It’s the ninth day of the eight month, that means it’s time for the ScrollBoss site to revive The Revenge of 1989!

What’s the deal with 1989? The short answer is that a lot of beat ’em up, hack ‘n slash, and platformer games featured heavily on this site debuted that year, 16-bit games hit North America, the portable system revolution started, and a ton of other things, some of which you can read about here.

Custom Sprites:
Final Fight: redone Guy idle/fight stance sprite, modified ‘arms crossed’ taunt sprite to match the new idle.
Golden Axe: redone Tyris Flare select screen pose
Mega Man: non-MvC-look Mega Man in the NES pose
Strider: Soldier (red and green)
Shinobi: Yet another attempt to sprite Yamato, that good wolf from Shadow Dancer. Will it be the last? Who knows? Is it in today’s update? Yes.

All of the new custom sprites have been added to the main gfx generator, where I made the screenshot at the top of this post.


If this were just some normal year this update would be it. But this year is the 35th (!) Anniversary of 1989, so it’s time to do something special once again. There will be more site updates spread throughout August, ending with something I really wanted to do in 2014 but couldn’t: a video. Here’s a preview

Until then, get ready for more pixel art next week!

I’ve mostly been working on animations for this year’s videos since NYE, but I’ve got a few things to add this month.


Custom Sprites:
– Mega Man: I’m experimenting with my own Mega Man sprites, because I want to have some that are just mine and not trying to add to the Marvel vs. Capcom sprites.
Golden Axe: new sprites of Longmoan and male villager. If you visited this site in the old days, you may remember how the index page used to have animated GIFs of arcade version, and that’s part of why I had to animate it myself:

Mega Man: An all-new Mega Man sprite
– Marvel: Daredevil – two poses, new style, because I disliked the sprite I made in 2018.
– DC Comics: Peacemaker, from the backlog of sprites I’d drawn lineart for but hadn’t pixeltraced yet.
Illmosis: ScrollBoss site character Vonetta (aka Vernacula) redone holding stack of books sprite in her 2023 outfit. You’ll see more of Vonetta and other ScrollBoss site characters this year.
– Street Fighter Alpha 3 Vs. portraits: Blaze Fielding (SoR2)

Mini-logos: Peacemaker added to DC Comics.
portraits:
Street Fighter Alpha 3 Vs.: Blaze Fielding (Streets of Rage)

All these new pixel-things were also added to the GFX Generators where you can make fake screenshots, scenes, and other graphics.


Arcade Quartermaster also updated today with new shrines: Street Smart (SNK) and Aquajack (Taito)!

It’s the birthday of this website, but the presents are for you! No, you can’t exchange them at the store if they don’t fit. First, thank you for visiting the site, whether you’ve been stopping by since the Tripod and Angelfire years or if this is your first time. It’s fun to make these things, but it’s even more fun when people other people enjoy it. But you know what? Instead of doing the usual thing with shots from the generator, I’ve got a short video with most of the sprites in it.

Custom Sprites:
Captain Commando: all-new sprites of Captain Commando (1991 design), Carol, Brenda, Wooky, Eddy, Dick.
Final Fight: Eliza (a.k.a. Elissa) and Mary from Final Fight 2
Mega Man: original Mega Man robot master lineup is completed with new sprites of Cut Man, Guts Man, and Ice Man.
Street Fighter: Kimberly
DC Comics: Green Lantern Hal Jordan
Marvel Comics: Shadowcat/Kitty Pryde
Music: Wu-Tang Killer Bees

Mini-logos:
Capcom: Street Fighter 6 cutscene style logos for Kimberly, Dee Jay, Juri, and Damnd
Atlus: Atlus
Marvel Comics: Shadowcat
Music: Wu-Tang Clan

Custom Sprite Packs: (edit: 2023 July 22) Kitty Pryde and Shadowcat added to the X-Men CotA name graphics pack.

