Topics

[The Myst Reader]

601

VGMaps Social Board / Since books are all the rage, I decided to buy some.

« on: June 06, 2006, 09:01:33 pm »

Today I bought:



The Myst Reader - I finished Myst V: End Of Ages a while ago, and I'd played the previous four games about a year or two before that.  I suppose I still need to play the Uru expansions, but the main Myst games are done with.  I need my Myst fix.  I wanted the hardcover ones of the three books separately (I imagine they'd look cool like in the games, probably with a nice cover and then an image that looks like it would "link" you into another world, I'm guessing) - but I guess they're rare or in limited print so each individual one is already multiple times more expensive than the paperback one that includes all three volumes.



Transformers: The Ultimate Guide - I've heard there are factual errors everywhere, but it's still the best English guide to all things Transformers.  I'm sure you'd love to hear my impressions of it when I get it.



I ordered both of these online so I won't actually get my hands on them until maybe next week.  Though you never know...when I ordered the ReBoot movies on DVD they came in less than two days.  o_0

602

VGMaps Social Board / I got an email from osrevad.

« on: June 06, 2006, 05:58:27 pm »

He didn't mention where he is (or else I missed it even after rereading his email) but he won't be back home until April 10th, 2008.  That's like 22 months from now.



Until then, he must be in limbo or on a secret mission or something, because he can only access his email about once a week and doesn't have the capability or time to do any Internet browsing.



I'll have to dig in the old forum topics since he was apparently actually submitting those WoW maps he was working on, but aside from those, we won't see any more maps from osrevad during his apparent absence.



So, yeah, if you kinda know him, I can tell him your email address or I could PM you his email address or whatever.

603

VGMaps Social Board / Pixelblocks! Revned, I've got an assignment for you...

« on: June 05, 2006, 06:26:59 pm »

Or anyone else who can do some coding...I thought of Revned because I figure this might be very similar to his slicer/splicer program that he could just start with that.



I haven't spent money on anything cool in a while, and I was thinking of spending on some PixelBlocks and making game sprites out of them.  They're relatively expensive, though, so I only want to buy as much as I need.  Instead of taking a screen capture of a game sprite that I want to make out of PixelBlocks and then counting the individual pixels of each colour, I was hoping you could write a program that counts how many pixels of each colour there are (RGB values are fine).  Then I'll know how many of each colour I should buy with minimum extra.



I'll post pics of my other PixelBlock creations so far, but I only have two...an Octorok and a Super Mushroom...



EDIT: Here they are:

[Image Organization]

604

Mapping Tips/Guides / Recommended programs to assist your mapping

« on: June 04, 2006, 05:08:56 pm »

This list of useful programs will be edited on an ongoing basis as more suggested programs are brought to our attention.



Image Organization

CompuPic Pro - I've been using this for years.  Good for basic (and advanced) browsing and organization.  And basic editing, too.  Has some helpful functions like auto-crop, batch conversion and renaming, keywords and categories for sorting, screensavers, slideshows, picture indexes, changing the time and date of files, looking inside .ZIPs easily, and finding out what type a file really is.  It can do a lot (I'm still finding things that it can do), all you need to do is click around.



Font Making

Bitmap Font Writer - Incredibly useful if you want to label your maps, but only want to do so with the game's own font.  Or any custom font you may want to create, really.



Image Checking

Revned's Tile Slicer/Splicer - If you make your maps as nice rectangles with dimensions that are multiples of 16, these programs will slice them up into all its unique 16 x 16 tiles.  You can then replace tiles that aren't the same (but should be) with ones that are and then splice them back together for a perfect map.

Revned's Tile Slicer (latest version, 1.1) - added May 2008, Splicer to come.



Image Compression

PNGGauntlet - I've been using this on every .PNG submitted to me, and nearly always am able to shrink them down.  Depending on what you use to edit your .PNGs, this could shrink the filesize by quite a lot without affecting the image.  Use this after you have no more editing to do on your map.

605

VGMaps Social Board / Animated .GIFs

« on: June 03, 2006, 01:23:32 pm »

I hope your resolution is at least 1280 x 1024.  Or at least 1000 in width.

606

VGMaps Social Board / Looks like TerraEsperZ is the first to buy the Extra Life item.

« on: June 01, 2006, 09:48:14 pm »

Watch your back, Terra!

607

Maps Of The Month / 2006/06: Mega Man VII (Super NES) - Geminiman

« on: May 31, 2006, 09:51:58 pm »

Mega Man VII

For this month's "Maps of the Month" featurette, I wish to draw your attention to Geminiman's Mega Man VII (Super NES) maps.



Mega Man VII is a Mega Man game through and through.  Eight Robot Masters whose weapons are obtained to defeat another, Dr. Wily's the final boss, shooting and jumping and platforming action, etc.  Not that there's anything wrong with that, and Mega Man games are extremely popular here at VGMaps.com.  (Mega Man VII does introduce major character Bass, Wily's creation meant to rival Mega Man, and it is the only Mega Man game on the Super NES (unless you count the X (not "10") series, Mega Man Soccer, and the Japanese-only Mega Man & Bass).  So story-wise, it's pivotal, and milestone-wise, it's historical.)



One of the biggest Mega Man fans is Geminiman, if you couldn't guess by his name (though his horoscope sign is Gemini as well).  Since those born in June (except for the last ten days) are under the horoscope sign of Gemini, I thought it would be an appropriate month to recognize Geminiman's contributions.  Besides Mega Man VII, Geminiman has also worked on Mega Man: The Wily Wars, Mega Man V, Mega Man VI, Mega Man & Bass, Mega Man X and Mega Man X 3.  His work on the X series' games was instrumental in the April Fool's joke earlier this year, so he deserves credit for that too.



