Super Metroid’s Mysterious Orange Geemer

[@GoldenChorizoCode]

Hey, everyone! :) A few viewers asked a GREAT question after I posted this video... If the “Orange Geemer Room” is technically a separate/independent room, what happens if you somehow enter those 2 blue doors when you’re not actually in the Orange Geemer Room? Here’s the answer. :) kzbin.info/www/bejne/a4uYZYxolJxgiLs

[@eternal4074]

Would you ever consider making a challenge that requires the orange geemer and the three unused enemies that you’ve covered? I feel like that would be a super cool idea!

[@mirahsan2]

I have a feeling it was devs building in a clue system on where a player could go next or where secrets could be? It’s more what modern gaming does though

[@anomalocarislover7254]

I always called this guy samus geemer, cause I thought he was using the varia suit color palette. I always enjoyed seeing him every play through :D

[@tehberral]

This enemy and the dead guy outside of Kraid's room have always fascinated me.

[@dragons_hook]

That crazy yellow blood...

[@yourehereforthatarentyou]

unrelated but i played this game with a friend once who had never played it but knew a bit about metroid. when we got to the little mini kraid right before real kraid i convinced him that was the actual kraid fight and he was like “what the fuck that sucked”

[@PrimoHidrux]

I've started to consider it's the lead from Turrican after learing that Turrican exsists, as they are kinda similar games and it kinda looks like em.

[@Agustin_Leal]

Do you have any link to a video where I can see that?

[@TenebrisGladius]

I think that is one of the investigation teams sent by the Galactic Federation before Samus.

[@pastaman64]

This is one of the things I love about retro games, sometimes they'd just have weird little things like this for no reason

[@labrynianrebel]

The Truck in Red/Blue

[@unkindled6410]

it probably had a reason but it was left unfinished due to limited deadlines or in the case of old games, hardware limitations. a game like super metroid required A LOT of optmizations, programing shortcuts, and other shenaningans to function properly under the snes limited capabilities for the scale the game wanted it to be. so no wonder there were some oversights left in the game, and i wouldnt doubt if it was possible to show everything discovered to the developers at the time, even things that arent necessarily bugs or exploits, i wonder how many they would say it wasnt intentional.

[@RandomPerson964]

I never realized it was a unique enemy, or that it followed Samus. I must've subconsciously thought it was an out-of-place Norfair enemy, and I would always just run past it.

[@madcap3450]

This game came out in 1994 and people are still talking about it in 2022! That alone proves the quality of super metroid

[@CosmoRetroGaming]

Definitely

[@profil-avitaravitar-profil7852]

Legendary status.

[@astracrits4633]

Moreover, it's not spoken of as "tarnished" or "clunky" in comparison to more modern games like a lot of games from that era are--even after 28 years, Super Metroid still feels relatively modern in terms of design. Hell, even Dread, despite all the advancements we've made in game design, only manages to match this game in quality, not surpass it.

[@olsonbryce777]

One of the first video games i ever played and even after hundreds of experiences since then, this is still my favorite. Atmosphere is too notch.

[@RealAyoTark]

That's what happens with quality games

[@butterflygroundhog]

I always thought this was just a friendly geemer that followed Samus around because they looked alike; never thought it was the first enemy's color palette thought!

[@omegamanGXE]

Yeah I thought it was friendly too :D

[@spicymeatballs2thespicening]

Me too 🥺

[@wonderguardstalker]

I used to love joking about him being deep lore. Glad there’s a video for him now

[@qactustick]

This video taught me both that the Geemer isn't actually orange and that the room it appears in isn't actually the same room you can see both from above and below. It's a shame that Geemer never really got used in the normal game, essentially being locked in a cage for players to wonder about despite its unique programming. I wonder why it's 'borrowing' a palette instead of using its own and why work was put in to make it more 'aggressive' than other Geemers?

[@sep7294]

borrowing palettes is pretty common in games on old consoles to save space.

