I apologize for all of these low-content updates but certain things are being saved for next month’s 10th Anniversary shindig.

Vs. Maker – Dmitri, Gambit, Gilius Thunderhead, Kim Kaphwan & King (SNK) get alt-palette power.

Articles – I made a very minor change to the Resize Matters article since the sprites on the index page have been non-blurrified long ago. I got Pac-Man World 2 for the PS2 as a gift as a gift so that was added to the Game List.

If any of you remember what the Minus World humor section was like here from 2001-2002, you may remember the sprite edit this teaser pic was based on:


That article will be back next month and others will follow later this year until all of the old articles are back in some way, shape or form.

What? You guessed “The same damned thing you’ve been working on for the last few updates?” If so, then you are correct sir/madam/noun.

Vs. Maker – I’m not sure what caused the site to start getting PHP depreciation warnings between the time I updated last Wednesday and 4:32 as I type this but the main thing that got broken was the Vs. Maker. Well, that’s fixed now. I’m very, very sorry about it being broken for however long it was fubared but it’s back up and running.

Pal-enabled, new sprites, new palettes: Dan, Ken (CvS & SFA), Maki, Felicia
Pal-enabled, new palettes: Geese Howard, Solo (Strider)
New sprites, new palettes: Athena
New sprites: Cyclops
New palettes: Chun-Li (CvS)

Besides improving the Vs. Mode engine, I’m also breaking it down into smaller modules so I can also re-use the programming in future graphic generators. So while the updates may look weak in content amount, I’m working on new effects (sprite-based shadows) and getting ready to make whole new generators.

Site news – Two dates of significance are coming up in the next few months.
Next week: my birthday. There may or may not be an update next week.
July 19th: ScrollBoss’ 10th Anniversary. Expect new things to appear. Expect old things to disappear. Expect fun things. Expect surprises. That’s all I’m saying for now.

Custom Sprites – Comic and MvsC style War Machine sprite edits were added to the Marvel page.

Vs. Maker – This is probably the biggest, chunkiest update since the alt. palettes first hit. I apologize for taking so long with the palette conversion work but many of them are truly pains-in-the-butt that take longer than you’d think. It takes even longer if I add a ‘smart palette’ to them for extra color combinations. A few characters, especially Captain Commando and Sodom, now have a ton of sprites to choose from.
Pal-enabled, new sprites, new palettes: Captain Commando, Colossus, Cody, Dr. Doom, E. Honda, Hulk, Mai, Sodom
Pal-enabled, new palettes: Damnd, Death Adder, Edi.E, Billy and Jimmy Lee (now one character), Rastan
New sprites: War Machine
Pal-swap enabled without new sprites or new color sets: Athena (CvS)

One more piece of unfinished business:

Added to the DC Comics custom sprite page and the separate character and tornado sprites of this can be downloaded from the Custom Sprite Download page.

edit:
Also, the artist from the link I posted Wednesday now has a deviantART account!
http://born-toulouse.deviantart.com/
It must take some serious time, patience and steady hands to finish those bead sprites!

Hey, it’s a rare Wednesday update just like the old days! Here’s what’s new:

Custom Sprite PacksDug (Final Fight) is now available in Alpha/Vs. sprite style and Bred was updated because I accidentally had the misaligned punch animation in there. If you downloaded it before, please download it again to get your proper punch action. I made another horrible video to show both drone sprite sets in action:

Vs. Maker – Cyclops and Rolento got alternate palettes and new sprites while Karnov, Ms. Marvel and Ryu Hayabusa just got alternate palettes.

This week’s special link is to 8-Bit Monkeys (MySpace account) where you can see some sprites brought into the real world using microbeads. You’ll see a lot of 8-bit examples there but you’ll also see some work with more colors in it. Keep an eye on the page because there’s more great work on the way!

Just a small Vs. Maker update to keep things active until the next real site update. The following characters have been palette-swap enabled along with getting at least one sprite added: Balrog (with new sprite edit taunt), Blackheart (and Mephisto), Blanka, Cammy, Juggernaut, Psylocke, Rogue, Spider-Man (with Armored Spider-Man palette), Storm.

