Pokemon Snap, first level (beach), by thisplatypus.

I played this last a few months ago on an emulator. I nostalgia’d so hard i thought my heart had been restarted. As soon as I found Mapstalgia, I knew I had to pay homage <3

[Josh says: aw, heck, Mapstalgia <3 you too.]

Halo 2, Warlock, by wuz sup.

I hope I can do a map I made in sketchup for your blog. It’s from memory. I took some stylistic liberties where my beginner sketchup skills failed me. It’s Warlock from Halo 2, my favorite Halo game. This isn’t my favorite map though; Terminal was probably my favorite (warthog jump + guardian train). But I decided to do Warlock because it’s where I first fell in love.

We traded gamertags at school. It was our first online match. It was in Team Doubles, the most romantic playlist. I remember the exact moment, if that helps: At some point in the game he got a double kill and felt compelled to affirm it by shouting, “Double kill sonnnn!!!”

“What an asshole,” I thought.

[Josh says: ha!  Love at first frag.  Sketchup work looks great, this is a neat variation on the theme.  Thanks for the submission!]

Counter-Strike, cs_siege, by Josh Millard.

It’s been ages since I’ve posted one of my own drawings here.  This is a map I couldn’t get enough of during LAN play, even though it was sort of terrible and invited the worst sort of mutual-camping behavior a map could manage.  Seems like by the end of every round there’d be a small pile of AWPs on the floor of the garage entry ramp and the blind corner where the canyon led to the central area, from Ts and CTs sniping and getting sniped ad nauseum while some brave souls would try to actually make something happen via the tunnels.

SWAT 4, Fairfax Residence, by Scruffy.

First level from SWAT 4, the Fairfax Residence. Realy creepy level when playing for the first time.

Halo: Reach, first screen, by xaverin.

Counter-Strike, de_dust, by clorox.

Man that hallway was always a spamfest.

[Josh says: I’ve been playing the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive beta a bit the last few days and it’s such a flood of memories coming back to these maps, yeah.  I haven’t played any CS regularly in years and years (and oh my lord am I terrible these days, my once proudly mediocre skills having atrophied in the interim), but the layouts came back to me in no time.  Corners to check, boxes to duck behind, where to not bother rushing against a decent team of Ts because they’d always lob a couple of flashes over the wall and leave you blinking and bulletholed…]

Perfect Dark, G5 Building (multiplayer map), by individualfrog.

I had played and beaten the solo game, and multiplayer was growing stale.  (It never seemed to be as fun as Goldeneye had been.)  It seemed like Perfect Dark was winding down.  Then I invented a game called “Desperation”.  It was a game of king-of-the-hill with one-hit kills, lots of computer characters, and a set of weapons that, if I do say so, lead to a pretty great balance.  I picked the G5 Building because it was the smallest, so it was hardest to keep the hill.  The “desperation” is in the person in the hill, trying to stay alive, and for the everyone else, running back to the hill as fast as they can before the enemy gets a point.  For all the years since I have been playing Desperation off and on with a friend of mine.  I now know the G5 Building like I know the layout of my own home.  Still, getting the proportions right for this map was tricky!

007: Agent Under Fire, Abbey, by Will.

Abbey, the best map from my favorite multiplayer game of the last generation, 007: Agent Under Fire. It’s a slight update of the famous Temple map from Goldeneye, with these changes: You can now jump to lower floors from various ledges, plus the hole over the center pit; the block door at the four-way intersection is gone; and the pillars in the southmost room are gone, replaced by a small sniper alcove accessible with jetpack or grappling hook.

Every linear shooter nowadays, metacommentary, by PullusPardas.

Turok, level 1, by brent.

I went through a phase where I would repeatedly play through the first level of games I liked and was afraid of anything new.  Turok’s first level is probably the biggest level that I sort of memorized.

[Josh says: still waiting for the Star Trek: Voyager crossover game.]