New 8-bit Sprites on 25th Anniversary Albums??

[PressStart]

lol wow, guess I spoke too soon about coming full circle!

First off, I gotta say, these sprites are pretty funky. Some of the choices of what parts they made black and white don't make much sense (white highlights were turned black??). While I like how goofy and original the hurt frames look, I don't blame people who do not want to use them for MM8BDM. Still, I think it's cool people are making colorized (and corrected) versions of them (and with all the sprite comics and fan games, they probably will get used in the future).

What's crazy is, that out of all the Mega Man sprites, the 20th and 25th anniversary items decided to use these. Sprites that are not only imperfect, but have limited choices considering some of these guys are missing body parts (I'm guessing Centaur Man isn't featured on any merchandise). I feel like I don't completely 'get' the Rockman Complete Works series either... it doesn't seem like it was released on any kind of anniversary for the series (1999, 12 years after Rockman came out in 1987). Are those sprites just more readily available to use, somehow? Maybe because they're in black and white?

Very strange stuff!

edit: Superhero DinnerSonic attempted to rip the sprites from the PocketStation games, but no go! As a consolation prize though, he got the save icon (which is the same for all the games except the number changes)

[Geno]

Well, if someone finds hurt frames for ALL the MM1-6 Robot Masters, then It'll give me something to do for the next day or two.
Really, though, I can't see any height difference in Gutsman, it's really only Hard, Stone, Wind, and Blizzard that shrunk, everybody else just stayed the same, or got parts cut off them (Dive, Centaur, Bomb, Plant, Charge, etc.).
EDIT:


How would you rip from the Pocketstation? YY-CHR?

[MusashiAA]

I knew I should've explained this a bit more, but I wasn't exactly sure where to look:

We might not need to look on the Pocketstation. It's most likely that these sprites are inside the Complete Works re-releases. Why?

Long story short, I think all these frames were used in the most obscure feature of these re-releases: a pet training mode with multiplayer features, which was done through the Pocketstation. You see, the Pocketstation worked pretty much like a miniature Gameboy mixed up with a PS1 Memory Card. Some PS1 games could download data to a Pocketstation and viceversa, and these Pocketstations allowed multiplayer gaming through their infrared feature.

It is known that the japanese Complete Works re-releases features Pocketstation compatibility in the form of a training mode where you could earn EXP for an specific Robot Master from any classic MM game (included the player's) and make his in-game stats higher (more health, stronger attacks). Perhaps you could've downloaded your pet Robot Master into a Pocketstation and pit him against your friends' own pet Robot Masters in fights akin to what the Digimon Tamer games were at first.

Of course, each Robot Master would've need Pocketstation-friendly graphics for this, as well as new poses. In a game akin to Digimon Tamers, hurt frames (and as already shown on the 20th anniversary merchandise, attack frames) would make a lot of sense to have been created as a telltale for when your pet Robot Master was either damaged or defeated. Not only that, but the fact that it's a Pocketstation game would also explain why these sprite designs are slightly dumbed down versions of the NES sprite designs.

All in all, we would need to look on the Complete Works re-releases for higher chances of finding the remaining hurt frames.

[Magnet Dood]

That actually sounds pretty neat- It's like mini-duels between Robot Masters.

Even if certain parts were cut off, it doesn't look like they're a lot different from the NES sprites... You could probably do a bit of copypasta from the NES sprites onto the missing parts from here and take a stab at the colors- It is only black and white, after all.

[LlamaHombre]

Now I can't vouch for what Flame Man's doing in that second sprite, but I know this is more oriented towards his Complete Works design.

[Geno]

I wonder if someone can contact a dude at Capcom and ask about the hurt frames?

@Musashi-COM: That "Pet Robot Master" thing sounds like fun!

[Magnet Dood]

Now that you mention it, a lot of these sprites are definitely based off of Complete Works... Wood Man's missing his grains and Hard Man is notably missing the rivets on either side of his chest, instead being replaced by that large green power gem.

Kind of weird now that I think of it- I've never heard of any mini games coming from that game anyway.

[Geno]

How would you rip from the Pocketstation?

Juuuuust wondering.

[PressStart]

How would you rip from the Pocketstation?

Juuuuust wondering.

Wish I knew. DSonic tried emulating, but the one he was using can't run the Rockman games. I have no knowledge on using tile-extracting software etc., so hopefully someone more knowledgeable can post a response (although it'd be pretty surprising for a PocketStation expert to be on Cutstuff).

[Joseph Collins]

EUREKA!

http://www.sprites-inc.co.uk/files/Classic/RMCW/Misc/rmcw_pocketstation_masters.png

[...]

Perhaps these "hurt" frames aren't new at all. In fact, they might even be from one of the Rockman Pocketstation games that were released for the Complete Works games back in 1999!!!! No wonder some of those sprites look different! The Pocketstation's resolution and overall color (only black and transparent/white) wasn't good enough to fit them entirely or permit more than two shades!

The Japanese are laughing at us right now.

[Geno]

The Japanese are laughing at us right now.

I think they knew people like us would go nuts over this kind of thing.