Custom Sprites – DC Comics: New sprites Lex Luthor (70’s Battle Array a.k.a. the Jumpsuit), the Parasite (Silver Age era and DCAU versions) and Mr. Myxzptlk added. Updates for Lois Lane: four earlier sprites modified, new Silver Age and Action Comics #1 work outfit added.

Mini-logos: Parasite and Mr. Myxzptlk added

ToyBoss: Added a boxed group shot of Jada Toys Mega Man wave 1, featuring Mega Man, Fire Man, and Ice Man. Been meaning to take more shots of them, but time is tight. But I did get an extra shot of Mega Man and Jada Toys Chun-Li together, and also added a shot I took last December of Chun-Li and Black Widow fighting some Cobra Valkyries.

The new sprites have been added to the main image generator, which I used to make the pic at the top of this post!

Last but not least, here’s the 2024 Superman Sprite Showcase video! Every clip (that I can remember) from the 2020 version has been redone and now has things like those cover-like sprite displays I didn’t come up with until 2021. Look carefully one of the characters who got a new sprite today also got a new animation that isn’t in the update. Best of all, it has WizzyWhipitWonderful‘s perfectly on-character original Superman CPS-2 music!

---

Friend of the site Arcade Quartermaster just put up new shrines for MASTER’S FURY (Fighting) and AIR BIKE COP (Driving)!

---

HobbyLink Japan has the 3.75-inch Captain Commando and Jennety/Mummy Commando figures by 52Toys in-stock, with Baby Hoover available for pre-order and Ninja/Sho still sold out. I got my orders in for Cap and Baby. I know a lot of people want 1:12/ 6-inch scale and 7-inch scale versions of everything, but I’m still a big 1:18 fan both for budget and space reasons. These Captain Commando figures look great and I can’t wait to get mine.

Filed under: ScrollBoss Updates, Site News, Updates by PrimeOp
Tags: dc comics, Sprite Showcase, Superman
2 Comments »

Happy New Year and Happy Year of the Rabbit! I’ve spent most January 2023 working on a line art commission that you’ll see some time this year (it was teased by the author last year, but I can’t show it yet), so this update is a bit lighter than the usual First Update of the Year, but at least it has variety.

Custom Sprites:
– Street Fighter: new Cammy SSF2 win pose, updated her other win pose sprite to match better with the others.
– Marvel Comics: the Enchantress
– DC Comics: the Rabbit enemy from Taito’s Superman arcade game
– Illmosis Network – ScrollBoss: Vonetta “Vernacula” Paige gets a new sprite, a slightly modified outfit, a satchel and a last name in an all-new sprite!

All of these sprites are tied to things I plan to work on throughout the year, including a rabbit theme to celebrate the year.

Vernacula-X Glossary: Vonetta, mascot of the Info Center area of the site, threatened suggested I also work a bit on that part of the site, so I updated amazon (updated the main pic), Beat ‘Em Up (added info, main pic borrows the main menu “Brawlstreet” banner for now), Versus Mode (added more info and main pic) and minor updates to other entries.

Image Generators: All new custom sprites were added, and the following screen styles were updated…
– Vs 3v3 scene 384×224: 12 more Vs. graphics from different games were added.

---

My newest game-related action figure is the Marvel Legends Capcom-style War Machine (not that they mention Capcom, but we know the deal). The Iron Man sculpt it’s based on was already proven solid twice in the standard red and gold release and the special flat red and yellow PROTON CANNON edition from last year. The spark effects, also used in that Proton Cannon IM, are still great, but you’ll probably have to heat up the rubbery plastic of the biggest spark to bend it back into shape. What makes this version really sing is the use of metallic paints and plastics to mimic the sprite’s look. I’m not a fan of factory-done painted-on cel shading for action figures, 97 times out of 100 it just works against the sculpt work and only looks good if you have light coming from a specific direction (if it ever looks right). But this figure looks really close to the sprite when it’s hit with enough light, mimicking the car paint finish found in the sprites.

---

Ever wonder what would happen if Captain N: the Game Master had its own Netflix monkey paw-grasped revival? Friend of the site Channel 905 a take on that (and a few other things) in this video!

