The Beat ‘Em Up Showcade is ready! Okay, the video has been up since yesterday, BUT STILL. I originally planned to have Showcase videos for Double Dragon and Bad Dudes last year, but *shrugs* 2020. You know what I mean. Trying to make them in 2021 didn’t work out for better reasons, so I decided to make a Showcade filled with beat ’em ups. Nothing with an outside license (TMNT, Punisher, X-Men) is in the vid, because the straight-up game content felt a little neglected here lately. Let’s watch the video first, then I’ll break down what was added to the site.

Once again, mad thanks to Wizzy for allowing me to use that amazing BGM track for the video. I’ve had it stuck in my head since I picked it for the video, and it makes me feel like kicking doors open and throwing oil drums at people all day. AVPboy’s music does the same for me, and the added pressure of trying to do justice with their music in the videos pushes me to work harder.

Now for the newness that was added to the site itself!

Custom Sprites:
– Crime Fighters: Sledge, Hawk and Boomer from Crime Fighters 2/Vendetta finally get fight stance sprites, Hawk gets a redone taunt to match, and Boomer’s taunt gets a size fix. CF2/Vendetta knife thugs were also added.
– Double Dragon: Linda’s earlier two sprites completely redrawn, an extra variation of the taunt was added, and are available in arcade, NES, and DDII designs. The Billy and Jimmy Lee “JPN arcade flyer” poses were updated to fit the newer style Lee Bros. sprites I started adding months ago.
– Final Fight: Maki (FF2 fight stance, select pose edited to match newer sprite), Mike Haggar – Saturday Night Slam Masters gear (also added to the Slam Masters gallery)
– Growl: Jetgun
– Kung-Fu Master: All Five “Sons of the Devil” (a.k.a. the Bosses) get new sprites, and Silvia gets a sprite, too.
– Kunio-kun: Kunio (Nekketsu Kouha Kunio-kun flyer pose)
– Renegade (new separate gallery): the Renegade/Mr. K, Sabu
– Rushing Beat: Wendy Milan (taunt)
– Streets of Rage: Barbon and Jet(SoR/BK 2) added, Skate Hunter updated (made shorter than the 2020 sprites)

All new sprites are now in the image generators, where you can make your own sprite scenes, fake screenshots, etc.

Filed under: ScrollBoss Updates, Site News, Updates by PrimeOp
Tags: Double Dragon, Final Fight, Growl, Kung-Fu Master, Kunio-Kun, Renegade, Rushing Beat, Sprite Showcade, Streets of Rage, Vendetta
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Happy Birthday to Mike Haggar, Mayor of Earth (formerly Metro City)!

I’ve redone the “raised fists” pose sprite (based on the official art from the first game) in the new style of the two Haggar sprites I added in August and added it to the sprite gallery and image generator! I still need to make some adjustments to all of them, and that’s when Haggar’s optional palettes will return in the image generator.

You’ll see more of the mayor, his friends and more belt scroll legend later this month, because the Beat ‘Em Up Showcade is still on the way!

Expect some all new sprites along with some more do-overs:

So, until then, be good, because Haggar is watching you…

Filed under: ScrollBoss Updates, Site News, Updates by PrimeOp
Tags: Final Fight, Saturday Night Slam Masters series
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This Revenge of 1989 update, celebrating the year that many of this site’s favorite games were released, may not have a lot of new sprites, but it definitely has big sprites to make up for it!

Custom Sprites
– Final Fight: Completely redone sprites of Mike Haggar, fight stance and hands on hips, in a hopefully better style added.
– Golden Axe: Red Dragon, Blue Dragon (and Tyris Flare riding both) and Chicken Leg (edited from the 2018 Chicken Stinger sprite) added, along with adding sub-galleries for many characters

All new custom sprites were added to the GFX Image Generators!

Also updated

Sprites: Golden Axe gallery (GA1 arcade beasts, heroes on beasts and items)

Getting the new computer finished a few months ago made me want to experiment with different ways of making sprites, and the main new sprites were originally drawn in Clip Studio (instead of the pencil-paper-sometimes ink scans I usually make) before being shrunken to sprite size. Had to make adjustments to the ride/bizarrian Dragon after shrinking, but it’s pretty close:

I also wanted a better, unified set of sprites for Haggar for September’s Beat ‘Em Up Showcase (preview here), so I used Clip Studio trace my old sprites of him at 1000%.

