December 24th, 2013


Merry Christmas! Here’s a tiny update with two toys: Pizzazz, leader of the Misfits from Jem and the Holograms, and B. P. Vess from COPS. They’re in the Cartoons and Toys Custom Sprite gallery and in the GFX Generators, where Gilius gets a “Santa Gilius” palette. Have a Merry Christmas or whatever holiday you celebrate!

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December 13th, 2013

My big plans for the Halloween update were cut short by commission work. One of the sprites that you’d have seen in October would have been Jason Voorhees, inspired by the fact that NECA went crazy and made a SDCC exclusive glow-in-the-dark figure colored like the NES sprite. The weird part is that someone e-mailed me to ask if I had a Jason sprite without knowing I’d planned to do one. Unfortunately, I ran out of time, so I didn’t do it. Then I decided to check and see if there was a Friday the 13th before the year was over and, sure enough, there is. So instead of just having Jason show up on Halloween, he’s here on his own special day. If that wasn’t enough, I’ve got new sprites of other hockey mask-wearing characters, including a new Rick Taylor sprite. This is Splatterhouse’s 25th anniversary year, so things just worked out just right.

GFX Generators
New Characters: Jason Voorhees (pt. 3 sprite, two palettes), Casey Jones (TMNT), Ninja Gaiden enemies (the hockey mask-wearing enemy with multiple palettes)
Updated Characters: Rick Taylor (new scratch-made Splatterhouse 1 standing pose), Jennifer (improved sprite, brown palette)

Custom Sprites – Splatterhouse’s Rick and Jen were added to the Namco page, Jason was added to the new Movie-related gallery, Casey was added to the TMNT page and that hockey mask guy from Ninja Gaiden was added to the Tecmo page.


Breakin’ News


The U.S. Playstation store has quite a few Capcom games and items on sale on the cheap tip. The Dungeons and Dragons compilation, Marvel vs. Capcom 2 and Marvel vs. Capcom Origins are $7.49, $3.49 if you have Playstation Plus. Spelunky has the same $3.49/$7.49 price scheme, too. The PS3 and Vita versions of Dragon’s Crown, my favorite game of the year, is on sale for $29.99, too. Jump on that while the gettin’ good.

EDIT: News hit this weekend that Capcom will be de-listing Marvel vs. Capcom 2 and all MvsC3 and Ultimate MvsC3 items (DLC) from PSN and X-Box live very soon. You only have until the next PSN Store update to get those things and Live users have a bit longer. Read about it on Capcom-Unity.

Good Old Games (gog.com), home of non-DRM computer gaming, has a gigantic sale going on that I’m not even going to try and list. You just need to check it out A.S.A.P. if you’re interested.

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December 3rd, 2013

Before I go into the update, I’m just letting you know that the Project Sen Kickstarter still needs help with less than three days to go.



GFX Generators

Sen, the star of Project Sen, joins the generator, along with Betty, one of the three starter warriors from Sega’s Gain Ground. The good guys from Bad Dudes, Blade and Striker, have all-new sprites (not Guile/Cody edits like the earlier stuff). SNK’s Ryuhaku Todoh and Hon-Fu were quietly added to the generator a while back when I was doing some behind-the scenes work on the character files.

Custom Sprites – Two new scratch-made Bad Dudes sprites added to the Data East gallery. Gain Ground’s Betty was added to the Sega Gallery.

Game Index – Gain Ground (arcade), Ghouls ‘n Ghosts (arcade), Kuri Kinton (arcade) added.

Logo Index – Gain Ground (arcade static and animated) added.


Arcade Quartermaster had a big update (new Mortal Kombat II and Virtua Fighter shrines), so check out the newness there, along with the updated shrines (including the MK I shrine)!


Siliconera has been posting translations of interviews with the M2 team about their work on Sega’s 3D Remaster series for the Nintendo 3DS. Anyone who thought those games were just cheaply-modified emulations will learn that the project is quite the opposite by reading these interviews. The latest one is about Sonic the Hedgehog, but one of the more interesting ideas in the interview is the Giga Drive. What is it? I’m not telling you jack squat, because I couldn’t do the idea justice. Just read the article!

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November 25th, 2013

CakeMachine Games, the team that’s working Project Sen, needs your help to get the game made:



Here’s the latest dev video post:



Beautiful, hand-drawn 2-D art and a platforming engine inspired by Megaman X and Super Metroid sounds like a great combination. I’d really love to see this game get made, but it’s still far from its Kickstarter goal.

I even made a bit of fan art for Sen:

Anyone who wants to see the game get made should spread the word about the Kickstarter and contribute if they have the money to do so. Thanks for reading and I hope you can help!

