Welcome to Shinespark Construction, the ultimate leaderboard for all things Metroid hacking related. Started on the 20th March 2015, Shinespark Construction aims to be the central spot for all things Metroid speedrunning related. Feel free to join us on the forums or use the chat link in the tabs above to talk to us over IRC, alternatively use your own IRC client to connect: we exist at irc.esper.net on channel #MetConst, we hope to see you around!

Hack Reviews
Posted on Sep 02, 2022 by thedopefish

Let's talk about everyone's favorite topic, the review system.

There's been a lot of discussion about what is and is not acceptable for hack and resource reviews. We love to get community feedback about hacks (and other Metroid hacking content), and we're not here to dictate HOW you decide what you like and what you don't. If you want to write a giant post detailing your experience playing the game, great! If you want to keep it short and sweet, that's also great!

But at the end of the day, the purpose of the review system (and the resulting average "orb rating") is to help other players determine what's going to be most enjoyable for them. The review system is not the place to authoritatively determine the "best" hack, or to start arguments with other users, or to insult hack authors.

Also, I know people get excited when a new hack gets released, and some folks can't wait to share their thoughts, but please take the time to actually experience what a hack has to offer and consider your thoughts before you rush to post your review. We'll wait for you.

To that end, we've come up with a list of rules which are now visible right on the page when you're submitting a review. Please heed them, and then go forth and play as many hacks as you like. And then come back and review them :)

Cleaning out the Backlog
Posted on Oct 11, 2021 by Miranda Gemini

So, I've been pretty lazy about keeping up-to-date with this whole "Top Hacks" thing. In fact, looks like I haven't touched it at all since.. 2014? Good lord.

In an effort to remedy that, here's a link to a form in which you can nominate 6 years worth of hacks for their respective years' awards. There's no mandatory categories, so feel free to nominate only for the categories you wish:
https://forms.gle/Pt9bLtGuKL6zYZSZA
I'll likely close voting at the end of this month, and hopefully have something special planned for the 6 years of voting.
Thanks for sticking with us for so long!

We're back on the Internet
Posted on Feb 27, 2020 by thedopefish

Our hosting provider had a server failure recently that took the website and forums offline for a few days. They've finally gotten everything back up and running, and we were able to bring everything back up again thanks to Mon732. However, some recent submissions to the main site may have been lost in the database migration :(

Keep hacking Metroid everybody!

Forums are back up
Posted on Aug 08, 2019 by Mon732

The forums are back up and running thanks to Dopey.

Everything should be fine but if you notice anything broken please let us know by posting in the bugs and discussions board.

Forum is down
Posted on Aug 07, 2019 by Mon732

The forums are currently down, we are working to get them back online. Apologies for the inconvienience.

Also a message from Jiffy regarding the contest:

"If the forum is down for an arbitrary amount of time, I (Jiffy) will consider an extension to the contest by an arbitrary amount of time. For now, have this pastebin of the rules if you need to look at particular conditions for the current contest. https://pastebin.com/ZzJSeLBB

The Clock is ticking!
Posted on Jul 06, 2019 by Jefe962

The Clocktower Contest is about a month in. There is still time to create your entry and submit it. More information can be found here. If it wasn't clear, this contest is clocktower themed, and I am very interested to see what everyone comes up with.

The next contest will be picked from the Contest ideas page. Make sure you submit a good contest - you might be the one to host it!

Deep Blue Contest
Posted on Feb 18, 2019 by Jefe962

We have added some banners and splashes to the forum, as winners of the creativity contest last month. Congratulations on the submissions, we had some wonderful entries.
Now, we're hosting another contest! This time it's about all things blue. Find out more here.

Happy New Year Metconst!
Posted on Jan 02, 2019 by Jefe962

Happy new year users! Let us hope 2019 will bring us joy and Metroid hacks.

Before the next hacking contest, there are other contests you can participate in. This time we're going to get more creative. Join the Metconst Creativity Contest if you're interested. Anybody can contribute this time!

Jiffy

Every Contest Is Here!
Posted on Nov 06, 2018 by Jefe962

Hello Metconst!

From the contest ideas page, the Beserker contest (by MetroidNerd#9001) was picked. There is still 1 month left to make something if you haven't already and submit it. More information can be found here.

On another note, the contest ideas have been cleared, in preparation for a future user-committee contest (you may be waiting a while, though!). Feel free to submit some more ideas here.

Contest Ideas
Posted on Jul 05, 2018 by thedopefish

Hi MetConst!

Are you an overachiever, already done with your POST HACK SCRUBS contest entry, and are now wondering what to do with all your free time?

Or maybe you're too lazy to enter because you have a real life or something dumb.

Or perhaps you just aren't feeling this theme, and you wish the next contest would be more interesting.

Well, have I got a deal for you! We now have a public submission page for contest ideas. You know, the thing that was promised back at the beginning of the year. So if you've got the most amazing idea for a contest ever, here is your chance to write it up all professional-like. If yours gets chosen by our Contest Overlords, then you get to run the show. Wow!

You can view the current submissions and create your own by clicking here or by finding the handy-dandy addition to the menu bar at the top.

As with any new feature here, if you run into any bugs or if you have suggestions for how to improve this submission tool, feel free to hit me up on Discord or post to that forum thread linked above.

This Contest will Clean your Chronometers!
Posted on Jun 27, 2018 by MetroidMst

Ever thought what happens if Samus took care of galactic cleanliness issues? This latest contest dares to tackle such a subject, as the Post Hack Scrubs contest is underway! Get to work on making a clean sweep and winning this contest, and tell someone from the POST HACK committee to update the main site when they do their own contest.

