Beating Mega Man 3 like a survival horror

Da Dood · 42620

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Offline Da Dood

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on: September 06, 2013, 08:53:23 PM
Being a huge fan of survival horror (classic Resident Evil, Dino Crisis, Silent Hill), I've always wanted to try this. In survival horror games, the good ones at least, supplies are ridiculously limited and/or placed in tricky areas. As a result, you end up conserving the ammo you have and often run away from enemies instead.



I'm not sure I would recommend this because it was kind of a pain for one reason (see below), and I couldn't think of a better solution for that problem. But the challenge itself was quite interesting and unique, and I wanted to share.

The Rules

1. All current ammo MUST carry over to the next level (as if the entire game is one huge Wily fortress)
2. Buster is NOT allowed after the first level (exception: Break Man cannot be damaged with anything else)
3. NO enemy drops allowed
4. Fixed items are allowed (ammo, E-Tanks, etc. that are found normally in the game)
5. Mystery Tanks (?) are allowed
6. Deaths are okay, game over is NOT
7. Top Spin ignored for obvious reasons (unpredictable ammo consumption)

The Run

The Robot Master order was the hardest part. NE and SH are good buster substitutes, and also the most reliable weapons against Proto Man, so they had to be conserved just right. Almost ran out a few times. I also made a mistake picking Top Man early, but at that point I was still deciding if I was going to ignore his weapon.

I chose the Doc Robot order based on how much ammo I could find to refill some of the weapons. My heart was racing in the first half of Doc Gemini, because dying would pretty much mean a game over/reset. NE is the only special weapon that destroys the eggs, and there are no fixed pick-ups there to refill. I had to use a safety E-Tank against Doc Flash, which is really embarrassing. RJ section at Doc Needle, however, is a godsend. Sadly, the fortress is so empty and throws so many pick-ups at you that the challenge is pretty much over by the third or fourth Doc Robot stage.

Why it was kind of a pain: before delivering the last hit to a boss, I had to write down ALL my ammo. And at the start of the next level, I had to waste my weapons until they had that exact amount. Wouldn't be so bad if there was a number attached to each weapon (like MM8). I think the PS1/AC version Navi Mode has that option...? But I really don't care for the GC controls. Anyway, counting those little bars got old fast. Sometimes I would even avoid using certain weapons 'cause I was too lazy to count, haha.

Notes and Progress
(Format: stage ยป weapons/ammo by the end of that stage)




I wonder if it's possible to program these limitations in a ROM hack...?


Offline Phi

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Reply #1 on: September 06, 2013, 09:47:56 PM
Topic moved to appropriate location.



Offline Da Dood

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Reply #2 on: September 06, 2013, 09:59:37 PM
Oh, okay! I didn't realize. Sorry about that.


Offline Phi

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Reply #3 on: September 06, 2013, 10:01:48 PM
It's fine. No worries!



Offline kuja killer

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Reply #4 on: September 07, 2013, 06:15:39 AM
http://www.mediafire.com/?6p7qkji9m8gykd7

here you go for your playing pleasure.

It's really not even worth of making a IPS patch for. i only changed like 3 tiny little bytes to do what you said.

** Weapon energy never refilled after beating levels (but it will happen on game over)
** no item drops from enemies.



Offline Da Dood

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Reply #5 on: October 21, 2013, 09:57:32 PM
Holy [parasitic bomb] kuja, you might be my favorite person. This is too awesome, works perfectly. Thank you!

I wish I knew how to ROM hack. I would rebalance the crap out of that arsenal.

Posted on: September 07, 2013, 03:04:33 AM
So kuja, I played your patch a few times and it's great. The only (minor) issue is that all ammo gets refilled at the first fortress stage for some reason, but that's already 1000 times better than writing everything down. Again, thank you very much.

I would definitely recommend this challenge now. Like I said, it's not the hardest thing you'll ever do, but the added strategy in conserving ammo and figuring out the best stage order is just a lot of fun.


Offline kuja killer

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Reply #6 on: October 25, 2013, 08:25:59 PM
just wily 1 only and that's it ? wow. i didnt know that.
maybe was because of the protoman fight before dr light's lab.
Weapon and life get refilled 1 frame before the screen fades out when megaman teleports away after the protoman fight.

That's probably why.

Anyway your welcome, if you ever want to do this for any of the other NES mm games. i can make IPS patches no problem for any of the 6 NES games you want to do this on. (cause of all my many years of romhacking experience, i can do anything to any of the NES mm's)



Offline Da Dood

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Reply #7 on: October 28, 2013, 03:18:02 PM
It's cool though, I was just pointing it out. :)

Yeah, it might be the Break Man fight. I can't recall if I paused the game when fighting him, will do next time and check my ammo there. Don't worry about it though, I'm just curious.

Thanks a lot again!