Metroid Prime LOCKUPS?!
 

ARGH! NO!! This is so very much not funny. 3 times, when I go up the elevator to get to Chozo Ruins, the game LOCKS UP. The system and game were bought last night, and the disc has no marks on it. Is this just bad luck or what?

Happened to me once there as well. And in one other spot, mid-game, not on an elevator.

I've heard if you move the control stick in the elevator that can cause lock-ups. The game is kind of buggy though, kind of a pity. I haven't had any lockups, but I have had a lot of small framerate skips, and some other problems with the "seamless loading." Still a great game though.

i had one lockup the whole game

No lockups for me, but do notice the "Seamless loading" once and a while.

ive had the elevator problem happen to me three or four times in the same spot. I thought it was because it was a rental.

I noticed more seamless loading issues in Halo than in this one... Could be because in Halo it tells you what's it's doing on the screen though. :)

Yep. Three crash bugs. Nice work testers!

I have a hard time believing the test team missed that one.

Could be something that was just random enough they decided to ship with it to make their date.

Such things do happen.

-Naan

Erm, my friends and I have successfully recreated the same lock up on three copies on three machines. (that's what us testers do). Not very random.

I still find it hard to believe any test team worth a crap would have missed that.

I'm still leaning towards the some person higher up the food chain shipped it anyway theory.

And I'm well aware of what us testers do. :)

-Naan

Nann,

I agree completely. it's probably more along the lines of Nintendo and Retro okaying the bug because it is infrequent on the grand scheme of the game. My bet is the testers found it and the higher ups okayed it to ensure it made the 4th quarter.

3 of my friends have also experienced lockups a number of times on that elevator, and completely random as well.

It's sad when a known issue gets okayed... let's all pour a little out for the integrity of the game. ;)

Can you guys explain how you got it to lock up? I've tried to lock it up about 30 times now with no luck.

What are you doing exactly that creates the freeze?

This situation makes me curious about a couple of things. Is it possible there are more then one version of the game available? (doubtful) Or maybe it is a hardware issue that only exists in some GC's.

Again, if you could provide a "list" of things to create the bug I'd greatly appreciate it.

In my experience... almost every game has some crash.. known or unknown.. and other major playability flaws that compromise the integrity of every game. Whether it's the transparency issue in GTA: Vice City or the camera issues in Mario Sunshine... and so on.. there are thousand of issues we never come across or do and have to deal with... it sucks when a game freezes and you have to start over.. no doubt... but does it compromise the game to the point where you want to take it back? .. IMO.. I'd rather return games (and have) that have serious balance issues.. and horrible control... such as Hunter: The Reckoning then a game cause it has a minor memory leak crash... now if it's seriously repeatable.... like a sound or functionality crash... then forget everything I said. :) Just my opinion...

Yeah, I had been playing for an hour when it crashed. Then I was later in the game and had been playing an hour when it crashed again.

I told my friend if it crashed one more time I was taking it back. He didn't believe me. But Metroid Prime isn't the best game ever, I would rather take it back without finishing it then waste another hour because of a crash.

I didn't have any crashes in Metroid, but Vice City and NBA 2K3 have locked up on me several times.

I admit it really sucks. I will remember not to move the control stick in an elevator.

We encountered the same crash in the same spot - 100% repeatable, regardless of touching the controller while on the elevator. However, we only encountered it in Hard mode. It was irritating enough that we stopped playing (at least we had already beaten it once at that point).

I almost don't wanna finish not because of the issues you guys are encountering.... I'm really enjoying it... best game ever... I doubt it. But could be a top 10.. i'm havin fun.. but if I crash.. well we'll see then. :)

I locked up about 4 or 5 times in Metroid, each time in ball form. Also locked up last weekend in Splinter Cell ><

Well I played it again and all went well.. so strange that it happened to me 3 times in a row. So from the other replies in this thread I'm going to guess that exchanging for another copy is futile. I'll report back here if anything else happens.

Again, can anybody please list what exactly you did to get it to crash???

At this point I'm most interested in this elevator situation. But if you can list another row of events to cause a crash please list it also!

Nothing. I just entered the elevator, and while the camera was flailing around everywhere for no reason, it locked, same place, 3 times.

I was able to play all the way through the game without a lockup. Does it only happen on elevators to certain levels, or just any of the elevators?

So is this only in hard mode? I've beaten the game and so have a few other people I know and we never had a lock up. However, I never went back to play hard mode.

No.. it's not hard mode. Did you read the first post? "The game and system were bought last night." (Well, 2 nights ago now).. And so far it's only happened to me in that one spot, the elevator to Chozo Ruins, but I haven't gotten to play much.

