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Finished this image right before midnight on Halloween... talk about a busy day... of doing VGMaps.com stuff instead of Halloween stuff...

Anyway, we had 101 games before, but zagato's submission of five more games - Castelian, The Chessmaster, Paperboy, Roundball: 2-On-2 Challenge, and Stinger - now put us clearly under 100 - with 96 now left to go!

Pocky & Rocky 2

For this month's "Maps Of The Month" featurette, I wish to draw your attention to Cleeem's Pocky & Rocky 2 (Super NES) maps.

Princess Luna, from the moon, is visiting to enjoy the harvest celebrations. But the evil demon, Dynagon, who had earlier been rebuffed by her, sends his servant, Impy, to kidnap the princess, as Dynagon plans to force the princess to marry him.  The shrine maiden, Pocky, witnesses the kidnapping, and the seven wise people task her with rescuing Princess Luna.  They also tell her to take a friend - so, as before, Rocky accompanies Pocky in this adventure, but Little Ninja and Bomber Bob come along, too, and soon, other partners will join.  Can our heroes save the day?

There are nine stages of shooting action, from Pocky's Practice Stage all the way to Demon Castle, all mapped here.  Cleeem has taken the effort to indicate where new allies can be found, and what actions to take to uncover secrets.  It's easy to want to say "I play Rocky!", but you may have to utilize certain partners to find particular items.  The co-op in this sequel is a bit asymmetric, especially compared to the parity between Pocky and Rocky in the previous game, but visually, who doesn't enjoy the look of a cute Japanese 16-bit game?

So to recognize the effort put into mapping this cute shooter, Cleeem's Pocky & Rocky 2 (Super NES) maps will be known as VGMaps.com's Maps Of The Month for November 2026.

[TimbreWulf]

TimbreWulf is plowing through with his request-fulfillment train with the completion of the maps for Bonk's Adventure on the TurboGrafx 16!

Nice to see the mascot for that platform get his first game fully mapped!  In Japan, Bonk's name is "PC Genjin", which sounds like "PC Engine", the Japanese name for the TurboGrafx 16.  The PC Engine's 39th anniversary was yesterday, actually...  (Also today in Bonk's Adventure news, George s submitted the tenth map for Bonk's Adventure: Arcade Version.)

Along with Keith Courage In Alpha Zones (which TimbreWulf also mapped recently), the two TurboGrafx 16 games in my list of 24 games that were unmapped by VGMaps.com's 24th anniversary have now been mapped.

That's now six games in just under six months, still averaging one a month!  What will be next?

Thanks as always, TimbreWulf!

With three more games mapped, 101 games remain:

[TimbreWulf]

TimbreWulf hitting up another request with the DOS game, The Amazing Spider-Man!

This is another one that I have personal memories of playing on a cousin's computer back in 1993 when our immediate family stayed at our uncle's in Ontario.

A memorable thing about this platforming game is Spider-Man's health meter, which is represented as a full-body image of him that turns grey on his name, then skeletal from his toes up to his scalp, as he takes damage.

Still probably more of a personal request than anything, but regardless, if this is considered a classic by anyone else, then it's good that it's mapped!

Thanks again, TimbreWulf!

(Though I didn't personally request it, I could also mention that another Marvel game on DOS by Paragon that was mapped by TimbreWulf this week is X-Men: Madness In Murderworld!

From what I've seen of it, it actually reminds me of another request of mine, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Manhattan Missions (also DOS, not to be confused with The Manhattan Project).  Hope that gets mapped eventually too!)

Happy 41st birthday to the NES!

Thought I'd take this oportunity to make a collage of the boxes of the 104 officially-licensed North American NES games that we still don't have maps for...

Interestingly, there are two Mel Gibson movie games next to each other alphabetically - Lethal Weapon and Mad Max.
There are four Schwarzenegger movie games - Last Action Hero, Predator, The Terminator, and Total Recall.  (I don't think Conan counts...)

Are there any games here that are surprising that they haven't been mapped yet?

