Comments on: Now you're playing with power.

Now you're playing with power.

BlackLeotardFront — Fri, 18 Mar 2005 13:37:21 -0800

They're all here. Or most of them. This will make you dust off your NES/Genesis/Turbo GraphX-16... but this time with a pixel-perfect map of every level of your most beloved games. From Amiga to Xbox. Castlevania, Zelda, and Megaman among hundreds of others and links to even more in-depth sites. Warning - some of these maps are EXTREMELY large, like 13000x5000 large. NSFCW (Not safe for child within)

By: furtive

furtive — Fri, 18 Mar 2005 13:40:59 -0800

Ah, memories of Nintendo Power and Gamepro magazine. Nice link.

By: InnocentBystander

InnocentBystander — Fri, 18 Mar 2005 13:49:36 -0800

Weellll... I just learned how big a PNG has to be before Opera rolls over and plays dead.

By: BlackLeotardFront

BlackLeotardFront — Fri, 18 Mar 2005 14:05:19 -0800

Can't say I didn't warn you. Watch out for Castlevania, Metroid, Super Metroid, and any RPGs.

By: incomple

incomple — Fri, 18 Mar 2005 14:06:50 -0800

Jesus, aren't I glad the web wasn't mainstream when I was a punk kid making my way through Mario 3. I would have beaten it in 1/20th of the time and spent the rest of my time doing something productive with my young life.

By: linux

linux — Fri, 18 Mar 2005 14:10:57 -0800

That site is, quite simply, awesome.

By: graventy

graventy — Fri, 18 Mar 2005 14:18:34 -0800

This is what the web is for. It....it's like a free, online Nintendo Power!

By: Eamon

Eamon — Fri, 18 Mar 2005 14:22:05 -0800

[this is good]

By: undule

undule — Fri, 18 Mar 2005 14:24:47 -0800

Wow, this is so cool. It's level design 101. Awesome link.

By: delmoi

delmoi — Fri, 18 Mar 2005 14:31:23 -0800

sweeeeet

By: delmoi

delmoi — Fri, 18 Mar 2005 14:33:58 -0800

hah, marble madness. That game rocked (although it had way too few levels).

By: TheStorm

TheStorm — Fri, 18 Mar 2005 14:41:54 -0800

marble madness! I actually finished that one. I notice no level map for Toejam and Earl. *sigh*

By: catachresoid

catachresoid — Fri, 18 Mar 2005 14:43:05 -0800

This is inspiring.

By: DevilsAdvocate

DevilsAdvocate — Fri, 18 Mar 2005 14:48:01 -0800

Hey! Where are the Tetris levels??

By: incomple

incomple — Fri, 18 Mar 2005 14:52:08 -0800

I look at the Metal Slug maps, and am kind of forced to think that the horse shit that I was playing on the Genesis and SNES was total garbage in comparison, at least visually. Sonic had some beautiful levels, but nothing nearly as beautiful as these. If I had known this as a ten year old, or however old I was when Metal Slug came out, I would have puked instead the cartridge slots of the lesser systems because they deserved no better. But then, at the time, the Neo Geo was, what, like a billion dollars and the games were a million each so it would have been out of reach anyway. It's also frustrating because just as soon as games could have looked this good for the common man (around the release of the Saturn and PSX I estimate) they started pumping out the half-assed 3D nonsense that made me nauseated and turned off by videogames in the first place. Thanks for ruining my favourite hobby, modern technology. You will live to regret it.

By: BlackLeotardFront

BlackLeotardFront — Fri, 18 Mar 2005 15:11:22 -0800

Incomple, I just bumped into those Metal Slug maps the other day, they really are breathtaking. I agree, too - the loss of good 2D gaming was a major setback to games in general. Companies like Treasure kept it going but its hard to when you're up against EA and such. What was the show we all used to watch where kids played games, identified games music and scenes from games, and the winner at the end got to run through a maze with games, systems, and such velcroed to the walls? That show was bomb. They always went for the Neo-Geo, that thing was a beast.. still is, really.

By: crystal.castles

crystal.castles — Fri, 18 Mar 2005 15:17:29 -0800

What's amazing to me is how short all of the games appear when you show just the maps and no enemies. It's just, outside, castle, water area, the roof, mummy room, gear room, dracula. Beating Castlevania for the first time took me days and days of constant effort and restarting; yet, when you look at these maps, the path of where you actually have to move your character seems extremely short and linear.

