It’s the 24th Anniversary of the site, so I’m here with a variety of newness! It’s all game-related, even the comic and cartoon characters are game-specific. Beat ’em ups, platformers, and fighting games are all repped here.

Custom Sprites:
– Double Dragon: Abobo (victory pose)
– Fighter’s History: new sprite of Fighter’s History series hero Liu Yungmie
– Metroid: Mother Brain
– Popeye: Popeye the Sailor Man (finally, I know, I know)
– Marvel: the Punisher (new pose), female ninjas from Capcom Punisher game

All new custom sprites added to the image generators, except for the really tall Mother Brain sprite, only the shorter version is in there since it seems to work in most big scene situations.

Sprites: the Punisher (more sprites)

Also added or updated in the generators: Akuma/Gouki (Cyber-Akuma sprites)

ToyBoss: I just got my pre-order of the 52Toys Baby Commando figure from HobbyLink Japan in the mail this week and took a picture of the whole squad still on the cards. I’ll be opening them up soon and taking more pics, and I can’t wait because they all look amazing. For now, I’ve added a pic of the crew to the Toyboss page.

I found a comic book article that talks about the really early plans for Data East’s “Avengers in Galactic Storm” and even has pictures of an earlier 3D character model for Captain America in a different style. I put it in a blog post with scans large enough for you to read. You’ll find a lot of interesting info like the earlier roster plans, more confirmation that Iron Man’s home game rights interfered with how he was used in arcade games for years, and the original genre-bending plans for the Story Mode.

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Thank you for visiting the site and extra thanks for the people who reply here in the news posts and elsewhere on the internet! Due to offline reasons I didn’t get to do all the things I’d planned (Cadillacs and Dinosars, more SNK stuff in the generators), but I’ll try to work them into future updates. I just want you to know you’ve been heard!

There are a few things that still need to be done (better scans for the Avengers article and putting Popeye’s mini-logo in the gallery, I’ll work on that over the weekend.

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added July 20th, 2024:

Popeye had his Ninento mini-logo in the image generators, but it wasn’t in the Toys and ‘Toons mini-logo gallery. now it is, along with a new mini-logo of his 1970s logo with in the 1980 movie colors.

Filed under: ScrollBoss Updates, Site News, Updates by PrimeOp
Tags: Avengers in Galactic Storm, Double Dragon, Fighter's History, marvel comics, Metroid, Popeye, the Punisher
2 Comments »

Custom Sprites:
– Metroid: Samus Aran (Metroid Dread) and Kraid (Super Metroid design, NES-ish height) added
– Marvel Comics: Living Laser scratch-made sprite added
Extra notes:
1.) I added the Comic Books hub to the bottom of any comic book-related pages, just to make it easier.
2.) Living Laser replaces the last of my old Marvel Villain sprite edits made from Capcom sprites. I cleared the DC Comics villains last year, so now it’s down to getting scratch-made sprites to replace the last of the heroes, with six for Marvel and six for DC. I’ve got line art drawn for a few of them, so finishing them up will be one of my 2022 side-missions.

Mini-logos: Grim Reaper (who got a new sprite a few weeks ago) and Living Laser get new mini-logos in the Marvel gallery

Anyway, all new sprites and mini-logos were also added to the main image generator, where I made the image at the top of this post

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I’m currently doing some paid pixel art work right now (commissions aren’t open again, this was set-up long in advance), so the things here will be slow for a bit.

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With social media still going downhill and the likelihood that Web 3.0 will be built to shut out more people than it’ll let in (and even more likely to exploit people as much as possible), I find myself being more grateful to see the independent sites updating.

Dire has been working up a storm over at both the West Mansion Splatterhouse shrine and the OPFCG blog. It’s more than adding things to the sites (and there’s a lot of newness in West Mansion), but talking about things like his revived Turbografx-16 collection, finding his Metal Slug fan site in the Internet Archive, and more.

Filed under: ScrollBoss Updates, Site News, Updates by PrimeOp
Tags: marvel comics, Metroid
2 Comments »

Today is the 20th anniversary of the original ScrollBoss website. Starting on Tripod with a template and some miscolored PC screenshots and sprites from a Sega compilation, this site started as a place for me to talk about old action video games, especially the ones that didn’t have much presence on the internet back in the year 2000. It eventually grew into a place for me to do the same thing but now I’m making most of the sprites that I’m adding to the site, and I never would’ve believed it if you’d told me that decades ago.

