I’m done with commission work for a while, so I’m back with a few real updates!

The ToyBoss section was updated with more new photos and up-to-date roster photos. One is a quick shot I took yesterday of my still-carded Captain Commando figures by 52Toys, now that I just got my Ninja Commando from AliBaba. Still waiting on my Baby Commando pre-order at HLJ, so I think I’ll hold out on opening them until I get the whole crew. The three figures I have look great and I haven’t even uncarded them yet, and I’m definitely keeping the cards for the artwork once I open them all. Speaking of complete crews, I managed to get the other three Target-exclusive “Pizza Club” Ninja Turtle figures by NECA. This is the first set of Turtles I gotten since the original Playmates figures from the 80s. I was going to (and still may) get all the Loyal Subjects BST AXN Turtles (I only have Raph for now), but I saw these announced months ago and plotted to get them. The BST AXN Turtles are still good, but I think the NECA Turtles themselves scale better when next to other toylines.

Speaking of toy line crossovers, I also added a new “Scale Wars” section with a few photos of figures from different lines standing next to each other to show how they scale. Some of these may help if you’re thinking of mixing and matching toylines or trying to figure out sizes for cross-line toy fodder.

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With X-Men hype at a fever pitch again after the 10-episode run of X-Men ’97, there will be some new mutant-related sprites hitting the site next week!

Filed under: ScrollBoss Updates, Site News, Updates by PrimeOp
Tags: Captain Commando, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Toy Haul, toyboss
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I’ve spent most of the month working on pixel commissions (more on one of those in a bit) and working on things for two future Sprite Showcase videos. Iron Man will be the next Superhero Sprite Showcase do-over, and I’m redoing nearly everything because the original was done before I had a working version of Anime Studio/Moho again. The original version was done with a few clips in Blender, including a low-poly 3D Hall of Armors, and a bunch of complicated layer compositions in Magix Vegas. I’ve finished enough to show it now, including a new logo sequence and added pixel cover 3-shots, but I think it needs more.

The other Superhero Showcase is a team showcase is something I teased in an earlier video and it’ll share parts of earlier episodes. I’m sure you can probably guess which team that’ll be with no other hints.

There will probably be a BIG ToyBoss section update in May once I’m done with the commissions. I’ve managed to get Captain Commando and Mummy Commando of the 52TOYS line of Captain Commando figures, thanks to HobbyLink Japan, and I’ve got Baby Commando on pre-order. I also lucked up got a NECA ‘toon-style turtle with the Target-exclusive “Pizza Club” Leonardo. Great figure, and it’s good to have one of the 4 TMNT in NECA style after getting Usagi Yojimbo and comic-style Slash. Will I be able to get the other three turtles? Tune in and find out. I took a quick size comparison pic to show Leo’s height compared to a Jada Toys Street Fighters, Hasbro’s Marvel Legends, and a BST AXN Turtle by Loyal Subjects.

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One of the commissions I drew recently was for a wild video guide by Avlyrr on hoe to play Hulk in Capcom’s Marvel Super Heroes fighting game. This is easily some of the most fun I’ve had watching a fighting game guide, and you’ll get some good laughs from this while learning what the good doctor (remember: this was the Peter David-written Smart Hulk era) can do in that game.

Big thanks to Avlyrr for being so great to work with for that commission!

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Arcade Quartermaster just put up the new arcade game shrines for May: Master’s Fury by Unico and Air Bike Cop by Sega! (sorry that was the earlier update. May’s games are Bally Midway’s smash-hit driving combat game Spy Hunter and the gory Kaneko/Taito side-scrolling slasher Kabuki-Z!

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Time for me to get back to work on the current commission. I’ll be back in May!

Filed under: ScrollBoss Updates, Site News, Updates by PrimeOp
Tags: Captain Commando, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Toy Haul
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I’ve mostly been chipping away at getting this site ready for the server upgrade, but I couldn’t let August 9th go by without a little Revenge of 1989 recognition to honor a year that brought a lot of the games (and other things) that led to the creation of this site. That’s a literal statement, because the first version of this site were Sega Smash Pack shots of Golden Axe, Revenge of Shinobi, and Altered Beast for the Sega Genesis, all games that hit the U.S. in 1989. So here’s the newness:

Custom Sprites:
– Final Fight: Andore (Final Fight wait pose)
– Gang Wars: new gallery, starting with the heroes Mike and Jackie.
– Shinobi: all-new Kasumi (the Revenge of Shinobi)
– TMNT: NES 1989 game stance (with and without weapons) for Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, and Michelangelo.