[@WonderlandSnack]

Considering after they removed the first palette it copied another one, I’m gonna guess that it didn’t actually get a palette of its own

[@FirebladeXXL]

because borrowing palettes saves memory space. older games needed to be optimized a lot.

[@berylliosis5250]

@@FirebladeXXL memory space is valuable, but palette space is precious.

[@an3582]

This was probably some good ol details. Make a unique enemy that follows samus as she walks through this. Its cool and cinematic or whatever.

[@satellachannel6423]

This Geemer is a game-design tool to make the player wonder about that upper zone and make it go the right way in the derelict ship. Once you reach this area there is no other path than forward or falling into the trap/shortcut). If you get lost in the ship (not finding the destructible tubes?) and exit by where you enter, you get a reminder that there is something up there. He's following Samus to grab the attention and use a different palette to be more noticeable (orange on green is super bright while green on greenish grey.. well).

[@burritoman2k]

I never really noticed that that particular geemer was different from the others, though probably because it's just a little transition room its in

[@aaendi6661]

...and SNES games liked to palette swap just for the fun of it.

[@bookman85]

I was always plagued with wondering why this geemer existed. For years I looked online and there was never a peep about it. Now I see this video and the question is still not answered. That's a testament to the power of the unexplainable-ness of the orange geemer.

[@hailstar2075]

I'm convinced the developers added the orange geemer in just to troll people. They knew we would try to look for him outside that tunnel, and he's nowhere to be found. Could it be that super metroid rooms require at least one entity to function, so they had to put him in there?

[@whee2390]

can't be that, there are plenty of rooms with no enemies

[@givlupi2686]

I'm pretty sure there are rooms without any entities

[@GarryDumblowski]

There are a couple of other rooms with no entities, though. The hallway to Tourian, for example. Then again, maybe the fog effect in that room counts as an entity.

[@ImSquiggs]

To me it looks like an attempt at making a otherwise boring room memorable/interesting, which is extra important in an open game like this to help with people's sense of direction.

[@recycle6389]

and the beginning of the game

[@EODTex]

This has been my favorite enemy for a long time, mostly because it's pretty much an unused enemy but still made it in as an easter egg. I never knew that about its color palette though.

[@TheRelaxRehab]

I believe the Orange Geemers was mostly cut content, and more then likely they forgot to remove that one, or didn't have time to remove it and left it in sense it didn't pose a threat. I always thought that maybe it was an experiment of the Mother brain that got loose, sense you do get the Varia suit after defeating Kraid, and the reason why it followed you was it was hungry for more power due to the experiment with the Varia power. sense Super Metroid was in lot of ways of telling a story through environment.

[@mresturk9336]

I figured it was a enemy that technically went unused the devs later decided to place in that room as sight gag. An oddity for people to talk about.

[@TheMastertbc]

easter egg cut enemy

[@GarryDumblowski]

I feel like I saw these guys used as actual enemies in a hack once. When you're isolated from them they're kind of cute, but their chasing behavior can be remarkably annoying, especially in tight spaces. I don't remember what the hack was. SM Nature, maybe? Eris? Eris seems like the kind of hack to do that.

[@metroid031993]

There's a bunch of hacks that will redo the sprite and use it. Often used in puzzles since you can decide where it goes, and might have to have it traverse a maze or obstacle course. Not sure if Eris uses it tbh.

[@GarryDumblowski]

@@metroid031993 I actually just replayed Eris, and it doesn't use this enemy anywhere. Nature uses it a couple times, but nothing particularly obnoxious. Maybe it was Airy or something (which I still need to beat...)

[@yuriridley6180]

I've always been fascinated with this guy...

[@nicknookah8029]

I love niche videos like this. Nobody asked for this and yet it's still so interesting.

[@fattypros82]

Awesome info, crazy to know the room is separate and the actual pallet is from the platforms!

[@tacticaljunk1608]

My guess is that it's a cut enemy for being too annoying when trying to climb platforms quickly and the janky flip out when he can't follow you anymore so they just stuck him in a random room to make the world feel a little bigger.

