Wolverine – Sprite Showcase prototype
September 30th, 2020

Even though I teased Comic Book Sprite Showcase earlier this year, the original name was the Superhero Sprite Showcase, and that’ll be the title in this short test video featuring Wolverine!

An improved version of the orange and brown Wolverine sprite in his Konami arcade game fighting stance pose has been added to his sprite gallery and the GFX Image Generators, along with the variations you saw in the video. Also, the stylish “Marvel 80 Years” Marvel Legends box was added to the “Marvel Legends” screenstyle in the generators.


It’ll be a while before the next episode, but I’ve got plans for more Superhero (and Comic Book) Showcases (and eventually Showcades) to be added to the ScrollBoss YouTube channel if people are interested, so let me know if you’d like to see more!

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Street Fighter II pixel podium prints and Custom Prints
September 28th, 2020

Finally putting out some pixel print things I’ve been scheming to make for a looong time. First up, the easy part. First up, as teased off and on for over a year, a print of the winner’s podium from Street Fighter II, completely sprited from scratch:

That sprite is now available in the shop! But maybe some of you would rather see someone else in those podium spots. That’s the other thing I’m announcing: Custom prints (a.k.a. SelectPlayer):


For a bit more money than a print, you can commission me to create a customized print! Choose a background and any sprites I’ve made from scratch that you see in the custom sprite galleries (and a few that aren’t in the galleries) for your print. Here’s a quick example:

The basics info is up on the new page for the SelectPlayer prints. Yeah, this is what the “Player Select” in the old X-Men print meant, and that’s how long I’ve been trying to get this together. More background options and sprites made for the prints will be added as time goes on, so stay tuned!

One more thing: since the price of shipping prints from my print supplier has gone up, I’ve temporarily adjusted prices and added deals to offset that a bit for you. 8×10 (and similar size) prints are now $5 each, buy 2 and get one free. Also, buy one 17×11 (and similar size prints) and get one regular 8×10 print free.

Another update will hit the site before September ends. Frequent site visitors who use the Image Generators and look at the SelectPlayer backgrounds may notice a background that they haven’t seen before. You’ll see that background again in the next update, along with some sprite related to it. You’ve got a few days to guess!

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The Revenge of 1989, 2020 edition
August 9th, 2020

It’s the eight month’s ninth day, making it 8/9, so it’s time to celebrate the debut year of so many things this site celebrates. There are also a few things being added that were missed in the 20th anniversary update a few weeks ago. Here’s what’s new to the site today:


The Revenge of 1989: Updates and fixes to the Beat ‘Em Up article and Game List.

Game Index: added Cadash (arcade) (and depending on where you look for reference, was released in 1990 instead of the game’s copyright date of 1989)

Custom Sprites:
– Final Fight: Guy in his arms folded taunt (updated from being seen only in some site videos and quietly placed in the index page group scene) and brand-new fight stance
– D.J. Boy: Bob and Tom
– Shinobi: A Better Yamato starring Ti Lung, Chow Yun-Fat all-new and better sprite of Yamato (Shadow Dancer)
– Marvel: a teleporting sprite of Nightcrawler (seen in LJN’s 1989 Uncanny X-Men game for the NES). Also updated Sentinel (the two missing Konami palettes were added)
– Simpsons: Marge, Homer, and Maggie

Mini-logos:
– Marvel Comics: Green Goblin (Mego and 70s style guide versions)
Graphic Generators: all of the new custom sprites and mini-logos have also been added to the generators, and the Sentinels have a few extra palettes.

Also, there’s a print sale in the shop until August 17th! Buy two 8×10 and 8×11 prints for $8.90 or
buy one 11 x 17 or 11 x 14 print for $8.90!

I planned to have more done (as usual), but between some offline battles and trying to get another long-term project ready enough to show, time’s been tight. But I should have enough new things ready for this project in either late August or early September. I’m plotting more videos, so subscribe or stay tuned to the YouTube Channel.

I know I’m not the only one out there going through some things, but thanks for the support this year, and I hope this weird site can keep you going you’ve helped me to keep it movin’ in 2020. Stay strong and keep fighting for justice, truth, and, if necessary, that last slice of pizza!

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20th Anniversary: poll arcade and Boss Rush mode
July 22nd, 2020

Time to wrap things up the way some classic games used to do: with a Boss Rush Mode!

Custom Sprites: new sprites (and new galleries) include…
– Double Dragon: Willy (all-new, better than that last one I made)
– Streets of Rage: Shiva (classic design)
– Strider: improved Ton Pooh (and sisters) sprites (especially the head) + 2 new sprites: pose based on a Strider bosses pic and a sprite in her NxC fight stance.
– Zelda series: Gannon (Link to the Past design).

