Time to wrap up this year’s 1989 celebration with new sprites and a new video!
Custom Sprites:
– Final Fight: big update for my 2019 Rolento FF1 sprite
– Ninja Gaiden: new Bomberhead sprite added.
– Strider: new Strider Hiryu pose (based on the Famicom ad from the unrealeased game) and a new side-view idle sprite of the Grandmaster added
– Marvel Comics: Dazzler (heavily updated sprites + new separate and more accurate PotX and Konami outfits) and the Juggernaut (PotX) (appeared in the 1989 NES Uncanny X-Men game and 1989’Pryde of the X-Men’ cartoon pilot)
Bad news: the video is ALMOST ready. It’ll be added to the YouTube Channel and this post either later tonight or tomorrow. Sorry for the delay, but I’ll try to make it worth the wait.
The video is now ready! Here’s the Revenge of 1989 Sprite Showcase video!
Technically I should’ve called it a Showcade (multiple showcases), but some aren’t even whole showcases, but… whatever, man.
This hasn’t been an easy month (for offline reasons), so a lot of items I’d planned just aren’t ready yet, but you’ll see previews of a few (especially the backgrounds) in the new video.
Custom Sprites:
– Mega Man: Alien (Mega Man 2) added
– Strider: new Strider Hiryu pose (based on the Famicom ad from the unrealeased game) and Tong Pooh pose (and sub-gallery) added
– Shinobi: Shadow Dancer boss (from the Revenge of Shinobi)
– Marvel Comics: White Queen Emma Frost (appeared in the 1989 NES Uncanny X-Men game and 1989’Pryde of the X-Men’ cartoon pilot)
Custom Sprites
– Marvel Comics: New sprites of Archangel, Beast, Cyclops, Magik, Rogue, Goblin Queen, Magneto, Mister Sinister, Toad.
– Portraits – X-Men:Children of the Atom: Mister Sinister mini-logos (Marvel): Magik and Minster Sinister
All new custom sprites and mini-logos were added to the GFX Generators, where you can make your own screenshot-like graphics like the ones at the top of this post!
edit May 27th, 2024: it’s late, but there’s now a little video to go along with this update, and you’ll even see a few sprites that aren’t on the site:
Chris Baker of the SUPERHEROdotVG channel and author of “WRONG! Retro Games, You Messed Up Our Comic Book Heroes!” has a recent video about some of the X-Men games that never made it to store shelves, including a deep dive and brand new footage of one I’d never even heard of before this. As always, it’s well-researched and definitely worth your time!
I’ll be showing off a few Mutant Mayhem sprites before the update hits this website and I’m starting off with one of my favorite characters, the Beast:
The Beast
The pose is kinda based on the X-Men Mutant Apocalypse idle stance, but drawn in the proportions of the comic art. Most of you are familiar with the ’90s Beast with the yellow belt, but the first few sprites show him as he looked after he mutated himself further in Amazing Adventures #11.
May 21st:
Cyclops
Part of this Cyclops sprite base appears in all the way back in this 2018 video and an X-Men group sprite from 2021, but I redrew it recently and even made an arm and head variant to remake that classic Capcom pose that I and many other sprite editors used as a sprite base back in the old days. I don’t like to make a ton of alternate versions until I’m 100% sure I like how the sprite turned out, but I felt like I needed to make the X-Factor version just to rep Spider-Man and the X-Men: Arcade’s Revenge, and I’ll make a group sprite of that whenever I get around to spriting Gambit.
The CRT screen effect was done with CRT View created by Mattias Gustavsson. Stay tuned for more!
The coding work to get this site (along with Illmosis and Beans vs. Cornbread) for the Dreamhost server update is FINALLY done, but I promised to have an update to the a ToyBoss section before that happens and here’s that update!
new:
– Jada Toys’ excellent Street Fighter Ryu and Fei Long figures.
– Golden Axe: added shot of Storm Collectibles Tyris and Gilius.
– X-Men (LJN) – playable heroes.
– Spider-Man and the X-Men get their own revenge of Arcade.
– an Articulated Icons/Fwoosh parts-swapped custom made to look like Ryu Hayabusa. They have pre-orders up for a reissued (and from what I’ve read, slightly retooled) Crimson Fury, the dark red ninja.
