Metroid Prime 2: Unlimited Beams Authorized Wii

Metroid Prime 2: Unlimited Beams Authorized (U.B.A.)
General
Author	z_pucK, Dybbles
Type	Game Hacks
Version	1.0
License	Mixed
Last Updated	2020/04/10
Links
Download
Website

Metroid Prime 2: Unlimited Beams Authorized is an unlimited beam mod for Metroid Prime 2: Echoes. It removes all beam ammo spawns from the game, and instead gives Samus unlimited beam shots. Missiles, energy, and powerbombs all drop as normal.

Prime 2 originally gave Samus limited beam usage. Many Metroid fans have wondered, however, what Prime 2 would have been like without an ammo bar on Samus' beam weapons. This was the guiding direction for this mod. The rest of the game has been preserved as much as possible. e.g. Beam ammo expansions are still a collectible pickup, and still count toward total completion percent as normal, and enemies, crates, and bosses all still spawn missiles, energy, and powerbombs as normal.

Features

• Gives Samus unlimited beam ammo.
• Can remove Beam Ammo bars from HUD (user-choice at patching).
• Hides Beam Ammo counter from HUD (the numbers).
• Enemies and bosses no longer spawn beam ammo.
• Crates no longer spawn beam ammo.
• All other events no longer spawn beam ammo.
• Charge beam combos still cost missiles (unchanged).
• Enemies, bosses, and crates all still drop suit energy, missile ammo, and powerbombs as normal (largely unchanged, see exceptions below).

Installation

About the patch

• Mod compatibility for all 3 GCN regions: USA, EUR, and JPN.
• Mod compatibility for USA Metroid Prime Trilogy.
• Save-file compatibility between U.B.A. and original versions of MP2 and Trilogy (only for same-region, of course). No save file corruption whether you load Unlimited Beams Authorized or vanilla MP2/USA Trilogy.
• Drag 'n drop patcher.
• "Hardmode" secret playable mode. (No ammo spawns... but no unlimited ammo, either).
• No special requirements to patch. U.B.A. uses an unmodified Trilogy or MP2 .iso/.gcm.

How to use the Patcher

Important notes:

• Patching "Trilogy" (Wii) requires at least 20GB of free hardrive space before patching.
• U.B.A. requires an unmodified dump of either Metroid Prime 2 (.gcm/.iso format) or USA Metroid Prime Trilogy (.iso format).
• Full size games are recommended [1,459,978,240 bytes for GameCube] but not required (the patcher utility will accept most "trimmed" or "shrunken" games).
• Refer to MD5listmp2.txt in "patchmp2" for a full list of the MD5 checksums that the patcher will produce, and some of the tested checksums that it will take.

Instructions:

• Extract "MP2-Unlimited Beams Authorized.7z" to a folder, and put your Metroid Prime 2 game inside the same folder, where the patcher utility is.
• Drag game onto "DRAG GAME ONTO HERE.bat".
• Follow instructions on-screen. Patching will finish in under 10 minutes.
  • Or, if you are patching Trilogy USA, then patching will take at least 10 minutes.
  • If the patcher doesn’t display anything different on screen for at least 10 minutes, then try again.
• You can choose whether to "Keep" or to "Remove" the beam ammo bars from Samus’ visor during patching. For examples of both, please see the screenshots.
• The game will show up in your patcher utility folder, where your game is, usually with "Unlimited Beams Authorized" or "U.B.A." in the title.

Troubleshooting

1. A "Windows protected your PC" message pops up on a Windows blue screen.

Right below the error message, click on "More info" and then select "Run" or "Continue" to run the patcher.

2. A black window pops up and then quickly closes, or the file seemingly does nothing.

Try running the patcher file from the CMD prompt. You have to open the CMD prompt (try typing CMD in the Start Menu), and then use "cd" to navigate to where your patcher is located.

Once there, type in "Drag game onto here.bat" with quotes, just like that, followed by a space, followed by the name of your game (e.g. "Metroid Prime 2"), also in quotes, if it has spaces, and hit enter. You can auto-complete entries and cycle through available names using "Tab."

3. Still doesn't work.

Right-click on the patcher file and select "Create shortcut." Right-click on the shortcut you just created and go to "Properties".

On the properties page, look up to the box that says "Target", with the name of the patcher "DRAG GAME ONTO HERE.bat" inside of it. Put your cursor at the end of that name, and put a space after the quotation mark. Type in the full file name of the game you are trying to patch, and make sure it is surrounded by quotes.

