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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Today is the eighth month’s ninth day, which mean this site celebrates 1989, the greatest year in video game history*!

This site even has a sub-section dedicated to the year for reasons you’ll see mentioned there. Then again, you’ll probably figure out why once you see all the stuff I’m celebrating (and there’s still a lot left out). Everything in this update is linked to that magical year when many of this site’s favorite games, series, consoles and more debuted. Unfortunately, there’s so much stuff that I couldn’t even fit it into 3 screenshots, so, as a first, the sprite preview is a video!

Custom Sprites:
– Capcom: Quick Man added to Mega Man section.
– – Final Fight: two new scratch-made Cody sprites!
– – Strider (new separate section): (a new Tom Pooh sprite (and redone colors on the hand-up pose) in the Strider section

– Nintendo: Tatanga (Super Mario Land)

– Sega: scratch-made E-SWAT’s police ICE armor and enemy unknown/File 96 enemies
– – Golden Axe: resprited Tyris Flare fight stance
– – Shinobi: new scratch-made Pink Dragon and redone Kasumi sprites

– Sunsoft: Tuff Turf’s heroes and lady added.

– Technos: new standing sprites for Kunio, Riki, Hasebe, Alex and Ryan

– Games(other): Prince of Persia (original) added.

– DC Comics: the Joker in the 1989 NES Batman stance
– Music: new gallery starts with new Chuck D (Public Enemy) sprite and older sprites and sprite edits.
– Toys ‘n Toons: Marge, Lisa and Bart Simpson. The Simpsons cartoon started in 1989!
– G.I. JOE: Snake-Eyes in his version 3 (1989) outfit
– TMNT: Krang (in his standing pose from the 1989 beat ’em up)

Mini-Logos: Prince of Persia (Jordan Mechner), Public Enemy (Music) and the Simpsons (Television) added.

The new custom sprites and mini-logos have been added to the GFX Generators.

My apologies to any fans of 1989 games who were left out, like Mendel Palace/Quinty, Double Dragon 2(NES), Astyanax, Crime City, and dozens more. There are too many good 1989 games to celebrate and many of my older sprites needed to be redone. Let me know about your favorite 1989 games and characters in the comment section!

* – 1989 being the greatest game year is hyperbole mostly for fun, but also designed to drive disagreement-induced hits, but at least this website admits it.

Filed under: ScrollBoss Updates, Site News, Updates by PrimeOp
Tags: Batman, dc comics, ESWAT, Final Fight, g.i. joe, Kunio-Kun, River City Ransom, Shinobi series, Super Mario Land, The Revenge of 1989, The Revenge of Shinobi, the Simpsons, tmnt, Tough Turf
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Thanks the SDCC exclusive NECA figure sets for Konami-style Ninja Turtles, the new TMNT game developed by Platinum and the X-Men getting a new movie, it’s a pretty good time to be a mutant. That’s why this update is happening!

Custom Sprites:
TMNT – new sprites of all four turtles, an improved version of the Foot Soldier sprite from a few weeks ago and a new pose.
Marvel – improved versions of the Storm and Dazzler from the FCBD update and plus a new outfit for each in that same pose.

All new pixel art has been added to the GFX Generators. The Foot Soldier’s palette has been reworked so that the ’80s toy palette fits in, so it’s all one sprite now. You’ll also find a nice new screenstyle in the Group Maker generator.

Filed under: ScrollBoss Updates, Site News, Updates by PrimeOp
Tags: gfx generator, marvel comics, May Mutant Madness, tmnt, X-Men
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Saturday is Free Comic Book Day and it’ll be a good time to support your local comic book shop! Remember: they have to pay for the free books you get, so please consider buying a few comics, too! I’ll be spending my FCBD at the Warren, Ohio location of All-American Comics (Facebook, GoogleMaps) selling prints, giving out free coloring pages and, really, just hanging out. This site is celebrating FCBD by throwing a lot of comic book sprites at you (and this site is free, too)!

Custom Sprites
Marvel Comics: Dazzler, Iron Man (Silver Centurion), She-Hulk and Storm
DC Comics: Aquaman, Bizarro (Silver Age), GL John Stewart, Plastic Man (celebrating his 75th anniversary this week), and Ultraman. Additions were made to the Superman Battle Hover (a.k.a. the Taito pose) gallery.
TMNT: Foot Soldier (Konami/cartoon and toy variants)

Mini-Logos
– DC Comics: Crime Syndicate, Plastic Man
– Marvel Comics: Dazzler

the new items were added to the V.1 Vs. and Group GFX Generators.

