VGMaps

General Boards => Map Gab => Topic started by: TerraEsperZ on May 31, 2006, 11:29:53 pm

Title: Castlevania: Bloodlines (Genesis)
Post by: TerraEsperZ on May 31, 2006, 11:29:53 pm: I already posted some previews on the previous board, but since I finally finished Stage 3 after taking a break from Metroid Fusion for a few days, I'm reposting it for the benefit of whoever cares about this game.

Stage 1 - Romania:

http://img235.imageshack.us/my.php?image=castlevaniabloodlinesstage1rom.png

Stage 2 - Greece:

http://img235.imageshack.us/my.php?image=castlevaniabloodlinesstage2gre.png

Stage 3 - Italy (NEW):

http://img88.imageshack.us/my.php?image=castlevaniabloodlinesstage3ita.png

---

"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard

B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me
Title: RE: Castlevania: Bloodlines (Genesis)
Post by: Grizzly on June 01, 2006, 10:26:12 am: Is the tower with the many platforms, which is located in front of the purple clouds, one of the areas which spins around?
Title: RE: Castlevania: Bloodlines (Genesis)
Post by: TerraEsperZ on June 01, 2006, 11:39:53 am: In Italy, the weirdest (and funniest to map) parts are:

1) Stage 3-5: The tall blue tower. This part automatically scrolls up as the whole thing sways from left to right with Medusa heads attacking from both sides.

To map it, I took screenshots when the tower was fully upright to get the right tiles. Then I took several screenshots to get the general position of all the platforms and candles. Finally, I assembled the tower's background and added in the platforms and candles, aligning them all to the 8 x 8 pixels grid (since most screenshots showed the tower while leaning to one side or another, all the platforms/candles were slightly off by a few pixels).

2) Stage 3-7: The floating platforms in the purple sky. Another area with automatic scrolling that was difficult to map. At first, the map scrolls diagonally upward to the left, with the Tower of Pisa slowly comnig into view in the background until you've reached the end of the platforms. Then it starts to scroll upward as two different sets of platforms start floating down at different speeds, until you reach the last series of platforms and the whole thing starts scrolling diagonally to the right. This time, the Tower of Pisa stays into view and another series of platforms is seen behind the Tower, giving the impression that you're actually climbing around the tower this time.

To map this, I basically counted the number of platforms on both diagonal series, and noted that the Tower in the background scrolled down at the same speed as those platforms (this told me how much height there was between the two).

After this, I started mapping the platforms that were coming down in the vertical part, separating them in two sets depending on their speeds.

I chose to show the Tower only in the vertical part since it's where it would be the most visible, and I added the little platforms in the background because I thought it looked good. I also made the Tower fully upright since in the game it's tilted by a few pixels but it doesn't really look good enough to keep the effect.

As for both sets of falling platforms, they were much taller than the vertical part (since they came down faster than scrolling) so I just pasted one over the other in the same order as the game and centered the resulting section vertically over the vertical area. That meant that many platforms were cut off at the top and bottom, but that's how it looked best in my opinion.

---

"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard

B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me
Title: RE: Castlevania: Bloodlines (Genesis)
Post by: TerraEsperZ on June 01, 2006, 11:42:05 am: Sorry Grizzly, I just realized I didn't exactly answer your question. No, it's not an area that spins around like the Dark Tower in Battletoads or other such effects. It just scrolls in three successive directions with the Tower and the little platforms in the background merely suggesting such an effect.

---

"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard

B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me
Title: RE: Castlevania: Bloodlines (Genesis)
Post by: JonLeung on June 01, 2006, 12:15:48 pm: Are these ready to go as submissions or should I wait until you're all done?

I know you have other projects in the pipeline...like Treasure Master and Metroid Fusion. Sometimes I wonder if I should put up some of what you have, if only to sort of "call dibs" on a game's maps more clearly than just stating so in the forums.

