Topic: Hello everyone. I'm new.

Hi guys and gals. Stumbled upon this site the other night when I was bored. Gotta say this place is awesome.



I've had a go at making my own map - the first level of Alien 3 on Sega Mega Drive (Genesis to non-europeans). I think I did okay but its really messy, what with lots of different, half-visible images of Ripley in action, as well as scraps of the score, time and weapon ammo plastered all over the damn image.



I've got Gens with the Kmod but unfortunately my Alien 3 ROM doesn't work with it.

[JonLeung]

Hello, superego13itch.  Always nice to see new people.  I always mean to ask this from newcomers but I always forget, so I'll ask this time: how did you stumble across VGMaps.com?



I'm not familiar with Alien3 on the Genesis, but if it's like most any other 2D game, removing the half-Ripleys and score should be as simple as copying and pasting from other areas of the map or taking a second screenshot in the same area with Ripley in a different position, then pasting together portions of the screenshots without her.



DarkWolf is the resident Genesis guru around here, perhaps he knows some tricks, as he seems able to churn out Genesis maps by taking level data straight from the code rather than working with screenshots.

[TerraEsperZ]

Welcome to the board ! Don't be afraid to share your work, even if incomplete, with us. I'm curious to see what you've done so far.



---

"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

Well, when I was really young, I think it was 1993/1994 when Alien 3 came out, I had a magazine called 'Solutions' or something simila. And inside were maps for several games on the Genesis. One of them was Alien 3. I always wondered how they'd made them.



Then the other night I was playing Alien 3 and getting frustrated when trying to locate allthe prisoners before the timer ran out, then I remembered that magazine. I thought that perhaps some very kind and amazing person had scanned in the magazine and uploaded it to the internet. So with fingers crossed I tried Google.



Lo and behold, a search of 'screenshot map' took me to Wikipedia, where I foung a link to this excellent place.



Thanks for the advice you two. I'll make a start on cleaning up the map as best as I can.

[JonLeung]

I like that Wikipedia article.  I've always wondered if anyone else sees the article (apparently they do).  And it could be longer and more informative...perhaps techniques of mapping could be put up on the Wiki for everyone to be able to contribute to.  Not just tips for how to map games from particular consoles but also guidelines for how to handle particular genres (fast-action platform action games, top-down RPGs, point-and-click adventure games, etc.).



Was this Solutions magazine similar to Nintendo Power?  Many people compare VGMaps.com to Nintendo Power, where the magazines in the 2D era frequently had screenshot maps.

I think it was. As far as I know, it was just for the Sega consoles but I could be mistaken.

Hmm, I'm not sure if it was this one now. I remember a magazine called Sega XS but can't be sure if it was the one I had with the Alien 3 maps in it.



http://www.retrogames.co.uk/stock/assets/images/Mags_-_Sega_XS_2.jpg

I'll make a new thread in the other forum where the maps are being made, since this is meant to be a 'hello' thread. :-P

[DarkWolf]

Welcome.  It's always good to see more mappers.

I am also new here. How I found out about this site is I was Stuck On Final Fantasy Dawn of Souls I googled video game maps and bam here I am.

[TerraEsperZ]

Well, a friendly welcome to all new members then



---

"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

[StarFighters76]

It's good this site recognizes maps as FAQs. I contribute to GameFAQs (which IIRC, is where the admins for this site found me), and well they recognize maps but not as FAQs, just maps.

---

Creator of over 450 maps on GameFAQs. ^_^