– The Marvel Super Heroes (Capcom) heroes team, with a work-in-progress custom figure of Psylocke!
updated group shots:
– Captain America and the Avengers (Data East) – heroes – added new Sky-cycle Hawkeye and a recently re-acquired Neo-classic Iron Man (retro card version).
– X-Men (Konami) – villains – includes a customized VHS Mystique and more added characters.
BTW: Articulated Icons/Fwoosh is still having a sale on “Sakit (Martial Artist)” and the “Arms/Hands/Wraps Pack (Red)” pack ($3.99!) and also put up have pre-orders up for a reissued Crimson Fury, the dark red ninja.
The big coding update will hit this site within the first few days of September, so if you really need something from the site I suggest you get it before then, because I really won’t know if everything works until it’s uploaded and tested. The site may be temporarily closed until it’s all complete, but it shouldn’t take longer than a day.
Oddly enough, I made a new header for the Toy section, but the coding is connected with the updated version of the site, so you won’t see it until then.
It’s time to wrap-up this year of updates in the usual way: content based on toys from the eighties and some unfinished business!
Custom Sprites:
– G.I.JOE: Wild Bill, B.A.T.s
– Thundercats: Mumm-Ra
– Toys and Cartoons:B.P. Vess (C.O.P.S., all-new sprites), Miles Mayhem (M.A.S.K.)
– Double Dragon: the alley cat from arcade version of Mission 1, NES design Billy and Jimmy Lee
– DC Comics: Stargirl (yes, I’m going to miss that show)
Mini-Logos: Venom (from Kenner’s M.A.S.K.) added to Toys and Stargirl added to DC Comics
All new custom sprites and mini-logos have been added to the image generators. The main “Fighter-size” generator now an 80s action figure toy aisle in the Group, Vs. and MvC ending screenstyles. It’s still a work in progress, because I spent more time searching for image and scale reference than I did working on it so far. This version’s toys are mainly centered around 1985, the last year the first wave of Transformers were still being made. I’ll continue to update this in the future, and possibly add more versions and years (like a late-eighties version with a big TMNT section) if enough people want to see that. BTW: some of the most helpful reference pics were from this post on 20th Century Toy Collector, because I was able to see how some boxes from different lines of the era scaled next to each other.
ToyBoss: My custom New X-Men/classic Cyclops Marvel Legends figure is done enough to show, so I finally… FINALLY… have a full Konami X-Men playable character roster in 1:12 scale. I’d have had this roster (and others) finished earlier if I didn’t have to practically restart my Marvel Legends collection in 2020. I also added an updated shot of the Red Skull’s crew in Data East’s Captain America and the Avengers to show I’ve got the Controller in there.
Speaking of toys, a lot of my 2023 figure hype is aimed at Jada Toys’ Street Fighter and Mega Man action figure lines. Three figure in each wave and all at a price point that won’t K.O. your wallet, and they’ll fit in with 6-inch/1:12 scale figures, so they’ll be part of my Marvel vs. Capcom set-ups. All the little details, like the Hadoken having hands molded in like the old sprites and one of the two optional heads being based on the Super Street Fighter II Vs. portraits (still some of the best art of those characters), I’m definitely hype for these. Check out this Fwooshcast episode that drops info on these and the other figure lines Jada is working on right now:
Storm Collectables is still putting out Street Fighters, though their figures seem to be in a slightly larger scale than Marvel Legends and closer to Mattel’s Masterverse and McFarlane Toys. It’s great to have options with these and I hope both companies get into more classic video game lines.
It’s time for me to thank everyone who has visited the site this year, and I’m giving a really big thank you to those who commented here, by e-mail (yes, some people do!), and on social media. There are times when my day job has worn me out and I don’t have a lot of energy to do anything when I get home, but things like your feedback, seeing pics you made in the image generators, being surprised when the pixel minilogos pop up in fan projects, and things like that refill my energy again. Take care and see you in 2023!
Custom Sprites: Finally, every character in the Marvel and DC gallery that only had a sprite edit based on a Capcom fighting game sprite now has a sprite I made from scratch. I’ve been working toward this goal on the side for a while, but I just decided to clear them all out before 2021 ended. Some of these new sprites are exact or close replacements for the old poses, but not all of them. The edits for those characters who weren’t originally in the games will be removed from the Image Generators.
