the door, the more real time can be saved, because the game scrolls the door up to the middle very slowly once it's entered. But I didn't do this in my previous run because it looks sloppy. I also like that I could do more stunts during waiting scenes if I didn't have to worry about lag (and I could watch Crocomire boil). Examples of going for in-game that I don't like include things like switching off the hi-jump boots, the different way of getting the first set of missiles in Brinstar, and things that cause a lot of lag like using plasma on Crocomire. I'd have to do more testing like you said to see how likely it would be to lower the in-game timer by aiming for it first, and how likely it would be aiming for real game time. I also have to figure out how you are 2.5 seconds ahead of me :) But I do think it's worth the effort even if the in-game timer isn't improved. While it's neat to have a good time at the end, the fun of the run for me is the precision of the playing.
<Swordless> Go hug a tree, you vegetarian (I bet you really are one)
Posted: 11/10/2006 10:47 PM
(Edited: 11/10/2006 10:49 PM)
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AngerFist
Active player (437)
Joined: 4/21/2004
Posts: 3517
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
First edition TAS of 2015 Innovative TAS of 2007
Didnt you submit your run around Christmas last year? Didnt you say you were going to improve this run after when you had submitted your Castlevania run? Didnt you promise to return to this run by now? Didnt you? Didnt? P.Diddy?
Nitrogenesis wrote:
Guys I come from the DidyKnogRacist communite, and you are all wrong, tihs is the run of the mileniun and everyone who says otherwise dosnt know any bater! I found this run vary ease to masturbate too!!!! Don't fuck with me, I know this game so that mean I'm always right!StupedfackincommunityTASVideoz!!!!!!
Arc wrote:
I enjoyed this movie in which hands firmly gripping a shaft lead to balls deep in multiple holes.
natt wrote:
I don't want to get involved in this discussion, but as a point of fact C# is literally the first goddamn thing on that fucking page you linked did you even fucking read it
Cooljay wrote:
Mayor Haggar and Cody are such nice people for the community. Metro City's hospitals reached an all time new record of incoming patients due to their great efforts :P
Posted: 11/10/2006 10:48 PM
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Bablo
Player (224)
Joined: 10/17/2005
Posts: 399
Would be nice to see an improvement, indeed. I have watched this run a couple of times last days.
<adelikat> I've been quoted with worse
Posted: 11/10/2006 10:57 PM
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moozooh
Senior Moderator
Joined: 8/4/2005
Posts: 5777
Location: Away
AngerFist wrote:
Didnt you say you were going to improve this run after when you had submitted your Castlevania run?
http://tasvideos.org/JXQ.html The improvement is in the queue. :)
Warp wrote:
Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.
Posted: 11/10/2006 10:58 PM
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JXQ
Experienced player (761)
Joined: 5/6/2005
Posts: 3132
NES TAS of 2008 Speedy TAS of 2008 SNES TASer of 2007 TAS of 2007 SNES TAS of 2007 Funny TAS of 2007
Actually I started the route planning for the run last Christmas, and did the run from February to April. It's on my to-do list, there's just a couple entries before it. I'm hoping to start on it shortly after the end of 2006. Bad boy. Can't stop. Won't stop. Edit: No fair, Moozooh cut :(
<Swordless> Go hug a tree, you vegetarian (I bet you really are one)
Posted: 11/11/2006 12:56 PM
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Tub
Joined: 6/25/2005
Posts: 1377
JXQ wrote:
Bad boy. Can't stop. Won't stop.
ahh, that's the way we like you. here, have a treat! :p (reminds me to watch the run again..)
m00
Posted: 11/11/2006 2:32 PM
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Mukki
Skilled player (1099)
Joined: 8/26/2006
Posts: 1139
Location: United Kingdom
GBA TASer of 2012 GBA TAS of 2012 Lucky TAS of 2011 Gameboy TAS of 2011 N64 TASer of 2007
I actually only watched the run for the first time yesterday. I wanted to post a little congrats to JXQ but didn't want to commit the sin of reviving an old topic. Ironically, Angerfist took care of this the very next day. I would just like to say that i thoroughly enjoyed this run. I was skeptical at first as to whether a 01:13:10 run of a game i have never played (yet i have played the others) could hold my attention for so long. I was most pleasantly surprised as most unfamiliar runs bore me rather quickly. To sum up; brilliant work JXQ :)
http://tasvideos.org/Mukki.html
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