Topic: Toshi Tensou Keikaku: Eternal City (PC Engine)

[Hikaruon]

Hi Guys, I'm new in this community, I liked mechas but there is a game called Toshi Tensou Keikaku: Eternal City and don't exist anyone FAQ or map, but I think in making a cartography from this game.

But the problems from this game is the backgrounds very repetitive (second area mainly), I didn't know which emulators to use: MagicEngine or BizHawk, and this game is a Metroidvania which will certainly result in huge maps.

there is any solution how to create maps with repetitive backgrounds?

[TerraEsperZ]

Welcome to VGMaps Hikaruon! It's always nice to see new faces around here.

I haven't done much PC Engine mapping personally so I won't be of much help but I'll share what I can. Magic Engine works fine although the shareware (free) version is limited to only 4 minutes of continuous play, after which you must either reset or load a savestate. BizHawk is supposed to offer more accuracy and more importantly, more *tools* so if it can run this game, it might be the better choice. It's not obvious if you're new to mapping so just in case, the more debugging features an emulator has (such as seeing sprites and the map in memory, advancing one frame at a time, disabling layers, etc), the easier it makes the capture of the map.

As for this game in particular, from what I was able to see on YouTube, the repeating backgrounds might not be that big a problem. The maps basically seem to be assembled from a small number of distinct 256 x 256 pixels sections. Seriously, in Sector 1, while going through those long boring tunnels, you can see distinct details repeating themselves horizontally every time you've moved one full screen (which is 256 pixels wide). It thus shouldn't be too hard to assemble a full map by counting how many times those details repeat themselves.

You should know that some ares might be difficult if not impossible to reach and capture unless you're really good at hacking memory.

I don't quite know what else to offer at the moment, not being experienced with PC Engine emulation. Hopefully someone else can offer more help.

[Hikaruon]

I tried to using the BGViewer from Bizhawk, but I can't save the image from this option.

[TerraEsperZ]

You're pushing me outside of my comfort zone, you know that? I actually installed BizHawk just to try to answer your questions. Aren't you ashamed of yourself?

...Yeah, just kidding . You did make me install it properly though, since my previous attempt had BizHawk crash the moment I loaded a ROM. Anyway, going back to your question...

BizHawk, as fellow poster Feos often said, is still being actively developed, which is why many options that might seem like common sense are missing. Saving the portion of the map displayed in the BG Viewer would be one such option. However, since the BG Viewer displays the map with a 1:1 resolution, you could sort of solve the problem temporarily by saving the content of the BG Viewer to the clipboard by selecting its window and pressing Alt + PrintScreen, then pasting that in your favourite paint program (see 1st attached picture). You'd have to erase the rest of the windows to retain only the actual map, but it's better than nothing and with some emulators, you have to make do with what you have.

Now, just in case you're not familiar with map browsers in emulators, you have to know that these aren't true map browser as such. They simply display the part of the map that's loaded in video memory at any given time. That usually includes the portion displayed on screen, plus a bit of of-screen areas and sometimes the status bar, and you have to be careful because the map in the map browser will sometimes loop horizontally and/or vertically (see 2nd attached picture). In short, as you, say, move your character, the game loads more of the stage map into memory. Once it reaches the edge of the "buffer" (I might not be using the right terms), it will keep loading the map by going back to the beginning (left/top) and add the new areas there. You often have to move things around a bit to recreate the real map. In this case, the clouds below the ground actually belong on top of it so if you move it there, you get the actual map that's loaded in memory at that point (see 3rd attached picture).

[Hikaruon]

I Understand and this is my first try to create thismap, but I didn't get the Thrusters (Vernier, Jet Propulsor whatever...) and some parts do map will be incomplete for some time.
1st update
https://i.imgur.com/ryekOv8.png
2nd update
https://i.imgur.com/UfAEzfk.jpg