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.

Custom Sprites:

DC Comics: all-new Scarecrow (classic)
Horror:Evil Dead Ash Williams standing sprite updated (colors like the Horror vs. Horror 2 print, lots of other detail adjustments) and Phantasm’s Reggie (new versions in Ice Cream Man outfit with vest)
Ninja Gaiden: arcade hockey mask enemy (completely redone for hopefully the last time)
Streets of Rage: Zamza

mini-logos:
movies: Stephen King, WNUF Halloween Special

All new items added to the Image Generators, where you can make screenshots like the one at the top of this post!


Raven Perez, creatively inspirational friend of the site, has a new horror-flavored game starring his classic crew of the Dojo! Terror Cube is a block-breaking game that has the Dojo teaming up with the Gore Orb to ball-bust some bricks, and anyone who knows how Raven gets down knows it’s gonna get WEIRD (in the best way). It’s a fun game, perfect for this time of year, and a treat to see crisp 8-bit-ish pixel art in his drawing style. Warning: Raven’s Dojo is not safe for work but safe for awesome. Get Terror Cube at this link!


The DangerTerrorHorrorThon continues with another update this Sunday, so stay tuned!

Starting the year with some replacements for old sprite edits and some long overdue and requested characters.

Custom Sprites:
Rastan Saga (new separate gallery): Rastan (new scratch-made sprite based on his stance from the first game)
Ninja Gaiden: Bloody Malth
Undercover Cops: Rosa Felmondes/Blaze
Marvel Comics: Iron Man – classic armor in pose from cover #126
Movies: RoboCop

Sprite Rips:
Name Graphics: Select/Vs. from Vampire Savior-Darkstalkers 3, also includes the dozens of custom names I made for this site’s image generators (and a few that are still unused) by cutting, pasting, and rearranging the preexisting letters. Most of the extras are horror-themed. It also includes a gradient pattern file to use as a layer or fill when you make your own custom name graphics.

GFX Generators: today’s new sprites have been added to the appropriate generators (mostly the main generator), along with…
– the main generator’s side panel now has more short cuts so you spend a bit less time scrolling. I’ll continue to work on this and add it to the other generators later.


In December 2020, ownership of the Anime Studio/MOHO (the animation program I’ve been using since 2015 to render most of my video clips) changed to Lost Marble, which will be a really good thing from what I’ve read. What isn’t good is how SmithMicro didn’t give any warning about how the software ownership verification on your computer would stop working if you didn’t update immediately… which I only found out after it happened to me because they sent no heads-up e-mail of any kind. That means all my work in AS is either temporarily halted or just completely dead and will have to be redone. So I went back to the lab with other tools.

The 3-D shots were done in Blender with techniques I was experimenting with before I got Anime Studio. The 2-D Hall of Armor shot was made in Magix Vegas, the video editor I usually use to edit, assemble and render full videos, with layers of PNG and GIF files. So I’ll be spending a lot of time in the lab getting these alternate techniques down so I can get the videos going again.


Also, I’m taking a break for a month or two. I’m still very tired, mentally and physically, from how the last half of 2020 went for me offline, so I probably need to get some actual rest. My plans for taking commissions are going to be on indefinite hold, because I think I’m too tired to do those effectively.

Future updates additions to the Toyboss section, like my new Golden Axe Skeletons by Storm Collectables (lucked up and caught the restock on Bluefin) and the Articulated Icons Ninjas (most are 50% off until the end of January!) I finally got after fiending for them for a while. I highly recommend those ninjas, especially because they’re built for martial arts poses and customization.

Golden Axe Skeletons by Storm Collectables

DangerTerrorHorrorThon 2016 pt. 6 – the Final Chapter!

Custom Sprites
Marvel:Blade
Other Games: Bayonetta
Data East: Zombie from Night Slashers
TecmoPumpkin Head (Ninja Gaiden)
Movies: The Shape/Michael Myers, Laurie Strode, Jill Franco
Illmosis: Hazelle (my witchy Halloween mascot returns from limbo!)

