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!

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.

Free as a bird to fly about on stage. Here’s the newness:

New scratch-made sprites of Final Fight’s Poison (USF4 and Final Fight style),Roxy, Axl & Slash, two jail-breakers from Crime City and those hated little thieves from Golden Axe are now in their galleries and in the GFX Generators that use fighting game sprites.



In case you haven’t heard, here’s the idea for the Fine Young Capitalists’ game project:

“We took five women that had never made a game before and said they could make any game they wanted. We would help them create a pitch and in some cases a demo so they could sell their idea.”

Check out the Fine Young Capitalists website and Indiegogo campaign. The worst part will be choosing only one game to vote for. The platformer fan in me wants to see Lux (especially with those game play mechanic ideas), but Afterlife Empire calls out to that part of my soul that was obsessed with Beetlejuice. I hope they find a way to get all five games made eventually. Help them out if you can!


The work I planned to do for this site is still being slowed down. Moving into a different apartment caused the months-old injury to my left arm and back to ache and randomly stop working again, so it’s uncomfortable to sit and work on this stuff as much as I usually do. Still, the September updates will make up for these chumpy August updates. I feel much better and should be able to sling many more pixels next month. BTW: there will be an update at the main Illmosis site soon that includes new fan art of a classic 1989 game character!


The moving is done, I’m hooked up to the internet again and I finally have a chance to rest this weekend. This is partially an “I’m back and I’m still alive” post, but there are a few small fixes and clean-up work. Besides, with this being the 8th month and the 9th day of a year in which I’m pushing 1989 awareness, I had to put up some sort of update, right?

GFX Generator – The Doppelganger boss’ final form from the Revenge of Shinobi was added to the “Zeed/Neo Zeed” character slot. Ryu’s SFA-style palettes were increased (with fixes to a few older ones) while Rolento got two new poses and many more new palettes (redone with separate pants colors for USF4 palettes). The “Mego WGSH 176×192” style in the GroupShot generator has two new groups of bubbles, and I’ll let you discover who’s in them.

Nico-waz-here was kind enough to send some Tiny Toons portrait rips from a GBA game I hadn’t even heard about, so check out that beautiful art here.

There is now a ScrollBoss YouTube channel, though it only has a re-post the short Revenge of 1989 video for now.


Check out this interview with Rob “Dire” Strangman about the Memoirs of a Virtual Caveman book! It’s great to see that book get more attention. My name pops up for an unexpected reason. Be sure to check out that book, too!


Well, it’s time for me to collapse and attempt to get some rest. I’m all moved in now, so expect a real site update soon with more 1989-related goodness. Until then, here’s a preview of some shaky sprite line work.


edit (2014 August 10th)

GFX Generator addition: Kirby has 3 new palettes and that Mego WGSH has a new custom face circle set with Nintendo characters.

The move has been (thankfully) delayed and I can post a modest 14th anniversary update!

Game Index – Dynamite Düx (arcade and SMS)

Custom Sprites – the following galleries were updated:
Capcom: Airman from Mega Man 2 added.
Final Fight: El Gado and Hollywood from Final Fight added.
Sega: Werewolf (fight stance) from Altered Beast, Bin and Pin from Dynamite Düx added, new scratch-made Tyris sprite added to Golden Axe.

Tips, Tricks & Codes – TMNT Tournament Fighters (SNES) added.

GFX Generators
– Capcom: new El Gado & Hollywood char (sharing one slot) added, Airman sprites added to “Robot Masters” char slot.
– Sega: Dynamite Düx added, Altered Beast char gets new Werewolf sprite.

Also, I’m now selling prints on Illmosis.net, and there are a few game-related pics (including Tyris Flare, Ms. Pac-Man, and Silent Hill’s nurse) in the mix. Check out that page here:

Illmosis.net Prints page

I’ve also started an Illmosis Facebook page, mostly because there are far too many people who’ll only hang out on Facebook. Until a worthy social site successor with better operating practices and less psy-ops experiments on their uses emerges, check out the Facebook page if you’re already a member of that site!
Illmosis Facebook page
The positive note here is interacting with other fansite friends and communities, so at least it’s not completely horrible!


Be sure to check out Jeremy Parish’s new site, Metroidvania.com, dedicated to games that use open paths instead of fixed levels. You know, games like the Pitfall series, the non-arcade Bionic Commando games, and (of course) the Metroid and map-based Castlevania games. I’m really looking forward to seeing what this site turns into as I’m a big fan of this game style.



The new edition of Rob “Dire” Strangman’s “Memoirs of a Virtual Caveman” is now available at http://www.memoirsofavirtualcaveman.net!

