Topic: Looking for things visible only by zooming out (like zelda dungeon swatiska)

[goznij]

Hello, I see this forum is not very active but don't hesitate to answer later anyway, I'll check it at least twice a year:
So I watched NES Atlas on youtube (he takes a TAS and make it zoomed out with maps of this site) about Legacy of the Wizard, and at 2:47 I saw a big evil face that you probably don't realize is here while playing the actual game, not zoomed out, or at least you can't see it entirely, do you know other things like that ? So far here is what I found too:
- sonic wing fortress zone somewhat actually looks like a real big plane (it may sounds normal but for instance the wrecked ship in super metroid doesn't look like a ship at all)
- similarly, equinox (solstice 2) boat level surprinsingly actually looks like a 2 levels boat, there is no map of this game on vgmaps, I saw it on another site in 2007 (with only room shapes drawn)
- snake rattle & roll is a single mountain splitted into levels
- at some point in world of warcraft, an area unavailable for players had written really big "nothing to see here move along", written by hand.

[TerraEsperZ]

I know I used to have more cases like that in mind, but the only one I can remember is for Solar Man's stage in Mega Man 10. The stage itself is shaped like a series of three steps, going up-right-up-right-up-right. In the background, there are a small number of diagonal patterns/pipes in each segment and if you look at the stage as a whole, these diagonal lines are perfectly aligned throughout the whole stage. It's such an insignificant detail and yet, someone still spent the time to make sure everything was lined up just right.

[goznij]

While searching for the boat of equinox again, I found another site with maps of it which looks way better, and while last level, ice palace looks a bit like a snowflake, I just realized that deeso level looks like some kind of beast, head on the left, feet bottom right and tail top right. It's amazing how some developers did that when back then they had no idea in how long if at all someone would notice somehow, back then even them couldn't see the whole level at once, they just drew the level on paper or something and then made rooms one by one I guess.

[ReyVGM]

Hello, I see this forum is not very active but don't hesitate to answer later anyway, I'll check it at least twice a year:
So I watched NES Atlas on youtube (he takes a TAS and make it zoomed out with maps of this site) about Legacy of the Wizard, and at 2:47 I saw a big evil face that you probably don't realize is here while playing the actual game, not zoomed out, or at least you can't see it entirely, do you know other things like that ? So far here is what I found too:
- sonic wing fortress zone somewhat actually looks like a real big plane (it may sounds normal but for instance the wrecked ship in super metroid doesn't look like a ship at all)
- similarly, equinox (solstice 2) boat level surprinsingly actually looks like a 2 levels boat, there is no map of this game on vgmaps, I saw it on another site in 2007 (with only room shapes drawn)
- snake rattle & roll is a single mountain splitted into levels
- at some point in world of warcraft, an area unavailable for players had written really big "nothing to see here move along", written by hand.

That's not a swastika, that's a Manji. An old religious symbol that the nazis too, turned it the other way around and used it for evil.

[dark_lord_zagato@yahoo.co]

When I was mapping Inindo: Way of the Ninja for the SNES I found some kanji in one of the towns. It's in Mikawa Castle, in a place you can't get to without cheat codes. The name "三上" is written in the lake using land tiles and I think is says "Mikami"

It's big enough that you would have to zoom out to fit both characters on your screen at the same time.

[Marscaleb]

Perhaps it may not be that "hidden" because you do get an in-game map, but still, In Duke Nukem 3D, in the level "Warp Factor," the whole stage is laid out in the shape of the USS Enterprise.
Of course, you're on a ship, but it's not just that they shaped the ship like the Enterprise, but they filled out all the playable area to the whole shape.  There's no real proper reason to have access to places like the nacelles, except that they wanted to make the whole place shaped like the Enterprise.
And I never noticed it until I was poking around in the level editor.

That's not a swastika, that's a Manji. An old religious symbol that the nazis too, turned it the other way around and used it for evil.

Strictly speaking they didn't "use it for evil."  It's a symbol, and it symbolized an evil group of people, but the symbol itself isn't evil nor used for evil.
Also, "hooked cross" is the English name for the shape itself; swastika is only really supposed to apply specifically to the one that symbolized the Nazis.  "Manji" is the name of the symbol in Japanese, which is also what they called it in manuals and Nintendo Power, presumably to help mitigate any worry people might have had about there being a swastika in the game.

And speaking of, while we all may know that the dungeons were shaped like different things, what really blows my mind is that if you look at the dungeons in an editor, the whole underworld all fits together in one map the same size and the overworld.  That's REALLY impressive; because they didn't just "make shapes" but they made them in a way where they had to all fit together.  And with the maps people viewed, sure, people could admire the creativity in shaping the dungeons like things, but they never saw the limits they had to work with to achieve it, which would make it all the more impressive.

Likewise the Link's Awakening underworld maps (the caves and the dungeons) all fit together within large square shapes like the overworld does.  I haven't seen it all pieced together, but I do believe that they has multiple layers of maps though, so it wasn't as hard for them to make the creative shapes they used.  (But maybe I'm wrong; I haven't had the opportunity to view the raw map data.)

[TerraEsperZ]

Perhaps it may not be that "hidden" because you do get an in-game map, but still, In Duke Nukem 3D, in the level "Warp Factor," the whole stage is laid out in the shape of the USS Enterprise.
Of course, you're on a ship, but it's not just that they shaped the ship like the Enterprise, but they filled out all the playable area to the whole shape.  There's no real proper reason to have access to places like the nacelles, except that they wanted to make the whole place shaped like the Enterprise.
And I never noticed it until I was poking around in the level editor.

Having been a huge trekker once (and one particularly fascinated with the ships and their technology), I was really surprised to read this since you'd think I would have noticed something like this!

But after looking at the map, I understood why: while it superficially looks like a Starfleet ship with the saucer and the two nacelles, the layout is not based on any actual ship from the show and thus, generic enough that it didn't register as a Star Trek reference to me.

[Marscaleb]

But after looking at the map, I understood why: while it superficially looks like a Starfleet ship with the saucer and the two nacelles, the layout is not based on any actual ship from the show and thus, generic enough that it didn't register as a Star Trek reference to me.

Well like I said, they were shaping the layout of the level into the Enterprise.
But if you wanted a stronger Star Trek reference, there is always that secret that leads to the bridge...

[TerraEsperZ]

But after looking at the map, I understood why: while it superficially looks like a Starfleet ship with the saucer and the two nacelles, the layout is not based on any actual ship from the show and thus, generic enough that it didn't register as a Star Trek reference to me.

Well like I said, they were shaping the layout of the level into the Enterprise.
But if you wanted a stronger Star Trek reference, there is always that secret that leads to the bridge...

To be fair, without the map cheat, the exterior shape of the ship isn't visible I think. Also, I never found that secret so that gives me a reason to start the game again!