Recent Posts

11

Maps In Progress / Re: YK's random map progress thread

« Last post by YelseyKing on November 12, 2024, 02:23:26 am »

Another quick update. I've finished all the overworld mapping! The jungle was confusing and boring. So many trees. So little *else*.

All I have left are a few dungeon, so I should have this project wrapped up and submitted by the end of the week, barring anything weird happening.

12

Map Requests / Re: JonLeung's Requests

« Last post by JonLeung on November 11, 2024, 04:17:09 pm »

I've requested a BUNCH of NES games, and zagato blackfist has mapped out no less than two dozen of them!  Thank you!

The latest two map sets, submitted and uploaded today, are interesting in specific ways.

First, there's Gauntlet II.  The main reason I wanted this mapped is because it's one of the games featured in Nintendo Power magazine's Volume 19 - the "4-Player Extra" Strategy Guide issue - as one of the games that can take advantage of the NES Satellite and NES Four Score.  That kind of counts it as a Nintendo Power cover game - and I have a whole topic about those.  To see what I have to say about Gauntlet II, see this post specifically.

(Maybe not fully related, but on the topic of Gauntlet, when I worked at Playdium in West Edmonton Mall over twenty years ago, I really enjoyed Gauntlet Legends.  Even though another arcade in the mall had Gauntlet: Dark Legacy, the point is that I could play Gauntlet Legends for free with my benefits.  It's one of those games that lets you save your progress by inputting initials and a PIN.  I managed to build up all four main characters to the maximum level and stats.  Good times.)

The other game that zagato blackfist submitted today is Rugrats: Adventures In Gameland (Homebrew), a game that was released earlier this year for the PC and modern consoles.  It has gameplay very much like Super Mario Bros. 2, and has two different modes - one with a high-res, modern look, and one with a NES look.  And it literally is a NES game, as the ROM is available in the folder if you buy the Steam version on PC.  (Though the game was given for free on the Epic Games Store the week that it was released, that copy did not come with the NES ROM.  I don't know if that has since changed for anyone buying it there now.)  You can put that on a flash cartridge to play on an actual NES, or anything else that plays NES ROMs, which is why it's listed as a NES game.

Like Grimace's Birthday, a 2023 browser game that was technically a Game Boy Color ROM (also mapped by zagato), I wasn't sure whether to call this "unlicensed", "aftermarket", or "homebrew".

They're not licensed by Nintendo for play on Nintendo platforms, but they are considered official products by McDonald's/Nickelodeon, so they feel more "legitimate" than the "unlicensed" term typically feels to me.  I thought I had used the term "aftermarket" before for something, but I might be mistaken as I can't find that term on the main "Directory" page, and I didn't feel like introducing another term, which I might not be using correctly anyway.  "Homebrew" sounds like a small team made it, maybe one person, maybe just a handful.  Even if that was still the case, the backing of McDonald's/Nickelodeon kind of makes it... not really homebrew?

But in the end that last term was the least problematic, so I changed Grimace's Birthday from "(Unlicensed)" to "(Homebrew)" and applied "(Homebrew)" to Rugrats: Adventures In Gameland.  If anyone has any better ideas regarding its classification, feel free to let me know.

This is probably the first time I have requested a NES game that isn't an officially licensed one (at least not by Nintendo), so thank you for indulging me, zagato.

And thanks yet again for all the work that you do for VGMaps.com!

13

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

« Last post by JonLeung on November 11, 2024, 03:35:38 pm »

After almost 21 months of inactivity (unless I've missed something), we have more progress on games featured on Nintendo Power covers!

Today, zagato blackfist has submitted maps for Gauntlet II on the NES!

Now, this is kind of iffy in terms of being a Nintendo Power cover.  I had this listed under Volume 19, which was one of the four Nintendo Power "Strategy Guide" issues they put in 1990 as they were transitioning from bimonthly (as in, once every two months) to monthly.  Unlike most other Nintendo Power covers which headline with the name of one specific game, this issue is titled "4-Player Extra", to promote the NES Satellite and NES Four Score, which are adaptors to allow for up to four players to play NES games, instead of the usual two.

The cover image is clearly about NES Play Action Football, but with its title being "4-Player Extra", I figured that for this to count, we should have maps of all the main features in this issue.  So here's the final one of six!

zagato blackfist shared some notes which might explain why this took so long for anyone to attempt to map it.  The Levels after the first five are randomized, plus, they can be rotated or flipped.  There is seemingly no "true" order of them.  He states, "the only function of this map set is to show people what this game looks like."  So, I take that to mean, barring some unlikely coincidence, your playthrough won't follow these maps exactly.  The effort put into this is appreciated, zagato!  And certainly more so with you having to deal with that randomness!

Besides 1990's cover games being completed, all the games featured on NES-related covers are now mapped!

Now the earliest incomplete game is Super Star Wars (November 1992) and the earliest game we have nothing from is Super Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (October 1993).  Kind of surprised the Super Star Wars games don't have more love.  May the Force be with whoever tries to map those!

