I got a drawing assignment that started last week and I won’t have the time to make content updates in August. There will still be quick little posts on the ScrollBoss Tumblr account along with reposts of cool gaming stuff.

I made a minor fix to Alex Kidd gallery (the Janken-mode Alex sprite was fixed) and I added VGJunk to the links page and the Quick Links page in the side menu. That place has a ton of great, humorous reviews for both well-known and lesser-known games like Ninja Warriors Again, Wild Guns and Vendetta. In a world (R.I.P. Don LaFontaine) of snobby “It’s not as good as Super Metroid so it sucks” elitist reviewers and half-assed derp-throughs with no emphasis on game play, VGJunk has the kind of retro reviews that we need to see more often.

Breakin’ News:

Two Alpha Denshi (also known as ADK) arcade games were added to the Playstation Store: Time Soldiers and Gang Wars. Gang Wars is from the era of Double Dragon madness and is one of the lesser examples of someone aping that play style. This is balanced out by the crazy ADK cutscenes and the fact that one of the heroes is a bootleg Jackie Chan in a period-piece outfit. Time Soldiers is a top-down walking shooter with time-traveling combat, but with the same dial-turn aiming as Ikari Warriors. This game was popular back in the day and is considered the ancestor of ADK’s Ninja Commandos, their later time-travel shooter on the Neo-Geo. Both are $2.99 each.

The demo for “Frogger Hyper Arcade Edition” is up, too. I downloaded it but haven’t had a chance to play it yet. The full game is on my “to get” list, but I’d like to try it first.

Filed under: ScrollBoss Updates, Site News, Updates by PrimeOp

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The site is twelve years old today, so it’s time to celebrate with a lot of new content.

Graphic Generators

New Characters: Bill Rizer and Lance Bean from Contra, Boomer and Hawk from Vendetta/Crime Fighters 2 added to Konami. Zeed/Neo-Zeed and Golden Axe Villains groups for Sega. Chin Taimei and Machine Gun Willy (separate character with new sprite and palettes) for Technos.

Updated characters: Samus (NES armor sprite) for Nintendo, Tyris Flare (new sprite) for Sega, Blue Mary (palettes) for SNK, Shadow Warriors (new Lopar and Williams sprites, improved Jeff sprite) for Technos.

Custom Sprites
Konami: Bill Rizer and Lance Bean from Contra, Boomer and Hawk from Vendetta/Crime Fighters 2.
Nintendo: Samus (NES Power suit and S.Metroid Varia).
Sega: new scratch-made Tyris Flare and Skeleton (Golden Axe), Masked Ninja (Shinobi), Omote (from Revenge of Shinobi).
Technos: Chin Taimei (NES Vs. Mode stance), Lopar, Williams, Jeff (improved DD1 edit), Machine Gun Willy (improved rifle-holding sprite in DD1 and DD2 colors)
Taito: Lady Master of Kung Fu
DNL: DNL sent a lot of new scratch-made sprites, including a very cool update of his Phanto animation. Be sure to hide your keys before looking at it.

Sprites
New galleries: Karate Blazers, Mystic Warriors, Sunset Riders
Updated: Captain Commando (hero surfing sprites), Double Dragon, Final Fight 3 (Dave and more added), X-Men (Konami arcade) pages

Mini-logos
Data East: Dark Seal
Kaneko: Kaneko and Lady Master
Konami: Mystic Warriors, Sunset Riders
Natsume: Natsume logo (blue gradient), Shadow of the Ninja
Square Enix: Square Enix logo (black and white)
Taito: Silent Dragon
TMNT: Original comic logo 1

Logos
Beraboh Man (arcade), Blue Shadow, Bravoman (TG-16), Kage (Famicom), Ninja Warriors (TG-16) added.

Game Index: The Legend of Zelda (NES), Mystic Warriors (arcade)

Vernacula-X: A few definitions now link to their own pages with expanded definitions and extra goodies like game and character lists that link up to their respective indices on the site. More definitions will get their own pages and more goodies will be added over time.

That’s it for now. I have to go to sleep now, and go to work earlier than usual, so any site fixes will have to wait until the afternoon. I hope that all of you who visit on a regular basis enjoy the new stuff and maybe the new visitors will be overwhelmed by the sad way I’ve spent much of my free time for twelve years backlog of earlier content. I tried to mix it up between obvious, famous games (Contra and Metroid) and things that don’t get much of the spotlight (Vendetta/Crime Fighters 2, Karate Blazers). Have fun and thanks for visiting the site!

Filed under: ScrollBoss Updates, Site News, Updates by PrimeOp
Tags: Contra, Crime Fighters 2, Double Dragon, gfx generators, Kaneko, Karate Blazers, Konami, Lady of Kung Fu, Metroid, Mystic Warriors, Nintendo, Shadow of the Ninja, Taito, Technos, Vendetta, X-Men
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I’ve uploaded an unfinished upgrade of the Vernacula-X Glossary section. Some of the definitions now link to their own pages with expanded definitions and all kinds of relevant links. The definition for boss links to the S-Files of characters who are bosses and the entry for beat-em-up displays a list of beat-em-up games that are in the Game Index. The biggest page so far is for the term palette mostly because it uses some graphics I’d made for an unfinished tutorial. Expect more solo pages, terms and improvements before the update on the 19th.

Don’t worry, I’m working on pixel art, too. One of the sprites you’ll see on the 19th can be seen in this post on the ScrollBoss Tumblr. Yes, it’s about time I made a Capcom-style standing sprite for him. You can leave Disqus comments in the Tumblr posts now so you don’t have to be on Tumblr to post replies there now.

Again, the update won’t be huge, but I think you’ll like it. Expect the new custom sprites to be a mix of fan-favorites and the lesser-loved characters that get respect here. They’re all purely game-related, non-licensed characters, too.

Filed under: ScrollBoss Lab, ScrollBoss Updates, Updates by PrimeOp

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Happy Independence Day to all my fellow U.S. visitors!
Be ready for the 12TH Anniversary update on the 19th!

Filed under: ScrollBoss Updates, Site News, Updates by PrimeOp
Tags: holiday
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