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#11
Maps Of The Month / Re: 2026/06: Magic Knight Raye...
Last post by Cyartog959 - June 01, 2026, 02:03:40 PMQuote from: dark_lord_zagato on June 01, 2026, 10:36:50 AMThis was the first anime I watched with subtitles when I got my hands on a VHS tape (eps 13-16) back in early 2000. I liked it so much that used one of the bad guys for my online name.
The SNES version was already on vgmaps but I definitely wanted to map all the other Rayearth games, including this. Saturn emulation wasn't quite perfect yet so this was a bit of a challenge. The emulator used was Yabause because I couldn't get BizHawk to take 1:1 screenshots of Saturn games. Despite all this, the only map that I think needs to be touched up in the future is Crimson Underpass.
Was Yabause successful in doing 1:1 screenshots while you were mapping Magic Knight Rayearth after BizHawk couldn't? If so, that's good you made that choice. Perhaps many more Saturn games could be mapped with that emulator.
Really love its vibrant pre-rendered graphics, though. I can only guess Softimage 3D, Lightwave 3D and Alias Power Animator did the work for that amazing style. Makes me think of how such an aesthetic as that could be recreated, but only for the foregrounds, of course. For graphical styles, I enjoy different palettes and tastes; can't stick to just one alone.
#12
Maps Of The Month / Re: 2026/06: Magic Knight Raye...
Last post by dark_lord_zagato - June 01, 2026, 10:36:50 AMThis was the first anime I watched with subtitles when I got my hands on a VHS tape (eps 13-16) back in early 2000. I liked it so much that used one of the bad guys for my online name.
The SNES version was already on vgmaps but I definitely wanted to map all the other Rayearth games, including this. Saturn emulation wasn't quite perfect yet so this was a bit of a challenge. The emulator used was Yabause because I couldn't get BizHawk to take 1:1 screenshots of Saturn games. Despite all this, the only map that I think needs to be touched up in the future is Crimson Underpass.
I still have the transparent background layers for this game too.
The SNES version was already on vgmaps but I definitely wanted to map all the other Rayearth games, including this. Saturn emulation wasn't quite perfect yet so this was a bit of a challenge. The emulator used was Yabause because I couldn't get BizHawk to take 1:1 screenshots of Saturn games. Despite all this, the only map that I think needs to be touched up in the future is Crimson Underpass.
I still have the transparent background layers for this game too.
#13
Maps Of The Month / 2026/06: Magic Knight Rayearth...
Last post by JonLeung - May 31, 2026, 09:16:05 PM
For this month's "Maps Of The Month" featurette, I wish to draw your attention to zagato blackfist's Magic Knight Rayearth (Saturn) maps.
Three eighth-grade girls - Hikaru, Umi, and Fuu - on a field trip to Tokyo Tower in modern-day Japan are transported to a magical world called "Cephiro". The three girls are warriors, "Magic Knights" foretold by legend, whose innate magical powers will awaken, allowing them to save Cephiro from destruction while rescuing Princess Emeraude from the evil Zagato.
Speaking of Zagato, it is zagato blackfist, better known for his NES mapping efforts here on VGMaps.com, who travelled to the world of the Sega Saturn to map this colourful action-RPG. Though similar to the first story arc of Magic Knight Rayearth's manga and anime, this game adds new characters and locations, which are all mapped here by zagato, so you will have no trouble making it from Tokyo Tower all the way to Zagato's Castle.
So to recognize the effort put into mapping one of the best Saturn games - also the last one officially released in North America - zagato blackfist's Magic Knight Rayearth (Saturn) maps will be known as VGMaps.com's Maps Of The Month for June 2026.
#14
Maps In Progress / Re: VGCartography - getting to...
Last post by VGCartography - May 30, 2026, 09:44:28 AMLovely to hear YK! Wild Arms is special to me. WA2 slightly less so, but it will be coming along soon anyway (and WA3 after). I've been in the slog with a small number of projects (very slow drawing stuff mostly) so taking a little break to knock out a bunch of JRPG maps (I can generally do a couple in an hour and actually feel progress) is a nice change of pace.
