A trilogy of hacks for Super Metroid is very slowly on its way. Finally got the base skeleton of a page up for it with very basic information on each. More details will come in the weeks ahead.

Trilogy Page

Another pretty large release:

• Created Metroid Buddy (seen above)... It's a metroid that follows your mouse around eating enemies as you edit. The point? It's a frickin' metroid chasing your mouse.
• Started a new Help File... I actually expect this one to go somewhere. At the very least, I took several of the seperate text files (enemy quirks, door help, etc...) and stuck them into a single file. Legna.dll is no longer needed as it's been merged with SMILE.dll... Removed unused functions to slim that down as well.
• Simplified the Graphics Editor by making it quicker to select which 16x16 you're editing (and a few other tweaks I'll mention in the help file should I get to it at some point). Added the ability to import/export tile tables. Added the option to grab the palette from a 256 color bitmap.
• Added an error trap to prevent certain common errors from crashing smile. So far, only one error has been trapped. "Subscript out of Range" errors caused by overwriting part of a tile table will no longer crash the program, giving you a chance to fix your problem with the new tile table import/export feature.
• Quickmet (Room Test) now supports boss/event states.
• Added support for door dependent FX1's (ie- Room 7AFA3, for example, has raised or lowered lava, depending on which door you enter) Implemented a new palette chooser (old one still functions) for quicker color setting (a temporary harmless bug affects the transparent color of samus's suit, but is not visible in-game... Will be fixed soon).
• BTS can now be changed by hitting # over a tile to type in a BTS value -or- by hitting 0-9 to do the same thing (but start with 0-9 in the textbox that pops-up).
• Several bug fixes (including the lower-right tile getting screwed up in layer 2), minor tweaks, and a few unfinished ideas.
• Pointer Editor now gives you a choice about whether to move data or leave it put.
• Drastically improved quality of the Scroll Editor (8x8 mode) view (seen below).

Probably the most notable change here would be the translation files for English, French, Finnish, and Latin. These allow the basic menus to be translated into those languages.

Several other changes, including mostly bug changes (particularly with 32x32 mode). A tad lazy to write them all down again, so just read the what's new. Other changes are on the way, as I'm actually using my program now.

A huge number of changes made. Bug fixes, interface changes, new features, etc... The main goal of this release was to change simplify some things for some of SMILE's more confused users. Some new features, better documentation, interface changes, etc...

Main attention grabber of this release will undoubtedly be the Room Test feature (aka- QuickMet). Many thanks to Kejardon for doing the ASM that made this feature possible. In SMILE, hit E/Enter while not over a door and the room will open in the emulator of your choice to wherever your mouse was over. Some limitations to this (such as not supporting alternate states yet) and a few minor bugs, but quite useful.

Powerbomb coloring, Kraid's room, BTS previewing, SOLA (Smile On-Line Access) for checking for future updates/downloads, etc...

I discovered a few years ago that there were some unused graphical cutscenes in Harvest Moon. Anyone who's used the most recent release of HME may have already noticed these for themselves . . . The graphics can be decompressed and the correct palettes are also listed.

I believe these were ending scenes (scrolled under the credits?) in a beta version of the game. In any case, more information (and more pictures) can be found on the Harvest Moon Beta Page!

I apparently neglected to include Lunar Compress.dll and the new menus with HME 4. Very small update today adds those, so compressed rooms appear correct (instead of simply being black).

Harvest Moon Editor 4 has finally been released! The new dialogue editor that adjusts text position and pointers automatically. The level editor can now handle almost all the levels of the game (as opposed to the 3 areas it could handle before). Compressed graphics can be exported/imported now, to be edited with your favorite tile editor. The new palette editor is much more complete than the old one and can export palettes for use with TLP. There's so much to say about this release, but so little space.

I have more news that is nearly as exciting, but I think it'll wait until I find out more.

Around 2 years ago, Kejardon made a fix for TLP (version 1.1) that forces the program to show *all* of your file (instead of assuming your file has a header and hiding those bytes).

Recently, I've grown annoyed having to click "All Files" each time I open a *.BIN or *.GFX file (quite common when working with decompressed graphics). That said, I've made a small fix of my own that allows these two file types to be viewable by default. Details and the download on the Other page.

Progress on HME stopped completely when I was unable to solve a bug in the much needed upgrade to the text editor. Well... The new text editor is finally working correctly! The most important improvement is that the editor automatically adjusts pointers... What this means to you is that your text no longer has to be the same length as the original text.

There's no fear of overwriting at the end of the text, as there's no data there... The pointer table, on the other hand, is maxed out where it is. If adding to it, there will be an option to move the table and text accordingly (possibly wiping out the original table pointer data as well).

In any case, my Harvest Moon projects are again alive.

The documentation Kejardon has compiled is probably the best single source of information for serious Super Metroid editing. Well, his files are up to date and are now available here.

People always ask when the next release of SMILE will be. In the spirit of reducing repeated questions, I introduce you to SOLA (Smile's On-Line Access). Currently, SOLA can check to see if a new version of SMILE is available. By release, it may already have limited support for more on-line goodies:

The next version of SMILE is being worked on and will try to address many issues I've seen brought up in e-mails, message boards, and IRC. Lots of bug fixes will be made, but mainly I'll be focusing on the "help" aspect of things. Where possible, instead of answering a question, I'm going to try changing SMILE in such a way that the question won't have to be asked.

For instance:

I've kept around 10 e-mails complaining that Larry King is a pervert staring at Samus and that the program won't do anything because of everything being disabled. I thought the yellow highlighted pull down list was enough of a clue, but I was wrong. In the above screenshot, it should be painfully obvious now (don't worry, the blinking turns off after you choose a room).

Simplifications currently planned include (among other things): An easier BTS menu, an easier door editor, an "easier" palette chooser, a new back-up system, and a fix for the landing zone sky glitch.

Finished updating the site to its new layout, now making use of external files to simplify future redesigns. Fixed broken links and even added links to forgotten content. May tweak the appearance a bit, but this is basically it, for now.

I'll be on the road for Labor Day and job searching the rest of the week. Not sure how much progress will be made with my projects, but I'm going to try.

Started a major overhaul of the website tonight (as you can see, if you remember what the old site looked like). It's a work in progress. When I'm done, the site will navigate better and will be far easier for me to keep updated.

When/if I get a new job, I plan on going into overdrive mode finishing projects. Let's see what happens.