– Megaman: Megaman classic – redid the Rockman 1 title screen pose from scratch, Elecman (NES stance), Dr. Wily, and (by popular demand) Yellow Devil
– Run Saber (new separate gallery): Allen and Sheena, new scratch-made idle sprites
– DC Comics: Blue Beetle (Ted Kord), Red Tornado, Green Lanterns Guy Gardner, Arisia, Katma Tui, Kilowog, and a new Justice League group sprite with the Brave and the Bold #28 line-up.
– Marvel Comics: Archangel, Havok, Professor X, Psylocke, Rogue, X-23, Doctor Octopus, the Lizard, and new group sprites of the Avengers (issue #1) and the X-Men (Konami beat ’em up playable roster)
– Masters of the Universe: new Skeletor sprite (with Havok Staff)
– G.I.JOE: all-new scratch-made Quick Kick
Mini-Logos:
– Atlus: Run Saber
– Marvel Comics: Archangel, Professor X
– DC Comics: Blue Beetle, Red Tornado
ToyBoss: Added a page for my first custom figure in FIFTEEN YEARS and first custom Marvel Legend has been added to the page, the Red Skull in his business suit (as seen in Data East’s Captain America and the Avengers)!
All sprites (except for the group sprites) have been added to the image generators, along with:
– the Comic Book arcade background being added to the main generator (Group, Vs., MvC Ending, Comic 88×136, Boxes).
Last, but definitely not least, there’s a Wrap-Up video on the ScrollBoss YouTube channel! The vid is a mix of clips from my 2021 videos (the Superhero Showcade with Iron Man and Batman, Beat ‘Em Up Showcade 2021, DangerTerrorHorrorThon, and more), a few updated clips (The Gotham villain scroll no longer has Bane in it), and some all-new clips, including some with the sprites in today’s update:
It’s been a tiring year (online and off), so I’m going to get some rest for a while. Thank you for coming through, I hope you have a great remainder of 2021, and I’ll see you on the other side of New Year’s Eve!
Still trying to take a bit of a break and give my drawing/spriting hand some rest, but still putting time in the lab, too.
Custom Sprites – Marvel: Storm (scratch remake of her Capcom Children of the Atom idle pose) and Monica Rambeau (resprited the pose inspired by Amazing Spider-Man Annual #16 by John Romita Sr. and Jr.)
Custom Sprites – DC: DC: Bronze Tiger
All new logos added to the GFX Generators, where you can make graphics and fake screenshots like the one at the top of this post
Been experimenting in the lab with more video stuff, too, including an old idea I had for comic cover style clips for the Superhero Sprite Showcases/Showcades. Those clips were done in right in Magix Vegas because I don’t have my Anime Studio Pro 10 issues fixed yet. Since it’s Black History Month, it’s all Black Superheroes, and I’ll eventually do a full vid of this in the future.
Even though I teased Comic Book Sprite Showcase earlier this year, the original name was the Superhero Sprite Showcase, and that’ll be the title in this short test video featuring Wolverine!
An improved version of the orange and brown Wolverine sprite in his Konami arcade game fighting stance pose has been added to his sprite gallery and the GFX Image Generators, along with the variations you saw in the video. Also, the stylish “Marvel 80 Years” Marvel Legends box was added to the “Marvel Legends” screenstyle in the generators.
It’ll be a while before the next episode, but I’ve got plans for more Superhero (and Comic Book) Showcases (and eventually Showcades) to be added to the ScrollBoss YouTube channel if people are interested, so let me know if you’d like to see more!
My original plan was to post yesterday’s sprites together with these two clip compilations today, but I just felt like splitting them up. These clips in each compilation were different reasons, including early promo vids, for learning how to use Anime Studio (now Moho), and for the upcoming Superhero Sprite Showcade or Comic Book Showcade (I’m still undecided on that right now).
The Marvel video is a mix of official Capcom sprites with my fan pixel work with a sprinkle of Data East’s Avengers game with the second Onslaught BGM from Marvel vs. Capcom as background music. The DC vid is all my work, including unfinished music I’m working specifically for the Showcade videos. Please forgive any sound issues, I’m currently using some cheap temporary speakers, so I couldn’t fine tune the audio before uploading.
