Recent Posts

51

Gaming / Re: Silksong's Launch is Nigh! Excited?

« Last post by Cyartog959 on September 09, 2025, 11:25:30 pm »

Pretty excited to see what TC has cooked up. Even if it's more of the same, HK was one of my favorite metroidvanias. Only thing I'm dreading is how difficult the optional lategame stuff will be, based on some of HK's insane challenges...

You mean challenges like the "White Palace", or the "Delicate Flower" quest? I have a feeling their challenges may be a bit more tougher for Silksong this time around. Better strengthen your endurance and determination, pal. You'll need it.

"Guacamelee! 2" was quite more of the same, the moves and such, but that didn't stop me from having loads of fun. Longer and  tougher, yes, but still fun. And, before many Metroidvanias were made, loads of people enjoyed more of mostly the same hi-speed 2D adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, and there weren't many complaints about it.

Even I enjoyed it all, and I still don't gripe about the later 2D Classic Sonic games being quite the same(well, maybe more should continue along the treads of Mania's, but not the anniversary themes, to say). Its the material and substance that matters in each game, on the inside.

On a small note, the game's RAM requirements for the PC version is more or less the same as HK's, but I think its more leaning towards 8GB of RAM than HK's 4 to 8GB. My one guess, its to accommodate for the larger world, Pharloom.

You know, a bit unrelated, but, so far, many Metroidvanias have used about 4GB, to 8GB, and sometimes, even 16GB of RAM for creating big worlds, but not a one has yet to reach about 24GB or 48GB of RAM(yes, I know the shocked feeling you got, go ahead).

I mean, not that they cannot reach it, but I'm just saying. All the loads of RAM memory we got and it may need to be put to use in creating larger Metroidvania maps... at least, sometime soon.

Think about it.

To compare, "Noreya: The Gold Project" uses about 8 to 16GB of RAM, providing two rather large worlds based on choices on path allegiances, one for The Path of Light, the other for The Path of Gold.

In short, they're about roughly twice as much as any Metroidvania world put together.

Well, hope you have fun!

52

VGMaps Social Board / Re: Sonic 3 Unlocked, Act Transitions, A Blog Series

« Last post by Cyartog959 on September 09, 2025, 12:49:20 am »

Thanks for sharing, the Sonic 3 Unlocked series is a fascinating deep dive into how the game achieved seamless stage transitions on the Genesis, and it’s a great resource for anyone interested in game coding or level design.

You're quite welcome! I wonder how such coding can be readjusted to commit stage-to-stage seguing beyond Act 2 in a Zone, and so on?

As far as I saw before, I think Retro Engine got that continued in Sonic Mania, and I also think Hatch Game Engine does it too in Sonic Galactic.

Even Freedom Planet, as I actually recall from memory, replicated that kind of Act-to-Act seguing when I first saw the video showcasing its first stage, Dragon Valley, that is, when it was a Sonic fangame at the time. I was very impressed it took on the kind of formula from Sonic 3's both halves, whereas most Sonic fangames followed on those of either Sonic 1 or 2, which doesn't have seamless seguing in stages.

I did get the video link, actually archived by Iceland's/Iceland's Old Channel, due to that original from its original user's video being shuttered into privacy quite some time before the game's launch. Thankfully, for its preservation, that YouTube user was able to secure it for anyone to watch it again.

Here it is - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_32k_5gWmc

Maybe there should be a video tutorial series centered on coding stage seguing in games in the fashion of Sonic 3, for those interested.

53

Map Requests / Re: JonLeung's Requests

« Last post by JonLeung on September 06, 2025, 08:37:08 pm »

zagato blackfist saw a recent post on Bluesky where I mentioned the 17 ColecoVision games that I grew up with, and took it upon himself to map the ones that hadn't already been mapped!

These include four of them that I requested in this topic:
Frogger,
Lady Bug,
Smurf: Paint 'N Play Work Shop, and
Venture!

But of course I'm glad to see my entire pre-NES childhood mapped, so also a shout-out to zagato for the maps for
Buck Rogers: Planet Of Zoom,
Carnival,
MouseTrap,
Omega Race,
Q*bert,
Slither, and
Super-Action Baseball!