[Window Size = x1]

Though, yes, you may have noticed the maps aren't 1:1.  Timbrewulf and I have talked about it.  But I'm still happy to have these maps as they are, maybe it'll draw more attention to Lovish.  Fans of puzzly platformers should check it out!  I 100%ed it earlier this year, and it was quite satisfying to do so, especially the timed challenges.  I got it for free through a giveaway on social media, but I'd happily have paid for it, considering how much fun I had playing it.

Well, yes, I noticed they're not 1:1, mainly because the game's engine is made with Clickteam Fusion. I'm not disappointed. I'm sure Timbrewulf will revise the maps to be 1:1 later with the select, proper tools suited for ripping Clickteam made game maps.

I don't think that Clickteam Fusion has much to do with it... At least not specifically...

By playing the game windowed, with the options of Window Size = x1 and Soft Pixels = OFF, the pixels come out 1:1 and clean.

Or when playing the game fullscreen, set your display to 1280 x 768, and set the options to Window Size = Fullscreen 1 and Soft Pixels = OFF, then do a pixel resize to 25% (since 1280 x 768 is four times larger in each dimension to 320 x 192, the original resolution).

I think it's important to consider checking the options to games with the retro aesthetic.  Mapping seems more "right" with 1:1, unfiltered graphics.

Anyways, most of the Lovish maps have now been corrected to be 1:1, so thanks again to TimbreWulf, especially for putting up with my concerns.

[TimbreWulf]

Probably the newest game on my list has been mapped by TimbreWulf!  It's the indie game, Lovish!

It's a retro-styled puzzlish platformer, with most stages being a single screen, where you try to unlock the exit and then make your way to it.  It's got some fun references to other games, like in the fun scenes in between each challenge.  I'm not so demanding as to ask for all those random events to all be mapped, LOL.

Though, yes, you may have noticed the maps aren't 1:1.  Timbrewulf and I have talked about it.  But I'm still happy to have these maps as they are, maybe it'll draw more attention to Lovish.  Fans of puzzly platformers should check it out!  I 100%ed it earlier this year, and it was quite satisfying to do so, especially the timed challenges.  I got it for free through a giveaway on social media, but I'd happily have paid for it, considering how much fun I had playing it.

The fourth stage, the Kingdom Of Mirrors, has this rocking music.  The official YouTube video of this music track only has 178 views as of now - probably half of those are mine, LOL, as I've come back to this several times this year when I play YouTube music in the background while I work.  This game is seriously underrated, and more gamers should check it out.

Just a silly Short I quickly whipped up.
When I saw the Tesla Roadster, a flying car that can also drive up walls and the ceiling, I was immediately reminded of the Sophia The 3rd tank from the NES game, Blaster Master.

Locations 53:
1 World Maps raw: size reduced to 25% to allowable filesize

Have you seen the sizes of some of the larger maps on here?

I don't think there would be any problem with us hosting the 1:1 full city map of The Punisher on here.  In fact, I'd prefer it over a reduced one.

Well, I would still prefer that the maps get emailed to me.  The email address can be found on the main page on the left side where it says "CONTRIBUTE", then just replace the "(at)" with a "@".

Bonk's Adventure for the NES has been mapped by Dan_, and Bonk's Adventure: Arcade Version (that's really the name of the game) for the arcade is currently being mapped by George s (a level at a time, and we literally got another one today).
(I find it funny that there's a game called Bonze Adventure that is totally unrelated but it also stars a bald guy, but it's a monk, not a caveman.  Calling it "Monk's Adventure" would also be funny.)

But yeah, you can see on my shortlist of the 24 games that VGMaps.com surprisingly didn't have mapped by its 24th anniversary that your recently-mapped Keith Courage In Alpha Zones and Bonk's Adventure made the cut, representing the TurboGrafx 16.  I mean, it's the pack-in game and the mascot game!  Come on!

So if you are interested in doing the Bonk games on TurboGrafx 16, or any of the other requests in my personal requests topic, please consider doing so!

