Four horror movie legends stalk this update along with a game enemy who crossed over to the silver screen. Roll film.
Custom Sprites:
– Movies: Chucky, Michael Myers/The Shape, Ghostface (Scream), Leatherface
– Konami: Silent Hill Nurse
The new sprites have been added to the GFX Generators and the new characters have mini-logos (they’ll be added to the mini-logo gallery tomorrow).
One more update drops tomorrow!
We’ve been having a lot of fun with the DangerTerrorHorrorThon (see updates 1 and 2), but I’m a bit worn out right now. That means it’s time for a break… a werewolf break.
Custom Sprites: a Castlevania II version of Simon Belmont, and the Castlevania gallery finally gets a graphic tag.
Sprites: new sprites and animated .gifs were added to the Altered Beast gallery.
One special thing I’ve been saving for this update event is a couple of commission sprites I made earlier this year for a special event. Rob “Dire” Strangman (creator of the OPCFG and the West Mansion sites) and Karry Blank asked me to make these sprites for some of their wedding cards and gave me permission to post the sprites:
So I made my first pixel print earlier this year, the Horror vs. Horror (I still don’t have a good name for that yet) title screen, which can be ordered here for $6 + S&H, nudge nudge, wink wink.
Did you enjoy your Werewolf Break? If you managed to read this far, you deserve a werewolf.
That lil’ Altered Beast is in the NES-like 32×16 and 32×32 sprite gallery.
Here are a few clips from the final installments of this week’s DangerTerrorHorrorThon…
Stay tuned.
The DangerTerrorHorrorThon continues with a crew of heroes, but will they be enough to hold off the threats on the way?
Custom Sprites:
– Castlevania: Simon Belmont (new CV1 NES stance from last year’s Trevor sprite & improved taunt), Grant Danasty
– Sega: Weretiger (Altered Beast)
– Games (Other): Julie and Zeke (Zombies Ate My Neighbors)
All new items have been added to the GFX Generators.
Tomorrow’s update will be smaller, almost like a break. But what kind of break? Tune in tomorrow to find out!
The return of the most turd-curdling time of the year also means that it’s time for another DangerTerrorHorrorThon!
This Halloween’s DangerTerrorHorrorThon kicks off with an invasion of the living dead! Zombies are really played out right now now, so I’m dipping back into the past for inspiration, including one of the only universally-loved fast-moving zombies.
That’s right, we party on Monday.
Custom Sprites:
– Capcom: Zombie (Ghosts ‘n Goblins, Super Ghouls ‘n Ghosts versions)
– Sega: Grave Master (Altered Beast)
– Wayforward: Rottytops
– DC Comics: Solomon Grundy (uploaded on a Monday)
– Movies: Tarman (Return of the Living Dead)
Mini-logos:
– Capcom: Ghosts ‘n Goblins
All new items have been added to the GFX Generators, where the G’nG Zombies and Grave Master (in the Altered Beast enemies char slot) have alternate palettes.
The marathon continues tomorrow!
Game fans all over the internet are celebrating the #Happy30thNES event (thanks to PlatinumFungi) on their websites and on Twitter. Made to honor the 30th Anniversary of the Nintendo Entertainment System, the event is a chance for us to show and tell why we love that gray box of 8-bit magic. I’ve done my part by making 30 new NES-like sprites based on a few of my favorite NES games while using colors from the original sprites:
You can find the separate sprites (and an extra sprite that didn’t make the cut) in the new NES-like 32 gallery.
No offense to my Atari 2600 and ColecoVision, but the NES was the first system I owned that could play the kinds of games that inspired me to make this site. Platformers, beat ’em ups, run ‘n guns and similar genres really started to come into their own at that time and the Nintendo Entertainment System was one of the best ways to play those games at home. It’s the beginning of what I consider to be the sweet spot of action games becoming adventures while still being unashamed of being games. That’s probably why we still see new games using the look and feel of those NES classics and it’s definitely a big part of why many of us are celebrating its 30th anniversary today.
Help spread the word about the event if you can and feel free to talk about your own Nintendo favorites in the comments section!
Articles: I’ve had this page about Rob Strangman’s Memoirs of a Virtual Caveman book for a long time, but didn’t finish it until now. It’s made in the old, abandoned game review format because of a few jokes in the info section that I thought were funny at the time (sigh). As it says on the page, I’m probably a bit biased because I drew the cover, but I really dug that book and the voice it gives to various parts of the video game community. The article is here and I hope you give Rob’s book a chance!
Arcade Quartermaster’s latest batch of game shrines is monster-themed and features Night Slashers (one of my favorites), Kiki KaiKai (Taito’s original Pocky and Rocky game), Laser Ghost and Nightmare in the Dark.
You know, we’ve had a lot of fun here today, but it’s time to get serious. Dead serious.
Horror returns to ScrollBoss next week. Be there* and be scared.
(by “there” I mean “here.” Just making that clear.)
So Transformers: Devastation, a game that sounds more like a wish (G1 Transformers with classic voice actors and developed by Platinum Games) than reality, is now available and there’s no way I wasn’t going to celebrate.
