Messages

1

Map Requests / Re: Metroidvania games

« on: March 18, 2025, 02:29:19 pm »

Just some thought, but, there should really be a section or a post containing a list of the largest Metroidvania maps by far.

I do enjoy seeing larger and larger Metroidvania maps, but the question is how can we keep track of 'em?

It may be rather interesting to have such a list in VGMaps at some point.

Speaking of, I may have more yet-to-be mapped Metroidvanias right here, with some context to their stories. I kinda ordered them by the largest maps yet.

"Afterimage" - Made by Aurogon Shanghai, and made through Unreal Engine, this Metroidvania places the amnesiac girl, Renee, and her partner, Ifree, the world of Engardin, created by a great, powerful deity, has been left to ruin by a horrible cataclysm called "The Razing", and put much strife and trouble to many people, even giving rise to darkness and rampaging monsters overwhelming the world. Having been reawakened, Renee and Ifree set out to cleanse out the evil overrunning Engardin, and discover her lost memories, along with loads more secrets beneath the world to see the final outcome of her actions.

Small thing to note, the game's map appears to have officially superseded Hollow Knight's map as the largest yet. None of us know yet, but I have a strong feeling its larger than Hallownest's. Playing through that game to see the whole overall world map kinda exhausted me time and again, but I kept on going until I could see every inch and corner of Engardin. My curiosity for the largest Metroidvania map yet led me to it, but I've been having a lot of fun.

Any mapper wanting to take on the task, I hope it can be done as a team effort instead of solo, and, good luck.

"Aeterna Noctis" - Made by Aeternum Studios, that Metroidvania is set on the world of Aeterna, made by the Supreme Deity Chaos himself, and populated it with creatures and people of different kinds. Though life seemed well, his creations later turned against him and sought to claim the world for themselves. Enraged by the flaring rebellion, he placed Aeterna under a curse to quell that, and sent out the King of Darkness and the Queen of Light to keep fighting each other for eternity... but, of course, a steady hand of intervention plans to change all that...

The game brought out greater challenges for platformer fans alike, and tested their reflexes through many tricky sections and paths, with animations made hand-drawn and frame-by-frame, to envelop great feeling of animated fluidity. And with free DLC updates. Up until Afterimage, it seemed to have held the place of the largest Metroidvania map yet. Now, it seems to be the second-largest.

"Death's Gambit" - Made by indie dev White Rabbit, that Metroidvania takes place in the world of Siradon, Sorun, a chosen individual, serves as Death's right hand to challenge the undying guardians of the realm, endure the eternal struggle to purge them clean, uncover the world's mystery, and acclaim rewards, including the discovery of the price of immortality. The question is, what choices would Sorun make to achieve it?

I happen to come across that game, and thought this would be a good one for any mapper to play and map it. There's tons of challenges to face, and the deep Soulslike RPG elements help give it depth and complexity, and there are multiple endings to see how the final outcome is determined by Sorun's actions. The expanded and revised edition, "Afterlife", gave more to the game by adding more levels, new weapons, new bosses, and overhauls to mechanics to give out a better experience.

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Gaming / Re: Happy St. Patrick's Day! - Zelda Games

« on: March 17, 2025, 09:44:57 pm »

Happy St. Patrick's to you, too!

The Zelda game I'm a bit fond of was "Tri-Force Heroes", and its about its 10th anniversary for that game.

It kinda gave a neat change in the series for once, such as, saving Hytopia's princess from a horrid fashion situation caused by Lady Maud herself, rather than Zelda from Ganon, or whoever else from captivity and stopping them from ruling Hyrule, and any other kingdom they want to conquer, not that it gets tiresome, mind you.

Among a few changes in that game, the dungeon progression structure is what was changed from most games; venturing each dungeon in The Drablands that's been treated as a regular, linear stage, somewhat, avoiding dangerous traps, stopping numerous monsters at every corner, and collecting additional goods for the town and the team to get to the goal at the end, all still harboring what's made many Zelda games great.

