Megaman Battle Network Official Complete Works is here!

I finally got my copy of MMBN OCW in the mail today. It's so awesome. I never expected to own a Battle Network book so incredibly detailed. And the cover is holographic. That was a nice surprise. All the pages are very glossy and finely printed which was probably really expensive to print. I read the entire book today and here are my trivial observations.

• There is a typo on some page where Chinese candles or lights are mentioned. "Heating" is misspelled.
• On Duo's official art page, the alternate Duo chip image still has a Japanese label.
• The "BassAnly" chip is called "Bass Anomoly" in the book several times.
• On Topman's artwork page, his chip is also shown translate. It reads "Grrr" as opposed to Japanese characters.
• Shadowman's special chip is called "Image Slash" in the book when it is called "Split Up" in the game.
• The book admits that "Spoutman" was an error in localization. In MMBN6, it should have been "Aquaman", "Aqua Cross", and "Aqua Beast". Eraseman's localized name remains unchanged.
• Some of the comments are actually much more aggressive than anything that appeared in the game such as Gyroman's operator, Charlie telling Mayl that he'll meet her in 10 years and Tora calling Lan a "smart ass".

It was fun reading about the design process. I got the impression that the design team was always rushed, yet seemed professional and enthusiastic. I liked hearing about the connection to the pixel artists. It's a lot of work for them and I felt they should have gotten more recognition. I wonder how much more content and detail the game would have had if they were given more time. Hearing that specific chips couldn't appear as detailed as they should have been left me thinking.

Overall, the book is brilliant. I learned and relearned things I was forgetting. I will treasure this book for as long as I can. It is a tome of indispensable artwork and information I desire.

More Battle Network logo stuff

Yeah, I'm still learning design stuff and I decided to revisit this whole Megaman Battle Network logo thing. I understand it differently now and I was able to recreate the Megaman Battle Network 1 logo. Yeah, it's quite awful. Here's my version made entirely in vector and edited in Photoshop, as the official one was clearly made in.

The first Megaman Battle Network logo (recreated by me).

I don't think it's great. It seems lazy and unprofessional unlike the Japanese one. The outline turned out blocky which seems unintended. "Battle Network" is written in what was probably their first and only font choice. It turns out the font is Helvetica Rounded Condensed Bold Oblique, just as I suspected. The roundness doesn't really fit in my opinion and the kerning is bad. Then there's a distracting blue sphere in the middle for some reason. Later titles put the emblem in there. The actual emblem feels reversed. There shouldn't be any blue and it contrasts oddly. The yellow ring should have been larger and it isn't. The purple is consistent with the Japanese logo, at least. The entire thing is overdone in generic Photoshop effects - some which don't really help.

But anyways, I thought it could be remade to be truer to the Japanese logo, yet preserve some of the elements that are consistent in the localization of the Megaman series. Here is my attempt.

A redesigned version of the MMBN logo.

The green color is there and the emblem has a notable yellow ring around it. I ditched the rounded font for a squarer font. I like the notable spikes in the outlines around "Megaman" a lot more than the round ones. It doesn't feel as bleak and cheap as the original one and I think I can use the vector outlines I used to make this on future projects. I'm always taking fangame logo requests - or rather, I request my services. It's a shame to see the old, shoddy logo from the first game come up almost every time a fangame is being made. It just feels 2001.

Oh, and here are the source files. Maybe people can make their own logos more easily now.

Download Source Files

BN6 AI Hacking

It's looking good. Prof. 9 has been working on a new hack that allows the user to change the order attacks are used in. It even allows bosses to use chips! Awesome stuff here that I'm sure will open lots of possibilities. I'm hoping to use it creatively in the Hard Mode patch so bosses won't have to be unnaturally buffed.


Great, right? It has also been brought to my attention that I actually have a very committed fanbase when it comes to my Hard Mode patch. Had I know that, I probably would have put more time in the patch all this time. I want to finish the Hard Mode patch but I don't know when that will happen. But I'm sure it will be a treat for those replaying the game.