MetroidMst

This Contest is Lit
Posted on Feb 01, 2018 by MetroidMst

Greetings people of Earth.

We bring you news of a new contest, The Authorized Contest! This is our first contest using our new format, so that's pretty hype.

Get your perfect military mind ready to make a great entry and claim the prestigious award of being the best at being Adam Malkovich!`

Fall Hacking Contest is Live!
Posted on Sep 22, 2017 by personitis

We're finally live with the Fall Hacking Contest. Time to put your noggins to use for nearly two whole months (it's okay, you can do this) and make more content for our wonderful site! You have from today until November 15th to create a romhack themed to autumn, Halloween, or just spoopy stuff in general.

Again, all the information you need is in the forum thread and please remember not to bite off more than you can chew.

Happy hacking!

New Contest Incoming!
Posted on Sep 01, 2017 by DSO

Announcing the new Fall Contest will be starting September 22nd!
More details will be coming later, just wanted to make this brief announcement, since some people had been asking about when the next contest would be.
I'm excited to see the interest we have!
-DSO

Feature creep
Posted on Aug 21, 2017 by thedopefish

The site now tracks download counts for both Hacks and Resources. I even backfilled the numbers based on the month of August (unfortunately we don't have accurate information older than that). If this change accidentally broke any download links, please let us know on IRC or Discord or whatever.

In other news, everyone should go watch the solar eclipse tonight, and then get inspired to make a hack.

New Contest!
Posted on Feb 01, 2017 by personitis

Happy February everyone. If you've been following the forums at all, you may have noticed that there's a new contest going on: the Winter Hacking Contest (2017) hosted by DSO. If you've ever been interested in getting into romhacking for Metroid, Super, Fusion, or Zero Mission, now's a great time to jump in and learn. This has usually got people to make mods which they probably wouldn't have bothered to do otherwise. Despite being a contest, it's also prime time to ask questions and learn since everyone's using their noggins and/or the knowledgeable people are around to help.

Rules are listed in the topic (linked again here) and you'll have until February 28th to make a working product. MAKE MOAR HACKS and don't forget to test your work! Good luck and happy hacking.

We Have a Discord!
Posted on Aug 02, 2016 by MetroidMst

Just dropping a quick note that we have a Discord server as well. The link below will get you in. For now, the community races and such are still held on Mumble for audio recording purposes. Having a clean audio recording of the call is pretty important when Lenophis or myself do the compilation videos of the races. But please do come by the Discord and drop a few notes. We're usually pretty nice.

MetConst Discord

New website finally live
Posted on Jul 17, 2016 by thedopefish

If you hadn't noticed, the new website is now officially live and out of beta. Welcome to the new face of metconst! If, for some reason you need access to something on the old site, fear not--it is still available at http://old.metroidconstruction.com. If you do happen to find any broken links, bugs, or other problems with the site, feel free to poke me on IRC or send me a PM on the forums and I'll try to get it sorted out. Otherwise, enjoy the new site!

New Year, New News!
Posted on Feb 14, 2016 by Vismund Cygnus

Welcome to 2016! A lot has happened since the last update here. November's A.N.T.I. Contest resulted in four excellent entries being produced, and a win for one MetroidMst!

There's plenty of other news too, so check out the official Metroid Construction update for January for more info!


Also, don't forget to check out the Contest Board and vote for your favourite Room of the Month, as well as 2015's Room of the Year!

I should also see about trying to do these updates more often, but who knows if I'll really do that.

Signing out,
Vismund Cygnus


MetConst Update!
Posted on Sep 01, 2015 by MetroidMst

The new MetConst Update for September has gone up, so be sure to give that a quick check before heading toward your Metroid hacking destination.

And in other news, the Alien Vista Contest finished up with a grand total of one entry. So we can safely announce the winner, SMILEuser96 for his SMContention entry!

So that pretty much sums up what I had for now. MetroidMst is signing off.

Just a quick update
Posted on Apr 01, 2015 by GF_Kennon

So, this update will not be so big this month, too many things happening, so instead I'm going to leave you with a video update.

YouTube

Discuss this update

Welcome to the new Beta!
Posted on Mar 29, 2015 by GF_Kennon

Welcome to the new and improved Metroid Construction! So whats new? well, its bloody everything thats what, to give you a general gist of things, you can now log in at the top right of your screen, you just need to use your forum details as accounts are linked from there, if you have any trouble logging in, try logging out on the forums then logging back into the main site, that should fix it.

Anyway, there is a new automated system for submitting things to the main site, on the hacks and resources page you can submit whatever you desire to MetConst, and if there is nothing wrong with your submission, it will be approved and added to our databases, you can also update your own submissions now, and everything can be rated and reviewed.

While not complete, you can also see we have links for a ROM/RAM map, this will be a publicly editable ROM/RAM map for all the Metroid games that need one, while its likely that the Super Metroid ROM/RAM map will be the primary focus, we shall also be hosting a Metroid, Metroid 2, Fusion, and Zero Mission ROM/RAM map, hopefully in the future these can be worked on.

Top hacks are now also listed on the website, you can find them via the Hacks page under the submit button, 2014 is still to be updated, but all the other years are there, I will at some point be adding awards to users on the forum for past top hacks.

Hex Tweaks will also be a publicly editable system, this is still being worked on, I will post an update when its finished.

Anyway, thats a general idea whats going on, so have fun submitting!
-GF_Kennon