The high amount of new Capcom items is making up for the fact that I planned to do a bigger Capcom anniversary update a while back, but I had to concentrate on commission work. As usual, the new custom sprites and mini-logos are available to use in the GFX image generators


ToyBoss: A few new pics have been added, including that brand new side-scroller legend you see off to the side. Last year’s anniversary update featured a pic of my then-new Tyris Flare figure from Storm Collectibles and this update just happens to parallel that event with my new Gilius Thunderhead figure. I lucked out and caught one of the last sets on sale from Entertainment Earth, the online store where I got some of the luckiest finds of my rebuilt collection. Storm Collectibles is now exclusive to BigBadToyStore and you can find their Golden Axe line (and other Golden Axe items) here. Entertainment Earth still has one “Not Mint” Gilius left for $96.53 and free shipping, but it probably won’t be in stock for long. I also managed to get another figure I’ve wanted for years but aftermarket prices usually kept me away, until I found an incomplete one for a decent price: Sodom! It may have been a Street Fighter figure from SOTA, but we all know Sodom comes from the Final Fight series. I’ll probably have to customize a crest for his helmet and get a spare pair of swords so he can reach his full boss potential.

There’ll be more updates to the ToyBoss section soon because I need to update a few roster pics and my current customized figure project is about halfway done. I also got a new digital camera (on sale, of course) that won’t immediately murder its battery after being on for more than 8 minutes, so I’ll be having fun with that, too.


I mentioned a while back that I’ll have to rewrite a lot of code on the site to get it ready for the updated Dreamhost servers, and that’s going to be my main focus for a while. My hard drive has copies of the old and new code versions of the site running in two different XAMPP installs, which complicates adding new things to the online (and old) version of this site. So while site updates will be limited as I work on the new version of the site, I’m going add more things to the ScrollBoss YouTube channel on the side. Some areas may temporarily disappear when the site upgrade starts in August, so be sure to check out, enjoy, and right-click save what you want before then.


Elsewhere:

Kimimi just posted an article all about my favorite game genre: the beat ’em up! She’s got a few of my faves in there and she also sticks up for a maligned title that deserves another look in its original form.

Today this site celebrates 22 years of platformer appreciation, beat ’em up boosting, pixel art positivity and more!

Custom Sprites:
Adventure Island: Master Higgins
Battle Circuit: Pink Ostrich
Mega Man: Fire Man
Karate Champ: Judge
Street Fighter: Cammy – Super Street Fighter II fight stance
Marvel: six of the suit-wearing thugs from Capcom’s Punisher arcade game
Illmosis Network: Upski Daisy (Beans vs. Cornbread)
Kirby: King Dedede

Sprites:
the Punisher: added Jigsaw and Hawke. Just checked the file properties and it looks like I had some of those sprites ready in 2009 and forgot to add them to the gallery.

As usual, all these new things have been added to the main Image Generator, where you can make (and right-click save) your own images like the one at the top of this news post!

ToyBoss: photos of the amazing Storm Collectables Tyris Flare have been added. I’m still in a bit of shock that official Golden Axe figures are even being made, but even more shocked that I have Tyris. If the Gilius Thunderhead is still available when I get my money back up again, I’ll get him, too. I bought mine at BigBadToyStore, but Entertainment Earth has them, too.

BTW: just in case you haven’t heard, Jada Toys recently teased new lines of Street Fighter and classic Mega Man action figures, and samples will be shown at San Diego Comic Con. No news about the scale of these figures yet, but I’m hoping they’ll be in 1:12 scale to fit in with Marvel Legends and G.I.JOE Classified. Funko made a nice Mega Man and fully on-model and poseable Dr. Wily a few years ago and I hope the new figures fit that same scale, too.

This update has new and updated Capcom sprites, some fixes and additions to earlier updates, and a new video!