I made changes after I shrank and made pixel art of the first two poses, along with drawing the head at pixel size, so I’ll bring those new sprites into the CS file, adjust the lines to fit the sprites for reference for future sprites, like Haggar’s arms up pose from the old Final Fight artwork.

I’ve done other experiments, but I’ll post about them later.

Filed under: ScrollBoss Updates by PrimeOp
Tags: Final Fight, Golden Axe, The Revenge of 1989
2 Comments »

DC Comics: Deadshot, Deathstroke, Sinestro, Star Sapphire

Those were the last four DC Comics villains who needed scratch-made sprites instead of the old sprite edits made from Capcom sprites (though the edits can be seen in the characters’ mini galleries).

GFX Generators: All new sprites added, along with…
– MvC ending: frames based on Street Fighter Alpha 2 (with and without top) and Final Fight (3 font colors)

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My day job is currently deemed “essential” so I only get to quarantine in my time off. That means I only get my normal amount of time to hunker down and work on things. Here are some little previews of things that aren’t quite read to show just yet.

Filed under: ScrollBoss Updates by PrimeOp
Tags: dc comics, Final Fight, Street Fighter Alpha 2
1 Comment »

It’s the final Friday of Final Fight’s 30th anniversary month, so this update is filled with new Final Fight sprites, including many you may have seen in a video a while ago, but there’s a whole new one, too. This update also features other beat ’em up characters and the debut of the NEW Brawlstreet crossover beat ’em up site header on the main menu (you may have to refresh a few times to see it). Let’s get into it!

Custom Sprites:
Final Fight: new sprites of Haggar (FF1 art pose), Axl and Slash (redone, better), Edi. E (scratch-made, FF1 waiting pose), Sodom (made from scratch), Poison (Capcom Fighting All-Stars alt), Dean, Bay Area Dog/Shiro
Double Dragon: Lopar/Roper (new, better standing sprite)
Streets of Rage: Dr. Zan
Kunio-kun: Misako and Kyoko – SD sprites of their Shin Nekketsu Kōha -Kunio-tachi no Banka outfits
IREM: the Vigilante. Kung-Fu Master was finally moved to its own gallery.
Technos: the red shirted bald enemy from Renegade

All sprites have been added to the main image generator, where you can make graphics like the ones I used to show off the sprites here.

Filed under: ScrollBoss Updates, Site News, Updates by PrimeOp
Tags: Brawlstreet, Double Dragon, Final Fight, Final Fight 3, Kunio-Kun, Renegade, Streets of Rage, Vigilante
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Happy Brawlidays on the streets of Metro City from Haggar Claus and (idea by Myruh_Ret2 on Twitter) KramPoison!

A full update drops this Friday, including A LOT of Final Fight sprites!

Filed under: ScrollBoss Updates, Site News, Updates by PrimeOp
Tags: christmas, Final Fight
Comments Off on Happy Brawlidays

So after the uploading the “Toys and Trouble” and watching the Joe Bob Briggs Red Christmas marathon on Shudder Friday night, I woke up Saturday thinking that I’d be able to get some rest. Then I go to Twitter and see that people are talking about how it was the anniversary day of Final Fight. I knew December was the month (and had been planning something for it long ahead of time), but could never find anything about the exact day. Even now, I can’t find anything other than the month and the year. Anyway, I couldn’t let the day slip by, so I worked like mad all day to finish (as much as I could) and put it on Twitter and Instagram. It’s not on YouTube yet because it’s not the full version of what I wanted to do. The main thing is that I’ve now made sprites of every hero, enemy and ally in the game, including the characters already brought into the Street Fighter Alpha series. They’re all in the video below:

View this post on Instagram

A quick little video with many of.the Final Fight sprites I've made over the years, now that I have the whole cast sprited. I made the backgrounds and stage 1 Bgm remix, too! #pixelart #finalfight #streetfighter #capcom #videogames #beatemup

A post shared by James Beaver (@illscroll) on Dec 14, 2019 at 8:49pm PST

Things that had to be finished for this clip: the broken wall part of the logo, gradient FIGHT shading, spriting more of Belger’s room and fixing issues with Sodom’s sprite. The new sprites for Axl & Slash, Sodom, Rolento, Edi.E, and Shiro (the Bay Area Dog) aren’t in the galleries YET, but will appear later in the month.

