Messages

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Map Requests / Re: Sega Genesis Mini 2 - full map set

« on: Today at 05:55:54 pm »

Light(e)ning and thunder!

G.E.R. delivers us maps from Lightening Force, Ranger-X, Rolling Thunder 2, and Splatterhouse 2.

Keep up the good work, G.E.R.!

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Maps Of The Month / 2025/04: Wai Wai World (J) (NES) - sprays

« on: Yesterday at 09:13:30 pm »

Wai Wai World (J)

For this month's "Maps Of The Month" featurette, I wish to draw your attention to sprays's Wai Wai World (J) (NES) maps.

Konami Man and Konami Lady set out to save the heroes of Konami video games in this wacky crossover game featuring the company's characters and settings.

In platforming stages, you will rescue and play as Simon Belmont III (a descendant of Simon Belmont from Castlevania), Goemon (the "Mystical Ninja" from Ganbare Goemon), Moai Alexandria (a Moai head from Easter Island, and seen in Gradius), and Getsu Fuuma (from Getsu Fuuma Den).  There are even licensed characters here that were not originally created by Konami.  Still, they had the video game rights to them at the time, including Mikey (from The Goonies) and King Kong (from King Kong 2: Ikari no Megaton Punch).  After those first six stages, there's a vertical shooter stage starring Twin Bee (from Twin Bee) and the Vic Viper (from Gradius), and a finale in an alien base (from Contra).  For Konami fans, it's fun to see how the environments have been adapted from their respective games to this mash-up.

The game got a sequel a few years later, also on the Famicom. Konami would also mix some of their characters in the Parodius games - none of which got a North American release. Konami Wai Wai Racing Advance is a Mario Kart-style Konami crossover that did get a worldwide release on the GBA, as "Konami Krazy Racers", but DreamMix TV World Fighters (combining Konami, Hudson, and Takara) was once again Japanese-only.  So the world hasn't seen much of this "wai wai" action.

So to recognize the effort put into mapping this Japan-exclusive crossover, sprays's Wai Wai World (J) (NES) maps will be known as VGMaps.com's Maps Of The Month for April 2025.

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Map Requests / Re: List of unmapped NES games

« on: March 29, 2025, 09:29:00 am »

Lately i've been doing a bunch of games that can be mapped in a day, if not two in a day. This will cause the list to shrink rapidly,

As for "1.36 NES games per day", this not unreal because some games consist of one-screen "maps" or have non-platforming structure.

Yes, that's true, a quick scan of the list reveals a bunch of sports games that usually don't have too many fields/courts/diamonds/etc. I looked on a list and counted just now, there's 21 baseball games for the NES (including the unlicensed games Quattro Sports and R.B.I. Baseball 2 & 3) and seven of those that are still unmapped begin with "B", so maybe that's why that's an easy thing to spot.

Definitely a few other simple games that could be knocked out really quickly.

Getting all of the games mapped in a few months is still a stretch, though, there are still a few RPGs and adventures (the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons games, Tombs & Treasure, Ultima: Warriors Of Destiny) and a few that would be technically challenging to do justice: various flight simulators (including stuff like Star Voyager), games with unique "3D" effects (Castelian), games with peripherals that may not be easily emulated (Miracle Piano Teaching System).

Maybe it would be good to highlight the ones that might be a challenge so that those who like to figure out a way around such hurdles can already start investigating how they could be mapped, rather than leaving them right at the end.  If the gears are in motion then the "simpler" games could be mapped out while a solution for the harder ones could be worked out.

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Map Gab / Re: Jurassic Park (Sega Megadrive/Genesis)

« on: March 29, 2025, 09:07:51 am »

It's wonder how you felt about Sonic Advance 3 map set in 2020, when I contributed them first, then contributed them again (after small corrections after check them by Boniarchi on SonicRetro forum) and then contributed them for the third time eight months later (because I found hidden keys after playing the game).

I don't really remember that.  In this case, that's a good thing.

I wouldn't be annoyed by replacements if they aren't memorable in some way - eg. accompanied with longwinded explanations why things need to be replaced (it's actually nice to know why, but I don't need a wall of text), if the filenames match how they're currently up on the site with so it's an easy replacement, if it doesn't involve renaming a bunch of other existing files, if they've already been run through PNGGauntlet multiple times so that I don't have to do that again more than necessary, if they are months apart, etc.

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Map Requests / Re: List of unmapped NES games

« on: March 28, 2025, 09:47:56 am »

Looking at the North American list in your first post, you say there are 278 games remaining, but when I paste it into Excel, it comes out to 277 lines...

I feel like the officially licensed games and the unlicensed games should be separated from each other - but that's just me.

The NES came out on October 18, 1985.  That may have just been a small launch in markets like New York and a few other places, as that wasn't a time when console launches could happen worldwide or on a whole continent on a precise day, so many places didn't even get it until 1986, but we'll just go with that date.

So, this autumn, the NES will be 40 years old.

