Today’s update has brand new sprites of Black video game heroes, including a couple of new favorites, the return of a ScrollBoss original, and lots of new content for her section of the site!

Custom Sprites
Illmosis Network: Vernacula (one new pose added, 2 earlier updated)
Combat Core (new separate gallery) Squaz added
Mortal Kombat: Jax
Mystic Warriors (new gallery): Brad
River City Ransom: Provie from River City Ransom: Underground
Marvel Comics: Misty Knight (improved sprite)

By the way, I’m mad late with this, but huge congrats to MABManZ on Combat Core hitting the Nintendo Switch. Any fan of 3-D arena combat fighters like Power Stone should check it out on Switch or PC. River City Ransom: Underground, of course, remains dope and highly recommended to beat ’em up fiends.

As usual, all new sprites have beed added to the main GFX Generator, where you can make your own pics with a bunch of game and custom-made sprites and graphics.

Info Center – Irritated at the current state of the sections with which she shares a name and also has to help maintain, Vernacula threatened insisted that the section got some updates this time. New definitions have been added (amazon, arcade, console, Neo Geo, parallax scrolling) and many definitions were improved (crowd control, fighting game, mega crash, palette swap, pro-wrestler, sprite edit), including a few getting new main pictures and support for animated main pics. I also made some improvements to the Info Center code itself and I’ll keep working to streamline it more so I can move more site sections to that format.

Multiplayer 3D arena brawlers are even more rare than beat ’em ups right now, which makes it even more special that Combat Core, which had a successful Kickstarter last year, is now in Steam Early Access! It’s fun to play in this early state, and you can even test out the Create-a-character mode. The game should be breath of fresh air to any Power Stone fans out there who are fiending for kind of brawling experience. To celebrate that early access, I made a sprite of Ember, the game’s resident wrestler. She’s in the Games (Independent) Custom Sprite gallery, ready to brawl!



I went back to work on the new engine for GFX Generators and got the reflections running (I still need to add the “color base” feature, though). The next step will be to get the text and text input going. This was a later addition to the old engine, so I’m hoping it’ll be an easier fit into the new engine. Finishing that will complete the basic features of the old generators and the next thing will be making a new version of the screenstyle options, those extra background options from the second menu. That, and a few other small things, will finish the new engine and last step will be converting a crapload of data files to the new format. That’s going to be a lot of work and I need to concentrate on that until it’s done. Except for a Streets of Rage-themed update in September, there won’t be any site content updates until the new generators are good enough to replace the original engine (and I won’t have deal with two versions characters’ data files and other tiring things from having two engines on the site). Getting the engine up to the old engine’s standards is only the beginning, but that’s a story for another time.

Custom Sprites – the following scratch-made sprites were added to the galleries
Sega: Opa-Opa and Upa-Upa
DC Comics: an all-new Riddler sprite
Jaleco: a new Kazan (Brawl Brothers/Rushing Beat Ran) standing sprite
Games (Independent): new gallery page with Bruizer and Pugi from Combat Core and a 2013 sprite of Sen from Project Sen (which reminds me that I need to make a better sprite of her)

Mini-Logos – Opa-Opa and Upa-Upa added to Sega gallery, the Riddler added to DC Comics gallery
All of these things have been added to the GFX Generators. Opa-Opa was secretly added last week, but this update gives him a palette for his brother, Upa-Upa.

The Bruizer and Pugi sprites were made to show support for the Combat Core Kickstarter. The campaign ends on Sunday, June 14th, and the party brawler (the best name I’ve seen for that kind of fighting game) still needs your help to be funded. You can even get an alpha of the game from the Kickstarter page to convince you that the game is worth helping!

Check out this MABManZ interview with Rated S Gaming that also has footage of new things in the game, including an arena with a Japanese Exploding Ropes Death Match wrestling ring.


That’s all the main info for today’s update, but there’s a bit more info behind this cut. Have a good weekend!

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BREAKIN’ NEWS


First of all, Happy 35th Anniversary to Pac-Man! Here’s some new scratch-made animations to celebrate

This site concentrates more on platformers and beat-em-ups, but I don’t know if my love for video games would be as strong as it is without the case of Pac-Man Fever I caught back in the 80s. Many articles about video game history fudge the details a lot, but I don’t think any of them oversold how popular that game was. Before there was any hand-wringing about how to make video games “grow up,” Pac-Man was being played by people of all ages

Steam has knocked 75% off the price of PAC-MAN Championship Edition DX+ (and its DLC) for the anniversary, so jump on that sale while it’s still blue!

Expect a site update this weekend with new Pac-related sprites and a new background!


Combat Core has returned to Kickstarter! This 3-D arena brawler doesn’t plan to half-step one bit!

The WIP from MABManZ has new voice work and beautiful artwork by Robaato. The Alpha build already shows how much fun this game is going to be and it’s only going to get better. A Power Stone-like game with character customization? I CAN FEEL IT. Hit the Kickstarter page to download a playable alpha build of the game and give if you can!


Arcade Quartermaster just dropped a Dinosaurs vs. Ninjas update with new shrines for Jurassic Park, The Legend of Kage, The Ninja Kids and The Ninja Warriors! A lot of hard work goes into those shrines, so be sure to let Shadi know which shrines are your favorites!