There’s a ton of new content, including contributions and interviews with David Crane (Pitfall!), Howard Scott Warshaw (Yars’ Revenge, E.T., Raiders of the Lost Ark, Yuzo Koshiro (soundtracks of Streets of Rage, the Revenge of Shinobi, Actraiser), Kouichi “Isuke” Yotsui (director of arcade Strider, Cannon Dancer/Osman), Sushi-X (EGM), Sam Roberts (The Light Sword Cypher Mainframe), Caitlin ‘Cipater’ Oliver (Splatterhouse hi-score record breaker) and so many others that my hands would be tired if I added them all. Just go to the site and see for yourself! BTW: I drew the cover, but don’t let that stop you from buying the book!


Due to the upcoming move to a different apartment (much like last year), this anniversary update is small because I needed time to pack. I’ll try to make up for that by having a few bigger updates in August and September, the 8th and 9th months of the year, to give some serious love to the Revenge of 1989 theme.

I’d like to thank everyone who has visited this site, contributed to it, or spread the word about it. This site is (usually) fun to work on, but it’s even more fun when other people can enjoy it, too. I’ll keep working to make it more fun for you and I hope you keep coming back. In fact, I hope something there convinces you to make game-related things of your own. Thank you and keep

2014 only has one Friday the 13th, so here’s an update with some dangerous masked characters who like to work with sharp objects without being an annoying Spanish ninja. Jason got a sprite and mini-logo in a similar update that hit last December, so it’s time to give him a bit more this time. Other characters wearing goalie masks (or masks similar to them) also get a bit of attention today.

GFX Generators – the following characters were updated:
– Jason Voorhees: Street Fighter Alpha (Zero) 3 Vs. portrait and namegfx, Friday the 13th (LJN box) mini-logo.
– Rick Taylor: Wanpaku Graffiti-inspired sprite and SFA 3 portrait (edited from Jason’s) added.
– Crime Fighters – Enemies: Boss 2 (the goalie-masked enemy) sprite added.
– Juli, Juni, and the Dolls: Decapre gets some sprite edits and SFA3 Vs. screen portraits while Juli and Juni get a few more sprites.

By the way, Friday the 13th for the NES, Splatterhouse: Wanpaku Graffiti for the Famicom, and Crime Fighters all debuted in 1989, so this update is also part of the Revenge of 1989. See how that all worked out? That rarely happens here, so enjoy it while you can!

Edit: Today’s Illmosis update has the lineart for Jason’s SFa3 portrait along with a Black Widow (Marvel) picture!

GFX Generators – Guy and Sodom (from Capcom’s Final Fight and Street Fighter series) now have ALL of their arcade palettes from Street Fighter Alpha 1-3. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Splinter (currently found in the Konami section) now have their big portraits from TMNT: Turtles in Time. Wonder Momo now has a sprite based on the ShiftyLook Wonder Momo promo pic by Omar Dogan. You’ll also find a really simple recreation of the first stage of Wonder Momo in the “Comic 88×136” and “Box 160×192” styles for the GroupShot generator.


Breakin’ News


The Treachery in Beatdown City Kickstarter needs to be funded. It’s a tactical turn-based beat ’em up (Role ’em up?) that has a great premise and NES/SMS-era look, so check out their pitch and help if you can.
Kickstarter page
Main site


I made that Wonder Momo sprite because, sadly, the ShiftyLook site will be closing down on March 20th. It still boggles my mind that we even got to see top-notch web comics for some of lesser-pushed Namco properties like Bravoman, Wonder Momo, SkyKid, the Valkyrie series and many others, so at least it was around for a while. We even got an animated Bravoman show (with the ever-awesome Rob Paulsen voicing Bravoman), a Wonder Momo anime, new games for both series, and a bugged-out Mappy show. As much as I was hoping they’d be able to get enough material together for an all-Namco Saturday Supercade-style show, it was great to get what we got. Luckily, some of the Bravoman and Wonder Momo strips have hardcover collections, which I plan to buy. There’s talk that some of them could continue in meatspace comic book form if the collections do well, so buy the books! Go read the strips while you can and be sure to check out the beautifully insane Galaga comic.


Edit: I forgot to show off this thing I threw together to post on the Tumblr:

Alright, I’m done now.

I made a quick group of articles in late 2009 called, “The Revenge of 1989” to talk about game-related things of that year. 2009 was the 20th anniversary of that year and, even then, I was plotting to make sure I’d have something decent to show for the 25th anniversary. There will be multiple updates this year to do just that and this update starts with a revamp of the original articles and a little something extra.

Why am I celebrating this year so much? That video is only a hint at how many of the things this site celebrates just happened to have been made in 1989. So consider the next ten months a party as, from this day until December 31st, 2014, this site will try to give 1989 some long overdue respect. New articles will be added (including a series of awards), new sprites will be made of that year’s characters (I think it’s time I finally sprited the rest of the original Mad Gear gang) and more random crap that I can’t hint at. There will be still be non-1989 themed updates, but those games will be the focus of the year. Here are the other things you can find in this week’s update.

