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#21
Mapping Tips/Guides / New and better version of snes...
Last post by ReyVGM - April 20, 2026, 01:50:06 PMSomeone called shanytc has developed a fork of SNES9X called SuperSNES9X which has a lot of good features lacking from the main branch, features which can be helpful to map makers.
Some of these features, of course, are available on more modern emulators such as BSNES, Bizhawk, Mesen and the sort. But personally, I still prefer to use snes9x because it's really fast and has the least amount of annoyances when compared to other emulators.
Anyway, some of the new features it has is a BSNES-quality sprite/titlemap viewer with the option to export the graphics.
The cheat search and cheat editors have been updated too. You can now batch add addresses and edit them. There's right click implementation too and having the cheat editor open no longer pauses the game. It also now allows to have multiple bindings so you can assign both a controller and keyboard to the same input.
Every config file or save state from the regular snes9x will work with this branch and viceversa.
Here's the latest release:
https://github.com/shanytc/snes9x/releases/tag/1.63.10
Some of these features, of course, are available on more modern emulators such as BSNES, Bizhawk, Mesen and the sort. But personally, I still prefer to use snes9x because it's really fast and has the least amount of annoyances when compared to other emulators.
Anyway, some of the new features it has is a BSNES-quality sprite/titlemap viewer with the option to export the graphics.
The cheat search and cheat editors have been updated too. You can now batch add addresses and edit them. There's right click implementation too and having the cheat editor open no longer pauses the game. It also now allows to have multiple bindings so you can assign both a controller and keyboard to the same input.
Every config file or save state from the regular snes9x will work with this branch and viceversa.
Here's the latest release:
https://github.com/shanytc/snes9x/releases/tag/1.63.10
#22
Map Gab / Re: VGMaps.com now has over 50...
Last post by JonLeung - April 16, 2026, 08:33:07 AM
Here are 100 words in game titles/map names, listed here by frequency.
"Man" is among the most common, but "Woman" is the least.
"Final/Battle/Dark/Kid" & "Space/Alien/Force" are next to each other.
#23
Map Gab / Re: The LARGEST map - G.E.R.'s...
Last post by Cyartog959 - April 16, 2026, 03:34:44 AMQuote from: G.E.R. on April 15, 2026, 12:58:46 AM
420000 screenshots is no so scary as it might seem at first glance. All images was captured, distributed to folders, imported in Photoshop automatic and compressed too, then their manual stitching took about 1 second per image
Maybe, but, that sure was a lot of screenshots to capture for a much bigger map, especially if its a Metroidvania. A great accomplishment, I say! I was astounded when I read how many screenshots you used to put that together! Its size almost reached the JPEG maximum pixel size limit in both directions!
Where The Embraced One, who did Hallownest's map mostly alone for years(which, of course, I still appreciate such efforts, to say), accomplished such a task, you actually focused on it so very well, you took almost 2 months to chart Pharloom, all the way from bottom to the very top, by comparison!
I would be that surprised if another map would reach beyond that limit for JPEG. Perhaps using JPEG XL, if VGMaps supports it(Uh... does it?), would be substantial; otherwise, PNG's a very good choice, too.
Wonder how much RAM it would take for any browser to handle decompressing it to view it up-close. Quite much, depending on the amount anyone's PC has.
Of course, the game's already got DLC plans, so I would presume more work's inbound for revising it later on.
Congratulations, by the way! My compliments!
#24
Map Gab / Re: The LARGEST map - G.E.R.'s...
Last post by G.E.R. - April 15, 2026, 12:58:46 AM420000 screenshots is no so scary as it might seem at first glance. All images was captured, distributed to folders, imported in Photoshop automatic and compressed too, then their manual stitching took about 1 second per image
#25
Maps Of The Month / Found Chaotix's Bosses' Names!
Last post by Cyartog959 - April 14, 2026, 03:29:52 AMThis may be a little discovery, and I might've been behind on it, but the bosses in Knuckles' Chaotix all have official names, and it seems the Sonic Wiki Zone's got pages about them in serious need of updating to adopt that. They're already reported official, as written from the soundtrack's names.
The bosses' names in each Zone of Knuckles' Chaotix are...
