7 ms·

Interesting. I'd heard that the "Justin Bailey" password referred specifically to Samus' swimsuit, since "Bailey" is an Australian term for swimsuit, and the p

Interesting. I'd heard that the "Justin Bailey" password referred specifically to Samus' swimsuit, since "Bailey" is an Australian term for swimsuit, and the password could actually be read "Just In Bailey." So... weird coincidence? Or Aussies on the dev team? :)`

Laremere 13y ago
Weird coincidence. The password system had checksum variables so that it would be very unlikely for a password someone enters to be valid. However Justin Bailey just happens to succeed that checksum and also the game thinks it's a valid password it has generated. There is no coding within the game to make Justin Bailey specifically work.
minimaxir 13y ago
That's what I heard wayyy back in the 90's too. I subscribe to the theory that it was a Nintendo tester with an apropos name. I didn't say it in the post, but NARPAS SWORD, unlike Justin Bailey, is specifically coded into the game.
wmil 13y ago
Coincidence. The swimsuit is supposed to be unlocked by beating the game in under an hour. http://www.vgmuseum.com/end/nes/b/met.htm http://www.vgmuseum.com/end/nes/b/met.htm
- novaleaf 13y ago
  when i was a kid i unlocked the swimsuit by playing the game normally. i don't think i beat the game in under an hour, but I did think I did beat it twice (beating it takes you back to the beginning). funny nobody seems to be mentioning this... i didn't have access to nintendo power or any other cheat resources, so yeah, pretty supprising to find out my character was a girl at the end :P
  - wavefunction 13y ago
    first female video game protagonist? (upon further research, apparently that honor goes to Ms. Pacman) It blew my mind when I was about 8 years old, in a good way though. I still find it an interesting choice to leave the gender reveal to the end, playing upon our (or mine) expectations and trivializing gender all along the path to defeating Mother Brain!
kibibu 13y ago
As an Australian, I've never heard a swimsuit referred to as a "bailey". "Bathers" perhaps...
- gradstudent 13y ago
  The Metriod wiki also mentions this explanation; then promptly debunks it: http://metroid.wikia.com/wiki/Justin_Bailey http://metroid.wikia.com/wiki/Justin_Bailey BTW, I prefer cossies :p
T-hawk 13y ago
Strong evidence that Justin Bailey isn't a real password comes from the game state it yields, which is impossible by normal means. Samus has 255 missiles current but 205 max, and there are some other inconsistencies like missiles acquired behind doors that remain locked. It's just a wild coincidence that it happens to yield a Samus unarmored and with most of the powerups in the game. Any tales that Justin Bailey was a Nintendo developer or playtester, or anything about the swimsuit, are just fan inventions and retcon (a good deal of which was spread by Nintendo Power itself.) Of course the password must have had some real origin, someone found it sometime. Maybe someone goofing around typed in his own name or a friend's and got really surprised, or some really sharp 6502 hacker puzzled it out as a combination from reading the assembly code. (This was possible in the industry even back in that day, it's how Galoob produced Game Genie codes.) We'll never truly know, as any true claim would get lost in the forest of noise and urban legends. It would actually be pretty trivial nowadays to brute-force search for all combinations of 6-letter words that pass the Metroid password checksum. I recall seeing that online somewhere but can't find it now.

Laremere 13y ago

Weird coincidence. The password system had checksum variables so that it would be very unlikely for a password someone enters to be valid. However Justin Bailey just happens to succeed that checksum and also the game thinks it's a valid password it has generated. There is no coding within the game to make Justin Bailey specifically work.

minimaxir 13y ago

That's what I heard wayyy back in the 90's too. I subscribe to the theory that it was a Nintendo tester with an apropos name. I didn't say it in the post, but NARPAS SWORD, unlike Justin Bailey, is specifically coded into the game.

wmil 13y ago

Coincidence. The swimsuit is supposed to be unlocked by beating the game in under an hour. http://www.vgmuseum.com/end/nes/b/met.htm http://www.vgmuseum.com/end/nes/b/met.htm

novaleaf 13y ago
when i was a kid i unlocked the swimsuit by playing the game normally. i don't think i beat the game in under an hour, but I did think I did beat it twice (beating it takes you back to the beginning). funny nobody seems to be mentioning this... i didn't have access to nintendo power or any other cheat resources, so yeah, pretty supprising to find out my character was a girl at the end :P
- wavefunction 13y ago
  first female video game protagonist? (upon further research, apparently that honor goes to Ms. Pacman) It blew my mind when I was about 8 years old, in a good way though. I still find it an interesting choice to leave the gender reveal to the end, playing upon our (or mine) expectations and trivializing gender all along the path to defeating Mother Brain!

kibibu 13y ago

As an Australian, I've never heard a swimsuit referred to as a "bailey". "Bathers" perhaps...

gradstudent 13y ago
The Metriod wiki also mentions this explanation; then promptly debunks it: http://metroid.wikia.com/wiki/Justin_Bailey http://metroid.wikia.com/wiki/Justin_Bailey BTW, I prefer cossies :p

T-hawk 13y ago

Strong evidence that Justin Bailey isn't a real password comes from the game state it yields, which is impossible by normal means. Samus has 255 missiles current but 205 max, and there are some other inconsistencies like missiles acquired behind doors that remain locked. It's just a wild coincidence that it happens to yield a Samus unarmored and with most of the powerups in the game. Any tales that Justin Bailey was a Nintendo developer or playtester, or anything about the swimsuit, are just fan inventions and retcon (a good deal of which was spread by Nintendo Power itself.) Of course the password must have had some real origin, someone found it sometime. Maybe someone goofing around typed in his own name or a friend's and got really surprised, or some really sharp 6502 hacker puzzled it out as a combination from reading the assembly code. (This was possible in the industry even back in that day, it's how Galoob produced Game Genie codes.) We'll never truly know, as any true claim would get lost in the forest of noise and urban legends. It would actually be pretty trivial nowadays to brute-force search for all combinations of 6-letter words that pass the Metroid password checksum. I recall seeing that online somewhere but can't find it now.