Not saying these will be done soon, but WA2, WA3, Parasite Eve 2 are in the works and Grandia, Breath of Fire 4 and Legend of Legaia are also of interest. I've only played parts of the latter 3 so it depends on if I vibe with them enough to actually do the whole thing.
Not saying these will be done soon, but WA2, WA3, Parasite Eve 2 are in the works and Grandia, Breath of Fire 4 and Legend of Legaia are also of interest. I've only played parts of the latter 3 so it depends on if I vibe with them enough to actually do the whole thing.
#15
Maps In Progress / Re: VGCartography - getting to...
Last post by YelseyKing - May 28, 2026, 02:45:11 AMNow Wild Arms! Man, you are just on an absolute *roll*! I am loving the huge number of PS1 RPG maps you've ripped over the years, and always look forward to seeing what you'll do next!
#16
Gaming / Re: Metal Slug 30th Anniversar...
Last post by karenforeman - May 27, 2026, 12:50:55 AMWe're still playing Metal Slug 30 years later as if it were the first time we saw it in an arcade.
Happy anniversary, Metal Slug!
I wish we could get a new Metal Slug game, whether it's a reboot of the series or a new anthology. Any new project would be more than welcome.
Happy anniversary, Metal Slug!
I wish we could get a new Metal Slug game, whether it's a reboot of the series or a new anthology. Any new project would be more than welcome.
#17
Maps Of The Month / Re: 2026/05: Ninja Five-O (GBA...
Last post by Cyartog959 - May 21, 2026, 07:12:57 AMReally nice to see that game receive the Maps of the Month honor, and I'm very sorry it didn't sell well for the GBA version.
It's a very nice game, even though the maps are very... well, short and small, not that I'm complaining, because I'm well fond of long/large maps, and try to gradually adapt as I find and play through another one when able.
Guess the staff didn't utilize some more extra size space in it to make them reasonably long or large, even with their hardware already more than strong enough to create such large stage maps.
Perhaps when more people buy it, thanks to LRG's re-release, and look up on its maps to get by, maybe they'll understand and appreciate it more to warrant a sequel with more longer stages and plenty more challenges to overcome... at least, we can hope.
Well, at least, Spanettone put effort into mapping that underappreciated game, and that mapper has our thanks.
It's a very nice game, even though the maps are very... well, short and small, not that I'm complaining, because I'm well fond of long/large maps, and try to gradually adapt as I find and play through another one when able.
Guess the staff didn't utilize some more extra size space in it to make them reasonably long or large, even with their hardware already more than strong enough to create such large stage maps.
Perhaps when more people buy it, thanks to LRG's re-release, and look up on its maps to get by, maybe they'll understand and appreciate it more to warrant a sequel with more longer stages and plenty more challenges to overcome... at least, we can hope.
Well, at least, Spanettone put effort into mapping that underappreciated game, and that mapper has our thanks.
#18
VGMaps Social Board / Re: YouTube channel! (JonLeung...
Last post by JonLeung - May 19, 2026, 09:29:56 AMWith Bubsy 4D coming out this week, I thought I'd revisit the Bubsy cartoon pilot.
Here are all the times that Bubsy says, "What could possibly go wrong?"
#19
Map Requests / Re: JonLeung's Requests
Last post by JonLeung - May 12, 2026, 09:06:01 PMIt's been said that you can put Doom on anything... well, now we've (finally) got Doom on VGMaps.com!
GamesComputersPlay created Wad2Pic, which created the maps for Doom!
This also includes the fourth episode from The Ultimate Doom, and though it wasn't specifically requested, we've also got maps for Doom II as well!
And thanks for VGCartography for directing me to these maps. Yes, I got GamesComputersPlay's blessing on these Doom maps. If you could really say that anything related to Doom could be blessed...
What's there to say about Doom? Everyone knows it. Quite the monumental game. Before FPSes (first-person shooters) were commonly known as such, the term "Doom-like" was used to describe these... first-person shooters. It hasn't stuck around like "Roguelike", but it certainly was a thing. How many other games can achieve genre-naming status? (I suppose Metroid and Castlevania have...)
Along with yesterday's ET, we've now got the most lower-right and the most upper-right of my 24th anniversary requests image knocked out already! Wow! Will the other corners be next?
