- Welcome to VGMaps.
Recent posts
#1
Map Requests / Re: JonLeung's Requests
Last post by JonLeung - Yesterday at 10:45:25 AMGeorge s has mapped the thirteenth arcade game that I've requested - and it's Battletoads!
It's quite different from any of the console/handheld versions. Probably not as remembered, though it is bundled with some other Battletoads and Killer Instinct games in the Killer Instinct Arcade1Up, since they're all by Rare.
Great for this game to be preserved in these maps, too. Thanks again, as always, George s!
It's quite different from any of the console/handheld versions. Probably not as remembered, though it is bundled with some other Battletoads and Killer Instinct games in the Killer Instinct Arcade1Up, since they're all by Rare.
Great for this game to be preserved in these maps, too. Thanks again, as always, George s!
#2
Map Gab / Re: Cobra Triangle, oddities a...
Last post by TerraEsperZ - June 12, 2026, 10:39:00 PMGood find dark_lord_zagato!
When mapping Battletoads (NES), I remember finding the map data for stage 13 (final boss) under the starting screen of stage 11, which is why that map has a dark square to obscure the area.
The Immortal (Apple IIGS) also has multiple stages sharing maps. When inside a room, you see the shapes of the rooms around it and when assembling all of these outlines together, I noticed that for example, stages 1 and 2 share a map, and so do 3 and 4, as well as 5, 6 and 7.
As always, it's something I never made much progress with so I never posted anything.
When mapping Battletoads (NES), I remember finding the map data for stage 13 (final boss) under the starting screen of stage 11, which is why that map has a dark square to obscure the area.
The Immortal (Apple IIGS) also has multiple stages sharing maps. When inside a room, you see the shapes of the rooms around it and when assembling all of these outlines together, I noticed that for example, stages 1 and 2 share a map, and so do 3 and 4, as well as 5, 6 and 7.
As always, it's something I never made much progress with so I never posted anything.
#3
Map Gab / Re: Cobra Triangle, oddities a...
Last post by Cyartog959 - June 11, 2026, 09:24:23 PMVery astute you figured that out. I was astounded about that discovery, I'll admit.
To be honest, upon watching Strafefox's videos about how past video games were made before the vast tech upgrades, the tileset amounts, then-expensive memory amounts for in-house dev workstation computers, and memory bank switching were very minimal and common in their time, and the NES carts were quite minimal in space, even with expansion chips to up its capabilities by notches, never very close to even half of a Gigabyte for a game, it is justifiable to see such bypasses had to be compromised to meet within the very tight limits of the NES then.
Still, your boundary breaking to gather the whole view of the maps in that game were rather impressive.
I can leave such videos for you to watch later, if you want. Maybe you'll learn much about those limits and bypasses people utilized then.
How Video Games Were Made, Part 1: Graphics(revised in 2018) - Narration: Chase McCaskill -
How Video Games Were Made, Part 2: Workflow - Narration: Steven Kelly -
Video Game Development Throughout the 80s - Narration: Steven Kelly -
To be honest, upon watching Strafefox's videos about how past video games were made before the vast tech upgrades, the tileset amounts, then-expensive memory amounts for in-house dev workstation computers, and memory bank switching were very minimal and common in their time, and the NES carts were quite minimal in space, even with expansion chips to up its capabilities by notches, never very close to even half of a Gigabyte for a game, it is justifiable to see such bypasses had to be compromised to meet within the very tight limits of the NES then.
Still, your boundary breaking to gather the whole view of the maps in that game were rather impressive.
I can leave such videos for you to watch later, if you want. Maybe you'll learn much about those limits and bypasses people utilized then.
How Video Games Were Made, Part 1: Graphics(revised in 2018) - Narration: Chase McCaskill -
How Video Games Were Made, Part 2: Workflow - Narration: Steven Kelly -
Video Game Development Throughout the 80s - Narration: Steven Kelly -
#4
Map Gab / Cobra Triangle, oddities and b...
Last post by dark_lord_zagato - June 11, 2026, 10:52:16 AMI found some interesting things while mapping Cobra Triangle. I've set aside some unedited maps to show it off.
This game seems to store the map data for stages 1 and 9 in the same general area inside the ROM. This isn't just a palette swap, it's two different stages in one giant map and they bleed into each other. This led to a fair amount of confusion when I started this project but by the time I was done with stage 9 I knew what was going on.
The stages use different palettes and different tile sets, but you can see how the course is the same. You can also see that i've cleaned up the regular maps quite a bit. This is because the stuff i've cleaned up is WAY out of bounds and looks really bad if left in place.
The NES cartridges don't have a lot of storage and there's a lot of big stages in this game, so perhaps the bigger maps share the same area in the ROM to save space?
Stage 14 contains the map for stages 11 and 18, Shoot The Targets. Yes, these are the same map, but you travel the lower path in 11 and the upper path in 18.
If you've come here from The Cutting Room Floor and want to verify this information for yourself i'll tell you how to boundary break.
My codes:
037D:FF Walk through walls. Toggle this on for a few frames and then turn it back off. You can go outside the normal boundary of the stage but you can't cross the finish line anymore.
