Topics

1

Map Requests / Request: Samurai Shodown RPG (maps are done, need populating)

« on: November 30, 2023, 11:42:14 am »

So Samurai Shodown RPG was recently translated (after 15 years).

The author of the patch also extracted all of the game's maps, but he doesn't want to release them unmarked like that. He found someone willing to populate the maps with all the chests and important stuff, but the person went M.I.A.

So my request is, would anyone be willing to play through the game and populate the maps? I'm afraid that if no one does it, the maps will just go to waste on his hard drive.

2

Mapping Tips/Guides / Here's a snes9x version that allows to have a colored background!

« on: February 17, 2022, 12:14:35 am »

The SNESManuals.com guy was asking on twitter if anyone had a snes9x version he had used a long time ago that allowed him to set a game's background to a different color, something that's incredibly useful for ripping sprites and graphics.

I've never heard of any SNES emulator that allowed you to do that, so I did a google search and found many people asking and requesting emu authors to implement such a thing, yet all the requests went into to deaf ears.

I assured this person that such a thing didn't exist, because I have been looking for something like this for years too.

Turns out, he wasn't crazy. Apparently someone created a single branch release of the snes9x-rr version that allows you to switch between 3 different background colors by pressing Shift+1 (it's customizable too!), but he never contributed the commit to the main branch, so the feature was never implemented.

I'll try to get the snes9x team to implement this in the official releases, but in the meantime, you can use this release to finally end the many issues dark backgrounds have caused graphic rippers.

https://archive.org/details/snes-9-x-1.51-rr

Enjoy!

3

Mapping Tips/Guides / Here's how to remove the black background when removing the BG Layer in FCEUX

« on: February 02, 2021, 07:02:47 pm »

Some people might already know this, but after years of struggling ripping sprites or doing maps, I finally found a way to have the black background color changed to something else when removing the background layer in FCEUX.

Just open the fceux.cfg file with Notepad++, go to "gNoBGFillColor" and change the number to something else. I haven't found the number for pink yet, but I settled with "35", which gives me a purplish color that I don't think is used by any game.

4

Map Requests / World Map request for Lunar 2 Eternal Blue (Sega CD)

« on: September 09, 2019, 04:33:17 pm »

I would love if someone could make the world map for the Sega CD version of Lunar 2 (the PS1 version has a different map).  Both bizhawk and Gens Re-Recording have the option to disable layers (Gens RR allows more disabling than bizawk) and here's a brm file with the whole map available to explore already (pick the Epilogue save).

https://www.sendspace.com/file/imqpe7

If you need to make cheats, then you'll have to use Bizhawk. Searching for Sega CD cheats can sometimes be complicated  because games can use both the Genesis ram or the Sega CD one. So, when searching for cheats, got the Settings -> Memory Domain and pick either 68K RAM (Genesis side) or CD PRG RAM (Sega CD side). Unfortunately the only way to tell which one the game uses is to try to search for a cheat, if you keep getting zero results for a simple cheat, then pick another memory domain. If neither of those domains provide anything, then try "CD Word RAM (2M)".

If someone does this, I think it will be the first Sega CD map on the site?

5

Map Requests / Request: Wrath of the Black Manta (NES) & Ninja Cop Saizou (Famicom)

« on: March 02, 2014, 12:56:24 pm »

I didn't see any guidelines noting if I should request everything in one topic or make separate topics. So, moving on with the topic at hand:

I'm surprised no one tried to map this game yet. The Japanese and USA versions have some levels that are completely different. It would be great if someone could map both games eventually.

6

Map Requests / Request: Power Blazer (Famicom)

« on: March 02, 2014, 12:54:10 pm »

I didn't see any guidelines noting if I should request everything in one topic or make separate topics. So, moving on with the topic at hand:

This is the Japanese version of Power Blade. A lot of people don't know, but the Japanese game is completely different from the USA version and I was wondering if someone would map the game because it would be interesting to see the level differences between both games.

7

Map Gab / Request: Phantom 2040 (SNES or Genesis)

« on: December 02, 2013, 12:55:43 pm »

I recently discovered this game after reading it has like 20 possible endings (they are probably just variations).

Anyway, after trying the game I noticed it's really good! It has non-linear levels and tight controls. I am going to try to get all the endings since no one has done so yet, but to make things easier, I would love if someone could map this game. There are only 7 levels, so it shouldn't be something out of the ordinary for more experienced mappers.

The SNES version is preferred, but if Genesis is your thing, then that one would work too.

Thanks in advance!

8

Mapping Tips/Guides / Dungeon Mapper alpha 0.2 - useful tool

« on: November 03, 2011, 11:13:24 am »

The user Weasel posted this on the Hardcore Gaming 101 forums and I thought it could be useful for people here too:

"This is a handy little utility that runs in Java (i.e. on any computer) and is primarily designed for mapping out dungeons in tabletop RPG's, but is extremely useful for other stuff too. Basically, the mapping functions in Dungeon Mapper mirror those of the Etrian Odyssey series on Nintendo DS. For my purposes, I've been working with it on the Genesis game Shining in the Darkness and it's worked quite well aside from some graphical glitches that are easily remedied.

https://www.zerker.ca/zzone/2010/01/10/dungeon-mapper-0-1-alpha

Probably the best digital equivalent of graphing paper I've seen...ever."