Custom Sprites – Kunio-Kun added to the Technos gallery. Grandmaster Meio added to the Capcom gallery. Raymond Broady (Crime City) added to the Taito gallery. Alex Kidd and Kasumi (the Revenge of Shinobi) added to the Sega gallery.

Game Index
– Added: Mega Man 2 (NES)
– Updated: Crime City (arcade)

SpritesCrime Fighters gallery updated with a lot of sprites and a few minor animations.

Mini-logos – the Revenge of Shinobi added to Sega section, Crime City added to Taito section.

GFX Generators – Guy and Cody were updated with a few SFA sprites and sprite edits. Here’s how the new scratch-made sprites look.

Alex Kidd, Grandmaster Meio, Raymond Broady were added to the Vs. and Group generators, Kasumi’s sprite was added to the Zeed/Neo Zeed char slot and Kunio was updated with his new sprite. Check out the goofy thing I just added to the Vs. generator, though:


It’s the Janken battle stage from Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle. Now you can set up your own Rock-Paper-Scissors battles. I’ve made all three Janken poses for Alex Kidd, but you’ll have to use your own memory to figure out the other characters who, like Ken, have win poses similar to rock, paper or scissors.

That’s all for this update. While some of these updates might be far apart, know that some I’m putting extra time into this while working on some other neglected projects. Feel free to leave a comment about your own favorite video games from 1989.

Before the 1989 theme month is over in a few hours, I’d just like to throw in a few of the things that weren’t done for the Sunday update.

1.) A few system bugs with the Company Index have been fixed.
2.) Double Dragon II (NES) and S.P.Y. (Arcade) were added to the Game Index.
3.) Vs. Maker just got a new company: Technos. The Lee Brothers, Kunio-Kun and new sprite edits of Alex and Ryan from River City Ransom were added to the Vs. Maker. Nothing spectacular but I think Alex and Ryan really deserved to show up before the theme month was over.
4.) You may have noticed that the main menu has a slightly new style for the header. Hopefully, these new, adjustable headers will help the page adapt to more screen sizes and ratios. The old Brawlstreet and a new Strider banner are the only two for now but there will be more added throughout 2010.

Things go back to normal in January with update about every two weeks. See you next year!

(originally posted on Thu, 31 December 2009 05:18:21 by PrimeOp )

The Revenge of 1989 has had enough. It’s time to release the Robeast hit you in the face with a truckload of graphics!

Game Index – Due to the growing size of the Mini-logo page, links now lead directly to the relevant section of that page. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Arcade) and Batman (NES) were added.

Vs. Maker Generator – The first thing that you’ll notice is that there are now six character slots. After you select characters, you’ll notice that the second menu page only displays the characters that will be appearing in the shot and that the preview graphics resize themselves depending on how many characters will be in the shot. I recoded a few bits to make that possible along with paving the way for more character slots. All of the new characters and themes are connected to 1989 games. I’ve posted some obvious tease preview shots for a few weeks now but there are still a lot of surprises. Here’s the line-up

Characters Added: Ax-Battler, Gilius Thunderhead, Tyris Flare, Death Adder, ESWAT I.C.E. armor, Ryu Hayabusa & Irene Lew (Ninja Gaiden NES style), Clark Still & Ralf Jones (Ikari 1-3 outfits!), Solo, Ton Pooh, & Two.P. Last but not least…

… Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, Michelangelo, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles! Look, it’s the 20th Anniversary of their NES and Arcade games along with their 25th Anniversary in comics so they had to join in.

Characters updated: Andore/Hugo (Andore logo), Batman (1989 film sprite and logo)

Themes: King of Fighters ’94. I would’ve used ’98 to almost fit the month’s theme but they didn’t do much with the sprites in the VS. intro there.

Mini-logos – Andore, Astyanax, Ax-Battler, Gilius Thunderhead, Musashi (Shinobi), Irene Lew, Clark Still, Ralf Jones, Solo (Strider), Ton Pooh, Two.P, Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, Michelangelo, Batman (1989 film).

Custom Sprites – Everything on the “Game-Related” page has been split into their own appropriate company pages. Here are the new sprites:
TMNT (NEW PAGE!): Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, Michelangelo sprites (from scratch)
Sega: Ax-Battler, Death Adder, Gilius Thunderhead, ESWAT I.C.E. armored officers and File 96 (from ESWAT)
SNK: Ralf (Ikari Warriors 1-3 outfits)
Tecmo: Ryu Hayabusa (NES stance) and Irene Lew (NG1)
DC Comics: Batman (1989 film sprite)
Capcom: Two.P

Sprites – Batman gets solo page with a few sprites from the NES game by Sunsoft. Sprites from the 1989 TMNT arcade game were added to the TMNT sprite page.

Articles – The 1989 article series continues with a short look at two famous magazines that made their debut in 1989: EGM and GamePro.

There may be some adjustments and fixes made to this update but that’s it for now.

(originally posted on Sun, 27 December 2009 04:53:02 by PrimeOp)