0701:?? Set the value to 00 to remove the autopilot in Shoot The Targets. Set the value to 07 to stop the rapids in Reach The Finish and Jump The Waterfall.
0348:?? This is for jump height, but if you set the value to 01 the screen will scroll straight up. If you hit a jump and set the value to F8 you can just fly over everything.
General codes:
00B9:1A Invincible
0714:3B Infinite Time
This game seems to store the map data for stages 1 and 9 in the same general area inside the ROM. This isn't just a palette swap, it's two different stages in one giant map and they bleed into each other. This led to a fair amount of confusion when I started this project but by the time I was done with stage 9 I knew what was going on.
The stages use different palettes and different tile sets, but you can see how the course is the same. You can also see that i've cleaned up the regular maps quite a bit. This is because the stuff i've cleaned up is WAY out of bounds and looks really bad if left in place.
The NES cartridges don't have a lot of storage and there's a lot of big stages in this game, so perhaps the bigger maps share the same area in the ROM to save space?
Stage 14 contains the map for stages 11 and 18, Shoot The Targets. Yes, these are the same map, but you travel the lower path in 11 and the upper path in 18.
If you've come here from The Cutting Room Floor and want to verify this information for yourself i'll tell you how to boundary break.
My codes:
037D:FF Walk through walls. Toggle this on for a few frames and then turn it back off. You can go outside the normal boundary of the stage but you can't cross the finish line anymore.
0701:?? Set the value to 00 to remove the autopilot in Shoot The Targets. Set the value to 07 to stop the rapids in Reach The Finish and Jump The Waterfall.
0348:?? This is for jump height, but if you set the value to 01 the screen will scroll straight up. If you hit a jump and set the value to F8 you can just fly over everything.
General codes:
00B9:1A Invincible
0714:3B Infinite Time
#5
Map Requests / Re: JonLeung's Requests
Last post by JonLeung - June 10, 2026, 10:01:20 PMzagato blackfist has mapped out Cobra Triangle!
There's something charming about this game. For some reason I never really played much of R.C. Pro-Am, but I think this is sort of like that, but on the water... maybe?
But besides my memories of playing Cobra Triangle, the significance of having this mapped is that we now have maps of all 72 NES games that were published by Nintendo Of America!
zagato blackfist seems intent on ensuring that every NES game will be mapped, but along the way, I think it's neat to see certain subsets get completed. Maybe I should see if any other publisher's games are close to all being mapped... but this is an important one, it's Nintendo (Of America) themselves on the Nintendo Entertainment System, of course!
Thanks, and keep up the good work, zagato... as you are very well aware in your own topic about unmapped NES games, there's still a ways to go yet... but it looks like, for the North American list especially, you've certainly made progress since you first made that topic!
And of course, anyone else can map NES games, zagato blackfist isn't calling dibs on them all just because he made the list...
There's something charming about this game. For some reason I never really played much of R.C. Pro-Am, but I think this is sort of like that, but on the water... maybe?
But besides my memories of playing Cobra Triangle, the significance of having this mapped is that we now have maps of all 72 NES games that were published by Nintendo Of America!
zagato blackfist seems intent on ensuring that every NES game will be mapped, but along the way, I think it's neat to see certain subsets get completed. Maybe I should see if any other publisher's games are close to all being mapped... but this is an important one, it's Nintendo (Of America) themselves on the Nintendo Entertainment System, of course!
Thanks, and keep up the good work, zagato... as you are very well aware in your own topic about unmapped NES games, there's still a ways to go yet... but it looks like, for the North American list especially, you've certainly made progress since you first made that topic!
And of course, anyone else can map NES games, zagato blackfist isn't calling dibs on them all just because he made the list...
#6
Map Requests / Re: JonLeung's Requests
Last post by JonLeung - June 06, 2026, 09:53:21 AMGeorge s has mapped the twelfth arcade game that I've requested - and it's Spider-Man: The Videogame!
It's a fun four-player beat-em-up that I don't hear many people talking about.
When I worked at Playdium at West Edmonton Mall, there was a cleaning checklist for the arcade machines. Whoever made it listed Spider-Man: The Videogame as "Spider-Man: The Best Game Of All Time" or something, I always thought that was funny. It's a specific memory that probably not many people have, but, there we go, some of my requests are indeed personal. But Spider-Man is popular... right?
Thanks again, George s! You're the best! Especially when it comes to mapping arcade games!
Might as well also point out that until June 14, Gravity Circuit is free to claim on Steam, so if you're a PC gamer, why not go for it? It's an indie game that's 8-bit in style but plays much like Mega Man X. It's free because the sequel was recently announced, so they want to build excitement for it by giving out the original for nothing. Of course I bring it up because it's one of the games on my requests list, in the (long) PC section.
I wonder if one day I should split up the PC section into "retro-style indies" (usually platformers) and "point-and-click adventures" since most games there are one or the other... any thoughts about that?
It's a fun four-player beat-em-up that I don't hear many people talking about.
