Post

Random thought: run a simulator to generate every map, then parse the data to determine which one has the most land area. Is it still 0061? LOL

I will try doing that! I guess if I isolate the terrain generation routine and use libsnes to simulate the routine with all map numbers I can export them and generate the pictures out of it.

The game used to generate the terrain, then another routine converted to a bitmap using SNES format. Now, while the game generates the terrain, it stores its pixel to the bitmap buffer, which at every frame SA-1 Character Conversion DMA converts instantly to SNES GFX format, becoming an animation.

The game converts the map numbers into a seed which is fed to the map generation. There was a bug that allowed to you have up to 2,000 maps due to an uninitialized value when entering the main generation menu without touching anything. Now they are #1,000-#1,999 maps.

And finally, #2,000-#9,999 are additional maps done by re-feeding seed in another way, so you can have much more maps on the game with a cheap change. When you click on the map, there's a full screen view (made with Mode 7) and the animations work as well.