Time to wrap it up, B!

Custom Sprites


(edit: I’m so tired that I didn’t even describe the new stuff)
DC Comics: Supergirl’s 2nd new sprite this year (didn’t have time to sprite her t-shirt and skirt outfit version until after the toy update)
Data East: a sprite of the Bad Dudes intro guy (an earlier version of the sprite was in the Mission Statement video) along with improved Blade and Striker sprites
Capcom: slightly-better Ton Pooh (and sisters) sprites
All sprites have been added to the main image generator.

First of all, let’s see all of the sprites that hit the galleries this year:


That’s not even counting sprites that were just in videos, like Link and Zelda with Triforces…

… and other things that I’m saving for later (a few were teased in this post).

One of the biggest goals this year was the rewrite of the image generator engine. The hard work paid off in a lot of big (the looser layer format allows for far better screen set-ups) and small ways (those links on the frame menu work on every appropriate screen). 2016 was spent getting it to work, converting the old content to the new format and working on new behind-the-scene tools for the new formats. The 2017 goal will be to convert the other generators and show you how much more the new engine can do now.


I’m not the only one doing a 2016 wrap-up, so check out these other party people out there doing the same!
VGJunk “THE 2016 VGJUNK REVIEW!”
Shunju Forest: “End of year post 2016 edition”


Just in case you haven’t heard, Arc System Works has announced Double Dragon IV for Playstation 4 and PC/Steam.


Some people may see the NES-centric style as a step back, but those were the last games where the series had a serious grip on gamers’ hearts. It doesn’t hurt that they seem to be leaning heavily on the NES version of Double Dragon II, a fan favorite which also made it into the NES Classic Edition (if you managed to get one). I hope this game turns out to be the start of more Double Dragon games, maybe even Double Dragon Neon 2.


Heads-up: there’s a game dev bundle on Humble Bundle right now that you may want to check out, even if you’re just thinking of trying your hand at making a game. One of the programs at the basic pay level, Spriter Pro, has a lot of praise from pixel artists and I’ll finally have my own chance to work with it.


I’m tired of typing, so I made a video to look back at the promo vids for 2016, including some new and altered clips just for this video. There’s also… never mind, it’s better if you see it for yourself.


Thanks for stopping by and I’ll see you in mid-January 2017!

You know, I think you’ve been a really good group of girls and boys this year, so I think I’ll let you open your gifts early this time. No corduroy pants and hats this year, it’s all toys!

Toys and Cartoons: Teela, Beast Man, Panthro, Rom: Spaceknight, Megatron, Kimber Benton
G.I. JOE: Snake-Eyes (figure 1), Cobra Commander, Destro, Cobra Trooper
DC Comics: Supergirl, Martian Manhunter (the sprite seen in the JLA pixel art poster)
Marvel Comics: Doctor Doom (Secret Wars ’84 outfit)

All those sprites are also in the new, main GFX Generator, along with two new toy card tributes and a new MotU font:

As always, many of the sprites, especially the Cobra Trooper, have extra palettes in the GFX Generator that aren’t seen in the main custom sprite galleires. After all, there’s no such thing as having too many Cobra Troopers!


(edit)
Elsewhere…

Arcade Quartermaster is getting 2017 started early with a group of new shrines: Star Wars arcade (hey, Star Wars toys are also a favorite), Outfoxies, Narc and Outrun!


Thanks for the stopping by and I hope you have a good time, no matter which holidays you celebrate!

New sprites of Wonder Woman and Cheetah sprites have just been added to the DC Gallery and main GFX Generator! Besides updating this post, I’ve uploaded a fixed Minvera Cheetah sprite, a new Deborah Dormaine version of the sprite and a mini-logo version of the logo that Minerva and Dormaine had in DC’s old Who’s Who series.

No, this wasn’t meant to tie into any current news story, but it’s part of what I wanted to do for Wonder Woman’s 75th anniversary. By the time it rolled around, I only had 70’s and 80’s Wonder Woman sprites ready and Cheetah was only a sketch then. So, more unfinished business settled!

BTW: that Wonder Woman sprite is pretty much the same one I made and used in that JLA pixel art print that’s available in the shop, (hint hint).

I’ve fixed up the sprites of Blaze Fielding (Streets of Rage) and Headless Horror (Altered Beast) and added them to their respective custom sprite galleries (links are their game titles) and the main GFX Generator.

I’ll be back later this week with another, and much bigger, Unfinished Business update!

edit: I’m back sooner than expected! I made more fixes to the Blaze sprites and replaced that older scratch-made sprite of SoR2 Blaze in the SoR3 bio screen pose.

It’s December? Already? It’s hard to believe that such a horrible year is flying by this quickly, but I’m guessing this 2016 heard everyone saying, “Wrap it up, B.” There are a lot of things that I didn’t get to do while they were timely, so I’m going to kick in a few updates to fix that. First up is Alex Kidd, who debuted 30 years ago this year!