The other games I grew up, also mapped by zagato, back in 2021, are:
BurgerTime,
Donkey Kong,
Donkey Kong Jr,
FrontLine,
Jumpman Junior, and
Popeye!

Thanks again so much, zagato!  It means a lot to me that these games are mapped for this site!   

Keep up the awesome work!

54

Gaming / Which retro games do you find the hardest to map without using tools?

« Last post by sophia2005 on September 03, 2025, 04:04:42 am »

Hey everyone on VGMaps! I'm really curious about your experiences with creating maps for retro games, especially on systems like NES, SNES, or Sega Genesis. Which game do you think is the toughest to map out by hand without using tools like emulators or screenshots? Maybe it’s due to complex maze designs, continuous scrolling, or hidden elements that are hard to track down? Share your stories and how you tackled (or didn’t tackle) the challenge! I think this could spark some great discussions for those of us who love game mapping. 😄

55

VGMaps Social Board / Re: Sonic 3 Unlocked, Act Transitions, A Blog Series

« Last post by universalkelp on September 03, 2025, 12:40:43 am »

There may be a load of technical talk here, but I came across an interesting blog series about the depths of how Sonic the Hedgehog 3's coding works, its very interesting details about its coding operations, some oddities, and more of all, the knowledge of how Sonic 3's stage segue from one to another!

The series on that blog, Sonic 3 Unlocked, centers on how Sonic 3's acts instantly segue from Act 1 to Act 2 in a Zone, then to the next Zone via in-game scenes after the stage score tally finishes, the likes of which was from Sonic 1 did so at Scrap Brain Act 2's ending after finishing that act, where the game segues from the results to an in-game scene showing Dr. Robotnik sending Sonic to Act 3, but entirely expanded to encompass the WHOLE GAME, WITHOUT each Zone's Acts fading out and in from one to another.

It's all from the whole game, including its split halves.

For those that don't know what the word "Segue" means, and its applicable to video games, it means to make a transition directly from one section to another. Ergo, finish one level, instantly continue to another without fade-outs.

I was completely AMAZED about how that game managed to pull off such seguing within the Genesis' capabilities! Made me think at times, "Why can't other games like Sonic 3 do that kind of thing?". That kind of thing didn't happen for YEARS, until Freedom Planet later on, which its stage structure followed Sonic 3's act seguing formula, before it got slightly modified as it changed from a Sonic fangame to an indie game, and Sonic Mania would resume it suitably.

The coding was all done by Assembly, mind you. And, I'm kinda sure that kind of stage-to-stage segue coding was replicated into other programming languages, if I could only know how to adapt that kind of thing into said languages.

Well, Sonic 3 Complete's fixes did take care of very minor inconsistencies from music placement in select Acts & such, but still...

It's divided into eight posts, starting from August 28 2017, and ended on September 6 2017. They cover everything on how the Act transitions work, including how Icecap's maps instantly segue to the next before facing the miniboss, Big Icedus, there. I'm sure those who may be interested in seeing the inner workings of its coding.

Here they are, from Sonic 3 Unlocked's blog posts...

Act Transitions Part 1: The Beginning - https://s3unlocked.blogspot.com/2017/08/act-transitions-part-1.html bloodmoney
Act Transitions Part 2: Angel Island Zone - https://s3unlocked.blogspot.com/2017/08/act-transitions-part-2-angel-island-zone.html
Act Transitions Part 3: Icecap Zone - https://s3unlocked.blogspot.com/2017/08/act-transitions-part-3-icecap-zone.html
Act Transitions Part 4: Whither Offset? - https://s3unlocked.blogspot.com/2017/08/act-transitions-part-4-whither-offset.html
Act Transitions Part 5: Horizontal Underflow - https://s3unlocked.blogspot.com/2017/09/act-transitions-part-5-horizontal.html
Act Transitions Part 6: Deferred Execution - https://s3unlocked.blogspot.com/2017/09/act-transitions-part-6-deferred.html
Act Transitions Part 7: Putting it Together - https://s3unlocked.blogspot.com/2017/09/act-transitions-part-7-putting-it.html
Act Transitions Part 8 (FINALE): Sandopolis Zone - https://s3unlocked.blogspot.com/2017/09/act-transitions-part-8-sandopolis-zone.html

That kind of coding knowledge can be useful when re-adapted to other languages for games that may need that kind of seamless seguing in stages, even their maps.

