16
Gaming / Re: Nintendo Leak: The Legend Of Zelda: A Link To The Past on Game Boy
« on: June 07, 2024, 05:51:03 pm »
Wait, are those Mario statues in the Great Swamp!?
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17
Map Gab / Re: Hand-Drawn Game Guides by Phil Summers (NES)
« on: May 13, 2024, 08:55:38 pm »
I too remember that discussion because I was a subscriber to Phil Summers' Patreon for about a year during which he released six issues of his Hand-Drawn Gaming series before closing his page down: Castlevania, Gimmick!, Double Dragon 2, Mega Man, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Bionic Commando.
The artwork was as good as the free guides but they were smaller at eight pages each and usually only featured partial maps or simple tips. I can't complain because the artwork was very good, reminding me a bit of Katsuya Terada's artwork for Nintendo Power's three parts Secret of Mana guide in issues 62, 63 and 64 way back in 1994.
If he's working on an actual book, I'm curious to see what it's going to be about!
The artwork was as good as the free guides but they were smaller at eight pages each and usually only featured partial maps or simple tips. I can't complain because the artwork was very good, reminding me a bit of Katsuya Terada's artwork for Nintendo Power's three parts Secret of Mana guide in issues 62, 63 and 64 way back in 1994.
If he's working on an actual book, I'm curious to see what it's going to be about!
18
Gaming / Re: Vertical loop glitches in Sonic Superstars
« on: April 02, 2024, 03:48:17 pm »
Those are some *very* obvious seams. It's kinda sad that Sonic games from 30 years ago did such things better.
19
Map Requests / Re: JonLeung's Requests
« on: March 27, 2024, 04:41:16 pm »
Even weirder coincidence: I've been slowly making my way through Hardcore Gaming 101's Top 47k Games of All Time podcast over the last three years and just yesterday, I listened to their episode on Nightmare on Elm Street for the NES.
I remember starting to map Friday the 13th in 2009, thinking I was clever in handling the "parallax" background by doubling the lenght of every segment. I remember giving up after starting the cave because I really wasn't a fan of game in the end. My goal would have been to try and make a unified map covering the whole game but the way the game is structured, what with featuring several concentric circles, would have made the whole thing quite inelegant.
Anyway, great work as always zagato blackfist, finally providing maps to so many overlooked "classics"!
I remember starting to map Friday the 13th in 2009, thinking I was clever in handling the "parallax" background by doubling the lenght of every segment. I remember giving up after starting the cave because I really wasn't a fan of game in the end. My goal would have been to try and make a unified map covering the whole game but the way the game is structured, what with featuring several concentric circles, would have made the whole thing quite inelegant.
Anyway, great work as always zagato blackfist, finally providing maps to so many overlooked "classics"!
20
Maps Of The Month / Re: 2024/03: Alone In The Dark (PC) - VGCartography
« on: February 29, 2024, 09:44:45 pm »
The first Alone in the Dark was among the earliest PC games I got to play at home. Before one of my uncle lent me his copy of the game for me to copy, I had only played the games I inherited from another uncle along with his PC a few years prior, which were mostly Space Quest games along with Wolfenstein 3D and F-117A Nighthawk Stealth Fighter.
Alone in the Dark was something else though, and given that I was really into Lovecraft stories at the time, I was really immersed in the game. I remember getting through a few spots the hard way (like fighting every zombie in the dining room) and making detailed maps by hand of the whole mansion along with the underground maze.
I considered making maps for the game back in 2006 (nearly 20 years ago!) but using an isometric view never felt like a serious possibility because too much would be hidden by the walls. Thankfully, VGCartography proved me wrong and yet again, came up with great looking original maps!
Great work as usual my friend!
Alone in the Dark was something else though, and given that I was really into Lovecraft stories at the time, I was really immersed in the game. I remember getting through a few spots the hard way (like fighting every zombie in the dining room) and making detailed maps by hand of the whole mansion along with the underground maze.
I considered making maps for the game back in 2006 (nearly 20 years ago!) but using an isometric view never felt like a serious possibility because too much would be hidden by the walls. Thankfully, VGCartography proved me wrong and yet again, came up with great looking original maps!
Great work as usual my friend!
21
Map Requests / Re: Sega Genesis Mini 2 - full map set
« on: February 10, 2024, 12:48:12 pm »
I'm pretty sure both versions of the first Ecco the Dolphin game are a bit different, with the CD one featuring extra stages. However, I was never a big fan of them so I can't say if stages common to both are identical or sometimes a bit different.
22
Map Requests / Re: Mega Man Maps
« on: January 05, 2024, 01:10:37 am »
Sadly, we've already entered an era where game and software preservation has become very difficult if not impossible in most cases. I'm afraid on-going patches (including day-one), essential server-side components and, of course, software-as-service will eventually lead to huge portions of online content to essentially vanish forever.