By: incomple

incomple — Fri, 18 Mar 2005 15:21:10 -0800

Wow, I totally forgot about that show. I was so envious because there were all of these strange systems with weird controllers that I had never seen, and then these amazing games and and and and This might be a question for Ask Metafilter.

By: jcruelty

jcruelty — Fri, 18 Mar 2005 15:25:46 -0800

interesting that we know our way through so many imaginary landscapes. visions of printing one of these out banner size...

By: BlackLeotardFront

BlackLeotardFront — Fri, 18 Mar 2005 15:27:48 -0800

jcruelty I'm absolutely with you. I want a wall-sized Metroid landscape. And crystal.castles, I've been playing Castlevania a bit lately and I've decided the secret to it is using the holy water and whipping as fast as possible.

By: rlef98

rlef98 — Fri, 18 Mar 2005 15:56:24 -0800

Video Power was the name of that game show. I used to get up at 6:30am just to watch that show. Good times.

By: thecaddy

thecaddy — Fri, 18 Mar 2005 16:01:39 -0800

BlackLeotard / incomple . . . The show was called Nick Arcade. And, God, did I ever want to be on that show. For further geekery, I used to read Nintendo Powers of games I didn't have and pretend I was playing them. I was a weird kid.

By: incomple

incomple — Fri, 18 Mar 2005 16:11:13 -0800

Nope, rlef98 got it. Nick Arcade I still remember vividly, particularly the bizarre bits when the kids would "enter" videogames. I always wondered why, on Nick Arcade, a lot of the games would be in arcade cabinest. God, what a weird, pathetic rush of nostalgia I'm having today.

By: graventy

graventy — Fri, 18 Mar 2005 16:22:48 -0800

Nick Arcade was different, thecaddy, but it was almost as cool. They'd gain points for quiz questions (about games, I think) and then compete for high scores on arcade machines. Then the winning team got to be in their real-life video game thing, which looked pretty awesome at home, but probably sucked if you were doing it. Man, I will kill for torrents of Nick Arcade or Video Power. Pure concentrated nostalgia.

By: Busithoth

Busithoth — Fri, 18 Mar 2005 16:22:54 -0800

incomple, I'm with you on Super Mario 3. that game had me meandering for days and days, happily killing things until I stumbled onto the right pipe (or whatever). Ultimate labor of love. Excellent link.

By: Four Flavors

Four Flavors — Fri, 18 Mar 2005 16:59:30 -0800

TheStorm I think that TJ&E had random maps except for a few levels. Personally I like these maps better when they show the starting locations of enmies as well. I still may print up that Castlevania map. The one game that I was way better at than my friends.

By: blacklite

blacklite — Fri, 18 Mar 2005 17:00:26 -0800

awesome.

By: blasdelf

blasdelf — Fri, 18 Mar 2005 17:04:02 -0800

We've got a cheap digital print lab here at TESC. 7-Color process. Huge rolls of paper. I'm gonna make gigantic prints of the zelda maps. Either 24" square, or if my wallet can withstand it, 44" square.

By: BlackLeotardFront

BlackLeotardFront — Fri, 18 Mar 2005 17:44:38 -0800

Hate to self-link (well...) but if you're jonesing for a little more nostalgia I put up a small load of NES music on my interweblog a couple days ago. I'm only linking cause its relevant... :9

By: Kikkoman

Kikkoman — Fri, 18 Mar 2005 20:19:32 -0800

Wow. Good post. I love those beautiful pixelly levels. They really need to get someone cracking on those vintage Sega Master System games, though... * runs to closet to hug his SMS

By: neckro23

neckro23 — Fri, 18 Mar 2005 22:32:52 -0800

Is this when I should admit that I was working on a pixel-perfect Metroid map but now all my effort was for naught?

By: BlackLeotardFront

BlackLeotardFront — Sat, 19 Mar 2005 14:02:14 -0800

This got picked up onto del.icio.us. then waxy, then boingboing. I'm a blogstar now, but I got no credit. I feel used but somehow exhilirated.

By: Kleptophoria!

Kleptophoria! — Mon, 21 Mar 2005 17:18:23 -0800

It appears the site has totally self-destructed. :( Anybody know of mirrors?