Messages

16

Map Gab / Re: Wonderland (PC) Remake maps took place of original game maps?

« on: July 03, 2019, 12:42:10 pm »

You can still view them on archive.org.
I don't think it's really an older game version because that 2002 Wonderland game has always been a 3D title. It's just a 2D top-down map of the 3D game. But with a higher resolution. I wished the 3D version had the same resolution.

17

Maps In Progress / Re: Arena: Maze of Death (Game Gear)

« on: July 03, 2019, 12:15:02 pm »

My uploaded avatar image also disappeared. I think I still have stored it somewhere but a restore from backup would be easier.

18

VGMaps Social Board / Re: PageSpeed Insights report

« on: April 21, 2019, 02:10:56 am »

It's really simple: Currently the whole game library for one system from A to Z is on a single page. This is the easiest way for manual maintenance, but it is bad for the loading time.
The only feasible (as in: maintainable) option to change this is to introduce a server-side processing step with a programming language of choice that loads the plain data from a database and generates partial pages, for example for just one game at a time.

19

Gaming / Re: Google @ GDC 2019 - what will they announce for gaming?

« on: March 23, 2019, 05:43:29 am »

I must say that I like the overall idea, but never as the only alternative to games.

I can definitely see the benefit over classic demos/advertisement because you just click on the game you want to try out and can instantly play some of the real beginning instead of going through the buying/download and installation process just to find out that you don't like the game as much as you initially thought after seeing "target render" gameplay videos and photographs.

But when I like a game, I would like to stop playing the streaming version and instead buy it as an offline-accessable version that I can play independently of any licensing problems that the online version might face.

The revolution of "access forever" that video recorders once brought to television shouldn't be completely abandoned in video gaming just for the "ease of initial access".

20

Gaming / Re: 3DNES - Turning NES games 3D

« on: October 15, 2018, 07:55:31 am »

Turning on and off at a steady pace could be the result of a bad capacitor. They can be replaced with a new one easily most of the time: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague

21

Mapping Tips/Guides / Re: How do I stitch together a bunch of screenshots in Paint.net to make a map?

« on: August 28, 2018, 12:14:16 pm »

I also created all my maps with the plain old Paint. The way to get it done pretty fast was to take a memorizable path through the game while taking the screenshots and creating the map directly after playing a section so I always knew where the text part went.

Otherwise you might try to use a tool like the Screenshot Autosticher by maxim.

I also always dreamt of such a tool, this was basically the reason I stopped making maps because I wanted to create the ultimate stitching helper tool. But I never got anywhere because I couldn't figure out programmatically which part of a screenshot belongs to which of the many parallax backgrounds.

22

Maps Of The Month / Re: 2018/02: Sonic Mania (PC) - G.E.R.

« on: February 04, 2018, 12:47:22 am »

The biggest problem for me is the missing ability to separate all the layers with a simple button press. So also congratulations on completing these maps, G.E.R.!

23

Gaming / Re: What are the FIVE BEST (and EXCLUSIVE) games on each console?

« on: December 29, 2016, 01:06:47 pm »

For the original Xbox, I only played a handful of exclusive titles so basically I would have to write them all down.

I list them from best to worst:
Breakdown
Voodoo Vince
Dino Crisis 3
Galleon
Rallisport Challenge 2

For all other systems it's difficult because of the massive amount of (maybe exclusive) games that I have played on them. I will try some:

Nintendo 64:
The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time
Banjo-Kazooie
Conker's Bad Fur Day
Super Mario 64
Duke Nukem: Zero Hour

Game Boy Advance:
Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge
Golden Sun
Turbo Turtle Adventure
Duke Nukem Advance
Gadget Racers / Choro Q Advance 1

Super Nintendo:
Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island
Super Bonk
Secret Of Evermore
The Legend Of Zelda: A Link To The Past
Seiken Densetsu 3

Playstation:
Final Fantasy IX
Silent Hill
Fighting Force 2
Need for Speed: Porsche Unleashed (There has been a PC game of the same name, but that game was totally different)
Duke Nukem: Time to Kill

Game Boy Color:
The Legend Of Zelda: Oracle Of Seasons
Tomb Raider: Curse Of The Sword
Pokémon Gold Version
Wario Land II
The Fish Files

Game Boy:
The Legend Of Zelda: Link's Awakening
Super Mario Land 2 - 6 Golden Coins
Metroid II
Pokémon Yellow Version
Donkey Kong Land

24

VGMaps Social Board / Re: Nintendo Quest - Power Tour - VGMaps.com's appearance

« on: May 28, 2016, 12:55:08 am »

It took me a bit to find your appearance: For anyone who watches the whole "Nintendo Quest: Power Tour! [Documentary Series]", Jon appears in the final episode, episode eight. 

25

VGMaps Social Board / Re: Happy 13th birthday to VGMaps!

« on: May 28, 2015, 01:17:36 pm »

Wow, happy birthday VGMaps

I must have known VGMaps for at least 12 of these 13 years, because I began making my first submitted maps for Commodore Amiga's Aunt Arctic Adventure in 2003 and the inspiration for doing so was this site.

26

Map Gab / Re: Sonic Battle (GBA)

« on: August 27, 2014, 01:29:43 pm »

I like them very much. Isometric maps capture 3D games in the best way possible on a 2D image. This game has the advantage that is was kind of isometric to begin with, but nonetheless I assume a lot of work needed to be done.

27

Maps Of The Month / Re: 2013/07: Breath Of Fire (Super NES) - Paco & Tropicon

« on: July 04, 2013, 02:42:41 pm »

I also don't think Walk through walls alone makes it completely irrelevant work. For my Secret Of Evermore maps where I also had a walk through walls code, it still was much work because of the big number of maps and sometimes I had to wait for water/lava effects to have a specific cycle state so they would look the same on the full map. And I merged the screenshots all manually.

Nice work with these maps. The labels from Paco also fit.

28

Map Gab / Re: So I am working to do Super Mario 64 (hand drawn of course)

« on: July 04, 2013, 02:28:19 pm »

Those maps look really nice. They remind me a little bit of maps that I've had for the Playstation 1 Tomb Raider games by John T Burt, but those Mario 64 maps are even greater because you kept some of the perspective.

29

Map Requests / Re: Tintin in tibet, Tintin prisoners of the sun, Snes.

« on: January 27, 2013, 04:57:11 am »

When I was working on the Game Boy Color version of Tintin in Tibet, I also thought of doing the big counterpart. But I didn't feel like playing the same game again so short after to map it, too. So it never worked out.

But it really is a very beautiful game that deserves maps. And also the Temple Of The Sun part.

Sadly my daily time is already overfilled with other completely unrelated things and I don't feel like starting with a mapping project at the moment, so don't count in on me.

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Maps Of The Month / Re: 2013/01: The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time (N64) - Peardian

« on: January 01, 2013, 03:16:52 am »

I only got up to the part after the big whale "dungeon" (Jabu-Jabu's Belly) when I played Ocarina Of Time in the past. So I never had the fun of time traveling in the game. I didn't even know that it's part of the game. I really should replay it

These maps are very special because they show that even newer or the newest 3D games can be mapped with the right tools (no screenshot pasting possible here). Most games do not really use the third dimension thoroughly so it can be displayed fine on a 2D orthographic/axonometric projection map with minor trade-offs ((half)invisible walls in one direction). Exceptions are games like Super Mario Galaxy, Prey, Gex 3D or Descent where there's no clearly defined "up" direction in many areas.