If we wanted to get all the remaining 277 North American games mapped by then, that would be... 204 days from today.  It's not realistic to expect full maps from 1.36 NES games every day until then.

Now, if we wanted all the remaining NES games to be mapped by the time it's 50 years old... that's 3856 days from today.  That would require a NES game to be mapped every 13.92 days - so about two weeks.
Is one game every two weeks a realistic goal?

Split the difference, the 45th anniversary of the NES is 2030 days from today.
That's another NES game to map every 7.33 days - that is, one a week.

At the rate that zagato has been going, where each submission is usually several games at once, that is pretty fast, but will the headline "VGMaps.com has maps for every NES game" mean anything to people in 2030 or 2035?  I feel like even today, so many young (and even not-so-young) gamers have no connection with the NES.

50 years is a LONG time, but "only" 10 years from now.

It's kind of funny to think VGMaps was born in May 2002, when the NES had only been discontinued a mere seven years earlier, and the Famicom was actually still being sold in Japan until autumn 2003, so 8-bit Nintendo was still kind of a "current" thing.

And to think, when VGMaps was still young, many people thought it wouldn't take long to get all the NES games mapped.
Sure, the popular games are more likely to be mapped sooner, but even now, almost 23 years later, we are still far from a complete set.

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Gaming / Re: Every possible colour combo that Mega Man can be in the NES palette

« on: March 27, 2025, 01:20:45 pm »

Just another thing I whipped up for some reason.

There sure are a lot of repeats (dark green with white is in five of the six NES games), and white is the most common secondary colour, though it's never been the main colour.

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Map Gab / Re: Jurassic Park (Sega Megadrive/Genesis)

« on: March 25, 2025, 08:29:27 am »

Jon, would it be better for me to submit them now, or wait until I've finished the whole game (which will be a few more weeks)? There's a chance I might edit those maps, but I think they're all done now.

In terms of my workflow, I prefer to get all the maps of a game at once, it helps with making sure the filenames are consistent (since I'm constantly backing things up quintuply, it's annoying to rename a file later because then all the backups have an extra file with the wrong name), or more generally, just to get in the groove and get the game up, a one-and-done deal, and then it's also easier for me to get a sense that a game is complete (so that it can be considered for a front page thumbnail and/or Maps Of The Month or checking it off any request topics that include it).

Though, I'm certainly not going to reject any maps if you really want to submit them in installments for some reason, like perhaps you're looking for feedback from someone and want them accessible somewhere besides the forums and VGMaps Discord server.  But, you know, be reasonable, if you're mapping a game with a hundred maps, don't be sending them to me one at a time, in a hundred emails over a hundred days. 

If you need to replace any of your own existing maps that have been published, like perhaps you want to correct them or improve them or do something different, I can certainly accept resubmissions.  They won't get a mention on the front page's "News" if it's not a considerable overhaul.  But yeah, I'm fine with that, it's actually a good thing when people take some pride in the maps they made and want to ensure they're the best, most accurate they can be.  Having good content reflects well on not only you but the site as well.

But again, within reason.  Earlier this year, there was a week where two different mappers coincidentally decided at about the same time to change some stuff on maps that they had already submitted AND resubmitted before, and not just once that week, but multiple times.  I uploaded and renamed the maps as they had requested, but I was thinking, like, "really???"  I don't see myself rejecting a requested change, so if I was willing to do it multiple times for them in a short amount of time, if you have to resubmit your maps one, two, or three times, if it's actually reasonable, you can be sure I will let you do that.

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Map Gab / Re: Jurassic Park (Sega Megadrive/Genesis)

« on: March 22, 2025, 05:06:33 pm »

The Jurassic Park (Genesis) maps are now up!

Kind of a perfect day for it, too...

Yeah, this was my way of submitting the maps. I could email them over if that would be easier, but I noticed that the Bubsy maps had been submitted via links on the forum kind of like this, so thought this way might be okay.

Well... if I had received them in an email, I would have been less likely to miss/forget about it, and then they could have been up sooner.

There's a reason why the "Contribute" button on the front page just takes you directly to writing an email... since email is the preferred way of receiving maps.

In any case, they're up now.  Thanks for your submission, Vertigo!  Hope the credits information (name/email in the last column) is correct.

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Map Requests / Re: Sega Genesis Mini 2 - full map set

« on: March 18, 2025, 01:36:25 pm »

G.E.R. churns on with more, by completing Rainbow Islands: The Story Of Bubble Bobble 2 - Extra Version (J), and getting us some maps of some of the bonus games, namely Devi & Pii (J), Star Mobile, and Spatter.  The first two are just about the foreground and backgrounds, but Spatter has 100 rounds of arcade action.  Phew!

It's cool to see that ROM dumps of the bonus games are available online (not too hard to find), meaning that they are still on the table to be mapped.

Thanks yet again, G.E.R.!

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Gaming / Happy St. Patrick's Day! - Zelda Games

« on: March 17, 2025, 08:57:20 am »

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Link wears green. Are you playing a Zelda game today?