This hasn’t been the easiest year for most of us, and the last few weeks have been really irritating for me, but working on this site and seeing your reactions to the pixel art has done what it’s always done for me, help pull me through some tough times. Thank you for that and I hope this place can do the same for you, even if it’s just for a few moments of browsing the galleries and messing with the image generators. There will be multiple updates throughout the week, along with some visitor participation moments (more on that in a bit), so stay tuned!

Custom Sprites: new sprites (and new galleries) include…
– Bionic Commando (NEW separate gallery): Radd Spencer (NES design) in MvC3/MvCI fight stance
– Double Dragon: Billy and Jimmy Lee (DD Advance fight stance)
– Dragon’s Crown(NEW separate gallery): Elf, Wizard
– the Legend of Kage: Kage
– Metroid: Zero Suit Samus
– Rushing Beat: Kazan (Brawl Brothers/Rushing Beat Ran select screen pose)
– Streets of Rage: Cherry Hunter
– Sunset Riders (NEW!): FINALLY, right? Standard gunfight stance remakes for all four heroes kick off the new gallery.
– NuChallenger: : Brad Steel (completing the hero team from Treachery in Beatdown City)

All newness has been added to the GFX Generators where you can make your own graphics like the examples up there!

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The print company I work through, Perfect Posters, reopened a while ago, so prints are once again available for sale in the shop! Also, I’ve set up a page on RedBubble with some original pixel art available mostly as stickers, but it’s on a few other products, too.

I pay to keep my sites hosted with my own money, so any sales puts a little money back into my pocket and helps support my Maruchan Instant Lunch habit!

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Later this week, I’ll put together a special arcade background for the image generator based on YOUR votes. The Twitter post is here and the Instagram post is here, but I’ll repeat the set-up here. Leave a reply with up to seven games you’d like to see based on this list. NOTE: if you choose “Capcom Big Blue (Capcom’s late 80s to late 90s arcade games that worked on the CPS or CPS2 system)” or “Neo Geo”, please mention WHICH games for that you want (“Capcom Big Blue – Captain Commando” or “Neo Geo Metal Slug 2 and Samurai Shodown”). Here’s the list (click to see the full sized version):

Filed under: ScrollBoss Updates, Site News, Updates by PrimeOp
Tags: 20th anniversary, anniversary, bionic commando, Double Dragon, Dragon's Crown, Metroid, Streets of Rage, Sunset Riders, the Legend of Kage, Treachery in Beatdown City
4 Comments »

In the year 2000 AD, the first version of this website was cobbled together with a some brief game reviews, a few tips and some sprites. Now it’s pretty much just a lot of sprites. But how many sprites are really enough? There’s never enough! So here we go with the 19th Anniversary Update!

– Final Fight: Maki (scratch-made FF2 fight stance)
– IREM: Ryno (Ninja Baseball Bat Man)
– Metroid: Ridley (classic)
– NuChallenger: Lisa Santiago (new pose, better style than my 2014 sprite)
– RAK Graphics(new page): Chakan the Forever Man
– Marvel: The Kingpin, Nick Fury (scratch-made “Punisher” Capcom fight stance in three versions)
(added July 20th)

– Denjin Makai: Amazoness, Silf, Valkyrie

Ryno was done for EddieMountainGoat, one of the main people I know who want to see the NBBM team finished! The female acrobats from Denjin Makai were added for SKB, another friend of the site!

By the way: I’ve had a chance to meet Robert A. Kraus, the creator of Chakan, a few times at events in the area this year and I was able to give him a printout of the Chakan sprite (and mini-logo) at the Youngstown Comic-Con a few weeks ago. Not only is he a great indy comic creator, writer and artist, but he’s a toy customizer and just a really cool person to talk to if you find him at a convention. If you’re like me and always wondered what the Chakan comics are like, check out the RAK Graphics site for a look at the Forever Man and more. There’s a mix of horror with sword & sorcery/fantasy and I’m glad I’m finally getting to read it.

