Messages

1

Maps In Progress / Re: VGCartography - getting to work on PS1 maps!

« on: February 08, 2023, 02:43:27 pm »

Haven't updated in too long, but in general..

- Submitted Metal Gear Solid and VR Missions.
- Submitted all 3 Tomb Raiders now
- Submitted Tony Hawk's Pro Skater
- Submitted Banjo Kazooie
- Submitted Super Mario 64
- Submitted Alone in the Dark
...probably others.

I am halfway (Disc 1+2) through both Final Fantasy 8 and 9, should finish them up relatively soon. Also plan on THPS2. Want to spend a little time poking at Gex 2 on PS1 also. Did about half of Mario Sunshine so far.

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Maps Of The Month / Re: 2022/11: God Of War (PS2) - VGCartography

« on: November 11, 2022, 12:41:14 pm »

Cheers. I used Mogaika's God of War Browser to extract the levels into Blender for capturing the backgrounds.

This was one of the earlier games I played where I really liked how it looped back on itself. You hit this massive Pandora's Temple with a cool ring puzzle in the middle, then loop back through it 3 times between other big parts of the temple, modifying it each time. It also had a lot of good buildup to opening various massive doors, rotating massive mechanisms and locking massive levers in place to suddenly turn on an ancient beam of light or whatever. Then the end of the game loops back on the beginning. Overall some pretty nice design from PS2 era.

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Maps In Progress / Re: VGCartography - getting to work on PS1 maps!

« on: August 26, 2022, 08:28:32 am »

Some more things went up, for Vagrant Story (redid them in 3D) and Alone in the Dark, another drawn one.

I have a couple starter maps for Chrono Cross and Legend of Dragoon but not currently doing an organized effort to map them all yet.

(I post more regular updates in the discord channel now too)

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VGMaps Social Board / Re: VGMaps's discord server

« on: July 25, 2022, 10:58:51 am »

Joined and will tweet the news as well!

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Maps In Progress / Re: VGCartography - getting to work on PS1 maps!

« on: July 12, 2022, 06:35:59 am »

Just submitted my first hand-drawn map, for Dark Souls 1. Got a wacom cintiq 16 tablet a few weeks ago and have been learning how to tool around on it, some rough edges (literally) but it was fun to work on. Hoping to do something similar with Elden Ring and Bloodborne.

Here is a video I made walking through the map as a game summary of sorts:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHfArW9zEQ4

I've also been putting together some Crash Team Racing maps for a more relaxing evening, and working on Tomb Raider III and MGS2 as well. Haven't been very motivated lately though...

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Map Requests / Re: JonLeung's Requests

« on: July 01, 2022, 11:54:03 am »

Great job on the CV DS maps, GER.

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Maps In Progress / Re: Jackster's Map Projects

« on: June 09, 2022, 06:12:21 am »

Very cool, always liked this game but I never beat it. Some of those levels towards the end get pretty bizarre, huh. Thanks for these!

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Map Gab / Re: Secret maps

« on: May 12, 2022, 08:31:05 am »

This isn't quite the same, but the original Demon's Souls on PS3 is known for having a substantial area (would've been the 6th major area after the included 5) that has been datamined, with partial collision and some incomplete enemy models/animations resulting in a partially completed resurrection of it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjkdKKgmofA
(there are of course multiple YTers who have made their careers based on Souls cut content)

There was a partially finished dungeon called Singing Mountain on Chrono Trigger that Square confirmed was cut from prehistoric age, but the music for it and some layouts/graphics can be found in the ROM.

Tomba's Village of Civilization is just one piece of a large amount of unused Tomba stuff that is actively being researched:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nq5rTECKb_w 

Sonic 2 also has a couple zones found on the ROM that weren't used iirc, not sure how far along. Those are a handful I can recall.