Moreover, each area's second dungeon holds a mini-boss, which are all, undoubtedly, stronger variants of enemy monsters in Zelda history, both past and new, but with unique designs to stand them out instead of being just time and resource-saving copy-and-pastes.

Small fact: Mihikaru Oiwa from Grezzo, the developer company behind that game, is responsible for designing ALL of the bosses, including the mini-bosses.

Sure, that game is not without complaints, especially about the multiplayer, but, a different change of formula and pace is sometimes good now and then.

3

Map Requests / Re: Full map set for Sonic the Hedgehog's games

« on: March 14, 2025, 05:24:23 pm »

I just recently noticed something, about Sky Park Zone from Sonic Rivals...

I took a brief visit to the Spriters Resource, visited the game's "Miscellaneous" section labelled "Screens and Banners", uploaded by a user called "Boilingpot", and found one little interesting discovery.

At that sheet, located between Venoom, one of the Badniks, and two of the bosses, Egg Eagle and Egg Turtle, on the rightside of said collection of loading screens that give out random hints, I spotted an unused boss, and it looks like it WAS intended to be fought at Sky Park, with Dr. Eggman, or rather Eggman Nega in disguise, as the mech's pilot. And it would've been fought as the 3rd boss after finishing 1st Place in Act 2 of Sky Park Zone, as would it always be for every Zone in that game.

I kinda had a thought on why Sky Park lacked a boss to fight, as all the game's Zones have, and I have no idea why that boss was cut from that Zone. It could've rounded out the roster of bosses there.

I can only guess that boss was cut out because of time constraints.

I don't have any idea what is that boss' name, but if I were to guess right, it also has the "Egg" prefix in it, as all others have.

Did anyone around here knew about this discovery? I didn't. And I'd sure like to see how and why that boss would've turned out, had it remained in that game.

The image's link is here as proof - https://www.spriters-resource.com/resources/sheets/110/113165.png?updated=1548274767

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VGMaps Social Board / Re: What 2D Game Engines are best for making levels and their maps?

« on: March 09, 2025, 06:05:36 pm »

Well, I hardly saw anyone send in their thoughts on 2D engines lately, 'cause they seem a bit busy or forgetful to reply, so, why not I give it a go? I didn't depend on waiting too long for it, anyway.

The Hatch Engine, from my perspective, is a real good 2D game engine, and its usage seems really good for 2D games, one of which is a Sonic fangame, Sonic Galactic. From what I've seen in the second demo, the engine is capable of handling levels much larger and longer than what we've got so far, even Coral Garden Act 1's size seems to surpass that of Sonic Colors' DS version's Asteroid Coaster Act 2's size and length, by comparison.

I can see loads of potential for making new 2D games of the Hi-Bit variety, not limiting to games made for NES, SNES, nor PS1 alone. If I only know how to easily download that engine, I'd use it to see what it is capable of.

Maybe it could be helpful to past games that ran on prior engines that lacked upkeep and specific features to keep it smooth and efficient, such as Clickteam's Fusion, whose version was MMF2 before it updated to CF2.5 and used for Freedom Planet.

The Retro Engine is a good engine that delivered Sonic games, from past reduxes of past 2D Sonic games to the original game, "Sonic Mania" and its update, "Plus", its great potential is amazing. Its recent usage was for the latest compilation, "Sonic Origins", which had it updated to Version 5U to allow past versions of the engine work in it, but so far, no other game's use it yet. Hope people get to use it more soon.

...That's what I've got so far.

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Map Gab / Re: Jurassic Park (Sega Megadrive/Genesis)

« on: March 07, 2025, 07:00:20 pm »

Yeah, this was my way of submitting the maps. I could email them over if that would be easier, but I noticed that the Bubsy maps had been submitted via links on the forum kind of like this, so thought this way might be okay.