While I’m talking about Final Fight, the “Guy vs. Mad Gear” video isn’t going to make it out before the end of the year. I think I’ve got about 85% of the sprites I need for it. Thing is, I’m just kinda tired. I tried to do too much at once this year (there’s STILL stuff you haven’t seen yet), was too worn out from day job work and it’s going to need more time. It’s probably for the best, because the Showcade video idea made me rethink all my other video ideas, so I think I’ll get that show going stable first before going back to that fight scene. I’ll probably try to take a REAL break after I’m done this year, but then I said that more than once earlier this year.

Stay tuned, though, because this site still has some business to take care of before this year is over!

Filed under: ScrollBoss Updates, Site News, Updates by PrimeOp
Tags: Final Fight
2 Comments »

1989 wasn’t just a good year, it’s a year that changed entertainment in a lot of permanent ways. Thing is, you pretty much had to be there, or maybe been alive long enough to get a at least a minor lay of the land before it to see how things changed after. The arrival of multiple Genre-changing beat ’em ups, the 16-bit invasion of America with the Genesis and Turbografx-16, handheld gaming changing forever (thanks to Nintendo’s Game Boy and the Atari Lynx), mutant mania hitting video games (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and X-Men), are just part of why 1989 is so amazing, and that’s why this site celebrates that year on August 9th. Without further yapping, here’s the new content:

Custom Sprites
– Crime City: Mayor (tied up)
– Crime Fighters: Final Boss/Mr. Lee
– Final Fight: Cody (new FF JPN flyer pose), Poison (Street Fighter V stance with FF, SFV, and FF marquee outfits), Andore (stand), Jessica (kidnapped, red dress)
– Golden Axe: Skeleton (redone), Ax Battler, Tyris Flare and Gilius Thunderhead (MD cover art poses)
– Shinobi: Hayate Musashi (Shadow Dancer arcade)
– Wonder Boy: Leo and Purapril (Wonder Boy III:Monster Lair)
– TMNT: April (kidnapped, cinema pose)
– Literature: Chu Liuxiang (Master Chu and Drukard Hu/the Chu Liuxiang series by Gu Long)
– DC Comics: Batman (1989 NES title screen/movie still pose),Robin/Tim Drake (debuted in 1989)
edit: couldn’t help it, decided to add:
– Kunio-Kun/River City Ransom: Downtown Nekketusu Monogatari/River City Ransom NES style sprite of Freddy Krueger from Nightmare on Elm Street 5 (1989) added.

GFX Generator: all the new content that fits in the generator have been added, and the main generator gets a remake of the Electoric store in the second stage of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.The Marvel vs. Capcom 1 Ending option in the main generator and standalone MvC 1 generator now has more backgrounds based on and/or from Final Fight, Pac-Man games (Pac-Land debuted for the PC Engine in 1989), DC Comics (including the Batman 1989 stage remake I did years ago), Friday the 13th (LJN for NES remake), and all the arcades.

edit (Aug. 10, 2019): added Sunsoft blue top NES box to “Boxes, Flyer & Posters 160×192” in the main generator. “Hey, that background in the Crime Fighters box isn’t in the generator!” That’s one of the many unfinished things that didn’t make it in this time, and is also why there’s three tied-up sprites in the update.

Filed under: ScrollBoss Updates, Site News, Updates by PrimeOp
Tags: Batman, Batman 1989, Crime City, Crime Fighters, Final Fight, gfx generator, Golden Axe, Nightmare on Elm Street, Shadow Dancer, The Revenge of 1989, tmnt, Wonder Boy
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I hinted at not having something ready for the 19th Anniversary update and it was this: the complete version of ScrollBoss Sprite Showcade’s episode 000!

This episode is basically a test of the main template of the show’s format of three separate showcases, and each showcase has:
1.) a gallery mode that shows single or groups of sprites by character.character type (usually with a “character select” screen theme)
2.) sprites in scenes (done in Anime Studio Pro 10), usually with multiple characters grouped together.
3.) work progress .GIFs that show many of the steps I saved while making some of the sprites.

The showcases in this episode are Golden Axe (stars in the original ScrollBoss banner pic), Final Fight (series I’ve made the most fan sprites for), and Castlevania (already had lots of sprites, backgrounds and I wanted a platformer with a different theme).

The biggest thing for me was getting permission to use a remix from the CPS2 sound maestro, WizzyWhipitWonderful, to use for the Castlevania showcase. I don’t know how he does it (my remixes for the Golden Axe and Final Fight section prove that), but he can make BGM tracks that sound like Capcom never stopped producing CPS2 Vs. fighters while managing to tap into character and setting vibes to create themes perfectly fitting any character or theme he’s paying tribute. That’s not even his only musical style, either. His Poison Mind remix is so dope that I added and extended clips just so it’d have more of the hype part of the song!