New Custom Sprites and Mini-Logos of Alex Kidd and Stella (and one WITH Stella) have been added to the site and, of course, the fighter-sized GFX Generators.

Unfinished Business 2016 updates won’t be a themed marathon of newness, but will pop up throughout the month, so stay tuned for more oddball mini-updates.

It’s finally that day in November when we remember the brave cyborgs of the past (or future who came into the past, thus becoming part of the past) who sacrificed so that Christmas could come to be!

New sprites of Kunoichi and Ninja from Ninja Warriors Again (Natsume’s re-imagining of Taito’s Ninja Warriors for the Super Famicom/Super Nintendo) have been added to the Taito Custom Sprites gallery and fighter-sized GFX Generator. They join Kamaitachi from last year’s Cyber Week updates to fill out that playable roster. I made a few improvements to his sprite, mainly the shoulder pad.

What’s Cyber Monday without a little pushing of merchandise? Don’t worry, this site has that covered… kinda. TeePublic marked their T-Shirts down to $14 a pop, so that means the shirt with the Minus World section’s logo is $14 for today only! What’s the Minus World section? It’s one of the oldest parts of the site, going all the way back to the days when the site was hosted on Angelfire. That spot seems a little dormant right now, but, now that the big, lingering GFX Generator project is done, it may be time for to start revisiting some of the neglected areas of the site.

Illmosis / ScrollBoss prints sale!

November 25th to November 28th:
8×10 and 8×11 prints are $5.00 each!
11 x 17 and 11 x14 prints $8.00 each!

The prints are on the Shop page here and more non-game art on the Illmosis prints page in this link!

edit: I’m adding a small incentive to this, starting now. I just realized I have a few secret sprites for next year’s projects that just happen to have Black as part of the character name. So I made one more sprite and came up with an idea.


There are five sprites in that screenshot up there. For every print that sells before Monday, I’ll unlock one of those sprites in the custom sprite galleries and main GFX Generator. If anyone buys, I’ll make a fake hi-score screen with with the buyer’s 3-letter initials and display name of their choice and scores based on the number of prints bought. I know it’s not much, but it’d be my way of thanking you for buying something. If nothing is bought, those sprites will stay in the vault until their projects are done (next year or later).

Whether you buy or don’t buy, I hope you’re having a good weekend!

Custom Sprites
Nintendo – Samus Aran, Donkey Kong Jr. and the Ice Climbers
Data East – Karnov (new pose in his original look)
Illmosis – Nutroll (new fight stance sprite)

Mini-logos
Data East: Trio the Punch
Nintendo: Ice Climbers

The new sprites and logos have been added to the new fighter scale GFX Generator. That generator also got the gold 16×16 font from Fighter’s History Dynamite/Karnov’s Revenge and the “Mego WGSH 176×192” got a new set of Data East portrait bubbles!


As a celebrator of Karnovember, it’s my duty to send you a link to the Karnovember Tumblr tag, because that’s where I first heard about it. I’ll be doing my part to add content to that tag soon.


recent stuff elsewhere:
Gaming Hell just added a page about Namco’s Numan Athletics and Mach Breakers, their super-powered sports games. There’s some really cool info in there, including a few things to prove that the games are linked!

Shadi dipped into the legendary Taito vault by adding shrines for Bubble Bobble, Puzzle Bobble and Kuri Kinton to Arcade Quartermaster


There’s a reason why I managed to build an update so random that I couldn’t come up with a cohesive, goofy news post title. The plan was to drop a mini-update last Friday with Samus, the Ice Climbers and DK Jr. and build up to a full Karnovember update and an update with Illmosis characters (with Nutroll). That was until I was worn out by extra work at my day job, something that was going on for a while but really kicked into high gear last week. Combined with some sinus-related fun, I feel like I’ve been dropkicked down an elevator shaft and that includes pains in my drawing and spriting hand. Honestly, I probably need to rest for a little bit anyway, but this makes it obvious. I’ll be back in effect mode by early December, if not sooner. As Guru once said, “Peace out, we’ll be back, stay tuned.”

I was going to do an update last week, but extra work at my day job has been wearing me out. I did a bit of work in Anime Studio 10 using one of the new spites (along with an older sprite modified to work with it):

metroid_zebessurfacesamus_v3_web1
click to see animated and in full size

There will be new scratch-made Samus sprites in the next update, possibly this week or weekend.

Hey, look, it’s a sprite of Doctor Strange! Why, his movie just came out this week! That sprite is based on his Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 fight stance and everything! Even converted two of his classics logos into mini-logos! They’ve been added to the new GFX Generator, which is still one surfer short of an old-school Defenders line-up! That’s all I’ve got this time!

Sorry, I’m still dry as **** after the DangerTerrorHorrorThon, which wasn’t even a week ago. Don’t worry, I’m going to re-hydrate with two bottles of Arizona Iced Tea this weekend before getting back into the game.

edit 2016-11-05: Already drank one bottle of Arizona, so I’ve got enough power to make some fixes to the Doctor Strange sprite, along with making a more comic-accurate version.

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