THE METROID STORY:

In the year 2000 of the history of the cosmos, representatives of many different planets in the galaxy established a congress called the Galactic Federation. A successful exchange of cultures and civilization resulted, and thousands of interstellar spaceships ferried back and forth between planets. When space pirates appeared to attack the spaceships, the Federation Bureau created the Galactic Federation Police. There are many unknown planets throughout the galaxy. Many of these are causes of concern to the Galactic Federation. To take care of this, they employ Space Hunters, the greatest of which is Samus Aran. Samus' greatest achievement has been the destruction of the pirates's Metroid plans on the planet Zebes. In the year 20X5 of the cosmos, an unknown life-form was discovered on planet SR388 by a Galactic Federation deep-space research ship. The research crew took a sample of the creature and placed it into a suspended animation stasis capsule and dubbed the life form "Metroid". On their way back to their home base, the research ship was attacked by pirates who stole the stasis capsule containing the life-form! The Metroid in suspended animation could easily be brought back to life, and exposure to beta rays was all that was needed to cause it to multiply. This highly dangerous creature will cling to any other creature and suck away its victim's energy. Samus, by order of the Galactic Federation Police, successfully and singlehandedly penetrated the space pirates' natural fortress on the planet Zebes. After a series of intense battles, Samus destroyed all the Metroids she encountered. Her destruction of the reactivated Mother Brain at the center of the fortress crushed the pirates' evil plans.     After serious consideration of how terrible and destructive the Metroid life form was, the Galactic Federation send another research ship to SR388. This trip was to make sure there were no more Metroids left on the planet. After a short time the Federation received an emergency notice from the research base. They had lost contact, and the research ship was missing. The base had already sent a search and rescue party, but after their initial contact, the rescue ship was not heard from again.A special combat group was assembled consisting of armed soldiers from the Federation Police and was immediately dispatched to SR388. After transmitting their primary landing data, they also were never heard from! Rumors spread fast, and again, the whole galaxy was seized with the fear of Metroids. With this limited information, the Federation was positive that a Metroid must still be surviving, hiding deep in the planet underground. Even one living Metroid could easily wipe out an entire planetary civilization. So, the Galactic Federation called its members to an urgent conference to find a way to overcome this menace. They quickly came to one conclusion, which was unanimous and simple .... give Samus Aran the order to exterminate the Metroids! Metroid II: Return of Samus is the bigger-than ever follow-up to one of the all-time NES classics, Metroid. Quake II is the current reigning leader in next generational advancement of game play technology and design, the fusion between these two games is our goal, we bring you the first Metroid Total Conversion.

THE PLANET SR388:

The underworld of Planet SR388 contains a complicated series of multi-layered domes, tunnels, caves, and hidden passages. Remnants of an ancient civilization can be found throughout the planet providing evidence that the species Metroid can indeed wipe out an entire planet. Many mechanical creatures roam throughout the underworld on some unknown program, but still many other organic life forms live here also. The surface of the planet can be described as Mars, except SR388 supports life and has a blackened marble textured appearance. The underground tunnels are extremely hard to navigate as corners and passages are unlimited. From these corridors, many areas are filled with dangerous acidic pools of an unknown liquid, rivers of lava, sand pits, water caverns, wild planet life, unstable floors, and reoccurring earthquakes. Unlike Planet Zebes, SR388 isn't divided into sections of exploration, instead it is one big level that must be mapped out by trigger actions. When a Metroid is killed, an earthquake is triggered causing a previous area that was unattainable by lava or acid pools to be explored, thus these changes can be divided into Phases; a total of which there are 10. Most of the exploration is done climbing up and down, avoiding obstacles, or finding hidden or shortcut passages. This is the only information we have available sent to us by the Galactic Federation Special Squadron, this was their first and last video transmission sent, make the best conclusion you can.

THE TC STORY:

