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Maps Of The Month / 2024/06: Skate Or Die 2: The Search For Double Trouble (NES) - zagato blackfist
« Last post by JonLeung on Yesterday at 09:41:44 pm »

For this month's "Maps Of The Month" featurette, I wish to draw your attention to zagato blackfist's Skate Or Die 2: The Search For Double Trouble (NES) maps.

While sidewalk shredding, the local loco, Icepick, distracts you, causing you to run over the mayor's wife's poodle with your board.  The mayor bans skateboarding in the city of Elwood, and according to City Building Code 13.1689.04, Bylaw 86, Sub-Section 5A, your favourite halfpipe has been condemned as unsuitable for public usage.  To build a new ramp legally, you will have to make enough money to obtain a permit.  It doesn't help that Icepick is causing trouble for you and your friends!  Will you be able to build The Double Trouble Halfpipe?

The adventure consists of four levels with different missions.  First, you will get revenge on the mayor's wife (???), and then you will take a job making deliveries at a mall. You will recover Rodney's plans that have blown out the window and across the beach, and in the final level, you will recover the permit, rescue the kidnapped CJ, and defeat Icepick.  This non-linear adventure means that the maps by zagato blackfist will come in handy... you'll definitely want to know your way around that last level!  Every map, including the one for the ramp, has some tips, as well!  Very considerate!

So to recognize the effort put into mapping this skateboarding adventure, zagato blackfist's Skate Or Die 2: The Search For Double Trouble (NES) maps will be known as VGMaps.com's Maps Of The Month for June 2024.
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VGMaps Social Board / Furnace, the Chiptune Tracker Discussions
« Last post by Cyartog959 on Yesterday at 05:54:58 am »
So, I don't know if anyone in the VGMaps community heard of it or not yet, but have you even tried that very amazing, and completely cool chiptune tracker called Furnace?

It is a very amazing chiptune tracker that allows anyone to make chiptune music and sound effects, but shattered known technical boundaries by allowing many chips from many game consoles, even home and handheld, we've all known and loved to this day, NES, Genesis, TG16, GB, GBA(yes, that), DS(yes, that, too!!), and many others, including obscure sound chips, too, to be played at once, and it allows duplicates of said same chips to allow greater palettes of chiptuning alike, meaning no one will have to make music of whatever same sound chips' singular sound channels alone!

The creator behind it is none other than Tildearrow. Big congratulations to that fellow for making such a cool tracker!

Sure, we do have well-known trackers people used before, but this may be one of our best yet! And, so anyone knows, I have read, and it says it is NOT meant to replace any and all chiptune trackers, so people can still use them as they want. Famitracker, Deflemask, you name it. You can still download and use them, so nothing is ever replaced. PERIOD.

With this amazing tracker, I am thrilled to see such an amazing program bridge such gaps in making chiptunes for games & beyond!

I've previously thought of such a tracker that does it in such a long time, even after seeing a particular Famitracker fork playing many NES sound expansion chips at once, but no duplicates have been allowed from there.

There's a chiptune tracker guidance video up, for those that don't feel a bit confident in how to use one, made by ButtonMasher. Only thing is there's not yet a tutorial for making sound effects in trackers.

Video link here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q37XuOLz0jw

The download is absolutely free, so feel free to make whatever crazy songs or sounds you want! And don't worry about audio exporting. That tracker can export them from its own .fur format into .WAV formats, and we have converters to cover whatever we need for many projects.

Link to Furnace Tracker website - https://tildearrow.org/furnace/

Furnace's Github link - https://github.com/tildearrow/furnace

Furnace 0.6 Release Trailer video link, for those who want to see it in action - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEO_H3IqIPs

So, how do you like that tracker, and how have you been making whatever music and/or sounds with it? The possibilities are truly endless!

If you have made such music and sounds, place links for us to hear.
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Gaming / What game is this? (Video recreation)
« Last post by JonLeung on May 27, 2024, 09:40:35 pm »
People asking to identify a game they recall from their past is a pretty common thing, especially on Reddit's r/tipofmyjoystick subreddit (as that is the whole point of it).

