August 30th, 2011

Site stuff: I’m still working on this site while doing character designs, logo work and other preparations for my own projects. Work on a new GFX Generator feature can be found in this weblog post and improvements to the Game Index section can be found in this post. A scratch-made sprite of DC’s Black Lightning was posted on Illmosis.

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Breakin’ News

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Elevator Action Deluxe, an update, remake and overhaul of Taito’s classic “Elevator Action” spy-shooter, is out on PSN today.

It’ll be a while before I can buy this one (gotta pay the website bill soon) but it looks sharp and sounds funky. I like how the in-game documents you steal are Taito documents like flyers that you can view in a gallery. The character designs have a Lupin-esque look mixed with the classic official artwork.

Between this and the criminally underrated Moon Diver, Square-Enix, who now owns Taito and it’s intellectual properties, has thrown some great old-schoolian love our way. I hope those of you who are angry about a lapse in a game series with more entries than most entire companies have games will take some time to support the companies that put work into projects like this when they really don’t have to.

Kotaku feature on classic Nintendo composer, Hip Tanaka
It’s just a short overview of the man’s work but it’s always good to see him get attention for his music. Do yourself a favor and don’t look at the comments section on that page. I’m serious.

Capcom-Unity: Rockman-Unity TOM-PON interview
Capcom-Unity has links to a translated and subtitled interview that Rockman-Unity had with TOM-PON, artist and background designer for some classic Capcom titles starting with Mega Man for the NES.
(Note: more posts and interview segments came out after I posted this so I’m updating this news post as they’re added)

part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4 | part 5 | part 6

Let’s end this one on an high note, courtesy of Wizzy…

Categories: Gaming News, ScrollBoss Updates by PrimeOp
Tags: Capcom, Elevator Action, Mega Man, Square Enix

Comments Off on News: Elevator Action Deluxe, Hip Tanaka, TOM-PON

August 21st, 2011

The Game Index is getting a few improvements and I can do most of them in undercover mode until the ScrollBoss is unpaused. You’ll be able to see lists of games based on something about them. For instance:

Look at all games that start with the letter A.
Look at all games from 1989, the greatest year in video game history.

Yeah, I know, like any other actual video game site. But still. The main index page will let you search by categories once the big update hits. It won’t just be a giant list dump, a lazy placeholder I was using until I got something like this together.

I’ll throw a few new 200×100 graphics in just to keep it interesting.

Categories: ScrollBoss Lab by PrimeOp

2 Comments »

August 3rd, 2011

Started messing around with an idea at around 3 AM. Just finished working on this and some other engine improvements at 8:29 AM.

So far, so good. Time to go to sleep.

Update 2011/08/03, midnight:

Worked on it before and after work. I had to change big chunks of how the engine worked just for the name thing to work.

Update 2011/08/04, 3:28 AM:
Tried to unwind for a bit, answer messages, etc. but I wanted to get a bit more done on this tonight.

Still having a bit of trouble with a text mode that I won’t have to use for a while but the centered alignment version works. I still want to fix it before I go to sleep and I’m sure I’ll be paying for that tomorrow.

Update: 10 minutes later:
Got that optional text issue fixed. So much for that.

(more…)

Categories: ScrollBoss Lab by PrimeOp
Tags: gfx generators

2 Comments »

July 21st, 2011

More like crap-tastic, amirite? This update pays respect to the release of the new Captain America: First Avenger movie by hitting you with content based on characters from Cap’s comic along with Data East’s “Captain America and the Avengers” arcade game. Non-comic book fans won’t be left out thanks to a classic beat-em-up bad guy crashing the party since this is also the 11th Anniversary week of ScrollBoss. Gotta have some gaming stuff in there somewhere!

GFX Generators
New Characters
Marvel – Batroc the Leaper, the Falcon, Namor, the Red Skull, Ultron, the Wasp, Other Heroes (Ant-Man and Diamondback) and “Other Villains” (Absorbing Man, the Controller, Crossbones, the Grim Reaper, Klaw, the Living Laser and Whirlwind).
Toys & ‘Toons – Jem
Updated Characters: Abobo (new Capcom SFA/Vs. style edits) from Technos, Iron Man (new taunt sprite edit), the Vision (new sprites and palettes)

Custom Sprites:
Marvel – Diamondback (scratch-made), the Falcon, the Grim Reaper, Namor, the Red Skull, the Vision, the Wasp (scratch-made) and Whirlwind. An Iron Man taunt has been edited into the armor he wore in CAatA.
Technos – Abobo (two versions), Juggernaut (a new edit based his odd look in the Avengers game)
Toys & Cartoons – Jem

Sprites:
Captain America and the Avengers gallery rebuilt in the current style and has new sprites.