Egg Catcher - boss of Botanic Base Zone (https://sonic.fandom.com/wiki/Botanic_Base_boss)
Egg Arms - boss of Techno Tower Zone (https://sonic.fandom.com/wiki/Techno_Tower_boss)
Egg Repilca - miniboss(and the game's only miniboss, albeit recurring in it, nowhere else) of Amazing Arena Zone (https://sonic.fandom.com/wiki/Amazing_Arena_sub-boss)
Egg Projector - boss of Amazing Arena Zone (https://sonic.fandom.com/wiki/Amazing_Arena_Boss)
Egg Barrier - boss of Marina Madness Zone (https://sonic.fandom.com/wiki/Marina_Madness_boss)
Egg Merry-Go-Round - boss of Speed Slider Zone (https://sonic.fandom.com/wiki/Speed_Slider_boss)
Metal Sonic, Weaponized Selector - penultimate boss in Newtrogic High Zone (https://sonic.fandom.com/wiki/Metal_Sonic_(Knuckles%27_Chaotix))
Titan Metal Sonic/Metal Sonic Kai - final boss in Newtrogic High Zone's Central Core (https://sonic.fandom.com/wiki/Metal_Sonic_Kai)
Guess Ian Flynn may not have known that nor their names yet, but Sonic Team's people do.
Little history heads-up on its final boss' creation, as I have also learned...
Ryo Kudou, involved in the game's development, and who designed some new Badniks and most of the bosses, was tasked to design that boss for Metal Sonic Kai's first transformation. Because of complications that had him swamped, Kudou delegated that task to Takumi Miyake, the designer for the game's stages, graphics and some of Dr. Robotnik's Badniks, instead, giving him another role of boss designer.
Once he got the task, he used Strata 3D, a 3D modeling, rendering and animation program used in its past years, to translate its design into 3D polygons and then used its model to draw over it to create its sprites.
The naming for Metal Sonic's monstrous, red-painted titanic form was a bit back and forth, though. Kudou and some of his programmer friends wanted that form to be named "Devil Sonic"(a little heart frightening, yes, and for sort of obvious reasons as to why, but I won't say them here), as a shout-out to an anime series, Mobile Fighter G Gundam(yes, there's also plenty of other shout-outs to other numerous anime series with giant mechas and their countless battles in past Sonic games, but not many then-young Sonic fans understood such references at that time, not even me; I thought that was out of nowhere until now), preferably, one of its mechs, "JDG-00X, Devil Gundam", but as an attempt to compromise, Kenichi Ono, a game designer also involved in the development, insisted for it to be named "Death Metal Sonic".
With very little methods to deliver official names from the game's bosses to any form of media outside of games globally at the time, the name "Metal Sonic Kai" was what fans came up with and was referred to for many years, which was deemed official from Ian Flynn's book, "Sonic the Hedgehog Encyclo-speed-ia". Guess that book may need a printing update someday.
Thought I should let you all know this bit of the game's history, too.
The bosses' names in each Zone of Knuckles' Chaotix are...
Egg Catcher - boss of Botanic Base Zone (https://sonic.fandom.com/wiki/Botanic_Base_boss)
Egg Arms - boss of Techno Tower Zone (https://sonic.fandom.com/wiki/Techno_Tower_boss)
Egg Repilca - miniboss(and the game's only miniboss, albeit recurring in it, nowhere else) of Amazing Arena Zone (https://sonic.fandom.com/wiki/Amazing_Arena_sub-boss)
Egg Projector - boss of Amazing Arena Zone (https://sonic.fandom.com/wiki/Amazing_Arena_Boss)
Egg Barrier - boss of Marina Madness Zone (https://sonic.fandom.com/wiki/Marina_Madness_boss)
Egg Merry-Go-Round - boss of Speed Slider Zone (https://sonic.fandom.com/wiki/Speed_Slider_boss)
Metal Sonic, Weaponized Selector - penultimate boss in Newtrogic High Zone (https://sonic.fandom.com/wiki/Metal_Sonic_(Knuckles%27_Chaotix))
Titan Metal Sonic/Metal Sonic Kai - final boss in Newtrogic High Zone's Central Core (https://sonic.fandom.com/wiki/Metal_Sonic_Kai)
Guess Ian Flynn may not have known that nor their names yet, but Sonic Team's people do.
Little history heads-up on its final boss' creation, as I have also learned...
Ryo Kudou, involved in the game's development, and who designed some new Badniks and most of the bosses, was tasked to design that boss for Metal Sonic Kai's first transformation. Because of complications that had him swamped, Kudou delegated that task to Takumi Miyake, the designer for the game's stages, graphics and some of Dr. Robotnik's Badniks, instead, giving him another role of boss designer.
Once he got the task, he used Strata 3D, a 3D modeling, rendering and animation program used in its past years, to translate its design into 3D polygons and then used its model to draw over it to create its sprites.
