1989 wasn’t just a good year, it’s a year that changed entertainment in a lot of permanent ways. Thing is, you pretty much had to be there, or maybe been alive long enough to get a at least a minor lay of the land before it to see how things changed after. The arrival of multiple Genre-changing beat ’em ups, the 16-bit invasion of America with the Genesis and Turbografx-16, handheld gaming changing forever (thanks to Nintendo’s Game Boy and the Atari Lynx), mutant mania hitting video games (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and X-Men), are just part of why 1989 is so amazing, and that’s why this site celebrates that year on August 9th. Without further yapping, here’s the new content:

Custom Sprites
– Crime City: Mayor (tied up)
– Crime Fighters: Final Boss/Mr. Lee
– Final Fight: Cody (new FF JPN flyer pose), Poison (Street Fighter V stance with FF, SFV, and FF marquee outfits), Andore (stand), Jessica (kidnapped, red dress)
– Golden Axe: Skeleton (redone), Ax Battler, Tyris Flare and Gilius Thunderhead (MD cover art poses)
– Shinobi: Hayate Musashi (Shadow Dancer arcade)
– Wonder Boy: Leo and Purapril (Wonder Boy III:Monster Lair)
– TMNT: April (kidnapped, cinema pose)
– Literature: Chu Liuxiang (Master Chu and Drukard Hu/the Chu Liuxiang series by Gu Long)
– DC Comics: Batman (1989 NES title screen/movie still pose),Robin/Tim Drake (debuted in 1989)
edit: couldn’t help it, decided to add:
– Kunio-Kun/River City Ransom: Downtown Nekketusu Monogatari/River City Ransom NES style sprite of Freddy Krueger from Nightmare on Elm Street 5 (1989) added.

GFX Generator: all the new content that fits in the generator have been added, and the main generator gets a remake of the Electoric store in the second stage of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.The Marvel vs. Capcom 1 Ending option in the main generator and standalone MvC 1 generator now has more backgrounds based on and/or from Final Fight, Pac-Man games (Pac-Land debuted for the PC Engine in 1989), DC Comics (including the Batman 1989 stage remake I did years ago), Friday the 13th (LJN for NES remake), and all the arcades.

edit (Aug. 10, 2019): added Sunsoft blue top NES box to “Boxes, Flyer & Posters 160×192” in the main generator. “Hey, that background in the Crime Fighters box isn’t in the generator!” That’s one of the many unfinished things that didn’t make it in this time, and is also why there’s three tied-up sprites in the update.

Filed under: ScrollBoss Updates, Site News, Updates by PrimeOp
Tags: Batman, Batman 1989, Crime City, Crime Fighters, Final Fight, gfx generator, Golden Axe, Nightmare on Elm Street, Shadow Dancer, The Revenge of 1989, tmnt, Wonder Boy
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I hope you enjoyed this year’s offerings for the site, even if I didn’t get to finish some of the things I teased for it. There were a lot of sprites…

… and not all of them are even in that pic. I’ve added two more in this update.

Storm was in the X-Men print, but not on the site (until now) and the Chainsaw Boss from Crime Fighters was done during the DangerTerrorHorrorThon, but I didn’t really feel like he completely fit the theme for some reason.

edit: As much as I want this year over as soon as possible, I’ve got to add some stuff here.

The Steam Winter Sale is still going strong and I want to recommend some of my personal favorites:
River City Ransom: Underground (a worthy successor to the original), Fire Pro Wrestling World (the legendary series finally hits PCs with more customization than ever), Combat Core (in Early Access, a fun arena brawler for those to still miss Power Stone), Mercenary Kings (easily one of my favorite recent run ‘n gun games), and Owlboy (a pixel art masterpiece 10 years in the making, and it shows).