Mini Logos: Sakura added to Capcom. Batroc, the Red Skull added to Marvel. Jem added to Toys and Cartoons.

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The Announcement: ScrollBoss is on hiatus until further notice. There won’t be another update for a while and updates won’t be regular when they start up again. I have some important projects that require a lot of time so I’ll have to put this site on pause for a while. The main thing is that it’s time for me to hit the drawing page again. One of the main reasons that I kept working to make sure that the GFX Generators were loaded with options was because I wanted you to keep having fun as the site was inactive.

ScrollBoss will NOT be neglected. I have some coding improvements in mind and it’s nearly impossible to do them while also trying to get enough content for a site update. I can work on those things on the side until the time comes to un-pause ScrollBoss again. I also have some bigger things pixel-related things that I could never do because I had to keep doing smaller things to make sure I had an update. There will be previews of these things on the weblog and main menu. I’m still taking sprite and pixel art commissions (because it costs money to have this site hosted), posting ridiculous screenshots on the Tumblr and you may see some new scratch-made sprites appear on Illmosis.

ScrollBoss will be active again before the end of the year and it’s going to hit hard. Until then, please leave any feedback in the comment section of this topic. Thank you for reading and thanks for stopping in.

Categories: ScrollBoss Updates by PrimeOp
Tags: Captain America and the Avengers, Data East, Double Dragon, gfx generators, Jem, marvel comics, mini-logos, Technos

1 Comment »

July 8th, 2011

GFX Generators – Slight improvements were made to the engine but the only one you’ll notice is that the transparent shadows no longer overlap and make darker areas.

New characters: Adon, Birdie, Dee Jay, Fei Long, Gen, Karin, R. Mika, Rose, Sakura, Shadaloo Dolls and T.Hawk from Capcom’s Street Fighter. Marian, Abobo & Burnov from Technos’ Double Dragon games (Neo Geo fighter sprites).
Updated chars: Double Dragons (Neo Geo sprites added), Jubilee (mini-logo & X-Men:COTA name graphic), Zangief (new sprites)
GroupShot scene updates: Golden Axe vs. 01 – improved shadow transparency
VS. Mode “Custom Scene” backgrounds: Italy from Street Fighter Alpha 2, Code Red and On The Hilltop from X-Men vs. Street Fighter.

Game Index – Captain America and the Avengers added.

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The next update update will be in about two weeks from now. That puts it close to the 11th Anniversary. It won’t be anywhere near as big as the 10th Anniversary but there will be medium-large announcement about why it will be the last ScrollBoss update for a while.

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Another reminder: the ScrollBoss Tumblr, Scroll like a Boss, exists, is active and has more than update post links. I’ve been posting screenshots that make me smile for all sorts of right and wrong reasons along with videos and reposts of cool game-related stuff I like there.

Categories: ScrollBoss Updates, Updates by PrimeOp
Tags: Capcom, Captain America and the Avengers, Data East, Double Dragon, gfx generators, marvel comics, Street Fighter, Technos

1 Comment »

June 25th, 2011

… you’ve got a brand new key. This update title made more sense before I turned it into Lanternpalooza but I was too lazy to come up with another name.

GFX Generators

New characters: Skate (Streets of Rage), Guy Gardner, Green Lantern Corps (Arisa, Kilowog, Medphyl, Tomar-Re/Tomar-Tu)
Updated characters: GL Hal Jordan and John Stewart (sprites added)

Custom Sprites:
Sega – ‘Skate’ Hunter (scratch-made)
DC Comics – Tomar-Re/Tomar-Tu and Medpyhl have new sprites based on a new sprite template pose I made. Kilowog, John Stewart and Arisia sprite edits added. Some of the separate Wonder Woman sprites from the old version of the gallery have now returned.

Custom Sprite Downloads: Laslunder has made a GIGANTIC update to his pack of edited Cody base sprites. Huge, I’m telling you!

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The Skate sprite was done now because someone made a request. I usually don’t sprite requests but this was a special case.

