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51

Map Requests / Re: Full map set for Sonic the Hedgehog's games

« Last post by Cyartog959 on September 22, 2024, 12:50:24 am »

SUnleashed doesn't completed for PS3/XBOX 360 and I don't how many maps (playable areas) included in the game. I think that it need to rip 2D-sections for day acts and view-from-top for night levels. Mayby STH-2006 and SForces can be mappable too by using this method.
And 300GB of my photos in RAW which shoted last months besides this.

Well, small grammar mistakes aside, I've done a bit of exhaustive counting and calculating about how many maps that game's 360/PS3 Version has. Fair warning, the list is long.

Here it is...

SONIC UNLEASHED'S MAP COUNTS

X360/PS3
WINDMILL ISLE (APOTOS)

HUB - 1
DAY - 9 Acts (3 Regular, 6 DLC)
NIGHT - 6 Acts (2 Regular, 4 DLC)
TOTAL - 15 Acts, NO BOSS, 1 HUB (16 MAPS)

TORNADO DEFENSE
2 Acts
BOSS - Egg Cauldron

SAVANNAH CITADEL (MAZURI)
HUB - 1
DAY - 10 Acts (3 Regular, 7 DLC)
NIGHT - 6 Acts (2 Regular, 4 DLC)
BOSS - Egg Beetle
TOTAL - 16 Acts, 1 BOSS, 1 HUB (18 MAPS)

DRAGON ROAD (CHUN-NAN)
HUB - 1
DAY - 10 Acts (3 Regular, 7 DLC)
NIGHT - 6 Acts (2 Regular, 4 DLC)
BOSS - Dark Gaia Phoenix
TOTAL - 16 Acts, 1 BOSS, 1 HUB (18 MAPS)

ROOFTOP RUN (SPAGONIA)
HUB - 1
DAY - 10 Acts (3 Regular, 7 DLC)
NIGHT - 4 Acts (1 Regular, 3 DLC)
BOSS - Egg Devil Ray
TOTAL - 14 Acts, 1 BOSS, 1 HUB (16 MAPS)

COOL EDGE (HOLOSKA)
HUB - 1
DAY - 8 Acts (2 Regular, 6 DLC)
NIGHT - 4 Acts (1 Regular, 3 DLC)
BOSS - Dark Moray
TOTAL - 12 Acts, 1 BOSS, 1 HUB (14 MAPS)

SKYSCRAPER SCAMPER (EMPIRE CITY)
HUB - 1
DAY - 6 Acts (2 Regular, 4 DLC)
NIGHT - 4 Acts (1 Regular, 3 DLC)
TOTAL - 10 Acts, NO BOSS, 1 HUB (11 MAPS)

ARID SANDS (SHAMAR)
HUB - 1
DAY - 6 Acts (2 Regular, 4 DLC)
NIGHT - 4 Acts (1 Regular, 3 DLC)
BOSS - Dark Guardian
TOTAL - 10 Acts, 1 BOSS, 1 HUB (12 MAPS)

JUNGLE JOYRIDE (ADABAT)
HUB - 1
DAY - 9 Acts (3 Regular, 6 DLC)
NIght - 6 Acts (2 Regular, 4 DLC)
BOSS - Egg Lancer
TOTAL - 15 Acts, 1 BOSS, 1 HUB (17 MAPS)

CRIMSON CARNIVAL (EGGMANLAND)
HUB - 1 (POST-GAME UNLOCKABLE)
FINAL LEVEL - 1 Act (DAY & NIGHT, TOGETHER)
BOSS - Egg Dragoon
FINAL BOSS, PHASE 1 - DARK GAIA (Part 1, Gaia Colossus VS. Dark Gaia, Part 2, Sonic VS. Dark Gaia)
FINAL BOSS, PHASE 2 - PERFECT DARK GAIA
TOTAL, 1 Act, 2 BOSSES, 1 HUB (6 MAPS)

TOTAL GAME MAPS - 128 MAPS

Technically, the game's version truly does have 126 maps, but I counted Tornado Defense to make it 128, and I'm not sure how the path in those stages are taken automatically as they went along.

If you're up to mapping the rest, well, you have a good time with it.

On a different note, did nobody in and out of the community notice how The Final Fight from Sonic 3D Blast actually takes place in Dr. Robotnik's fortress' inner workings in the center, rather than a pitch-black void?

