Custom Spines - Requests Welcome

[sheep2001]

They look Fantastic!  You forgot Sonic 2 in 1 though.

[TyrannicalFascist]

Ah, so I did! Any character suggestions for 2-in-1, or should it just be an alternate for Sonic 2, with Dr. Robotnik?

[Seraph Man]

Wow! I think I might have to buy me some Megaman games now...

Yes. Yes you should.

Seraph Man, if you want to make a similar background for your Xtreme spines, what I did was find a sprite background of Wily Castle, vectorized it with VectorMagic.com at medium detail level, and saved the jpeg version. Then in the background of the spines, I put it there and then made it partially transparent (maybe 60% opacity?) over a blue background. I'm sure you could do that with Sigma's Fortress or whatever goes with the Xtreme series.

Sweet. Sounds like a plan. I think I can dig up a couple of images of Sigma's Fortress (and if not, I'll rip the sprite from the ending of Mega Man X1 myself. It'll take a half hour tops)

Since that'll be a while before that's done, what other series could I tackle in the mean time? Aren't there other Megaman series for GBA & DS, like Battle Network, Zero, ZX and Star Force? If I could get character suggestions for each and suggestions for what should go in the background of each set, maybe I could work towards completing the entire Megaman series on Nintendo handhelds that Seraph Man and I started.

The only problem with the Battle Network and Star Force series is that after Battle Network 2, each game had multiple version (BN3 had 2, BN4 had 2, BN5 had 3, BN6 had 2, SF1 had 3, SF2 had 2, and SF3 has 3). Plus there's at least 1 japanese exclusive (BN4.5). If spines are going to be made, it would be best not to have a central image blending in the background as (almost) no one is going to have every last game (Granted, I'm saying this owning every version of Battle Network myself minus 4.5, but I doubt most people would be interested in collecting them as I am).

The Zero and Zx series would be fine to do. I have a plan for the Zero series which will include the 4 Guardians, but I have to find the right pictures for it. For the Zx series, I would suggest the Models, but it would be very different-looking compared to the other Mega Man covers. So maybe Zx1 could be Aile and Vent together and Zx2 could be Ashe and Gray together?

Just throwing ideas out there.

[Belmont86]

for the castlevania spines it would look nice the castle on the back and each character of the games on each spine. well its just an idea.

[Arseen]

for the castlevania spines it would look nice the castle on the back and each character of the games on each spine. well its just an idea.

Novel idea [insert sarcastic face, can't bother to look for it]

i'm very anxious to see the castlevania spines.. 

I don't know if I could do that. To be honest, Castlevania is a series I don't know much about, so I wouldn't really know what to put for said spines.

Very cool, Seraph Man! I like the matching golden texture on all of them.

Hero on the first, Dracula on the last, small enemies on the covers in between.
Whip extending from first to last cover.
Nice nightly castle in the background.

[Belmont86]

it was just an idea bro cuz i really want to see some custom spines for the castlevania games.

[Arseen]

it was just an idea bro cuz i really want to see some custom spines for the castlevania games.

Yeah I know, I was just teasing you while having a break from creating Lennus 2 / Paladin's Quest 2 cover.

[Belmont86]

ok bro.

[TyrannicalFascist]

Since that'll be a while before that's done, what other series could I tackle in the mean time? Aren't there other Megaman series for GBA & DS, like Battle Network, Zero, ZX and Star Force? If I could get character suggestions for each and suggestions for what should go in the background of each set, maybe I could work towards completing the entire Megaman series on Nintendo handhelds that Seraph Man and I started.

The only problem with the Battle Network and Star Force series is that after Battle Network 2, each game had multiple version (BN3 had 2, BN4 had 2, BN5 had 3, BN6 had 2, SF1 had 3, SF2 had 2, and SF3 has 3). Plus there's at least 1 japanese exclusive (BN4.5). If spines are going to be made, it would be best not to have a central image blending in the background as (almost) no one is going to have every last game (Granted, I'm saying this owning every version of Battle Network myself minus 4.5, but I doubt most people would be interested in collecting them as I am).

The Zero and Zx series would be fine to do. I have a plan for the Zero series which will include the 4 Guardians, but I have to find the right pictures for it. For the Zx series, I would suggest the Models, but it would be very different-looking compared to the other Mega Man covers. So maybe Zx1 could be Aile and Vent together and Zx2 could be Ashe and Gray together?

Just throwing ideas out there.

