July 19th, 2010 will be the 10th Anniversary of ScrollBoss. I’m going to warn you right now that the first few updates of this year will probably be boring with very few sprites, sprite edits and things like that. The main reason is that I’m working on upgrades for sections of the site and you’ll see a bit of that in this update. The other reason… is something I’m not ready to announce yet. Here’s the newness of this update.

ScrollBoss Blog – The new ScrollBoss web log (powered by WordPress) will be getting a workout by serving as a blog, an eventual feedback outlet for things and the new engine for the site update news posts. If you’re reading this on ScrollBoss’ main menu, you’re really reading the weblog. The good news is that I can copy the old news posts and use their old dates to keep everything in order. The bad news is that I don’t think I can copy the responses. That old news (and responses) will be archived on the Old News page. The MugenBoss index page also got this update but it still looks ugly overall. That’s one of the sections I’ll be working on this year because the header is too damned fugly.

Tips and Cheats – The entire section has been modified to not suck as much. Each tip now has a link to the game’s index page if it exists. Added tips for Contra (NES), SoR3, Final Fight (SNES), Sonic Blast Man (SNES). Nothing that you couldn’t get from any decent code site but I may as well have it here too. I’m also trying to use more accurate tip descriptions like the Sonic Blast Man code that is always described as a level select even though it’s not.

Game Index and 1989 – Another code rewrite shows up on the Game Index’s main page and the 1989 Game List. Ninja Gaiden (NES), Sonic Blast Man added and the 1989 Game List was updated.

Logos – Sonic Blast Man added.

Mini-logos – Bayou Billy, Emma Frost, Vigilante (IREM) added.

Before the 1989 theme month is over in a few hours, I’d just like to throw in a few of the things that weren’t done for the Sunday update.

1.) A few system bugs with the Company Index have been fixed.
2.) Double Dragon II (NES) and S.P.Y. (Arcade) were added to the Game Index.
3.) Vs. Maker just got a new company: Technos. The Lee Brothers, Kunio-Kun and new sprite edits of Alex and Ryan from River City Ransom were added to the Vs. Maker. Nothing spectacular but I think Alex and Ryan really deserved to show up before the theme month was over.
4.) You may have noticed that the main menu has a slightly new style for the header. Hopefully, these new, adjustable headers will help the page adapt to more screen sizes and ratios. The old Brawlstreet and a new Strider banner are the only two for now but there will be more added throughout 2010.

Things go back to normal in January with update about every two weeks. See you next year!

(originally posted on Thu, 31 December 2009 05:18:21 by PrimeOp )

The Revenge of 1989 has had enough. It’s time to release the Robeast hit you in the face with a truckload of graphics!

Game Index – Due to the growing size of the Mini-logo page, links now lead directly to the relevant section of that page. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Arcade) and Batman (NES) were added.

Vs. Maker Generator – The first thing that you’ll notice is that there are now six character slots. After you select characters, you’ll notice that the second menu page only displays the characters that will be appearing in the shot and that the preview graphics resize themselves depending on how many characters will be in the shot. I recoded a few bits to make that possible along with paving the way for more character slots. All of the new characters and themes are connected to 1989 games. I’ve posted some obvious tease preview shots for a few weeks now but there are still a lot of surprises. Here’s the line-up

Characters Added: Ax-Battler, Gilius Thunderhead, Tyris Flare, Death Adder, ESWAT I.C.E. armor, Ryu Hayabusa & Irene Lew (Ninja Gaiden NES style), Clark Still & Ralf Jones (Ikari 1-3 outfits!), Solo, Ton Pooh, & Two.P. Last but not least…

… Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, Michelangelo, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles! Look, it’s the 20th Anniversary of their NES and Arcade games along with their 25th Anniversary in comics so they had to join in.

Characters updated: Andore/Hugo (Andore logo), Batman (1989 film sprite and logo)

Themes: King of Fighters ‘94. I would’ve used ‘98 to almost fit the month’s theme but they didn’t do much with the sprites in the VS. intro there.

Mini-logos – Andore, Astyanax, Ax-Battler, Gilius Thunderhead, Musashi (Shinobi), Irene Lew, Clark Still, Ralf Jones, Solo (Strider), Ton Pooh, Two.P, Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, Michelangelo, Batman (1989 film).

Custom Sprites – Everything on the “Game-Related” page has been split into their own appropriate company pages. Here are the new sprites:
TMNT (NEW PAGE!): Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, Michelangelo sprites (from scratch)
Sega: Ax-Battler, Death Adder, Gilius Thunderhead, ESWAT I.C.E. armored officers and File 96 (from ESWAT)
SNK: Ralf (Ikari Warriors 1-3 outfits)
Tecmo: Ryu Hayabusa (NES stance) and Irene Lew (NG1)
DC Comics: Batman (1989 film sprite)
Capcom: Two.P

Sprites – Batman gets solo page with a few sprites from the NES game by Sunsoft. Sprites from the 1989 TMNT arcade game were added to the TMNT sprite page.

Articles – The 1989 article series continues with a short look at two famous magazines that made their debut in 1989: EGM and GamePro.

There may be some adjustments and fixes made to this update but that’s it for now.

(originally posted on Sun, 27 December 2009 04:53:02 by PrimeOp)

Whatever it is that you celebrate this time of year, have a happy one!

The update won’t be on Friday because that will be Christmas Day which should be spent chillin’. Since I’ll need some John Witherspoon-like co-ordination with the Illmosis site on this next update, both spots will have a joint 1989 update this weekend. There will be lots of sprite edits and a few sprites made from scratch including the best scratch sprite I’ve done yet. Most of them will be part of the big Vs. Maker update and the biggest character surprises haven’t been in any of the teaser shots and I’m hoping to add a few more things before the big upload on Sunday. See you then and have a Merry Christmas!

(Originally posted on Thu, 24 December 2009 02:15:43 by PrimeOp)

The Revenge of 1989 gets serious (not really) this week with the main 1989 article. The article is only the beginning and leads to a feature about three important beat-em-ups of 1989 (and a bonus 4th) that changed the face of the genre forever. For real. There is also an incomplete list of 1989 platformers, beat-em-ups and other genres that ScrollBoss covers. Beat-em-up fans may guess the main three games but the bonus game may take you by surprise. Trust me, it earns it’s spot. But wait… there’s more!

Game Index – The basic engine was updated with the genre display. It me a while to decide on how to make it work but it now has support for games with multiple genres. Why? Because you’ll eventually be able to list games by genre and it’s easier to give every game multiple genres instead making a bunch of merged genre categories to search through. The funky-looking genre entries you saw before were from planning for this in advance. Now that the system is in place, the genres look like regular words now. The games Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle, Crime Fighters and Ikari III (arcade) were added to the Game Index.

Company – IREM and SNK added.

Sprites – Alex Kidd gets his own sprite page with additions from Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle game including Ashra’s hypnotic animation and that damn Wizard that disappears right before you can punch him.

Now that I look at it, that’s a decently sized update. Not as big as next week’s update is going to be, though.