For the most part, I cannot accurately explain -why- certain effects or outcomes described below happen. I can only explain -how- they happen and share my experiences. Hopefully someone gains something from this documentation. Even if this information does not end up assisting anyone, I believe it is better to have such information revealed and documented, rather than it not documented at all. "Conserving" means to create a space time particle that will activate upon another weapon being used. "Unleashing" means to activate the space time particle, thus causing the effects of space time. CONSERVATION OF SPACE TIME ========================== Methods in which you can conserve the effects of space time to use in conjunction with other weapons (such as bombs, missiles, or shinespark*): 1. Firing space time then swapping weapons The most common method and perhaps easiest to execute is charging space time then swapping weapons. You can, however, fire space time sans Charge Beam and immediately swap weapons. If done correctly swapping from space time beam directly to Missiles or Supers, the space time will unleash immediately upon the Missiles or Supers being selected, thus being unleashed via Missile or Super. If done correctly swapping from space time beam directly to Grapple Beam, the space time will be conserved and conservation should be indicated by the base of the Grapple Beam being an inverted color. 2. Firing space time then immediately morphing By this I mean, when you do this correctly, you should hear the beam sound as if you fired space time once you morph. You're not actually unleashing space time when you do this, as it might seem from the explanation. You can also charge space time before morphing to conserve it as long as you do not accidentally unleash a bomb spread in the process. 3. Firing space time then immediately activating X-Ray Scope Similar to method 2. Again, you should hear the beam sound before the scope activates. I personally find this to be the easiest method to conserving space time without Charge Beam equipped. 4. Firing space time then immediately using a non-save station (ex. recharge, refill, map) Similar to method 2. Again, you should hear the beam sound (but should not see the beam connect with the station itself) before the station activates. You can incorporate the station pause trick with this, and it might help to do so, but it is not required. Unleashing space time before the station's message appears will cause the message not to appear. (resulting in the following outcomes: energy station = no energy provided; ammo station = no missiles provided; map station = no map diagram provided) 5. Firing space time then immediately using a save station As is the case for all space times in the 'ship area', this does not work with the "Gunship" itself. The game will immediately crash upon attempting to use the "Gunship". May have adverse effects when performed using the Wrecked Ship save station.** Stations not tested: Maridia stations (excluding entry tube station), Norfair stations (excluding pre-speedhall station), Lower Norfair stations 6. Charging space time as you exit a room through a normal door transition When done correctly, space time will be conserved after the door transition into the next room, waiting to be unleashed. You will want to let go of the shoot (charge) button before the transition completes, otherwise you may accidentally unleash space time. Similarly, if you hold the charge for 60+ frames before transitioning into the next room, letting go of the shoot button will release the charged space time instead of conserving it, thus crashing the game. This is presumably because the game considers the shot to be fully charged at that point, whereas before 60 frames, it is still in the charging process. You can also conserve space time in a similar manner if you fire right before passing through a door transition; however, this also requires Charge Beam. Unfortunately, this does not similarly work with elevators.*** --- Note that with methods 1 through 5, not having Charge Beam will greatly reduce the window in which you can pull these off. In some cases, the window may only be a single frame. Note that with method 6, Charge Beam is required. Regardless of how space time is conserved, the block arrangements it creates should stay the same, assuming all other determining factors remain the same as well. (such as which weapon releases the space time, the angle/positioning, etc) The effects of what I would call 'charged space time' seem to change if you conserve a shot then unequip beams compared to if you charge a shot then unequip beams. For example, the escape trigger I've recorded a few times does not seem to work if you try firing space time -> immediately morphing to conserve it -> unequipping beams -> firing a normal shot; the game will outright crash immediately or almost immediately using the same position. In almost every case, the game will crash when you attempt something like this, but there do seem to be rooms/positions where this works. (but not remarkably useful) Conserving space time with Charge Beam equipped then unequipping all beams except Charge Beam (basically trying to trigger an escape the usual way, except instead of holding Charge through the pauses, you have space time conserved and aren't doing that) seems to create a similar pattern of blocks, but not positioned the same. Charging any beam other than space time, pausing the game while charging, equipping space time, and unpausing the game while removing input from the fire button (i.e. not charging) will cause space time to be conserved. If you are charging space time after laying a Power Bomb (during the time it is on screen - before it is exploding), it will not conserve if you swap weapons to end the charge. It will still crash the game if you attempt to unleash the charge. You cannot charge space time during the period of time that a Power Bomb is exploding or the period of time that a regular Bomb is on screen (exploding or not) - if you attempt to, you will fire space time instead, causing the Power Bomb or Bomb to interact with it. Space time will still be conserved if you pseudo-Screw into an enemy while charging space time and lose the charge. Grapple Beam is usefully unaffected by space time. (other than it sometimes appearing discolored) Hyper Beam does work with space time; however, it does not appear possible to have it not result in a crash unless the Hyper Beam shot immediately connects with an object such as part of Mother Brain, in which case it will (usually) result in an immediate stable shuffling of blocks. (only tested in Mother Brain's chamber, because... well, even if it was useful, I doubt it would be useful anywhere else but there, since that's the only legitimate place you can conserve space time then later be given Hyper Beam to use) *Space time will actually unleash from a shinespark (assuming you conserved it before sparking) at the moment the echoes from the shinespark appear. These echoes seem to be treated as a projectile (like missiles) and/or a weapon (like bombs). They seem to be about as crash-prone as Power Bombs, but there are plenty of areas where the game will stabilize after the echoes disappear. If you are charging space time and then shinespark (before ending the charge), the shinespark will still unleash space time. **Adverse effects include, but are not limited to: - Top info bar constantly changes texture and position during the save station animation. - When the "save completed" text box is cleared, the info bar stays stuck in the middle or bottom of the screen with glitched textures, or disappears completely. - The game will scroll improperly when Samus moves inside the save room. - Appearance of white pixel formations on certain backgrounds. - The game crashes by itself after a seemingly random period of time. It is almost guaranteed to crash in some period of time between 15 and 30 seconds after the "save completed" box is cleared, assuming it does not crash immediately, which seems to happen more often when the save station is entered facing left rather than right. Note that if you unleash space time before the game is able to crash in this manner, it should not crash in this manner. The game may not crash if X-Ray Scope is in use. ***Unleashing space time (with a weapon such as missiles or charged space time) then immediately using an elevator will cause the player to descend in elevator stance through the newly created out of bounds (and pass through solid blocks) until coming in contact with a transition and/or crash block. The only two outcomes (that I know of) from doing this are either crashing or arriving through the transition, stuck in elevator stance, essentially soft locked. Unleashing space time normally then immediately using an elevator, or conserving space time in any manner before using an elevator, will unfortunately not cause space time to be conserved after the elevator travel and transition. MISCELLANEOUS ============== Bosses with projectiles such as Phantoon's flames and Mother Brain's attacks can still hit the out of bounds player. In the case of Mother Brain, Rainbow Beam will still connect with the player regardless of their location in the out of bounds. Similarly, during the Mother Brain fight, the Super Metroid can still find the out of bounds player and latch onto them. Conserving space time in any manner during the Mother Brain fight will cause graphics to rapidly distort during Rainbow Beam. Once Rainbow Beam ends, the entire chamber will appear to be filled with acid. Similarly, during the Mother Brain fight, the Super Metroid's colors can become inverted or black after space time is unleashed. Unlike other bosses that move around on a floor with legs such as Torizos, Mother Brain will not sink into the out of bounds abyss if a normal space time shot is fired. If space time was enabled in the save file used to warp to the intro cutscene, it will be enabled once the player lands on Ceres as well. Similar to Grapple Beam, Wave/Spazer/Plasma normal shots (a.k.a. Chainsaw Beam) are not capable of unleashing conserved space time. VIRTUAL CONSOLE =============== Virtual Console seems to act similarly to computer emulators. Two differences I have seen between Virtual Console and other platforms: * I have been unable to trigger the escape on Virtual Console in the pre-moat room without firing the charge aimed up+left, resulting in limited options for triggering the escape there. * The ship area does not crash from space time being used, making it the safest area to use space time in. When space time is executed in -any- manner in the ship area on Virtual Console, the ship turns completely red, the top info bar turns black, and the game immediately stabilizes. The top layer of blocks becomes filled with garbage, and the game only crashes if you attempt to use the ship afterward. The info bar returns if you exit the area, but the top info bar becomes filled with a repeating improper texture. Besides zsnes, I am not sure what other platforms do not crash in the ship area when space time used. [The information in this pastebin was found mainly via lsnes, results on console may vary] ~ 7/17/14 - Added Virtual Console section 8/30/14 - Added info regarding charging during Bomb/PB, pseudo-Screw, and a conservation method 3/12/16 - Housekeeping