The idea of a Metroid Total Conversion dates back to the early days of Doom. The conversion never saw daylight due to lack of interest from other fans to join and little to no documentation of TC design during its infancy. A TC could of have possibly be conceivable from any of other sprite engines, but they were very limited, and its release would be futile and quite dishonorable to what makes Metroid what it is. When Quake was released, the infancy of TC design and groups matured overnight, a few sites popped up on the Internet claiming to release a Metroid TC, but like many TC's, it never happened. This was also around the time the first few Metroid dedicated web pages started to appear, the first was Metroid Database, and following close by, was Metroid Galaxy. Its creator of the Metroid Galaxy and leader of this TC GFedCmdr (aka Metroid) shot the idea around the site to many of the fans that traveled there, it caught the attention to many, but only one was truly serious, he goes by the nick Sunspot. Sunspot and GFedCmdr then spent the next 6 months coming up with plans, sketching story boards, working on preliminary models, choosing game engine platform, and of course trying to recruit others. A meeting was held on IRC to see how many were actually interested to make this happened on Thursday 30, November 1997 - only a few showed up. The biggest response of members joining came from a post on the Metroid Database MessageBoard informing that a TC was being started and if anyone was interested in joining (actually forming) a TC group should respond. The birth of the TC happened on February 15, 1998 and the rest is history to come. Why Quake 2? Why have we decided on the Quake II and not any of the others? This is the easiest and hardest of all questions. Quake II was not immediately decided upon when the first concept came about. Originally, Quake 1 was chosen to be the platform, BUT because of massive upgrades to Quake 2 the game would be closer to "realistic" to any of the other engines. Though we did debate on the possibility of Unreal, Half-Life, and Prey engines, final factors to contribute our choice was that Quake 2 is here now, heavily documented for conversions and continues to be openly programmed for third party "hacking". Besides, Quake2 does run as decent in software render mode like the original quake so those with concerns on outdated systems should not worry. Why Metroid 2? Why did we choose GameBoy's Metroid 2 instead of the NES Metroid, SNES Super Metroid or even a entirely new game? Two important reasons for this, 1. - this is our first TC, 2. - Metroid 2 will ensure an overall success conversion compared to the others. When we finally agreed on Quake 2 for the engine, we next argued on what type of Metroid game to make. At first, we wanted a new storyline and game but because of our inexperience with TC designing, we wanted to experiment on an existing winning concept and not create a new Metroid experience. Metroid and Super Metroid are simply to big to convert over their vast complicated level areas, and unprecident number of enemys and items. A plus for Metroid 2 is the it has a stronger storyline and characters, Metroid 2 just did not have the potential or chance to come out on top of the others simply because of its GameBoy release. Exploration to the undergrounds of Planet SR-388 are all cavern, hence less texture variety, fewer levels, even fewer enemies, less complicated weapons and powerups, more potential bosses that actually fight you instead of just shooting at you, and last but not least - queen metroid. Metroid 2 will basically let us release our TC at a factor of 50% faster than if we were to do any of the others. Why a Metroid TC to begin with? Metroid has and always will be a special part of our life. We don't know why and we don't care to find out, why do you love metroid?. We do know that this is what needs to be done in order for our lives to be complete, Metroid has been used as a mildstone benchmark of sorts for Nintendo on their new systems from day one and has always proven iteself by the numbers. We are also trying to reinspire those who forgot about the game, and inspire the current and next generation. Ever since Mr. Gunpei Yokoi, the creator of Metroid passed away, we have felt a deep concern that Metroid would also, yes there are plenty of rumors of a Metroid64, but they are just that, and even when Nintendo does decide to make one, the essence of the originals might not be captured and will concentrate more on the eye candy to show off thier system. We personally feel that his death should be celebrated as his vision was true to our own and we should continue from the expansion of our minds from his. This TC is entirely dovoted to Gunepei Yokoi, we are not out to get rich, make a single penny, reap all the credits, or steal a "copyright", we are here to devote our time and skills to continue the Metroid story so it can stay alive, your reading this for a reason.....its that simple. Progress Indicator at +10% Total Models Levels Music Textures Storyline Add-ons GOALS: 100% conversion from the GameBoy. Software render mode gameplay, and then OpenGL support. Animated intro and ending storlines, still cutscenes for between levels. Deathmatch and Cooperative play enhancements. Background music, and rich sound with a ambient environment. Extra and secret levels. New characters and enhanced enemies. Expanded "fill in the blanks" story line. New powerups, enhanced weapons. Implement new ideas from outside the group.

EASTER EGG BASKET:

Start looking here often, this is were collaberation of our meeting ideas and web viewer input suggestions will be located at. Pulse Tracking Device - a clock looking gadget is located on Samus's left hand, yet it is undocumented to what it does. In Metroid 2, everytime you take out a Metroid, the bottom right screen counts down how many are left, this new device can be included as one of the weapons and will show you the status of Metroids in the area also. Samus could of added this device to home in on a frequency give out only by the metroids, since she analized thier data in the first game. TC Team Skins - For Deatmatch and Cooperative play, you can choose any of us as a skin for your model. Each member can opt to have special abilities and weapons accordingly. RPG Gameplay - Straight from the Hexen perspective, you could either play as Samus, or a Metroid. For the Metroid, you start off at the "larva" stage and mutate as you go. You would have to kill a certain amount of people or creatures in order to mutate, weapons would be accordingly to the mutation, the strongest of which would be a as a queen. COPYRIGHT NOTICE. Metroid TC Copyright© 1998, G-FED. Metroid 2: Return of Samus Copyright© 1991 Nintendo of America Inc, All rights reserved. All references herein of Metroid are trademarks of Nintendo. Quake and Quake II Copyright© 1998, ID Software. Quake engine and all its components are trademarks of ID software. Other product and company names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.