Hey, where can I get a good nssf/snsf player? And is there a program to convert them into wavs/mp3s?

I don't know about converting the NSF files to Wav or MP3, unless you used an audio editor like Gold Wave to record them while they were playing. Of course then you'd have to edit out any screen reader speach which can be a pain to do without compromising the rest of the recording. But you can get nsf players at www.zophar.net. In the nsf archive there's a link to nsf players. I recommend Festallon. It's a Winamp plugin that you can just run and install. I recommend it because it uses the standard winamp keys (v to stop, x to play, z and b as rewind and fastforward), so it's fairly accessible with a screen reader. Also, it has the truest NES sound I've heard from such players and it doesn't seem to have problems playing nearly as many nsf files as, say, nosefart. Nosefart's another nsf plugin for Winamp, but while it has excellent sound it has problems playing some nsf files that Festallon seems to handle fairly well. So I'd go for Festallon since it seems to play more reliably. And it's an executable, so you can just run it from its current location and it'll install to the right directory. Then you should just be able to open an nsf from within Winamp. Me, I've got quite a few on my Laptop including the original Metroid.

Hmmm, I've been having a few problems with winamp plugins recently. Snesamp, my Tfmxx (amingar format), and the highly experimental Gim format plugin for Mega drive stuff all are fine, however I've had real trouble with the plugins for psf playstation format and Gsf Gameboy advanced format, they crash winamp if you install both of them, and occasionally one or other of them has gone splerky on me.

I'll try the Nes thing out though Brian, sinse from what you say it sounds about as stable and reliable as Snesamp. (I've got a backup of my plugins folder anyway).

To get back to audio metroid, I can certainly see the advantages of the blocs system, sinse it'd let you create whatever kind of maze you wanted. I'd also imagine, that it wouldn't be too hard to have the block's coordinates accessible to the player, either by sapi, by a spoken wav, or even by a pop up message box that Hal or Jaws would read (this method might be a litle more clunky, but I'm guessing would be the easiest to program).

As well as the issues you mentioned with monsters and other objects though sk8, I also wonder if it would be difficult to have different background music and sfx play in different locations, sinse imho the diversity of the worlds in games like metroid was one of the things that made exploration so much fun. You could walk through a door in the firey core of the planet, and find a passage leading you back to the water area.

The data chips idea Aaron is a good one, especially when dealing with a plot where you need to find out about past events (such as the death of the survey team).

I wouldd however like to see at least a litle in character dialogue in the game just to add progression to the plot.

Perhaps though, the data chips system could be a good way of introducing subquests and exploration without having to muck about with loads of deviations from the main story?

for example, you find a data chip that mentions records of an ancient and powerful weapon with a clue to where these records might be. You then need to go to the area and find the data chips of the records, and eventually track down the weapon after hunting lots of monsters for their chips.

It might also be a chance for some rather cunning litle puzles, both in terms of complicated directions and in terms of riddles about which monsters have the answers.

For at least some of the logues, you could also use either text files o sapi to cut down on file size.

Wellthe different areas thing feels true to Metroid. That was part of the fun. The planet had a number of diverse climates, from aquatic areas to jungles to volcanic cavers. You could usually access the other areas via elevators, assuming of course that you had the proper suit upgrade to survive there.
  As for the stats thing, I honestly feel that would ruin the spirit of Metroid. You never had to main your equipment in the Metroid games, and anyway part of the fun was finding and acquiring the different upgrades to your suit. So if you remove that you detract from the game.

Muhahaha, the stealth levels! Those are always great. Relatively little equipment to worry about; just gotta watch yourself and conserve!
Yes, I'm thinking maze platformer here. Each row is stacked on another and you move up and down. Not like galaxy ranger where it's flat and more 3d-ish.
HEre, I'll try to explain flat and the other maze thing:
Imagine you have a grid. If it's laying down infront of you, that's flat, like galaxy ranger. Now stand it up on end, and you have my version.

I'm sure if you want an idea, vgmusic.com has the music. I know it's only midi music, but it could give you an idea at least. I've never been able to find many real game soundtracks.

Hey,
I found a snes player on zophar that's really awesome! It has a wave converter too, so that's hugely awesome!
It seems a bit harder to get like n64 soundtracks, which I am really sad about. I'm also sad that I can't get snes and gb soundtracks.

It's actually kinda funny, but Galbadia Hotel also has the soundtrack to the original Home Alone game for NES. It was funny as heck. Then there was one of my favorite games, Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance. Somebody ought to consider doing an audio version of Baldur's Gate, though from its now sadly departed web site that's what Castle Quest was seemingly shaping up to be.

Well sk8, unfortunately the snes music sets available are just that, music. then again I believe the snesmusic site has various tools for ripping both the music and sound effects from actual Snes roms, though I'm not sure exactly how that works.

Bsc games lost many points in my estimation by cancelling Cq. Then again che martin has expressed an interest (and only a vague interest), in doing some sort of audio rpg in the future. with all the capabilities he's got for online stuff, and how interesting rail racer turned out to be (it impressed me, and I don't even like racing games too much), that should be good.

True, though at one time he also mentioned plans for a kick boxing gam e as well, which might also be fun. One rather sad thing it seems in Ag developement, is that someone will come out with one or two cracking titles and then just stop. this seems to have happened with all of what i used to think of as the Big three, Draconis, gma and Bsc (though Draconis did have something or other to do with Sarah, I got the idea that the majority of the work was done by Phil vlasac), though I suppose Draconis did come up with that site chatting service or whatever it is, pluss Stanley's christmas game, so we at least know they're stil doing something.

Imho it's especially sad about Gma, sinse they have the potential to do some great stuff (I would have put my odds on them for an audio rpg at one point, given shades of doom and tank commander).

It does seem a bit weerd that for every new up and coming developer of accessible games, another seems to grind to a halt.
Just out of interest Sk8, how would you use the music in programming? I'm not precisely sure whether your allowed to use actual mp3 versions of Snes game music in games, though I won't start a big copywrite discussion here sinse I think there are about three going on already on this forum at the moment.

If that is indeed what Che martin is planning on doing I'll be incredibly sad, as I said, the only reason I can think of as to why people might have had issues with Rail racer is the way it used a keyboard rather than curser keys as it's main in put, sinse that made it almost impossible for someone to just stick on the game without reading the instructions and at least vaguely play it.

As far as audio Metroid goes, if we are going with a different plot, it would seem logical to have different music for the game's environments anyway, especially sinse a lot of the Metroid music is very much tied to the Metroid universe, ---- eg, a set theme for Samus's appearence, acquiring items and the title screen used in every Metroid game.