[Super Mario Run]

I didn't forget that it was MAR10 Day this past Saturday, but I was too busy editing my Mega Man X: Maverick Challenge video for my "JonLeung1" YouTube channel that I only played my daily run of Super Mario Run on my iPad and briefly got a few Mario items in Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp on my Android phone.  The tides are changing if the only Mario games I played on this day this year are apps!

Earlier this month, I got the new costume items in Super Mario Odyssey (Switch) and re-upped my Coin total back to 9999, but I haven't actually played any of the Luigi's Balloon World DLC yet.

The letter X sure is confusing when it comes to video games.  Here are some images I made while working on my latest YouTube video about Mega Man X.  The controller one is something I've seen before, but decided to remake it so the image would be consistent with one about the game titles that use "X".  There are both still images and animations of each below.

The long-awaited follow-up to the "Mega Man: Robot Master Challenge" is, unsurprisingly, the "Mega Man X: Maverick Challenge".  Check it out!

Momodora: Reverie Under The Moonlight

For this month's "Maps Of The Month" featurette, I wish to draw your attention to Eishiya's Momodora: Reverie Under The Moonlight (PC) maps.

In this prequel to the first Momodora, set four centuries earlier, Kaho the pirestess must stop a curse from the Kingdom of Karst which is spreading across the land. Will she be able to defeat the Accurst Queen of Karst and save her village?

Momodora: Reverie Under The Moonlight is a platforming retraversal game, often referred to as a "Metroidvania" type of adventure. As Kaho, you will be travelling back and forth across the eastern Kingdom of Karst, which, as is often the case with many Metroidvanias, is a fairly large world full of dangerous obstacles and hostile creatures but also helpful items that will grant you access to more dangerous areas. It will be a much easier journey with the aid of these maps, thanks to Eishiya. Every pixel of this indie game's world is here, from the Sacred Odalia Grove to Karst Castle (and even the Development Room accessible only with 100%).

So to recognize the effort put into mapping this indie hit, Eishiya's Momodora: Reverie Under The Moonlight (PC) maps will be known as VGMaps.com's Maps Of The Month for March 2018.

Having some standards for quality control is one thing, but being too insistent on perfectionism, at the cost of functional-even-if-not-the-prettiest maps, is definitely a loss.

Because you can always resubmit maps (and I know you and a couple others already have that habit), you can always go back and redo or clean up maps if you find a better way to present something.

You could use a version number on maps, if you are inclined, and use a version number of less than 1.0 (as seems to be the norm) if you feel a map is incomplete or could be revisited.  Or some kind of footnote, disclaimer, indication that the map is not complete.  I know such text could potentially clutter it, but it is an option.

If you have something that is presentable, might as well get it up so it could be of use to someone, rather than have it sit on your hard drive forever if you don't know when or even if you will have a chance or the means to improve it.

Now, I don't want a deluge of unfinished maps.  ("Presentable" is key.)  But as you can see, we almost went a whole calendar month without new maps - and actually did go over a month without maps, from Dec. 28 to Jan. 30 (and then suddenly got some maps for three games from two mappers on that day) - so having updates of some sort would be nice to show this site isn't dead.

A few years ago updates were guaranteed weekly!  For multiple games each weekend!  There was a time when for a huge stretch I didn't know what an updateless weekend was like!  But now, a bit of a different story, but surely we can do better than a month between any maps at all.

Final Fantasy XIII-2 and Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII are probably the games sitting on my Steam account for the longest time before even starting them...  Over two years since they've been released for PC, and I bought them around then, but I still haven't touched them.  I enjoyed FF XIII despite its linearity, though I heard the sequels are better; just busy, I guess.  I'd prided myself on keeping on top of main-numbered FF games (except for the online ones, XI and XIV).  Whether you think FF X-2, FF XIII-2 and LR: FF XIII count, I'll definitely be behind when FF XV: Royal Edition comes out for PC this spring.  (Technically I already am, I just don't have a PS4, but there will be no excuses once it's on Steam.)

So assuming I get to them eventually, I might actually make use of some XIII-2 maps...

Sonic Mania

For this month's "Maps Of The Month" featurette, I wish to draw your attention to G.E.R.'s Sonic Mania (PC) maps.

Taking place after Sonic & Knuckles, Doctor Eggman sends some EggRobos to Angel Island to retrieve the Phantom Ruby.  Sonic, Tails and Knuckles are sent back to areas from their previous adventures, and must chase down Doctor Eggman and his EggRobos - now the Hard Boiled Heavies - to stop the Phantom Ruby from being used for evil.

The latest 2D Sonic game (as of now) is actually pretty good, very much in the vein as the original games from the Genesis.  In fact, many Zones from those early games return, such as Green Hill Zone and Chemical Plant Zone (gotta love that music).  Fitting, as this game commemorates the series' 25th anniversary.  Even if not entirely original, there are some nice surprises, and it's still a standout retro game, in an era where retro games are a dime a dozen.  Plus, it's always good to see a Sonic game fully mapped!

So to recognize the effort put into mapping the latest hedgehog game for Groundhog Day, G.E.R.'s Sonic Mania (PC) maps will be known as VGMaps.com's Maps Of The Month for February 2018.