And it felt too good not to share this with the rest of the VGMaps community, even those that may be thinking of seamlessly making maps from one stage to another for their games... so, I needed to, and did.

Drop by sometime, and give it a good look! You may find this very amazing and interesting to know the process and how you could use that kind of knowledge for those into level designing and more.

Thanks for sharing, the Sonic 3 Unlocked series is a fascinating deep dive into how the game achieved seamless stage transitions on the Genesis, and it’s a great resource for anyone interested in game coding or level design.

56

Maps Of The Month / Re: 2025/09: SOS (Super NES) - Tropicon

« Last post by Cyartog959 on September 02, 2025, 01:15:04 pm »

Yeah, it is rather a bit disappointing for the PS1 sequel not to be globally launched.

I would like to say this. That SNES game is one of the few, if any, that uses all of Mode 0's 4 available background layers, because it wasn't used more often due to its limited capabilities, compared to other games using other modes, even Mode 7.

Makes you wonder how and why many SNES games' backgrounds in many stages appear to be vertically static in place while they move horizontally, not doing both at once.

A bit disappointing that we don't see many SNES games use Mode 0 to utilize its 4 layers at the time.

57

Maps Of The Month / Re: 2025/09: SOS (Super NES) - Tropicon

« Last post by VGCartography on September 02, 2025, 06:48:32 am »

I've only played this one a little bit, looks like a stairs labyrinth! I was surprised to see recently it also got a PS1 sequel. I don't think it was officially translated but it got a fan translation not long ago. Moves from 2D to 3D so I'm not sure how similar.

58

Gaming / Re: Silksong's Launch is Nigh! Excited?

« Last post by VGCartography on September 02, 2025, 06:45:30 am »

Pretty excited to see what TC has cooked up. Even if it's more of the same, HK was one of my favorite metroidvanias. Only thing I'm dreading is how difficult the optional lategame stuff will be, based on some of HK's insane challenges...

59

VGMaps Social Board / Re: YouTube channel! (JonLeung1)

« Last post by JonLeung on September 01, 2025, 08:29:15 pm »

I know I need to get back to making the kind of videos I usually do, but I couldn't help but throw together this quickie.

It's an amusing take on the Mega Man 2 Robot Masters, if they were human.

Remember to give a thumbs up if you like it, and then share it with your friends, and subscribe!  It's what keeps my channel going.

Thanks!

60

Maps Of The Month / 2025/09: SOS (Super NES) - Tropicon

« Last post by JonLeung on August 31, 2025, 09:22:32 pm »

SOS

For this month's "Maps Of The Month" featurette, I wish to draw your attention to Tropicon's SOS (Super NES) maps.

On the evening of September 13, 1921, a passenger ship called "The Lady Crithania" capsizes during a storm off the coast of England. Among the 2300 people on board are the four playable characters of this adventure: architect Capris Wisher, counselor Redwin Gardner, Dr. Jeffrey Howell, and crewman Luke Haines.  After the capsize, they have one hour to escape the upside-down and labyrinthine ship.

Inspired by the book and film, "The Poseidon Adventure", the game even presents itself as "a Syuji Yoshida film" in its opening credits. Known in Japan as "Septentrion" and not to be confused with another Super NES game called "S.O.S: Sink Or Swim", SOS certainly is quite different than most Super NES games with its dire premise, its serious tone, and its time limit.  It is certainly daunting, with each injury costing you five minutes, and the challenge of having to save many others along the way. The four characters each have a different story, and their endings are not only dependent on the number of passengers they save, but if that includes people that are close to them (such as Capris's stepsister, Amy or Dr. Howell's wife, Adela).

Tropicon has mapped The Lady Crithania thoroughly in three different forms. There's a version where the ship is upright at the start (which is pretty impressive, considering that it doesn't stay that way for long) and two capsized versions, both marked and unmarked.  With only sixty minutes to make your way out, these maps will certainly be of help when planning a route and deciding who to save.

So to recognize the effort put into mapping this underrated survival adventure, Tropicon's SOS (Super NES) maps will be known as VGMaps.com's Maps Of The Month for September 2025.