Topic: Gunstar Heroes (Genesis)

[RT 55J]

This game uses a lot of clever graphical effects to fool you into thinking that the Genesis supports more than 2 layers. That does complicate things a bit, but it also makes it more fun to map.



Also, here's a completed map of the first part of Black's stage.



Stage 4, Part 1:

https://img141.imageshack.us/img141/3016/outsidebxe7.png

---

Dot? Dot. Dot!

[DarkWolf]

Good luck with this one.  Especially the mine level.

[marioman]

The mine level will probably end up like his Contra III map that he made.  It's just a series of boss fights right?

[JonLeung]

Aw, man, I remember that.  If you're talking about the stage where Green is the boss.  Seven phases or so...I don't think you can expect an accurate map, since I recall the stage scrolls differently depending on the phase of the boss...or am I remembering wrong?



Nevertheless, you'll find some way to do that stage, I'm sure.

[RT 55J]

marioman pretty much summarized my opinions on the mine level. I don't think it will be that hard.



Also, I just finished Black's stage:



http://img465.imageshack.us/img465/1836/fullmapbsf9.png



The thing I'm least happy about is the fact that the Super Gondola room is wider than the other rooms, because it really ruins the layout. Solutions are welcome.

---

Dot? Dot. Dot!

[TerraEsperZ]

Well hello there! Another game from the Treasure folks getting mapped is always great news. Sure, they're challenging to do since these guys loved to push the hardware to its limits but the results are always more than worth it.



This map looks great, but I've noticed a little problem in the clouds of the background in the first section. There is a bit of black coming through the clouds that are on top of the screen, which I guess is probably because a color was removed there by accident. I also noticed that the first few clouds on the left don't have this problem.



That aside, I can't wait for more, and I'm especially curious to see how you'd handle the massive battleship near the end of the game.



---

"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard



B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me

[marioman]

It looks OK to me.  Sure it is a little wider, but I really didn't notice it that much until you mentioned it.

[RT 55J]

I fixed the clouds, as well as a minor error in Dice Palace.



Fixed Version

---

Dot? Dot. Dot!

[RT 55J]

Here's a rough idea of how the final stage will look.



It's obviously not finished given the general lack of a background or sprites, but those should be easy to insert. The hardest part is going to be the color cycling. It would be much easier if Gens KMod had a "Force Palette" option or something.

---

Dot? Dot. Dot!

[DarkWolf]

The VDP Debug window helps for color cycles since you can pick a point and then pause the game or advance by frame until the colors reach the values you've selected.

[RT 55J]

Pausing? Never thought of that. That should make things much easier. I'll start remapping the stage once I st... err,  finish the rough draft of an English essay.



Also, I'm debating whether or not I should include the areas not normally visible ingame (the top 8 px, bottom 32 px, and left/rightmost 16 px). It's rather obvious that Treasure put absolutely no effort the areas' presentation. That bottom turret isn't even active in any way, shape, or form. Removing them would also make the control room line up much more nicely with the rest of the level. There's also the problem of extending the background.



Granted, I could easily fix those areas up a bit. It would also make the map much more visually appealing imo. Most of the problems appear to be easily fixable, and I'll need to tessellate the background eventually, although I'm not sure if some of the required tiles actually exist...



Another option would be to keep all of the lower and vertical area, but remove bottom 32 px of the second horizontal area. That doesn't sound too bad. I might actually try it.



Opinions are welcome.

---

Dot? Dot. Dot!

[TerraEsperZ]

I'm not sure I understand which normally invisible areas you're talking about, so unless you provide an explanatory screenshot, I can't offer advice. Unless you're talking about areas that appear when disabling the status window but which were obviously never meant to be seen, in which case I'd say only include them if you feel they add something to the map.



---

"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard



B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me

[RT 55J]

This:





---

Dot? Dot. Dot!

[TerraEsperZ]

Personally, I'd say keep it if you don't think it looks bad to see repeated tiles on the bottom and if it doesn't require you to do too much editing to complete/correct those areas.



---

"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard



B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me