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Story time: Ssomeone on Twitter posts a link to a Comics Alliance story about the five best Lex Luthor stories and I read it, partially because I’ll be making new Lex Luthor sprites this year. It was a good article, so I figured I’d check the sidebar for other recent stories. So imagine my surprise when I saw a link to this:

Comics Alliance’s Chris Sims posted a story about the Superman Taito pose sprites I’ve been making. Including a short story about the first time he saw the arcade game and how fans (myself included) kept wondering about a certain palette swap from the game. That game was special for a lot of comic book and video game fans of the 1980s, especially when we heard that John Williams Superman theme cut through the other sounds bouncing off the walls of the arcade. Thanks, Mr. Sims!

Filed under: ScrollBoss Updates, Site News, Updates by PrimeOp
Tags: Comics Alliance, dc comics, gfx generator, marvel comics, tmnt
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TMNT: Leonardo and Michelangelo join their brothers in getting new sprites based on their 1989 arcade game fighting stances.
Technos: new scratch-made arcade/NES fighting stance sprites of Billy and Jimmy Lee arrive to face off against Jeff (a.k.a. the Lee Brother headswap enemy from the arcade game and Super Double Dragon) and Boss Willy.

Those new sprites have been added to the GFX Generators where the Lee Brothers and all four turtles have more extra palettes and an Ultra (NES) box was added to the GroupShot’s “Boxes, Flyer & Posters 160×192” set-up.

Side note: this update means that I’ve finally made sprites of the whole original Double Dragon cast.

The ScrollBoss Shop page has been updated with the game-related prints I’m also selling on my Illmosis site, including the new Horror vs. Horror (still trying to find a good name for that) select screen.

8×10 and 8×11 prints are $6 each, two for $10, and three for $15. I’ll have more pixel art prints in the near future, so keep an eye out for those!

The shop is (fictionally) run by Tina Fong, the newest fictional member of the ScrollBoss site team.

Tina’s had experience working in places where a rumble could happen at any moment, so she’ll fit in on this site. Of course, you never know when someone else will be behind the register…

Filed under: ScrollBoss Updates, Site News, Updates by PrimeOp
Tags: Double Dragon, tmnt
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Big changes are coming to the GFX Generators this year, but here’s a small one that may save you a few headaches. The GFX Generator now has a feature on the last page where you can adjust your choices of where the characters should be, hit the button, and see a reset version of the picture. You can even repeat one sprite/character in all the spots. Things like the character portraits and mini-logos will also switch with the changes. Unfortunately, character name text in the Mega Man NES select screens will not change, but there will be an option for that in the future if this new feature works. Site updates will continue to be a bit small while I work on things like this.

Meanwhile, people seemed to like how that new Raphael sprite looked, so now it’s Mikey’s turn:

I’ll probably wait until I have Don and Leo made before making full-on alternate versions (classic Mirage, 1988 toys), but he’ll have those palettes in the generators.

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Gaming and Pixel News

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The teaser trailer for “The Hit Squad” pixel art motion picture is here:

Be sure to check out the official site at ilovethehitsquad.com

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The Foolish Brave: To Challenge a God is a pixel art side-scrolling platformer with a beautiful, charming design style and solid controls (as evidenced in the PLAYABLE demo on the site).

Check out the Kickstarter campaign if you’re interested and give if you can!

Filed under: ScrollBoss Updates, Site News, Updates by PrimeOp
Tags: gfx generators, tmnt
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April O’Neil was added to the TMNT gallery and Emma Frost (the White Queen) was added to the Marvel gallery. Both characters have been added to the VS Maker and GroupShot GFX Generators. Speaking of the generators…

All four Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles now have SFA3 portraits.

One more thing:

the improved Detective Comics #27 sprite is now in the DC Gallery.

edit: along with forgetting to mention that I’d updated the Crime Fighters entry in the Game Index last week, this week’s update adds a few more sprites, including the third boss’ intro and the seventh boss’ tribute to Platoon.

Filed under: ScrollBoss Updates, Site News, Updates by PrimeOp
Tags: Batman, Crime Fighters, dc comics, marvel comics, tmnt, X-Men
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Custom Sprites
– Konami: Crime Fighters hero added along with mohawk and domme enemies.
– Capcom: Final Fight’s heavyweights added.
– Taito: Tony Gibson (Crime City) added.

Mini-Logos
– Astro City: Astro City, Samaritan
– Marvel: Captain America (’80s)
– Sunsoft: Tough Turf
– Taito: FairyLand Story
– Illmosis Network: The Revenge of 1989

GFX Generators – The new mini-logos were added to their proper characters (Capt. America, Ptolemy, Samaritan) and the following characters were added:
– Konami: Crime Fighters and Crime Fighters – Enemies (with two drone enemies)
– Capcom: Wong Who, G.Oriber, Bill Bull added to Mad Gear thugs
– Taito: Tony Gibson (Crime City) added

Bad News: those portrait/s I teased on Tumblr over a week ago aren’t in this update.
Good News: I saved them for a semi-themed update for next week. They’ll appear along with a very timely sprite. You’ll also see a better version of the sprite in this post added to the site then, too.

