VGMaps

General Boards => Maps In Progress => Topic started by: Maxim on May 29, 2007, 04:20:57 am

Title: Chuck Rock (SMS), Cool Spot (SMS)
Post by: Maxim on May 29, 2007, 04:20:57 am: I have no idea why I'm choosing to map these lame ports, but I've done a level or two in each.

One thing that may be of interest to some is news that the recent release of Meka (SMS/GG/etc emulator) has a new feature for map-making that I suggested to the author. When enabled, "crop and align screenshots" will trim down any screenshot you take so it's aligned with the video hardware's underlying 8x8 pixel grid - basically, trimming off any half-visible tiles. Since I use Paint Shop Pro set to snap to an 8x8 pixel grid when mapping, this makes map-making roughly 64 times easier because it's that much easier to line the screenshots up perfectly (off-by-one errors are probably my biggest problem when mapping).
Title: RE: Chuck Rock (SMS), Cool Spot (SMS)
Post by: TerraEsperZ on May 29, 2007, 05:33:03 am: Hey Maxim! Great work again on those Sonic The Hedgehog (SMS) maps, which actually managed to get me interested in the SMS/GG Sonic games (as poor as some of them are).

I even managed to map a few stages of those (specifically, Sonic The Hedgehog 2 - Under Ground Zone Act 1, 2 & 3), but without being able to go anywhere or control the camera through hacking, it didn't go any farther.

And I totally understand the "why the hell did I just map *that* crap!?" feeling ;)

---

"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard

B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me
Title: RE: Chuck Rock (SMS), Cool Spot (SMS)
Post by: Maxim on May 29, 2007, 07:35:49 am: SMS Sonic 1 is a great game, the later ones are probably best avoided IMO (although some would disagree). Nostalgia is a major factor here, the vast majority of games I map are games I've played through many times, on a real console, in my mis-spent youth. That's why I like to map the lame SMS ports rather than the originals - not so much "why the hell did I map *that* crap!?" as "someone will have valid reason to map the original and mine will become an ignored footnote, yet I don't care".

Others, like the Wonder Boy games and Sonic 1 8-bit, are really just great 8-bit design, something rather lacking as it was a generation that went from small, sparse levels up to backports of the big-money 16-bit titles of the 90s and missed out on having many big-money well-designed "proper" efforts in the middle.

I did spend a few hours trying to hack Sonic 2 similarly but it didn't come to anything much. These kinds of games really benefit from hacks to free-scroll the camera. I may try another hack to give infinite rocket sneakers and then try for a no-clipping mode. Having Sonic moving that fast will make mapping something of a challenge, of course...
Title: RE: Chuck Rock (SMS), Cool Spot (SMS)
Post by: TerraEsperZ on May 29, 2007, 10:39:55 am: I meant "crap" objectively, as I too have mapped games out of nostalgia, like Goonies ++ which has aged terribly.As for the 8 bits Sonic games, the first one was enjoyable, but therest wasn't that great except for (ripe Trouble, the last and best one. Anyway, Ihope this post comes out okay, since I'm typing on my Blackberry at work (during my dinner break while training of course.
Title: RE: Chuck Rock (SMS), Cool Spot (SMS)
Post by: DarkWolf on May 30, 2007, 11:39:23 am: I don't know if it works for you but I get around "off by one" errors by using undo then redo a few times. If it's spot on the overlapping parts will stay in the same position, if not they'll "jump".
Title: RE: Chuck Rock (SMS), Cool Spot (SMS)
Post by: JonLeung on May 30, 2007, 06:05:23 pm: When working on Super Kid Icarus, I was working off of Tim's Kid Icarus maps and found a few of them to be off slightly. By replacing tiles using Revned's Tile Slicer/Splicer, it was actually easy to correct "one-offs".
Title: RE: Chuck Rock (SMS), Cool Spot (SMS)
Post by: Maxim on May 31, 2007, 01:01:26 am: Chuck Rock level 1:

http://img176.imageshack.us/img176/9867/chuckrocklevel1lo5.th.png

http://img176.imageshack.us/img176/9867/chuckrocklevel1lo5.png
Title: RE: Chuck Rock (SMS), Cool Spot (SMS)
Post by: Maxim on June 01, 2007, 05:05:20 pm: Cool Spot stage 1: Shell Shock

http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/7518/coolspot01shellshockax1.th.png

http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/7518/coolspot01shellshockax1.png