Well, yeah, but I kinda have the foresight to play it safe for that, just in case such outlets could be temporarily out for maintenance. I mean, its fine, but, better safe than sorry, I say. Map submitting to alternate outlets besides VGMaps has never been carved in stone. And, that was from quite before I mentioned to the mapper responsible they can still be submitted to the Atlas.

It is a *weird* way of doing it, especially as the loop is technically a tiling effect, rather than the Sonic style of teleporting from the bottom to the top of the level. I'd guess it's part of why that level lags so much, there's a lot of geometry loaded into memory.

The game is generally super hard. I got started mapping by just doing River and Pumping Station, because those levels are *designed* to make the player die repeatedly - there are drops and jumps that you can only learn to do safely via trial and error. The game could really do with an Ecco-style system in which you have unlimited lives, so can afford to throw them away. I think there's a Game Genie code that can do that, but in my version it makes Grant unable to jump off moving objects.

Yes, and not a pint of time and thought has been spent optimizing the geometry to smooth the lag out.

Too bad that game didn't have chances to gain extra lives by a bonus stage, nor have extra lives hidden in levels. There's only three, no more. Would've made the game a bit more lenient.

*sigh* Well, we all grew up with enduring trial and error in games all the time, its natural.

A rather nice alternative, but, I felt that could've been an unlockable option by clearing the game.

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Map Gab / Re: Jurassic Park (Sega Megadrive/Genesis)

« on: March 07, 2025, 11:31:17 am »

Very nice! I love your collection of Jurassic Park game maps! Really helps so many that had trouble on where to go and what to avoid. And with the Jurassic Park Classic Games Collection already up and about, well, what better time to give guidance than having maps for that game, and others?

Really neat, all the same. And thanks for providing the links to the maps on JP Wiki, but you know, Vertigo, they can be simply submitted to VGMaps, too. Just saying. Love to see it in the Atlas.

And I see the game's first level is entirely made in an endless vertical loop, but you've given the necessary guidance to overcome it. No wonder I had so much trouble getting through that stage when I played it before. I ended up losing more lives than winning many times.

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Gaming / Re: Sonic 3 Competition Plus - my fangame

« on: February 28, 2025, 03:59:03 pm »

Oh! I nearly forgot one other thing to mention...

Did you, or anyone else, thought of trying the latest demo of "Sonic Galactic" yet? I've seen a video playthrough of it thus far, and let me tell you, it's a great Sonic fangame among others!

I've just played it lately, and let me tell you, it was so much fun!

That game speaks of how we may see Classic Sonic games continue after "Sonic Mania", but heading into a more onboard level akin to Saturn, yet, not intent on adhering to hardware limits, technically calling it "Hi-Bit" in its own right. And, let me tell you, the game's stages are really long! I mean MINUTES longer than past Sonic games thus far! There's even different, additional Mid-Act Mini-Bosses there, too, in the demo. Get ready for one long ride, there!

Coral Garden Act 1 is THAT LONG. I mean, took any skilled player about 6 or so minutes to get to the mini-boss at the end. I really don't mind long levels. That one being so long was unexpected to me. Guessing that level's map size was past the 30,000s range(no idea of its actual size yet.). I did have loads of fun, though.

I felt strongly that because of the Act's long length, there should've been about two Mid-Act Minibosses, unique, not recurring, placed there to fight along the way to the end. And they can be fought by everyone, alongside character exclusive bosses. Long levels do kinda call for more bosses to fight midway.

That game's engine is run through a custom one called "Hatch Engine", made by Aurum, and from what I've heard, its very flexible in creating Sonic fangames, or, actually, any 2D games besides Sonic, even inspired by it! And, from what I've seen on that demo's playthrough and another demo video about that, paired with OpenMania, it supports Retro Engine files and levels made through the open-source editor, Tiled. VERY flexible!

I've left YouTube video links here as proof. Take a look!

Sonic Galactic Demo 2 Playthrough YouTube video link is here, by "Peng" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhWcwom_Ui0

Sonic OpenMania and Hatch Engine Demonstration YouTube video link is here, by "Axanery" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4J1RWOKbe8

I sure would like to know how I, or anyone else, could try to use such an engine as that... Hopefully, if you're able, give it a try.