It's bad enough for games but movies and TV shows will soon cease to be available on physical format altogether.
Piracy will eventually be unavoidable for those but for most online games, there will simply be no alternative
.
It's bad enough for games but movies and TV shows will soon cease to be available on physical format altogether.
Piracy will eventually be unavoidable for those but for most online games, there will simply be no alternative
.
23
Maps In Progress / Re: eishiya's Maps.
« on: September 09, 2023, 10:34:29 am »
That would be a nightmare scenario for me, having to basically remap the whole game to make sure that no change escapes my notice.
Your dedication is admirable!
Your dedication is admirable!
24
Map Gab / Re: Sega Genesis Mini - full map set
« on: September 04, 2023, 03:41:30 pm »
As someone who exclusively sticks to screenshot maps, I'm glad to see people like G.E.R. take on weird games like Road Rash II and Space Harrer II and actually figuring out a way to map them!
25
Map Requests / Re: JonLeung's Requests
« on: September 04, 2023, 03:36:52 pm »
Milon's Secret Castle was also one of the game I once rented as a kid. It was such an unintuitive and frustrating game because it was so unlike the kind of NES games I used to play at the time, mostly those made by Nintendo, Konami and Capcom.
I think I made it past the first boss before getting stuck down the well without a lamp and just couldn't figure out how to progress further before bringing the cartridge back to the rental store. It's nice to finally see what else I've missed thanks to zagato blackfist but it's unfortunately not enough to make me want to play it all the way through!
I think I made it past the first boss before getting stuck down the well without a lamp and just couldn't figure out how to progress further before bringing the cartridge back to the rental store. It's nice to finally see what else I've missed thanks to zagato blackfist but it's unfortunately not enough to make me want to play it all the way through!
26
Map Gab / Re: Alisia Dragoon maps and secrets
« on: August 27, 2023, 08:36:26 pm »
Cool method! I managed to do something like this using Lua scripting for a few GBA games (moving camera coordinates using keyboard keys) and it made things so much easier!
I once used CheatEngine to do something similar for Makai Toushi SaGa on the Oswan Wonderswan emulator but I obviously wasn't going about it the right way. I never understood how to use CheatEngine with pointers, which meant that everytime I wanted to take screenshots, I'd have to track down the camera coordinates. Second, the altered values would only work after a room transition. It made mapping a lot more complicated and I eventually put the project on pause.
But going back to your post, what do you mean exactly by "block structure" and it preventing you from exploring?
I once used CheatEngine to do something similar for Makai Toushi SaGa on the Oswan Wonderswan emulator but I obviously wasn't going about it the right way. I never understood how to use CheatEngine with pointers, which meant that everytime I wanted to take screenshots, I'd have to track down the camera coordinates. Second, the altered values would only work after a room transition. It made mapping a lot more complicated and I eventually put the project on pause.
But going back to your post, what do you mean exactly by "block structure" and it preventing you from exploring?
27
VGMaps Social Board / Re: Just got back from Japan...
« on: May 25, 2023, 05:18:39 pm »
Hope you had a great trip and I'm looking forward to your vlogs!
28
Gaming / Re: If I play a lot of console-style games on PC, am I a PC gamer?
« on: November 04, 2022, 05:03:07 pm »
I'll repost my answer from the Discord...
To me, being a PC gamer means taking advantage of/compensating for a computer's customizability. You can improve your experience by playing with a game's graphics and controls, installing mods, editing the game's memory or files, etc.
You also have to make sure your particular combination of hardware and software is supported by the game and if not, spend some time troubleshooting.
It's a much more DIY approach as opposed to consoles and handhelds where you can just... play.
To me, being a PC gamer means taking advantage of/compensating for a computer's customizability. You can improve your experience by playing with a game's graphics and controls, installing mods, editing the game's memory or files, etc.
You also have to make sure your particular combination of hardware and software is supported by the game and if not, spend some time troubleshooting.
It's a much more DIY approach as opposed to consoles and handhelds where you can just... play.
29
Maps In Progress / Re: FlyingArmor's Map Projects Present and Future
« on: July 15, 2022, 09:15:29 pm »
Big complex maps do take a lot of time to make or at least, to make *properly* 
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Map Gab / Re: Super Mario Bros 3: Incorrect map doesn't include secret path!
« on: July 15, 2022, 09:08:28 pm »
I think it's insane that there are still secrets being uncovered or, in this case, being brought to light in a nearly 35 year old game!
I played this game so much back when I was a preteen and yet I never suspected that particular rock hid a path.
I played this game so much back when I was a preteen and yet I never suspected that particular rock hid a path.