A user named RecloySo, looking for an isometric Egyptian adventure game on PC, has a very lengthy and detailed description of her memories of it, which is more than many people do.  But what makes this search even more interesting is that she has taken it a step further and recreated what she could remember from it in this video:


She insists this isn't part of some ARG, and state she is honestly trying to figure out what this game is.  Many suggestions have been thrown her way, but it is still unidentified.  "The Pharaoh's Tomb" is a common guess but doesn't match the time period, as it would have had to be before 2003.  At this time, in RecloySo's Reddit post, there is a list of about 100 suggestions.  Looks like people are suggesting pretty much every isometric game there is!

I skimmed the PC maps that are on VGMaps.com (pretty easy to do for me as it's all in one folder), but the games that are visually close, like Twinsen's and Heimdall, have already been suggested - and rejected.  The mystery is currently unsolved.

Since many of you guys know games and maps, I wonder if this would be familiar to anyone, and can help ReloySo remember what this is!
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Map Requests / Re: Mega Man Maps
« Last post by JonLeung on May 25, 2024, 11:04:33 am »
Another bit of news... two more Mega Man: Battle Network games, for Japanese mobile phones, thought to be lost to time, were found and restored by SciLab Secrets in late 2023.  These are Mega Man: Phantom Of The Network and Mega Man: Legend Of The Network.


As of today, you can get localization patches to enjoy them in English!

I guess this is another two 2D Mega Man Battle Network games that are technically mappable.
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Map Requests / Re: Mega Man Maps
« Last post by JonLeung on May 25, 2024, 10:10:43 am »

I finished Super Adventure Rockman earlier this week!

If someone is interested in "mapping" this game by using a flowchart style, which I truly believe should be possible, I have a bunch of BizHawk save states for many of the junction points in the game, as well as before/after every fight that I could share with you.

The game needs more love - even if Keiji Inafune himself has disowned it.  There's only one guide for this game on GameFAQs, so I think it would be neat to see it all visually represented in a flowchart, like rdbaaa's "map" of Panic! on the Sega CD.

The thing that would make it easier than Panic! is that Super Adventure Rockman is actually VERY linear.  When presented with a different path, they usually end up on the same route soon after, so it's more like the choices usually just change whether Mega Man takes damage or finds E-tanks or database cards.

So, potential mappers, let me know if you'd like my BizHawk save states if that would make it easier!
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Map Requests / Re: Mega Man Maps
« Last post by Cyartog959 on May 18, 2024, 10:55:45 pm »
I would like to bring this up, for Mega May Month.

I've seen so many Mega Man maps, but nobody's yet put up maps for Mega Man 11. I have no idea how long that game's maps are, by far.

If anyone's up to it, please chart out maps of Mega Man 11.
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Map Requests / Re: Maps to Cover...
« Last post by Cyartog959 on May 18, 2024, 07:48:50 pm »
OK, I've got more games up for later coverage...

The purpose of my lists in my post here, if anyone asks, it is for people to acknowledge those games more, regardless of obscurity, which is what we really need to reduce a lot more, and address whatever curiosities about their maps' length and size. Even I am still curious about them today.

That being said, here they are!