Mini-logos: the Kingpin (Marvel gallery), Chakan (RAK Graphics gallery), Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe (Midway/Williams gallery and DC gallery)

GFX Generators: Various improvements and bug fixes were made to the main engine, including allowing you to change text and font on the Picture Modification screen. I added that part a few days ago, but needed to make a few more fixes to it. Please let me know if you run into any problems with this.

the new sprites, mini-logos and more have been added, along with…
– other updated characters: Mega Man, Cammy, Chun-Li, Sakura, Vega, Apocalypse, Iceman, Rogue
– idle/fight stance added: Adon, Balrog, Blanka, Sagat, Blackheart, Captain America, Colossus, Gambit, Magneto, Juggernaut, Omega Red, Sentinel, Silver Samurai, Spider-Man, Shuma-Gorath, Storm (Marvel), Thanos
– fighter-sized screenstyles: Marvel Legends updated with X-Men Sauron-series box.

Here’s possibly the biggest part of the site update: Marvel vs. Capcom 1 endings have been added to the Fighter sprite generator (edit 2019-07-23: or just go to this separate generator page I just added that’s specifically Marvel vs. Capcom)!

Choose up to five characters, pick a background (65 so far), sprite layout (mostly based on actual endings) and frame, add your own text.
edit 2019-07-21: added MSHvsSF and SFA/Z3 looks (still MvC1 layout and character limits) and over a dozen SFA3 backgrounds to MvC 1 ending

ScrollBoss Shop: All prints are on sale for the rest of July! 8×10 and 8×11 prints are $4.00 each!
11 x 17/11 x 14 prints $8.00 each! Sale prices are also in effect for the main Illmosis print page, which has more than game or pixel-related prints.

I may add more to the update through the weekend, so don’t be surprised if this post changes. There’s one more thing I’ve got, but I may not have it ready before the day is over, but I’ll add it here once it’s done. It’s about 95%, but I’m waiting on a gift from a guest contributor you should recognize.

Whether you’ve been here before or this is your first visit, thank you for stopping and I hope you enjoy this mess of a site!

Filed under: ScrollBoss Updates, Site News, Updates by PrimeOp
Tags: Chakan, Final Fight, gfx generators, marvel comics, Metroid, Ninja Baseball Bat Man, Street Fighter, Treachery in Beatdown City, X-Men
3 Comments »

Custom Sprites
– Nintendo – Samus Aran, Donkey Kong Jr. and the Ice Climbers
– Data East – Karnov (new pose in his original look)
– Illmosis – Nutroll (new fight stance sprite)

Mini-logos
– Data East: Trio the Punch
– Nintendo: Ice Climbers

The new sprites and logos have been added to the new fighter scale GFX Generator. That generator also got the gold 16×16 font from Fighter’s History Dynamite/Karnov’s Revenge and the “Mego WGSH 176×192” got a new set of Data East portrait bubbles!

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As a celebrator of Karnovember, it’s my duty to send you a link to the Karnovember Tumblr tag, because that’s where I first heard about it. I’ll be doing my part to add content to that tag soon.

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recent stuff elsewhere:
Gaming Hell just added a page about Namco’s Numan Athletics and Mach Breakers, their super-powered sports games. There’s some really cool info in there, including a few things to prove that the games are linked!

Shadi dipped into the legendary Taito vault by adding shrines for Bubble Bobble, Puzzle Bobble and Kuri Kinton to Arcade Quartermaster

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There’s a reason why I managed to build an update so random that I couldn’t come up with a cohesive, goofy news post title. The plan was to drop a mini-update last Friday with Samus, the Ice Climbers and DK Jr. and build up to a full Karnovember update and an update with Illmosis characters (with Nutroll). That was until I was worn out by extra work at my day job, something that was going on for a while but really kicked into high gear last week. Combined with some sinus-related fun, I feel like I’ve been dropkicked down an elevator shaft and that includes pains in my drawing and spriting hand. Honestly, I probably need to rest for a little bit anyway, but this makes it obvious. I’ll be back in effect mode by early December, if not sooner. As Guru once said, “Peace out, we’ll be back, stay tuned.”

Filed under: ScrollBoss Updates, Site News, Updates by PrimeOp
Tags: Donkey Kong Jr., Ice Climbers, Illmosis, Karnov, Karnovember, Metroid, Nutroll
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I was going to do an update last week, but extra work at my day job has been wearing me out. I did a bit of work in Anime Studio 10 using one of the new spites (along with an older sprite modified to work with it):

click to see animated and in full size

There will be new scratch-made Samus sprites in the next update, possibly this week or weekend.

