We’re in the eight month, and in its ninth day, and that means it’s time for The Revenge of 1989! It’s time for some new pixel art, including a couple of sprites in the style of Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari (1989) (later localized as River City Ransom)!


Custom Sprites – New:
Bonk/PC Genjin: Bonk (and his gallery) debuts and gets two sprites
Ninja Gaiden: Irene Lew fans have it good today, she gets THREE new sprites, replacing all those 2014 sprites and even that action-y Capcom edit.
Mega Man: Returning Sniper Joe from Mega Man 2, and of course I’ve got the regular Sniper Joe palette version, too.
Marvel Comics: a sprite of Storm in her Pryde of the X-Men outfit. A different version of this pose was in her Sprite Showcase.
sprite style: Kunio-kun/River City Ransom: Golden Axe’s Tyris Flare and Revenge of Shinobi’s Joe Musashi

Custom Sprites – updated:
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Modified the sprites of the 4 turtles with their weapons on their belts, including putting the ties on the belt.

Mini-logos: Hudson gallery gets a PC Genjin logo.

GFX Generators: The new custom sprites and mini-logos were added to the appropriate Fight-scale generator and 8-bit Fake Screenshot generators. Also, the Marvel vs Capcom ending (in the Fight-scale and MvC1 generators): simple overlay styles for Golden Axe (arcade), River City Ransom, and TMNT arcade added.


There will be a ToyBoss section update in the last half of August, and I’ve got a lot of plastic to catch up on and roster photos to update there. There may even be an extra surprise or two. Here’s a few quick pics of some of my favorite toy newness: the Jada Toys SDCC Neo Metall 6-pack and the Marvel Legends Psylocke-Thanos two-pack!

First of all, if you remember this site from the old days, check out the index page for a flashback!

This update is a mix of all the things that this site is about, and there are several themes mixed throughout it. I finally complete a team, start a new team, add some overdue legends, and add new and needed poses to characters who already have sprites. Many characters who are favorites of mine and visitors of the site get all-new, redone, and/or update poses, including callbacks to sprite edits from the earliest days of the site. So whether this site is completely new to you or you’re a returning visitor, I hope you have fun with all of today’s newness!

Custom Sprites: There are no set themes except to be a mix of everything regular visitors know to expect. However, keep an eye out for remakes of some of the site’s earliest custom sprites, completed teams, and sprites that some of you requested.
Bionic Commando: Radd Spencer (NES design) MvC:3 stance sprite was resized and improved, and new NES idle stance and calm standing pose sprites were added.
Captain Commando: Baby Commando joins to complete the team… FINALLY! But now Scumocide is here, too.
Castlevania: completely redone Castlevania 1 and Rondo/SotN zombie sprites
Dark Seal: new gallery based on Data East’s series starts with Freya the Wizard.
Golden Axe: The Dragon Bizarrian mounts have been resized, Tyris Flare’s sprite riding them has been redrawn to match.
Rushing Beat: Kazan gets his sword up taunt from Brawl Brothers/Rushing Beat Ran.
Sonic the Hedgehog: Metal Sonic
Tower of Druaga: the often-requested Gil and Ki get sprites based on different versions of the early Namco art.
DC Comics: Silver/Bronze Age Krypto gets two sitting sprites with different facial expressions and Captain Marvel gets a standing sprite.
Marvel Comics: the Thing (all-new idle/fight stance), Colossus (hands on hips)
G.I.JOE: Baroness with new sprite sprite on toy card artwork, adjustments to her fight stance and head raised glasses adjustment, plus a new glasses adjustment with her head down to replace the 2015 sprite that’s out of style now. Not trying to start any W.I.P. rumors with her, I just really wanted her sprites to match!

Speaking of G.I.JOE, watch this short clip carefully to see the new explosion animations I’ve been working on and a sprite that isn’t on this site yet:

RCR/Kunio-kun 8-bit: The Jason sprite that I added to the generators a while ago finally makes its way to the gallery, but I’ve also added an all-new sprite of Elvira, Mistress of the Dark!
Illmosis Network: a brand-new ScrollBoss character makes her debut! Introducing… Jilly Biehn! She’s the now-grown daughter of vigilantes who often got their weapons from the Alexandria Mall back in the day and is often drawn to the beat ’em up arcade in that mall. Vonetta (a.k.a. Vernacula) gets an all-new fight stance sprite, including a version where she’s armed with a wooden stake. Look, what V does in her time off from the Info Section is her business, best not look into that too much.

Mini-logos:
Namco: Tower of Druaga
DC Comics: Krypto

Game Index: Dark Seal (a.k.a. Gate of Doom)

All new custom sprites and mini-logos added to the GFX Generator.

Last but not least, I wrote a little something about the 25th Anniversary in this article. Not just about what it means to me but what I hope this site does for you.

