2003 – May

Site News: May 29, 2003 – 11:50:27 MST – PayPal donations – posted by JonLeung

I don’t want to beg for money. But if you want to help support this site, we now have a PayPal donation button on the right side. (And if you don’t want to give me your money, then don’t.) It’s totally voluntary, and donations will be well appreciated. This site doesn’t exactly generate revenue, so your support, be it through cartographical contributions or by monetary donations, will help keep the site running. Thanks!

Site News: May 22, 2003 – 23:59:59 MST – 30 000 Hits! – posted by JonLeung

Site News: May 6, 2003 – 12:10:09 MST – HAPPY 1^ST BIRTHDAY! – posted by JonLeung

Well! It’s been one whole year already! When I started this site I said, "let’s see how this goes for a year". It’s already been a year, and contributions still come in. So I think it’s safe to say that we’ll still be around for a while.

The first maps on this site were The Legend Of Zelda: A Link To The Past maps for the Light World, which you can see in the Super NES section. I actually made them long before the site was launched, but they were a big part of what spurned me to try to make this site, even though I have very little knowledge of HTML. But it’s successful enough in my eyes, having nearly 29 000 hits in one year for my first real web site. 28 875 at this moment, to be exact, or as close as can be with this counter.

The latest maps added are some beautiful Golden Sun: The Lost Age maps. The link to them can be found in the GBA section. This is also the most recent game that I myself have finished, and aiding my typical 100% completism were these very maps. They are also a perfect example of what I would like to see more of on this site. Beautiful visual walkthroughs. Pixel-perfect maps, yet with information on them. And of course for a genre where maps are indeed useful, the RPG. (And being linked, they save me some bandwidth. Whether stored locally on the space that I pay for or linked to on other sites, either way would still make VGMaps.com the center for video game maps.)

The Other Stuff section has not been updated since day one, aside from the stuff I put in the former Special Stuff section which has now merged with it, such as the Super Smash Bros. Melee – Special Movie 2 and the Eternal Darkness - Music Video. And yes, currently almost everything there is stuff that I have contributed. To have more than just maps I think is a good thing. I welcome other people’s contributions of wallpaper and sprite-based artwork…(though I’ll probably be a little more critical of what gets put up more than maps…) If you want to contribute something like that, go for it!

The VGMaps Forum hosted by our friends at Phuck-IGN has seen too little activity. To create a community of video game cartographers, I encourage all of our current semi-regular contributors to sign up there. Map requests can be made, and then fulfilled. Perhaps we could share map-building tips and offer suggestions on how maps should be presented. And even if that particular forum can’t hold your interest, at least signing up will give you access to Phuck-IGN’s other forums and features. So if you’re a gamer, it’s at least worth a look-see.

So that’s what I have to say about the past and the future of this site. Happy 1^st birthday, VGMaps.com.