21 - Casper: Friends Around the World (2000, PS1), Dev: Realtime Associates (seriously, that game's not even on Wikipedia.)
22 - Shantae: Risky's Revenge (2010, DS/DSi) Dev: WayForward
23 - Mighty Switch Force (2012, 3DS) Dev: Wayforward
24 - Shantae and the Pirate's Curse (2014, 3DS)  Dev: WayForward
25 - Gravity Circuit (2023, Multi-Platform, PC) Dev: Domesticated Ant Games
26 - Ed Edd n' Eddy: The Mis Ed-Ventures (2005, Console Version, GameCube, PS2, Xbox) Dev: Midway
27 - The Fairly OddParents: Enter the Cleft (2002, GBA) Dev: Altron
28 - Hey Arnold: The Movie Game (2002, GBA) Dev: Altron
29 - SpongeBob SquarePants: SuperSponge (2001, PS1, GBA) Dev: Climax Group
30 - Shantae and the Seven Sirens (2020, Multi-Platform, PC) Dev: WayForward
31 - Ed Edd n' Eddy: Scam of the Century (2007, DS) Dev: Art Co. Ltd
32 - Tom & Jerry in House Trap (2000, PS1) Dev: Warthog Games
33 - Blazing Chrome (2019, Multi-Platform, PC) Dev: Joymasher (I've seen maps on a Steam Guide, but, not on the VGMaps Atlas yet)
34 - The Lion King 1 1/2 (2003, GBA) Dev: Vicarious Visions
35 - Spectacular Sparky (2021, Multi-Platform, PC) Dev: FreakZone Games
36 - Blaster Master Zero 3 (2021, Multi-Platform, PC) Dev: Inti Creates, SunSoft (I've seen BMZ1 & 2's map guides, but not the full level maps yet. Hope they get covered soon.)
37 - Azure Striker Gunvolt (2014, 3DS) Dev: Inti Creates
38 - Azure Striker Gunvolt 2 (2016, 3DS) Dev: Inti Creates
39 - Gunvolt Chronicles Luminous Avenger iX (2019, Multi-Platform, PC) Dev: Inti Creates
40 - Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon (2018, Multi-Platform, PC) Dev: Inti Creates
41 - Spot Goes to Hollywood (1995/6, Genesis, PS1, Saturn) Dev: Eurocom (Genesis Version), Burst Studios (PS1 & Saturn Version)
42 - Bomberman Generation (2002, GameCube) Dev: Game Arts
43 - Bomberman Hero (1998, N64) Dev: A.I Co., Ltd
44 - Yoshi's Story (1997, N64) Dev: Nintendo EAD
45 - Azure Striker Gunvolt 3 (Multi-Platform, PC) Dev: Inti Creates
46 - Freedom Planet 2 (2022, Multi-Platform, PC) Dev: GalaxyTrail (Seen maps, but they're all zoomed out, and split up into several pieces/images. I really don't like that. Need to see them all in full and pixel perfect.)
47 - Oniken (2012, Multi-Platform, PC) Dev: Joymasher
48 - Gunvolt Chronicles Luminous Avenger iX 2 (2022, Multi-Platform, PC) Dev: Inti Creates
49 - Johnny Test (DS, 2011) Dev: Sarbakan
50 - Monsters, Inc. Scream Team/Scare Island (2001, PS1, PS2, PC) Dev: Artificial Mind and Movement

More to be brought up later.
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VGMaps Social Board / Re: YouTube channel! (JonLeung1)
« Last post by JonLeung on May 18, 2024, 10:21:20 am »

My brother and I finally got around to opening the Zelda and Kirby Otakudama mystery bags that we got at the last Edmonton Expo several months ago. $45 (Canadian) each! Do you think what we got was worth it?

I hope this video does well.  I think it's a lot easier to "get", and I've seen in the past that people are really interested in what's in bags/boxes like these that they sell at expos/conventions.

Strangely, I couldn't find anything online about this "Otakudama" brand that's seen on these bags, so hopefully just by me mentioning "Otakudama", people will see this video if they do a Google search for it!
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Maps In Progress / Re: VGCartography - getting to work on PS1 maps!
« Last post by YelseyKing on May 16, 2024, 01:49:12 am »
Oh yeah, now that you mention it, I guess there are some other smaller maps you didn't do as well. (Like Tears' Point, the Sorceress Memorial, and the Lunatic Pandora Lab, for instance.) I guess just figured you were sticking to larger areas, and the Centra Excavation Site was the only one of size I noticed was missing. As for the Triple Triad map... that'd be neat. It's always kind of a pain trying to remember who has what rare card, so a handy map would certainly help.

Also, I love the Wild Arms 2 world map. I never realized just how *weird* that game's world looked. That is some very... interesting... geography. :P
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Maps In Progress / Re: VGCartography - getting to work on PS1 maps!
« Last post by VGCartography on May 15, 2024, 04:27:39 pm »
Thanks YelseyKing. I didn't do most of the Laguna alternates yet (or the red Esthar during siege) because honestly I got a bit burnt out on FF8 and it took me a long time to finish these so I didn't have the heart to do the doubles yet. At some point I'll go back and do those and the Chocobo forests as well. I also thought about some kind of Triple Triad-themed map? Maybe the Queen or important unique cards? But I'm not sure quite what that would look like yet.

FF9 I plan to finish up early summer.
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