Mega Man – Roll (Classic)
Street Fighter – Chun-Li (in her brand-new Street Fighter 6 outfit), Street Fighter 2010’s Kevin Straker
Final Fight – Mike Haggar Final Fight 2
G.I.JOE – updated Cover-Girl, Doc, Quick Kick (made taller). Also added some section links at the top of the gallery so you can get to the sections more quickly.

Mini-Logos:
Capcom: Street Fighter 2010
DC Comics: Wonder Twins

As usual, all these new things have been added to the main Image Generator, where you can make (and right-click save) your own images like the one at the top of this news post!

I also made a video that recaps what I’ve posted and made during the first half of 2022. This includes some things I haven’t shown until now, including animations and video project previews (though I’m still holding back a bit here). This just might turn out to be a yearly thing, so I gave it the name of HalfTime.

BTW: the video uses the SMB regular reconstructed font by TheWolfBunny. It’s mad solid and has a lot of characters other pixel art-based fonts lack. Here’s where you can get it for yourself:
https://fontstruct.com/fontstructors/1258630/thewolfbunny
https://drive.google.com/file/d/10bCAxc4-PxVnD5lqDZFi7POS8YNhQpI1/view


Those G.I. Joe sprite updates and that G.I.JOE HQ clip you saw in the HalfTime video’s “lab” are prep work for the “Yo Joe June” update later this month, which will include a few more G.I. JOE sprites! Currently working on more replacements of the old Capcom sprite edits and more “Original 13” (the original 13 members of the G.I.JOE line-up). Stay tuned!


There’s currently a Kickstarter campaign for a Ninja Baseball Spirits comic book! Yes, the Ninja Baseball Bat Man beat ’em up legend is fighting get it’s due right now, but the campaign still needs help to reach its goal. The comic has an all-star line-up of people who appreciate beat ’em ups, including Drew Maniscalco (the original creator of Ninja Baseball Bat Man), writer Dave Cook (“Go Straight: The Ultimate Guide to Side-Scrolling Beat ‘Em Ups”), and artist Steve Gregson (BPM: Beatdowns Per Minute). The comic will be available in digital and physical forms and there’s a wide array of extras for higher tiers, some including the beat ’em up-based BPM comic as a bonus. There are sample pages and artwork on the Kickstarter page, so check it out and give ’em a pledge if you’re interested (yes, I’ve got my pledge in already)!

Custom Sprites: Finally, every character in the Marvel and DC gallery that only had a sprite edit based on a Capcom fighting game sprite now has a sprite I made from scratch. I’ve been working toward this goal on the side for a while, but I just decided to clear them all out before 2021 ended. Some of these new sprites are exact or close replacements for the old poses, but not all of them. The edits for those characters who weren’t originally in the games will be removed from the Image Generators.
Megaman: Megaman classic – redid the Rockman 1 title screen pose from scratch, Elecman (NES stance), Dr. Wily, and (by popular demand) Yellow Devil
Run Saber (new separate gallery): Allen and Sheena, new scratch-made idle sprites
DC Comics: Blue Beetle (Ted Kord), Red Tornado, Green Lanterns Guy Gardner, Arisia, Katma Tui, Kilowog, and a new Justice League group sprite with the Brave and the Bold #28 line-up.
Marvel Comics: Archangel, Havok, Professor X, Psylocke, Rogue, X-23, Doctor Octopus, the Lizard, and new group sprites of the Avengers (issue #1) and the X-Men (Konami beat ’em up playable roster)
Masters of the Universe: new Skeletor sprite (with Havok Staff)
G.I.JOE: all-new scratch-made Quick Kick

Mini-Logos:
Atlus: Run Saber
Marvel Comics: Archangel, Professor X
DC Comics: Blue Beetle, Red Tornado

ToyBoss: Added a page for my first custom figure in FIFTEEN YEARS and first custom Marvel Legend has been added to the page, the Red Skull in his business suit (as seen in Data East’s Captain America and the Avengers)!