Well, I'm the one who noticed it. Why? Because, the one reason why that level in the Genesis Version is like a black void is because of tech constraints that doesn't allow more background layers to accentuate the theme of it.

To briefly summarize it to the less tech-savvy, the Genesis does only 2 layers for backgrounds, 1 reserved for foreground, 2nd for said background. Final Fight can't do more than 2, 'cause the isometric ground and the Final Weapon's body do make as layers themselves. And, the 80 sprite limit can't allow prop decorations, either.

The Saturn Version, on the other hand, doesn't suffer a lot in it. Thanks to its tech advancements, The Final Fight's setting as the base's inner workings can be seen as intended. Props included, too, thanks to allow more on-screen sprites. The additional 2 background layers you may have not noticed do showcase metallic structures making for the base's foundation, the "building blocks", if you prefer.

52

Map Requests / Re: JonLeung's Requests

« Last post by Cyartog959 on September 20, 2024, 10:29:33 am »

I liked Dracula Untold. I'm not a fan of the interconnected movie concept, but I'd have liked a direct sequel to that one, Charles Dance as an old scheming vampire is exactly what I want in a monster action film xP Dracula Untold could've made for a neat Soulslike or Metroidvania too, shame we didn't get one.

That game caught my attention when the environment artist posted about it on Pixel Joint in 2017, it just took this long to be able to get it.

As for mapping PC games: (2D) retro console games at least are often easier to map than PC games due to emulators having tools to toggle layers, view tile data, etc, whereas with PC games, you generally have to do it the hard way. No idea what the situation is like for more recent consoles, but I'd imagine they'd have the same challenges as PC games - the rendering methods are much more varied than on older consoles, so visual debug tools are rarely available.
On a related note: I was surprised to see Final Fantasy Tactics Advance on the request list! I see now only the first few maps are on the site. As a GBA game with fairly small maps, it should be fairly simple to map using the map view in an emulator like VBA, and I mapped some of the early areas that way myself years back. I'd recommend that one to someone relatively new to mapping, as with only a few image exports from the emulator, you should be able to grab all the separate layers for each map.
I also mapped a good chunk of Black Matrix Zero, another GBA tactics game, that way back in 2007, but I unfortunately never finished that game because I got stuck on a battle I can't win.

Yeah. That would've been a cool game adaptation of Dracula Untold. I can imagine if if we had such a game. Soulslike or Metroidvania, I'd kinda been cool with either one and had a great time playing it.

You've done well with your maps, as before, and I was kinda astounded about their overall map sizes.

The total size from The Mummy Demastered's London map kinda surprised me. I mean, sure, it doesn't come close to largest Metroidvania game/any game map yet, which is still Hollow Knight, unless proven otherwise, but the maps' layouts seem quite a bit more straightforward compared to others being more labyrinthine and complex.

Comparably, I've seen prior Castlevania games' Metroidvania maps, and they looked complex at that time.

Blasphemous' world map of Cystodia, on the other hand, I can definitely see a bit more complex in their locations' layouts. They were well-made and a bit more complex.

Sorry you were stuck in that battle on Black Matrix Zero. I hope you'll win it and continue on with that game and mapping it sometime soon, when you can.

Whatever maps you decide to do next, I look forward to seeing them.

53

VGMaps Social Board / Re: YouTube channel! (JonLeung1)

« Last post by JonLeung on September 19, 2024, 04:39:21 pm »

Returning to the Vietnamese noodle soup, have you tried "Nongshim Super Spicy"? It's a very spisy korean ramyun and I would be interesting to compare a human reactions because only only I could eat Nongshim Super Spicy without dilution with water and without glass of milk

I like spicy stuff.  I've also recently been enjoying some "The Last Dab: Xperience", which is the hottest sauce on current/recent seasons of the First We Feat YouTube show, Hot Ones, made with the current Guinness World Record holder for hottest pepper, Pepper X.

As for noodles, I think I've tried the one you were asking about and I don't remember being challenged by it.  I do enjoy some "2x Spicy" Samyang Buldak noodles, those can admittedly be challenging to me sometimes.  Not unbearable, but, you know, getting there.  I heard there was a limited "3x Spicy" one but I haven't had a chance to try that.