I’ve got ideas for the future of Showcade, and I’m checking feedback on episode 000 to figure out what to change for future eps. One hint I’ll give you is that if you look at what’s missing from the game select screen, you may be able to figure out one of the other ideas I have. Feel free to let me know what you think of the episode or format and which games you’d like to see in future Showcades!

Filed under: ScrollBoss Updates, Updates by PrimeOp
Tags: CastleVania series, Final Fight, Golden Axe, Sprite Showcade
1 Comment »

In the year 2000 AD, the first version of this website was cobbled together with a some brief game reviews, a few tips and some sprites. Now it’s pretty much just a lot of sprites. But how many sprites are really enough? There’s never enough! So here we go with the 19th Anniversary Update!

– Final Fight: Maki (scratch-made FF2 fight stance)
– IREM: Ryno (Ninja Baseball Bat Man)
– Metroid: Ridley (classic)
– NuChallenger: Lisa Santiago (new pose, better style than my 2014 sprite)
– RAK Graphics(new page): Chakan the Forever Man
– Marvel: The Kingpin, Nick Fury (scratch-made “Punisher” Capcom fight stance in three versions)
(added July 20th)

– Denjin Makai: Amazoness, Silf, Valkyrie

Ryno was done for EddieMountainGoat, one of the main people I know who want to see the NBBM team finished! The female acrobats from Denjin Makai were added for SKB, another friend of the site!

By the way: I’ve had a chance to meet Robert A. Kraus, the creator of Chakan, a few times at events in the area this year and I was able to give him a printout of the Chakan sprite (and mini-logo) at the Youngstown Comic-Con a few weeks ago. Not only is he a great indy comic creator, writer and artist, but he’s a toy customizer and just a really cool person to talk to if you find him at a convention. If you’re like me and always wondered what the Chakan comics are like, check out the RAK Graphics site for a look at the Forever Man and more. There’s a mix of horror with sword & sorcery/fantasy and I’m glad I’m finally getting to read it.

Mini-logos: the Kingpin (Marvel gallery), Chakan (RAK Graphics gallery), Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe (Midway/Williams gallery and DC gallery)

GFX Generators: Various improvements and bug fixes were made to the main engine, including allowing you to change text and font on the Picture Modification screen. I added that part a few days ago, but needed to make a few more fixes to it. Please let me know if you run into any problems with this.

the new sprites, mini-logos and more have been added, along with…
– other updated characters: Mega Man, Cammy, Chun-Li, Sakura, Vega, Apocalypse, Iceman, Rogue
– idle/fight stance added: Adon, Balrog, Blanka, Sagat, Blackheart, Captain America, Colossus, Gambit, Magneto, Juggernaut, Omega Red, Sentinel, Silver Samurai, Spider-Man, Shuma-Gorath, Storm (Marvel), Thanos
– fighter-sized screenstyles: Marvel Legends updated with X-Men Sauron-series box.

Here’s possibly the biggest part of the site update: Marvel vs. Capcom 1 endings have been added to the Fighter sprite generator (edit 2019-07-23: or just go to this separate generator page I just added that’s specifically Marvel vs. Capcom)!

Choose up to five characters, pick a background (65 so far), sprite layout (mostly based on actual endings) and frame, add your own text.
edit 2019-07-21: added MSHvsSF and SFA/Z3 looks (still MvC1 layout and character limits) and over a dozen SFA3 backgrounds to MvC 1 ending

ScrollBoss Shop: All prints are on sale for the rest of July! 8×10 and 8×11 prints are $4.00 each!
11 x 17/11 x 14 prints $8.00 each! Sale prices are also in effect for the main Illmosis print page, which has more than game or pixel-related prints.

I may add more to the update through the weekend, so don’t be surprised if this post changes. There’s one more thing I’ve got, but I may not have it ready before the day is over, but I’ll add it here once it’s done. It’s about 95%, but I’m waiting on a gift from a guest contributor you should recognize.

Whether you’ve been here before or this is your first visit, thank you for stopping and I hope you enjoy this mess of a site!

Filed under: ScrollBoss Updates, Site News, Updates by PrimeOp
Tags: Chakan, Final Fight, gfx generators, marvel comics, Metroid, Ninja Baseball Bat Man, Street Fighter, Treachery in Beatdown City, X-Men
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