The naming for Metal Sonic's monstrous, red-painted titanic form was a bit back and forth, though. Kudou and some of his programmer friends wanted that form to be named "Devil Sonic"(a little heart frightening, yes, and for sort of obvious reasons as to why, but I won't say them here), as a shout-out to an anime series, Mobile Fighter G Gundam(yes, there's also plenty of other shout-outs to other numerous anime series with giant mechas and their countless battles in past Sonic games, but not many then-young Sonic fans understood such references at that time, not even me; I thought that was out of nowhere until now), preferably, one of its mechs, "JDG-00X, Devil Gundam", but as an attempt to compromise, Kenichi Ono, a game designer also involved in the development, insisted for it to be named "Death Metal Sonic".
With very little methods to deliver official names from the game's bosses to any form of media outside of games globally at the time, the name "Metal Sonic Kai" was what fans came up with and was referred to for many years, which was deemed official from Ian Flynn's book, "Sonic the Hedgehog Encyclo-speed-ia". Guess that book may need a printing update someday.
Thought I should let you all know this bit of the game's history, too.
#26
Map Gab / Re: VGMaps.com now has over 50...
Last post by JonLeung - April 13, 2026, 08:25:44 PM
50,000 maps for 3401 games means an average of 14.7 maps per game.
So how about individual platforms?
This table shows the average number of maps per game, per platform.
(How often do you see the Wii U ranked so highly?)
#27
Map Gab / Re: VGMaps.com now has over 50...
Last post by JonLeung - April 12, 2026, 04:43:46 PM
3401 games have at least one map on VGMaps.com.
Here's the breakdown by platform.
818 games are on the NES (including the Famicom and Famicom Disk System), a whopping 24%.
#28
Map Gab / Re: VGMaps.com now has over 50...
Last post by JonLeung - April 11, 2026, 09:17:36 PM
Still celebrating VGMaps.com having 50,000 maps!
It's little surprise that the majority of maps are for console games.
(It'd be nice to have more computer games mapped!
And I don't know what to classify the Virtual Boy as, so it might as well be its own category.)
#29
Map Gab / Re: The LARGEST map - G.E.R.'s...
Last post by dark_lord_zagato - April 11, 2026, 10:24:42 AMNow I see why the PC section has the largest maps by file size.
This is one of the most impressive maps i've ever seen.
This is one of the most impressive maps i've ever seen.
#30
Gaming / I worry about Atooi and Jools....
Last post by Cyartog959 - April 10, 2026, 11:44:35 PMI'm not putting anyone down or anything like it, but I truly do worry about Atooi's status as an indie game company and Jools, the founder, managing it and the game projects being worked on, and priorities shifted many times that kept its release being completely settled and finalized.
For one, we were supposed to be having Treasurenauts, the long-developed game still in the belt, but constant delays and priority changes to other projects and matters outside of game development has been hurting so much for the game and the people wanting to play it for so long, it shredded their patience and anticipation for the game in their hearts and minds, even stemming so much doubt in others that game could ever be released as time goes by. Even I feel doubt, too.
For proof, here's the game's logo...
The playable Treasurenauts characters, Rhode Island Smith, an explorer, and Shuri, a ninja, and a native inhabitant. The rest are still unclear(if you can take a guess, one of them in a silhouette is a guest player, Max, from Mutant Mudds)...
A few screenshots...
And a few images of the game's behind the scenes work(take note, that's Cosmigo's Pro Motion NG at work for the game's levels. I strongly feel Tiled's a more effective choice to me.)...
The story about that game is the Treasurenauts, marooned on a cluster of islands, the Voodoo Islands, have to find and collect $1,000,000 worth of treasure and bring it to the villain, Bad Pirate Pete(whom of which we still haven't seen), who is responsible for stranding them there, and must survive the dangers to gather enough riches to meet his demand, but they would soon find he's not their only concern, as it seems a rather dark entity or supernatural evil force is residing there, readying to deliver doom to any that trespass the islands. So far, only we've not seen shreds of the story in action, not even an intro cutscene; only the gameplay.
Why, even the words about the game being "ready when its ready" really comes into question about the project's well-being in development, as well as other games suffering constant delays without warning nor notice. Hatch Tales suffered too much from delays and slight hesitation about appeal to people, when its meant to be universally applicable. That, and the game's marketing might've been better off handled to someone else that is more experienced at that field, but have hopeful, positive visions in them.
For a lead having too many hats in one sitting, and with so many created IPs, Jools should've handed a few of them to others to speed things up.
Here's a trailer video for Treasurenauts, and some of its gameplay from PAX EAST a long while ago...