Decided to review the elgato green screen I recently got (thanks to bustin98 for helping me out, too)!  I actually managed to conceive of, film, edit and publish this video all within one day!  Hopefully future videos using a green screen will look better than the old green cloth I used to use... for like the one Mega Man video, heh.  But you can expect more soon!

[Just Dance 4 - Just Sweat - Aerobics In Space (Intense)]

I know there are some techy guys out there, I wonder if you guys would know anything about music extracting, recreating, or cleaning up.

There are two songs I would like tidied-up versions of, but there are other sounds that get in the way, and no full version exists that I know of.  Anyone have the ability to extract, edit or remake these?

Just Dance 4 - Just Sweat - Aerobics In Space (Intense)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1OPHiNzefI&t=6m13s
- from 6:13 to 7:50
- could it somehow be extracted from the Wii ISO?

Just Dance 2018 - Double Rumble - Sports 'Til I Drop
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8dV092VKKI&t=13s
- it's actually a longer version of the previous song
- could it somehow be extracted from the Wii ISO?
- but it would need to be cleaned up as the "sports" sound effects may be part of the audio

HIGH SCHOOL DANCE BATTLE - CHEERLEADERS VS BALLERS! // @ScottDW
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mt3tlZzrIQ&t=1m30s
- from 1:30 to 3:06
- (if you're curious, that's a 360 degree video, so you either move your tablet/phone, use the WASD keys or click and drag to look around)
- doesn't seem like ScottDW will be releasing a full version?  All his music is free to use in YouTube anyway...

I know it's unlikely, but I might as well put this out there...

Thanks in advance!

[EDIT:]

So I don't know if you heard the news from two evenings ago, but YouTube changed the monetization eligibility rules for the YouTube Partner Program, so that Tubers with less than 1000 current subscribers and 4000 hours of playtime in the last year no longer generate any ad revenue.  While it is true that a large percentage (they say 99%) of the people affected were making less than a couple bucks a year anyway, what is really aggravating is how it feels like YouTube is throwing small content creators under the bus.  Being only two weeks after the Logan Paul incident where he published a video which included a dead body, while he was punished, most would say not severely or quickly enough, it makes it more obvious that they favour big Tubers (and let them get away with just about anything) and don't care about small Tubers (not only revenue, but we might lose out on some tools and features). EDIT: Okay, maybe we don't lose as much feature-wise as I was originally led to believe, but it's still about their attitude towards small creators more than the miniscule amount of revenue.

Those currently in the YouTube Partner Program (like myself) are not grandfathered in, and will lose monetization by Feb. 20 if the current requirements are not met.

So of course, I would absolutely hope that you subscribe to my channel.  But I would also encourage everyone to subscribe to any YouTuber they like to watch, most especially if they have under a thousand views.

[The Unofficial SNES/Super Famicom: A Visual Compendium]

I finished a review of The Unofficial SNES/Super Famicom: A Visual Compendium (and I only got it two days ago, on Friday!  What a weekend)!   Yes, timely content - it comes out on February 1!  Check it out!

[bustin98]

This is actually a couple days late, but there were a few days earlier this week when the forums were down.  There's a possibility most of you didn't even notice.  But regardless, I have to give a really big thanks to bustin98 for fixing it.  Other than truncating a couple decade-old and somehow "incomplete" posts, it doesn't appear like we've lost anything.  I did backups (or so I thought) regularly since the last time there were forum issues, but now I'll make the habit of backing up the whole "forums" folder and via the webhost's tools to be absolutely sure.

Also, very briefly a few days ago, the site itself was down for a short while, like a few hours.  That was just a server migration thing.  May have been related to the forums going down.

It seems there're no issues now, but I still wanted to make a post to thank bustin98 again, and in the off chance that any maps/pages on the site are missing, to please let me know.

Six Degrees Of Super Mario!  Someone's got to find this interesting, right?

Quo Vadis

For this month's "Maps Of The Month" featurette, I wish to draw your attention to KingKuros's Quo Vadis (C64) maps.

Quo Vadis finally gets its long-overdue recognition for Maps Of The Month, an honour somehow missed until now (though it did make it onto the "VGMaps's 15th Anniversary - 15 BEST MAP SETS!" video.  This large, single map also got published in Retro Gamer issue 81!  What's notable about this game, you ask?  Why, it was the biggest game at the time, the first to be over a thousand screens in size!

Its other claim to fame are the real riches someone could have earned.  Has anyone claimed the £40,000 in prizes for solving the riddle within this game?   It is now 400 months since its release, and as far as anyone can tell, it hasn't been paid out.  There are six clues within this game - five found in this labyrinth and a sixth as you exit.  Being the first to solve them and mailing in the correct answer should have won somebody £30,000 and a scepter worth £10,000, but that probably never happened.  But at least here, KingKuros finally gets something for scouring this entire cavern!  Okay, a Maps Of The Month recognition isn't the same as £40,000, but it's something.

So to recognize the effort put into mapping the first game to be over 1000 screens large, KingKuros's Quo Vadis (C64) maps will be known as VGMaps.com's Maps Of The Month for January 2018.

I wouldn't be opposed to hosting 3D maps on VGMaps; would love it, actually, as VGMaps could then get closer to modern...

But is there a common/standard file format for 3D maps now?