I didn't have a TurboGrafx 16 growing up, but my cousin did, and so my brother and I played a lot of Final Lap Twin on it when we visited them in 1993.  This console took a back seat to the Super NES and Sega Genesis (certainly in North America, and with less than 100 games), but as I love the 8- and 16-bit era, it's a still mostly-untapped well of potential retro maps that I would love to see more of here.  Besides the four games I specifically requested, it would be nice to see more of whatever are considered the iconic, must-play games for the TurboGrafx 16, because I'm not sure what they are, to be honest, but I feel that if even Bonk's Adventure hasn't been mapped, then there must be more!

(Oh, yeah, my brother did get me a TurboGrafx 16 Mini last Christmas.  I should probably play more on it besides Ys: Book I & II, heh.  If only a second controller wasn't separate and expensive...)

Thanks, they're up now:
https://vgmaps.com/Atlas/TG16/index.htm#KeithCourageInAlphaZones

I thank you further here:
https://www.vgmaps.com/forums/index.php?topic=2478.msg24361#msg24361

[TimbreWulf]

The other request fulfillment that is also a big deal today is that newcomer TimbreWulf mapped out the TurboGrafx 16 game, Keith Courage In Alpha Zones!

I mean, come on, it's a launch game, a pack-in game, for a retro console, in the same era as the popular NES, Super NES, and Sega Genesis!  Anyone the least bit familiar with the TurboGrafx 16 is likely to know of this game!

Here's the updated infographic of my wishlist I made on VGMaps.com's 24-year anniversary, hoping to get more of these mapped before the 25th.  Fifth game in five months since, that's like one a month.  Gonna have to almost triple that rate (19 games in seven months!) to get them all done by then!

Thanks, TimbreWulf!

[zagato blackfist]

zagato blackfist came through with another one of my NES requests, this time for Parasol Stars: The Story Of Bubble Bobble III (E)!

It's yet another confusing Bubble Bobble sequel... the box says "Parasol Stars: Rainbow Islands II" or "Parasol Stars: Rainbow Islands 2" - I'm still not sure if both are actually legit or if certain European countries got one or the other - and then the in-game title (which VGMaps.com usually goes with) is "Parasol Stars: The Story Of Bubble Bobble III" (since Rainbow Islands is a sequel to Bubble Bobble, though there are two different Rainbow Islands games on the NES, and neither one is "Bubble Bobble: Part 2", yet another sequel also on the NES...) What a mess...

I requested it since there are still new Bubble Bobble games made to this day, and now that this is mapped I think we (probably) now have every NES game featuring currently active video game characters!

Thanks again, zagato blackfist!

Castlevania: Portrait Of Ruin

For this month's "Maps Of The Month" featurette, I wish to draw your attention to G.E.R.'s Castlevania: Portrait Of Ruin (DS) maps.

The Castlevania series celebrates its 40th anniversary this year! The Famicom Disk System release of Akumajou Dracula (which the West would later get as "Castlevania" on the NES) was near the end of September 1986, and a new game, Castlevania: Belmont's Curse, will be released this month! Quite a treat for a series that has been dormant, at least in the sense of new games, as Castlevania has mostly been about crossovers and collections lately...

And close to halfway between 1986's Castlevania and 2026's Castlevania: Belmont's Curse is 2006's Castlevania: Portrait Of Ruin!

During World War II, the agony and hatred of countless lost souls allow the vampire, Brauner, to recreate Dracula's castle. Jonathan Morris, wielder of the legendary "Vampire Killer" whip and the son of John Morris (from Castlevania: Bloodlines), and his friend and skilled sorceress, Charlotte Aulin, take on the duty to take on Dracula. This time, painting-like portals throughout the castle add some variety to the settings of this Castlevania adventure.

These worlds range from a London city street to an Egyptian pyramid to a bizarre circus-themed area with rotated and upside-down portions where gravity is pointed inwards for most creatures, but not for Jonathan and Charlotte.  And G.E.R. has mapped all of these for our viewing pleasure!

So to recognize the effort put into mapping one of the "Metroidvania" Castlevania games, G.E.R.'s Castlevania: Portrait Of Ruin (DS) maps will be known as VGMaps.com's Maps Of The Month for October 2026.