I guess for tools Jools has for game dev work on his belt, I believe he uses Pro Motion NG, and Photoshop to put together the games' aspects, mainly because games like Mutant Mudds and Chicken Wiggle are all hi-bit pixel art games in their own right, and other games uses Unity as their engine, but such games uses its own created proprietary in-house engine; that of which was made for Treasurenauts originally, but Mutant Mudds had ghost levels in the works that had alpha transparency in them for its final update, back when Renegade Kid was the IP holder for it, so you know, and the previous engine wasn't capable of that, even on the 3DS, so, work on moving everything to its new engine and testing had to be done first before it can be updated to the original 3DS version, to complete the whole package.
Here's a video interview from 3RM with Jools on that at PAX EAST, part 1 of it, anyway...
Adobe's Illustrator, I think, was also used for Hatch Tales' content and vector-based graphics, too. Perhaps a better, more efficient program could've made it easier to make vector graphics.
I think Jools' workflow, in my perspective, needs to be improved by using Aseprite, which does pixel art a lot better than Photoshop, Tiled Map Editor, that does a lot better for level editing, compared to Pro Motion NG's capabilities, because by using them, especially because one of its features is using and creating custom properties for all sorts to be compatible with numerous game engines, including Unity, such as mechanics, enemies and bosses, they can streamline a lot, as it does for other devs and studios, so games could be done quite quicker with very minimal delay, especially when it comes to preparing all planned content ready for coding, testing, and then launches.
For music, Troupe Gammage, the composer behind Mutant Mudds games, did Treasurenauts' soundtrack, and used Renoise, a music tracker, to deliver the SNES influenced authenticity, but more clearer and louder to hear unlike the original console. That tracker was also used for Mutant Mudds' soundtracks, too.
And, as for game programming, Matthew Gambrell does the coding(all solo, apparently), using Visual Studo Code(free to use, too!), which is a very handy game programming necessity.
When it comes to communication with backers and fans about Hatch Tales' progress, I find it unsettling for Jools to remain silent about that. Even backers who supported the game called him out on delays and tight-lipped silence, but instead of answers, Jools had the... the... audacity to block them on his company's and his own Twitter accounts!
I had never felt that distraught over something so little, especially when it involves game development! Jools' lack of communication caused backers and fans to turn against him and lose their respect and support. Purely just petty, if you ask me.
As any indie or regular game developer, I'll say this... that is no way to treat and respect anyone, especially their fans. I can guess there's some sort of inferiority complex bred in Jools, and fear of flop for that game, or any game, for that matter, but constant delays on that game, as well as Treasurenauts, really does hurt more than just PR.
Any other game announced as the higher priority than a long-anticipated game, which I've already said its name, damages people's anticipation of it and hopes of its finalized release date. Sure, money does keep any indie company going, but priorities for game projects and finishing them needed to be sorted out first and foremost.
Communication should've also been better about progress on game projects, because without any form of transparency, how is anyone going to gain trust in these kind of developers, the players, and the games they were looking forward to playing them when they've been delayed and kept in the shadows for far too long?
I'm already even getting too bored waiting for Treasurenauts or the next Mutant Mudds installment that's supposed to be set after Super Challenge's events. Its fun to play, but without a new game, you're left with no choice but to play it over and over again, and even re-porting it another platform many times over hurts the fondness and stunts growth to any game series, and diminished enjoyment and value.
That, and I'm already too tired of recycled available music from Jool's past games into later games. I've heard too much of it over and over again.
Something's got to get Jools and Atooi's game projects going faster sooner or later. Otherwise, I don't know what will.
For one, we were supposed to be having Treasurenauts, the long-developed game still in the belt, but constant delays and priority changes to other projects and matters outside of game development has been hurting so much for the game and the people wanting to play it for so long, it shredded their patience and anticipation for the game in their hearts and minds, even stemming so much doubt in others that game could ever be released as time goes by. Even I feel doubt, too.
For proof, here's the game's logo...
The playable Treasurenauts characters, Rhode Island Smith, an explorer, and Shuri, a ninja, and a native inhabitant. The rest are still unclear(if you can take a guess, one of them in a silhouette is a guest player, Max, from Mutant Mudds)...
A few screenshots...
And a few images of the game's behind the scenes work(take note, that's Cosmigo's Pro Motion NG at work for the game's levels. I strongly feel Tiled's a more effective choice to me.)...
