I still ought to put up those old forum topics you sent me and other things like that.  For the moment, though, short as that moment may be, the maps at least are caught up.



It wasn't that long ago that we got our 3000th map (I'm guessing the old forum topics will tell us when).  And we are extremely close to the 4000th.  We're talking low double-digits until the 4k mark.

I'm caught up!  It only took me all weekend...after E3 is over, hopefully I'll be able to stay back on top of things, both on the site and its forums...

King's Quest V: Absence Makes The Heart Go Yonder

For this month's "Maps of the Month" featurette, I wish to draw your attention to Dan_'s King's Quest V: Absence Makes The Heart Go Yonder (PC) maps.



After two years of recognizing great maps, we only had one map set for the PC that had received the Maps Of The Month honour.  So it's about due time for another one.  And so why not one from another historically pivotal series?



Sierra Entertainment is probably best known for their series of PC adventure games.  There's King's Quest, Space Quest, Police Quest, Quest For Glory, Leisure Suit Larry, and all of the aboves' numerous sequels, as well as the Dr. Brain games, the Eco Quest games, and more!  If you are old enough to remember a time when PC games weren't all first-person shooters, real-time strategy games, or massively multiplayer online RPGs, then you should have at least played one of these.



King's Quest in particular is the original series, and its first game was a ground-breaking step up from text adventure games.  Sure, the early games still had a typing interface for commands, but soon in all of the Quest games you were playing all the way through just by using the mouse.



Of the King's Quest games, the fifth one is visually remarkable and fairly epic.  The hand-drawn graphics (and the series itself, arguably) were at their peak at about this time.  From cozy Serenia, this adventure will take you (and King Graham) through a scorching desert, a snowy mountain, a vast ocean, and the downright creepy castle of Mordack's...and all the while you'll be remarking at how good 256-colour VGA graphics can look.



Dan_ didn't play favourites, though, as he mapped all of the first six games completely, and in mere days, by starting another one immediately after finishing another.  As VGMaps.com can only honour one at a time, we'll go with King's Quest V.



So to recognize the effort put into making these picturesque maps, Dan_'s King's Quest V: Absence Makes The Heart Go Yonder maps will be known as VGMaps.com's Maps of the Month for May 2006.

Okay, if it works, please post about your involvement in it.  While it's still...April.

Aw, man, seriously?  Then what did any send in?  Maybe it was those FF II maps...hold on...



I'll fix it right away.  My bad...  >_<



EDIT: It's been fixed.  Sorry about that!  Credit must always go where it's due!

Dammit, Inty, fix it so that anyone can reply to already-created topics on the Maps Of The Month board already!

Though Bumblebee really should be a VW bug, old or new, I guess the Autobots are overall okay.  Not so sure why Bumblebee is so specific...I don't follow car models like most guys, oddly, so I have no idea what a Camaro is, at least not by memory.



I figured Megatron should be a tank, he could at least still kind of resemble his G1 cartoon Megatron form, aside from tank treads.  Or he could be like the G2 comic/toy form which was a tank, just not brightly coloured.  Of course there have been many different forms of Decepticon leaders named Megatron (so is therefore less iconic) and Bay may be out to do his own thing but hopefully the voice and personality scream "Megatron" no matter what he looks like.



I guess it's too early for full confirmation of anything, but at the moment the list isn't consistently decriptive.  What do they mean by "bastard version - Kennywave"?  Why is Scorponok just a "minion", and even if so, can't they just say "scorpion", which was pretty much mentioned outright in the Aint-It-Cool-News report on one animatic sequence?  How is an ambulance not an emergency vehicle, or is this some kind of semantics thing?  Why is a police car a Decepticon?  Why two Decepticon tanks?  If there are to be similar forms they should've had another jet which could've been Thundercracker and/or Skywarp.  And another gripe, wasn't Bonecrusher one of the Constructicons which made up Devastator?  That may be a minor one, even if Devastator is as great as he's always made out to be, but Bonecrusher as a mine-clearing vehicle...what exactly is a mine-clearing vehicle and why is it that?  Are they expecting a lot of land mines in this movie?



The Autobots aren't too bad, like I said, but they have more Decepticons and they've taken more liberty with them.  I certainly hope that I like Starscream and Soundwave, because they have personalities (yes, even "unchrasamatic" Soundwave) that are memorable.



You may begin your "OMG G1 IS OVERRATED STOP WEARING THOSE G1 TINTED GLASSES G1 ANIMATION MAKES ME PUKE" retort/rant now, Terra.

I keep forgetting to get those avatars.  >_<

There will at least be giant transforming robots (though without mass-shifting, I guess no more "giant" than a vehicle "unfolded" and standing upright would be) and those robots will be fighting.  On the big screen.  That alone is awesome.  Because it has the Transformers name attached to it, I don't think it's too much to ask that Optimus be red.  Honestly.

It's only been less than a day now and I'm warming up to the name, if only because I'm tired of all the complaining about it.



And I probably should've spent last night putting up any's Secret Of The Stars maps instead of reading such drivel.  >_<



With only 12 days to E3, I'm excited that I'll get to see what the real fuss should be about...the games and how to play them.  I don't think that'll disappoint.  

I can accept the fact that they're "more angular" (though with some exceptions, I don't think most of the cartoon characters really were), but I find it odd that there's supposedly not much red on Optimus.



It may be a design idea and far from finalized, but in just about every version of non-Beast Wars Transformers, Optimus Prime has always been mostly red.  It's iconic...it'd be like if Superman or Spider-Man didn't have red (Man In Black Superman and Symbiote Suit Spider-Man are exceptions for particular times, of course).

"Rev's still fun to play with, even if it's now really Wii."  >_>

"Want to play with my Wii?"



When pronounced with Nintendo, you get "Nintendo Wii", which actually sounds like "Nintendo-E", or if you say "NWii" it sounds like "envy", but with a W.



Very odd.



I can't say I love it, I can still say I prefer the Revolution, but hey - Nintendo's gotten a lot of press today with this controversial title.  And if the Wii is as fun to play as it is embarassing to say, no one will care about the name.



Most people call Nintendo consoles the "Nintendo" anyway.



Though it invites flaming, "PlayStation" sounds really kiddy if you think about it.  "Play station".  A station for play.  Ick.

Odd topic you linked to.  I didn't get the point of it all.  Those posts are weird.



I never heard of "mixing bittages", but seeing as how some Capcom characters like Morrigan are reused game after game, being not that much different between generations, I don't think that's really an argument with any kind of validity.



(I like to use Morrigan in Capcom Vs. SNK 2 EO despite her being the "pixellation queen".)

I made a poll about it (happy, Inty?) about whether or not people here like it.



It's all about the games.  Yeah, the name doesn't give a good first impression to six-year-olds and British people who don't want to say "I'm going to play with my Wii" but it'll be their loss.