Author Topic: VGMaps.com's 10th Anniversary  (Read 34071 times)

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Offline JonLeung

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VGMaps.com's 10th Anniversary
« on: May 05, 2012, 10:44:33 pm »
VGMaps.com's 10th Anniversary

Can you believe it's been a whole decade since VGMaps.com was launched?

Thanks for your hard work in creating nearly 20,000 maps over the last 10 years!

How long have you visited here, and what do you think of the past, present, and future of VGMaps?
« Last Edit: May 05, 2012, 10:54:57 pm by JonLeung »

Offline Mikemc

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Re: VGMaps.com's 10th Anniversary
« Reply #1 on: May 06, 2012, 09:44:29 am »
Happy Anniversary!
I like the story about your little 'competition' with KAI at Playdium. I had something similar going with the Rush 2049 machine on who could get to 1,000 coins first on the Alcatraz track. My opponent would play after his shift was over, and didn't realize that you could go back and keep collecting the coins up to 1,000. I almost got the last 100 all in one race but missed a couple in the last seconds :(.
And he was watching me -.-

- Mike

Offline Rew

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Re: VGMaps.com's 10th Anniversary
« Reply #2 on: May 06, 2012, 11:04:32 am »
Happy 10th, VGMaps.com!

That was a good read, Jon, and it's nice to know I'm not the only "old" gamer around. (I too grew up with the NES, played those games to death, and subscribed to Nintendo Power in the early '90s.)

Just think, when you first opened this site up that day, I bet you had no idea that ten years later, there would be maps of games like Ocarina of Time on the site!
From the Super Smash Bros. Brawl board on GameFAQs:
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Offline Peardian

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Re: VGMaps.com's 10th Anniversary
« Reply #3 on: May 07, 2012, 02:18:27 pm »
Wow, hard to believe it's been 10 years! And I'm glad I could be a part of it. :D
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Offline Trop

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Re: VGMaps.com's 10th Anniversary
« Reply #4 on: May 07, 2012, 09:37:17 pm »
Of course whither or not it gets easier or harder from a milestone like this is up for grabs.  A lot of fan sites die not long after their 10th.  Fortunately it doesn't look like interest is fading at all and personally I'll map till I'm dead.  Heh, 20,000.  Hard to believe.  Well here's looking forward to another 10 years and hoping it doesn't take that long to hit 40,000.

Offline TerraEsperZ

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Re: VGMaps.com's 10th Anniversary
« Reply #5 on: May 08, 2012, 03:16:49 pm »
It feels really weird to know that I've been around since almost the beginning of the site. I remember asking around on The Castlevania Dungeon's message board if anyone was interested in screenshot maps for Circle of the Moon which was, I think, my first real attempt at making game maps, and finding that nobody seemed to care. Having been fascinated with fictional maps since I was a kid, I was glad to find a place like VGMaps where other map nuts could interact!

For years beforehand, I'd make maps in one format or another but that was before the Internet really existed as something that anyone had easy access to. I remember drawing maps by hand of the mansion and tunnels from the first Alone in the Dark PC game. I also used the Drawing functions of Word Perfect 5.1 for DOS (a now very defunct word processor) to reproduce, using ASCII characters, the full maps for the first Lands of Lore PC game that had been published in a French game magazine. And finally, I graduated to MS Paint for Windows 3.1 which I used to draw maps for a couple of Wolfenstein 3D and Spear of Destiny maps. Since I didn't know a map editor existed back then, I had to draw everything beforehand on grid paper, carefully pushing against every single wall to find secrets to make sure I found everything. I'm actually sad I no longer have these examples of my first few steps into game mapping land.
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Offline JonLeung

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Re: VGMaps.com's 10th Anniversary
« Reply #6 on: May 22, 2012, 07:59:21 am »
I was thinking, after writing that up, that I should talk more about some of the maps we've received in the past decade.  That would be a good retrospective, showing what we've accomplished since 10 years ago.  Hopefully I can get around to adding in something of the sort before long.  I should at least have some stats or something when we hit 20,000 maps.  It didn't feel like that long ago when I was bragging that we had 1000.  :P

Offline StarFighters76

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Re: VGMaps.com's 10th Anniversary
« Reply #7 on: May 23, 2012, 03:30:01 pm »
*hits Like button*
Creator of over 4,300 maps on GameFAQs!

Offline Grizzly

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Re: VGMaps.com's 10th Anniversary
« Reply #8 on: May 26, 2012, 04:43:01 am »
Nice to hear that VGMaps still lives after 10 years. Although I first submitted something in 2005, I started with my first map set in 2003 and I am sure I mostly did it because I knew of this lovely place to share them afterwards. So I must have known VGMaps.com since 9 of the 10 years.

It's gotten quiet from my side - but I will keep an eye on VGMaps.com and plan to return with new maps someday. It's just that I first want to make use of my programming skills first to write an easy to use program that helps with manual map making (like automatic pre-snapping of two pasted screenshots and batch processing with autostitching) while still being fully controls compatible to Windows XP Microsoft Paint but also adding layer capabilities and some random tools (like often-used transparencies (GBA,SNES)). It's just difficult to do and my first try from two years ago was very clunky and didn't work promising at all. With the adequate distance to that work I might work on a new attempt with refactored code and all soon. :)
But better don't start waiting on it - it might most likely take another two years with my current work speed. :P

Offline ReyVGM

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Re: VGMaps.com's 10th Anniversary
« Reply #9 on: May 29, 2012, 10:24:13 pm »
Oh, I get mentioned in the origins of VGMaps :P

I don't remember how I came to find out about the site. I don't remember if Jonathan asked for the NES maps I made for Gamefaqs or if I offered them to him, but I've always loved maps (I made my own maps in graph papers back in the day), but with the advent of the Internet I had to decide between my two passions, either map making or endings. I decided to go with endings and it's a good thing, because Jonathan (along with all the great contributors) is taking good care of the map making part over here.
« Last Edit: May 29, 2012, 10:24:47 pm by ReyVGM »