[@artey6671]

I never knew that enemy is anything special. Thanks, man. Also, interesting to know about the colour palette and that the room isn't really the same one. My guess is that they didn't want it as a normal enemy because of stuff like at 1:59 and instead of throwing it away, they used it as a decoration.

[@canttellyousorryaboutthat716]

Thanks for making a video about this! It's pretty dang cool IMHO, and I'd figure I'd drop why I think it's in the game Looking at its behavior, it attempts to follow Samus while remaining on a different horizontal axis than her, to me this suggests it was probably used to test mirroring Samuses movement for a mirroring effect. At one point the room may have been used to test this in context of an in game map, and the entity itself wasn't removed because it was either extremely risky to do so or because nobody noticed it.

[@triskelion86]

I always thought the orange geemir was a tribute to Samus for defeating some of the big bosses of Zebes, just right before he gets the Gravity Suit. Same thing with the rain/stop-raining and music change in Criteria after you defeat Kraid. The game is telling you that you're becoming a hero!

[@isprobablyjobhunting]

I always thought that one looked a whole lot like the ones from NES metroid.

[@omegamanGXE]

Yes!!

[@Vaporewave]

finally someone goes over it

[@CappnRob]

I knew this enemy was reusing a palette but I always assumed it was using the palette of the Varia suit, so color me surprised lol. What a weird random enemy.

[@travisanderson9766]

Thank you! I've been asking about that for years now and nobody could answer me til now!

[@maxhay9098]

People always ask "What is Orange Geemer?" Nobody ever asks "HOW is Orange Geemer?"

[@leothetiger13]

Just found this channel. Right up my alley. Love the content, GCC.

[@ಠಎಠ]

Interesting! I remember noticing that guy when playing and his odd colors, but didn't really pay attn to him beyond that. Never realized that he tracks your movement like that. Amazing that after 28 years and maybe ten playthroughs, I'm still learning new things about this game. Truly the crown jewel of the Metroid franchise.

[@ThatGuy-eq9mz]

Keep in mind this game is 28 years old and is still relevant.

[@Tanooki88]

Finally! I have closure on this unique Geemer! I have ALWAYS pondered on the existence of this critter every time i passed by it.

[@asinglebraincell6584]

Everytime I see gameplay of super metroid it makes me want to replay it so badly. It's just so well done, the creators had a flash of genius with this

[@MetabolicFrolic]

Wow. After all these years I never realized that this was a completely unique Geemer! That's awesome!

[@ValcomDrifty]

I wonder if this geemer was used more, then some dev used a different palette and it made it look like Samus. So they put it there as a small little Easter egg

[@armoredcorefan2719]

The gray one at 0:28 can only be destroyed with the bombs and plasma beam.

[@shadowxtremo]

Nice video! Always wondered about this, also I liked the portal closing sound falling just in beat at 0:04.

[@JillofTrades]

"And the reason the Orange Geemer has these colors is because..." IT'S FROM SAMUS'S PALLETTE! "It's "borrowing" the palette of this enemy (Nova/Sova)" *surprised pikachu face*

[@LampreySocks]

I always thought the Samus-Coloured Geemer was just a neat easter egg. Very cool to see that there’s a interesting coding explanation for it

[@DJBendytheFox]

Very interesting video! I was guessing at 1:02 to be the green space pirates but I wasn't expecting the platforms! When I played Super Metroid I always just ran past it with no thought as to why it was there.

[@shocked_shocked7703]

I always thought it was an Easter egg as a Samus-palette geemer.

[@metashy344]

I cant help but to think that this guy Is just a left over from an earlier build of the game, same whit that room in general, It seems so... unfinished in a way... Im just happy he Is a guy who exists :)

[@Darkfawfulx]

I love how this video is done entirely with text. Feels old school.

[@FrenchLightningJohn]

the end was heartbreaking, the killing of my orange geemer multiple time make me sadly unable to like this video :'(

[@scottcameron3030]

lmao john, im sorry

[@male_04]

this is why i am subscribed with notifications

[@bezoticallyyours83]

It's Samus suit colored. I don't recall seeing it.