That new arcade background, with quite a few machines that haven’t been in a background until, was made thanks to everyone who voted here (thanks, Eddie Mountaingoat), Twitter, and Instagram! Oddly enough, the 6-player X-Men and Alien vs. Predator machines were in that 2020 teaser preview, but this poll isn’t the reason why. I’ll have more arcade background news in the not-too-distant-future. It has been added to the Group, Vs., and MvC ending screen styles in the main image generator.

That’s all for the 20th anniversary updates, and I hope you’ve had fun checking them out, watching the videos, and playing with the new sprites in the generators. This would’ve been on single update, but offline hassles sidelined me for over a week, so I’ve been using the extended posts to make more content for you. It wasn’t easy to hustle and get these extra things done, but if you had fun, it was all worth it. For everyone who was there since the early Angelfire-hosted days, for those who just found this mess of a site, and everyone in between, thanks for visiting!

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20th Anniversary Marvel and DC videos
July 21st, 2020

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!

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20th Anniversary: Marvel and DC
July 20th, 2020

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!

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20th Anniversary, part 1
July 19th, 2020

Today is the 20th anniversary of the original ScrollBoss website. Starting on Tripod with a template and some miscolored PC screenshots and sprites from a Sega compilation, this site started as a place for me to talk about old action video games, especially the ones that didn’t have much presence on the internet back in the year 2000. It eventually grew into a place for me to do the same thing but now I’m making most of the sprites that I’m adding to the site, and I never would’ve believed it if you’d told me that decades ago.

This hasn’t been the easiest year for most of us, and the last few weeks have been really irritating for me, but working on this site and seeing your reactions to the pixel art has done what it’s always done for me, help pull me through some tough times. Thank you for that and I hope this place can do the same for you, even if it’s just for a few moments of browsing the galleries and messing with the image generators. There will be multiple updates throughout the week, along with some visitor participation moments (more on that in a bit), so stay tuned!

Custom Sprites: new sprites (and new galleries) include…
– Bionic Commando (NEW separate gallery): Radd Spencer (NES design) in MvC3/MvCI fight stance
– Double Dragon: Billy and Jimmy Lee (DD Advance fight stance)
– Dragon’s Crown(NEW separate gallery): Elf, Wizard
– the Legend of Kage: Kage
– Metroid: Zero Suit Samus
– Rushing Beat: Kazan (Brawl Brothers/Rushing Beat Ran select screen pose)
– Streets of Rage: Cherry Hunter
– Sunset Riders (NEW!): FINALLY, right? Standard gunfight stance remakes for all four heroes kick off the new gallery.
– NuChallenger: : Brad Steel (completing the hero team from Treachery in Beatdown City)

All newness has been added to the GFX Generators where you can make your own graphics like the examples up there!

The print company I work through, Perfect Posters, reopened a while ago, so prints are once again available for sale in the shop! Also, I’ve set up a page on RedBubble with some original pixel art available mostly as stickers, but it’s on a few other products, too.


I pay to keep my sites hosted with my own money, so any sales puts a little money back into my pocket and helps support my Maruchan Instant Lunch habit!

Later this week, I’ll put together a special arcade background for the image generator based on YOUR votes. The Twitter post is here and the Instagram post is here, but I’ll repeat the set-up here. Leave a reply with up to seven games you’d like to see based on this list. NOTE: if you choose “Capcom Big Blue (Capcom’s late 80s to late 90s arcade games that worked on the CPS or CPS2 system)” or “Neo Geo”, please mention WHICH games for that you want (“Capcom Big Blue – Captain Commando” or “Neo Geo Metal Slug 2 and Samurai Shodown”). Here’s the list (click to see the full sized version):

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Generator Maintenance – May 2020
May 30th, 2020

I’d noticed some issues in the image generators while working on May 22nd’s Pac-Man Anniversary update and started working on a few the next day. That led to working on a few random things and this is the result.

Custom Portraits – there are now two separate galleries for the custom portraits I’ve made/converted, with credits for as many things as I could find for the converted official art.
– Street Fighter Alpha/Zero 3: same as the portraits page, but with an improved Billy Lee (Double Dragon)
– Marvel Super Heroes – Capcom: finally, all the custom MSH-style portraits seen in the site’s image generators are in a gallery. The X-men CotA portraits will get a gallery soon.

A gallery for the X-Men: Children of the Atom custom portraits will be added soon.