While we're on the topic of red stuff, here's a YouTube Short I made a while ago but might as well release now since views are down and I have to be more "regular".  With the timing of some things coming up (Edmonton Expo starts tomorrow - might vlog that, Beyond Shadowgate just came out - might unbox the physical copy), and a partially-finished secret project that I want to get done before the end of the year, so I really have to get out of this low-energy funk that's put me behind in videos.  Crazy to think I've only reviewed like one book this year.  Where has the time gone?

Anyway, like I was getting at, here's a very red Short - Every Virtual Boy Game EVER!
Okay, it's not as exciting as the ones I made for the NES, Super NES, and Game Boy, due to there being so few games.  This time I included the Japanese games.

54

Map Requests / Re: JonLeung's Requests

« Last post by eishiya on September 19, 2024, 02:02:56 pm »

I liked Dracula Untold. I'm not a fan of the interconnected movie concept, but I'd have liked a direct sequel to that one, Charles Dance as an old scheming vampire is exactly what I want in a monster action film xP Dracula Untold could've made for a neat Soulslike or Metroidvania too, shame we didn't get one.

Glad to have filled one of your requests, even if unintentionally! That game caught my attention when the environment artist posted about it on Pixel Joint in 2017, it just took this long to be able to get it.

As for mapping PC games: (2D) retro console games at least are often easier to map than PC games due to emulators having tools to toggle layers, view tile data, etc, whereas with PC games, you generally have to do it the hard way. No idea what the situation is like for more recent consoles, but I'd imagine they'd have the same challenges as PC games - the rendering methods are much more varied than on older consoles, so visual debug tools are rarely available.
On a related note: I was surprised to see Final Fantasy Tactics Advance on the request list! I see now only the first few maps are on the site. As a GBA game with fairly small maps, it should be fairly simple to map using the map view in an emulator like VBA, and I mapped some of the early areas that way myself years back. I'd recommend that one to someone relatively new to mapping, as with only a few image exports from the emulator, you should be able to grab all the separate layers for each map.
I also mapped a good chunk of Black Matrix Zero, another GBA tactics game, that way back in 2007, but I unfortunately never finished that game because I got stuck on a battle I can't win.

55

Map Requests / Re: JonLeung's Requests

« Last post by JonLeung on September 19, 2024, 11:38:59 am »

JonLeung, if I may, I found a whole map of "Alwa's Awakening", courtesy of 2 people responsible for charting this neat Metroidvania NES influenced adventure, Duckfist, for the whole map, and Stubbsy, for updating it to include secrets and making the map more complete. Its straight from a Steam Guide posted a long while ago. Sprites of all bosses and enemies included. Didn't need to do any ripping for this. I just only found it.

I sent Stubbsy a message, as I'll need their permission to put it up.  Let's hope that pans out.

And today, we got maps for one of the PC games I requested!  I always find it odd that the PC map requests rarely get fulfilled compared to requests for maps for games on consoles.

Anyway, eishiya has sent in a full map set for The Mummy Demastered.

It's by WayForward, so I know it's good, it's just surprising to see a good movie tie-in game.  And it's a good-looking Metroidvania, too.

It reminds me of the interesting trivia that Tom Cruise (who starred in The Mummy (2017)) hasn't allowed the use of his likeness in toys or video games.  Though he did allow it for the Mission: Impossible character of Ethan Hunt for LEGO Dimensions, interestingly, which is a combo of toy and video game!  Perhaps the LEGOification was enough for it to be acceptable.  According to this article on bloody-disgusting.com, it is speculated that the cancellation of the Funko POP! figure of Nick Morton (Tom Cruise's character) may have been due to Tom Cruise himself, so I guess an abstract version is not enough to get by that stipulation.  Maybe LEGO is just that cool?

And on a side note, it's kind of too bad that The Mummy didn't really get Universal's "Dark Universe" of connected films going.  After a false start with Dracula Untold (2014), they wanted to try again with The Mummy (2017), but its commercial failure put an end to that, at least as a cinematic universe.  I'm not a huge monster movie fan, but I like the idea of interconnected movies, and it seems sad for this to flop not just once, but twice.  Now "Dark Universe" is the name of the Universal Monsters-themed section in the upcoming Epic Universe theme park in Florida, let's hope for their sake it doesn't fail a third time...

But, in any case - at least we got The Mummy Demastered game out of it.  Thanks, eishiya!