All new custom sprites were also added to the the main GFX Generators, where you can assemble your own fake screenshots and group pics.

The Revenge of 1989: A new timeline page was added, various adjustments were made to the articles, including the confirmation (thanks to an interview with Time Extension magazine) that Konami’s Crime Fighters was indeed their template for later games like Ninja Turtles and the Simpsons.

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As I mentioned at the start of this post, I’m working on an all-around behind-the-scenes update of this site, using a hard drive copy of it that simulates the server update. I’ve got a lot of the site working and even the image generators are over 70% working before I stopped to do this update. This is some heavy work, and it’s costing me extra site host fees to run on the older server, so I won’t be doing much other than that until it’s done, trying to finish it (and fixes to my other sites) before the site hosting charge hits my wallet again in September. I started a separate post about that in this link to keep track of where I am in the upgrade project.

Despite that, there will be an update to the ToyBoss section this month because I’ve got that main page working with new code that works on its own and I’ve got some roster pics to update (especially since I got that new camera).

Filed under: ScrollBoss Updates, Site News, Updates by PrimeOp
Tags: Final Fight, Gang Wars, Shinobi series, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Revenge of 1989, The Revenge of Shinobi
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Just a small update to recognize the year that pretty much led to the creation of this site, revolutionized the beat ’em up, and just generally kicked all kinds of behind: 1989.

Custom Sprites:
– Ninja Gaiden: Ryu Hayabusa – redone NES fight stance, in-game NES sprite and cover art outfit variants
– TMNT: April O’Neil – redone calm standing pose + fixes to Shredder’s Revenge fight stance

GFX Generators:
– Main Generator: The “1989 arcade” background has been remodeled with new walls, a change to the neon, new carpet and improved arcade machine sprites.

The carpet pattern is self-explanatory, but the neon’s blue represents the U.S. debut of the Sega Genesis (Mega-Drive) and the orange represents the Turbografx-16 (PC-Engine). This background was added to the Group, End – MvsC, Vs 3v3 scene, Comics 88×136, Boxes, Flyer & Posters 160×192 Screen type options.

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I’m taking a “break” from the site for a few different reasons, including trying to finally finish that Guy vs. Mad Gear fight video that I started years ago. Really, I’ve been working on it on the side for a long time, including more animations for the Mad Gear members, respriting the sunglasses-wearing woman based on the Final Fight bezel art, and remaking a location I made up for a MUGEN stage long ago. You can see a bit of that in the HalfTime video I posted back in June, and it’s in there because I’m aiming to finally get that fight done.

To tell the truth, I really need a bit of rest, and I never really do whenever I take a break from the site, but maybe I’ll try it for real this time. But I’ve got a lot of big things I want to do for this site, and it’d probably help to recharge before I try some of these possibly insane ideas.

There will still be some site updates and fixes, there just won’t be a lot of new pixel art from me added for a while until further notice, except for late October (because the HorrorThon must go on).

Filed under: ScrollBoss Updates, Site News, Updates by PrimeOp
Tags: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Revenge of 1989
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A new sprite of April O’Neil in her Shredder’s Revenge fight stance has been added to the TMNT Custom Sprites gallery and the the main Image Generator

Of course this is in honor of the long-awaited release of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge, bringing the Green Machine (and friends) back to the pixelart-based beat ’em up format for some arcady good times. Just got it as a gift from a friend before I could even buy it myself (thanks, Z!) and I’ll be digging into it this weekend!

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There’s a new killer-looking 2.5D platformer on the horizon, and the name of the game is Slave Zero X. Yes, it’s connected to the Dreamcast game, and here’s the first taste of the action:
Slave Zero X – Announcement Trailer
Look at that crisp, beautiful pixel art and animation. No surprise that I wishlisted this as fast as I could. Here’s the Steam page for it if you’re in the mood to do the same:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1903910/Slave_Zero_X/

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Reminder: the Ninja Baseball Spirits comic book Kickstarter campaign, officially based on the Ninja Baseball Bat Man beat ’em up, is still going on with 16 days to go! Both physical and digital versions of the comic (as well as the BPM comic) are available in the campaign, so please check it out and pledge if you dig it and can afford to do so!

