Messages

31

Map Gab / Re: Current Status of Game Atlases on VGMaps

« on: February 13, 2019, 03:36:40 pm »

I did a similar compilation for NES and SNES games, which sorts out the NES, Famicom, Family Computer Disk System, SNES and Super Famicom systems.

That's cool that you have done much the same thing, Will. However, I did notice a number of my own map sets say they're incomplete when they're actually complete, and I saw that the Super Famicom list says Shinseiki Odysselya is complete when it's still in progress. But I did learn about COUNTIF() which you used to count up the various categories of completion. All I did before was use separate columns for each category and place in 1s wherever appropriate. Thanks for that! It sure helped make things much more streamlined and concise.

One thing I've thought about doing (and now I wonder if I will regret doing so if I don't get around to it) is going through the Atlases with a fine-toothed comb.

When I was going through the NES atlas, I noticed a few Japanese games that weren't indicated as such with the (J) after the title. So I suppose I could go through those two atlases when I check the Japanese and European completion rates and e-mail you a report of the inconsistencies and which games are unlicensed, homebrew, etc.

Hard to say if multiple request lists work.  But at the very least, they might remind people of games that are likely to be mapped anyway.  Recreating the NES Game Atlas and the library of the NES Classic Edition were easy, but the Super NES versions of both of those took longer, the Super NES Classic isn't even done.  Same with my Nintendo Power magazine cover games topic.  The Game Boy "Game Atlas" recreation topic is stagnant despite having only Super Mario Bros. Deluxe remaining...

I didn't really imagine it as a request list, but rather simply as a reference. But that'd be interesting to at least get an inkling of what people would like to see via some sort of polling, that's for sure. After compiling my lists, it gave me a few ideas of new games to try mapping out, at least ones that are much simpler to do than fully-fledged RPGs, haha.

32

Map Gab / Re: Current Status of Game Atlases on VGMaps

« on: February 12, 2019, 11:55:30 pm »

I did find I still had Donkey Kong Classics in my NES list, so that's been removed. However, with the five compilation games out of the way, that still leaves me with 673, so I still have one extra game somewhere.

Ah! I didn't know about the Exertainment Mountain Bike Rally and Speed Racer compilation. Thanks for pointing that out!

The reskins you spoke of were grouped together with the respective games they originated from in the Wikipedia article. After viewing some videos comparing the pairs, I'd say they all warrant separate entries. So I suppose my official count should therefore be 719 if I take the two compilation cartridges out of the picture. After I made my initial post, I found a few more Japanese exclusive games, so I'm now down to 719. I guess I'm okay now with my count then? I still haven't taken the time to double check my list with non-Wikipedia sources, so I might still find discrepancies, but it's close enough regardless.

Hey, it's no problem! It has certainly opened my eyes to just how many games there really are for these consoles, even when my current lists are limited to just North America. It's one thing to hear the numbers, but totally another to see each and every title one by one. If getting these lists into shape was this much of a headache, I wonder how bad it'll be when I get to the Japanese side of things? TT__TT;;;

Also, going through this ordeal made me think of posting these completion lists up here on the forums (akin to the various Atlas posts), so mappers can see the vast array of games that haven't been touched yet. I have to wonder if the forum software can handle posts being 1000+ lines long?

33

Map Gab / Current Status of Game Atlases on VGMaps

« on: February 11, 2019, 10:47:35 pm »

I decided to make this topic in response to a comment in another thread asking about the how complete the NES and SNES Atlases on this site are. So I took upon myself to do the detective work and come up with an answer.

So far, I've only taken the time to compile statistics on the games released in North America, since adding in all the Japanese and European titles as well would be quite the formidable task to take up all at once. I'll be sure to update this post with stats for the games released in Europe and Japan once I have those numbers ready.

Before I continue, I'll point out that I took any game compilations off my lists if they were previously released separately (such as Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt) as they are redundant. As far as I know, I found four game compilations on the NES, so those out of the way will reduce the total number of NES games from 677 to 673. With my list at the moment, I seem to have an extra game on it, but have no idea which one it is, so as of now, my total is 674. My SNES list comprises 720 games, so I seem to be missing one if I want to get it up to 721. I don't know how many compilation cartridges there are on the SNES, but the one obvious one I can think of now, Super Mario All-Stars + Super Mario World, wasn't present on the list on Wikipedia. Perhaps there was only one so that might explain why I'm off by one?