[@TheGreenKnight500]

I never even noticed that thing before. I guess I always went through that room too fast to notice.

[@richardxavier5442]

I never knew that room was actually two different rooms in the game's code. I always thought it was just the camera locking in place when you went through the corridor. What would happen if you go through those blue doors when you approach from above or below?

[@lankymaccrazyhair264]

Wow, i never thought about how unique this enemy is to this one area. It has a surprising unique ai for an enemy that's only used once

[@bobbycorwen]

I always noticed that it had Samus's color palette so I always just assumed it was just a fun little nod

[@HelenaQuintanilla]

I always thought that little fellow was kind of odd. I thought that it was hiding some sort of mystery or special ability or I had to performed an extremely pixel perfect trick lol Thanks!

[@magnum3.14]

Are there other examples of rooms being different rooms depending on circumstance? (For example the big room you can tube through in Maridia) What happens if you go through the doors of the "overworld" version of the room?

[@fen4554]

I remember at school, there was a rumor about the spike suit. You had to perform 100 wall jumps off sporespawn and his dead body would crash through the floor and reveal a new tunnel that lead to an area under the dead space ship. There you could get the spike suit upgrade which had a melee attack. 25 years later and go figure, samus does have a melee.

[@ViddyOJames]

it resembled samus's varia palette so it makes me assume that it was a little easter egg "samus buddy" thing

[@AntAuntGaming]

My first thought was is that the lil fella took on Samus' orange to scare off predators, as they would definitely be afraid of her at this point in the game

[@n0refuge]

I always figured it was a call back to the classic nes Metroid Geemer.

[@gameygeemer4142]

Damn, I fucking love learning about Geemers

[@Gator_64]

I always thought it was like Samus' pet because it's the same colors as her Varia Suit and would follow her.

[@animeking1357]

Oh my god I didn't know it tried to follow Samus. Precious boy.

[@chrisstanton70]

this is the guy i remember every time i see one of those spikey spiders

[@glegboel8302]

I always thought of it as a reference to the the orginal geemer in metroid 1 nes

[@prizm9515]

I was always confused as to why I couldn't ever find him. I always thought he had a missile pack or something.

[@marcusbullock630]

This was a technique for freeing up game memory back in the day. Final fantasy does alot of this, makes it frustrating to hack and alter images, particularly the npcs

[@p1austin767]

KZbin recommendation algorithm giving me good content 😎

[@gurvmlk]

Huh. Never before noticed that it was a unique enemy, let alone that it followed Samus. That's such a short hallway with nothing going on, I've always just ran through it without concerning myself with the enemy that can't reach me anyway.

[@serioussponge6416]

When I first played the game, I used to think that it was trying to be a Samus Doppelganger, since it uses almost the exact same colors as Samus' Varia Suit.

[@ScrambledAndBenedict]

I bet the reason for that thing is the developers created the version of a Geemer that chases Samus, and then either decided it was too buggy or too gimmicky to use as an enemy. Then someone decided, either on a whim or because they found it to be silly, to toss it into that one room as an Easter Egg.

[@yaboyreege7158]

I guess it kinda makes sense that this greener follows Samus around since a few of the other enemies in wrecked ship do the same thing. The ghosts that appear when the power is still off do this, and also the atomic does this

[@artemirrlazaris7406]

I remember making starcraft one mods.. .and one thing is once you have your base unit properties. you typically copy it over and then begin experiementing on code intereaction wit hsay a graphic user interface, they could of explored a code or intereaction taht just didn't quite work out but left it is as an ode to the work, like 3-4 maybe even a week spent on the guy. Auto pathing is easy... It looks like they wanted mirror pathing, and it would bug out when attached to a surface through animations of left and right... there could be ways to fix this such as when x does x action of animation, change animation frame and do this. Fall off place, or stretch out to attack or shoot at metroid... or the later fixes I seen with mirror movements is over pathing and then return.. over pathing.. to teh target away, sort of a wobbly balance things. lol

[@DobbsyLondon]

I got the game on release as a birthday present for my 12th birthday. I'm 40 soon, and I just found put about "x-ray climb"....