All sprites (except for the group sprites) have been added to the image generators, along with:
– the Comic Book arcade background being added to the main generator (Group, Vs., MvC Ending, Comic 88×136, Boxes).

Last, but definitely not least, there’s a Wrap-Up video on the ScrollBoss YouTube channel! The vid is a mix of clips from my 2021 videos (the Superhero Showcade with Iron Man and Batman, Beat ‘Em Up Showcade 2021, DangerTerrorHorrorThon, and more), a few updated clips (The Gotham villain scroll no longer has Bane in it), and some all-new clips, including some with the sprites in today’s update:

It’s been a tiring year (online and off), so I’m going to get some rest for a while. Thank you for coming through, I hope you have a great remainder of 2021, and I’ll see you on the other side of New Year’s Eve!

18 years ago, I started this site with at the public library with Tripod’s free site builder, screenshots from the PC version of Sega’s Smash Pack (made on a friend’s computer, didn’t even have my own PC yet), and a bunch of tips and tricks I’d scrawled in a notebook. Seemed like it’d be a fun thing to do on the internet. Multiple hosting moves and weird ideas later.

The theme of today’s update is… every theme, including the lack of a theme. Characters from games, a few from comics, some 1989 icons (to rep the Revenge of 1989), an obvious crossover face-off (outside of Crossup Beatdown), a horror villain (before October’s DangerTerrorHorrorThon), an eighties cartoon character (before the usual Toy and Cartoon update near Christmas), a new original character for the site and the return of a character born in the long defunct Minus World section. It’s like a Whitman’s chocolate assortment of this site’s usual habits, so here’s the map that lets you avoid that one weird cream candy that makes you scrunch up in the face.

Custom Sprite additions
Bomberman: all-new Bomberman action pose
Final Fight: Cody (Street Fighter V stance)
Megaman: Bombman
Shinobi series: Joe Musashi (Revenge of Shinobi title screen)
Sonic the Hedgehog: Knuckles the Echidna (classic)
Konami: Cyber Ninja (Metal Gear Solid)
Toaplan: the Snow Bros. Nick & Tom
DC Comics: Harley Quinn
Marvel Comics: Beast and Hawkeye
Toys and ‘Toons: Cheetara of the Thundercats (1980s)
Horror: Pamela Voorhees new (and better) sprite
Illmosis/ScrollBoss: Endless Duck and Maddie Tenay (ScrollBoss mascot from the upcoming movie section)

All new sprites have been added to the main GFX Generator where you can make your own pics and fake screenshots! Other things added to the generators today:
– characters added: KoF Sports team added, Mojo (Marvel)
– characters updated: Mai Shiranui

While I’m at it, all prints on the site are on sale until the end of the month!


all 8 x 10/ 8.5 x 11 on the site are now $4!


11×17 inch prints are $8!

That’s the main part of the update. Some small preview additions to the Vs. Horror pt. 2 pixel print, an unfinished promo video and a thank you message are behind the cut. So, if you don’t read that, I’ll put an extra “Thank you” here to let you know that you’re appreciated!
(more…)

As posted earlier this week on the main Illmosis site, I finally drew new inked artwork of classic-era Mega Man!


That new Mega Man pic has just been added to the prints area of the shop page!


The Youngstown Comic Con takes place at Youngstown, Ohio’s Covelli Center next weekend, July 7th and 8th! In case you’ve missed the earlier site posts here, I’ll be in Artist Alley again, but, sadly, only on Sunday the 8th.

Don’t worry, it’s not just about comic books, as a lot of the other artists and vendors will have video game merch, and there’s always tons of video game cosplay going on. In fact, some of my earnings last year didn’t make it out of the building because I bought a loose copy of Gauntlet IV for the Genesis!

I’ll have a lot of the prints you see on the site along with the mini pixel art prints that I only have at conventions:

They’re only $1 each and… hmmm… a few seem to have a some sprites and backgrounds that aren’t on the site yet. Yes, a few of ’em find their way into future site updates.