Mini-logos
Movies: Blade
Movies: Bayonetta

All new sprites and mini-logos have been added to the GFX Generator, where you can make your own screens and graphics. Blade (and the 144×160 I made from scratch) are also in the separate Darkstalker 3 and Marvel Super Heroes vs screen makers

That’s all (more like “that’s enough”) for the DangerTerrorHorrorThon for this year. Happy Halloween!

previous parts of the DTHT: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5

Custom Sprites (sprites also added to their GFX Generator characters)
Movies – A redone Jason Voorhees sprite
Tecmo – resprited the torso of the hockey mask drone from the arcade Ninja Gaiden.

GFX Generators: A new standalone version of the Darkstalkers 3 (Vampire Savior) Vs. Screen is now ready and only has characters with all necessary elements. All of the standard Darkstalkers are there, but so are over a dozen guest stars. I’ve also made DS3-ish portraits for Splatterhouse’s Rick Taylor and Biggy Man.

While I planned to do a mini-DangerTerrorHorrorThon for this Friday the 13th, I’m a bit too tired from the day job to pull that off this time. Guess I’ll just have to save the horror for October…

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!


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.


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.)

Get ready for two days of the sort of horror-based pixel nonsense that rarely happens here outside of October!


Pamela Voorhees returns to physical (well, pixel) realm in search of her son only to find look-a-likes, doppelgangers and pretenders. Why, these men aren’t her son! What should be done about this mockery? Unfortunately, her answer is the only answer she’s known since Jason drowned all those years ago: “Kill them, mommy! Kill them!”

Custom Sprites
Movies: Pamela Voorhees
Namco: Rick Taylor (Splatterhouse, new pose)
Sega: Kid Chameleon as Manaix
Taito: Booster (Growl/Runark)
Tecmo: Hockey-masked thug (new to replace the 2013 sprite)

The GFX Generators were updated with the new items.


Here’s a few links to some cool stuff to keep that horror groove going:
Anyone disappointed that the real Jason didn’t show up here today should check out Rusty Shackle’s artwork of Jason Voorhees.

The Xiamat Tumblr has a very cool, low-color .GIF of Freddy Krueger that looks like he’s glitching his own NES game from the inside.

Seriously, just follow both of those Tumblrs if you want more of that goodness.

Also: be sure to check out Zombiepalooza Radio’s site and Facebook page!


Tomorrow’s tagline:
“This Valentine’s Day weekend, lucky couples will find themselves in the sack. The unlucky ones will end up in a body bag.”

This is just a small update with a few odds and ends added to the site, including a few things that I forgot to add in the last update.

Custom Sprites:
– Technos: Kunio-Kun (NES-like fighting stance)
– Tecmo: the new Ryu Hayabusa sprite was improved and another variation was added.

Mini-logos:
– Marvel: Marrow, Omega Red
– Movies: Do the Right Thing
– Nintendo: Super Smash Bros. (2014)

GFX Generators: The new items mentioned above were added to their respective characters along with the following things:
– GroupShot Generator: A Tecmo NES (Ninja Gaiden) setup was added to the 160×192 game boxes.
– Capcom: Chun-Li (added CvS sprites, tweaked palettes), Dudley (SF3-to-CvS converted sprite)
– Tecmo: Ryu Hayabusa (new and improved sprites and palettes)


Heads-up: Double Dragon Trilogy, a collection of the three original arcade Double Dragon games on Steam right now. It’s on sale for $4.79 until January 22! I haven’t bought and tried it yet, but I will before the sale is over.


There will be a themed update for both ScrollBoss and the main Illmosis site next week on January 20th. What’s the theme? Well, it’s on the 20th for a specific reason and I’ll have to upload it before 8 PM. While it isn’t specifically game-related, the theme’s name allows me to slip in some game stuff, including a boss I missed in the 1989 updates. That’s all I’m giving you for now.

This site has spent most of this year celebrating the 25th anniversary of 1989, easily one of the most llama butt-whipping years in the history of video games. It’s so dense with digital greatness that I couldn’t give dap to all things to which dap is due, even with nearly a year to work on the theme. The clock is winding down and this update is an attempt to strengthen the custom sprite galleries (and image generator banks) of those games.