The Skate sprite was added to my Illmosis site earlier this week. There’s even a work progress animation on it’s gallery page. Check that out with this link.

Now check out Wizzy’s original theme for Max Thunder with a sprite by Armentis!

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PSN Sale reminder: Bionic Commando: Rearmed for PS3 is on sale for $4.99 and the sequel is on sale for $9.99. I fully recommend checking out the first one but I haven’t played the second. Also, The second has that unfortunate DRM that won’t let you play the game if you aren’t hooked up to the internet. Buying Final Fight: Double Impact right before the Playstation Network went down which meant I barely had a chance to play it. The first Rearmed game doesn’t have it so go get it now!

Categories: ScrollBoss Updates by PrimeOp
Tags: dc comics, Green Lantern, Sega, Streets of Rage

2 Comments »

June 9th, 2011

Just a minor update here. The Manuke/Rocky sprite has been improved (check out the gallery page on Illmosis). Sayo-Chan’s sprite edits have been improved with a pants-wearing version and better colors (thanks to Shin Otaru for suggesting that). You’ll also find a Miki/Becky alternate palette for Sayo in the generators, a feature that I forgot to add last week. Yes, that’s why there was a palette option choice for Sayo last week with just one option. The Punisher-era Nick Fury sprite had a mis-colored pixel in his right hand so I fixed that while also tinkering a bit with the palettes to improve the contrast. I also threw in a few more background & Vs. graphic options for the “Custom Scene (384×224 pixels)” set-up in the Vs. Maker including Guile’s SFII stage, Avengers HQ, KoF 98’s China stage and more.

edit: I forgot that there was more added to the site:

Custom Sprite Pack Downloads – Laslunder added more sprites to his pack of SFA3 Cody (Jeans and shirt) edit pack. He has my thanks for letting ScrollBoss be one of the places where you can find it!

Game List – I hadn’t updated it since October of last year. Games added include 3D Dot Game Heroes, inFamous, Moon Diver & Wipeout HD for the PS3 along with Beatdown for PS2. Yes, inFamous & Wipeout HD were my PSN Welcome Back choices and I’ve been playing a lot of inFamous.

Categories: ScrollBoss Updates, Updates by PrimeOp
Tags: gfx generators, marvel comics, Taito

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June 2nd, 2011

Brawlers who remember that this post’s title is also the first line in one of Capcom’s greatest beat-em-ups already know which two Marvel heroes are in this update. Fans who know the Japanese names of an excellent but lesser known Taito series may have figured out who else is in here. Anyone kind enough to check out Illmosis earlier this week already know which multiplayer gaming icon came to the party with enough explosions for everybody.

Graphic Generators – Fixed the Marvel vs. Capcom 1 Vs. stand-off so that the minilogos post on the right layers again. There is also a new screenstyle in the Vs. Maker called “Variable” that lets you choose from many background, foreground and overlay graphics. New and updated characters follow:
Marvel: Nick Fury & the Punisher
Taito: Sayo-Chan/Pocky, Manuke/Rocky and the Growl heroes
Other Games: Bomberman
Updated characters: Axel Stone (improved sprites), Cody (F.Fight uppercut sprite added), X-23 (minilogos)

Custom Sprites
Marvel: the Punisher (three variations), Nick Fury (three variations)
Hudson: Bomberman
Taito: Sayo-Chan a.k.a. Pocky

Mini logos

Konami: Crime Fighters, Contra (2 variations), Vendetta
Hudson: Bomberman (NES & 16-bit era)
Marvel: Nick Fury (90’s), X-23
Sega: Shinobi (2002)
Taito: Sayo, Pocky & Rocky
Atari/Midway/Williams: Narc

Game logos – Crime Fighters 2, Legend of Zelda (animated), Wizards & Warriors, Zelda II

I also have a ScrollBoss account set up on Tumblr! Check it out right here. There will be more than just update posts there so keep an eye on it if you have a Tumblr account.

Categories: ScrollBoss Updates, Updates by PrimeOp
Tags: Bomberman, custom sprites, dc comics, gfx generators, Kiki Kaikai, marvel comics, minilogos, Pocky & Rocky, scratch-made sprites, Taito, the Punisher

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May 21st, 2011

The convention is over and was fun. Check out the main Illmosis site to see more about that along with the flyer I was giving out and the scratch-made sprite that’s on it.