Hmm. Well maybe the Battle Network and Star Force series could be like my Sonic spines then. I don't know much about Megaman, but if I understand correctly you're saying that there were 2 complimentary versions of the games, like what Pokémon does? I guess there could be a spanning spine for all of them if someone was enough of a completest to have them all. If you want to tackle any of these (like you said you have plans for Zero), go right ahead - I think you know the games better...  

Anyone have any ideas for the spines for Sonic Spinball and Sonic Labyrinth? I do have a nice image of Sally that's styled like the other art I've used, but it might be a stretch for her to be on Spinball, since she was barely in the Genesis version, and I'm not sure she's even in the GG version... Of course Spinball and Mean Bean Machine seem to pull elements from SatAM and AoStH, so maybe having Sally and Scratch and Grounder as an option would be okay. Alternatively, maybe they'll just have to have badniks on them? I'm open to suggestions.

[Seraph Man]

Hmm. Well maybe the Battle Network and Star Force series could be like my Sonic spines then. I don't know much about Megaman, but if I understand correctly you're saying that there were 2 complimentary versions of the games, like what Pokémon does?

Yes, exactly like Pokémon. Your sonic spines work as a great template for Battle Network and Star Force.

I think you know the games better...  

I may...

[TyrannicalFascist]

I think you know the games better...  

I may...

WOW. Most impressive....  

Well I've finished the Sonic Game Gear spine set in both US and EU sizes! Since I prefer to only use a character once, I was somewhat limited on character choices, but here's what I came up with:



There are title variations for Sonic Blast, Tails' Adventure and Tails' Sky Patrol. I also opted to have that alternate Spinball spine with Sally, even if it doesn't make too much sense - but I figured that Sonic is rescuing her and the Freedom Fighters in the Genesis version, so maybe it's the same here too. And for me I always considered Spinball to be a SatAM-based game as much as Mean Bean Machine was AoStH-based. Either way both versions available for everyone. Download from the DS spines link in my signature.

I looked over Mega Man Battle Network a little more closely, and I think that some major planning and variations would have to go into that one - not only are there some games with two versions, one of them had the two versions combined for a DS release, plus there's a Japan-only crossover game with Star Force.

[Seraph Man]

I think you know the games better...  

I may...

WOW. Most impressive....  

Thanks. I do try.

I looked over Mega Man Battle Network a little more closely, and I think that some major planning and variations would have to go into that one - not only are there some games with two versions, one of them had the two versions combined for a DS release, plus there's a Japan-only crossover game with Star Force.

I forgot about Operation Shooting Star (the crossover game). That was such a disappointment, I'm not surprised they didn't bring it state-side. I knew about Double Team DS though (I have all the BN english release games).

There are several routes to go with the BN games. You can do all different Navis (trust me, there's enough), the different Operators (again, several to choose from), a combo pick of Navi and Operator, the different styles/forms of MegaMan.EXE (again, plenty of variety), the different PeTs (this one may not work as well), different viruses, the final boss, the main villain... the options are numerous. If I'm not the only one interested in Battle Network spines, I'd like to hear their input.

[Seraph Man]

I found some time to work on spines, though oddly enough no time to extract the sprite of Sigma's Fortress from MMX1 that I was going to use, so I came up with an alternative, and I need feedback.



It's not bad (someone watching nearby was complementing me on it, so I guess it's pretty nice), but something feels a touch off. Mainly, I'm not liking how X and Zero look. It looks obvious (to me) that the images are just pasted ontop, and I can't figure out how to adjust the image so it doesn't look like bad photoshop work. Any ideas? And is Sigma staring on in the background a good route, or should I try to get that fortress sprite I was originally going to use?

[ShoothimNow]

I love them! infact, stealing them and reprinting my covers as I type =D

[TyrannicalFascist]

Wow, looks fantastic! I think the head in the background looks great!

Are you using Photoshop? If so here's a few suggestions, based on how I've done my spines. First I'd actually go to Levels and push the far left triangle (of the 3 there) over to the right just a bit to darken the darks on X and Zero and make them stand out a bit more. Then I'd probably remove the thin white line around them. The way I prefer to do that is selecting all the areas around them with the magic wand, then going to Select>Modify>Expand, and setting it to 1 pixel. Then if you hit delete the white lines should be gone, and if it isn't you can try it again. Finally I'd actually give them a small black stroke each, maybe of 2 pixels or so. I find that when making these with pictures that are essentially cartoons, it helps to give them that slight border to help them pop without being distracting. You can see it if you look closely at each character on my Mega Man spine set. You could also maybe give each game title a slight drop shadow (maybe set to like 60%), but it could go either way for me.

By the way, if I want to pick up a good first Mega Man game for me to get into the series, but I have only an SNES, no NES, what game(s) would you suggest?