Recent Posts

21

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

« Last post by Vertigo on March 24, 2025, 05:04:22 pm »

Brilliant, cheers!

I dimly remember that comic, and back then 2025 felt so far away that surely it could never happen. Time had other ideas 

***

I've just finished mapping Rampage Edition's Aviary for both characters, with and without hints. 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.

I was surprised to find that Aviary's layout is significantly different between the two campaigns, even though the most memorable landmarks are almost identical. I'd thought that Cargo Ship was the only level with a different layout for each character, but no. It's also a bit different to the WIP version I attached to my last post: that layout is from the July 8th 1994 beta (which I was using because it's the last version of Rampage Edition with a stable noclip mode). The retail build of the game has a handful of different foreground sprites in the canopy and along the edge of the right tree, and a couple of changes to the ledge configuration.

Anyway, now on to the l-o-n-g Savanna. If anyone's curious just how long it is, here's a rough video autostitch from the beta...

22

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

« Last post by JonLeung 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.

23

Map Requests / Re: List of unmapped NES games

« Last post by dark_lord_zagato on March 20, 2025, 12:26:46 pm »

Removed Kiwi Kraze from the list. Thanks, lymphoid!

24

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

« Last post by G.E.R. on March 20, 2025, 02:43:54 am »

It was very unexpected found a vertical-looping maps in this games. This Is usually used for endless abysses or to save a level space and I think it's kinda of weird - to use this on not so big maps.

25

Map Requests / Re: Metroidvania games

« Last post by Cyartog959 on March 18, 2025, 02:29:19 pm »

Just some thought, but, there should really be a section or a post containing a list of the largest Metroidvania maps by far.

I do enjoy seeing larger and larger Metroidvania maps, but the question is how can we keep track of 'em?

It may be rather interesting to have such a list in VGMaps at some point.

Speaking of, I may have more yet-to-be mapped Metroidvanias right here, with some context to their stories. I kinda ordered them by the largest maps yet.

"Afterimage" - Made by Aurogon Shanghai, and made through Unreal Engine, this Metroidvania places the amnesiac girl, Renee, and her partner, Ifree, the world of Engardin, created by a great, powerful deity, has been left to ruin by a horrible cataclysm called "The Razing", and put much strife and trouble to many people, even giving rise to darkness and rampaging monsters overwhelming the world. Having been reawakened, Renee and Ifree set out to cleanse out the evil overrunning Engardin, and discover her lost memories, along with loads more secrets beneath the world to see the final outcome of her actions.

Small thing to note, the game's map appears to have officially superseded Hollow Knight's map as the largest yet. None of us know yet, but I have a strong feeling its larger than Hallownest's. Playing through that game to see the whole overall world map kinda exhausted me time and again, but I kept on going until I could see every inch and corner of Engardin. My curiosity for the largest Metroidvania map yet led me to it, but I've been having a lot of fun.

Any mapper wanting to take on the task, I hope it can be done as a team effort instead of solo, and, good luck.

"Aeterna Noctis" - Made by Aeternum Studios, that Metroidvania is set on the world of Aeterna, made by the Supreme Deity Chaos himself, and populated it with creatures and people of different kinds. Though life seemed well, his creations later turned against him and sought to claim the world for themselves. Enraged by the flaring rebellion, he placed Aeterna under a curse to quell that, and sent out the King of Darkness and the Queen of Light to keep fighting each other for eternity... but, of course, a steady hand of intervention plans to change all that...

The game brought out greater challenges for platformer fans alike, and tested their reflexes through many tricky sections and paths, with animations made hand-drawn and frame-by-frame, to envelop great feeling of animated fluidity. And with free DLC updates. Up until Afterimage, it seemed to have held the place of the largest Metroidvania map yet. Now, it seems to be the second-largest.

"Death's Gambit" - Made by indie dev White Rabbit, that Metroidvania takes place in the world of Siradon, Sorun, a chosen individual, serves as Death's right hand to challenge the undying guardians of the realm, endure the eternal struggle to purge them clean, uncover the world's mystery, and acclaim rewards, including the discovery of the price of immortality. The question is, what choices would Sorun make to achieve it?

I happen to come across that game, and thought this would be a good one for any mapper to play and map it. There's tons of challenges to face, and the deep Soulslike RPG elements help give it depth and complexity, and there are multiple endings to see how the final outcome is determined by Sorun's actions. The expanded and revised edition, "Afterlife", gave more to the game by adding more levels, new weapons, new bosses, and overhauls to mechanics to give out a better experience.

26

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

« Last post by JonLeung 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.!

27

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

« Last post by Cyartog959 on March 17, 2025, 09:44:57 pm »

Happy St. Patrick's to you, too!

The Zelda game I'm a bit fond of was "Tri-Force Heroes", and its about its 10th anniversary for that game.

It kinda gave a neat change in the series for once, such as, saving Hytopia's princess from a horrid fashion situation caused by Lady Maud herself, rather than Zelda from Ganon, or whoever else from captivity and stopping them from ruling Hyrule, and any other kingdom they want to conquer, not that it gets tiresome, mind you.

Among a few changes in that game, the dungeon progression structure is what was changed from most games; venturing each dungeon in The Drablands that's been treated as a regular, linear stage, somewhat, avoiding dangerous traps, stopping numerous monsters at every corner, and collecting additional goods for the town and the team to get to the goal at the end, all still harboring what's made many Zelda games great.

Moreover, each area's second dungeon holds a mini-boss, which are all, undoubtedly, stronger variants of enemy monsters in Zelda history, both past and new, but with unique designs to stand them out instead of being just time and resource-saving copy-and-pastes.

Small fact: Mihikaru Oiwa from Grezzo, the developer company behind that game, is responsible for designing ALL of the bosses, including the mini-bosses.

Sure, that game is not without complaints, especially about the multiplayer, but, a different change of formula and pace is sometimes good now and then.

28

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

« Last post by JonLeung 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.

29

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

« Last post by JonLeung on March 16, 2025, 02:56:35 pm »

All right, I printed it off:

30

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

« Last post by JonLeung 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!