Arcade Quartermaster just dropped its July update with a trio of beat ’em up shrines: Legionnaire, P.O.W. and, a personal favorite of mine, Karate Blazers!


That’s all for now. See you in July!

First of all, just in case you didn’t come in through the front door, check out the new and improved index page. That new index pic is YEARS in the making, because I wanted the new version to have 0% sprite edits. That’s all scratch-made, including a sprite done for the new group shot and can’t be found in the galleries yet. I’ll let you find him for yourself. That external link icon set is new, too. Like a lot of the things in this update, it’s long overdue, so let’s get to the rest of it.

Info Center: After years of neglect, the Game Index, Company Index, S-Files/Character profiles and Definition/Vernacula-X sections have been recoded and the main page itself has a new pic with site character Vonetta (a.k.a. Vernacula). She’s in charge of the Info Center and likes the place to be quiet, so keep the noise down while you’re in there.. The pages mostly look the same, but there were a lot of little fixes and improvements to a lot of entries, and the new system I’m using for all of them makes it easy to make changes in the future. Unfortunately, since I’ve been working on this here-and-there since mid-2017, I don’t remember all the brand new pages, so this is a partial list:
– Definitions: Doppelgänger, fighting game, fixed screen, frankensprite, head swap, tile
– S-Files: Billy Lee, Jimmy Lee

Custom Sprites: there are now separate galleries for Alex Kidd, Ghosts ‘n Goblins, Ninja Gaiden, the Zelda series
Ghosts ‘n Goblins: a new scratch-made Arthur sprite.
Mega Man: a new scratch-made MvC1-style Mega Man sprite.
Data East: Santos (Trio the Punch)
Konami: Solid Snake (MGS)
Sega: Mary (Quartet)
Marvel: Black Cat (Spider-Man arcade fighting stance)
Illmosis: a new sprite of Vonetta (a.k.a. Vernacula)

Sprites: lots of behind-the-scenes work was done on nearly all the galleries, mostly switching to the new image display format. There are a few new things, though.
Golden Axe: the Duel: all arcade big portraits are now there (and separate) and an new .GIF of the final boss.
P.O.W.: new gallery with sprites of the player characters.

Mini-logos:
Konami: Metal Gear Solid

GFX Generators: All of the new custom sprites and mini-logo have been added to the main generator, where The Mego WGSH set-up gets a better set of Konami face circles.

**wipes brow** That’s all for now. Please let me know if you run into any errors or broken parts of the site, because this update changed at least 40% of the site!

The Mega Man NES Boss Intro and Boss select screens now work in the new GFX Generator engine, and the Fakeshot (8-bit) generator has been update to use the v.2 versions, including the Shops from the separate River City Ransom Shop generator that was upgraded last week. New Mega Man-stype edits: Hawkwoman/Hawkgirl (DC Comics), Dr. Octopus (Marvel Comics), Doctor Emmitt Brown (Back to the Future) and Doctor Detroit.


The River City Ransom Shop generator was updated, too! Two new shops have been added: Good Burger, Daddy Green’s Pizza. New sprites include Ed (Good Burger), Lester Oakes (dissatisfied Good Burger customer), Daddy Green (the Last Dragon), the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (they heard a new pizza place was available!), Paul (River City Ransom: Underground), Scott Pilgrim and Ramona Flowers, Batsu and Hinata (Rival Schools).

Those new sprites have been added to the Mega Man NES and River City Ransom custom sprite galleries

That’s not all! X-Men: CotA portraits of Jubilee and Gambit (made from Jim Lee art) have been added to the X-Men:CotA and main image generators!

Also: the part of the GFX Generator where you enter text now has a border for each entry and description so you’ll know exactly what’s what. Well, in the generator, not life itself.

Also: I’ve got FOUR commission slots open! Check out the Illmosis.net commissions page for all the details on how you can get me to make a sprite or two for you!