14

Map Gab / Re: Bubsy in Claws Encounters of the Furred Kind

« Last post by JonLeung on November 11, 2024, 01:12:47 pm »

Okay, the maps are now up here.

Thanks, beltran63!

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Map Gab / Re: Bubsy in Claws Encounters of the Furred Kind

« Last post by JonLeung on November 11, 2024, 10:16:19 am »

I got a hold of beltran63 via email!

Though he had intended to add items and enemies and water effects, he has not been able to make the time to do so, and at this point, will not do anything more with them.  The landscapes/layouts for all stages are complete, so they still could be of some use.

He is fine with me publishing them as they are, so I will do that soon.


"What could possibly go wrong?"(as said three times within the first minute of the pilot episode of his cartoon...)

16

Maps In Progress / Re: YK's random map progress thread

« Last post by YelseyKing on November 08, 2024, 02:49:27 am »

Making some very good progress. I've mapped out most of the main world, all of the swamp, and am working on the jungle... and I made a discovery that makes my job a lot easier. Seems the overworld maps are made up of 192x192 chunks, and that quite a few of these, especially in the swamp and jungle, are just infinitely repeating beyond a certain point. Also helped me to determine the main overworld's proper alignment. I might have this done in another week. Maybe two. Depending on how fast I work.

I've also taken period breaks from the overworld maps to do dungeon maps. I have most of the small side caves (there's one I've yet to find; might be in the one region I can't yet reach, for all I know), but some of the later ones are gigantic, so those will be a good time, heh.

17

Mapping Tips/Guides / Re: Here's how to remove the black background when removing the BG Layer in FCEUX

« Last post by Melvin Madden on November 06, 2024, 07:45:46 pm »

Only 0-63, in my opinion, are legitimate. It's likely that higher values just wrap around. The special value 255 means that the background color won't be overridden. Unfortunately, you can't use a color from the palette or specify a custom color. would have made choosing a distinctive game background color simpler. But it's better than nothing.

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Maps In Progress / Re: YK's random map progress thread

« Last post by FlyingArmor on November 05, 2024, 06:55:12 pm »

Okay, no worries! That's good to hear it didn't turn out to be nearly as massive as you first thought.

Looking forward to see how they all turn out!

19

Gaming / Re: The Flaws of Sonic Origins & Superstars, & How to Avoid Recreating Them

« Last post by celemtine on November 04, 2024, 08:43:31 pm »

I did forget some more minor flaws Superstars has.

There's plenty of inconsistent sound placements, even when specific minor actions occur, such as Tails' flying sound incorrectly from Modern Tails' flying, not from Classic Tails. Why, anyone with good ears can recognize specific sound effects from past Sonic games, even 3D, like Lost World's or Adventure 2's sounds. Even more, there's hardly any sound in many in-game scenes, preferably during some end-stage Zone to Zone in-game transition cutscenes, though few placed in are heard quite hollow.

I can't speak about that a lot, 'cause that's a lotta description to go through.

Have you even noticed the animated cutscenes, apart from their slightly cruder styling and a bit inadequate compositing in post, compared to others that were animated quite better, weren't that finalized as some think? I've seen scenes better animated than those. If you're not sure, watch them closely and see what I mean.

Did you also know the cutscenes in FMV were zoomed in, or cropped by a small percentage of the picture, unlike all prior scenes? That visually cut a bit of the scenes' pictures off. They should all be viewed normally, as how they truly fit on any TV screen.

The Special Stage structure's been unnecessarily reverted back to the manner from Dimps' Sonic games, mainly the Advance Trilogy and Rush games. You know, each Chaos Emerald's chance fixed to one specific Zone, instead of letting the Chaos Emeralds get collected, regardless of what Zone anyone's in.

The music, there's many inconsistencies about specific songs, though I'm sure many have spoken about that. Some are great, but others... not so. Some people even pointed out some tracks went with the "Sonic 4" music style for them, and that's what they loathe plenty.

(SPOILER WARNING ABOUT FINALE)

The requirement to access the Last Story was very unnecessary, having to both collect all Chaos Emeralds, beat the Main Story' final boss, Egg Diablo, and Trip's Story's final boss, Grande Mecha Fang, before going against the true final boss, Great Dark Dragon. That's more of a drag to get there. Prior Sonic games have the best method since Sonic 3, get all Chaos Emeralds, face the true final boss, get the good ending.

Well, games may, and still need, to have people with their outside eyes to keep such qualities well-maintained, even the QoL cosmetics.

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Hello，

From the disproportionate sound effects to the editing issues and choice of musical styles, it's clear that the game has some rough spots. Additionally, the FMV cropping and the restoration of Dippers' particular stage structure are noteworthy details.

What do you guys think? Please post your thoughts!

20

Gaming / Re: The Flaws of Sonic Origins & Superstars, & How to Avoid Recreating Them

« Last post by Hamilton on November 04, 2024, 08:30:03 pm »

I love the Sonic games but the sites I used to play them on now cost money. Is there a site that can play these games online?

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Damn, yeah this classic game is a headache to charge for at the moment.