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I’m still working on the Yo Joe June update, stay tuned!

Filed under: ScrollBoss Updates, Site News, Updates by PrimeOp
Tags: Ninja Baseball Bat Man, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
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custom sprites:
– Friday the 13th: Jason (part III head crush)
– Horror (other): Sadako (the Ring/Ringu)
– Phantasm: Reggie and Rocky (part III outfits)
– Marvel Comics: Carnage
– DC Comics: Swamp Thing
– Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Baxter Stockman

mini-logos:
– Carnage added to Marvel Comics

New custom sprites and mini-logos were added to the main GFX Generator.

Tomorrow’s update drops on Halloween and you won’t want to miss it!

Filed under: ScrollBoss Updates, Site News, Updates by PrimeOp
Tags: DangerTerrorHorrorThon, dc comics, Friday the 13th, marvel comics, Phantasm, Ring/Ringu, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
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The Mega Man NES Boss Intro and Boss select screens now work in the new GFX Generator engine, and the Fakeshot (8-bit) generator has been update to use the v.2 versions, including the Shops from the separate River City Ransom Shop generator that was upgraded last week. New Mega Man-stype edits: Hawkwoman/Hawkgirl (DC Comics), Dr. Octopus (Marvel Comics), Doctor Emmitt Brown (Back to the Future) and Doctor Detroit.

The River City Ransom Shop generator was updated, too! Two new shops have been added: Good Burger, Daddy Green’s Pizza. New sprites include Ed (Good Burger), Lester Oakes (dissatisfied Good Burger customer), Daddy Green (the Last Dragon), the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (they heard a new pizza place was available!), Paul (River City Ransom: Underground), Scott Pilgrim and Ramona Flowers, Batsu and Hinata (Rival Schools).

Those new sprites have been added to the Mega Man NES and River City Ransom custom sprite galleries

That’s not all! X-Men: CotA portraits of Jubilee and Gambit (made from Jim Lee art) have been added to the X-Men:CotA and main image generators!

Also: the part of the GFX Generator where you enter text now has a border for each entry and description so you’ll know exactly what’s what. Well, in the generator, not life itself.

Also: I’ve got FOUR commission slots open! Check out the Illmosis.net commissions page for all the details on how you can get me to make a sprite or two for you!

Filed under: ScrollBoss Updates, Site News, Updates by PrimeOp
Tags: Back to the Future, dc comics, Doctor Detroit, marvel comics, Mega Man, Rival Schools, River City Ransom, River City Ransom: Underground, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
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The first anniversary update was all gaming characters, but now it’s time give a few comic and toy license characters some love!

Custom Sprites:
– DC Comics: Black Canary (an early version was seen in the site promo videos)
– Marvel Comics: a new Wasp sprite. Don’t worry, I’ll make more outfits for her later!
– TMNT: Shredder (same pose as the 2013 sprite, but redrawn & resprited to look much better)
– G.I.JOE: Snake-Eyes and Scarlett. BTW: an early version of Scarlett’s sprite was in the unannounced new banner displayed only on July 4th this year.

All sprites were added to the aforementioned GFX Generators (the old GroupShot and Vs generators). Wasp’s new sprite has slightly different colors than her 2011-2012 sprites, but I remade all her old palettes, because Jan’s gotta switch things up. Snake-Eyes’ new sprite also has multiple palettes.

Also: that Chun-Li pic I drew last month is now in the prints section of the site’s Shop page!

So we saw video game heroes yesterday and 80s nostalgia today, but things take a turn for the sinister tomorrow with an all-villain update!

Filed under: ScrollBoss Updates by PrimeOp
Tags: dc comics, g.i. joe, marvel comics, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
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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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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!

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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!

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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!

Filed under: ScrollBoss Updates by PrimeOp
Tags: Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle, Bad Dudes, Capcom, Data East, Final Fight, gfx generator, Golden Axe, Karnov, Konami, Mega Man 2, mini-logos, Ninja Gaiden, Sega, Shadow Dancer, Sly Spy, Special Project Y, Tecmo, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Revenge of 1989, Trio the Punch
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