So the big 7th Anniversary ScrollBoss bash is over. That chunky, green-and-black action-adventure game site was 7 years old last Thursday and I celebrated with daily updates from then ’til today. Damn, I’m tired. While nothing anniversary-specific was done, I pretty much just did what I usually do, but more of it. Added a ton more sprites, some sprite edits, fixed a few nagging layouts, threw in a small MUGEN stage and even fixed up a Beats of Rage conversion of Rolento that I started long ago. But of all the things I did during the celebration, my favorite has to be an update of the ‘Brawlstreet U.S.A. pagetop banner:
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Starring in that are a bunch of Capcom sprites altered to recreate a bunch of Beat-em-up video game stars who vary in levels of obscurity. Cody (Final Fight) puts his white T and blue jeans back on to rep for Capcom. Striker from “Bad Dudes” shows up to punch a ninja in his face and put in work for Data East. Jimmy Lee jumpkicks in the name of the Double Dragons and Techos of Japan/Atlas. Adam Hunter from the first Streets of Rage game checks in as Sega’s contribution to the cause. Blood, the big surprise of the banner, is the boxing member of the Cobras in Konami’s overlooked classic “Vendetta” arcade game. For fans of the game, he’s hitting the skinny guy that carries the knife and the basic thug with red pants lurks at the end of the picture. The guy in white and light blue is Thomas from what’s considered the original Beat-em-up: Kung-Fu Master. Purists may complain that I should have put him in his outfit from Vigilante, but I thought it’d blend in with the background too much. Barely visible is Rick Norton from my favorite underrated BEU series, Rushing Beat (Rival Turf, Brawl Brothers, and Peace Keepers in the U.S.) in rapid energy punch mode. This new version is a lot less Capcom-centric with the waiting enemies especially with Double Dragon’s Linda and Lopar/Rowper (complete with a oil drum in his hands!) waiting for their turn to jump in. For added spice, the graphitti is made from game logos and ScrollBoss site section logos. Of course, the scanlines are there to discourage sprite edit thievery. I’m a jerk like that.
As fun as all the anniversary stuff was to do, I’m glad it’s over so I can kinda rest. But all that banner did was inspire ideas for more banners like that, but with different genres. It’s no accident that the wrestling and ninja characters are missing from this banner…
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