Recent Posts

1

Map Requests / Re: Solar Winds Sector size [Map Request or Mapping Tips?]

« Last post by DarkWolf on Yesterday at 10:32:37 AM »

I submitted the ships and planet sprites from the second game to TSR some years ago: https://www.spriters-resource.com/pc_computer/solarwindsuniverse/

One day I need to finish the rest of the graphics if no one else does. My guess is that the file you're looking at probably has some small amount of header information to give the number of sprites and then there's probably a height & width value for each frame. The ships and planets use run-length encoding if I remember correctly. I didn't figure out the communication portraits, but I am guessing they're similar.

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Map Requests / Re: Solar Winds Sector size [Map Request or Mapping Tips?]

« Last post by Mikemc on Yesterday at 12:53:04 AM »

Kewl.

That's a lot of technical jargon, but I'm certain it will be useful some day. The test image is the only map I know of now .
I figured for a galaxy in a DOS game, the sprites would be stored off-screen until their numbers came up. Where did you get 127 in your equations from?

Huh. I installed HxD and the BH-EXPL.dat file has a pattern of an explosion when Bytes Per Row is 128. It's the only file with a clear image..

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Maps In Progress / Re: Castlevania: Dawn Of Sorrow (DS)

« Last post by TerraEsperZ on January 16, 2022, 07:12:27 PM »

Good work on all of those Castlevania maps by the way Electromax!
I often wondered what it would look like to assemble the various maps of the older games together and I'm glad someone did it.

Looking back on this particular project, I'm actually surprised I managed to map so much of it considering how exhausting my method was, even though I now realize I never submitted finished versions of what I've completed so far. I'm pretty sure I'm never going to finish it so it's a good thing someone else is coming up with better tools to automate the process.

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

« Last post by Electromax on January 16, 2022, 06:04:31 AM »

Fun doing a new map of an old-style game!

I just submitted the first few maps for Xenogears to the site: https://www.deviantart.com/vgcartography/gallery/81393244/xenogears Trying to follow your footsteps on the FF7 masterwork with another RPG from the era.

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Maps In Progress / Re: Castlevania: Dawn Of Sorrow (DS)

« Last post by Electromax on January 16, 2022, 05:44:25 AM »

Reviving this ancient thread to share a link I found:
https://www.vg-resource.com/thread-37086-post-660862.html#pid660862
Rufaswan has some download links there for all 3 DS games that have probably 80% of the background stuff represented. Things aren't tiled or stretched or whatever and some bits are missing, but overall it would represent a nice starting point for those - I referenced it for some Castlevania maps I worked on recently that I'll submit soon. I know this is probably long since past, but for anyone feeling like mapping some beautiful 2D pixel art, OoE doesn't have much out there already.

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

« Last post by FlyingArmor on January 15, 2022, 10:32:32 PM »

Quick update: I got the Isles of Wynmar (a.k.a. the overworld) map in Nox Archaist finished!

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VGMaps Social Board / Re: VGMaps.com's 20th Anniversary - PROMO VIDEO CHALLENGE!

« Last post by JonLeung on January 15, 2022, 06:09:51 PM »

Good questions!  I'll answer what I can.

I did a map count, and as of today, the number I got is 37,265 maps.

That includes the three .PDF files - the text-only Q&A for Earthworm Jim 2 (Genesis), and the V-Note's Chronicle Guides for Blaster Master (NES) and Ys: Book I & II (TG16).  It also includes the .SWF file for the interactive map for The Legend Of Zelda (NES), but should I keep that up since Flash is dead?  Speaking of interactive/dynamic maps, that doesn't include the 66 dynamic maps for Blake Stone: Aliens Of Gold that we got just a few days ago, since those are linked off-site, on DarkWolf's page.  (I don't know why I have a link for off-site maps for Boulder Dash (NES)... hmmm.)

Anyway, you can get a breakdown by platform here:
https://vgmaps.com/Atlas/MapCount.xls

The top ten are:
6825 - Super NES
6456 - PC
5683 - NES
3303 - GB-GBC
2821 - Genesis
2665 - GBA
2160 - Arcade
1150 - Master System
 942 - DS
 753 - PlayStation

These popular platforms make up 87.9% of the total number of maps hosted on VGMaps.com.

There are 52 platforms, but that is counting Game Boy and Game Boy Color together (which I was thinking about separating, maybe?), as well as Neo-Geo Pocket and Neo-Geo Pocket Color together.  So you could say 54, but I think "50+" is sufficient.

I don't have a count of the number of contributors.  Someone once used something to scrape info off the site and got an exact count, but I don't recall who that is and I'm sure it's been long since it's been updated...

There are 2478 games featured here.  At this time, I do not have a breakdown of them by platform.

The very first map was my map of The Lost Woods in the Light World side of Hyrule in The Legend Of Zelda: A Link To The Past (Super NES).  I don't remember exactly how many maps I had at the start (if I find that I mentioned it somewhere, I'll come back here) but it wasn't very many, and I had to ask around for maps a lot in that first year.  It took a little while for it to pick up steam, so thankfully I didn't give up after the first year (which I thought was a possibility if it wasn't popular).  Hard to believe that was twenty years ago.  The site was supposed to launch at the end of April or the start of May 2002, but due to a technical issue (I think it was something stupid like "index.htm" having a capital letter) the site actually launched on the evening of May 6, 2002.

Hope that helps!  Anything else you want to ask, I'll do what I can to answer them if you think it would help with a video submission.

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VGMaps Social Board / Re: VGMaps.com's 20th Anniversary - PROMO VIDEO CHALLENGE!

« Last post by Electromax on January 15, 2022, 04:21:56 PM »

Can you share with us a couple statistics that would be fun to feature if possible?
- number of maps
- number of contributors
- first map(s) you hosted (which one and when?)

Thanks!

9

Gaming / Re: EmuVR - emulation in VR

« Last post by JonLeung on January 15, 2022, 11:57:02 AM »

Just messing around with it more.  It is rather neat, just the idea of ROMs/ISOs/video files turning into cartridges/discs/VHS tapes.

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Gaming / EmuVR - emulation in VR

« Last post by JonLeung on January 06, 2022, 10:11:13 PM »

Despite using VR for a few years, I'm a little late to the party, as EmuVR has also been around for a while...

EmuVR is a VR app where you can relive simpler times.  Put some ROMs in a folder and they become cartridges or discs here.  Put in some video files and they become VHS tapes here.  And then you play them!

You manipulate objects with your hands, so you have to insert the cartridge, hit the power button, etc.  It's simple in theory but it feels neat to do it in VR.

Seems a little funny to get expensive, cutting-edge tech to simulate old tech, eh?  But it works very well.

The only concern is that I am playing it with an Oculus Quest 2, but this can only be played on that via Oculus Link (i.e., running it on a PC, to which the Oculus Quest 2 must be tethered to with an Oculus Link (USB-C) cable).  Even though I have a long cable I still feel restricted.  [EDIT: I was wrong, it can be done wirelessly with the Oculus Air Link!]

This is just a neat experience.  I probably won't fully play a game of any length in here, but it is fun to mess with, as you can customize the posters on the wall, the bedsheets, etc.  Now if only someone could recreate the Super Mario Bros./The Legend Of Zelda bedsheets that I used to have so I can import this into here and really recreate my old bedroom!