Messages

1

Map Gab / Re: The Final Fantasy Legend (GB) / Makai Toushi SaGa (WS)

« on: September 30, 2011, 02:15:21 am »

I always found it annoying that the first SaGa game (that's the series the Final Fantasy Legend games belonged to) was never mapped properly while the second and third games were. It might have been because it had a very basic story, forgettable NPCs and incredibly simplistic graphics even for the Game Boy.

SaGa 1 is my favorite of the trilogy because it's so untamed and crazy. You can go around one-shotting everything and get through the game fast even without the memory corruption bug.

This is just a placeholder for now but I should be able to post the maps for the first world over the next few days since I'm almost done with it. I'll be following a format very similar to the one used by Maquiladora for his/her maps of Final Fantasy Legend II, although I haven't heard back from him/her to know if it was okay for me to do so. I thought they were really comprehensive and I liked the idea of having some consistency across both map sets.

I suggest you use the best format for the user instead of imitating old mapsets. Specifically, the practice of using symbols to mark points of interest then labeling them on the side is a relic of grainy magazine scans. It's better to put info right where it's needed, with arrows, transparency, whatever, instead of making the user play Where's Waldo with tiny letters and numbers. (This is a mistake I made myself with the FFL3 maps.) How would you like to use a road map that has all the street names in the corner? Of course, you can keep copies of the non-overlaid layers for future use.

Also, you should include the prices if you are going to list shop stock.

2

Map Gab / Re: Sub-Terrania maps

« on: September 14, 2011, 09:26:11 pm »

The thing with the boss is there's no vertical scrolling in the battle so there should be nothing there.

Here's an alternate depiction:

3

Map Gab / Sub-Terrania maps

« on: September 13, 2011, 09:30:38 pm »

Hi. Been awhile since I made any maps.

I finished mapping (from scratch) the Genesis game Sub-Terrania, which was incomplete on vgmaps.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/bzsnrcczt9p8fz7/Sub-Terrania-maps.zip

I figure I'll submit them here: easier to get feedback this way.

4

VGMaps Social Board / RE: How do you capture images in Windows Media Player?

« on: December 11, 2008, 07:41:04 pm »

Works fine with Media Player Classic, as long as you use something besides Overlay Mixer for DirectShow Video.



http://www.free-codecs.com/download/Media_Player_Classic.htm



Doesn't answer your question but it's a solution.

5

Mapping Tips/Guides / RE: NES maps VFX: 8-Bit Style vs. Photoshop Style

« on: November 24, 2008, 02:23:08 am »

Just leave them opaque. When the map user reaches that point in the game, it will be perfectly obvious what's going on.



There's no way to make transparency or dithering look good on tiny areas like 16x16 pixels.



To represent different overlapping groups, I'd recommend thin color-coded borders, or slight color-coded tints. It's unobtrusive and easy to read, and no less authentic than the alternatives.

6

Map Gab / Other VG maps on the web

« on: August 22, 2008, 08:49:31 pm »

There are a lot of good maps out there that for whatever reason aren't on vgmaps. Some of them are linked offsite from the atlas, some aren't. Is there a policy on this?



Let's share links to mapsets that aren't on vgmaps, or not yet complete. I hope that Jon at least adds links in the atlas (don't need permission for links), so visitors can consider vgmaps the place to go for any and all VG maps. Maybe in the future if those maps are remade especially for vgmaps, the links can be removed.

7

Mapping Tips/Guides / RE: Remove Background to capture sprites only for NES games?

« on: August 14, 2008, 09:29:41 pm »

Oh, so they did. Maybe it's been there since 2.0. For those who can't find it, look in the config file for a line called gNoBGFillColor. Change it to, e.g, 100 for a bright pink BG.

8

Mapping Tips/Guides / RE: Remove Background to capture sprites only for NES games?

« on: August 14, 2008, 08:15:12 pm »

New version, support for old savestates is restored:

http://tasvideos.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=175197#175197



This is a little older, but the new rerecording Gens has working savestate support for Sega CD. So Sega CD games should be easier to map now.

http://tasvideos.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=173509#173509

9

Map Gab / RE: Gargoyle's Quest II (NES)

« on: August 12, 2008, 08:26:17 pm »

Good work. I'm glad you decided to label them and you put the labels over the objects instead of using symbols and cramming the text into a corner. A couple minor things:



The little arrows on the labels for the overworld map aren't necessary. If the label is cleverly placed it doesn't need lines or arrows. If you are concerned about obscuring features underneath the label, make the background part of the label semitransparent.



Maybe just my eye, but it seems your font size varies a little.



You put your boilerplate (name, title screen) on some maps but not others. Maybe you were going to merge the small ones?