The lavishly animated 2.5 pixel art platformer Slave Zero X has a demo on Steam now!

---

Okay… I’m going to try and take a break again. A real one this time. Besides getting rest, I’ve got some new programs to learn, and maybe I’ll even take enough time to play a game again. I’ll be back at some point between late February and early March, but there may be some small updates before that.

Filed under: ScrollBoss Updates, Site News, Updates by PrimeOp
Tags: dc comics, marvel comics, Street Fighter, Superman
2 Comments »

My original plan was to post yesterday’s sprites together with these two clip compilations today, but I just felt like splitting them up. These clips in each compilation were different reasons, including early promo vids, for learning how to use Anime Studio (now Moho), and for the upcoming Superhero Sprite Showcade or Comic Book Showcade (I’m still undecided on that right now).

The Marvel video is a mix of official Capcom sprites with my fan pixel work with a sprinkle of Data East’s Avengers game with the second Onslaught BGM from Marvel vs. Capcom as background music. The DC vid is all my work, including unfinished music I’m working specifically for the Showcade videos. Please forgive any sound issues, I’m currently using some cheap temporary speakers, so I couldn’t fine tune the audio before uploading.

Also: a gallery of custom portraits for Capcom’s X-Men: Children of the Atom is now up, with an improved Deadpool portrait and a newly converted Batman portrait, both with art by Jim Lee (like most of the portrait art is in that game).

Those portraits are also in the GFX Generator so you can make your own fake screenshots with them!

The Anniversary celebration finally wraps up tomorrow!

Filed under: ScrollBoss Updates, Site News, Updates by PrimeOp
Tags: Batman, dc comics, marvel comics, Spider-Man, Superman, video, X-Men, X-Men: Children of the Atom
Comments Off on 20th Anniversary Marvel and DC videos

Comic book characters have had a heavy presence on this site since the early days, so today’s spotlight falls on superhero characters from Marvel and DC Comics. Back when I started the site, anyone who wasn’t Batman, the X-Men, or Spider-Man was considered an obscure character (sometimes by their own companies), but that didn’t stop me from making sprite edits of Green Lantern Hal Jordan (who was still dead and buried both in the literal AND wrestling sense of the word), Black Widow, and Taskmaster. Now I’m spriting everything from scratch, replacing all the edits I made from Capcom sprites while trying to add characters I’ve never sprited before, and this update is a combination of that!

Custom Sprites: new sprites (and new galleries) include…
– DC Comics: all-new scratch-made sprites of the Atom, Firestorm, Power Girl, Steel
– Superman (Taito): the unknown female character found in the game’s rom (something I found using Turaco and posted on the site back in the early ’00s) and the basic drones.
– Marvel Comics: the Blob, Pryo, Sentinel (all three based on their Konami beat ’em up/Pryde of the X-Men pilot appearances), Spider-Man (improved scratch-made sprite in “Spider-Man the Arcade Game” pose), Mysterio, the Green Goblin

Mini-logos
– DC Comics: Firestorm, Steel
– Marvel Comics: the Blob, Mysterio, Pyro

All newness was added to the GFX Image Generators, where you can make pics like the ones at the top of this news post!

I planned to skip a day and post these sprites and something else on Tuesday, but I just wait. Is there still something coming this Tuesday? Of course, and if you didn’t get enough comic book content today, come back tomorrow for some video fun!

Filed under: ScrollBoss Updates, Site News, Updates by PrimeOp
Tags: 20th anniversary, anniversary, dc comics, marvel comics, Spider-Man, Superman, The Death and Return of Superman, X-Men
Comments Off on 20th Anniversary: Marvel and DC

A few enemies from 1988 games have hit the site: Giant Soldier (Capcom’s Bionic Commando) and Emperor Zaas (Taito’s Superman arcade game). They’ve been added to the GFX Generators and the Custom Sprite Capcom and DC galleries.

Mini-Logos – Alex Kidd (in Miracle World and Enchanted Castle styles) added to Sega section. and Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari added to Technos section.