I... honestly have no easy idea on where to download that engine yet, especially with no direction to it.

The one thing that engine seemed to lack(from what I've seen, anyway) is actual line scrolling, the long-standing technique of one background layer creating column rows to create additional depth, or create some cool effects, like water rippling, for instance. I'd love to see that in.

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Maps In Progress / Re: John Brain's Sega Genesis maps (25/25)

« on: February 27, 2025, 11:59:03 am »

Thank you for all your maps and an interesting post about your mapping thoughts.

I noticed you mentioned a map's "usefulness" often. It's true that most people probably only look for maps when they need help finding something. However, I also
like looking at maps just to see a game's design and graphics and I don't think I'm the only one who does that. I've made a lot of "useless" maps just because
I liked how the game looked.

So if any mappers are reading this, I just wanted to say don't let questionable "usefulness" of maps stop you from making them.

No map is ever useless, no matter what. Don't ever forget that.

I don't ever view your maps as "useless", nor anyone else should think so. They're always handy to people trying to seek some guidance, whichever game they're playing, past or present. I often look at them to see how well they're made, regardless of size. They also help to reinvigorate fondness to those who missed playing them, alongside appreciating their artistry, and find whatever secrets they may have missed before, and give those who seemed to shun other games, regardless of status, give newfound appreciation and second opinions.

Nothing can ever deem any game map useless. Nothing.

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Gaming / Re: Sonic 3 Competition Plus - my fangame

« on: February 26, 2025, 05:02:54 pm »

I'll leave  OpenSurge engine but I will rewrite the scripts, collision maps and main levels design.
My question was about any ideas about bosses and objects (traps, bonuses, decorations, etc) for levels and anything else you would like to see in the levels.

Fine by me. I would try to think of comparisons between specific engines and their unique properties in terms of their own ways of game-making and level designing.

Well, I thought I would give my input on trying to maintain the bosses by balancing on their hits to defeat with their attack pattern changes through dealing damage.

I took a play at Sonic Aural's demo, and it's really good. Really maintains the real 2D Sonic gameplay in it. Auric Isle's Acts were long, especially Act 2's canvas length, which I've briefly seen before the demo's launch in its Twitter post, and it's 24,960 x 3,968, and boy, am I talking long and large. I have no doubts the later Zones are going to be longer and larger.

Don't know how well it is compared to Retro Engine, or others, but their capabilities are more or less the same. Wonder how well they'd handle having big RAM amounts & stronger CPU power?

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Map Requests / Re: Metroidvania games

« on: February 25, 2025, 01:14:11 pm »

Few more yet-to-be mapped Metroidvanias have come to my mind...

"Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom" - The latest entry in the "Wonder Boy" series by Sega, after a long time waiting for a new game, places a new hero, Jin, in the midst of a world-threatening situation caused by his uncle, Nabu, who went apparently insane, and is using magic to cast a curse that changes the kingdom's people into animals and bring out evil monsters to cause mayhem. Jin, having caught up in Nabu's scuffles, gets changed into an animal-like form by his magic, which upon finding more, discovers his newfound ability to change forms to combat evil. Its up to Jin, with the help of some people he meets along the way, to get to the bottom of the kingdom's predicament and the true mastermind behind it all.

That game's been really fun to play, and features a good couple of callbacks to past "Wonder Boy" games, too. I have no idea how large that game's world is, but I think it may be close to Hollow Knight's overall size... maybe.

"Blast Brigade and the Evil Legion of Dr. Cread" - That Metroidvania places one of B.L.A.S.T.'s agents, Jeff Jefferson, into a mission to stop the evil Dr. Cread, who has set up his evil base of operations on an uncharted island infested with his entire legion of robots, mercenaries, monstrous creations, and all kinds of freaks of his evilness he's created to achieve his plans of global conquest. It's up to the often bumbling agent himself to put a complete stop to Cread's plans, along with the help of a few allies Jeff encounters along the way, along with equipping an arsenal of weapons and upgrades.

