I may have a proper post later in the week, but I just want to kick out a quick note to those who check this thing to know what I’m working on at the moment. Now that I’m past whatever weird sinus troubles I had for about a week, I’m getting enough sleep to have the power to draw non-crappily. Here’s the current workload:

1.) The main thing is a group of commissioned artwork that I keep bringing up. For some weird reason, I’m having trouble drawing one pose that I’d sketched weeks earlier. I’m slowly battling it and may be able to get it right soon or I’ll switch to another character.

2.) I’m still putting my first two ‘universe’ comic stories together in my head. I’m hoping that the first one is enough to give people a basic gist of the universe’s feel and past without resorting to info dump. Plus, it’ll be interesting to see if people get (or care) about one of the big things that I hint towards in the first one. The first story has no real action (except for single shot of people kicking butt) while the second one starts off like the end of a story and ends with the beginning of almost every story that happens after that.

3.) I’m finally toying around with a program that I should’ve been checking out long ago. It’s caused me to have tons of new, random ideas that I’ll never get around to fleshing out, but I plan to have some fun on the side with it. Besides, if I get good with it, ScrollBoss will have some interesting new content. No, I’m not telling you what it is yet, but I will when I get some screenshots (or more) together.

4.) Website sections still being worked on (but not much right now) include Illmosis’ Character Profiles (if you refresh the one that I linked to, you’ll see the random profile pic script at work) and ScrollBoss’ Game Index. I need to update MugenBoss’ item system before I start asking people if they want me to host their stuff.

That USB Hard Drive enclosure that I ordered last week still isn’t here so I can’t finish some of the ScrollBoss’ 8th Anniversary projects. Instead of whining about it, I’ve burnt that anger by working on the long-overdue vector ScrollBoss letter set. Since I couldn’t find the backup CD with the old vector logo on it, I started over with the vector logo of a ScrollBoss section that I’m saving as a surprise. Right now, I have A-J, L-P, R-W and 6. I don’t know how to turn it into an actual font to use in a program, but it’ll be very handy for future projects.

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People around here were, as the young’uns would say, getting their fool on before the holiday even started. Lots of vehicles almost hit other vehicles or people. There was a lot of loud yelling from one street over followed by the appropriate amount of police sirens to answer said hollerin’. If that was just the demo, I can’t wait to see the full release version of all-out dumbassery. By “see” I mean that I’m staying in the crib. Hell, it was barely June when kids (or kid-like grown folks) were dropping smoke bombs at cars from the overpass that’s a few blocks from here.

A few weeks ago, my old HP computer started freaking out and wouldn’t even make it to Safe Mode. I kept trying to fix it in DOS but it eventually stopped working at all. Someone hooked me up with another computer so I’m back on the internet. This machine blows my old one away but there are still some things that need fixing and updating.

Besides current problems with sound and my scanner, nearly everything else works. One big thing is adjusting to Windows XP after years of using Windows ME. Just about everything I installed worked nicely and I can now run stuff that wouldn’t work for W-ME. The first one that I ran to was the Lego Digital Designer and I’ll probably get that Amazon.com MP3 Album thing once I can hear things on this system. I’ll have to set up DosBox to use a lot of my favorite programs (M.U.G.E.N. tools) and emulators (Genecyst and NESticle for graphic-extracting purposes).

My sites won’t have any big updates until I get the data off the old computer. There isn’t much of a reason to update Illmosis until I can scan artwork again and there are a lot of bits on ScrollBoss that were only on my old hard drive. Plus, I want to wait until everything is stable before installing the Apache and PHP programs that let me test out all those funky PHP features. Of course, all Works-in-progress are on hold until I can pull them off the old PC. The irony is that I finally started making data backups but started with unnecessary stuff so I could delete it to make room for raw video captures. S-M-R-T.

Anyway, I apologize to anyone that I’m doing work for and I’ll try to get things back on track as soon as possible.

Here’s a quick post of random things I’m up to at the moment:

1.) ‘That thing’ that I was working on but only mentioning in a vague manner like Peter Potamus is now done. Click the pic over there to get all the info and I’ll have a post all about this later on in the week. If you know me, try not to act too surprised that I drew a background.

2.) Random pics that I haven’t forgotten about for other people: Snake-Eyes v.1 (currently in loose pencils), a kunoichi from the Punisher arcade game and a redrawn Martha from Combatribes because the old one turned out horrible.