A small-scale G1 Optimus Prime joins the site, crash-landing in the Toys and ‘Toons gallery until the Transformers get their own gallery. Meanwhile, new sprites of Alyssa from the Guardian Legend/Guardic Gaiden and Samus Aran from Metroid join the fight! Look, someone in futuristic armor who curls up into a ball like a potato bug counts as a Transformer, alright? All three have been added to the GFX Generator. Optimus is the only Transformer on the site right now, but you may get some more toys this Christmas…
Here’s a taste of what I’ve been messing around with for the past month:
Just like the last one, almost nothing in the video is final. I still have a lot to learn with Anime Studio Pro 10, but I think you can tell I’ve been having fun with it. Oddly enough, I made three new sprites mainly for a clip in the video, but the scene didn’t have enough people to match the clip it followed. It’s a good thing that I left it out, because the so-called surprise would’ve wound up being the preview display pic.
Kickstarter alert: Aurion: Legacy of the Kori-Odan is an exciting action/RPG hybrid with 2-D beautiful graphics. It has 14 days left to be funded and still needs help to be published.
I’m extremely late with this, as the deadline is rapidly approaching, but check out the Humble Bundle that includes GameMaker Studio Pro (usually $99-$149) and Android export module($299!) for only $12, or pay just $6 for GM:SP. The packages also include games made with GameMaker and the source code for those games.
In case you’re wondering, yes, I bought it.
Since I’m king of the late passes, I’ll try to redeem myself by letting you know that Smith Micro will be having a sale on Manga Studio EX 5/Clip Studio Paint EX in a few days. The program is more about line art and one of the programs I took a break to try and study. Quite a few artists I know on the ‘net swear by it, so keep an eye out for that sale if you don’t have it.
Site updates will resume in October. For now, here’s another clip of my messing around in Anime Studio.
Sorry for dropping off the map for a bit (I’ll explain later), but here’s some more sprites based on early 80s video games!
Custom Sprites
– Namco: Mappy (FINALLY!)
– Nintendo: Donkey Kong and Luigi
– Taito: redone and improved Ptolemy
– Williams: Lander and Flyer Model from Defender, Hulk from Robotron: 2084
All these things were added to the GFX Generators, waiting for you to use them in fake screenshots, avatars, graphics and more.
I got yet another commission to make pixel art for a YouTube channel, but this was for a more intricate background. The irony is that most of what I was spriting was 80s-related, keeping me on theme even when I’m not working on the site. I’ll be sure to link to it when it hits the internet.
The commission work may have kept me from doing a few planned updates this month, but those ideas will just get kicked along for later. Thanks to the votes that went into the arcade, I wanted to make an update with characters from early fighting games and beat ’em ups (think Kung-Fu Master, Yie Ar Kung-Fu, Shaolin’s Road, Karate Champ) and that’s something that’ll probably be more fun if I have more time to make material for it. The same goes for another themed update that I won’t describe, but I’ll just say that a sprite in the 15th Anniversary update was a warm-up for that.
This site will be in chill mode for September; not really paused, but there won’t be a lot of new content. There are art programs I’ve bought months ago and it’s time for me to dig in and start learning how to use them. Plus, I’m really tired and need some rest. Updates will stay small until October. You know what’s coming back in October, right? Riiiiiiiiiight.
This site spent most of 2014 celebrating the 25th anniversary of 1989, my favorite year for video games, and the updates were filled with many sprites based on those games, like Final Fight, the Revenge of Shinobi, Golden Axe, Strider, and more. That theme comes back for today’s mini-update because the date is the eighth month’s ninth day.
Custom Portraits: new Street Fighter Alpha/Zero 3 Vs. portraits of Joe Musashi, Poison (and Roxy), Damnd, and Haggar (replacing the horrible one I made two years ago).
The new portraits have been added to the GFX Generators along nine new palettes for Poison (based on Ultra Street Fighter IV) and five for Haggar (based on the Slam Masters/Muscle Bomber series).
The next update will return to the early 1980s with more new sprite remakes of classic characters!
August is the eighth month and that means it’s time to celebrate the 80s! Look, I know that’s what I do on this site most of the time, but most of the focus will be on the early part of the decade, a time that often gets neglected on this site. So let’s fix that right off the bat!
Custom Sprites
– Nintendo: Mario (doing the pose from the old U.S. flyer art)
– Taito: Bub and Bob
– Pac-Man: Ms. Pac-Man (Pac-Man 2 pose)
– Games (other): Coily (Q*Bert’s enemy)
– Williams: Player 1 and 2 from Joust
Mini-Logos: Joust was added to the Williams/Midway gallery, Bub and Bob added to the Taito gallery
All new items were added to the GFX Generators, where you can use them to make graphics like the one at the top of this post. You’ll also find the new 1980-1986 arcade background. I asked people on Facebook, Tumblr and Twitter which seven games from 80 to 86 would they put in their own mini-arcade and picked the ones that got the most choices
I was commissioned to make a pixel art version of the Aaliyah Channel title screen for her trip to the Neon Retro Arcade and, as corny as it sounds, it’s just fun to see a young’un step into an arcade for the first time and be wowed like I was when I was a kid. Check it out and be sure to give her a like and a subscription if you dig it!
There will be a small update this weekend that visits the opposite end of the decade. You know what that means, right?