The story about that game is the Treasurenauts, marooned on a cluster of islands, the Voodoo Islands, have to find and collect $1,000,000 worth of treasure and bring it to the villain, Bad Pirate Pete(whom of which we still haven't seen), who is responsible for stranding them there, and must survive the dangers to gather enough riches to meet his demand, but they would soon find he's not their only concern, as it seems a rather dark entity or supernatural evil force is residing there, readying to deliver doom to any that trespass the islands. So far, only we've not seen shreds of the story in action, not even an intro cutscene; only the gameplay.
Why, even the words about the game being "ready when its ready" really comes into question about the project's well-being in development, as well as other games suffering constant delays without warning nor notice. Hatch Tales suffered too much from delays and slight hesitation about appeal to people, when its meant to be universally applicable. That, and the game's marketing might've been better off handled to someone else that is more experienced at that field, but have hopeful, positive visions in them.
For a lead having too many hats in one sitting, and with so many created IPs, Jools should've handed a few of them to others to speed things up.
Here's a trailer video for Treasurenauts, and some of its gameplay from PAX EAST a long while ago...
I guess for tools Jools has for game dev work on his belt, I believe he uses Pro Motion NG, and Photoshop to put together the games' aspects, mainly because games like Mutant Mudds and Chicken Wiggle are all hi-bit pixel art games in their own right, and other games uses Unity as their engine, but such games uses its own created proprietary in-house engine; that of which was made for Treasurenauts originally, but Mutant Mudds had ghost levels in the works that had alpha transparency in them for its final update, back when Renegade Kid was the IP holder for it, so you know, and the previous engine wasn't capable of that, even on the 3DS, so, work on moving everything to its new engine and testing had to be done first before it can be updated to the original 3DS version, to complete the whole package.
Here's a video interview from 3RM with Jools on that at PAX EAST, part 1 of it, anyway...
Adobe's Illustrator, I think, was also used for Hatch Tales' content and vector-based graphics, too. Perhaps a better, more efficient program could've made it easier to make vector graphics.
I think Jools' workflow, in my perspective, needs to be improved by using Aseprite, which does pixel art a lot better than Photoshop, Tiled Map Editor, that does a lot better for level editing, compared to Pro Motion NG's capabilities, because by using them, especially because one of its features is using and creating custom properties for all sorts to be compatible with numerous game engines, including Unity, such as mechanics, enemies and bosses, they can streamline a lot, as it does for other devs and studios, so games could be done quite quicker with very minimal delay, especially when it comes to preparing all planned content ready for coding, testing, and then launches.
For music, Troupe Gammage, the composer behind Mutant Mudds games, did Treasurenauts' soundtrack, and used Renoise, a music tracker, to deliver the SNES influenced authenticity, but more clearer and louder to hear unlike the original console. That tracker was also used for Mutant Mudds' soundtracks, too.
And, as for game programming, Matthew Gambrell does the coding(all solo, apparently), using Visual Studo Code(free to use, too!), which is a very handy game programming necessity.
When it comes to communication with backers and fans about Hatch Tales' progress, I find it unsettling for Jools to remain silent about that. Even backers who supported the game called him out on delays and tight-lipped silence, but instead of answers, Jools had the... the... audacity to block them on his company's and his own Twitter accounts!
I had never felt that distraught over something so little, especially when it involves game development! Jools' lack of communication caused backers and fans to turn against him and lose their respect and support. Purely just petty, if you ask me.
As any indie or regular game developer, I'll say this... that is no way to treat and respect anyone, especially their fans. I can guess there's some sort of inferiority complex bred in Jools, and fear of flop for that game, or any game, for that matter, but constant delays on that game, as well as Treasurenauts, really does hurt more than just PR.
Any other game announced as the higher priority than a long-anticipated game, which I've already said its name, damages people's anticipation of it and hopes of its finalized release date. Sure, money does keep any indie company going, but priorities for game projects and finishing them needed to be sorted out first and foremost.
Communication should've also been better about progress on game projects, because without any form of transparency, how is anyone going to gain trust in these kind of developers, the players, and the games they were looking forward to playing them when they've been delayed and kept in the shadows for far too long?
I'm already even getting too bored waiting for Treasurenauts or the next Mutant Mudds installment that's supposed to be set after Super Challenge's events. Its fun to play, but without a new game, you're left with no choice but to play it over and over again, and even re-porting it another platform many times over hurts the fondness and stunts growth to any game series, and diminished enjoyment and value.
That, and I'm already too tired of recycled available music from Jool's past games into later games. I've heard too much of it over and over again.
Something's got to get Jools and Atooi's game projects going faster sooner or later. Otherwise, I don't know what will.