This update is 100% old-school with games from 1985 and earlier. This is the second such update after the one in February with Pooka, Ms. Pac-Man and others. Oddly enough, that was before I even knew that Wreck-It Ralph even existed. Thanks to delays due to commissions and other projects, this update was pushed back to the month that the movie hit theaters. In other words, this is a really good time to celebrate the title and characters that built the foundation of video games. Besides, this site really needs more content from this era.

GFX Generators
New characters: Berzerk (Evil Otto and Robot), Centipede, Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Junior, Dig Dug, Flashgal, Frogger (and Lady Frog), Fygar, H.E.R.O., Kangaroo, Luigi, Mr. Do, Pitfall Harry, Q-Bert, the Wizard of Wor.
Updated: Ghost Monsters (Gloved sprite, new palettes), Mario (new sprites & palettes), Pac-Man (two new sprites), Pooka (new palettes), Space Invaders (new palettes)
New backgrounds: A few new backgrounds were added to Create-a-scene, box tribute and Avatar 100×100 options, but the most important is the scratch-made arcade scene.
Updated screenstyles: Silver Atari 2600 box added to Box Tributes in the GroupShot. Ninja Warriors (arcade) 16×16 font added to the “Create-a-Scene 384×224 + text” in the GroupShot generator mainly because it looks like a big version of the typical font for old games.

Custom Sprites – The following galleries were updated:
Activision: H.E.R.O. and new Pitfall Harry sprite
Atari: Centipede
Data East: BurgerTime’s Peter Pepper
IREM: Mr. X from Kung-Fu Master
Konami: new sprites of Frogger and Lady Frog
Namco: New sprites added of Dig Dug, Fygar, Pac-Man and the Ghost Monsters
Nintendo: Donkey Kong, Donkey Junior, Mario and Luigi sprites
Sega: Pengo and Flashgal
Taito: Space Invader (cabinet art version)
Universal: Mr. Do

Mini-logos: Berzerk, Burgertime, Centipede, Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Junior, Frogger, H.E.R.O., Kangaroo, Lady Bug, Mr. Do!, Pengo (in-game), Pitfall, Puckman, Stern, Sunsoft, Q*Bert, Universal, Wizard of Wor.

This really brought back some good, old memories, like the days when I’d go to Lawson’s to buy comics and candy after playing the Star Castle or Mario Bros. coin-op machine. There will be at least one more update like this (though not as big) like this in 2013 to help fix the balance of 70’s-early 80’s material on this site, but I plan to mix in more classic material like this into future updates.

December will have one more themed update to pay tribute to some 1987 games celebrating their 25th anniversaries. There will probably be a small update or two with random stuff in them, too. Be sure to stop by the Illmosis site to see new art projects and pixel art gallery pages with those “work progress” animations that show some of the things I did to make the sprites. Enjoy the update and the rest of your extended play weekend!

Tiny update!


I made a semi-quick sprite of Princess Python over the weekend and then made a sprite of the Ice Cream Man (one of my characters) to post on Illmosis. Both have been added to the GFX Generators. The Princess was added to the Marvel gallery and ICM was added to the Illmosis section on my sprite page.

Remember that second “old-school update” I promised? It’s going down later this month. Both expected and unexpected scratch-made sprites (and more) based on pre-1986 games will hit the site. This month seems a bit more fitting since Wreck-It Ralph just made its debut and many of the characters I planned to have in the update turned out to be in the movie. That era has been mostly neglected here, but this coming update will change that quite a bit.

Happy Halloween! There was an update this past Saturday and you can find the details in this earlier post.

GFX Generators
Dracula-X (SNES) 8×16 font added to the screenstyles that use them.
Konami: Simon Belmont (new sprite), Dracula (new sprites), Richter Belmont (updated sprite), Castlevania monsters (CV1 Zombie sprite added), Skeletons (with 3 variations).

Custom Sprites – All these new sprites were added to the Castlevania section of the Konami page.