You wouldn't want me to put up a whole slew of Treasure Master maps submitted by someone else, now, would you? If I didn't happen to remember that you started it and if their maps were as good as yours could ever be, then I would pretty much have to take theirs and your work would be unrecognized or redundant...

Just a suggestion. I'm sure you don't want to be told how to work.
Title: RE: Castlevania: Bloodlines (Genesis)
Post by: TerraEsperZ on June 01, 2006, 01:09:57 pm: Well, the reason why I almost never submit anything before the whole game is mapped is that my idea of the formatting of the map and the titles, the map key and such, are certain to change along the way. That's why I show them here without any of this, because I'm still not sure about how I'll present them and I risk redoing them later on and not dare to resubmit them again for essentially aesthetic reasons.

But since the Bloodlines maps are pretty straithforward, I'll see about adding a map header and submitting the first three shortly. You're right, I'd rather *not* have someone put his first while I'm still deliberating on my side. I'll post them here for submission once the header have been added.

Speaking of which, I really should finalize the Treasure Master project, where the above is all that's left to set in stone. Give me a day or two, and you'll get them (but sadly most likely without all that walkthrough info I initially wanted to include).

---

"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard

B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me
Title: RE: Castlevania: Bloodlines (Genesis)
Post by: JonLeung on June 01, 2006, 02:29:30 pm: No hurry if you want to add more stuff...or you could add stuff later and I'll gladly replace any maps you improved on. I just don't want to see anyone's work go to waste.
Title: RE: Castlevania: Bloodlines (Genesis)
Post by: TerraEsperZ on June 01, 2006, 10:25:43 pm: Looks like it will have to wait a few days, the parents are invading my place unannounced this weekend...

---

"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard

B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me
Title: RE: Castlevania: Bloodlines (Genesis)
Post by: JonLeung on June 02, 2006, 03:23:12 pm: Unannounced? Then how do you know already?
Title: RE: Castlevania: Bloodlines (Genesis)
Post by: TerraEsperZ on June 02, 2006, 03:29:35 pm: Unannounced as in, I'd have prefered to know early in the week rather than yesterday evening. Unplanned would have been a better word to use.

---

"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard

B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me
Title: RE: Castlevania: Bloodlines (Genesis)
Post by: Revned on June 02, 2006, 09:18:27 pm: Or uninvited.
Title: RE: Castlevania: Bloodlines (Genesis)
Post by: JonLeung on June 02, 2006, 09:54:28 pm: Uninvited. Now that was a creepy game.
Title: RE: Castlevania: Bloodlines (Genesis)
Post by: TerraEsperZ on June 03, 2006, 12:00:34 pm: I never played that game, despite being intrigued by it at the time I saw a preview in Nintendo Power. There are still a lot of NES games I have yet to play, but whenever I browse ROM sites I just can't think of any.

---

"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard

B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me
Title: RE: Castlevania: Bloodlines (Genesis)
Post by: JonLeung on June 03, 2006, 12:46:32 pm: I like Deja Vu, Shadowgate, and Uninvited - Kemco-Seika's three "storybook" games for the NES...despite the fact that some parts in Shadowgate and Univited scared the crap out of me when I was younger.
Title: RE: Castlevania: Bloodlines (Genesis)
Post by: KingKuros on June 03, 2006, 07:32:59 pm: I have the Windows 3.1 version of these 3 games, assuming Deja Vu I & II counts as one game.
Title: RE: Castlevania: Bloodlines (Genesis)
Post by: TerraEsperZ on June 07, 2006, 09:33:13 pm: No header yet, but I'm finished with the fourth stage.