10

Mapping Tips/Guides / RE: Remove Background to capture sprites only for NES games?

« on: August 04, 2008, 04:57:11 pm »

New version of FCEUX (2.0) has separate controls sprite and background display:

http://tasvideos.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7137



This version unifies the features of FCEUXD and fceu rerecording, which we use for making TASes. By the way, the original developer of FCEU quit long ago, so this really is the official version, not a fork.



If you want to request making the BG color customizable, now is the time. The coders are active and paying attention.

11

Mapping Tips/Guides / RE: Off-Screen Mapping

« on: May 14, 2008, 04:38:06 pm »

TEZ, try this:



http://www.memoryhacking.com/



It's only for win32 though.



But where is Eggz?

[you know]

12

Mapping Tips/Guides / RE: Off-Screen Mapping

« on: May 13, 2008, 11:50:54 am »

Eggz, here is an example of how to do step 2 for snes9x.



STEP2A

Get to an area where you can control the camera and position it somewhere in the middle. Save. Open "Search for new cheats" and pick 2 byte (that's a guess) and unsigned. Then click Reset to set the reference point and clear the window.



Move right until the camera moves slightly. Go back to the search. We assume that rightward is an increase in camera X-position so choose "greater than" and "previous value." Then click Search.



Clear the window and move the camera again, this time to the left. Go back and choose "less than" and do another search.



Go back and move a bit, but in a way that doesn't move the X-coordinate of the camera. Go to the search and pick "equal to" and search again. Each time a search is made the list shrinks.



In this way, keep adjusting the camera and commanding the search to filter the memory addresses according to what you know the camera is doing. If the whole list disappears, you gave an inconsistent instruction so start over.



You should eventually get a list of a dozen or so addresses holding similar or identical data. Now to find out which one truly determines the position. (The others are mirrors.)



STEP2B

Go down the list doing this: Click an entry and click "Add cheat." Set the "New Value" to zero. Make sure the cheat is ticked in "Cheat Entry and Editor" and that "Apply cheats" is ticked. Play the game a bit and see if the camera is forced all the way to the left (or right).



Nothing happened, or something weird happened? This one was a fake. Deactivate or remove the cheat you just added, reload the save and try again with the next in the list. There may be more than one relevant address because the snes has multiple graphics layers. In that case you will need to find all of them. (Hide individual layers with keys 1-5 to help you distinguish them.)



After you've done all that, do step 2a and 2b again for the Y-coordinate. They should be very near the ones you isolated. (Tip: for Y coordinates, downward, not up, is usually the positive direction.)



Let me know when you've gotten this far and I'll help with steps 3 and 4.

13

Mapping Tips/Guides / RE: Off-Screen Mapping

« on: May 13, 2008, 01:30:21 am »

1) Use an emulator with memory viewing and editing features.



2) Find the places in memory that determine the camera position. You need a "cheat search" function to do this.



3) Use patch codes or a memory-poke function to change those addresses to make the camera move exactly one screen at a time. Take a shot of each screen. (Try to also use other codes to hide the character sprite and freeze background animations.)



4) Use a utility like imagemagick to append individual screens horizontally into rows, then append rows vertically to make the whole map.



Do not attempt to stitch random screens together unless you have a tool like Maxim used for Micro Machines.

14

Maps Of The Month / RE: 2008/05: Wonder Boy In Monster World (Genesis) - Dammit 9x

« on: May 02, 2008, 10:50:18 pm »

Well this was a pleasant surprise. =)



One thing Jon: The posted maps are in the correct order but are missing the numbers 01-16 from the filenames. I put a number over each exit in the maps to key connecting areas. So you really need those numbers for navigation.



Instead of numbers, at first I was going to put a snippet of the new area over each exit but I figured it would still be too hard for the user to know which map it went to.



Also, I'm happy to announce that gamefaqs didn't give me any guff on this one.

15

Mapping Tips/Guides / Getting maps hosted on gamefaqs

« on: April 21, 2008, 07:52:32 pm »

I don't mean to start a flame thread against GF but it is clear they have a bias against non-text files. I have had perfectly good work rejected, with the excuse along the lines of, "There's no content here/there's not enough in it."



(The map in question was this one, which I made a long time ago:)

https://www.vgmaps.com/Atlas/NES/Platoon-Stage1.png



My question is, anyone have any tips, or even negotiation tricks, on getting map submissions approved there? I have no love for gamefaqs and I wouldn't care except that GF has far higher visibility than vgmaps.



Case in point, all the feedback I've gotten was from GF traffic and one guy even asked me for help mapping a game that was already fully mapped here. (FF Dawn of Souls)



---

My works: http://www.gamefaqs.com/features/recognition/35282.html?type=1