[@GabrielRodriguez-ex9qd]

I just figured it was a little reminder that Samus was no longer going to stay the same color when she underwent the Gravity Suit upgrade.

[@KiyokaMakibi]

I don't think up until now that I noticed it only appears when you enter via the doors. How strange! I wonder why its like that.

[@SimpleGuy728]

Sweey early, AND more super metroid content

[@DarlexGardenWarden]

I think it's based on the stronger red Geemers from the original Metroid

[@jqg4m3r63]

My thought is that is a reference to Samus Power Suit who has similar or the exact colors in it.

[@DreamingSora]

GREAT video. Love super metroid.

[@GTA2SWcity]

Interesting easter egg you've discovered on an old classic game.

[@CriticalChaosx]

At first I thought the orange geemer was an x-parasite, because it doesn’t show up anywhere else and it’s only in that area

[@MatthewCampbell765]

If I had to guess, they put him in there for ambiance.

[@omarpikm2101]

Orange Geemer at 0:35 is a mood

[@omegamanGXE]

Lmao

[@Dragon_nerd_3]

I thought the greemer was an easter egg that the developers were thinking further into the game before Metroid 3 like a possible parasite X greemer

[@venomasmark14]

I always saw that it was known as the Samus Geemer due to its coloration

[@aleksaaleksic4353]

The green Geemer looks pretty

[@Livithen86]

I always knew it was different and just there for esthetics

[@dragons_hook]

"I may only take 1 HP from you, but mark my words Samus Aran! I will destroy you! Even if I have to hit you 1,782 times to do it!!!" -Orange Geemer

[@CosmoRetroGaming]

Hmm very interesting :) never thought about that enemy

[@googelle7555]

Whatever the video, a true player will ALWAYS save the animals! 🥰🥰🥰

[@AmaroqStarwind]

If only we could ask the SM devs

[@lpfan4491]

The geemer is cooler when orange rather than green, so they made the right call with the palette-overwrite. For why it's there, maybe that's another "Oversight oddity"-type situration. It happens a lot in game development that when an area is copied and changes are made, that the devs simply forget to adjust the other version of the map to match. As in, maybe this thing was meant to be a normal enemy, but then they thought it sucks and wanted it to remain unused(I mean, stuff like 0:08 does indeed not look great), yet they forgot to remove this one.

[@silvernado8644]

The Orange Geemer is the new Green Thwomp.

[@ozma6918]

NGL I was fully expecting a rickroll in this video...

[@KenanVonKaiser]

Samus Is Also Part Geemer!

[@TheMAZZTer]

Could be a cut enemy. It tends to spaz out if it wants to stay on a corner, and if Samus is on the other side of a platform it can't reach her. So it feels buggy and perhaps they cut it for that reason... the concept just didn't work out as well as they thought it would. They left one in a place where it didn't break as badly as an easter egg, I guess.

[@ryand.7650]

Someone with the knowledge to do so should make a mini hack or something dedicated to the orange geemer, and give him the game play time he deserves.

[@themanglenator1225]

how about the one orange skullterra?

[@thedagit]

I played at least one hack where killing this guy either kills samus or crashes the game. Now I'm always a little scared when I see this guy :)

[@threethousandbees7260]

"Oops! All Geemers!"

[@brandtmiles2373]

The orange geemer is clearly a sentient AI that went rogue and self-programmed a sanctuary for itself, adopting the color it wanted to be, rather than the color the programmers chose. The orange geemer sees itself like Samus, a creature of and with agency, which is why it mimics her movements by 'pursuing' Ms. Aran. In the original code, it was probably the blueprint or rough draft of all subsequent geemer types, which is why it possesses no color palette of its own and decided to hijack a color which is closer to Samus' own Varia suit.

[@whee2390]

I'm sorta surprised this guy hasn't become a meme yet because of just how weirdly out of place they are

[@pixledemon]

It's obviously the X parasite...