It's a neat Metroidvania, another made through Unity, and in spite of its challenges, the gameplay's pretty solid.

"Noreya: The Gold Project" - Another recently made Metroidvania, made by the indie dev, Dreamirl, that places heavy emphasis of choice with consequence upon differing actions, as Kali, the deity of Light, fights against other super-powerful deities, under the command of the powerful super-deity, Salluste, beneath the City of Gold itself, Lemia, but Kali's choices heavily determine the outcome of her journey and how her life is set in the end, to follow honor and goodness and remain pure, or be gobbled by greed and darkness. That game holds 2 persistent worlds, but the journey there lean heavily on anyone's choices made by their actions.

The game's presently on PC, but console ports are in the works through the conversion from its own engine to Godot. Little note about that game, the worlds' maps were made in their entirety through Tiled itself, the level map editor, and from Dreamirl's words, it only took about 8 to 16GB of RAM memory out of about 32 to 64GB they have to create them, and, from what I've read, that program slugged quite so slowly, despite the loads of RAM memory we have so far. I'm quite impressed about such a game with such big Metroidvania maps made there.

Also, a bit of insight, the game's title had a naming trademark dispute(don't ask me why, but I'll only say, its a bit complicated), and had to be renamed "Noseka", but after a few compromises, the name got reverted back to "Noreya".

This Twitter/X link from Dreamirl is here as proof - https://x.com/DreamirlGames/status/1733051622551400829

"Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown" - Another installment to the "Prince of Persia" series from Ubisoft after a while, and made through Unity, too, but this installment goes straight into Metroidvania territory. It places the apparent-immortal, Sagron in the thrust of a dangerous time-threatening plot setting in a mythical city on Mount Qaf, the game's main setting, and seeks to uncover a great mystery behind the disruption of time, along with uncovering a hidden conspiracy that turns his allies against each other in the process. Its up to Sagron to put a stop to the evil scheme and re-stabilize time itself to save the world and existence.

The gameplay's really good, and the overall adventure's been fun to enjoy. It even has a story DLC, called "Mask of Darkness" that expands the adventure and has Sagron facing a different threat, but once purchase, the DLC adventure needs to be unlocked by progressing through the story. No idea how large that game's world is, but I'm quite sure it is. I'm very curious about that.

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Gaming / Re: Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider

« on: February 19, 2025, 06:10:09 pm »

Looks like a cool Metroid-ish game I hadn't heard of, will check this one out.

e: The same dev did Odallus, that game was solid.

I'm sure you'll have a good time with it. Nice to say, but the game's not Metroid-ish, per se, for each stage is 100% centered on the "Point A to Point B" goal manner, as lots of regular platformers are.

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Gaming / Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider

« on: February 19, 2025, 03:22:59 am »

Some people around here may or may not have played it before or yet, but I enjoyed a really good game from JoyMasher, albeit the latest in their lineup, and it harbors some good nods from key past games, such as "Shinobi III", "Mega Man X", and  perhaps "Hagane", but made into its own adventure.

That game is "Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider".

The premise is, a distant country, Penrai, has been under the controlled grip of a rather corrupt militant group called "The Commission", lead by Varad Duas himself, for 10 years, and has created their own group of bioweapon humanoid super-soldiers called "The Guardians" tasked with curbing different forms of resistance against them by less peaceful means.

"The Guardians" comprise of eight super-soldiers; Flamestalker, Photondrifter, Darkchaser, Geocrusher, Hydromancer, Stormdiver, Moonrider, and Sunseeker. Out of the 8, one had just begun defecting against The Commission's dictatorship, with very little Duas was knowing there, and springs out to fight back against them to ensure the country's freedom, but the bulk of The Commission are willing to risk everything to decommission him for good.

