Author Topic: Your own masterpiece (best maps)  (Read 10070 times)

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Offline Will

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Your own masterpiece (best maps)
« on: January 21, 2009, 12:51:00 pm »
Of all the mapsets of all the computers, consoles and handhelds you've covered and completed, which game mapset do you consider your own masterpiece? Even the April Fools maps can be regarded as a masterpiece if you're so pleased with its result.



What I consider my own mapset masterpiece over everything I've ever done so far is the SNES "Demon's Crest" mapset.

Offline Revned

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RE: Your own masterpiece (best maps)
« Reply #1 on: January 21, 2009, 01:12:15 pm »
Either my recent Mega Man maps or Zelda: Oracle of Ages.

Offline TerraEsperZ

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RE: Your own masterpiece (best maps)
« Reply #2 on: January 21, 2009, 03:30:53 pm »
Probably Zelda: Oracle of Seasons (done in tandem with Revned while he was mapping Oracle of Ages) or Castlevania: Bloodlines whose impressive graphics for the Genesis posed quite a number of interesting challenge. In terms of fun while mapping, definitely Bloodlines.



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Current projects: Bucky O'Hare (NES), Metal Storm (NES), Clock Tower (SNES), Ristar-The Shooting Star (Gen), Sonic The Hedgehog (Gen), Sonic CD (Sega CD), Mega Man Zero (GBA), Battletoads (NES)
Current project that are on hold because job burnout :
-Drill Dozer (GBA)
-Sonic 3D Blast (Genesis)
-Naya's Quest (PC)

Offline TenguMan

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RE: Your own masterpiece (best maps)
« Reply #3 on: January 21, 2009, 03:52:53 pm »
I think Mega Man 9....hard but funny work! :P

Offline DarkWolf

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RE: Your own masterpiece (best maps)
« Reply #4 on: January 21, 2009, 06:03:59 pm »

Offline Maxim

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RE: Your own masterpiece (best maps)
« Reply #5 on: January 22, 2009, 03:55:38 am »
If you map games as guides then you will have ugly and beautiful games mixed in. If you only map games to show how great they look, then they will all look great. I don't think any of my maps is more beautiful than any of the others.

Offline TerraEsperZ

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RE: Your own masterpiece (best maps)
« Reply #6 on: January 22, 2009, 06:50:02 am »
In my case, there's a third possibility: mapping out of curiosity. Sometimes I'll play a game that isn't that fun or good-looking, but that intrigues me in terms of layout or graphics.



Maniac Mansion for the Famicom sure looked crappy compared to the NES version, but I was curious to see all the differences between them. As for Treasure Master, I mapped it out of nostalgia even though it ended up being an average game in all respect. It just made too big of an impression when I saw it on the old GamePro TV show as a kid.



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Current projects: Bucky O'Hare (NES), Metal Storm (NES), Clock Tower (SNES), Ristar-The Shooting Star (Gen), Sonic The Hedgehog (Gen), Sonic CD (Sega CD), Mega Man Zero (GBA), Battletoads (NES)
Current project that are on hold because job burnout :
-Drill Dozer (GBA)
-Sonic 3D Blast (Genesis)
-Naya's Quest (PC)

Offline JonLeung

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RE: Your own masterpiece (best maps)
« Reply #7 on: January 22, 2009, 07:08:46 am »
I was thinking about making a topic similar to this, pointing out maps of others that I personally like.  Off the top of my head I can name at least a half-dozen regular mappers and game map sets that I particularly like from each of them.  But it'd be fun to see what everyone else thinks.



Though I'm mostly unsurprised by what has been said so far, and if a few other people comment, I can guess what they'd probably say is their best work.



But many of the achievements are hard to sum up properly in a "Maps Of The Month" feature as it doesn't seem like the most fitting way to acknowledge them.  Some mappers are fans with the apparent dedication to a certain series or to a certain platform.  Some go above and beyond what is expected when they map a particular game.  Then there are the technical achievements by some to make mapping tools to help others or they map a game that requires new techniques to do so.



Perhaps I will consider a new front-page feature spotlighting these people and the maps they've made, if they don't mind the limelight, though perhaps I should wait until hits go back up (they've dropped significantly this past half-year) or after the revamp (if it ever happens >_>).



Anyway, to answer your question, last year's April Fool's joke is currently my favourite.  It's probably because it's the one I spent the most time on (obviously), required some creativity, and one that I can see the effects of (people still email me about it, being fooled, impressed, or inspired to make a fan game)...  :P



As for maps of real games, everyone already knows I love my first map, the Light World from The Legend Of Zelda: A Link To The Past, and so much that I got it printed and framed it.  Probably because it's from one of my favorite games, is my first map, and is colourful and a neat square, and has its own little quirks (like how Death Mountain is separated from the rest of the world and yet not).  Unfortunately I never got around to mapping the Dark World or the dungeons, which have since been covered by Alex Foster and Iron Knuckle...I still love the maps (if only because I love the game), but they're not mine.  >_>  Sometimes I hear Revned's voice (even though I don't know what he sounds like) telling me I should map a real game (and fully) sometime.  That being said, I think the last REAL game I FULLY mapped (sheesh, this was four years ago now) was Maniac Mansion, a game I love despite the clunky interface, and I also like because of its layout (just as TerraEsperZ said about the Japanese one).  Though without size limitations it could have been stretched out to fit the rooms a bit more logically, but there's something neat about having it all fit in a compact rectangle.  (Apparently I love colourful quadrilaterals without any wasted space.)  Also, shortly after, Ron Gilbert himself linked to VGMaps from his "Grumpy Gamer" blog specifically because of this map, which was around the time VGMaps was posted to BoingBoing and Slashdot and subsequently led to the largest influx of visitors ever, and a permanent increase in traffic.  That's another reason to like it, from my perspective, anyway.  >_>  Though perhaps I'm assuming it all started from Grumpy Gamer and maybe it hadn't...



And though I ended up not doing quite as much as some others, the group mapping of Super Mario Bros. 3 is something I'm very happy about too.  We had a lot of discussion about it beforehand to make sure things were consistent despite (or because of) us having six pairs of hands in it.  I keep having this nagging feeling that I'm supposed to recheck the palettes on them, but other than that, those are great maps for a great game and I believe the teamwork in mapping this game is a crowning achievement of VGMaps.



(And in case anyone was wondering, I'm the one editing the links into your posts, even if you don't have the item that grants that ability.  :P )