Most of 2017 was crappy for me, but some of the few good things I was able to experience this happened because of this site. Those pixel art commissions made up for the loss in day job hours and, fortunately, everyone I worked with was incredibly cool and paid me to sprite things I enjoyed making. The biggest event was being asked by Cuddly Rigor Mortis to make a print for the Gallery1988 Mattel show, and the limited edition print sold out! I finished a lot of my own personal wish-list sprites (the Capcom Aliens vs. Predator crew, completing the Mega Man 2 Robot Masters, the Last Dragon, Konami X-Men, Dr. West from Re-Animator, too many others to list). Lots of behind-the-scenes work was done on the site, and I’ve got another chunk almost done that will change and add a lot of sections in 2018. I want to thank you for the feedback and extra encouragement I got throughout the year, because it helped me get through the rough spots. See you in 2018!

Filed under: ScrollBoss Updates, Site News, Updates by PrimeOp
Tags: Crime Fighters, marvel comics, X-Men
19 Comments »

I’m kicking off this year with a couple of beat ’em up series that didn’t get much attention here last year, and that’s by accident.

Custom Sprites: Those two series now have their own galleries:
– Rushing Beat: new scratch-made sprites of Rick Norton, Douglas Bild, Wendy Milan, Lord J, Dieter/Iceman and some drones from the first two Rushing Beat games start this gallery off on the good foot.
– Crime Fighters: new scratch-made sprites of Blood and Boomer replace their old Capcom-based sprite edits, and so do new sprites of a Vendetta/Crime Fighters 2 thug.

All of that has been added to the main GFX Generator, along with a new (and more accurate) version of the X-Men Vs. Screen. There are now options to choose the stage display, including one that isn’t in CotA.

A generator just for that game will be added in an X-Men-centric update later this year.

As of last week (and I was told the day before our last day there), I don’t have a regular account for my day job (though I got some fill-in hours here and there), so I’m running a sale on prints in the shop until things get better. 8×10/8.5×11 prints are $5 and the 11 x 17 and 11 x 14 prints are only $8! That’s for the line art and pixel art prints, including the non game-related prints in the Illmosis shop (where you’ll find more prints).

That’s a big update, but it feels like it’s missing something… or someone. Maybe he’ll show up later…

edit: Guess who showed up to the update?

added to the Movie gallery and GFX Generator.

Filed under: ScrollBoss Updates, Site News, Updates by PrimeOp
Tags: Crime Fighters, gfx generators, Jaleco, Konami, marvel comics, Rushing Beat, X-Men
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2014 only has one Friday the 13th, so here’s an update with some dangerous masked characters who like to work with sharp objects without being an annoying Spanish ninja. Jason got a sprite and mini-logo in a similar update that hit last December, so it’s time to give him a bit more this time. Other characters wearing goalie masks (or masks similar to them) also get a bit of attention today.

GFX Generators – the following characters were updated:
– Jason Voorhees: Street Fighter Alpha (Zero) 3 Vs. portrait and namegfx, Friday the 13th (LJN box) mini-logo.
– Rick Taylor: Wanpaku Graffiti-inspired sprite and SFA 3 portrait (edited from Jason’s) added.
– Crime Fighters – Enemies: Boss 2 (the goalie-masked enemy) sprite added.
– Juli, Juni, and the Dolls: Decapre gets some sprite edits and SFA3 Vs. screen portraits while Juli and Juni get a few more sprites.

By the way, Friday the 13th for the NES, Splatterhouse: Wanpaku Graffiti for the Famicom, and Crime Fighters all debuted in 1989, so this update is also part of the Revenge of 1989. See how that all worked out? That rarely happens here, so enjoy it while you can!

Edit: Today’s Illmosis update has the lineart for Jason’s SFa3 portrait along with a Black Widow (Marvel) picture!

Filed under: ScrollBoss Updates, Site News, Updates by PrimeOp
Tags: Crime Fighters, Friday the 13th, Splatterhouse, Splatterhouse: Wanpaku Graffiti, Street Fighter series, The Revenge of 1989
3 Comments »

April O’Neil was added to the TMNT gallery and Emma Frost (the White Queen) was added to the Marvel gallery. Both characters have been added to the VS Maker and GroupShot GFX Generators. Speaking of the generators…

All four Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles now have SFA3 portraits.

