Metroid Prime Archipelago Setup Guide

This guide covers installing the world, creating player settings, generating a multiworld, patching the game, and connecting with a friend.

Requirements

• Archipelago 0.6.2 or newer. ArchipelagoMine currently uses 0.6.7.
• The latest standard Dolphin Emulator.
• A legally obtained GameCube Metroid Prime ISO. NTSC-U, PAL, Japanese, and Korean releases are supported.
• The Metroid Prime APWorld download from the Metroid Prime game page.

Wii and Switch versions of the game are not supported.

Your ISO stays on your own computer. Do not upload it when creating a room. Archipelago generates and serves only a small .apmp1 player patch containing randomizer configuration, player identity, and room connection metadata; it contains no Metroid Prime game data.

Install the APWorld

Each person who generates or plays Metroid Prime should install the same APWorld version.

1. Download metroidprime.apworld from the Metroid Prime game page.
2. Open the Archipelago Launcher.
3. Select Install APWorld and choose the downloaded file.
4. Restart the launcher if it was already open.
5. Confirm that Metroid Prime Client appears in the launcher.

The APWorld includes its required py-randomprime and ppc-asm runtime files for Windows and Linux; no separate Python package installation is required.

Create player settings

Open Player Options for the normal settings form and YAML download. Use Advanced Options when you want weighted or randomized choices.

For a first game, the defaults are the safest starting point. Give each player a unique name, keep game: Metroid Prime, and share the exported YAML with the person generating the room.

Useful first-game choices:

• Keep Starting Room Randomization at Normal and Trick Difficulty at No Tricks.
• Keep door, blast-shield, elevator, and starting-beam randomization disabled until everyone is comfortable with the base world.
• Leave Artifact Hints, Pre Scan Elevators, and Spring Ball enabled.
• Lower Required Artifacts if you want a shorter session.
• Enable Death Link only if every participating player wants it.

Generate and host with ArchipelagoMine

1. Create a new room and upload every player's YAML.
2. Generate the multiworld.
3. Start the room server.
4. Give each Metroid Prime player their generated .apmp1 patch file. The ArchipelagoMine room page exposes this patch container—not a patched ISO—as the per-player download after generation.
5. Share the room hostname and port with all players.

For manual generation, place all YAML files in Archipelago's Players folder and run the normal Archipelago generator. Host the resulting .zip with ArchipelagoServer.

Patch and launch the game

1. Open the generated .apmp1 file. You can use Open Patch File in the Archipelago Launcher.
2. On first use, select your clean Metroid Prime GameCube ISO when prompted. It is read locally and is never sent to ArchipelagoMine.
3. Wait for the patched AP_....iso to be created locally beside the .apmp1 file. Patching a full GameCube disc image can take a while.
4. Launch the patched ISO in Dolphin.
5. In the Metroid Prime Client, enter the room hostname and port, then select Connect.
6. Use the exact slot name from your player YAML if the client asks for a name.

The main menu of a correctly patched game displays Archipelago Metroid Prime.

Optional automatic Dolphin launch

After opening a patch once, Archipelago adds metroidprime_options to host.yaml. Set rom_start to true when .iso files are already associated with Dolphin, or set it to the full path of Dolphin.exe.

Recommended connection order

If the client does not hook Dolphin reliably:

1. Close extra Dolphin processes; only one Dolphin instance should be running.
2. Start the Metroid Prime Client.
3. Start Dolphin and load the patched ISO.
4. Enter or create a save file and reach gameplay.
5. Connect the client to the Archipelago room.

In Dolphin, leave Enable Emulated Memory Size Override disabled under Config > Advanced.

Linux notes

The Dolphin Flatpak is the recommended Linux setup because Dolphin Memory Engine can connect to its process. The APWorld contains the Linux randomprime binary needed for patching.

Troubleshooting

The client is missing from the launcher

• Confirm metroidprime.apworld was installed into the same Archipelago installation you launched.
• Remove older Metroid Prime APWorld versions so only one copy is loaded.
• Delete %TEMP%\ap_metroidprime_temp_lib_* and restart Archipelago if an old extracted runtime is cached.

The client cannot connect to Dolphin

• Confirm the patched game's main menu says Archipelago Metroid Prime.
• Use a current standard Dolphin release while troubleshooting.
• Close all extra Dolphin instances.
• Disable Dolphin's emulated memory-size override.
• Follow the recommended connection order above.

Windows says the ISO is corrupted

File Explorer may try to mount the generated GameCube ISO and show a misleading Couldn't Mount File message. If the AP_....iso exists, open it directly in Dolphin.

The screen width changes during Meta Ridley

Set Dolphin's Graphics > General > Aspect Ratio to Force 4:3.

For world bugs, include the APWorld version, Archipelago version, game revision, settings YAML, and generation log in a report on the MetroidAPrime issue tracker.