56

Maps In Progress / Re: eishiya's Maps.

« Last post by eishiya on September 18, 2024, 10:12:02 pm »

26-ish days and nearly 4000 screenshots later, it's done and submitted. Hopefully it'll be up soon.

Disappointingly, the screenshot maps don't quite line up the way the in-game map does. A few rooms are smaller or larger than indicated and throw some of the other connections off. Because most areas are connected by rappel points, which are akin to Metroid's elevators in that they have a top and bottom aligned but are functionally teleports, the areas don't feel very connected, either. I think there are only 4 "real" connections between the game's 7 zones, and 2 of them are to/from a single zone. But, while feeling somewhat disjointed, it is at least a proper Metroidvania experience with a decent amount of backtracking with new abilities.

I'm glad I decided to screenshot everything on my first playthrough, even though it led to some wasted screenshots. With doors being permanently destructible, it was nice to get everything with the doors still there the first time around. I only had to go back on a second playthrough for two doors, both in rooms that have destructible doors on both ends, so it's simply not possible to screenshot both doors in a single playthrough, one has to be destroyed to get in.

I didn't find a way to hide the HUD so I had to spend a lot of time filling in gaps left by that, especially in screen-sized rooms where the camera doesn't move.
Every area threw some extra challenges beyond just having multiple parallax layers: moving fog, tinting, glow effects, particle effects, water (blurry moving texture), full-screen sand effects, moving platforms, different parallax layers sharing colours, and finally, an invisible death timer. The Forest area also had many rooms with a faulty camera that caused most of my screenshots to come out unusable, and most boss rooms had the camera zoom out, and not always to some sensible scale. The game also loves infinitely spawning enemies, which meant I couldn't clear out most rooms and had to screenshot around the enemies. This was a more challenging project than I expected. But, the game was also better than I expected, so at least I didn't have a bad time getting the screenshots :D Ended up finishing my second playthrough (which I needed for the doors) and getting all the achievements.

Edit: And they're up! https://www.vgmaps.com/Atlas/PC/index.htm#MummyDemastered

57

Map Requests / Re: JonLeung's Requests

« Last post by Cyartog959 on September 15, 2024, 12:31:59 pm »

JonLeung, if I may, I found a whole map of "Alwa's Awakening", courtesy of 2 people responsible for charting this neat Metroidvania NES influenced adventure, Duckfist, for the whole map, and Stubbsy, for updating it to include secrets and making the map more complete. Its straight from a Steam Guide posted a long while ago. Sprites of all bosses and enemies included. Didn't need to do any ripping for this. I just only found it.

The map's link's right here - https://drive.google.com/file/d/10vPv7HfbtoaqKg4-E8AzPhjgWmRJiX1r/edit

It was rather fun, but I loathed having to travel to all the areas without making backtracking more lenient, especially with the slow speed I've had to endure the whole adventure.

Thankfully, "Alwa's Legacy" eased it all up. I can only hope we get to see "Alwa III" sometime soon. Elden Pixels made great games! They even recently released their newest game, "A Void Hope". Rather different, but, still, sounds rather fun to look at.

58

VGMaps Social Board / Re: YouTube channel! (JonLeung1)

« Last post by G.E.R. on September 11, 2024, 04:30:11 am »

Returning to the Vietnamese noodle soup, have you tried "Nongshim Super Spicy"? It's a very spisy korean ramyun and I would be interesting to compare a human reactions because only only I could eat Nongshim Super Spicy without dilution with water and without glass of milk

59

Map Requests / Re: Full map set for Sonic the Hedgehog's games

« Last post by G.E.R. on September 11, 2024, 04:15:06 am »

SUnleashed doesn't completed for PS3/XBOX 360 and I don't how many maps (playable areas) included in the game. I think that it need to rip 2D-sections for day acts and view-from-top for night levels. Mayby STH-2006 and SForces can be mappable too by using this method.
And 300GB of my photos in RAW which shoted last months besides this.

60

Maps In Progress / Re: eishiya's Maps.

« Last post by Cyartog959 on September 10, 2024, 10:21:58 pm »

Your progress is very good. Using Tiled in that manner does save much struggle when it comes to map making from games to be mapped out.

Never give up on your efforts, bud. I know you'll keep it up. Can't wait to see more full maps soon!