That’s the end of this update, but not the end of the 25th Anniversary celebration. Don’t worry, you’ll hear more about that next time. Thanks for showing up and I hope you enjoyed the update!

You know, it feels like something’s missing, though. Wait, I remember. I posted a sprite of my character Nutroll earlier this year, but he was being kinda… weird about it. Let’s see how he’s…

… 11-11? Man, I don’t even – – wait, what’s that at the bottom? *squints* Does that say… illvember?

Time to wrap up this year’s 1989 celebration with new sprites and a new video!

Custom Sprites:
Final Fight: big update for my 2019 Rolento FF1 sprite
Ninja Gaiden: new Bomberhead sprite added.
Strider: new Strider Hiryu pose (based on the Famicom ad from the unrealeased game) and a new side-view idle sprite of the Grandmaster added
Marvel Comics: Dazzler (heavily updated sprites + new separate and more accurate PotX and Konami outfits) and the Juggernaut (PotX) (appeared in the 1989 NES Uncanny X-Men game and 1989’Pryde of the X-Men’ cartoon pilot)

The new custom sprites were added to the Fight-size generator.

Bad news: the video is ALMOST ready. It’ll be added to the YouTube Channel and this post either later tonight or tomorrow. Sorry for the delay, but I’ll try to make it worth the wait.
The video is now ready! Here’s the Revenge of 1989 Sprite Showcase video!


Technically I should’ve called it a Showcade (multiple showcases), but some aren’t even whole showcases, but… whatever, man.

This hasn’t been an easy month (for offline reasons), so a lot of items I’d planned just aren’t ready yet, but you’ll see previews of a few (especially the backgrounds) in the new video.


The Arcade Quartermaster site just updated, too! New shrines of Battle Shark and Riding Fight have been added.

It’s the ninth day of the eight month, that means it’s time for the ScrollBoss site to revive The Revenge of 1989!

What’s the deal with 1989? The short answer is that a lot of beat ’em up, hack ‘n slash, and platformer games featured heavily on this site debuted that year, 16-bit games hit North America, the portable system revolution started, and a ton of other things, some of which you can read about here.

Custom Sprites:
Final Fight: redone Guy idle/fight stance sprite, modified ‘arms crossed’ taunt sprite to match the new idle.
Golden Axe: redone Tyris Flare select screen pose
Mega Man: non-MvC-look Mega Man in the NES pose
Strider: Soldier (red and green)
Shinobi: Yet another attempt to sprite Yamato, that good wolf from Shadow Dancer. Will it be the last? Who knows? Is it in today’s update? Yes.

All of the new custom sprites have been added to the main gfx generator, where I made the screenshot at the top of this post.


If this were just some normal year this update would be it. But this year is the 35th (!) Anniversary of 1989, so it’s time to do something special once again. There will be more site updates spread throughout August, ending with something I really wanted to do in 2014 but couldn’t: a video. Here’s a preview

Until then, get ready for more pixel art next week!

I’ve mostly been working on animations for this year’s videos since NYE, but I’ve got a few things to add this month.


Custom Sprites:
– Mega Man: I’m experimenting with my own Mega Man sprites, because I want to have some that are just mine and not trying to add to the Marvel vs. Capcom sprites.
Golden Axe: new sprites of Longmoan and male villager. If you visited this site in the old days, you may remember how the index page used to have animated GIFs of arcade version, and that’s part of why I had to animate it myself:

Mega Man: An all-new Mega Man sprite
– Marvel: Daredevil – two poses, new style, because I disliked the sprite I made in 2018.
– DC Comics: Peacemaker, from the backlog of sprites I’d drawn lineart for but hadn’t pixeltraced yet.
Illmosis: ScrollBoss site character Vonetta (aka Vernacula) redone holding stack of books sprite in her 2023 outfit. You’ll see more of Vonetta and other ScrollBoss site characters this year.
– Street Fighter Alpha 3 Vs. portraits: Blaze Fielding (SoR2)

Mini-logos: Peacemaker added to DC Comics.
portraits:
Street Fighter Alpha 3 Vs.: Blaze Fielding (Streets of Rage)

All these new pixel-things were also added to the GFX Generators where you can make fake screenshots, scenes, and other graphics.


Arcade Quartermaster also updated today with new shrines: Street Smart (SNK) and Aquajack (Taito)!

The fear is here once again! Here’s the first update:


Custom Sprites:
Monster Party: new separate gallery with a redrawn Mark
Ghosts ‘n Goblins series: PrinPrin and Unicorn
Horror: Rosemary (Demoni/Demons)
Golden Axe: improved the 2019 Skeleton sprites and gave them their own gallery. You’ll see why later.