Custom Sprites – The following changes were made to the galleries:
Data East: Karnov (new scratch-made sprites in outfits from Karnov, Bad Dudes, Sly Spy and Trio the Punch)
Capcom: Crash Man, Strobaya (Strider)
Final Fight: Damnd and Jessica Haggar
Konami: Strongwoman from S.P.Y.: Special Project Y
Sega: Joe Musashi (1 new sprite, 1 improved sprite), Yamato, Neo-Zeed Leader, Queen of the Oasis
Golden Axe: new gallery page with new Gilius Thunderhead sprite
Tecmo: Ryu Hayabusa, Irene Lew
TMNT: Raphael

GFX Generator – All new sprites were added to the proper characters (they’re at the top of the “Update” character list). There’s also a new background: the 1989 arcade!


YouTube user Cralfer put together a video that showcases many of the multi-plane beat ’em ups released before Final Fight was in 1989. You’ll see a lot of obscure titles in here!


That’s all for this update, but don’t be surprised to see a bit more newness added to the site before the year is out. Also, even after the year-long 1989 theme is over, I’ve decided that every August 9th (1989) will be dedicated to 1989’s Revenge. Take care and I hope your holidays are happy!

There’s no space for introductory yammering, only for the newness!

Custom Sprites
Atari: Thyra the Valkyrie, Merlin the Wizard (three versions of each) from Gauntlet
Capcom: Amazons and Kuniang M.A. Team (Strider), Metal Man (Mega Man)
Final Fight: brand new Two.P and J (fighting stances)
Konami: Bayou Billy West
Sega: Joe Musashi (new RoS fight stance), the evil amazons from Golden Axe (arcade and Genesis/Mega Drive versions)
Taito: the Priest from Cadash
Technos: Riki (Kunio-Kun series), Billy and Jimmy Lee (new scratch-made sprites)
Games (other): Gogan from the Legendary Axe
Toys & Cartoons: Captain N (!)
TMNT: Bebop and Rocksteady

Mini-logos – Believe it or not, it’s another A-to-the-mothereffin’-Z mini-logo update with the entire alphabet representing!


– Atari: Thyra, Thor, Merlin and Questor
– Capcom: Hugo (USF4 style)
– Epyx: Epyx
– Kaneko: DJ Boy
– Konami: S.P.Y. Special Project Y, Ultra Games
– Marvel: X-Men, The Uncanny X-Men
– Movies: RoboCop
– Nintendo: Captain N
– Sega: Alex Kidd (High Tech World style), Yamato (Shinobi), Zeed
– SNK: Ikari III, the rescue, Guerrilla War
– Taito: Fighter (Cadash), Mage(Cadash), Ninja(Cadash), Priest (Cadash), Violence Fight
– Tecmo: Ninja Gaiden (NES box), Wild Fang
– Technos: Billy (Lee), Jimmy (Lee)
– Victor: Legendary Axe


GFX Generators – All those new sprites, characters and logos were added to the generators.
– Groupshot Generator: box 160×192 gets four new TurboGrafx-16 set-ups
– Backgrounds: Three Ultra Street Fighter IV backgrounds, one Double Dragon Neon background and a remake of Final Fight 1-1
– Updated characters: Poison (blue palette from Mighty Final Fight)

Minus World – the “Run, Woman, Run!” article was updated.

Game Index – added: the Adventures of Bayou Billy.

I hope that made up for the poot-butt, small updates from the past few months. There won’t be any updates this gigantic for a while, but this Revenge of 1989 theme still has some surprises in store. No promises, but there might be an additional update later this week, including tune-ups of earlier content and things I didn’t have time to work into this update.


“Hey, why are there Gauntlet characters in a 1989 update?” Besides the fact that there was a good port of Gauntlet 2 for the Commodore Amiga, there’s a new Gauntlet game coming out this month!


BTW: the Boy and his Pup Kickstarter is almost done, so help out if you can!


Edit (September 20, 2014) Besides making a few fixes here and there, the following things have been added:
Mini-logos: Rolento (Ultra Street Fighter IV), Bebop and Rocksteady (TMNT Classics)
Custom sprites: Kunio-kun (Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari cover pose)
GFX Generators – All new content was added to their characters in the generators, fixes were made to a few characters (Andore/Hugo, Thyra the Valkyrie), the Lee Brothers new palettes were improved to include Double Dragon 1 sets (with the gray boots) and the “Mego: WGSH” has three new “head bubble” sets.

Okay, that’s enough for now.