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Breakin’ News

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Treachery in Beatdown City, the tactical beat ’em up with an 8-bit look, has been relaunched on Kickstarter, so help out if you can!

Filed under: ScrollBoss Updates, Site News, Updates by PrimeOp
Tags: Crime City, Crime Fighters, Final Fight, gfx generators, tmnt
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GFX Generators – Guy and Sodom (from Capcom’s Final Fight and Street Fighter series) now have ALL of their arcade palettes from Street Fighter Alpha 1-3. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Splinter (currently found in the Konami section) now have their big portraits from TMNT: Turtles in Time. Wonder Momo now has a sprite based on the ShiftyLook Wonder Momo promo pic by Omar Dogan. You’ll also find a really simple recreation of the first stage of Wonder Momo in the “Comic 88×136” and “Box 160×192” styles for the GroupShot generator.

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Breakin’ News

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The Treachery in Beatdown City Kickstarter needs to be funded. It’s a tactical turn-based beat ’em up (Role ’em up?) that has a great premise and NES/SMS-era look, so check out their pitch and help if you can.
Kickstarter page
Main site

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I made that Wonder Momo sprite because, sadly, the ShiftyLook site will be closing down on March 20th. It still boggles my mind that we even got to see top-notch web comics for some of lesser-pushed Namco properties like Bravoman, Wonder Momo, SkyKid, the Valkyrie series and many others, so at least it was around for a while. We even got an animated Bravoman show (with the ever-awesome Rob Paulsen voicing Bravoman), a Wonder Momo anime, new games for both series, and a bugged-out Mappy show. As much as I was hoping they’d be able to get enough material together for an all-Namco Saturday Supercade-style show, it was great to get what we got. Luckily, some of the Bravoman and Wonder Momo strips have hardcover collections, which I plan to buy. There’s talk that some of them could continue in meatspace comic book form if the collections do well, so buy the books! Go read the strips while you can and be sure to check out the beautifully insane Galaga comic.

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Edit: I forgot to show off this thing I threw together to post on the Tumblr:

Alright, I’m done now.

Filed under: ScrollBoss Updates by PrimeOp
Tags: Final Fight, ShiftyLook, The Revenge of 1989, tmnt, Wonder Momo
Comments Off on Wonder Momo, Minor F.Fight & TMNT update and Breakin’ News

Here’s a list of everything that was in the comic book and superhero-themed updates for last week:

New M.U.G.E.N. stage: Iron Man’s Hall of Armor

GFX Generators –

New characters:
DC Comics – Bizarro, Braniac, Harley Quinn, Lois Lane, Poison Ivy, Zod
Marvel – Super-Skrull
TMNT – Master Splinter, the Shredder
Data East – Chelnov/Atomic Runner
Namco – Bravoman
Updated characters:
Marvel – Spider-Man (black costume taunt sprite edit added), Storm (new punk rock sprite, 2 palettes added), Iron Man (Heroes Return era mini-logo added)
Toys and ‘Toons – G.I.JOE team updated with Snow Job sprite

GroupShot: All 12 TMNT Tournament Fighters (SNES) stages were added to the “Boxes, Flyer & Posters 160×192,” “Avatar 100×100,” and “Comics 88×136 pixels” styles in the GroupShot Generator. 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, and galleries.

Custom Sprites – Sprites were added to the following galleries
DC – Lois Lane, Bizarro, Braniac, Zod, Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy
Marvel – the Super-Skrull, Spider-Man sprite edit (black costume), Storm (punk outfit)
TMNT – Master Splinter and Shredder (’80s cartoon versions)
Snow Job – Snow Job v.1
Data East – Chelnov (improved from Saturday’s version, added an alternate version)
Namco – Bravoman

Sprites
TMNT – TMNT arcade sprites added. Animated fighting stances of all 12 characters from Tournament Fighters (SNES) sprites added.

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.

Game Logos – TMNT Tournament Fighters (various versions) and Batman: Return of the Joker (NES) added.

Game Index – Captain America and the Avengers (Genesis), Spider-Man & the X-Men (SNES), TMNT IV (SNES) and Trojan (NES) added.

Vernacula-X – A few more terms were added and a few more terms were expanded. 1-UP, Versus Mode and Palette Swap were the most improved and now have small sprite or screenshot galleries.

Filed under: ScrollBoss Updates, Site News, Updates by PrimeOp
Tags: Bravoman, Chelnov, dc comics, gfx generators, marvel comics, mini-logos, tmnt
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