Also:
The Dug sprite set should be ready later this month.

Vs. Maker 0.85 is now in effect. Two things have been added to warrant the increase from 0.80 to 0.85.

The first is the “NameGFX” option for games that use sprites that write the names in a single font instead of using minilogos or true in-game fonts that type a name out letter-by-letter. These name sprites can cheat in ways that fonts can’t by having certain letters overlap or use smaller versions of the letter. The first two Vs. Maker screenstyles to use this feature are X-Men: Children of the Atom and Street Fighter Alpha 3. I made a few custom names for each but most unconnected characters will still display either nothing (X-Men) or a custom secret character name sprite (“?????” in SFA3).



The big new thing: Alternate Palettes for sprites. Only a few characters have it right now but that will grow over time but you can now choose alternate palettes for certain characters. This is one of the biggest things I wanted to have working and it’s good to finally have it in place. Don’t expect many (or any) new characters until everyone has palettes enabled but some existing characters will get sprites added.

Alt. Palette characters: Andore, Altered Beast werewolf, Arthur (GnG), Bad Dudes (now one merged character), Capt. America (with U.S. Agent), Chun-Li, ESWAT’s ICE and File 96 (merged into one char that shares palettes), Guy, Iron Man/War Machine (also merged), Karate Champ, Megaman, Poison (& Roxy), Ryu and Sagat.

Added sprites: Capt. America (new poses + 1 U.S. Agent sprite edit), Chun-Li (CvS sprites!), Iron Man (with War Machine MvsC art sprite edit), Megaman (a few new sprites), Ryu and Sagat.

This was uploaded a week earlier than I planned so there may be some bugs. More characters will be palette-enabled in upcoming weeks, more NameGFX will be added and other fixes will trickle in with every update. This is still in test mode so please let me know if there’s something that isn’t working. You can leave feedback in the comments section of this post. Thanks and I hope you have fun with this!

edit: Something about the Vs. Maker update causes the modified characters to be botched in Internet Explorer. I don’t have a clue why other than, well, that’s the kind of thing Internet Explorer does, isn’t it? It works in both Firefox and Opera but it’s straight-up buggin’ in IE. I’ll look into why but don’t expect that to get fixed soon because I have NO idea why it’s doing this.

This isn’t an update but it’s important enough to put in the news section.

I’m going to be at the All AmeriCon convention in Warren, Ohio this weekend (May 2nd). I have a post on Illmosis with more info here. Even if you can’t buy anything, stop by and get that Illmosis party flyer that mentions ScrollBoss’ 10th birthday.

ScrollBoss has been quiet for a while because I’ve focused on making more drawn art for the convention. People who know the early days of this site may remember I did the same thing when getting ready for other conventions. They may also remember that I’d make sure that the following month would have crazy updates to make up for it and that’s how May is going to be here.. Do you like the Vs. Maker graphic generator? Then you’ll like it even more when you see one of the new features in the next update. What is it? See if you can figure it out from this screenshot:

May is going to be an active month here so be sure to keep an eye on the site.

The latest Illmosis update includes Tyris Flare finally being finished with a background and everything:

Tyris Flare on Illmosis

The gallery page on the site is here and is also on DeviantArt.

Sorry if things look a bit weird right now but my plan to update the layout, CSS and other things went awry like so much mad science. One good result is that things look a bit more consistent on every page. It’s not 100% yet but a lot of older pages finally got redone. I went into a few sections like the Tutorials got a bit of extra work to make the basics look nicer. I also remade the logos again. This new set turned out nice and crisp so I’ll probably stick with them for a while. One other new thing is the new Final Fight banner added to the main menu header rotation. The banners are randomly chosen but I stacked the list so that you’ll probably see it.

Meanwhile, I’m taking my time on coloring the Tyris Flare pic that I drew a while ago. Here’s another preview shot:

Don’t forget that Final Fight: Double Impact is available for X-Box Live and Playstation Network this week. You get fully enhanced versions of both Final Fight and Magic Sword with achievements, unlockable content, online co-op, remixed BGM, graphic filters and much, much more. If you have the system and the money, be sure to pick it up for all the pipe-swinging, lizardman bribing fun!

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