Stage 4 - Germany:

http://img161.imageshack.us/my.php?image=castlevaniabloodlinesstage4ger.png

---

"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard

B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me
Title: RE: Castlevania: Bloodlines (Genesis)
Post by: JonLeung on June 20, 2006, 12:38:41 pm: *waits patiently*

*and for Treasure Master. >_>*
Title: RE: Castlevania: Bloodlines (Genesis)
Post by: TerraEsperZ on June 20, 2006, 04:56:11 pm: Unfortunately you'll have to wait for a while more. My duties changed at work last week; not only did my workload doubled, but I spend a lot of time on the road which always stresses me. When I come home I just want to lie down and not do anything. My vacations are coming in less than two months, so I'll try and get as much done then as possible because until things die down at work, I won't have the energy to map much, sadly.

---

"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard

B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me
Title: RE: Castlevania: Bloodlines (Genesis)
Post by: TerraEsperZ on July 06, 2006, 08:42:32 pm: Finally, the first four stages, final submissions:

Stage 1: Ruins of the Castle Dracula, Romania

http://img53.imageshack.us/img53/4712/castlevaniabloodlinesstage1rom.png

Stage 2: Atlantis Shrine, Greece

http://img480.imageshack.us/img480/6316/castlevaniabloodlinesstage2gre.png

Stage 3: The Leaning Tower of Pisa, Italy

http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/5650/castlevaniabloodlinesstage3ita.png

Stage 4: The Munitions Factory, Germany

http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/2107/castlevaniabloodlinesstage4ger.png

Now, on to Stage 5 and to finish Treasure Master :) !

---

"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard

B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me
Title: RE: Castlevania: Bloodlines (Genesis)
Post by: TerraEsperZ on July 07, 2006, 05:01:16 pm: Okay, here's the corrected map for Stage 3:

Stage 3: The Leaning Tower of Pisa, Italy

http://img55.imageshack.us/img55/5650/castlevaniabloodlinesstage3ita.png

---

"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard

B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me
Title: RE: Castlevania: Bloodlines (Genesis)
Post by: DarkWolf on July 07, 2006, 07:05:56 pm: Yay, another handful of maps for the Genesis section!
Title: RE: Castlevania: Bloodlines (Genesis)
Post by: TerraEsperZ on July 08, 2006, 06:33:51 pm: Final map submission for Stage 5:

Stage 5: Versailles Palace, France

http://img146.imageshack.us/img146/7500/castlevaniabloodlinesstage5fra.png

---

"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard

B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me
Title: RE: Castlevania: Bloodlines (Genesis)
Post by: TerraEsperZ on July 09, 2006, 09:19:37 pm: JonLeung, you'll get the last stage tomorrow night. At last, another finished project!

---

"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard

B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me
Title: RE: Castlevania: Bloodlines (Genesis)
Post by: JonLeung on July 09, 2006, 09:32:10 pm: Oops, I didn't see that you were submitting them.

Ah, well, then I can put the entire game all up together the next chance I get.
Title: RE: Castlevania: Bloodlines (Genesis)
Post by: TerraEsperZ on July 09, 2006, 09:54:08 pm: Let's see, which maps do I still need to complete after that...

-Treasure Master (NES) - Definitely

-Out Of This World (PC) - Definitely

-Heart Of The Alien (SegaCD) - Definitely

-Space Quest I (PC) - Definitely

-Metroid Fusion (GBA) - Definitely

-Castlevania: Circle Of The Moon (GBA) - Definitely

-Shadow Of The Comet (PC) - Definitely

-Prince Of Persia (SNES) - Hopefully

-Contra: Hard Corps (GEN) - Hopefully

-Sonic Advance (GBA) - Hopefully

-Castlevania: Harmony Of Dissonance (GBA) (if Zeric doesn't finish it before me) - Hopefully

---

"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard

B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me
Title: RE: Castlevania: Bloodlines (Genesis)
Post by: JonLeung on July 10, 2006, 08:14:06 am: I'm glad to see Treasure Master high on your list (assuming this is a list based on priority or completion level) and it's awesome that there are two of the three GBA CastleVanias on there. But why not Aria Of Sorrow? I liked that one, and it must've been a popular one for Konami to make Dawn Of Sorrow, a direct sequel to it on the DS (and the sequel is really good too, somehow my brother literally did everything there is to do in it - his attention span in games is usually limited to finishing the odd one but he never feels obligated to like I do - and yet he went way above and beyond that for Dawn Of Sorrow).

