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.

As Blastermaster KRS-ONE once said, “We’re not done… we’re not done… we’re not done… check this out!”

Fake Screenshots: A new title screen based on a 1989 movie. I’m not telling you, so you’ll have to find out on your own.

Custom Sprites: The following new sprites were added
Capcom: Strider Hiryu (arcade stand)
Final Fight: new sprites of Mike Haggar and Belger along with improved Cody stare-down edits
DC Comics: Batman (Michael Keaton style)
Jaleco: the hero from Hachoo!
Sega: Shadow Dancer (arcade) boss 3
Golden Axe: new Gilius pose
Then and now: Added the old and new Mike Haggar sprites for your amusement and disgust.

The Revenge of 1989: main page was updated with a few more images and more errors were fixed.

That’s all for 2014 and I hope you enjoyed this year’s updates. The custom sprite galleries grew with a lot of new pixel art, the GFX Generators swelled up even more (including new scratch-made backgrounds) and I was able to keep my promise of completing the original Mad Gear gang (including a scratch-made Damnd). The site will return to celebrating all years of platformers and beat ’em ups next year, but the Revenge of 1989 will return again in August. Have a Happy New Year and I’ll see you again in 2015!

Is this update a session of Dungeons and Dragons or the side of some guy’s van from the 1970s? You make the call! 1989 was filled with a ton of “hack ‘n slash” games, including Golden Axe, the arcade hit that found the sweet spot between earlier H&S platformers and the combat trappings and tall play-fields of post-Double Dragon beat-em-ups. This update has pixel art tributes to those games.

Mini-logos – It’s finally been redesigned so you’re not forced to wait until a zillion mini-logos load up. It starts with a text list of the different sections and you click on the one you want to see, including the old “all at once” view.

– ADK Corporation: ADK Corporation, Gang Wars
– Namco: Valkyrie no Densetsu, Legend of the Valkyrie
– Palace Software: Barbarian, Barbarian II
– Rare Ltd.: Rare (early ’90s logo), Wizards and Warriors
– TAD Corporation (New!): TAD Corporation, Cabal, Toki
– Taito: Wizard (Cadash)

Custom Sprites
– Konami: Trevor Belmont (NES stand)
– Jaleco: Astyanax (arcade version)
– Namco: Valkyrie from Valkyrie no Densetsu
– Rare: Kuros
– Sega: Ax Battler
– Other games: Princess Mariana (Axe of Rage/Barbarian 2)

Graphic Generators – All of the new content was added to the fighting game-scale generators.


Mega Ran’s current Kickstarter will be winding down Friday night, so kick in some scratch if you like what he does and have the dough to do so!


December will be the wrap-up for the whole “the Revenge of 1989” 25th anniversary shindig. I’ll try to wrap up various loose ends, including sprites to complete certain teams (I’m one character away from the Dracula’s Curse heroes team and Belger still needs a wheelchair) and a few other issues. Take care and I’ll see you again next month!

Graphic Generators – The engine just got a new feature: floor reflections.




A few older screens in the GroupShot generator’s 384×224 modes (Gen SFA2, Avengers MvsC, Avalon X-Men:COTA and Code Red XMvsSF) were upgraded with this. I also added Mojo World and the Savage Land from COTA (two versions of each) and two versions of the demolition site from KoF 2000.

New characters: Link for Nintendo. Tanya in the “Other” section. Rushing Beat enemies (just Ride & Kamikaze from the first game) for Jaleco. Seth, Heidern, Vanessa & Whip for SNK. Growl/Runark villains (female “Doll” enemy) added to Taito section. Hawkeye and Scarlet Witch (both with old sprites) for Marvel.

Game Index – Rolling Thunder 2 (Arcade) added. Growl (arcade) updated.

Company Index – Namco page added.

Custom Sprites – Link (original Legend of Zelda) added to the Nintendo page. Kamikaze and an improved version of Ride (both from Rushing Beat) added to the Jaleco page. The Dolls (female enemies) from Growl added to the Taito page. Tanya from Guardians of the ‘Hood added to the new Atari page. Yes, I made fan work based on GotH.

Mini-Logos – The Legend of Zelda (Nintendo section) and Hawkeye (Marvel section)

Sprites – Growl (a few sprites added) updated.