This game is a total nightmare to map, since I'm anal about including enemies.
Title: RE: Chuck Rock (SMS), Cool Spot (SMS)
Post by: Maxim on June 03, 2007, 01:01:11 pm: http://img501.imageshack.us/img501/5035/coolspotbonusstage1vli0.th.png

http://img501.imageshack.us/img501/5035/coolspotbonusstage1vli0.png
Title: RE: Chuck Rock (SMS), Cool Spot (SMS)
Post by: Maxim on June 24, 2007, 09:25:13 am: Cool Spot stage 2: Pier Pressure

http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/2599/coolspot02pierpressureod4.png
Title: RE: Chuck Rock (SMS), Cool Spot (SMS)
Post by: Maxim on June 26, 2007, 03:25:05 pm: Cool Spot - Bonus Stage 2 - I

http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/7950/coolspotbonusstage2i1ns7.png

Cool Spot - Stage 3 - Off the Wall

http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/496/coolspot03offthewallea3.png
Title: RE: Chuck Rock (SMS), Cool Spot (SMS)
Post by: Maxim on June 27, 2007, 02:58:48 pm: Cool Spot - Stage 3 - Off the Wall (fixed)

http://img172.imageshack.us/img172/8072/coolspot03offthewalltq0.png

Cool Spot - Bonus Stage 3 - R

http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/7449/coolspotbonusstage3rns8.png

Cool Spot - Stage 4 - Radical Rails

http://img253.imageshack.us/img253/8163/coolspot04radicalrailsvy7.png
Title: RE: Chuck Rock (SMS), Cool Spot (SMS)
Post by: Maxim on July 03, 2007, 12:28:02 pm: Cool Spot - Stage 5 - Wading Around

http://img239.imageshack.us/img239/892/coolspot05wadingaroundse3.png

The bonus levels are getting really annoying, so I skipped on to the real levels.
Title: RE: Chuck Rock (SMS), Cool Spot (SMS)
Post by: Maxim on September 15, 2007, 10:54:33 am: Cool Spot - Stage 6 - Back To The Wall
Title: RE: Chuck Rock (SMS), Cool Spot (SMS)
Post by: TerraEsperZ on September 15, 2007, 11:56:13 am: Good job. That last stage doesn't looks good as the others, as the graphics look like they originally had more colors but were then down-converted for the SMS. I assume you've played the Genesis version, so is that the case?

---

"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard

B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me
Title: RE: Chuck Rock (SMS), Cool Spot (SMS)
Post by: Maxim on September 15, 2007, 02:38:42 pm: All are down-converted as far as I know. I've never played the Mega Drive version :)

[goes and plays the Mega Drive version]

Well, the first level is almost identical. Looking over the Mobygames screenshot section, I see some kind of train stage that's missing; and here's the DOS version's wall stage:
Title: RE: Chuck Rock (SMS), Cool Spot (SMS)
Post by: Maxim on September 16, 2007, 02:21:46 am: Cool Spot - Stage 7 - Dock and Roll

I need to tweak some of the earlier efforts - there are some bugs and inconsistencies. Saving things as background/sprites/foreground layered files certainly helps with that kind of thing.

I've worked out a technique to help my Autostitcher with games like this one which run at inconsistent frame rates, which is helping a lot.
Title: RE: Chuck Rock (SMS), Cool Spot (SMS)
Post by: Maxim on September 16, 2007, 08:53:00 am: Cool Spot - Stage 8 - Surf Patrol

It's the last level of the game but I have a few bonus stages to map yet.
Title: RE: Chuck Rock (SMS), Cool Spot (SMS)
Post by: TerraEsperZ on September 16, 2007, 10:49:36 am: It... looks a bit bit weird, but there's really no satisfying way to show movements in static maps, and it doesn't look horrible either. It's your call really.

