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Map Requests / Re: JonLeung's Requests
« on: March 26, 2024, 06:56:23 pm »
That is one spooky coincidence. Even if I had known that you were buying these games I never would have guessed the exact day they would show up in the mail.
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Map Gab / The mini map of Link to the Past, but the palettes are swapped
« on: February 18, 2024, 03:38:01 pm »
So recently I was recording some scenes from LttP for my youtube channel, which is mostly just game hacking, modification, and research. I had the idea to enable the use of the flute in the Dark World, and after trying many different cheat codes I finally discovered a way to do this. The game rewarded me with a mini map that was physically still the Light World, but with the same color palette as the Dark World.
Since I was successful, I decided to take a screenshot of this. I also decided I wanted to compare it side by side with the normal Light World map. Instead of using the flute again though, I just went back to the Light World and pressed X because I thought it would be the same map. That's when I noticed there are subtle differences...
On the left is a screenshot of the LW map you get from using the flute, but with the sprites turned off. On the right is a screenshot of the LW map you get from pressing X. If you open one of these up in paint and paste the other one of top of it, then hold ctrl and start tapping the z and y keys, you will see how these are different.
--- 
I sat there scratching my head for a few days when I finally realized what was going on. Mode 7. I tried this again in ZSNES and got my screenshots from vSNES, and the maps are identical whether they come from the flute screen or the X button. I suppose the orientation must be slightly different in game. I kind of suspected they looked different when I was playing this back in the 90s but I had no real way of comparing them back then.
Just for fun i'll share the screenshot of the LW map with the DW palette below, and also my more recent mode 7 rips of both worlds with and without their palettes swapped.
Since I was successful, I decided to take a screenshot of this. I also decided I wanted to compare it side by side with the normal Light World map. Instead of using the flute again though, I just went back to the Light World and pressed X because I thought it would be the same map. That's when I noticed there are subtle differences...
On the left is a screenshot of the LW map you get from using the flute, but with the sprites turned off. On the right is a screenshot of the LW map you get from pressing X. If you open one of these up in paint and paste the other one of top of it, then hold ctrl and start tapping the z and y keys, you will see how these are different.
--- I sat there scratching my head for a few days when I finally realized what was going on. Mode 7. I tried this again in ZSNES and got my screenshots from vSNES, and the maps are identical whether they come from the flute screen or the X button. I suppose the orientation must be slightly different in game. I kind of suspected they looked different when I was playing this back in the 90s but I had no real way of comparing them back then.
Just for fun i'll share the screenshot of the LW map with the DW palette below, and also my more recent mode 7 rips of both worlds with and without their palettes swapped.
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Maps In Progress / Re: My mapping projects
« on: January 02, 2024, 10:34:35 am »
Not so much given up, but i've put that on hold in favor of getting other things done. There's going to be a lot of work involved in Super Star Wars.
One of the first things I did was make codes, including x/y coordinate mods to see where i'm at on the map. After flying all the way to the end of Hoth (stage 1) I checked the coordinates, which suggest the first map of the game is supposed to be 17904x3616.
I've briefly explored other games too and hesitate to commit due to not knowing if I will be successful. From what I can tell, the maps in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure on NES would all be 12000x6000 in size.
I did actually finish Surf Ninjas though after getting side tracked for a few years.
One of the first things I did was make codes, including x/y coordinate mods to see where i'm at on the map. After flying all the way to the end of Hoth (stage 1) I checked the coordinates, which suggest the first map of the game is supposed to be 17904x3616.
I've briefly explored other games too and hesitate to commit due to not knowing if I will be successful. From what I can tell, the maps in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure on NES would all be 12000x6000 in size.
I did actually finish Surf Ninjas though after getting side tracked for a few years.
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Maps In Progress / Re: My mapping projects
« on: January 01, 2024, 11:18:12 am »
Plans for 2024
Cool World [NES]
Cowboy Kid [NES]
Flying Warriors [NES]
Ikari Warriors 2 [NES]
Thundercade [NES]
Flying Warriors [NES]
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Map Requests / Re: JonLeung's Requests
« on: September 04, 2023, 10:34:46 pm »
I had the same problem back then. I rented it when I was maybe 6 years old and rage quit before I made it to the second floor. You have no i-frames and the enemies can juggle you so I kept getting killed in seconds.
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VGMaps Social Board / Re: Trying to complete my Super NES music collection...