When I worked at Playdium at West Edmonton Mall, there was a cleaning checklist for the arcade machines. Whoever made it listed Spider-Man: The Videogame as "Spider-Man: The Best Game Of All Time" or something, I always thought that was funny. It's a specific memory that probably not many people have, but, there we go, some of my requests are indeed personal. But Spider-Man is popular... right?
Thanks again, George s! You're the best! Especially when it comes to mapping arcade games!
Might as well also point out that until June 14, Gravity Circuit is free to claim on Steam, so if you're a PC gamer, why not go for it? It's an indie game that's 8-bit in style but plays much like Mega Man X. It's free because the sequel was recently announced, so they want to build excitement for it by giving out the original for nothing. Of course I bring it up because it's one of the games on my requests list, in the (long) PC section.
I wonder if one day I should split up the PC section into "retro-style indies" (usually platformers) and "point-and-click adventures" since most games there are one or the other... any thoughts about that?
#7
Gaming / Re: Star Fox 64 Remake... AGAI...
Last post by samlee - June 03, 2026, 12:27:01 AMI've only played a little bit of Zero but wasn't it a remake only in terms of general story etc. It was a reimagining of the same events but with its own gameplay, levels etc. I think people are too quick to throw it in the pile of Starfox 64 remakes - to fit the narrative that Nintendo has kept making and remaking SF64. I'm not defending Zero - I don't like the gameplay and it's disappointing that it is the same story but I wouldn't group it with the 3DS game and this new Switch 2 game, which are actual SF64 remakes.
#8
Maps Of The Month / Re: 2026/06: Magic Knight Raye...
Last post by Cyartog959 - June 01, 2026, 02:03:40 PMQuote from: dark_lord_zagato on June 01, 2026, 10:36:50 AMThis was the first anime I watched with subtitles when I got my hands on a VHS tape (eps 13-16) back in early 2000. I liked it so much that used one of the bad guys for my online name.
The SNES version was already on vgmaps but I definitely wanted to map all the other Rayearth games, including this. Saturn emulation wasn't quite perfect yet so this was a bit of a challenge. The emulator used was Yabause because I couldn't get BizHawk to take 1:1 screenshots of Saturn games. Despite all this, the only map that I think needs to be touched up in the future is Crimson Underpass.
Was Yabause successful in doing 1:1 screenshots while you were mapping Magic Knight Rayearth after BizHawk couldn't? If so, that's good you made that choice. Perhaps many more Saturn games could be mapped with that emulator.
Really love its vibrant pre-rendered graphics, though. I can only guess Softimage 3D, Lightwave 3D and Alias Power Animator did the work for that amazing style. Makes me think of how such an aesthetic as that could be recreated, but only for the foregrounds, of course. For graphical styles, I enjoy different palettes and tastes; can't stick to just one alone.
#9
Maps Of The Month / Re: 2026/06: Magic Knight Raye...
Last post by dark_lord_zagato - June 01, 2026, 10:36:50 AMThis was the first anime I watched with subtitles when I got my hands on a VHS tape (eps 13-16) back in early 2000. I liked it so much that used one of the bad guys for my online name.
The SNES version was already on vgmaps but I definitely wanted to map all the other Rayearth games, including this. Saturn emulation wasn't quite perfect yet so this was a bit of a challenge. The emulator used was Yabause because I couldn't get BizHawk to take 1:1 screenshots of Saturn games. Despite all this, the only map that I think needs to be touched up in the future is Crimson Underpass.
I still have the transparent background layers for this game too.
The SNES version was already on vgmaps but I definitely wanted to map all the other Rayearth games, including this. Saturn emulation wasn't quite perfect yet so this was a bit of a challenge. The emulator used was Yabause because I couldn't get BizHawk to take 1:1 screenshots of Saturn games. Despite all this, the only map that I think needs to be touched up in the future is Crimson Underpass.
I still have the transparent background layers for this game too.
#10
Maps Of The Month / 2026/06: Magic Knight Rayearth...
Last post by JonLeung - May 31, 2026, 09:16:05 PM
For this month's "Maps Of The Month" featurette, I wish to draw your attention to zagato blackfist's Magic Knight Rayearth (Saturn) maps.
Three eighth-grade girls - Hikaru, Umi, and Fuu - on a field trip to Tokyo Tower in modern-day Japan are transported to a magical world called "Cephiro". The three girls are warriors, "Magic Knights" foretold by legend, whose innate magical powers will awaken, allowing them to save Cephiro from destruction while rescuing Princess Emeraude from the evil Zagato.
Speaking of Zagato, it is zagato blackfist, better known for his NES mapping efforts here on VGMaps.com, who travelled to the world of the Sega Saturn to map this colourful action-RPG. Though similar to the first story arc of Magic Knight Rayearth's manga and anime, this game adds new characters and locations, which are all mapped here by zagato, so you will have no trouble making it from Tokyo Tower all the way to Zagato's Castle.
So to recognize the effort put into mapping one of the best Saturn games - also the last one officially released in North America - zagato blackfist's Magic Knight Rayearth (Saturn) maps will be known as VGMaps.com's Maps Of The Month for June 2026.