Most of what I’ve been working on lately isn’t ready to show yet, but you’ll get a preview later in the post. I still have some new things done for the site:

Info Center: more small additions, fixes and improvements were made here and there to the new items system
S-Files: new profiles for Akira, Gil, Glen and Mark from Karate Blazers
Vernacula-X: new separate pages for pro wrestler and power-up, new images for boss and ninja.

Custom Sprites:
Growl: new scratch-made sprites of the Rangers (Gen, Burn, Khan, Jack) and the Dolls.
Rolling Thunder: new scratch-made sprites of Albatross and Leila from Rolling Thunder 2

GFX Generators:
– Dan Hibiki: thanks to a site visitor who wanted Dan’s CvS sprites and told me that Kong’s rips fit the same size as other sprites, Dan has CvS sprites now!
– the Marvel Legends box now has the Spider-Man box style. It’s easy to get pics of the outside of the box, but I have to get and scan my own box inserts, and getting classic Beetle (yes, I know who the Beetle is) let me do that. I still need to get a classic Taskmaster Marvel Legend to do the new Avengers box, though.


Work on the sequel to the “Horror vs.” print (with Freddy vs. Jason) is on the way and here’s a preview:

Even if you saw the preview I posted on Twitter and Instagram a few days ago, this one has a few changes, including some changed characters. I’m still not 100% sure about the “roster,” but I’ll talk more about that at a later date.


I’ll be at the Youngstown Comic Con at the Covelli Center this year, but only on Sunday, July 8th (I’m still working part of the weekend at my day job). It’s mostly a comic convention, but you’ll be sure to find video games and game-related stuff there, too. I finally got Gauntlet IV for Genesis at last year’s con. I’ll have both line art and pixel art prints, along with sketch cards and mini-prints that I don’t have on the site yet. If you can make it to NE Ohio on July 7th and or 8th, please check out the Youngstown Comic Con!

Disappointed in the lack of cybernetics I saw on Cyber Monday, I’ve decided to try and make up for that by celebrating cyber-related characters and games for the entire week. Check back with this post for updates every day!

Tuesday:


Cyborg, in classic flavor, is now in the DC Comics gallery and GFX Generators (where he has extra palettes)!

Wednesday:


A new sprite of Kamaitachi from Ninja Warriors Again (from the beautifully developed SNES/SFAM game by Natsume) has been added to the Taito gallery and GFX Generators (where the Mego WGS style in the GroupShot generator finally has a Taito character bubble set)! Kunoichi (my old version of her need to be redone) and Ninja won’t show up in this theme, but they’re on my to-sprite list.

Thursday:


Welcome your new cyborg gang overlord, Martha from Technos’ beat ’em up, Combatribes. She’s been added to the Technos gallery and GFX Generators along with two versions of the Combatribes logo has been added to the mini-logo page.

Friday:


Partly pixels, partly real, a new sprite of Steelheart, from the SilverHawks cartoon and toyline, has been added to the Toys and Cartoons gallery and the GFX Generators! The SilverHawks logo has been added to the Toys and Cartoons mini-logo gallery.

Reminder: the prints in the shop are on sale until this Sunday, November 6th. 8×10 and 8×11 prints are $4.50 each while the 11 x 17 prints $8.50 each. There’s a wider variety of prints on the Illmosis site print page, so check that out, too!

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!


Breakin’ News


Taito’s official YouTube channel posted a YouTube preview of COZMO, ZUNTATA’s upcoming album which celebrates their 25th Anniversary.


ZUNTATA is a band consisting of Taito’s amazing musicians who also perform live music live on stage. Just search for ZUNTATA on your video site of choice and you should be able to find some live performance clips and rips of their music from the games themselves or the CD soundtrack releases. Their Japanese site is here.


A trailer for Midway Arcade Origins was posted on the EGM site by AntDaGamer. Though the full game list isn’t out there yet, that “T for Teen” rating of the game has a Drug Reference warning possibly points to the inclusion of Narc. The early part of the trailer also has an obvious hint about another unannounced game. It’ll be interesting to see which games make the cut this time.

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.


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!


Just a minor update here. The Manuke/Rocky sprite has been improved (check out the gallery page on Illmosis). Sayo-Chan’s sprite edits have been improved with a pants-wearing version and better colors (thanks to Shin Otaru for suggesting that). You’ll also find a Miki/Becky alternate palette for Sayo in the generators, a feature that I forgot to add last week. Yes, that’s why there was a palette option choice for Sayo last week with just one option. The Punisher-era Nick Fury sprite had a mis-colored pixel in his right hand so I fixed that while also tinkering a bit with the palettes to improve the contrast. I also threw in a few more background & Vs. graphic options for the “Custom Scene (384×224 pixels)” set-up in the Vs. Maker including Guile’s SFII stage, Avengers HQ, KoF 98’s China stage and more.

edit: I forgot that there was more added to the site:

Custom Sprite Pack Downloads – Laslunder added more sprites to his pack of SFA3 Cody (Jeans and shirt) edit pack. He has my thanks for letting ScrollBoss be one of the places where you can find it!

Game List – I hadn’t updated it since October of last year. Games added include 3D Dot Game Heroes, inFamous, Moon Diver & Wipeout HD for the PS3 along with Beatdown for PS2. Yes, inFamous & Wipeout HD were my PSN Welcome Back choices and I’ve been playing a lot of inFamous.

Brawlers who remember that this post’s title is also the first line in one of Capcom’s greatest beat-em-ups already know which two Marvel heroes are in this update. Fans who know the Japanese names of an excellent but lesser known Taito series may have figured out who else is in here. Anyone kind enough to check out Illmosis earlier this week already know which multiplayer gaming icon came to the party with enough explosions for everybody.


Graphic Generators – Fixed the Marvel vs. Capcom 1 Vs. stand-off so that the minilogos post on the right layers again. There is also a new screenstyle in the Vs. Maker called “Variable” that lets you choose from many background, foreground and overlay graphics. New and updated characters follow:
Marvel: Nick Fury & the Punisher
Taito: Sayo-Chan/Pocky, Manuke/Rocky and the Growl heroes
Other Games: Bomberman
Updated characters: Axel Stone (improved sprites), Cody (F.Fight uppercut sprite added), X-23 (minilogos)

Custom Sprites
Marvel: the Punisher (three variations), Nick Fury (three variations)
Hudson: Bomberman
Taito: Sayo-Chan a.k.a. Pocky

Mini logos


Konami: Crime Fighters, Contra (2 variations), Vendetta
Hudson: Bomberman (NES & 16-bit era)
Marvel: Nick Fury (90’s), X-23
Sega: Shinobi (2002)
Taito: Sayo, Pocky & Rocky
Atari/Midway/Williams: Narc

Game logos – Crime Fighters 2, Legend of Zelda (animated), Wizards & Warriors, Zelda II

I also have a ScrollBoss account set up on Tumblr! Check it out right here. There will be more than just update posts there so keep an eye on it if you have a Tumblr account.