Mini-logos:
– Capcom: Rose (Street Fighter), Bishamon (Darkstalkers), Felicia (Darkstalkers)
– Nintendo: Pokémon (redone), Pikachu (“Hey you, Pikachu” style)

BTW: Feel free to use these custom portraits and minilgos in your fan projects, just give me a credit somewhere.

These things were added to the graphics generators. Additional fixes include:
– Marvel Super Heroes: fixes to the character list (originally copied from the SFA3 Vs. lists and using old temporary versions of characters made when I re-wrote the generator scripts).
– Fixed Firebrand’s Darkstalkers 3 portrait, made MSH vs versions of Arthur and Firebrand’s custom portraits.

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Pac-Man 40th Anniversary
May 22nd, 2020

Celebrating forty years of the maze-maneuvering, dot-gobbling, ghost evading and chasing magic known as Pac-Man!

Custom Sprites – Pac-Man: New sprites of Pac-Man (Midway marquee, Super Pac-Man, Pac-Mania pose), Baby Pac-Man, Jr. Pac-Man, USA Pac-Man marquee ghost, Kinky (Pac-Man Arrangement)

Mini-logos (Namco): Pac-Man (redid the USA marquee), Baby Pac-Man, Jr. Pac-Man, Super Pac-Man, Pac-Jr.

All new sprites and mini-logos have been added to the GFX Generators, where Pac-Man also got a new portrait drawn by me and colored to fit in with the Marvel Super Heroes Vs. portraits. Also added to the Box Tributes in the main generator was a red-top NES Namco overlay.

No description of the 80s Pac-Man craze that you’ll read or hear really does it justice. Starting forty years ago today in Japan (originally known as Puck-Man), Pac-Man’s existence wasn’t just the start of a maze craze or a cementing of video games as more than a fad, but an enduring game style of game play still being used today and the hook of cute characters who never completely left the public consciousness. I saw this unfold when I was a kid and I’ve never seen anything like it since. Figurines (kinda tough to make a poseable Pac-Man with those skinny legs), the sticker/scratch card/bubble gum packs, a Saturday morning cartoon, lunchboxes, breakfast cereal (couldn’t be an eighties icon without your own cereal), Buckner and Garcia’s hit “Pac-Man Fever” album (and electro fans know about the original “Pak Man” version of Jonzun Crew’s joint “Pack Jam”), bath towels, mini-gumball machines, board games, vitamins and more merch than you can imagine. Even the news outlets who mocked the phenomenon as a fad eventually started using Pac-graphics to talk about serious news stories. The recent announcement of a new Twitch-based “Pac-Man Live Studio” game with customizable mazes is just another sign that the legend still has some lives left.

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Back to the Streets of Rage
May 1st, 2020

I can’t believe it. I’ve already bought it through Steam, installed it, and I just STILL don’t believe it. But it happened: Streets of Rage 4 is real and available now. I’m going to spend part of my weekend playing it (and Treachery in Beatdown City, which I still need to play through). Here’s the site update:

Custom sprites: Streets of Rage: New sprites: ‘Skate’ Eddie Hunter (new sprites to replace the scratch-made ones done in 2011), Roo/Victy, Antonio, Bongo (SoR1), Abadede (my 2017 sprite edited to have SoR1 gear), and the Streets of Rage cop. This finishes two things: the ENTIRE player and enemy list of Streets of Rage and all playable characters from the first 3 games.

edit: 11:25 AM EST: Roo somehow hopped out of sprite folder while uploading files, but has returned safely to the gallery page (thanks for the alert, EddieMountaingoat!) I forgot Antonio’s tiny glasses, but they’re there now (thanks to spriter @Zabuyaki for the heads’up on Twitter). I also updated SoR custom gallery’s 200 x 100 pic with all the playable heroes from 1 through 3.

All sprites have been added to the main GFX Image Generators, along with that SoR 1 Pine Pot background I teased some time last year. Why’d I wait so long to put the background out there? Because I wanted to show it in the Streets of Rage 1 Sprite Showcase first!

Long story short, I decided to start doing single game Showcases for a while and save the Showcade title for special episodes with more than one game (like last year’s episode 000). My current Showcase plan is to alternate between posting one all-new showcase (which I just did), then post an updated version of a showcase from episode 000 (which had Golden Axe, Final Fight, and Castlevania).

edit 2020/05/04: the following things have been added:
– Sprites: police car sprites added to SoR 1, Victy and 48x48p portraits added to SoR 3


– GFX Generators: the main GFX Image Generator now has the SoR3 cinema look added to the MvC ending, and the SoR 3 16×16 font (used in the “Group 384×224 w/ writing” screenstyle in the main generator) now has added palettes and the SoR3 8×16 font was added.

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