Playthrough - メトロイド (Metroid) for Famicom Disk System on Analogue Nt Mini

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Nerdly Pleasures (Great Hierophant)

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Published on February 27, 2020 10:33:52 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RO481t2-Rz4

Game:

Metroid (1986)

Duration: 1:17:51

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I've always like the Metroid series since I was first introduced to the original NES game in 1988. In those days I played the NES version, but these days I prefer the original Japanese Famicom Disk System version for its improved sound and more challenging gameplay. Also, as the Analogue Nt Mini is going to be up for pre-order soon for one final run, I wanted to give people an opportunity of what they might expect when playing a game on that system.

Let's get the capturing out of the way. I am using the Nt Mini's HDMI output, which slows the system down slightly from 60.0988 to 60Hz to meet the official HDMI specifications. I am capturing at 720p and I've nearest neighbor upscaled the output to 1792x1344. I added top and bottom borders so Youtube will output this at 1440p, which I appreciate for its sharpness without the bloat that comes from 4K. The base resolution is 256x224 (cropped from 240 by 8 pixels on top and bottom using the Nt Mini's cropping function). The resulting pixel aspect ratio is 7:6, very close to the NES ideal of 8:7. I've used my Datapath VisionRGB for the capturing video and my motherboard's sound hardware to capture the audio. Any jerkiness in the capture probably comes from my capture method, I captured the vcs window via OBS rather than capturing the signal directly. The Nt Mini has a pair of RCA audio jacks that output in HDMI mode along with the audio transmitted via the HDMI cable.

The Nt Mini allows you to select any NES palette you prefer, and the one I have picked is one a friend of mine made. He started with an NTSC palette generator, removed "annoyances" and took some inspiration from the 2C03 RGB PPU so that games can have good colors regardless if they were primarily developed for the NTSC or RGB PPU.

Now to the hardware. I am using a FDS RAM Adapter and an FDSStick. Metroid is the only game on the FDSStick, so you won't see the file menu. I know some people have had issues with getting their FDS RAM Adapter working with their Nt Minis, but I have had owned two Nt Minis and my FDS RAM Adapter has not given me trouble with either system. I own the later revision of the FDS RAM Adapter. I took this copy of Metroid (v1.3) from a dump of the Famicom Classic Mini Console's software and converted it from the QD format into the FDS format via some surgical hex editing.

So onto the game. The intro text translates to "Urgent Orders : You must kill all the Metroids on Planet Zebes and Destroy the Strange Machine known only as Mother Brain! - Galactic Federation Police Unit M510" The game selection screen has "Please Select" above the box and "Registation" underneath the third Samus. The registration page has "Registration" above the first Samus and "Finished" undernear the third Samus. The kill mode page has kill "complete" underneath the third Samus. The loading screen with the blue text says "Loading" and the screen with the white text says "turn to side B/A". That's it for Japanese text.

The only loading times in Metroid FDS are when start a game, requiring you to turn the disk to Side B, when you go up and down elevators and once you escape Tourian, where you must turn the disk back to Side A. The NES game used password saves.

Some of the music uses the FDS sound channel and many of the sound effects use the FDS sound channel exclusively. I am using the FDS RAM adapter to generate the FDS sound channel. The NES version had to use its internal audio to generate all sound effects and music.

The FDS version is slightly more difficult than the NES version. Enemy patterns are more randomized in the FDS version for those enemies with non-set patterns. The Polyp enemies in Norfair, those pots that throw out the fireballs, can fling them out on both sides during one eruption and are more likely to be active than those in the NES version.

To get the best ending, you must beat the game within 2 hours in the FDS version (as opposed to 1 hour in the NES version). There is no ability to play as Armorless Samus in the FDS version, so the only evidence of your achievement are the money bags shown after you win the game. There are five endings, and you get 1 bag for the worst ending and 5 for the best version. Also, unlike the US version, if you start a game a new game with a character slot that had money bags, you do not get to keep any weapons or items you had when the last game ended. I am a few missile tanks short of the maximum when I finished this game.

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