Right now I’m starting work on an old commission request, but I have a few new, overdue, and fixed things for the site.


Custom Sprites:
DC Comics: Catwoman’s character gallery is fixed (thanks to the site visitor on IG who let me know that was broken before), she now has her own little row on the main page. I also finished and added the Batman Returns and Golden Age Purple Dress versions of her calm stand pose, originally done for the Catwoman sprite display for a Batman video showcase long ago but not added to the site until now.

GFX Generator –
– Marvel vs. Capcom 2 characters/sprites of Ruby Heart, Hayato (Star Gladiator), Amingo finally added (JustNoPoint rips).
– Marvel vs Capcom ending: the Punisher (arcade) and MvC2 skins added. I made the MvC2 skin’s font by hand based on the font in the credits and score screen, forcing everything into 8×16 spaces as it’d be in a CPS-2 game


Rob ‘Dire51’ Strangman (author and creator of the OPCFG, West Mansion Splatterhouse fan site, and more) has a Kickstarter campaign for four of his books about gaming and more, including updated versions of his previously released books.


I’m looking forward to the material I haven’t read yet and re-reading what I’d read before. One of the things I’ll continue to mention is that I’m grateful he wrote a book talking about the early 80s from a non-rich kid point of view, especially when talking about things like the now-mythical Video Game Crash of 1983. There are also interviews with game creators and other people in the industry and contributions from others in the fan community. If you want to know how much community is in the mix, I drew all the covers and was one of the people who requested a music-related question to arcade Strider director/artist Kouichi Yotsui about a fan-favorite character. Please check it out, back it if you can, and spread the word!

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.


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.


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.

Today this site celebrates 22 years of platformer appreciation, beat ’em up boosting, pixel art positivity and more!

Custom Sprites:
Adventure Island: Master Higgins
Battle Circuit: Pink Ostrich
Mega Man: Fire Man
Karate Champ: Judge
Street Fighter: Cammy – Super Street Fighter II fight stance
Marvel: six of the suit-wearing thugs from Capcom’s Punisher arcade game
Illmosis Network: Upski Daisy (Beans vs. Cornbread)
Kirby: King Dedede

Sprites:
the Punisher: added Jigsaw and Hawke. Just checked the file properties and it looks like I had some of those sprites ready in 2009 and forgot to add them to the gallery.

As usual, all these new things have been added to the main Image Generator, where you can make (and right-click save) your own images like the one at the top of this news post!

ToyBoss: photos of the amazing Storm Collectables Tyris Flare have been added. I’m still in a bit of shock that official Golden Axe figures are even being made, but even more shocked that I have Tyris. If the Gilius Thunderhead is still available when I get my money back up again, I’ll get him, too. I bought mine at BigBadToyStore, but Entertainment Earth has them, too.

BTW: just in case you haven’t heard, Jada Toys recently teased new lines of Street Fighter and classic Mega Man action figures, and samples will be shown at San Diego Comic Con. No news about the scale of these figures yet, but I’m hoping they’ll be in 1:12 scale to fit in with Marvel Legends and G.I.JOE Classified. Funko made a nice Mega Man and fully on-model and poseable Dr. Wily a few years ago and I hope the new figures fit that same scale, too.

The Karnov/Bad Dudes update from a few days ago wasn’t all I had for show and tell for this week. Shamelessly timed with their live-action premieres this week, it’s time for visits from the Justice League and the Punisher!

Custom Sprites:
DC Comics: Green Arrow, Zatanna, Hawkman, 90’s Superman Red & Blue
Marvel Comics: the Punisher

All new sprites were also added to the GFX Generator.

Shameless plug reminder: I’ve got a Justice League pixel art print with the old-school line-up in the ScrollBoss Shop


pixelart Justice League – v.1 (10×8 & 11×14 inches)


Heads-up:

Zvitor’s “Justice League United” OpenBoR game hit last week and is available at zvitor.com (of course). I played through it, but don’t expect me to spoil anything for you! Here’s Zvitor’s promo vid for it:

River City Ransom: Underground is on sale for $9.99 on Steam until November 20th, 2017! I’ve been disappointed by a lot of video game comebacks, but I’ll never pass up a chance to praise RCR:U. There’s a character for just about every play style and has the depth of a one-on-one fighting game. If you need a story as an excuse to have a good time, don’t worry, there’s a story in there, too. If that isn’t enough for you, they’re getting ready to make the game moddable. It’s easily one of the best beat ’em ups to hit the streets in years and well worth a buy.

Not all the new things this week are bleak or hostile. This Wednesday was the debut of Tiny Bird Garden, a mobile game by Super Retro Duck that lets you befriend the cutest crew of birds you’ll ever meet. If that sounds fun to you, check out the game’s site and give the game some love!

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.