… Halloween… Halloween…

This year marks the 25th Anniversary of Konami’s Castlevania hitting U.S. shores and invading unsuspecting NES systems around the country. With that in mind, this pre-Halloween update is really heavy with Dracula’s minions along with a Belmont to destroy them. Non-Castlevania fans still have some things to look forward to as other horror and monster-related sprites and things haunt this update.

GFX Generators – The following creatures and creature-fighters have been added to the mix:
Capcom: Anita (new!)
Jaleco: Avenging Spirit (new!)
Konami: Richter Belmont (new!), Medusa Head (new!), Castlevania creatures (Ghosts, Hunchback, Zombie)
Namco: Rick Taylor (now with palettes, including Mirror Rick and Wanpaku Graffiti), Biggy Man (new!)
Sega: Neff (new!)
An expanded version of my scratch-made Castlevania cover art recreation was added to the 384×224 Create-a-Scene screenstyles. You probably figured that out from the main screenshot, though. More Darkstalker backgrounds were added to those, too.

Custom Sprites –
Jaleco: Avenging Spirit
Konami: Richter Belmont (SotN style), Medusa Head, Ghosts, Hunchback, Zombie
Namco: Biggy Man
Sega: Neff (Altered Beast)

Mini-Logos – Capcom: Resident Evil. Data East: Night Slashers. Jaleco: Avenging Spirit. Konami: Richter (Belmont). Marvel: Ghost Rider

Expect a few more items to be added on Halloween day!

Here’s a little wake-up call to let you know that the site has been unpaused.

GFX Generators – The huge Capcom character section was split up into multiple areas to make things a bit more clear. More MSH backgrounds were added to most of the variable background screenstyles.
Capcom: Mega Man (added sprites), Rush (new), Roll (added sprites), Miechelle Heart (added MvsC sprite, new green palette)
Marvel: Doctor Doom (added sprites)

Sprite Rips – All 100 CD portraits from both Megaman & Bass (GBA) and Rockman & Forte (Super Famicom) are now in downloadable .ZIP files. Each is a separate .PNG and all have the same alignment according to where they are on the screen.

Game Index – Alien Syndrome (arcade), Contra (NES), Mega Man (NES), Shinobi (arcade), Xenophobe (arcade) added.

Game Logos – Alien Syndrome (arcade, including an animated one), Devil World (arcade, added to Dark Adventure section), Gun.Smoke (arcade and NES), Kung Fu Kid (SMS), Rainbow Islands (arcade), Rastan Saga (arcade), Solomon’s Key, Super Dodge Ball (arcade), Wardner (World and Japan arcade versions), Xenophobe (arcade) added.

Mini-Logos – Xenophobe added to Atari-Midway-Williams section.

There will be a small horror and monster-related update around Halloween.

I’m still incredibly busy with commission work, so I didn’t have the time to make a big Avengers update to celebrate the DVD/Blu-Ray release. I was able to cook up some quick “Marvel Essentials” frames for the 160×192 and 100×100 styles in the GroupShot Generator.

Full updates will start again in late October. Be ready!


Breakin’ News


Taito’s official YouTube channel posted a YouTube preview of COZMO, ZUNTATA’s upcoming album which celebrates their 25th Anniversary.


ZUNTATA is a band consisting of Taito’s amazing musicians who also perform live music live on stage. Just search for ZUNTATA on your video site of choice and you should be able to find some live performance clips and rips of their music from the games themselves or the CD soundtrack releases. Their Japanese site is here.


A trailer for Midway Arcade Origins was posted on the EGM site by AntDaGamer. Though the full game list isn’t out there yet, that “T for Teen” rating of the game has a Drug Reference warning possibly points to the inclusion of Narc. The early part of the trailer also has an obvious hint about another unannounced game. It’ll be interesting to see which games make the cut this time.