I wonder where Zeric is.

I think you did mention that you were doing Space Quest. Are you doing classic Space Quest, or the VGA remade version - Space Quest I: The Sarien Encounter (or whatever the full subtitle is)? I recall a screenshot of someone attempting the classic one at one point, but I don't know if that was from you. It might have been from Dan_, who did the King's Quest games, I think...
Title: RE: Castlevania: Bloodlines (Genesis)
Post by: TerraEsperZ on July 10, 2006, 10:01:21 am: The games are mostly sorted out by priority (and thus completion level). As for Aria Of Sorrow, I started that one too, but considering the amount of work needed to map even one full castle, I'll try to finish the other two before attempting the third.

As for Space Quest, I was mostly done with the maps of the first game, classic version with the intent to do the others but with all the other maps on my plate, I'm probably going to drop that.

---

"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard

B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me
Title: RE: Castlevania: Bloodlines (Genesis)
Post by: TerraEsperZ on July 10, 2006, 08:10:41 pm: Okay, final maps, for real this time, triple checked and all. I won't bother with thumbnails since the black background obscures all the details with all the reduction.

Stage 1: Ruins Of The Castle Dracula, Romania

http://img65.imageshack.us/img65/4712/castlevaniabloodlinesstage1rom.png

Stage 2: Atlantis Shrine, Greece

http://img63.imageshack.us/img63/6316/castlevaniabloodlinesstage2gre.png

Stage 3: The Leaning Tower Of Pisa, Italy

http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/5650/castlevaniabloodlinesstage3ita.png

Stage 4: The Munitions Factory, Germany (the game takes place during World War I, just so you know)

http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/2107/castlevaniabloodlinesstage4ger.png

Stage 5: Versailles Palace, France

http://img301.imageshack.us/img301/7500/castlevaniabloodlinesstage5fra.png

Stage 6: The Castle Proserpina, England (yes, the upside-down section really is that way, that's part of the challenge)

http://img301.imageshack.us/img301/281/castlevaniabloodlinesstage6eng.png

There, that's all for this game. I can finally say I contributed to mapping a classic series. JonLeung, you can go ahead and add them to the site.

---

"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard

B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me
Title: RE: Castlevania: Bloodlines (Genesis)
Post by: JonLeung on July 16, 2006, 02:12:15 pm: Okay, they've been added.

I thought I'd show that thumbnail because it was a no-brainer since that boss looks cool.

I guess I need to make a board for completed maps...
Title: RE: Castlevania: Bloodlines (Genesis)
Post by: Grizzly on July 16, 2006, 05:24:05 pm: By creating that new board the forum software somehow destroyed some default user settings. Some boards (Maps In Progress and also Map Gab) weren't visible anymore until I clicked on Restore default settings in the Board Manager.

The thumbnail looks cool. There's an optical illusion which this one is based on (I think). Where you can either see a vase or two faces.
Title: RE: Castlevania: Bloodlines (Genesis)
Post by: TerraEsperZ on July 16, 2006, 09:51:17 pm: Sorry those maps took so long to complete, though it wasn't for lack of interest. And yeah, I really like the choice for the thumbnail.

Any comment on the finished maps, about parts that are confusing or about the layout or anything else? I always think the final version of my work looks functional at best, so any idea for improvement would be appreciated.

Personally, there is one part I'm not satisfied with, and it's the third part of Stage 5. It's a vertical section where the chapel background makes it difficult to see the platforms and candles, but I couldn't find any way to change that unless I either got rid of the background completely or altered the colors somewhat.

---

"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard

B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me