One more thing:

the improved Detective Comics #27 sprite is now in the DC Gallery.

edit: along with forgetting to mention that I’d updated the Crime Fighters entry in the Game Index last week, this week’s update adds a few more sprites, including the third boss’ intro and the seventh boss’ tribute to Platoon.

Filed under: ScrollBoss Updates, Site News, Updates by PrimeOp
Tags: Batman, Crime Fighters, dc comics, marvel comics, tmnt, X-Men
3 Comments »

Custom Sprites
– Konami: Crime Fighters hero added along with mohawk and domme enemies.
– Capcom: Final Fight’s heavyweights added.
– Taito: Tony Gibson (Crime City) added.

Mini-Logos
– Astro City: Astro City, Samaritan
– Marvel: Captain America (’80s)
– Sunsoft: Tough Turf
– Taito: FairyLand Story
– Illmosis Network: The Revenge of 1989

GFX Generators – The new mini-logos were added to their proper characters (Capt. America, Ptolemy, Samaritan) and the following characters were added:
– Konami: Crime Fighters and Crime Fighters – Enemies (with two drone enemies)
– Capcom: Wong Who, G.Oriber, Bill Bull added to Mad Gear thugs
– Taito: Tony Gibson (Crime City) added

Bad News: those portrait/s I teased on Tumblr over a week ago aren’t in this update.
Good News: I saved them for a semi-themed update for next week. They’ll appear along with a very timely sprite. You’ll also see a better version of the sprite in this post added to the site then, too.

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Breakin’ News

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Treachery in Beatdown City, the tactical beat ’em up with an 8-bit look, has been relaunched on Kickstarter, so help out if you can!

Filed under: ScrollBoss Updates, Site News, Updates by PrimeOp
Tags: Crime City, Crime Fighters, Final Fight, gfx generators, tmnt
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I made a quick group of articles in late 2009 called, “The Revenge of 1989” to talk about game-related things of that year. 2009 was the 20th anniversary of that year and, even then, I was plotting to make sure I’d have something decent to show for the 25th anniversary. There will be multiple updates this year to do just that and this update starts with a revamp of the original articles and a little something extra.

Why am I celebrating this year so much? That video is only a hint at how many of the things this site celebrates just happened to have been made in 1989. So consider the next ten months a party as, from this day until December 31st, 2014, this site will try to give 1989 some long overdue respect. New articles will be added (including a series of awards), new sprites will be made of that year’s characters (I think it’s time I finally sprited the rest of the original Mad Gear gang) and more random crap that I can’t hint at. There will be still be non-1989 themed updates, but those games will be the focus of the year. Here are the other things you can find in this week’s update.

Custom Sprites – Kunio-Kun added to the Technos gallery. Grandmaster Meio added to the Capcom gallery. Raymond Broady (Crime City) added to the Taito gallery. Alex Kidd and Kasumi (the Revenge of Shinobi) added to the Sega gallery.

Game Index
– Added: Mega Man 2 (NES)
– Updated: Crime City (arcade)

Sprites – Crime Fighters gallery updated with a lot of sprites and a few minor animations.

Mini-logos – the Revenge of Shinobi added to Sega section, Crime City added to Taito section.

GFX Generators – Guy and Cody were updated with a few SFA sprites and sprite edits. Here’s how the new scratch-made sprites look.

Alex Kidd, Grandmaster Meio, Raymond Broady were added to the Vs. and Group generators, Kasumi’s sprite was added to the Zeed/Neo Zeed char slot and Kunio was updated with his new sprite. Check out the goofy thing I just added to the Vs. generator, though:

It’s the Janken battle stage from Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle. Now you can set up your own Rock-Paper-Scissors battles. I’ve made all three Janken poses for Alex Kidd, but you’ll have to use your own memory to figure out the other characters who, like Ken, have win poses similar to rock, paper or scissors.

