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#11
Map Gab / Re: VGMaps.com now has over 50...
Last post by JonLeung - May 07, 2026, 08:54:13 PMI don't recall tracking that, so if it was never discussed at the time, then it was never counted.
I still have my folder of when we got to 50,000 maps exactly, so sorting them by "Date Modified", I looked for the 25,000th one, but before I get to that, there's at least a couple problems with that.
(1) The biggest one is that maps are remade now and then. A mapper might find an error, or even entirely redo a map. There are a few cases when I do deem a map replaceable with one from another mapper (thankfully that isn't too often, as I hate tough calls). So any maps made before the 25,000 mark but remade/replaced after we passed it would mean that what looks like the 25,000th is actually a later one, and whatever is the true 25,000th must be an earlier one, but I'd have no idea which, because it's not like I was counting how many times maps have been replaced.
(2) Because I use PNGGauntlet to compress the maps (since they're usually .PNG files), but I sometimes have to run it multiple times to ensure the filesize is as small as it can be, I have a habit of using FMS File Date Changer to change the time to midnight that day when I rerun PNGGauntlet. The idea is that if the date changes, then it compressed again, but if it hasn't, then it's reached its final size. This process is so that I don't waste time trying to recompress files that have already been compressed as much as they can be. Once I'm satisfied that they're all compressed, I change the dates of all of them to midnight again to indicate that their sizes are finalized. That means all maps submitted and (usually) published within a day all have the same timestamp, and it would have affected both the "Date Modified" and the "Date Created" fields of the file details.
Anyway, like I said, I looked at the 25,000th file in the folder, and we got our 24,997th map on December 21, 2014. That is, if we are ignoring (1). So the 25,000th map would be the third one after that, right?
The thing is, I have 447 maps with a timestamp of midnight on December 22, 2014. That's an insane number of maps for one day.
But when I look into it - and you can see for yourself on the News Archives if you scroll down on the "NEWS" on the front page, if you click on 2014 - there wasn't an update on December 22, 2014.
Looking at the 447 maps again, I notice many of them are by KeyBlade999, and then now I remember being BOMBARDED by a whole slew of his maps. It happens from time to time when a longtime mapper (perhaps for GameFAQs, or for their own interest) learns of VGMaps, and/or suddenly decides to contribute a whole mass of maps all at once.
Because it was around Christmas, I probably wasn't able to get all of the maps up in one day, and indeed, I see that many of these maps were put up later than Dec. 22, 2014, even going into January 2015.
This actually helps, because I was going to say, the third map out of 447 would be impossible to pinpoint. But since they weren't all published right away, you'd think it should be easier.
It looks like the third map should be from one of Ax Battler: A Legend Of Golden Axe, Shadow Force, or Amazon: Guardians Of Eden, since those were the first games whose maps were published after Dec. 21, specifically Dec. 26. Amazon's maps technically have a date of Dec. 21, but 11:59 PM - usually my own indication that I wasn't able to compress it, but that it still was received on Dec. 22 (but then maybe that throws off the count by another four?), Shadow Force's maps have a date of Dec. 24 and Ax Battler's maps have a date of Dec. 26, meaning that they jumped ahead of the queue, maybe because I figured I would tackle KeyBlade999's huge mass of maps later, after getting Richard V. Grant's, Will Mallia's, and George s's maps out of the way first.
I'm usually good about putting maps up the same day, or at least putting them up in the order that I received them, so that brings us to...
(3) Apparently when it MIGHT have been - if we ignore (1) altogether) - I was apparently handling a ton of maps at once, so it was one of the rare times when I couldn't put them up in order of when I received them, and with so many games it would have been totally arbitrary which I would have put up.
All that to say... we really don't know. Judging by that there would have been a good number of remakes of maps already, I can say it almost surely happened in 2014, but that's about it.
(And yeah, this turned out to take longer to write out than I thought, because I was investigating various things while writing this up...)
I still have my folder of when we got to 50,000 maps exactly, so sorting them by "Date Modified", I looked for the 25,000th one, but before I get to that, there's at least a couple problems with that.
(1) The biggest one is that maps are remade now and then. A mapper might find an error, or even entirely redo a map. There are a few cases when I do deem a map replaceable with one from another mapper (thankfully that isn't too often, as I hate tough calls). So any maps made before the 25,000 mark but remade/replaced after we passed it would mean that what looks like the 25,000th is actually a later one, and whatever is the true 25,000th must be an earlier one, but I'd have no idea which, because it's not like I was counting how many times maps have been replaced.
(2) Because I use PNGGauntlet to compress the maps (since they're usually .PNG files), but I sometimes have to run it multiple times to ensure the filesize is as small as it can be, I have a habit of using FMS File Date Changer to change the time to midnight that day when I rerun PNGGauntlet. The idea is that if the date changes, then it compressed again, but if it hasn't, then it's reached its final size. This process is so that I don't waste time trying to recompress files that have already been compressed as much as they can be. Once I'm satisfied that they're all compressed, I change the dates of all of them to midnight again to indicate that their sizes are finalized. That means all maps submitted and (usually) published within a day all have the same timestamp, and it would have affected both the "Date Modified" and the "Date Created" fields of the file details.