Breakin’ News


Joystiq reports that there will be a Midway Arcade Origins compilation of over 30 games for $30 for PS3 and X-Box 360. Don’t forget that Midway acquired the libraries of The game list in the press release mentions Defender, Gauntlet, Joust, Marble Madness, Rampage & Spy Hunter. Multiplayer modes will be local only, but there will be trophies and online leaderboards so the rest of the planet can make you feel crappy about the scores you’d normally be okay with. Backbone Entertainment will be doing the emulation duties again, so this thing is in good hands. Honestly, the extras like artwork and developer interviews are one of my favorite things about game compilations and I’d be happy if they just re-used some of the videos they included with the Midway Arcade Treasures series. Games like Gauntlet and Rampage that allow more than two players should be much more interesting now that these comps are on machines that don’t need multitaps. Midway’s Tapper actually shows up in the upcoming Wreck-it-Ralph’s, so maybe they’ll think of including that one, too.


Just in case you hadn’t heard about Keiji Inafune’s new game with the interesting concept and premise:


Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z by All-Games-Beta

Here’s the Project X Zone video with all kinds of Capcom, Namco and Sega characters in crazy-go-nuts mode combat mode:


Breakin’ News



Double Dragon Neon (and its playable demo) is now in the Playstation Store and X-Box Live. I played the demo for a few minutes (I’m still working on commission stuff and don’t have much time right now) and dug it. Most of the reviews for it seem to be positive, though the main negative review so far is so badly written that it’s already being mocked. Remember the early slack-assed reviews of Moon Diver that called it a mindless platformer but complained about how easy it is to die because they played it like a mindless platformer? Yeah, there’s a bit of that going around with this one. Still, most people seem to be digging it.

Learn more at the official website for the game and give the demo a shot while remembering that dodging and countering is just as important as blocking and countering was in Super Double Dragon.

BTW: Jake Kaufman’s soundtrack, filled with classic D.D. remixes and stunning eighties-ness, is up on BandCamp.
Double Dragon Neon soundtrack
Imagine that there was a pilot for a live-action Double Dragon TV show in the 80’s that would’ve aired at 10 PM on NBC or CBS. That’s what the remix of the main theme sounds like and I’m beyond okay with that.

I finished the first art commission that caused me to put the site on pause for a while, but just had to start another one. I probably won’t be able to have another update for another month after this one. I made a little Street Fighter 25th anniversary update between commission jobs to prove that I’m still around. This site isn’t supposed to focus on fighting games, but Street Fighter and Final Fight share the same world and that’s my excuse.

Graphic Generators

Adon (added sprites)
Birdie (added sprites & SF1-based palette)
Eagle (newly added)
Cammy (new SFA-style Delta Red win pose edit)
Charlie (P1 and P1 Shadow palettes from MSH vs SF)
Chun-Li (Three SFA/SFZ tracksuit sprites in four palettes)
Gen (added sprite)
Gouki (added SFA set sprites and lots of palettes)
Guile (SFA3 PSX palettes)
Guy (added SFA sprites)
Ryu (new sprite edit based on old Akiman SF2 art, fixed MvsC P1 palette)
Rolento (added SFA sprites, new edited sprite based on SFA2 ending)
Sagat (added sprites & palettes, including a custom SF1 palette)

Over a dozen backgrounds from different Street Fighter games were added to the “384×224 scenes + text” in the GroupShot Generator.
8×16 font from Super Street Fighter II Turbo added to font-enabled styles in the GroupShot Generator.

Custom Sprites – The Capcom page was updated with the new Rolento edit added to the Final Fight section. Ryu and Cammy edits added to Street Fighter section.


Breakin’ News


I’m not too big on most Kickstarters because I’m usually so low on funds that I’d need to start a Kickstarter to contribute decent dough to other Kickstarters. Here are two that I’ll definitely donate to if my commission money comes in before the deadlines:

Every Move is Special – The plan is to host a special event and all-around celebration of both Street Fighter and fighting games as a whole. See previews of the artwork and more on the project’s Tumblr. This looks like it’s going to be a really cool book and possible event, so I’m really rooting for this one.

Mercenary Kings – The same crew behind the excellent Scott Pilgrim vs. the World beat-em-up are working on a side-scrolling platform shooter that harkens to many 2-D classics while adding the ability to make your own weapons and gear. Check out the website for more details and watch this video to see what kind of game they’re going to hit us with in 2013.

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