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October 31st, 2013

Happy Halloween! This is the 25th anniversary year for both Altered Beast and Splatterhouse, this year’s monster/horror update will focus more on those two series.

GFX Generator update –
– New characters: Jennifer and Splatterhouse enemies (Master Dead and Pumpkin King) for Namco, Altered Beast enemies for Sega, Ptolemy for Taito, Sorceress (Dragon’s Crown) for Vanillaware (Other Games), Skeletor for Toons & Toys
– Updated characters: Neff (Rhino form)for Sega. All Darkstalker’s Revenge characters have their Select/Vs. portraits from that game.

Game Index – Splatterhouse (arcade) added.

Sprites – Night Slashers finally gets a gallery with a few sprites and animations.

Custom Sprites – Jennifer, Master Dead and Pumpkin King added to Namco page. Neff (Rhino) and Headless Horror added to Sega. Sorceress added to Vanillaware page. Ptolemy added to Taito. Skeletor added to Toys & Cartoons.

Fake Screenshot – Here’s one for the horror movie fans: Mike Haggar’s Halloween.


Of course, other game fan sites are celebrating Halloween, too. Here’s a few other places you should check out:

VGJunk
has a fresh page all about Splatterhouse 2 for the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive.
Games-in-Bits has an excellent feature on some creepy urban legends in video games, including the first video game character to kill actual people.
Arcade Quartermaster also added a Splatterhouse shrine along with one for House of the Dead! It’s a creature double feature of foreboding abodes, so check it out!

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October 8th, 2013

Most of you probably know by now that Mighty No. 9, Shantae: Half-Genie Hero, and River City Ransom: Underground have all been funded (and RCR:U will still be open until Wednesday, October 9th). Those who missed out will have a bit of time to help out with stretch goals and/or pre-order the game on the River City Ransom.com Paypal page and Shantae: HGH page. It’s very satisfying to see these games funded by the fans who really want to see more games like this.


This is the last small update to celebrate those three games and get a few things ready for Halloween. I’m still working on a commission project, so I couldn’t do as much as I wanted as that project has to come first. There won’t be any updates until close to Halloween.

Custom Sprites
Technos: Slick (original RCR look) and Bannon (from RCR:U) in the same NES-like fighting scale sprites last week’s sprites were in.

Graphic Generators
– Fake Screenshots: “NES/GB – other games” gets Arthur (G’nG, armored and unarmored) and Splatterhouse: WG Rick gets new palettes, “RCR/Kunio-Kun SD NES style edits” gets Rick from Splatterhouse
– Vs. Maker and GroupShot: RCR:U and RCR – Enemies (with Slick sprite) added. Shantae’s palettes were tweaked (blue eye/gem color added, not seen in sprite galleries yet).


Back to commission work for me. I’ll be back in time for Halloween!

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October 3rd, 2013

This is another mini-update to keep the word out about the Shantae: Half-Genie Hero and River City Ransom: Underground Kickstarters that are in the final stretch. Shantae: HGH will be over on Friday and is working on stretch goals while RCR:U have 5 days of funding left but hasn’t hit its main goal yet. There are donation tiers that are basically full pre-orders, so please consider those if you’ve got the money to get those.

Graphic Generators
Vs. Maker & GroupShot: Alex and Ryan get new fighting-scale sprites based on the NES sprites, and the infamous Dragon Twins do as well. Shantae gets more outfits and palettes.
Fake Screenshot: Shantae (GBC) and Rick from Splatterhouse: Wanpaku Graphiti were added.


Of course, congratulations to the Mighty No. 9 project for getting funded and hitting ALL of their stretch goal levels! It’s great to see creative people like Keiji Inafune, Manami Matsumae, Kimo Kimo, Tom Pon, and many others getting the praise they deserve and I can’t wait to play the game that they’ll make. The fans who love their work backed up that desire for more with deeds, not just by donating money, but by generating and spreading an infectious excitement that built enough momentum to raise $3,845,170. I know this sort of magic won’t happen for every game project, but I hope that we fans can continue to heed the call (no pun intended, maybe). Shantae: Half-Genie Hero and River City Ransom: Underground KS’s are still going, so please give if you can so that adorable half-genie girls and wide-eyed vigilantes can get their due, too.

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September 26th, 2013

Breakin’ News


There are three really big Kickstarter projects closing in on the home stretch that are related to the kind of games featured on this site. Instead of laughing at my bad, rushed fan art up there, check out the project descriptions!

Mighty No. 9 – Created by a team of classic Mega Man stalwarts and led by Keiji Inafune, Mighty No. 9 looks to be more than just a spiritual successor to the Blue Bomber’s series and more like a new beginning for the creators themselves to bring fans the kind of game we all want. This project was funded with the quickness and is now blasting its way through some stretch goals that would make the game even better.