« on: June 18, 2023, 10:49:08 am »
I've checked my own collection and I seem to have the music for "We're Back!: A Dinosaur's Story" that I got from archive.org years ago. I'll email it to you later.
99% of the stuff in my video game music collection came from Zophar.net, which also does not have any of the missing titles you listed.
https://www.zophar.net/music/nintendo-snes-spc
If all else fails you can rip SPCs right out of the ROM using Snes9X. The downside is that you can only rip one song at a time, and the game has to be currently playing the song you want to rip. I guess it's not a problem if there's a sound test code or if you've already decided which music you want to put in your video. If you load the game in 9X and get to the music you want, just go file/Save Other/Save SPC Data.
99% of the stuff in my video game music collection came from Zophar.net, which also does not have any of the missing titles you listed.
https://www.zophar.net/music/nintendo-snes-spc
If all else fails you can rip SPCs right out of the ROM using Snes9X. The downside is that you can only rip one song at a time, and the game has to be currently playing the song you want to rip. I guess it's not a problem if there's a sound test code or if you've already decided which music you want to put in your video. If you load the game in 9X and get to the music you want, just go file/Save Other/Save SPC Data.
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Maps In Progress / Re: My mapping projects
« on: December 31, 2022, 11:22:27 am »
Plans for 2023
Adventures of Lolo 3 [NES]
Arkista's Ring [NES]
Athena [NES]
California Raisins (NES)
Crystal Kingdom Dizzy (Commodore 64)
Fantastic Adventures of Dizzy, The (NES) (Aladdin cart)
Rollerblade Racer (NES)
Rygar (Commodore 64)
Strider (EU) (Commodore 64)
Super Star Wars The Empire Strikes Back (SNES)
Surf Ninjas (Game Gear)
Toobin' (NES)
Super Star Wars The Empire Strikes Back (SNES)
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Maps Of The Month / Re: 2022/10: Crystalis (NES) - zagato blackfist
« on: October 01, 2022, 06:04:47 pm »
Speaking of END DAY, Nintendo Power issue 100 (September 1997) featured a top 100 list of the best games of all time. Crystalis was in 59th place, still ahead of several other great games. The article mentioned the impending nuclear war that was supposed to take place next month, and advised the reader to "wear lead underwear" to protect the next generation, I guess.
This is one of my favorite games and it was a pleasure to map it.
This is one of my favorite games and it was a pleasure to map it.
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Maps In Progress / Re: VGCartography - getting to work on PS1 maps!
« on: July 31, 2022, 06:35:01 pm »
I've always wanted to see a Xenogears world map. This is excellent.
It's probably for the best that you moved Shevat over to Sargasso Point. If you left it on top of Babel Tower it would have covered up the entire thing.
It's probably for the best that you moved Shevat over to Sargasso Point. If you left it on top of Babel Tower it would have covered up the entire thing.
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Map Gab / Re: Super Mario Bros 3: Incorrect map doesn't include secret path!
« on: July 15, 2022, 01:10:34 pm »Just looked over all the World maps to see if there are any other rocks directly adjacent in a cardinal direction to a space you can stop on, and I noticed one in World 1, in the space just before and just north of 1-5.
This is quite early, and you probably can't normally get a Hammer before this if memory serves. But if you hacked the game or used a Game Genie code or something to get a Hammer here, could you break it to skip both 1-5 and 1-6?
If it does break, it might prove that all rocks are breakable. Or if it doesn't, maybe there's an exception (because there's also another rock to the west of the same space, so maybe there's a conflict?), or that there are just rocks that are breakable and others that aren't (irrespective of their positioning).
I have tons of cheat codes, including one for infinite hammers, so I took care of it today. I played through the entire game using a hammer on literally EVERY space on the map that Mario can step on. I found nothing of interest. The only breakable rock that is not listed in KeyBlade999's maps is the one that jmo pointed out in World 4.
I checked all the spaces in Warp World, World 9 too. Nothing.
I didn't bother with the canoe in World 3. You can (try to) use hammers in the water but since the ocean isn't a grid it would be tricky to check every last possible spot.
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Map Gab / Re: Super Mario Bros 3: Incorrect map doesn't include secret path!
« on: July 10, 2022, 03:49:52 pm »
I just confirmed this is true. The rock above the slot machine does indeed break.