Here's what I've got on my Anbernic RG35XX SP.

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Gaming / Re: Every possible colour combo that Mega Man can be in the NES palette

« on: March 16, 2025, 02:56:35 pm »

All right, I printed it off:

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Map Requests / Re: Nintendo Power - 1988-1996 cover games

« on: March 15, 2025, 09:41:55 pm »

Apparently, I forgot to check off when Shiny sent in a full map set for Donkey Kong Land for the Game Boy - over 10 YEARS AGO.

It's March 2025, it was submitted on January 2015, and the game was featured on Nintendo Power for July 1995.

That's the last original Game Boy game to be featured on the cover of Nintendo Power, it seems.  (The only Game Boy Color games to be featured on the cover of Nintendo Power are four Pokémon games and two Zelda games, which have all been mapped.)

So, aside from some N64 and GBA stuff, which I consider past the "peak" of Nintendo Power, all that remains are some Super NES games.  (And it probably has been that way for a while, more clear if I had noticed Donkey Kong Land was done.)  All licensed titles... and Stunt Race FX.

As for Donkey Kong Land, glad we've got it.  So, an incredibly late THANKS to Shiny!

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Map Requests / Re: Sega Genesis Mini 2 - full map set

« on: March 15, 2025, 08:06:45 pm »

I can tell that something has awakened in G.E.R., as evidenced by submissions of eight games on this list, in a single day!

We've now got complete maps for Alien Soldier (E), Atomic Runner, Clay Fighter, Elemental Master, Hellfire, Herzog Zwei, and Midnight Resistance.
As well, we've got a start on Rainbow Islands: The Story Of Bubble Bobble 2 - Extra Version (J).

It's a nice variety of genres, and we also have vertical maps, horizontal maps, square maps, and in the case of Midnight Resistance, the entire game in a single image.

After much silence on this topic (over a year since the last submission!), it's nice to see this batch of games mapped for VGMaps.com.  Thanks so much, G.E.R.!

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Gaming / Re: It's MAR10 today. So what Mario game are you playing or replaying?

« on: March 10, 2025, 09:15:56 am »

It's that day again!

Loaded up my Anbernic RG35XX SP...



Since last year I FINALLY played and finished Paper Mario: Color Splash (Wii U), and both Mario & Luigi: Dream Team and Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam, both on the 3DS, decided to actually play them on the 3DS instead of doing the streaming-to-the-Wii U thing.  This is a big deal!  Protip: if you're going to max out your beans (which raise stats) in Mario & Luigi: Dream Team, MAKE SURE YOU GET ALL THE BEANS OUT IN THE WORLD FIRST!  I did the trick to get max beans and used them to maxed Mario and Luigi's stats, and then I maxed the beans again, but then I wasn't able to pick up any hidden beans, because they were maxed out, and I wasn't able to use any to make room, because the stats were maxed.  Ridiculous.  But then again, they probably didn't expect anyone to do a trick to get so many.   



I just finished LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga with 100% just the other day (took 99.9 hours, no joke), so I am considering getting to Paper Mario: The Origami King (Switch), so that I'd be ALMOST caught up - still have Mario & Luigi: Brothership (Switch) as well.  But I've been putting off getting caught up on Final Fantasy, so I might just have to play Final Fantasy XIII-2 instead.

On non-RPG Mario games, I finally got around to returning to Super Mario Bros. Wonder (Switch) and finishing that with 100% with my brother.  That last stage is no joke!  But I guess that's the norm with Mario games lately, an insane challenge (not as hard as some Kaizo Mario stuff, of course, but pretty punishing as far as official Mario stages go).

Since I felt I had to play some Mario this morning, I played some more Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3 (GBA, but on the Nintendo Switch Online's Expansion Pack's GBA app on the Switch).  As you likely know by me mentioning it often, this GBA remake of Super Mario Bros. 3 includes extra stages that are unlocked with the e-Reader accessory and e-Cards.  Some cards are Japanese exclusives.  Peardian has mapped those extra stages, as seen here on VGMaps.com.  The Wii U VC version (from the eShop, no longer accessible) and the NSO EP GBA app on the Switch include all of these stages, without the need of the e-Reader accessory or having to hunt down the cards, some of which are rare!  So I played the e-Reader stages, including the four "Classic" stages as well as the three challenging "Promo" stages.  I guess the "Promo" stages were originally distributed at Japanese events instead of on e-Cards?

One promo stage, "No Time To Dawdle", has a timer of only 20 seconds, so you really have to book it!  I eventually got it, but it's more fun to see one of my failed attempts.

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VGMaps Social Board / Re: YouTube channel! (JonLeung1)

« on: March 08, 2025, 03:20:36 pm »

Just made a couple Shorts to make the point that most Super NES games' titles do not actually begin with "Super" and that most Nintendo 64 games' titles do not actually end with "64".

Though, one of the Super NES games shown does have "Super" in its title if you go by in-game titles...