Anyway, like I said, I looked at the 25,000th file in the folder, and we got our 24,997th map on December 21, 2014. That is, if we are ignoring (1). So the 25,000th map would be the third one after that, right?
The thing is, I have 447 maps with a timestamp of midnight on December 22, 2014. That's an insane number of maps for one day.
But when I look into it - and you can see for yourself on the News Archives if you scroll down on the "NEWS" on the front page, if you click on 2014 - there wasn't an update on December 22, 2014.
Looking at the 447 maps again, I notice many of them are by KeyBlade999, and then now I remember being BOMBARDED by a whole slew of his maps. It happens from time to time when a longtime mapper (perhaps for GameFAQs, or for their own interest) learns of VGMaps, and/or suddenly decides to contribute a whole mass of maps all at once.
Because it was around Christmas, I probably wasn't able to get all of the maps up in one day, and indeed, I see that many of these maps were put up later than Dec. 22, 2014, even going into January 2015.
This actually helps, because I was going to say, the third map out of 447 would be impossible to pinpoint. But since they weren't all published right away, you'd think it should be easier.
It looks like the third map should be from one of Ax Battler: A Legend Of Golden Axe, Shadow Force, or Amazon: Guardians Of Eden, since those were the first games whose maps were published after Dec. 21, specifically Dec. 26. Amazon's maps technically have a date of Dec. 21, but 11:59 PM - usually my own indication that I wasn't able to compress it, but that it still was received on Dec. 22 (but then maybe that throws off the count by another four?), Shadow Force's maps have a date of Dec. 24 and Ax Battler's maps have a date of Dec. 26, meaning that they jumped ahead of the queue, maybe because I figured I would tackle KeyBlade999's huge mass of maps later, after getting Richard V. Grant's, Will Mallia's, and George s's maps out of the way first.
I'm usually good about putting maps up the same day, or at least putting them up in the order that I received them, so that brings us to...
(3) Apparently when it MIGHT have been - if we ignore (1) altogether) - I was apparently handling a ton of maps at once, so it was one of the rare times when I couldn't put them up in order of when I received them, and with so many games it would have been totally arbitrary which I would have put up.
All that to say... we really don't know. Judging by that there would have been a good number of remakes of maps already, I can say it almost surely happened in 2014, but that's about it.
(And yeah, this turned out to take longer to write out than I thought, because I was investigating various things while writing this up...)
#12
Map Gab / Just One Query...
Last post by Cyartog959 - May 07, 2026, 07:21:43 PMI have but one query that didn't get answered yet, even though we have 50,000 maps in VGMaps thus far...
Which map from what game got labelled as the 25,000th map in VGMaps history?
With all the excitement, I almost let that one slip from my mind.
Which map from what game got labelled as the 25,000th map in VGMaps history?
With all the excitement, I almost let that one slip from my mind.
#13
Map Requests / Re: JonLeung's Requests
Last post by JonLeung - May 07, 2026, 08:40:48 AMYesterday was VGMaps.com's 24th birthday.
Less than one year until this web site turns 25 years old; ¼ of a century in existence!
I have tons of requests, but some of the games I have requested are particularly iconic, that it's surprising that after all this time, that they haven't been mapped yet. Here's hoping that these games in particular will be mapped before that 25-year milestone:
Less than one year until this web site turns 25 years old; ¼ of a century in existence!
I have tons of requests, but some of the games I have requested are particularly iconic, that it's surprising that after all this time, that they haven't been mapped yet. Here's hoping that these games in particular will be mapped before that 25-year milestone:
#14
VGMaps Social Board / VGMaps.com is 24 years old tod...
Last post by JonLeung - May 06, 2026, 08:35:39 AMTime only ever moves forward (as far as we can tell), so while it's not surprising that we'd get here, it's still surprising that it doesn't feel like it's been that long.
A month and a half ago, we got our 50,000th map, and submissions for this past year, especially in the calendar year of 2026 so far, do feel like they're more frequent. So we're still going strong.
24 years isn't a typical milestone, especially with 25 years (¼ of a century!) coming up in "only" 365 days, but I still felt like recognizing it with a little puzzle of 24 maps. I was originally going to put the "24 best maps" but then I decided it'd be better to show a variety of platforms, so 16 different platforms with no more than two games on each are shown here.
How many can you identify?
A month and a half ago, we got our 50,000th map, and submissions for this past year, especially in the calendar year of 2026 so far, do feel like they're more frequent. So we're still going strong.