So to recognize the effort put into making these complete and classic maps, Geminiman's Mega Man VII maps will be known as VGMaps.com's Maps of the Month for June 2006.

608

VGMaps Social Board / How do you add keywords to files that can be seen in Windows Explorer?

« on: May 28, 2006, 01:29:04 pm »

You know how, when viewing files in Explorer, you can right-click on the columns and choose a number of fields to sort by, including "Keywords"?



I can right-click on particular files, go into "Properties", then the "Summary" tab, and I can click on "Title", "Subject", "Keywords", and "Comments".  But if I fill out the "Keywords", they don't actually show up in the Keywords column.



I was hoping to be able to sort pictures by more than just descriptive filenames.  Anyone know how?  I suppose I could use the "Title" field but I'd prefer "Keywords" if I can use them.



I can use external programs (CompuPic Pro, for example, which I always applaud) but I'd like keywords that are internal to the file (if it is...and if not, Windows Explorer is probably the next best thing) so that descriptive keywords will always be attached to the file no matter what I use it in.

609

VGMaps Social Board / Mega Man Robot Masters Tournament!

« on: May 27, 2006, 04:27:27 pm »

Over the next ten (or eleven) days, the daily polls will feature a Mega Man Robot Master Tournament!



On the daily poll, you'll vote for your favourite Robot Master from each game.  The first day will be of bosses from Mega Man (including the two new Powered Up bosses), the second day will be of Mega Man II, the third day will be of Mega Man III, etc.  The ninth day will be of Mega Man & Bass, and the tenth day will be of all the nine past winners.  (If the polls are really close on the ninth day, it may delay the finals by a day...)



There's really no prizes, no major thing involving the winner or anything.  It's just for fun.



Air vs. Aqua vs. Astro vs. Blizzard vs. Bomb vs. Bright vs. Bubble vs. Burst vs. Burner vs. Centaur vs. Charge vs. Cloud vs. Clown vs. Cold vs. Crash vs. Crystal vs. Cut vs. Dive vs. Drill vs. Dust vs. Dynamo vs. Elec vs. Fire vs. Flame vs. Flash vs. Freeze vs. Frost vs. Gemini vs. Gravity vs. Grenade vs. Ground vs. Guts vs. Gyro vs. Hard vs. Heat vs. Ice vs. Junk vs. Knight vs. Magic vs. Magnet vs. Metal vs. Napalm vs. Needle vs. Oil vs. Pharaoh vs. Pirate vs. Plant vs. Quick vs. Ring vs. Search vs. Shade vs. Shadow vs. Skull vs. Slash vs. Snake vs. Spark vs. Spring vs. Star vs. Stone vs. Sword vs. Tengu vs. Time vs. Toad vs. Tomahawk vs. Top vs. Turbo vs. Wave vs. Wind vs. Wood vs. Yamato!

[Alex Foster, Bergles, Chiasm (x3), Peardian (x3)]

610

Message Board Announcements / 2006-05-27: Maps Of The Month items handed out.

« on: May 27, 2006, 03:11:33 pm »

All Mapmakers Of The Month now have the [Mapmaker Of The Month] item, and 200 Gold for each one of those that they got.  I have also bumped them up to a minimum user level of 18.  All future Mapmakers of the Month will receive these.



These people have not yet received theirs, because they do not have an account (or have not recreated one after certain board losses):



EDIT: Updated as necessary.

Alex Foster, Bergles, Chiasm (x3), Peardian (x3)



If you do create an account after having received that honor, send me a private message and I will get you the item, Gold, and user level adjustment.



EDIT: No user level adjustments any more.

611

Message Board Announcements / 2006-05-26: Shop is now ready.

« on: May 26, 2006, 10:21:43 pm »

Actually, the shop always was, but I finally got around to editing the items and it's not like any of you would've been able to view it until reaching Level 18...I think that means at least tomorrow, luckily enough.  I may make the shop visible earlier, though, if it encourages continued visiting.



Item selection is currently very plain.  Not a whole lot there yet.  I haven't handed out the Mapmaker Of The Month items yet, either.  Most of the regulars should have gotten the HTML: Images and HTML: Links items...but I won't be so generous soon, and everyone will have to earn them.



Prices subject to change, and item selection may increase, both according to my whim.



Shop!



Enjoy your items, or the potential to shop for them soon.

612

VGMaps Social Board / RE: I didn't even realize the forums' shops were operational.

« on: May 26, 2006, 10:58:03 am »

Last I checked (which was pretty much when the forums were being set up), they weren't.  Now if the items are fully operational as well then I will find time this weekend to check over the prices, edit them overall if I can, etc.



I want people to earn these items, so they'll be visiting every day to get enough Gold for the useful items.



I will probably give the regulars (i.e. just about everyone stil here) the Images and Hyperlink items (or enough Gold to buy them).



If referral bonuses work that might be another way to encourage getting more people on here.



To not have time to look over one's own forums' features...that's pretty bad...  >_>

613

Message Board Announcements / 2006-05-25: Topics from old forum are viewable.

« on: May 25, 2006, 08:41:02 pm »

Thanks to Revned (who actually did this a while ago, I only just finally got around to this), some of the topics from the previous iteration of the forums have been recovered.



Old topics!



For viewing only, though.  You can't reply to those topics, at least not directly there.  But for those of you who have been around before, or even if you haven't, it'll give you or remind you of some conversational topics you might want to start up again.

614

VGMaps Social Board / Sam & Max on VGMaps.com

« on: May 24, 2006, 07:37:31 pm »

Create your own Sam & Max comics here.

615

VGMaps Social Board / Ask A Ninja

« on: May 23, 2006, 09:49:23 pm »

Okay, it's not new, but it's new to me, and this seems like the best episode of the few I've seen so far.