Mini Logos – There is at least one new minilogo for each letter of the alphabet. Seriously.

Atari/Midway/Williams: Gauntlet
Capcom: Bionic Commando, Darkstalkers, J, Marvel vs. Capcom, Street Fighter II
Data East: Bad Dudes (cover/marquee/flyer style), Chelnov, Dragonninja
DC Comics: Isis
IREM: Kid Niki, Undercover Cops
Konami: Castlevania
Marvel: Havok, X-Men
Nintendo: Link, Wario, Zelda
Sega: Electra, Onihime, Quartet, Roo, Victy, Yasha
SNK: Art of Fighting, Fatal Fury
Tecmo: Ninja Gaiden

I needed a lot of new logos thanks to a new feature in the Graphic Generators and noticed that I had a lot of letters in a row. I thought it would be fun to try and finish the rest of the alphabet in time for the update, a fact that will probably be used against me in a psyche evaluation. It also gave me an excuse to use that post title. Thanks to Buyog and WillyFourEyes for helping with suggestions for P(engo) and W(ario) over Twitter. I also fixed quite a few earlier mini logos by filling some with empty space to fit the 64×26 size limit and edited a few that were too big since I didn’t know what the size limits were then. I still need to fix a few, though. This will make it easier for anyone who wants to make a graphic font from the logos.

Graphic Generators – I added another minor feature to the engine that streamlines the mini logo choice process for certain styles with one logo AND adds a list of theme-specific logos to the list. This has been enabled on the Capcom, Sega and SNK game boxes to add a list of game minilogos to the choices.

Characters added: Dragonninja (enemy drones from Bad Dudes), Havok
Characters updated: Balrog (sprites), Vega (sprites), X-23 (custom X-Men:CotA name graphic). Bad Dudes, Electra, Radd Spencer had their new mini logos added to their options.

Game Logos – Alisia Dragoon, Atomic Runner Chelnov (arcade & Genesis), B. Rap Boys, Bare Knuckle 2, Cabal, D. D. Crew, Elevator Action, Fantasy, Geostorm, Hissatsu Buraiken, the Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Quartet, Sly Spy/Secret Agent (with and without background field), Undercover Cops

Categories: ScrollBoss Updates, Updates by PrimeOp
Tags: A-to-the-MFin-Z, gfx generators, minilogos

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May 19th, 2011

I need some help with something. The next ScrollBoss update will (hopefully) have at least one “mini logo” for each letter of the alphabet. Here is the current state of which letters I have done so far:

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

I need suggestions for the letters that haven’t been crossed out yet. They have to be logos for old (16-bit or older) action/adventure games or the names of major characters in those games. Action-adventure means no sports games, no FPS and no faceless-entity-in-a-vehicle shooters (shooters like Contra & Rolling Thunder are allowed). Sprite-based fighting games and characters ARE allowed. Check this page to see if I haven’t made it already:
Mini Logos page

I know there are some obvious ideas for open letters (especially E) but I’d still like to see if anyone says anything. Leave your ideas in a comment to this post and I’ll add them to the list. I can’t guarantee that I’ll get them all made but I’ll have add them to the to-do list. Well, I will unless they’re really bad. Also: anyone who posts at least one good request will be added to the “Special Thanks” area of the ScrollBoss credits page. Be sure to let me know what name you want me to credit you by and if you have a website you’d like for me to link to in the news post once the update hits. This will be updated as I finish more logos.

Update 1: Just got O and Y finished. Their names in the U.S. versions are M and L so I’ll be lazy and save those for another update.

Update 2: T is done, too.

Update 3: E is done with a drone enemy who is in the GFX Generators and needed a logo.

Update 4: U minilogo is finished. Somehow managed to hint at the crazy bevel and shading in the big letters.

Update 5: K minilogo done. The IREM section looks a bit better thanks to the last two I’ve done Thurs. night/Fri. morning.

Update 6: J (Final Fight’s J), R and V minilogo done Fri. afternoon. Three more to go!

Update 7: Thanks to a post I made on Twitter, I have suggestions for P and W. Buyog mentioned Pengo, one of the options I had for P so I rolled with it.

Update 8: Okay, it’s all done now. Time to finish coding the last new additions to the minilogo page then add the appropriate logos to the Gfx Generators. Thanks for playing!

Categories: ScrollBoss Lab by PrimeOp
Tags: crowd participation, mini-logos

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