Final Fantasy VIII, Triple Triad board, by Cory.

It’s the Triple Triad board from Final Fantasy VIII. Or as my mates and I called it, The Main Game. I spent probably 10x the amount of time playing Triple Triad compared to the story. When FFVIII came out on as a PSOne Classic I bought it just to play Triple Triad.

It’s the best mini game I’ve played in all of the Final Fantasy Series.

Resident Evil 2, first screen, by Kate Glasheen.

For whatever reason, I kind of fell out of gaming after the Super Nintendo/Genesis days.  I still played what I had here and there, but I had no idea what was happening in the market for a few years.  Out of nowhere, I asked for a Playstation and Resident Evil 2 as my 15th or 16th birthday present and it changed my f***ing life. I became a survival horror junkie from that point on despite how poorly I can handle being scared.

Metal Gear Solid, Nuke Building, by Rich.

I played Metal Gear Solid to absolute death when I was younger. I’d borrow it off my friend every other week to just play it again and again. I finally have my own copy now, which I still play from time to time. This is a map of the Nuke Building, all the floors I think. I can’t remember the items that are scattered about it though unfortunately. I put down all I could remember though! Oh I forgot all the dead bodies in the corridor going to Otacons lab *facepalm*!

Metal Gear Solid, Otacon’s lab, by Jimmy Ford.

I Know its rough, and I’m sure theres lots missing e.g the plant. I love metal gear, I havnt played this level in over 10 years!

Metal Gear Solid, opening scene, by churl.

Weapons and equipment OSP. 

When I started drawing this, I optimistically thought I’d be able to fit the third area in there too (the tank hangar), as well as a little of the B1 and B2 floors below it and a hint of the minefield beyond that. My reach seems to have exceeded my grasp, at least from this POV.

Silent Hill, Nowhere, by grem.

Map of the Nowhere area of the first Silent Hill. This part is characterized by its “twisted dimension” aspect, and there’s no in-game map… So it works as a very, very rough walkthrough as well.

I started playing this game since I was 8 or so (what?), and I’ve beaten it several times once I was able to endure it (believe me: not easy at all. And the school still freaks me out to this day).

I didn’t mark out all the jammed doors, I can’t remember that much, heh.

It’s been a few years since I played it last, getting all endings (but not that elusive 10 star ranking), so I might be wrong in some parts. SH is a great game, and even with its primitive 3D engine, I can play it again any day.

Even with the superior graphics and sounds from the sequels, this entry is still the one that scares me the most.

[Josh says: fantastic, grem.  Really love this memories-as-walkthrough approach.  I’ve loved the Silent Hill games for a long time; SH2 in particular left a really deep impression on me back around 2002 or so.  I just recently started playing through it again, and boy does the PS2’s graphical output look kind of sad these days but it still gets me right up on edge and shouting at the screen and cursing the door that I can’t QUITE trigger before the evil nurse monster gets a hit in.

Did y’all know about the whole Silent Hill HD thing?  They’re rereleasing SH2 and SH3 in a modern engine at 720p with some new voiceover work as well.  I’m excited to see how it turns out; I’m not always big on retreads, but in this case I’ve been pretty let down by the actual new releases in the franchise so giving some love and care to prettying up the titles that actually really shone the first time around seems like on okay move.]

Final Fantasy VII, Sector 7, by PontyfaxJr.

Since it’s the 15th anniversary of the release of Final Fantasy VII I decided to whip up a quick Mapstalgia for the game. Seeing as someone else has already done a better job than I would have of the World Map, I decided to focus in on a particular area that always stands out in my mind, Sector 7.

It’s the first area you get to where the game lets you relax, you can buy equipment here, visit the beginner’s hall for some gameplay tips (and an all materia!) check out the public masturbater’s “special place” or just head to the bar to flirt with Tifa.

It’s all the more memorable for how you leave it, though I won’t spoil it here as I’m sure there are still some people out there who haven’t played it. 

[Josh says: oh, the happy couple.  And then later they commit simultaneous double-suicide, or something?  I was never really clear on what the intent was there.  Maybe they just had a dramatically sarcastic approach to making snow angels?]

Resident Evil 2, path secret costumes, by peterbasmalord.

This is a quick map of the start of Resident Evil 2 with notes on how to get the Brad Zombie who drops the key to the alternate costume room! I think I first got this from a friend on my 11th Birthday and it was pretty much immediately my favourite game (replacing the first one!) still its up there in the top ten, would be amazing to get a remake. One with pre-rendered backdrops and puzzles and no motion controls!

[Josh says: awesome.  I love how explicitly this is a map of the path/process rather than a geographically proportional map of the territory.  With a fixed-camera game like the early Residents Evil that makes even more sense, too, since progress through the game is sort of a camera-angle at a time rather than a smooth traversal of a 3D space.]

Final Fantasy 8, world map, by a-screaming-clear-area.

I think I did a lot better on this one than my FF4 map. I missed a couple islands here and there, especially the Island Closest to Heaven. The Balamb and Trabia area is really wrong. Trabia is supposed to be connected to the Esthar landmass.

Tomb Raider II, The Great Wall, by Benjamin Poynter.

I think this represents the idea of ‘mapstalgia’ to me. Of all games that could possibly bring a family together, Tomb Raider II was it. I believe this is attributed to being at the right time and right place (which is arguably the catalyst for ‘all’ nostalgia). The PSX had just released and my folks decided the household upgrade from the wretched old Sega Genesis. After we caught wind and played through the TRII demo (the first half of this map), we bought the real game and the rest is history. Family social time was spent battling angry Frenchmen and irate frogmen as opposed to photo album flipping, and looking back, time well spent. I had no difficulty whatsoever bringing this information up. I guarantee its not the case for some other games I’ve played, but this particular nostalgia is almost known by heart.

[Josh says: I like everything about this.  Really nice draftsmanship.]