3.) ScrollBoss’ first 2008 update hits tomorrow with a MUGEN version of Shinobi’s first stage, a review of Toaplan’s Knuckle Bash and some other random things. And damn me for not taking a pic of the Knuckle Bash cabinet when All American Comics had it in their store a few years ago. I think the cabinet is the only thing that tells you what the hell the characters’ names are. The Shinobi stage isn’t 100% perfect, but it’s better than the one wiped out by the horrific HD crash from a few years ago. I am NOT going to spend more of my life trying to record the timing of the little squirmy ninja hostage kids for a stage that, honestly, no one else is really going to give a crap about. At least it’s done and I can take it off the W.I.P. page.

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:

Click to see full size

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…

(What I was thinking while working on ScrollBoss stuff Sunday night)

I’m getting more stuff done for this 7th Anniversary thing than I thought. Maybe I can do something good after all. Hopefully I won’t have to put up with…

… an entire week of potentially computer-frying weather. Dammit.

The 7th anniversary of my video game fan site, ScrollBoss, is next week. I’ve been trying to get quick things to put together for a big update. I’d noticed that Google-searching ScrollBoss now only gets about 9 entries. I checked the “similar results” thing and felt better that a lot of the old things that’d pop up before show up in that. I think it’s related to my Google settings or something. But that’s when I noticed it.

See, ever since I first started it, putting ScrollBoss in a search engine would always ask if the user meant “scrollbars” instead. Makes sense, since no one was really using the term as a compound word. But now… it doesn’t ask that. You ask for ScrollBoss with Google, you get ScrollBoss. I’m sure it’s more of a sign that the place refuses to die than any sort of excellence. BUT STILL.

First, I apologize for not doing a music post yesterday (Friday). I spent the early part of the day trying to make headway on a graphic generator that may be ready about 2 weeks from now (or sooner). As I was gathering video links, a got a phone call and caught a case of the disease that some call SED (Somebody Else’s Drama). Apparently, no one respects the fact that I have a surplus of the crazy and keep offering me portions of theirs. So as long as nothing nutty happens, I’ll have a music post this upcoming Friday. Instead of being playing the vague game with the generator I’m messing with, here’s a pic:

It’s based on the ‘Marvel Super Heroes’ VS. screen, but I’m hoping to have it imitate a few other VS. screens including some that I’ll design myself. What’s irking me now is that I had the player 1 logo working Friday, but it won’t work now. I’ll look for the glitch later in the week. For all I know, it won’t even have the MSH mode by the time I’m done since it’d require MSH-style portraits for the ton of custom characters I plan to add. And while they won’t have custom portraits (yet), they will have custom mini-logos like the ones from MSH and Marvel vs. Capcom. Of course, I’ll have to sneak some of my own characters in the mix, too.

BTW: I finally got to read the new issue of 52. Look, I love this series and I love it by the pound. But it would’ve actually been more of a surprise if that character had lived and not died. I know, everything looks less shocking in comparison to Sobek’s impression of Sir Chomps-a-Lot. It’s just that the concept of a male character’s girlfriend or wife dying to fuel the male character’s rage and guilt has been done so much that it’s almost a given now. Then again, it’s not over yet. Who knows what’ll happen and who will come back by the time it’s all said and done.

… which is only kinda-sorta funny if you have this funky song rolling through your head.

Seriously, I have a bad habit of being cryptic about things as if anyone truly gives a damn about what I’m doing next. At least, I’m pretty sure that’s how it looks to anyone else. That’s probably the last reason why I operate in vague mode. Usually, it’s from something being a spoiler in a comic of mine. I have loose road map of where most of these character will be and it’s mostly about trying to find the route to use as a story.

Then there’s the irritating reason that I have to be vague in the fan game community. In a few places, I’ve noticed a pattern of things being announced followed by some hack who does a quick, sloppy, poot butt variation of the other person’s idea just so they can be the first to finish it. I can’t post preview work anymore because someone will just swipe it and throw it in their project while pretending that they did it. It’s already happened to me a few times and I’ve just cancelled projects because of it. Here’s an example: the reason why I didn’t post a separate sprite of Archangel, upload the improved version of Spider-Woman or show the animation of that Batroc on this page is because they’re part of the same project I’ve been messing around with for a while. And what sucks is that I can’t even hint at it because it’d be an easy idea to copy even if the chump doesn’t have all the extra stuff for it. As you’ve probably guessed, it does take a lot of the fun out of it in a way. But when I actually finish it and spring it on people, it’s more of a surprise and people seem to dig it a lot more. I’ve traded the strong motivation of immediate public feedback to getting it done before somebody swipes it for a hentai bonus game. Eh, I’ll live.

In much less vague news, I think I’m going to draw each part of that 10K hits pic separately, show most of the parts on their own then digitally put them together. It’ll probably be the bottom one first since it has Blue Beetle and the Monarch in the same place at the same time.