Logos – Added a bunch of Alex Kidd logos, the SMS Double Dragon logo and Blaster Master (NES)

Game Index – Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari (Famicom), Dragon’s Crown (PS3) added, Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle (Genesis), River City Ransom (NES) updated.

Company Index – Atlus added.

Things are moving slowly these days because I’ve got quite a few things in the lab that I can’t show right away. Here’s a sneak preview:

I’ve been working on an improved version of that section and it’ll hit the site in early February.

BTW: I updated my DC & Marvel LittleBigPlanet 2 item giveaway level. I added some new items I’d made a while ago and forgot to add, including a Lex Luthor symbol much like the better one in the new DC Comics DLC pack. I used new items from that pack to make the level look a bit better, too.

Filed under: ScrollBoss Updates, Site News, Updates by PrimeOp
Tags: Alex Kidd, Atlus, bionic commando, Blaster Master, Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari, Dragon's Crown, Superman
Comments Off on It’s Too Early to Feel Safe

Some of Superman’s supporting cast members and enemies popped up during the comic updates a while ago, but I saved the Man of Steel himself for this update.

Custom Sprites – One scratch-made of Superman goes a looooong way. I edited it into a few Superman-like characters and here’s how they’re arranged in the custom sprite galleries:
DC Comics – Superman, Captain Marvel, Icon, Ultraman
Marvel Comics – Gladiator, Hyperion
Sunsoft – Sunman (Never heard of his game? Learn about it from the Lost Levels website)

Mini-logos – Icon was added to the DC Comics section, Gladiator was added to the Marvel section, Sunman was added to the Sunsoft section and Beans vs. Cornbread was added to the Illmosis section (more on that in a bit).

Those sprites and minilogos were added to their characters in the GFX Generators.

If you play LittleBigPlanet 2 and want some DC and Marvel shape items like the Superman symbol, the Avengers A and the recently-added Eye of Agamotto, check out and queue my item giveaway level on LBP.me and snatch ’em up.

BTW: be sure to check out Arcade Quartermaster to check out the new comic-related shrines, including that Superman arcade game from Taito, the Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon arcade game and the Neo Geo Eightman game.

---

So, that “the War Begins Again” project I’ve been talking about for a while is now live and it’s an all-new version of the Beans vs. Cornbread site with the first page of the comic and a bit more. I’ll need to concentrate on BvsC and preparing for the All-Americon convention in July, so this site is going to be a bit quiet until ScrollBoss’ 13th anniversary on the July 19th. There’s also a possible month-long commission project on the way as well, so I’m going to be all-around busy for a while. You still might see a few tune-up posts here and there before then, but there won’t be any big updates.

Naturally, the July 19th update will feature some new scratch-made sprites and the focus will be on game characters. While I have a few planned and sketched out, I’d like to hear if there are any characters you want to see sprites of in the anniversary update. They need to be characters originally from platform, beat-em-up or action rpg games from the 16-bit era and don’t already have a custom sprite in the custom sprite galleries. You can leave a response in the comment section here, on the Tumblr, or tell me on Twitter.

Filed under: ScrollBoss Updates, Site News, Updates by PrimeOp
Tags: dc comics, LittleBigPlanet 2, marvel comics, milestone comics, sunman, Sunsoft, Superman
3 Comments »

It’s the last of the comic book updates! This issue has a lot of Superman-related characters to celebrate the 75th Anniversary of his (and Lois’) first appearance. There will be another chunk of Superman sprites later this year to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of the arcade game by Taito.

GFX Generators
New characters:
DC Comics – Bizarro, Braniac, Lois Lane, Zod
Data East – Chelnov/Atomic Runner
Updated characters:
Marvel – Storm (new punk rock sprite, 2 palettes added), Iron Man (Heroes Return era mini-logo added)
GroupShot: X-Men vs. Street Fighter (Capcom Secret Files) added to the 88×136 comic cover styles

Custom Sprites – The sprites added to the generators have all been added to their respective Marvel, DC and Data East galleries.

Mini-Logos – Bizarro (’80s), Brainiac (’80s), Despero (’90s), Lois Lane (original, early ’70s), Mera (’80s) added to DC. Iron Man (Heroes Return) added to Marvel.