By the way, I compiled my lists from the respective Wikipedia articles, and I found errors with the release dates of MANY games. I found at least ten Japanese exclusive games purporting to be released only in America in the SNES article, so that probably explains the discrepancies I currently have.

For the NES, out of 674 games, there is coverage of 281 games (41.69%). Of those, 262 are (as far as I can tell) mapped completely (38.87%), and 19 are partially complete (2.82%).

For the SNES, out of 720 games, there is coverage of 191 games (26.53%). Of those, 152 are (as far as I can tell) mapped completely (21.11%), and 39 are partially complete (5.42%).

So Jon is completely right in saying we're nowhere near having very complete atlases for these two consoles despite being the most popular. And keep in mind this is just for the North American releases! While I haven't taken the time to count up the Japanese or European releases yet, I'm sure those are in a similar if not worse position. According to the SNES game list on Wikipedia, there are 976 exclusive games for Japan alone! I know I've helped to map some of those Japanese exclusives, but there's still TONS left to go. I wouldn't be surprised to find that less than 10% have any maps at all let alone complete sets here on VGMaps.

But anyway, it's certainly interesting to see how much has been done so far and how much there is still left to do!

34

Maps In Progress / Re: FlyingArmor's Map Projects Present and Future

« on: January 19, 2019, 05:05:30 pm »

Since I tend to work on SNES games, maps for a PC game are quite the oddity, aren't they? But I just love the aesthetic look of this version of the game, so I couldn't pass it up. Plus, it's Ultima!

Another update! I finally finished mapping Star Trek The Next Generation: Future's Past for the SNES. I finally figured out a way of moving through walls and other obstacles so I could capture the normally inaccessible areas of Verenitor Epsilon and Verenitor Alpha I.

There is one part of Verenitor Alpha I where pressing a certain button will cause a bridge to appear, allowing the rest of your crew members to cross, thereby allowing you to proceed further. But since I have a bugged version of the game, this doesn't happen, so if you're unfortunate enough to have this copy of the game, this level is more or less impossible to complete, let alone map. This is what held back this project for years (seven to be exact) and thus I had put this game on indefinite hiatus. But now that's no longer the case, thank goodness!

35

Maps In Progress / Re: FlyingArmor's Map Projects Present and Future

« on: January 15, 2019, 10:46:44 pm »

I just recently completed a set of maps for the PC version of Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar. So far I have only mapped out the townes, villages, and castles, but I do plan on doing Britannia (fully labelled with areas to enter and items to find) as well as the dungeons.

This is the first time I've included shop information on my maps, which is something I tend not to do, but I thought was appropriate in this case.

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Maps In Progress / Re: FlyingArmor's Map Projects Present and Future

« on: December 13, 2018, 10:38:37 pm »

Just a quick update: I discovered two new hidden items in Paladin's Quest the other day, so I updated the maps that contain them. The first one can be found in the elder's house in Ratsurk (Home dor). The other is found is front of an egg in Rekuon (Light cd).

Finding these items years after completing this map set makes me wonder if there aren't other hidden items tucked away in other inconspicuous spots around the world of Lennus. It would certainly be worth scouring around to see!

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Maps In Progress / Re: FlyingArmor's Map Projects Present and Future

« on: August 20, 2018, 08:38:46 am »

Thanks YelseyKing! I should devote a bit more time to it since it's such a massive game (the overworld map itself is probably gonna be somewhere around 8000 x 6000 pixels big once I'm done with it).

All the labels are my own translations. I don't know of any translation patch, whether already in existence or in the works. Thankfully the item names are pretty straightforward in this game. Granhistoria on the other hand... I remember the recovery items were named rather strangely.

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Maps In Progress / Re: FlyingArmor's Map Projects Present and Future

« on: February 13, 2018, 04:42:48 pm »

Things have been fairly quiet here for quite some time now, so here's some status updates on what I'm currently working on. A lot of the following games I've had some work done for for a long time now, so I thought it high time to see those projects through to completion.

Final Fantasy VI (SNES). Although I had completed this game years ago, I completely forgot about adding the Chocobo Stables from the overworld so I submitted the one from the World of Balance a number of months ago. I still have yet to submit the one for the World of Ruin though (didn't think they existed at the time).

Light Fantasy (SFC). This game is finally fully mapped!

Ganbare Goemon Gaiden: Kieta Ougon Kiseru (FC). Originally requested in the forum. Currently only working on the overworld map, but will probably map everything else at some point.