GamesComputersPlay created Wad2Pic, which created the maps for Doom!
This also includes the fourth episode from The Ultimate Doom, and though it wasn't specifically requested, we've also got maps for Doom II as well!
And thanks for VGCartography for directing me to these maps. Yes, I got GamesComputersPlay's blessing on these Doom maps. If you could really say that anything related to Doom could be blessed...
What's there to say about Doom? Everyone knows it. Quite the monumental game. Before FPSes (first-person shooters) were commonly known as such, the term "Doom-like" was used to describe these... first-person shooters. It hasn't stuck around like "Roguelike", but it certainly was a thing. How many other games can achieve genre-naming status? (I suppose Metroid and Castlevania have...)
Along with yesterday's ET, we've now got the most lower-right and the most upper-right of my 24th anniversary requests image knocked out already! Wow! Will the other corners be next?
#20
Map Requests / Re: JonLeung's Requests
Last post by Cyartog959 - May 11, 2026, 09:19:19 PMQuote from: JonLeung on May 11, 2026, 04:01:01 PMCall today's update "From Zero (Wing) To H.E.R.O."...
Or, "Lots Of Periods"...
zagato blackfist has taken on four of my requests: E.T. and H.E.R.O. for the Atari 2600, Mario Bros. (Classic Serie) (E) for the NES, and Zero Wing (E) for the Genesis (technically, Mega Drive). What a haul! (Sorry that I didn't get these up yesterday...)
E.T. is infamous for being one of the worst games ever, often cited as THE example of the low-quality games that led to the video game crash of the early '80s. So I figure its infamy means that we should have maps of it!
H.E.R.O., also just capital letters and periods, is one of the better games on the Atari 2600, nice to have it here at the same time, to balance it out, ha!
Mario Bros. (Classic Serie) is a European (perhaps even just German) rerelease, with graphics that resemble the arcade version better. Makes you wonder why they just didn't do that in the first place... anyway, there's more confidence that we've got all of Mario on the NES now... right? About time... (but to be fair, despite Mario's name, this is a little obscure.)
Zero Wing (E) is infamous for being the impetus of the "All Your Base Are Belong To Us" meme, so it's super surprising (to me) that we haven't gotten it mapped yet. When I requested it, I insisted that the intro cutscene be included, which zagato obliged, by splitting it up over the eight stage maps.
Thanks, zagato!
Nice of you to have quickly knocked out one of the 24 requests that I mentioned the day after VGMaps.com's 24th birthday!
Well, that's quite a surprise.
One of Atari's infamous games that helped spearhead the Game Crash of 1983, and zagato is the one that really maps it! I'm amazed it was already done. Maybe it'll be much easier for E.T. to go home in that game now.
Heh... Aside from throwing one in, I also see Zero Wing has been mapped. It is rather a bit funny that game churned those humorously improper grammar and apostrophe placements via bad translations, including that line, "All Your Base Are Belong To Us".
Little info about Zero Wing quoting; in Spider-Man 2, the 2004 game, one of my best favorites, the super-villain, Mysterio, quoted a line from Zero Wing, "You have no chance to survive! Make your time!" after all endangered citizens, including the few hanging in time, and destroying his alien robots in the auditorium.
A bit inline with said quoting, and from TV, even an animated show, but, from a Ben 10 2016 Reboot episode(yeah, not many of you have seen nor heard it, but thought you should know), "Buktu the Future", Phil Jr., a one-time villain that is a sentient program system gone haywire, thanks to Tim Buktu, a fame-seeking louse, finding and misusing an experimental top-secret government project hidden in Area 55, a suit that commences time-travel by a very short amount of a second, and being integrated with it, quoted lines from Zero Wing, from when it was using Tim to fight Ben Tennyson, and spoke more improper sentencing as it was being internally diminished by Phil Billings(the 2016 Reboot self), its creator, using its secret backdoor terminal to cut off the defense protocols, remove the suit from Tim, and send it to his backup drive to stop it from commencing its self-driven plans to decimate humanity at any capacity.
Guess that game's infamous, yet humorous, improper grammar isn't limited to games alone.
Other than that, I'm hopeful the other games form your group will be covered before VGMaps becomes 25 years young.