24 years isn't a typical milestone, especially with 25 years (¼ of a century!) coming up in "only" 365 days, but I still felt like recognizing it with a little puzzle of 24 maps. I was originally going to put the "24 best maps" but then I decided it'd be better to show a variety of platforms, so 16 different platforms with no more than two games on each are shown here.
How many can you identify?
#15
Mapping Tips/Guides / Re: New and better version of ...
Last post by ReyVGM - May 03, 2026, 10:16:18 AMSuperSNES9X now has native Super Game Boy support.
#16
Map Requests / Re: JonLeung's Requests
Last post by JonLeung - May 02, 2026, 02:41:26 PMI haven't made many new requests for arcade game maps until recently.
I was thinking that we sure do have some early '80s arcade classics, but that we should have some more from the early '90s.
I remembered Smash T.V. and requested it here, and resident arcade mapper George s came through!
Have you played this twin-stick shooter that takes place in the future year of... 1999?
Thanks, George s!
I was thinking that we sure do have some early '80s arcade classics, but that we should have some more from the early '90s.
I remembered Smash T.V. and requested it here, and resident arcade mapper George s came through!
Have you played this twin-stick shooter that takes place in the future year of... 1999?
Thanks, George s!
#17
Maps Of The Month / Re: 2026/05: Ninja Five-O (GBA...
Last post by VGCartography - April 30, 2026, 05:58:04 PMLoved this one, I wish I'd kept my cart from back then... 
Lovely maps!
Lovely maps!
#18
Maps Of The Month / 2026/05: Ninja Five-O (GBA) - ...
Last post by JonLeung - April 30, 2026, 05:29:31 PM
For this month's "Maps Of The Month" featurette, I wish to draw your attention to Spanettone's Ninja Five-O (GBA) maps.
Known as "Ninja Cop" in Europe, Ninja Five-O is a platformer that might remind you of old-school ninja action games like the Shinobi series. Besides jumping around, Joe Osugi will have to utilize stealthy approaches and master combat skills to make his way through 20 stages.
Spanettone, a GBA mapping veteran, has laid all those stages out here, with items and hostages labelled in all of the rooms so you can survive all these missions that will take you from the Bank all the way to the Base.
This game received rave reviews at the time, but didn't sell well. It has since become very sought-after, with the GBA cartridge now going for hundreds of dollars on eBay. Its delayed appreciation made way for its rerelease last year, for the PS4, PS5, Switch, and PC, so that more gamers can appreciate it, despite the original version's rarity.
So to recognize the effort put into mapping this coveted classic, Spanettone's Ninja Five-O (GBA) maps will be known as VGMaps.com's Maps Of The Month for May 2026.
#19
Maps In Progress / Re: VGCartography - getting to...
Last post by YelseyKing - April 30, 2026, 01:51:56 AMExcellent work on the Chrono Cross maps! It's such a visually gorgeous game, with a really stand-out art style, so I'm happy to see it all mapped out.
Partially related, but a few years back, I played Baten Kaitos for Gamecube, and one of the first things that struck me about it was how incredibly similar to Chrono Cross the overall aesthetic felt. And then I learned the two games shared much of the same staff, and that explained *that*. (Not a request, BTW. Just a little anecdote I felt like sharing.)
Partially related, but a few years back, I played Baten Kaitos for Gamecube, and one of the first things that struck me about it was how incredibly similar to Chrono Cross the overall aesthetic felt. And then I learned the two games shared much of the same staff, and that explained *that*.
(Not a request, BTW. Just a little anecdote I felt like sharing.) #20
Gaming / Super ZSNES... Neat!
Last post by Cyartog959 - April 28, 2026, 06:30:03 PMIt does look really nice for that SNES emulator to have an overhaul, and widescreen support does help with plenty, too.
I'm not well-versed in SNES games, because I was close to Sega Genesis a lot, but not moreso than Saturn and others then, but that's still good for those that have been with SNES quite more.
Of course, we do also have Genesis Plus GX that does widescreen, and it broadened the vision of regular, past games in wider sizes, helps people with a lot of situations, too, but that's not the point.
Those upgrades will surely ease up SNES mapping and ramp up game mapping more! I wonder how these kind of games may do on 480x272 resolution size alongside 424x240?
Maybe GBA emulators, or others, should have the same kind of upgrades, too. Sure, they're really neat, but there's still so much in need of improving, but that's for a later time.
I'm not well-versed in SNES games, because I was close to Sega Genesis a lot, but not moreso than Saturn and others then, but that's still good for those that have been with SNES quite more.
Of course, we do also have Genesis Plus GX that does widescreen, and it broadened the vision of regular, past games in wider sizes, helps people with a lot of situations, too, but that's not the point.
Those upgrades will surely ease up SNES mapping and ramp up game mapping more! I wonder how these kind of games may do on 480x272 resolution size alongside 424x240?
Maybe GBA emulators, or others, should have the same kind of upgrades, too. Sure, they're really neat, but there's still so much in need of improving, but that's for a later time.