Being an indie 2D platformer harboring familiar gameplay roots from "Shinobi III", I can definitely enjoy the thrill of it. The stages are filled with many dangers, such as enemies, hazards, and placed traps. Each stages has midbosses to fight, many one, others more, and main bosses in the end, including the opening stage, Bioweapon Lab, where Moonrider begins his escape, and a bit close to few formulaic roots since "Sonic 3", but not completely from it, each main stage has about 2 Acts, Act 1 having a midboss against one of The Commission's creations in the end, be it a large combat robot, or a horrid, wretched bioweapon monstrosity, or even both in one, and Act 2 the main boss in the end. Some stages do have more than one midboss midway, which I like because of additional variety.

In a familiar vein from many "Mega Man" games, after beating each main boss, Moonrider acquires a new weapon to use against his enemies, some may be handy to get through tough challenges quicker.

There's even a Tutorial stage that teaches players all the necessary basics and moves needed to get around the game, ending with a boss of its own, too. Really neat, because I love having a tutorial stage, even if it does end in a boss fight.

The soundtrack by Dominic Ninmark is rather gorgeous to hear! Really enjoying the songs made there.

I have a video delving into the insights of Moonrider's development, straight from a YouTube channel, "Digital Foundry", specializing in behind-the-scenes processes of many games, and it explains a lot, including the programs used to make that game, such as Aseprite, Tiled, and Construct 2. The video link's here to watch - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6D16BVWes8

I didn't know the game's blueprint was closely about to follow the likes of "Castlevania: Rondo of Blood", because from looking at what I've seen at minute 12:05 in the video I mentioned, based on what would've been on its previous plans, there was an optional path that got cut off leading to a vertical shaft in Hydromancer's stage that was presumed to formerly lead to another different stage of its own. It was interesting to see, but I see how the game's plans changed a bit to match the non-linear plans, like in past Mega Man games.

I would like to say, I've really enjoyed JoyMasher's latest game. Finished each stage and found, well, all upgrades in it... and I felt I kinda expected a bit more from it. The stages, on the other hand, may not be quite as large, long, and complex, but, they're still fun to finish.

I have a few favorite stages in mind to say.

"Asura's Fleet" is one of my favorite stages, having to jump from ship to ship to reach the fleet's leading commander, Stormdiver, enduring the Commission's troops. That stage has two midbosses, one fought in the end of Act 1, a nearly cool callback to Sigma Head from "Mega Man X5", and the second at Act 2's beginning after riding the elevator.

"Desalination Facility" is a rather good water facility stage, having to dive down into water to take down The Commission's troops to cease operations there. It has two midbosses, too. The first is a good callback to Metroid's Mother Brain endgame fight, and the second is a close nod to one of Mega Man X's past midbosses, Utuboros, from Launch Octopus' stages, but different and original. Hydromancer put up a good fight, though. Really enjoyed it.

"Iwondonilo City" is a very cool stage that has a 3D-esque super-scale based motorcycle stage, looking and feeling much better than SNES' Mode 7, dealing with The Commission's troops and robots, even ending in a miniboss fight against one of The Commission's super droids. Then, come the city's highway streets where getting through cars and trucks to avoid getting knocked off is a thrill to enjoy before facing Photondrifter. There are the occasions of avoiding laser barricades through some of it.

The game's good, but there's some things that game is quite lacking...

For one, the storyline felt a teeny bit hollow on some exposition about Moonrider's creation, The Commission's origins, and lacking some needed closure on the conflict against Varad Duas' organization.

In my perspective, it doesn't have any intermission stages, or rather "Middle Stages" to those that played Mega Man's later games, that should've been in the game, the first for beating half of the main bosses, and the second for beating the rest before going straight to the finale, which, I might add, is lacking a third stage with a boss rush against most of the defeated Guardians, perhaps in semi-solid hologram form, and a very fitting, multi-phase final boss battle against Varad Duas himself. I would've loved to have the story get some deserved closure. The final boss there is just [SPOILERS] the last of The Guardians, Sunseeker, in the finale's second stage.