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Mapping Tips/Guides / Re: Save images of SimCity (SNES) cities (SimCityMapper)

« on: May 12, 2022, 08:22:58 am »

Very cool idea. I've wanted a tool like this for some of my Civ empires in the past, like let me see a big poster. Makes me wonder what other games could have a pattern of generating a large map based on a save file. Animal Crossing comes to mind...

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Maps In Progress / Re: VGCartography - getting to work on PS1 maps!

« on: May 12, 2022, 08:21:36 am »

Just submitted a complete* set of maps for Spyro 1. Gonna do 2 and 3 eventually, but taking a little break from placing gems and chests for a bit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s07jI0FeQhU
Made another video, this one about Tomb Raider 2. The game was complex enough that I didn't make labeled maps, although never say never - they are layered and difficult to clearly unravel in 2D, but the video was my attempt at a "living" version. Started on TR3 as a follow up as well.

Other stuff floating around is continuing isometric maps of Vagrant Story, Xenogears, and finishing MGS2. Not sure after that... maybe a little break.

*High Caves is missing due to data error

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VGMaps Social Board / Re: Video Game Maps: NES & Famicom - an atlas book by Brian Riggsbee

« on: May 08, 2022, 07:22:20 am »

I got a copy of this one as well. It's a fun flip, the majority of the maps are "official" maps from manuals, old magazines or strategy guides, although there are a few fanmade maps for mostly prominent games (Zelda, Castlevania, etc) that are generally good. I've seen the Solstice one here actually. So it functions also as a kind of time capsule for an era where RPGs came with foldout maps and the like. Some of the artwork rendering older games in interesting ways for magazines is quite impressive. Only con is that I wish it was bigger - lots of detail is sacrificed as a tradeoff for a ton of content and a small form factor. Overall a solid book for sure, and a lot of fun obscure (i.e. Japanese-only title) maps to enjoy.

All that is to say, a screenshot map would not tread on this one too much because the only screenshot maps are in the form of scans of Nintendo Power Mario 3 and the like.

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VGMaps Social Board / Re: VGMaps.com's 20th Anniversary - PROMO VIDEO CHALLENGE!

« on: May 06, 2022, 07:00:20 am »

That's very generous, Jon! All the entries were really great, I watched them with a couple friends and we each liked a different one the best! I had already seen the excellent video from NESAtlas, but Sam your editing skills are crazy impressive too. Those Kirby transitions are super cool, would love to know a bit more about your process.

Here's to 20 more years!

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VGMaps Social Board / Re: VGMaps.com's 20th Anniversary - PROMO VIDEO CHALLENGE!

« on: April 30, 2022, 04:02:15 am »

Here is my entry: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Gq6x8hrQws

I'm a novice video editor so it's nothing flashy but I had a good time looking for beautiful or interesting maps to use, hopefully it's at least a fun little commercial even if it isn't the best entry! Tried to represent a variety of consoles and creators. The song is one I made on the KORG, I was thinking of old-school racing games like RC Pro-Am when I made it so I made sure to include that game in the collage.

Looking forward to seeing the others!

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Gaming / Re: It's MAR10 today. So what Mario game are you playing or replaying?

« on: March 11, 2022, 12:29:29 pm »

Bowser's Fury is definitely awesome. Kind of an Odyssey area (or larger) but with different mechanics.

I captured some Galaxy planet pics for a collage recently: https://www.deviantart.com/vgcartography/art/Super-Mario-Galaxy-Planetoid-Catalog-908412054

I know they're probably all hands on for BotW2 and such, but I do hope we get an Odyssey 2 or another Mario platformer before the next console. Never getting a Mario 64-2 is an all-time screwup in my book still.

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Maps In Progress / Re: Electromax - getting to work on PS1 maps!

« on: February 12, 2022, 06:49:45 pm »

Made an animated runthrough of a bunch of the Castlevania maps:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFCkC9RUTxY

Pretty niche audience for this kind of video but it's fun to make as a flip-book through the map basically. Started on Tomb Raider II today.