Weird Metroid technology

[Valigarmander]

We've already had threads wondering how the morph ball and the grapple beam work. There's a few other things in the Metroid series that I can't figure out, though.

• How does Samus's scan visor give her in-depth descriptions and tactical information about items and creatures that have likely never been seen before by anyone (such as everything on Phaaze) in plain English? Is the scan visor psychic? I made a comic about this once.
• Where does Samus hide her nigh-infinite stockpiles of missiles and bombs? The Prime games seem to handwave this by having them appear as pure energy, yet in the 2D games they seem like conventional missiles and bombs. Is her arm cannon a miniature weapons factory?
• Regardless of whether or not the bombs are energy or not, how does Samus spawn them when in morph ball mode? They just seem to pop out of her. Does she slide them out through the cracks in her morph ball?
• The charge combos from Echoes are ridiculous. The Darkburst combo creates a highly unstable dimensional rift that rips apart the molecular structure of nearby creatures and sucks them into another dimension. The Sunburst basically creates a miniature star. The Sonic Boom generates a powerful sonic blast that distorts reality. Einstein must be looking down at this weeping.
• Samus isn't the only one with crazy weaponry. Kanden's hand-held Volt Driver from Hunters draws energy from the planet's electromagnetic field and converts it into multi-terawatt bursts of energy. To put things into perspective, the total power used by humans worldwide in 2006 was 16 terawatts. Ironically enough, the Volt Driver is one of the weaker weapons in the game.
• Weavel's Battlehammer weapon (also hand-held) is powered by a small nuclear reactor. Real small, I guess.
• Spire's Magmaul is powered by a "hyperstatic hydrogen core". In other words, it utilizes hydrogen in the same manner as stars.
• Sylux's Shock Coil fires a beam of high-density neutrinos to damage enemies. Wait, what?

It just bugs me. Feel free to share any theories or explanations, or add any other things from the games that you don't get.

[Robotazy]

Originally Posted by Valigarmander

How does Samus's scan visor give her in-depth descriptions and tactical information about items and creatures that have likely never been seen before by anyone (such as everything on Phaaze) in plain English? Is the scan visor psychic? I made a comic about this once.

The Scanner scans the planet than searches for any information on the planet, including rumors, and fables.

Where does Samus hide her nigh-infinite stockpiles of missiles and bombs? The Prime games seem to handwave this by having them appear as pure energy, yet in the 2D games they seem like conventional missiles and bombs. Is her arm cannon a miniature weapons factory?

The Missile and Bombs are small enough to be in tiny compartments on the suit. They expand when fired

Regardless of whether or not the bombs are energy or not, how does Samus spawn them when in morph ball mode? They just seem to pop out of her. Does she slide them out through the cracks in her morph ball?

The shoot out of her legs, which is where the morph balls are hidden.

Or the suit creates energy that blows things up. One or the other.

The charge combos from Echoes are ridiculous. The Darkburst combo creates a highly unstable dimensional rift that rips apart the molecular structure of nearby creatures and sucks them into another dimension. The Sunburst basically creates a miniature star. The Sonic Boom generates a powerful sonic blast that distorts reality. Einstein must be looking down at this weeping.

Hey, it's possible.

Samus isn't the only one with crazy weaponry. Kanden's hand-held Volt Driver from Hunters draws energy from the planet's electromagnetic field and converts it into multi-terawatt bursts of energy. To put things into perspective, the total power used by humans worldwide in 2006 was 16 terawatts. Ironically enough, the Volt Driver is one of the weaker weapons in the game.

Well, it takes terawatts to use it, but it may take that much to actually use it.

Also, wtf Kanden is an energy waster.

[*] Weavel's Battlehammer weapon (also hand-held) is powered by a small nuclear reactor. Real small, I guess.

It's possible

[*] Spire's Magmaul is powered by a "hyperstatic hydrogen core". In other words, it utilizes
hydrogen in the same manner as stars.

Possible.

[*] Sylux's Shock Coil fires a beam of high-density neutrinos to damage enemies. Wait, what?[/list]

Made up Metal?

[Cosmonautical]

Neutrino - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

What I don't get is how Neutrinos could be harmful. It would have to be really ****ing dense, and it would be just like getting hit by physical matter, afaik.

Man, I've gotta get me some of that oscillating flavor they're talking about.

[Rainbow Dash]

why do you care about hunters

[Valigarmander]

^^ Indeed. A gun that gently blew air in peoples' faces would probably have more negative consequences. Maybe it's some crazy future space magic?

^ BECAUSE

Also, certain creatures (Gerutas, Holtzes, some types of Rippers) appear to have rockets coming out of them, or at least shoot fire out of some part of their body to propel themselves in a manner similar to a rocket. How the heck did they evolve that trait? Or are they just mechanical grafts added to them by the Chozo or the Space Pirates? Or are they just robots?

[Cosmonautical]

Well, I'd have to say the Rippers have always been rather mechanical looking to me. I like the grafted idea and all, though. There have been a few out-of-game characterizations of enemies in older publications that depicted sidehoppers, desgeegas, etc, as intelligent creatures using tools - that could explain a lot. Ever since Super Metroid, which had the ability to depict them in that fashion, they've always been shown as either mindless drones or just very animalistic. Then again, sidehoppers are ****ing insane as a concept. I think what you'll have to consider is that the Space Pirates do a ridiculous amount of both genetic and mechanical experimentation with little regard to preconceived logic, probably because they have no inhibitions regarding cloning. Just use Meta-Ridley and Super-Mother-Brain as your examples, and think logically from there.

[Valigarmander]

BUMP

I've thought of a few more things that kind of bug me. They're not necessarily related to technology, but I figured they may as well go in this thread.

• How does shooting floating or flying enemies with the Ice Beam suspend it midair?
• I just realized that at the beginning of Prime, you see Ridley escape the frigate and fly towards Tallon IV. Fly. As in, flapping his wings to propel himself. In space.
• The Parasite enemies in Prime aren't parasites... they're scavengers.
• Why are all the (presumably Luminoth-constructed) doors on Aether too short for the Luminoth?
• Blastcaps, native to Tallon IV, appear on Alinos and Arcterra in Hunters. The scan log claims that Blastcap spores can survive in outer space and are spread to other planets, carried by solar winds. This raises a few questions. One, how do the spores escape Tallon IV's atmosphere in the first place? Second, not only are Alinos and Arcterra not in the same solar system as Tallon IV, they're in a different galaxy. Most galaxies are separated by millions of parsecs (or, millions of trillions of miles) of empty space. It takes millions of years for light to travel that far.

[MeowMan]

Originally Posted by Valigarmander

Blastcaps, native to Tallon IV, appear on Alinos and Arcterra in Hunters. The scan log claims that Blastcap spores can survive in outer space and are spread to other planets, carried by solar winds. This raises a few questions. One, how do the spores escape Tallon IV's atmosphere in the first place? Second, not only are Alinos and Arcterra not in the same solar system as Tallon IV, they're in a different galaxy. Most galaxies are separated by millions of parsecs (or, millions of trillions of miles) of empty space. It takes millions of years for light to travel that far.

They survive in outer space. They make their civilization in space until they come across somewhere new to live.

[Blake]

Originally Posted by Malcolm X-Wing

[*] How does Samus's scan visor give her in-depth descriptions and tactical information about items and creatures that have likely never been seen before by anyone (such as everything on Phaaze) in plain English? Is the scan visor psychic? I made a comic about this once.

Google.