Filed under: ScrollBoss Updates, Site News, Updates by PrimeOp
Tags: .gif, Metroid
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Not a dream, not a hoax and not not an imaginary story: the GFX Generator v.2 test with the Marvel Super Heroes Vs. screen is now on the site! It’s a test and a few things don’t work, but the new portrait palettes feature is up and running. Everything in it uses different data files from the main Vs. Maker generator and only has a few characters, but each one is guaranteed to have everything (mainly compatible portraits) they need to fake a decent Vs. screen from MSH. Besides modding a lot of old portraits to work with with the palette feature, there are two new portraits:

Superman’s portrait is from the Dan Jurgens/Brett Breeding art for Superman #73’s cover, Samus Aran’s portrait is based on art from official art for Metroid II and both feature multiple palettes. There won’t be alt palettes for all portraits and one major reason is mentioned in this post. The short version: portrait palettes are usually a pain to make.

Filed under: ScrollBoss Updates by PrimeOp
Tags: dc comics, gfx generator, Metroid
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Game fans all over the internet are celebrating the #Happy30thNES event (thanks to PlatinumFungi) on their websites and on Twitter. Made to honor the 30th Anniversary of the Nintendo Entertainment System, the event is a chance for us to show and tell why we love that gray box of 8-bit magic. I’ve done my part by making 30 new NES-like sprites based on a few of my favorite NES games while using colors from the original sprites:

You can find the separate sprites (and an extra sprite that didn’t make the cut) in the new NES-like 32 gallery.

No offense to my Atari 2600 and ColecoVision, but the NES was the first system I owned that could play the kinds of games that inspired me to make this site. Platformers, beat ’em ups, run ‘n guns and similar genres really started to come into their own at that time and the Nintendo Entertainment System was one of the best ways to play those games at home. It’s the beginning of what I consider to be the sweet spot of action games becoming adventures while still being unashamed of being games. That’s probably why we still see new games using the look and feel of those NES classics and it’s definitely a big part of why many of us are celebrating its 30th anniversary today.

Help spread the word about the event if you can and feel free to talk about your own Nintendo favorites in the comments section!

Articles: I’ve had this page about Rob Strangman’s Memoirs of a Virtual Caveman book for a long time, but didn’t finish it until now. It’s made in the old, abandoned game review format because of a few jokes in the info section that I thought were funny at the time (sigh). As it says on the page, I’m probably a bit biased because I drew the cover, but I really dug that book and the voice it gives to various parts of the video game community. The article is here and I hope you give Rob’s book a chance!

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Arcade Quartermaster’s latest batch of game shrines is monster-themed and features Night Slashers (one of my favorites), Kiki KaiKai (Taito’s original Pocky and Rocky game), Laser Ghost and Nightmare in the Dark.

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You know, we’ve had a lot of fun here today, but it’s time to get serious. Dead serious.

Horror returns to ScrollBoss next week. Be there* and be scared.

(by “there” I mean “here.” Just making that clear.)

Filed under: ScrollBoss Updates, Site News, Updates by PrimeOp
Tags: Batman, bionic commando, Castlevania, Contra, Double Dragon, Kid Icarus, Kirby, Kung-Fu Master, Mega Man, Memoirs of a Virtual Caveman, Metal Gear, Metroid, Ninja Gaiden, Nintendo Entertainment System, River City Ransom, Shatterhand, Strider, Super Mario Bros., Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the Guardian Legend, the Legend of Zelda, Wrecking Crew
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So Transformers: Devastation, a game that sounds more like a wish (G1 Transformers with classic voice actors and developed by Platinum Games) than reality, is now available and there’s no way I wasn’t going to celebrate.