9

Map Requests / Request: S.O.S. (Super NES)

« on: April 24, 2011, 09:56:09 pm »

Hey guys.

I recently discovered this great, but flawed, survival SNES game from the creators of Clock Tower.

You play as 4 different characters, passengers in a luxurious cruiser. A few minutes into the game, a huge wave tips over the ship, lots of people die and now it's your job to rescue some of the remaining live passengers (optional) and escape the ship through the boiler room. It's the exact same story as the classic movie Poseidon by the way. Depending on who or how many people you rescue, you will get 4 different endings with slight variations each.




I thought of asking here for a decent map because the ingame map is horrible. It doesn't tell you where you are and it's really really hard to know where you are going when all the rooms on the map look the same.

On Gamefaqs there's a image of the ingame map, but it only tells you where the survivors are, and it doesn't show where each character starts or where the boiler room is. So, almost useless.

I don't know if whoever takes this request will do a full game map, but if you do, here's a code (7E030501) that stops time, which prevents the ship from capsizing, however you can't rescue anyone (because nothing has happened) or escape the ship. Just disable it and let the ship capsize.

[Keyboard To Joystick emulator:]

10

Mapping Tips/Guides / Handy tools for emulator & screenshots

« on: March 02, 2008, 01:03:49 am »

Since a lot of people here fiddle with emulators to take screenshots for maps, I decided to post some of the tools that make my life easier when it comes to handling emulators or taking screenshots.

I know there might be better tools than these out there, but they are also probably more complicated. These are the easiest I could find after trying many many programs over the years.

Although most here deal with more popular systems which have emulators with tons of features, these tools will prove useful if you ever decide to make a map from some of the older systems with rudimentary and basic emulators (CDi, 3DO, Jaguar, etc).



Keyboard To Joystick emulator:

This is great for those emulators that don't have joystick support. You can even set any of the emulator keys (save state, screenshot, reset, load, etc.) to any of the buttons on the joystick.

No installation required, just open the proggie, it auto recognizes your joystick, set the keyboard key you want to the joystick button and off you go.

http://www.electracode.com/4/joy2key/JoyToKey%20English%20Version.htm





Cheat Maker:

Very basic options and really easy to use. Just open the program, select the running emulator and search for the value you want.

It's great for those emulators with no cheat support and/or for those very old games with zero cheats. This tool is good to set infinite lives/ammo/items, in other words, anything that has a number or that can be counted.

http://rapidshare.com/files/96368740/cheatomatic.zip.html



Aldo screenshot capture:

Forget that stupid and tedious print screen key and all the bitmaps you have to open to cut and paste what you want.

With Aldo's Capture you can press the PS key all you want and after you are done you just save all the screens to your favorite directory. Great for emulators with no screenshot button.

Disadvantages: It captures the whole screen (just like what print screen does), but it's good if you need to take quick and hasty snapshots. No installation required.

http://aldostools.com/vgscapture.html





Capture Easy Pro:

The one I use the most. You have to buy the program, but there's a time limit remover in the zip provided here. This is a very old old version, but it works perfectly for emulators since it takes a screenshot of exactly the active part of what ever window you have on top. In the case of emulators it will take snaps of the gameplay screen and not the menus.

You can set how you want the captures to be named, what number to start in, directory to send the images automatically, set automatic capturing by setting delays and much more.

Highly recommended when an emulator doesn't have a screenshot function.

http://rapidshare.com/files/96371303/Capture_EZ_Pro.zip.html





Batch Renamer:

If you have a ton of images (or any kind of file) that you need to rename and number, then this program is for you. Mega easy to use.

Just select the directory where your files are in (make sure ONLY the files you want to rename are in there). Then select any of the options to trim the length you want from either left or right side.

Or add whatever new name you want from either left or right sides, you can replace names for others, set everything to lowercase or upper case or large case, insert numbers, remove underscores or add underscores as spaces and much more. Everything in batches.

After all it's done just go to FILE --> RENAME to make the changes permanent.

http://rapidshare.com/files/96370329/Renamer.zip.html



Smart IPS:

ROM patching program. Super mega easy to use. Open the program, select the original file, then the patch file and click on patch. It doesn't get any easier than that.

http://rapidshare.com/files/96370458/Smart_IPS.zip.html



BMP Font Writer:

If you ever want to make your own fonts and type with them then you should try this. You won't be able to use it to type on boards or emails, obviously. But if you ever want to make a online comic, translate images or add a custom font to a map it works great.

I even include over 15 fonts ripped from some games.

It's a bit complicated making the fonts from scratch, but after you learn the correct steps it isn't hard at all.

This is an example of what I was able to do with the program:

I took the English font from Samurai Shodown 5, made the .bmp font file with the steps that the program requires, and then used the program to type a translation from the Japanese version.

Instead of having to cut and paste a sentence letter by letter, I used this program to type everything in that font and then paste it on top of the Japanese text.

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b41/ReyVGM/samie5.gif

http://rapidshare.com/files/96370179/BMP_Font_Writer.zip.html

11

Maps In Progress / Samurai Shodown RPG

« on: February 09, 2008, 10:50:10 am »

Is anyone interested in doing maps for this game?

The game is almost getting translated now and with the release of the great NeoRaine that plays NeoGeo CD games, has save states and possibly sprite disabling options in the future (I made a request for it) I might try to do it myself.



But only the over world map. I don't have the time to do the dungeons and towns.