In our paper, we introduce special-generic-like maps or SGL maps as smooth maps, present their fundamental algebraic topological and differential topological theory and give non-trivial examples.The new class generalize the class of so-called special generic maps. Special generic maps are smooth maps which are locally projections or the product maps of Morse functions and the identity maps on disks. Morse functions with exactly two singular points on spheres or Morse functions in Reeb's theorem are simplest examples. Special generic maps and the manifolds of their domains have been studied well. Their structures are simple and this help us to study explicitly. As important properties, they have been shown to restrict the topologies and the differentiable structures of the manifolds strongly by Saeki and Sakuma, followed by Nishioka, Wrazidlo and the author. To cover wider classes of manifolds as the domains, the author previously introduced a class generalizing the class of special generic maps and smaller than our class: simply generalized special generic maps.