Disappointingly, the finale only has two stages. Not four, not three. Just TWO. I expected a bit more from a grand finale there.

There's not even a bestiary that gives names to all enemies and bosses in the game, even the midbosses. I don't even know most of their names yet. If only I had some answers...

Another small thing to add, though... after beating about each main stage's midboss at Act 1's end, there's no ingame scenes showcasing Moonrider moving from Act 1 to Act 2 in them with no explanation to how he seamlessly got into said stage's Act 2's beginning on-screen there.

Of course, if having the chance, the game could be updated, if needed, to address what's lacking there. Just only saying.

I did see some of the midbosses from one of JoyMasher's founders behind it, Danilo Dias, from his Twitter/X account before the game's launch, but that got privated, so I can't see them now, nor the game's past development history.

There is his Bluesky account, though, so, that's a good alternative. Here's the account's link if anyone wants to drop by sometime - https://bsky.app/profile/daysdanilo.bsky.social

What I'd really love to see in a sequel to it, longer, larger levels, a bestiary, more new original bosses, a few additional support items alongside new upgrades, and perhaps some unlockable side stages to up the replay value.

Overall, despite not seeing all the game's maps yet, the game's still really fun to play among others. If anyone hadn't played the game yet, I would recommend doing so when you can. To those who played, how did you like "Moonrider"?

13

Map Requests / Re: Maps to Cover...

« on: February 14, 2025, 11:31:48 pm »

I didn't beat Mickey's Wild Adventure either hahahaaha, only when I was an adult I tried again only to be greeted with the "congrats on "beating" the game, next time try something other than the EASY MODE you dumbass" -tier message.
I eventually did beat it legitimately on hard but it wasn't easy, wew.

The actual 3D sections like the towers are actually rippable, but require some special programming. I know how to do it but I'm not sure if I wanna spend any more time with this project.
Thanks for the kind words though!

Well, if you want to have the whole set complete by doing it or handing the 3D sections over to someone else who's equally familiar on that, the choice is up to you.

Only the PS1 version, as I've read, can't show you the last level and ending on easy. It only encompasses every level but the last. Good job on your win, though.

Big pity the game's sequel didn't get made, but Toy Story was in the cards in that time the movie's launch was nigh. Got a video link about it by Jon Burton's GameHut channel. Here it is. - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBEA9KmPw1I ("Cancelled Mickey Mania 2" by Jon Burton)

The only small downside about the game, as those who remember, it only offers one bonus level that only awards one continue. ONE. Nothing more.

Actually, that, and the other downside is the rubber banding in the chases could've been more lenient at farther distances so the chasers wouldn't catch up too quickly and some more green apples placed to ease anyone's worries.

The only chase section from the Genesis version was really amazing to experience! I had no thought on how it was done, but the video Jon Burton made and seen via YouTube explains it. I tell ya, he's certainly a great genius on making cool effects that past consoles are capable of with the kind of knowledge to utilize them. I'll still never forget my time I saw that amazing chase in that game's version!

I can leave this video link for you to watch as you like. Here... - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nt-AxAqlrOo (Jon Burton's video, from his "Coding Secrets" series, "Mickey Mania's "Impossible 3D Chase - How Was It Done?", from GameHut)

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

« on: February 13, 2025, 09:52:31 pm »

I am still alive.

There's a bunch of PS1 games waiting to be mapped, but I can't pick one to focus on. The epsxe emulator fork that can take 3D screenshots has been revolutionary - no more extracting and converting data to OBJs, instead can just rip them straight from gameplay. It isn't always easy or pretty (Syphon Filter for example comes out with stretched axis due to perspective that requires correction), and you will be collecting portions of the level mesh from multiple screenshots and must rotate and move them to recreate the whole thing, but for most games it isn't as bad as it sounds. I've done at least the first level in this fashion for:
- Ape Escape
- Syphon Filter
- Toy Story 2
- Armored Core
- Gex 2
- Legend of Legaia
- Tail Concerto
- Wild Arms 2
...however, Spyro 2 and some Crash levels are the only thing I've progressed much further on. With infinite time, it would be fun to grab them all.