A small-scale G1 Optimus Prime joins the site, crash-landing in the Toys and ‘Toons gallery until the Transformers get their own gallery. Meanwhile, new sprites of Alyssa from the Guardian Legend/Guardic Gaiden and Samus Aran from Metroid join the fight! Look, someone in futuristic armor who curls up into a ball like a potato bug counts as a Transformer, alright? All three have been added to the GFX Generator. Optimus is the only Transformer on the site right now, but you may get some more toys this Christmas…

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Here’s a taste of what I’ve been messing around with for the past month:

Just like the last one, almost nothing in the video is final. I still have a lot to learn with Anime Studio Pro 10, but I think you can tell I’ve been having fun with it. Oddly enough, I made three new sprites mainly for a clip in the video, but the scene didn’t have enough people to match the clip it followed. It’s a good thing that I left it out, because the so-called surprise would’ve wound up being the preview display pic.

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Kickstarter alert: Aurion: Legacy of the Kori-Odan is an exciting action/RPG hybrid with 2-D beautiful graphics. It has 14 days left to be funded and still needs help to be published.

A lot of work has already gone into the game and it shows in every frame. If you like what you see and can afford to help, please visit their Kickstarter page and donate!

Filed under: ScrollBoss Updates, Site News, Updates by PrimeOp
Tags: Hasbro, Metroid, Samus Aran, the Guardian Legend, Transformers
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The site is twelve years old today, so it’s time to celebrate with a lot of new content.

Graphic Generators

New Characters: Bill Rizer and Lance Bean from Contra, Boomer and Hawk from Vendetta/Crime Fighters 2 added to Konami. Zeed/Neo-Zeed and Golden Axe Villains groups for Sega. Chin Taimei and Machine Gun Willy (separate character with new sprite and palettes) for Technos.

Updated characters: Samus (NES armor sprite) for Nintendo, Tyris Flare (new sprite) for Sega, Blue Mary (palettes) for SNK, Shadow Warriors (new Lopar and Williams sprites, improved Jeff sprite) for Technos.

Custom Sprites
Konami: Bill Rizer and Lance Bean from Contra, Boomer and Hawk from Vendetta/Crime Fighters 2.
Nintendo: Samus (NES Power suit and S.Metroid Varia).
Sega: new scratch-made Tyris Flare and Skeleton (Golden Axe), Masked Ninja (Shinobi), Omote (from Revenge of Shinobi).
Technos: Chin Taimei (NES Vs. Mode stance), Lopar, Williams, Jeff (improved DD1 edit), Machine Gun Willy (improved rifle-holding sprite in DD1 and DD2 colors)
Taito: Lady Master of Kung Fu
DNL: DNL sent a lot of new scratch-made sprites, including a very cool update of his Phanto animation. Be sure to hide your keys before looking at it.

Sprites
New galleries: Karate Blazers, Mystic Warriors, Sunset Riders
Updated: Captain Commando (hero surfing sprites), Double Dragon, Final Fight 3 (Dave and more added), X-Men (Konami arcade) pages

Mini-logos
Data East: Dark Seal
Kaneko: Kaneko and Lady Master
Konami: Mystic Warriors, Sunset Riders
Natsume: Natsume logo (blue gradient), Shadow of the Ninja
Square Enix: Square Enix logo (black and white)
Taito: Silent Dragon
TMNT: Original comic logo 1

Logos
Beraboh Man (arcade), Blue Shadow, Bravoman (TG-16), Kage (Famicom), Ninja Warriors (TG-16) added.

Game Index: The Legend of Zelda (NES), Mystic Warriors (arcade)

Vernacula-X: A few definitions now link to their own pages with expanded definitions and extra goodies like game and character lists that link up to their respective indices on the site. More definitions will get their own pages and more goodies will be added over time.

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That’s it for now. I have to go to sleep now, and go to work earlier than usual, so any site fixes will have to wait until the afternoon. I hope that all of you who visit on a regular basis enjoy the new stuff and maybe the new visitors will be overwhelmed by the sad way I’ve spent much of my free time for twelve years backlog of earlier content. I tried to mix it up between obvious, famous games (Contra and Metroid) and things that don’t get much of the spotlight (Vendetta/Crime Fighters 2, Karate Blazers). Have fun and thanks for visiting the site!

Filed under: ScrollBoss Updates, Site News, Updates by PrimeOp
Tags: Contra, Crime Fighters 2, Double Dragon, gfx generators, Kaneko, Karate Blazers, Konami, Lady of Kung Fu, Metroid, Mystic Warriors, Nintendo, Shadow of the Ninja, Taito, Technos, Vendetta, X-Men
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