For example, it should say Target: ..."DRAG GAME ONTO HERE.bat" "Metroid Prime 2.iso" or whatever your game name is, just like that. Note the space in between the two names, between the different quotation marks. Make sure the typed file is EXACTLY the same as how the name of the actual file is. You can rename your game to make it simpler, or you can right click your game and go to "Properties" and look at the top there. The full file name will be in a box.

You need to copy that name exactly, including the file extension at the end of the name. You MUST make sure the filename has quotation marks around it when you type or paste it into the "Target" bar in the shortcut's "Properties" page. Make sure you have everything saved correctly, and then double-click the shortcut file.

Note: If you right-click and go to the shortcut's "Properties" page and click "Advanced" in there, an option to "Run as administrator" will become available. Do NOT select this option - selecting it may cause the patcher to not run at all. However, in the case that the patcher didn't run anyway, you can try selecting this box afterward and try again. Windows is dumb. Just make sure that the file name is exact: you must have quotes and you must also have the file extension and have the extension inside those quotes. Refer to the example above as a guide.

Alternatively: Re-download and extract the files, double-check all of the steps, make sure you've read any error messages closely. There are manual patching instructions for advanced users inside "patchmp2," the file can be opened with any program that displays text.

User guide

Other side effects and changes

Despite having unlimited ammo, the overall difficulty of the game is more or less the same.

A very limited number of enemies and boss attacks that would normally spawn beam ammo now drop nothing at all (a small price to pay for unlimited ammo). This typically affects swarm-type enemies, and for example may be noticeable on boss attacks like Chykka's spawns, or in the final boss battle. This effect largely goes unnoticed, however, as most everything else in the game still drops health and missiles and powerbombs as normal (enemies, crates, bosses after you kill them, and powerbomb-specific enemies).

Multiplayer now gives all players unlimited ammo when firing beams.

FAQ

Q. Does this mod affect logbook scans?

No, item drops in MP2 don't give logbook scans, so they won't take away from your logbook%.

Q. Can you remove beam ammo expansions from completion%?

Changes the save file, likely causes corruption if you load Vanilla or UBA in between gameplays. So we left it out from even being an option.

Q. Remove beam ammo expansions be from the game?

Possible.

Q. Make beam ammo expansions give missiles/powerbombs/new upgrade/change their models?

Possible. Missiles and powerbombs are capped at the in-game values, meaning you'll never go over the total.

However, you could get a missile tank or something early, which could make for an interesting route.

Q. What is hardmode?

Beam ammo does not spawn, but Samus is not given unlimited beam ammo either. You will only be able to refill your beam ammo at ammo stations or your gunship.

Q. How do I access Hardmode?

When the patcher prompts you whether to HIDE or KEEP beam ammo bars, press the "h" key instead to activate hardmode 1, which will remove ammo from spawning, but give Samus limited ammo.

If you want to access the hardest mode, press the "s" key instead and hardmode 2 will activate. Hardmode 2 is a "silent" mode where Samus won't know when she'll run out of ammo until she does. Hardmode 2 hides the beam ammo bars, in addition to the effects of hardmode 1.

Screenshots

Known issues

• Swarm enemies should be seen as a hazard typically, since they now usually do not drop any pickups (e.g. Hydlings, Chyklings, Ing Larva Swarm).
• Alpha Blogg, Grapple Guardian, Dark Samus 2, and Emperor Ing (whole fight) do not drop any pickups. Planned fix for some of this at a later update.
• On U.B.A. Hardmode1 and Hardmode2 modes, Chykka drops beam ammo at the end of the fight, but this impact is minimal since an ammo station is nearby. This has been fixed and will come at a later update.
• In-game text has not yet been changed, will patch at a later update.
• No compatibility for EUR-region version of Trilogy or JPN-region "Wii de Asobo" (New Play Control) version of MP2, yet.

Credits

Acknowledgements:

• Dybbles - Initial mod proposal, game research, AR code hacking and asm injection, documentation, testing.
• z_pucK - General research, documentation, patch creation, testing, writeups.

Special Thanks to:

• Metroid Prime Modding - Antidote, Aruki, Cirrus, and Pwootage for modding and guidance help.
• Prime World Editor.
• Retro Modding Wiki.
• Paktool.
• NODtool.
• John Nathaniel - .bat help for patcher.

Thanks to:

• MetConst - kkzero, thedopefish - patcher help.
• TJG Minty Meeo - getvalue, patcher help.
• encounter - Trilogy AR codes.

External links

• Romhacking.net - https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/5054/