My guess as to why this is such an obscure secret is that hammers are in very limited supply, and most people who get to world 4 with a hammer in their inventory are probably going to use it to get to the mushroom house. I always do.
My guess as to why this is such an obscure secret is that hammers are in very limited supply, and most people who get to world 4 with a hammer in their inventory are probably going to use it to get to the mushroom house. I always do.
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Map Gab / Re: [PAID REQUEST] Dashin' Desperadoes Level Maps
« on: June 28, 2022, 06:17:05 pm »
I did some game hacking just for fun after the maps were finished. First I went to the passwords screen and figured out what the alphanumeric digits were. Then I loaded the ROM into a hex editor and searched for the passwords that Hugbot posted earlier. I found these passwords in the ROM easily enough, and when I copied all the nearby data and translated it from hex back to the alphanumeric digits I found several more passwords that the game doesn't normally hand out.
These aren't even on GameFAQs yet!
Play_W_Two - Start on world 2, one player mode
Play_W_Three - Start on world 3, one player mode
Play_W_Four - Start on world 4, one player mode
Play_W_Five - Start on world 5, one player mode
Play_W_Six - Start on world 6, one player mode
Final_Battle - Start 2 player mode, and both players have trophies in every world except world 1
Name_Roll - View the credits
Nine_Nine_Credits - Start 1 player mode with 99 credits
LANG - Activate "special" difficulty
DATA_EAST_CORP - Plays a sound clip. I couldn't hear it well enough to understand.
SHIRAIWA_HANAKUROI - I can't tell wtf this does. It IS a valid password though.
These aren't even on GameFAQs yet!
Play_W_Two - Start on world 2, one player mode
Play_W_Three - Start on world 3, one player mode
Play_W_Four - Start on world 4, one player mode
Play_W_Five - Start on world 5, one player mode
Play_W_Six - Start on world 6, one player mode
Final_Battle - Start 2 player mode, and both players have trophies in every world except world 1
Name_Roll - View the credits
Nine_Nine_Credits - Start 1 player mode with 99 credits
LANG - Activate "special" difficulty
DATA_EAST_CORP - Plays a sound clip. I couldn't hear it well enough to understand.
SHIRAIWA_HANAKUROI - I can't tell wtf this does. It IS a valid password though.
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Map Gab / Re: [PAID REQUEST] Dashin' Desperadoes Level Maps
« on: June 11, 2022, 11:11:17 pm »
I'll take care of this one. I have all the cheat codes I need and it doesn't look like this will be a hard game to map.
If I understand right there should be 41 maps by the time this is done. I've finished 1-1 through 3-3 and the special password stages already.
If I understand right there should be 41 maps by the time this is done. I've finished 1-1 through 3-3 and the special password stages already.
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Maps In Progress / Re: My mapping projects
« on: May 12, 2022, 06:46:48 pm »
Now that NES Crystalis is done I have to share some of the weird stuff I found with that walk through walls code. First of all, I think the game has a bunch of premade "screens" that it uses to build dungeons with. It doesn't lay down 16x16 tiles like most games do. Instead, dungeons seem to be built with 256x240 tiles. In a way, it kind of reminds me of the labyrinths from the original Legend of Zelda. This causes things (like doors and walls) to loop around in places that are normally off camera. I'll post unedited versions of Oasis Cave (from Goa Fortress) and the Floating Tower. The loop around effect is especially visible in the Floating Tower.
I also found a glitch door inside the wall of the armor shop in Portoa. I recorded a video of it and posted it to my Youtube account.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8ab3058oIw
Now to share some codes.
1FF1:04 freezes the background animation, although some places require 1FF1:20 instead.
0051:03 is the most useful code I found. I originally made it to get the HUD off the screen, but then I noticed that it also somehow fixes the nametable viewer in BizHawk, which wasn't working right at first.
I also found a glitch door inside the wall of the armor shop in Portoa. I recorded a video of it and posted it to my Youtube account.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8ab3058oIw
Now to share some codes.
1FF1:04 freezes the background animation, although some places require 1FF1:20 instead.
0051:03 is the most useful code I found. I originally made it to get the HUD off the screen, but then I noticed that it also somehow fixes the nametable viewer in BizHawk, which wasn't working right at first.
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Maps In Progress / Re: My mapping projects
« on: April 04, 2022, 10:18:15 am »
Now that GBC Crystalis is done i've decided to take up Jon's request and start on the NES Crystalis maps.