BTW: Data East’s Chelnov is celebrating its 25th anniversary so I thought it’d be nice if Data East’s superhero made his way into this update, too.

That’s the end of comic book week for this year. All of the update posts from this week will be merged into a Trade Paperback post tomorrow so those who weren’t following can see all the newness at once. Thanks to everyone who checked out the new things here and extra thanks to anyone kind enough to repost or like these updates on the various places I posted them. Be sure to look at the other updates if this is your first time back, especially if you didn’t know about the new MUGEN stage I added on Thursday. The site will be back to more game-related updates, but comic heroes and villains will be sprinkled in here and there, just as they’ve always been on this site. Have a good weekend!

Filed under: ScrollBoss Updates, Site News, Updates by PrimeOp
Tags: dc comics, gfx generators, Iron Man, Superman, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
2 Comments »

Currently busy with many things, including cooking up a few things for future themed updates for this site (and I’ll dedicate a whole post to that soon). I just wanted to make another update so you know that the site is still kicking.

Game Index – Adjustments were made to many entries and the engine itself, including one to the screenshot area. The main index page now lets you check out games according to genre. There are almost 100 games in there right now, so that took a while. Most of the games have at least one screenshot now.

games added: Altered Beast (arcade), Quartet (arcade), Rolling Thunder (arcade)

Sprites – More sprites were added to the following galleries: Superman (arcade), Vigilante (arcade).

GFX Generators – a recreation of the Metroid NES title screen has been added to those variable background screenstyles in the Vs. Maker and GroupShot generators.

Capcom: Avengers/Avenger Ryu & Ko (full ending pose).
Namco: Wonder Momo (Momo sprite)

All new custom sprites were added to their Custom Sprite galleries as well.

---

Before I go, here’s a minor extra thing to show off. I was testing out an idea I had and posted a .GIF of the result on Tumblr, but had to trim it down because the full version kept getting an upload error. Here’s the whole thing:

Filed under: ScrollBoss Updates, Site News, Updates by PrimeOp
Tags: Altered Beast, Avengers (Capcom), Quartet, Rolling Thunder, Superman, Vigilante, Wonder Momo
Comments Off on Momovengers, Game Index update and more

Game Index – These 1988 games were added to the Index: P.O.W. (arcade), RoboCop (arcade), Superman (arcade game by Taito) and Vigilante (arcade) added. The Superman and Vigilante text sections have a bit more content and commentary than many of the other index pages and is something I might try to do more often.

GFX Generators – What’s been updated:
GroupShot and Vs.Maker:
Capcom: Radd Spencer/Bionic Commando (new sprite)
Technos: Linda (new sprites and palettes), Abobo (DD2 sprite & new palettes), Double Dragons (doppelganger/shadow palette), Shadow Warriors (Williams DD2 headswap & new palette), Marian (3 new palettes)
Fakeshot Generator: new Mega Man NES-style sprite edits were added, including Radd Spencer, Nth Man (from Larry Hama’s Marvel Comic) and more DC characters whose name ends in man or woman, plus Dr. Sivana.

Articles – I just made some various fixes to the 1989 articles, especially an improved 1989 Game Index list. My plan is to make sure those pages are completely up-to-par before next year, the 25th Anniversary of 1989, the greatest year for video gaming (in my opinion).

Custom Sprites –
Capcom – Radd Spencer (NES stance/uniform)
Technos gallery – Linda (new scratch-made pose), Abobo (improved sprites + DD2 version), Williams (hairswap).
Mega Man NES-style – a new gallery with all those crappy edits I made for the Fake Screenshot generator.
DC Comics – The old sprite edits of Player 2 Superman and the Mystery Woman from the Taito Superman arcade game were finally re-added after being left out when the galleries were redesigned. Wait, you don’t know about the Mystery Woman? Read the Superman entry in the Game Index!

Sprites – Superman (sprites and animations from the arcade game) updated.

Filed under: ScrollBoss Updates, Site News, Updates by PrimeOp
Tags: 1989, bionic commando, Double Dragon, P.O.W. - Prisoners of War, RoboCop, Superman, Vigilante
Comments Off on SuperDoubleBionicVigilanteman (and a bit of 1989)