April 21st, 2023

We’re still in that month of foolery, April, so this update adds more pizzazz to the site’s image generators!

Custom Sprites:
River City Ransom/Kunio-kun 8-bit: Kyoko and Misako (Shin Nekketsu Kōha: Kunio-tachi no Banka uniforms), Spider-Man
custom Street Fighter Alpha/Zero 3 portraits: Terry Bogard (the portrait I teased in late March’s update) and a scratch-made Ryu Hayabusa (replacing the old edit).
Illmosis – ScrollBoss: Two sprites added to what I’m calling the “archetype” series for now. First is a brand-new “Bunny Costume” Lady and the second is an Undead Zombie. Zombie (o’, Zombie) was originally made in 2020 for some merch, but I made a few adjustments and added him to the site and the generator. These two are also helping to test out a new feature I’ve just added to the…

GFX Generator: A new River City Ransom/Kunio-kun ‘scenes’ screenstyle has been added to the Fake Screenshot and River City Ransom generator pages. So, yeah, finally some beat ’em up in-game shots (but no combat… yet). I’m starting it with 16 background/set-up shots from around the map and two “crossover” backgrounds that I’ll let you find for yourself. I also added standing sprites of the lower enemies from River City Ransom, along with Misako, Kyoko, Misuzu, Kumiko & Miyuki from River City Super Sports Challenge for the PC.

Today’s update adds a new feature that I’m currently calling “Extra Palettes” that are sub-palettes beneath the main palettes that only change a part of the palette. So in these special characters, you pick the main palette and then use pull down text menus below those palettes to change hair, skin color, outfit part colors, and so-on. It’s almost like I’ve added a palette editor to the generator.

Two Illmosis section characters in the main generator have these palettes so far: the new Bunnylady and the Undead Zombie (found in the “Monsters (Illmosis)” character). In fact, the Bunnyladies were almost in the March update, but I ran into the problem I had with the River City Ransom/Kunio-kun Variable Color character (more info about this in the full post). The Fake Screenshot (8-bit) section’s River City Ransom Variable Color and the RCR/Nekketsu drone enemies have this ability, too. If this works, I’ll be adding more options to these characters along with adding these functions some other sprite sets where it’d make sense. I feel like there’s a specific 8-bit platforming character who could benefit from extra color options.

BTW: I’m going to be part of this Saturday’s Retro Roundtable on the Dire and Bette YouTube channel! I’m not sure if I can say what the theme is yet, but it’s a game subject that I like A LOT.

edit: here’s the roundtable stream!

Full story on the old “variable colors” characters in the image generators:

In 2013, back in the early days of the River City Ransom shop generator, I made a separate character called “RCR SD NES variable colors” that had copies of some sprites with extra palette separation and color options. This was add some character customization options. But to do that, I had to add a GIANT list of alternate palettes you had to scroll through with different combinations of hair, shirt, and skin colors. I kept the options kinda low because just with the five shirt colors it was 36 palettes. It was clunky, but always meant to be temporary. Ten years later, the REAL idea that I wanted to do is here.

Today’s update adds a new feature that I’m currently calling “Extra Palettes” that are sub-palettes beneath the main palettes that only change a part of the palette. So in these special characters, you pick the main palette and then use pull down text menus below those palettes to change hair, skin color, outfit part colors, and so-on. It’s almost like I’ve added a palette editor to the generator.

edit 04-24-2023 5:19 PM: I’ve been knocking out some of the behind-the-scenes bugs still rolling around in this and I think I have a 100% working version on my hard drive’s copy of the site. Once I can do more testing after work tonight to confirm it, I’ll update it here and the River City Ransom goons will have extra palettes for the pants. But the JPN school uniform versions of those goons are already added.

edit 04-24-2023 11:11 PM: Everything seems to be working now, including alt. jeans colors for the RCR thugs.

Filed under: ScrollBoss Updates, Site News, Updates by PrimeOp
Tags: Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari, marvel comics, River City Ransom, Shin Nekketsu Kōha: Kunio-tachi no Banka