From Keith, the master of crashing:

"It's after the first guy that swallows the ball and you blow him up.. and then you get some platforms to rise and go into the door that is now available to you (West Furnace Access) and it's a long twisting loading hallway and if you stay paralel to the wall and strafe you can get it to freeze. I have only had it happen the first time through though.. after that it just kind of sputters occasionaly."

It only freezes the first time you've ever been in that hallway. After that, if you repeat the steps it just stutters.

I meant to ask about something else, but didn't quote it. My mistake. I'll consider myself lucky for having no lockups on this game. I've had enough on NBA 2K3 to suit me fine.

It does sound hit-n-miss. Though nobody has had it so much that it's caused them to take the game back or other methods of anger. The magic number seems to be 3-4 so perhaps I've hit my quota early.

:D

Regardless
 

http://news.excite.com/tech/article/id/291908|technology|12-31-2002::10:46|reuters.html

'Metroid Prime' Takes Wide Game of Year Honors

Dec 31, 10:42 am ET

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - It's a dark game, featuring lots of action, lots of suspense -- and a woman in one ferocious-looking spacesuit.
As 2002 winds down, editors of video game publications across the country are compiling their "best of" lists, and two of the top game sites on the Internet agreed last week that Nintendo Co. Ltd.'s (7974.OS) long-awaited "Metroid Prime," for the company's own GameCube console, is Game of the Year.

Both GameSpot, a division of CNET Networks Inc. (CNET.O), and GameSpy named "Metroid," a first-person action game, as their pick for top title.

"Metroid" was released in November and was the No. 2 title for the month in the United States, based on units sold, according to market research service NPDFunworld.

Buzz grew around the game, which features the female adventurer Samus Aran, after a strong showing at E3, the industry's annual trade show, in Los Angeles in May. It is the latest in a franchise that stretches back to the original Metroid game on Nintendo's 1980s NES console.

"What nobody was prepared for was (a) game so amazing that it redefined what a first-person console game could be," GameSpy said in its awards roundup.

Though a number of leading video game publishers have warned in recent weeks of weaker-than-expected results for the holiday quarter, owing to shifting retail and consumer patterns, 2002 is still expected to be a record sales year for the U.S. game industry.


Chris

umm..
To me it sounds a lot like two things.
I think it may be a little of both hardware and software.
I'll have to check the specs of what proc and video chipset the gcs use and if different models may have some different hardware.

I'm betting it's a line of code dealing with graphics output to screen.
Check your gcs for heat, after playing a game with a ton of graphics feel around your gc and find where the most amount of heat is coming from.
Try placing the gc on a flat surface and not your carpet.
Take a fan or two and have them blowing on the area(s) where it get's the hotest and drop the temp in your home about 5 degrees.
Let the gc cool for about 40 mins and start playing again.
Please post your results here if you find anything with what I have suggested.
If I'm not here (shameless plug) you can find me at www.hardforums.com it's a hardware forum :-p

For any hardware gurus or fantics out there I found some specs info on the gc.

Some nice pics of the hardware inside the system:
http://www.geocities.com/rabidsmily/.../Gamecube.html

Nice layout and easy to read specs:
http://hankfiles.pcvsconsole.com/answer.php?file=164

http://www.pcvsconsole.com/features/...s/gamecube.php

Too bad the SD Memory card adaptor never was released. That would have solved all memory card concerns.

Desided to get the offical specs from nintendo.
http://www.nintendo.com/systems/gcn/specifications.jsp

Gotta say, sounds like a hardware (heat) problem to me. I've played the game thru Phazon Mines, and had no problem at all. I usually play for only an hour at a time, and have my cube on a wood floor, room temp at 65 degrees F. The Cube I have was bought the day it was released. I bought Metroid the day it was released also (mentioned in case these are issues).

It's not heat. The first time it happened to me was within 5 minutes of turning on the cube and starting a game. I went down an elevator, then immediately went up the same one...froze.

I've had it crash on me once. It was in the first couple hours I was playing, which was over a month ago, so I don't remember where it happened at.

Haven't had any problems in the 10 or so hours I've played since then.

I don't think it's heat related either.

My copy crashed a couple times, always on the elevator up to the Chozo Ruins. It shows the animations of Samus riding up on the elevator, then just as the screen swaps to show the elevator landing platform the game crashes.

After a reboot and retry, everything was fine.

I suspect that it's a loading problem, since the seamless loading is probably reading the Chozo Ruins data from disc at that point.

There's probably an intermittent timing glitch where the elevator can reach the top before the level data has been loaded. Instead of a pause, like a couple other points in the game, it just crashes.

I've been platying it since launch & haven't had 1 lock up