Shantae: Half-Genie Hero – WayForword’s blessed us with some great licensed revivals recently, including Duck Tales Remastered and Double Dragon Neon. This Kickstarter is to help get their own classic platforming hero, Shantae, into a brand-new game for her to run, jump, dance and whip her hair through. This project has been funded (AW YEAH!) and is whipping its way to the stretch goal of a new mode with Shantae’s nemesis, Risky Boots!

River City Ransom: Underground – A group named Conatus Creative started this one to fund a true, official follow-up River City Ransom, one of the greatest beat-em-ups of all time. The crew promises more of everything, including characters, locations, items, the works. They even have Yoshihisa Kishimoto, the creator of Kunio-Kun and Double Dragon series, as an advisor on the project. This project isn’t getting the attention it deserves, so I hope others spread the word about this along with the other projects.

I know money’s tight, especially with three Kickstarters like this going on that the same time, but I hope those who can spare the money will at least donate a little bit to help out those projects. These projects, especially River City Ransom: Underground, really need the word spread about them, because a lot of people haven’t even heard this is going on. Please post about these games anywhere you can!

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September 22nd, 2013

My earlier reason for putting the site on hold for a bit (details here) just got compounded by more activity book commission work. I’ve got a feeling that it’ll probably kill most of my Halloween plans for the site, so here’s an update that’s a mix of things I planned to post later, some catch-up/clean-up work and some word-spreading for all those classic side-scroller Kickstarters wandering around.

GFX Generators – Three fonts from Street Fighter Alpha 2 and the font from Bad Dudes vs. Dragonninja were added to the GroupShot generator.
Vs. & Group chars updated:
Haggar (new sprites and SFA3 Vs. portrait)
Burnov (new Capcom-like sprite)
Abobo (SFA3 Vs. portrait & SFA3 Vs. name)
Hawk – Vendetta/CF2 (improved sprite, new palettes & SFA3 Vs. name)
Vs. & Group chars NEW!:

Shantae (with new non-SD sprite and mini-logo)
Kate – Vendetta/CF2 (All-new sprite + SFA3 Vs. name)

FakeShot update: NES style (Beck from Mighty No. 9 added)

Custom Sprites – Due to the huge amount of custom sprites based on characters from the series (and there will definitely be more new ones in the fugure), Final Fight now has its own gallery page. The new Haggar sprites are there along with some sprites that I forgot to add before (including Poison, Roxy, Jake and Simmons). Burnov was added to the Technos gallery. Kate from Vendetta/Crime Fighters 2 was added to the Konami gallery. Shantae is rightfully the first sprite to grace the new WayForward custom sprite gallery


Breakin’ News


There are three really big Kickstarter projects closing in on the home stretch that are related to the kind of games featured on this site. Instead of laughing at my bad, rushed fan art up there, check out the project descriptions!

Mighty No. 9 – Created by a team of classic Mega Man stalwarts and led by Keiji Inafune, Mighty No. 9 looks to be more than just a spiritual successor to the Blue Bomber’s series and more like a new beginning for the creators themselves to bring fans the kind of game we all want. This project was funded with the quickness and is now blasting its way through some stretch goals that would make the game even better.

Shantae: Half-Genie Hero – WayForword’s blessed us with some great licensed revivals recently, including Duck Tales Remastered and Double Dragon Neon. This Kickstarter is to help get their own classic platforming hero, Shantae, into a brand-new game for her to run, jump, dance and whip her hair through.

River City Ransom: Underground – A group named Conatus Creative started this one to fund a true, official follow-up River City Ransom, one of the greatest beat-em-ups of all time. The crew promises more of everything, including characters, locations, items, the works. They even have Yoshihisa Kishimoto, the creator of Kunio-Kun and Double Dragon series, as an advisor on the project. This project isn’t getting the attention it deserves, so I hope others spread the word about this along with the other projects.

I know money’s tight, especially with three Kickstarters like this going on that the same time, but I hope those who can spare the money will at least donate a little bit to help out those projects. Even spreading the word and linking to the projects will help get them funded or hit those stretch goals.

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September 14th, 2013

As the title says, the site is on pause for about a month and a half. Besides being tired from extra day job hours and a group of irritating things (spotty ‘net connection, computer issues) that make working on the site difficult, I need some rest. I also need to work on some other things, even though some of those things are related to the site. Hopefully, enough of these technical issues will be fixed by Halloween so I can get back to making enough content for updates.

There will still be some additions and fixes made to the site during the pause and both the Tumblr and Twitter accounts will remain active.

Things should be up and running in time for Halloween and content based on a few monster-themed side-scrollers celebrating a 25th anniversary. Sorry for laming out for a while and I hope you’ll be back for the creature feature goodness!

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