The Dire and Bette channel recently had a live roundtable about the Ghosts ‘N Goblins series hosted by Dire and featuring Sotenga, ArcnarenthJim, and Dain


Next time, on the horror thon…

The coding work to get this site (along with Illmosis and Beans vs. Cornbread) for the Dreamhost server update is FINALLY done, but I promised to have an update to the a ToyBoss section before that happens and here’s that update!

new:
– Jada Toys’ excellent Street Fighter Ryu and Fei Long figures.
– Golden Axe: added shot of Storm Collectibles Tyris and Gilius.
– X-Men (LJN) – playable heroes.
– Spider-Man and the X-Men get their own revenge of Arcade.
– an Articulated Icons/Fwoosh parts-swapped custom made to look like Ryu Hayabusa. They have pre-orders up for a reissued (and from what I’ve read, slightly retooled) Crimson Fury, the dark red ninja.
– The Marvel Super Heroes (Capcom) heroes team, with a work-in-progress custom figure of Psylocke!

updated group shots:
– Captain America and the Avengers (Data East) – heroes – added new Sky-cycle Hawkeye and a recently re-acquired Neo-classic Iron Man (retro card version).
– X-Men (Konami) – villains – includes a customized VHS Mystique and more added characters.

BTW: Articulated Icons/Fwoosh is still having a sale on “Sakit (Martial Artist)” and the “Arms/Hands/Wraps Pack (Red)” pack ($3.99!) and also put up have pre-orders up for a reissued Crimson Fury, the dark red ninja.


The big coding update will hit this site within the first few days of September, so if you really need something from the site I suggest you get it before then, because I really won’t know if everything works until it’s uploaded and tested. The site may be temporarily closed until it’s all complete, but it shouldn’t take longer than a day.

Oddly enough, I made a new header for the Toy section, but the coding is connected with the updated version of the site, so you won’t see it until then.

Today this site celebrates 22 years of platformer appreciation, beat ’em up boosting, pixel art positivity and more!

Custom Sprites:
Adventure Island: Master Higgins
Battle Circuit: Pink Ostrich
Mega Man: Fire Man
Karate Champ: Judge
Street Fighter: Cammy – Super Street Fighter II fight stance
Marvel: six of the suit-wearing thugs from Capcom’s Punisher arcade game
Illmosis Network: Upski Daisy (Beans vs. Cornbread)
Kirby: King Dedede

Sprites:
the Punisher: added Jigsaw and Hawke. Just checked the file properties and it looks like I had some of those sprites ready in 2009 and forgot to add them to the gallery.

As usual, all these new things have been added to the main Image Generator, where you can make (and right-click save) your own images like the one at the top of this news post!

ToyBoss: photos of the amazing Storm Collectables Tyris Flare have been added. I’m still in a bit of shock that official Golden Axe figures are even being made, but even more shocked that I have Tyris. If the Gilius Thunderhead is still available when I get my money back up again, I’ll get him, too. I bought mine at BigBadToyStore, but Entertainment Earth has them, too.

BTW: just in case you haven’t heard, Jada Toys recently teased new lines of Street Fighter and classic Mega Man action figures, and samples will be shown at San Diego Comic Con. No news about the scale of these figures yet, but I’m hoping they’ll be in 1:12 scale to fit in with Marvel Legends and G.I.JOE Classified. Funko made a nice Mega Man and fully on-model and poseable Dr. Wily a few years ago and I hope the new figures fit that same scale, too.

This Revenge of 1989 update, celebrating the year that many of this site’s favorite games were released, may not have a lot of new sprites, but it definitely has big sprites to make up for it!


Custom Sprites
Final Fight: Completely redone sprites of Mike Haggar, fight stance and hands on hips, in a hopefully better style added.
Golden Axe: Red Dragon, Blue Dragon (and Tyris Flare riding both) and Chicken Leg (edited from the 2018 Chicken Stinger sprite) added, along with adding sub-galleries for many characters

All new custom sprites were added to the GFX Image Generators!

Also updated

Sprites: Golden Axe gallery (GA1 arcade beasts, heroes on beasts and items)

Getting the new computer finished a few months ago made me want to experiment with different ways of making sprites, and the main new sprites were originally drawn in Clip Studio (instead of the pencil-paper-sometimes ink scans I usually make) before being shrunken to sprite size. Had to make adjustments to the ride/bizarrian Dragon after shrinking, but it’s pretty close:

I also wanted a better, unified set of sprites for Haggar for September’s Beat ‘Em Up Showcase (preview here), so I used Clip Studio trace my old sprites of him at 1000%.


I made changes after I shrank and made pixel art of the first two poses, along with drawing the head at pixel size, so I’ll bring those new sprites into the CS file, adjust the lines to fit the sprites for reference for future sprites, like Haggar’s arms up pose from the old Final Fight artwork.

I’ve done other experiments, but I’ll post about them later.

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.