I still haven't done disc 4 of FF9 or a bunch of Legend of Dragoon, need to get back in the mood for screenshot maps like that.

There's also a PCSX2 fork now that can do similar things with PS2 levels! https://github.com/scurest/pcsx2/releases/tag/latest-3d-screenshot
PS2 games have much higher poly counts obviously, more transparency and other lighting effects to remove and usually require culling polygons and scaling axes again to remove distortion, but I got workable level models from Devil May Cry 1, Tomb Raider 6 and Shadow of the Colossus without too much fuss. There's a lot of potentially cool maps for the PS2 library as well.

Good to hear from you after your silent absence around here. Kinda worried me a bit.

Your process with that emulator fork you spoke of sure sounds like it could streamline the process of mapping PS1 games... but by how much, I don't know.

Feeling a bit indecisive about which game to focus mapping? Well, I may provide a recommendation or two.

I feel "Toy Story 2" is a fine choice, for I've already beaten that PS1 version with everything collected. The N64, almost the same, but didn't think of having 100% there and then. I was only focusing on having my good time exploring the levels and trying to get to the end. The bosses were mostly original, save for few adapted from the movie, and I enjoyed beating each and every one.

Sure, its not in your list, but, my second recommendation is "SpongeBob SquarePants: Supersponge", a fine side-scroller for the world-famous sponge himself in his game and animation careers.

Though everything's made in 3D, the levels were fashioned in a 2D state. Had fun with it, but I honestly did struggle much to complete everything 100%, including having to keep all 100 Golden Spatulas before reaching the end of any level in Chapter 5 and collecting all the decorations with tokens obtained from all the bonus carnival levels to decorate for Patrick's birthday. Enjoyed some key nods from past episodes, alongside the voice cast reprising their roles as their characters... well, almost all.

Those are only my recommendations.

Liked seeing your well-made maps so far, and I'm looking forward to seeing some more soon.

15

Map Requests / Re: Maps to Cover...

« on: February 13, 2025, 03:42:11 am »

i ripped everything from mickey's wild adventure in 2021 - the sprites and the levels, but i never submitted them anywhere
I've got the sprites hosted on my dropbox but now that i checked them out again, turns out I didn't include the level files, hummmmmm

I suppose I could look back into it sometime. All I remember is that the level format was extremely easy. In my original publishing post on tVGR I said:

Backgrounds and Tilesets are however rippable (very easily I might add) but that's a story for another time I guess. I highly recommend anyone interested to take a look at the LBM, GB, IFB, MAP, TEP and especially RG3 files included in the disc. LBMs are readable as-is with xnView too!

but I can't recall the exact process, hmm. All I remember was that it was easy.

edit: OOPS! Turns out I did rip them after all, I had just forgotten. Here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/c3658sptf9i0jr5/mickeys%20wild%20adventure%20tiles.zip?dl=0

WOW. Uh... Thanks for bringing this up.

I'm... astounded you brought up Mickey's Wild Adventure's maps. In that 32-bit style, and noting how small they are, at least in size(guess I can't expect them to be big, at least, relatively big, after all.), they're quite gorgeous to look at.

Such a nice sight to see about a good commemoration to Mickey Mouse's history in animation through that game. Loved it, but didn't get to beat it back then.

The actual 3D sections, such as the towers for the 2nd & 6th levels, and the only two chases with the rampaging moose and Willie the Giant there(which I actually know now is absent in the Genesis, SNES, and Sega CD versions because of their tech and size constraints, despite the manual mentioning him), I think its another story for another mapper in another time.

Well, seeing as that version's part of the PS1 library in its own right, I think you know the drill here. My advice, trim out the tileset borders and such before submitting them. Again, thanks for bringing up your maps!