Yeah, it's definitely been quiet lately. I still hang around but I just don't have the energy to post anything I'm doing at the moment. Maybe soon hopefully.
Going back to you, those maps are nicely done! I personally much prefer maps in general with the background unless its inclusion makes them unreadable. In your case, it's definitely better with it.
It's nice to see that there are still people interested in mapping out these older games. It's starting to feel like with most of the classic games already mapped, few people are trying to keep the tradition alive to try and map as many of them as possible. Like JonLeung tends to say, it's amazing that all the Genesis Sonic the Hedgehog games haven't been mapped properly yet for example, and there are way more classics still missing. Hope you hang around during these quiet times until we experience some kind of rebirth of the VGMaps forums.