---

"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard

B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me
Title: RE: Chuck Rock (SMS), Cool Spot (SMS)
Post by: Maxim on September 16, 2007, 01:37:03 pm: Cool Spot - Stage 1 - Shell Shock - fix
Title: RE: Chuck Rock (SMS), Cool Spot (SMS)
Post by: TerraEsperZ on September 16, 2007, 02:32:00 pm: Did you change anything except the animated frame used for the enemies and items?

---

"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard

B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me
Title: RE: Chuck Rock (SMS), Cool Spot (SMS)
Post by: Maxim on September 16, 2007, 03:08:29 pm: I remade the whole thing with layers, but yeah, that's about it.
Title: RE: Chuck Rock (SMS), Cool Spot (SMS)
Post by: Maxim on September 17, 2007, 12:34:11 am: Cool SPot - Stage 2 - Pier Pressure

Same deal - just making the sprites consistent across the maps.
Title: RE: Chuck Rock (SMS), Cool Spot (SMS)
Post by: Maxim on December 11, 2007, 03:34:58 am: All done:

Stage 1 - Shell Shock

Stage 2 - Pier Pressure

Stage 3 - Off The Wall

Stage 4 - Radical Rails

Stage 5 - Wading Around

Stage 6 - Back To The Wall

Stage 7 - Dock And Roll

Stage 8 - Surf Patrol

Bonus stages:

Consider this a submission.
Title: Re: Chuck Rock (SMS), Cool Spot (SMS)
Post by: Maxim on January 03, 2010, 05:41:39 am: After a very long hiatus, I just hacked Chuck Rock to have a free-scrolling view. Here are some quick rushes:

(http://img301.imageshack.us/img301/7285/18111097.th.png) (http://img301.imageshack.us/i/18111097.png/) (http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/3136/75786843.th.png) (http://img442.imageshack.us/i/75786843.png/) (http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/4686/69579166.th.png) (http://img33.imageshack.us/i/69579166.png/) (http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/57/85366759.th.png) (http://img214.imageshack.us/i/85366759.png/) (http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/9389/1boss.th.png) (http://img205.imageshack.us/i/1boss.png/)

They need sprite cleanup, but they have been grid aligned and missing areas filled in.
Title: Re: Chuck Rock (SMS), Cool Spot (SMS)
Post by: Maxim on January 09, 2010, 07:32:49 am: Here they are cleaned up...
Title: Re: Chuck Rock (SMS), Cool Spot (SMS)
Post by: Maxim on January 09, 2010, 07:33:15 am: 4 attachments per post? Jon should raise that.
Title: Re: Chuck Rock (SMS), Cool Spot (SMS)
Post by: Maxim on February 09, 2010, 06:03:29 pm: Ever start on a game and have a hard time continuing? (Hi TerraEsperZ)
Title: Re: Chuck Rock (SMS), Cool Spot (SMS)
Post by: TerraEsperZ on February 09, 2010, 07:19:05 pm: Quote from: Maxim on February 09, 2010, 06:03:29 pm
Ever start on a game and have a hard time continuing? (Hi TerraEsperZ)

Nope, never been there, no sir. Whatever gave you that *crazy* idea?

I've only started and left unfinished a few maps, nothing more. Let me see... two, three... five... ten... twenty...

*is still counting the next morning...*
Title: Re: Chuck Rock (SMS), Cool Spot (SMS)
Post by: Zeupar on January 31, 2011, 03:00:46 pm: Maxim, do you plan to finish your Chuck Rock project?
Title: Re: Chuck Rock (SMS), Cool Spot (SMS)
Post by: Maxim on February 01, 2011, 01:43:24 am: I have the game fully hacked for free movement, I just need time to finish it off... I can pass it on to you if you want to do the work.