Shinseiki Odysselya (SFC). I had a few maps for this game done a number of years ago, but since I hadn't committed myself completely to mapping the game in its entirety then, I didn't bother to get them up onto VGMaps.

Lufia: The Legend Returns (GBC). I still need to finish playing this before I can work on it fully, but I do have a number of the early areas mapped out, they just lack the treasure labels.

Legend of the Ghost Lion (NES). Haven't played this game to the end just yet, but I have at least 50% of the game mapped out thus far.

Final Fantasy VII (PSX). I'll get to the overworld map some time this year.


Thanks for the very kind words Shortie12!

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Map Gab / Re: ( SNES ) - The Legend of the Mystical Ninja

« on: October 24, 2017, 10:37:11 am »

Wow, they looking amazing! Can't wait to see the rest!

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Maps In Progress / Re: FlyingArmor's Map Projects Present and Future

« on: July 30, 2017, 08:08:47 pm »

I submitted the last batch of maps for Ultima VI back in April, so that game has been complete for a few months now.

Also, last week I submitted maps for Daedalian Opus and it's Japanese counterpart, Bouken! Puzzle Road for the Game Boy. The reason for mapping the Japanese version as well was that I discovered that it had more levels than the North American version, a total of six more. But when comparing the two games more closely, you'll see that the puzzle orders don't line up one to one. Some puzzles that appear later in Daedalian Opus end up appearing far earlier in Bouken! Puzzle Road (the puzzle in the shape of a gun is one such). There's a few puzzles exclusive to the North American version as well, which I found rather interesting.

41

Map Requests / Re: One request…

« on: July 23, 2017, 07:59:05 pm »

I wouldn't mind taking on this request. After checking the game out, it looks pretty nice and it should be fun to map out.

42

Maps In Progress / Re: FlyingArmor's Map Projects Present and Future

« on: February 28, 2017, 01:31:01 pm »

Yeah, I had checked a little while ago if the FF7 Remake had a tentative release date yet, but it still looks like that's up in the air.

I haven't made any progress on those maps for FF7, but I have gotten back into mapping Ultima VI after about a five month hiatus. I've finished up 10 more maps, and have about half a dozen left to work on. I'll probably send what I've got done to you some time tonight.

43

Maps In Progress / Re: FlyingArmor's Map Projects Present and Future

« on: October 06, 2016, 01:42:56 pm »

Thanks very much!

I'm fairly sure that all the maps that use pre-rendered graphics are complete. I didn't bother to include areas that were used solely for flashbacks or cutscenes, an example being the backstory with Zack and Cloud breaking out of the basement of Shinra Mansion.

Besides the world map, I'm also thinking of doing maps for the chocobo race courses. They'd have to be drawn by hand of course, but I'm sure I can figure out a way to represent them two-dimensionally.

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Maps In Progress / Re: FlyingArmor's Map Projects Present and Future

« on: September 29, 2016, 12:43:26 pm »

I wouldn't have known it was there either if it wasn't for this site showing me where it was, with it's well done hand-drawn maps. I walked right past it the first time I was documenting the treasures in that area and only realized I missed it when referring back to that website.

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Maps In Progress / Re: FlyingArmor's Map Projects Present and Future

« on: September 26, 2016, 03:17:32 pm »

Inching closer to completing the Final Fantasy VII map set! I've now got the Northern Cave and Inside the Planet areas mapped and labeled.

Assembling the Inside the Planet map was a nerve-wracking experience. Because there are FMV sequences playing in the background when you're in this area, they obviously won't be visible when viewing the maps in 7mimic. The major problem I was running into was trying to find any program that could open the BIN files that the videos are encoded as. Most of the major FMV sequences in the game are stored as MOV files, and most programs I came across don't have any problem playing those, but none of those programs could play files ending in *.BIN. Long story short, I just bypassed the whole BIN file thing by downloading the AVI files from the PC Version of Final Fantasy VII instead. Ah, much nicer!

It still took a bit of effort to get the lighting correct on everything (or rather as correct as I can possibly get it) which involved separating the foreground and background and other such stuff, but at least it looks more or less how it's seen in-game. And because of this learning experience, I decided to go back to my Whirlwind Maze map and add in all the wavy background effects found in that area, which I didn't bother to do at the time I was working on it.

There's only a few more in-game maps to worry about, as well as the overworld map (which I haven't bothered working on yet), so I'm just about done with this game.