That’s all for this update. While some of these updates might be far apart, know that some I’m putting extra time into this while working on some other neglected projects. Feel free to leave a comment about your own favorite video games from 1989.

Filed under: ScrollBoss Updates, Site News, Updates by PrimeOp
Tags: Alex Kidd, Crime City, Crime Fighters, Strider, The Revenge of 1989, The Revenge of Shinobi
2 Comments »

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

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Breakin’ News

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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.

Filed under: ScrollBoss Updates, Site News, Updates by PrimeOp
Tags: Crime Fighters, Double Dragon, Final Fight, gfx generators, Mighty No. 9, River City Ransom, River City Ransom: Underground, Shantae, Vendetta
4 Comments »

Updates will continue to be small while I work on a bunch of stuff including a mini-comic/artbook for a comic convention in May. It’s something that I wanted to do last year but didn’t finish.

S-Files – I’m still making minor adjustments to the engine. The default index page groups characters by the first letter in their filename. One problem is trying to get a sprite background that will keep sprites from blending in with it. There has been a slight change to how the main picture is displayed so please let me know if there are any errors with it bugging out. I finally made a crude “profile maker” to help make and modify profiles for reasons I’ll explain in the lab.
New: Blood, Boomer, Hawk, Kate, Sledge from Crime Fighters 2/Vendetta. Norton and Bild from the Rushing Beat series.
Updated: Mike Haggar, Rolento

GFX Generators

New GroupShot styles: the Marvel vs. Capcom 3 “character ring” with two solo variations and one where you can fit three characters.
Characters added: Cable, Marrow, Nakoruru (SNK), Zero (Capcom),
Palettes updated: Chun-Li, Felicia, Rogue (Green/White from MvsC2), Ryu
Other updates: Apocalypse (X-Men: CotA name graphic), Black Widow (logo), Jill (MvsC3 outfit sprite edit), She-Hulk (logos), SoR’s Shiva (custom mini logo), Storm (logo)

Custom Sprites – Zero added to the Capcom page

Mini Logos – Alien Busters & Alien Burgers (from Sega’s Alien Storm), Black Widow (Marvel), Growl, Marrow (X-Men 72 cover), Nakoruru (SNK), Shiva (Sega), Storm, Zero (Capcom).

Logos – added My Hero, Tower of Druaga, Warrior Blade – Rastan III, Wonder Momo.

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Moon Diver (official site here), the new 2.5-D platforming action game from Square-Enix hits Playstation Network this week and will debut on X-Box Live at a later date. Just in case you haven’t heard, the game is directed by Kouichi “Shiina” Yotsui (a.k.a. Isuke), the director of Strider (arcade) and Cannon Dancer (a.k.a. Osman). You can definitely see his influence all over this trailer.

Definitely looks like crazy fun to me. I’ve been waiting for this since it was announced and I’m impatiently waiting for the Playstation Store to update so I can finally play it. There will be a separate post about the game once I’ve played the game.

Update: Just bought and played the first stage of Moon Diver. EXCELLENT. You’ll love this if you love Strider. Also up for sale now is Rush’n Attack: Ex-Patriot, the revival of Konami’s Rush’n Attack/Green Beret franchise.

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You’ve probably seen this link a lot lately but the areas that were hit are still suffering many hardships. I know that times are tight for many of us in the U.S. (take it from a chronically-broke guy like me) but please think of kicking in a few spare dollars when you have the chance. Every little bit helps.
Google: Resources related to the 2011 Japan Crisis

Filed under: ScrollBoss Updates by PrimeOp
Tags: Alien Storm, Crime Fighters, Konami, Moon Diver, Namco, S-Files, Sega, SNK, Streets of Rage, Vendetta
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