W
hen a post praising the thousands
upon thousands of game
walkthrough maps created by a
GameFAQs poster named
StarFighters76 circulated on
Twitter, the astounded responses weren’t only from
people seeing them for the first time. Tons of replies
were from players who’d used his maps before, but had
no idea just how many he’d created. “These maps have
gotten me out of SO MANY jams bro,” says one. “Shout
if you’ve been using these maps for the FF Pixel
Remasters,” says another. The collection of over 3 ,
maps that StarFighters7 6 has created is impressive, but
the number of players he’s helped
through more than 300 games may
be even more so.
For nearly 20 years, StarFighters
has been posting maps to GameFAQs,
one of the few surviving institutions
from the ’90s era of videogame
websites. Although his maps have
changed some over the years, it’s no
surprise that people recognised them.
Since the early 2 000s, StarFighters
has created maps with bright, basic
colour palettes and thin black lines that make no secret of
their Microsoft Paint origins.
They look simplistic at first – and some of his early
maps were certainly more pared-down versions of what
he now produces – but even his early work contains
numbered legends, helpful arrows, and other instructions
that elevate his maps from artistic recreations to actual
visual walkthroughs with puzzle solutions and directed
paths. They stand out on GameFAQs, which most of us
associate with guides submitted as plain text files.
“I actually use the old school MSPaint, like from the
early 2000s,” StarFighters7 6 says. Aside from being an
antique, old-school Paint really isn’t a forgiving program.
He could keep his visual style while
using a program that adds flexibility
with layers and more powerful tools. “I
should, honestly,” he says when I ask if
he’s ever considered changing. “But
MSPaint has been with me since day
one and hasn’t let me down yet so I
don’t want to turn my back on it.”
Like his choice of software,
StarFighters76 says that his process
has largely remained unchanged all
these years too. He starts out by
drawing a game map out on paperFAQs
facts
GameFAQs
originated as the
Video Game FAQ
Archive created
by Jeff ‘CJayC’
Veasey in1995,
accepting
requests and
volunteer
submissions for
game guidesand
answers. By the
time
StarFighters 76
startedposting
maps, itwas
already the go-to
for thousands of
players. Today, it
hosts adatabase
of guides and
answers for over
200,000 games.MAP QUEST
The diehard GAMEFAQS user who’s drawn over 3 , 500 mapsPCG INVESTIGATES