It’s a borderline random update, but I’ve been working on borderline random things this month.


Custom Sprites:
Bucky O’Hare (new gallery): Bucky O’Hare, apparently here to celebrate two holidays at once!
– Marvel Comics: Crystal in classic yellow, FF, and her 90s black and white suit with bomber jacket (as seen in Avengers in Galactic Storm).
Kunio-kun/River City Ransom 8-bit: Scratch-made Link, Zelda, Marvel’s Storm, Black Tiger (Capcom).

Now that I have separate Superhero Sprite Showcase episodes for all the characters I’ve done them for so far, I’m embedding them in their sub-galleries.
SupermanWolverineIron ManBatmanStorm

Mini-Logos: Bucky O’Hare added to Comics – other and Crystal added to Marvel.

All new custom sprites and mini-logos were added to the PHP-powered GFX Generators where I made the screenshot at the top of this post! The fighting game-scale sprites are in this big graphic maker while the Kunio/RCR stuff is used in this screenshot maker that focuses on 8-bit screens.


I also added four new Bunnysuit Gal sprites with longer hair for a little variety! The have the same extra palette options as the earlier sprites, so you can customize them far more than I did here.

Game Index: Avengers in Galactic Storm: added a page for it that also contains scans of the very early behind-the-scenes article on the game from the 1995 “Captain America Collectors’ Preview” comic. If you didn’t see the post I made about it before, this was from when the game was almost a side-scrolling beat ’em up/fighting game hybrid and had more playable characters. I have more to add to this entry in the future, but I really just wanted to get this update out there for Easter!


The Trick or Beat ‘Em Up project, the horror-themed side-scrolling brawler, is currently taking donations for fund work on the game. One of the goals is to “Immortalize Batsy The Cat” in pixel art that lives on in the game. Please read the plea and give if you can!


Sorry for the lack of updates, but I’ve been getting ready for the the All AmeriCon convention in Warren, Ohio (click the link to find details on their Facebook page).


Part of that preparation was finally getting around to doing some line art for prints, but I also made two new pixel art prints and those prints have just been added to the shop page:

The Legend of Zelda pic is based on the NES ending and, well, you’ll see this in something else I’m working on for the site. The JLA print has sprites (or variations of them) I made from scratch before with a few all-new sprites and an all-new background. Again, they’re available in the site’s shop and I’ll have them with me at the All AmeriCon convention this weekend!


It’s not on the site yet, but I’ve made a bit of progress with the new version of the generators:

I’ve got the oval and sprite-shaped shadows working and the reflections are next. It’s taking a lot of time to unravel my crappy old coding to replace with my current level of crappy coding, but it’s good to have it at 75% of what the original version does.

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.)

Due to an irritating and unexpected move to another apartment, the Anniversary update is both late and incomplete. Still, there’s enough here for an update, so let’s do this.

Game Index – NARC (arcade), Super Contra (arcade)

Custom Sprites
Nintendo: Zelda (original LoZ), Link (new poses) and Ganon (original LoZ)
Taito: Tiki and Phee-Phee (the New Zealand Story)
Williams: Kinky Pinky (NARC)

Mini-logos
Nintendo: Zelda (NES style)
Sega: Dynamite Dux, Gain Ground
Williams/Midway: Kinky Pinky (NARC)

Graphic Generators
New characters: Ganon and Zelda for Nintendo, Kinky Pinky for Williams (Other Games area)
Updated characters: Link (new sprites & LoZ palettes)

GroupShot Generator: Comics 88×136 (Nintendo Comic System layout added)

Sprites – NARC gallery added. Updated galleries include Double Dragon (a few Double Dragon 2 arcade sprites added).


Again, sorry for not being able to deliver on a big anniversary update, but the commission book work’s gotta come first. Future updates will be small and rare until some time in October (hopefully) when I’ll try to cobble a Halloween update together and probably botch that, too. Be prepared for more disappointment!

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.