Winter Quarter complete!

Today I finished my Winter Quarter of 2011 at The Art Institute. It was quite a stressful schedule and last few days, but I've complete. This last project, especially. Apparently if a calender is going to be paginated it needs 13 months. That was completely unobvious.

Now that I get a week off, I can start working on personal and side-projects of mine. I don't usually have enough time to do these things, but here is what I'm hoping to get done in the following week:

• Try out new BN6 hack
• Attempt to finish Hard Mode patch
• Finish designs
• Write Illustrator tutorial

Prof. 9 has been working on a new BN6 hack that I'm eager to use. The game may be old but this could be fun, you know. Hopefully after that turns out all right, I could try to finish the Hard Mode patch. There's still a lot of stuff to change and the lack of interest from the last patch sort of makes me want to lower its priority. There could also be more unexpected problems.

I have a logo request at TREZ that I want to do first. After that, I could finally start working on the button redesign. There's not much to fix but the best thing that could happen now is if they are created in a consistent style. After the buttons, I can start on the banners which have really been pushed back since the first time I announced it.

Finally, if I have time, I want to write an Adobe Illustrator tutorial. I haven't written one before and I'm much better at it now. It could be interesting for those waiting for more design tutorials from me.

Calender Final Project

So I think I've finished my last final for the quarter. In my InDesign class, the final was to create a fully functioning calender. Well I've finished it now even if I chose an easy topic.

I made a calender about chocolate. I've finished the digital part. Now I have to print it and assemble it, which is something I've never done. I hope it works out. Here are some previews.

Once that's outta the way, I just have to finish some tedious Algebra homework I'm not too thrilled about and finish class on Thursday. I have next week off to hopefully do something interesting. New BN6 hacks coming for sure.

10th Anniversary of Battle Network

The TREZ logo is based on Megaman's head
from the Megaman 25th Anniversary labels.

I couldn't forget this date. Battle Network turns 10 today, which is a long time if you think about it. That means I would have been 8 when the first game came out which means it 2 years before I even owned my first handheld. I don't feel like telling my whole story again, but I'll just mention the basics.

I didn't start following the Battle Network games until around 2004. By then, marketing was in full swing and it caught my attention. I'm kind of sure Battle Network 3 was the first Megaman game I played. I had seen stuff on Megaman X in emulators before but I didn't start playing those games until after I became interested in Battle Network. The series had a nice run and I really enjoyed the series's second half of life. I always get on board with these things a little late. I never really purchased any merchandise. The only Battle Network games I owned was Battle Network 6 and Battle Network 5DS. The other stuff I own, I won at Comic Con '06 which includes a Magnetman toy, those shiny Japanese promo stickers and the Megaman X pogs. A friend also gave me a Protoman Battle Chip and I bought an Energy Bomb Battle Chip at the swap meet, which I now carry on my keychain. That's about it, I guess.

I missed out, sure, but I made up for it. Despite not having every piece of merchandise or game, I still managed to make it out on top. I know pretty much everything about the entire series, excluding the anime. I helped create the most popular Battle Network fansite out there. And after all this, I'm actually fairly influential. So yeah, the Battle Network series did have a nice run. I just hope some more Battle Network-related things come out in the future. Perhaps like a much-needed graphical enhancement on the 3DS...

Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there - with free music.

Isn't it neat? I got a card in the mail from State Farm as an early birthday present. They're giving me free music for having car insurance with them. I'm usually not very good at getting high-quality music for free on the Internet. Plus, it's not that the right thing to do. But since in California I'm legally obligated to have car insurance and it's almost like I'm legally supposed to download these songs! It was quick and easy.
They gave me 10 free songs and now I have higher-quality versions of some of my favorite songs and more! Now I just have to redeem the free songs that came with my SD card and I'll have more songs! I bought that SD card so I could fit more Rock Band 3 DLC on it. I'm really having a lot of fun playing all my favorite songs in one game and listening to them later!

Advanced IM final project

Maybe it's too early to call it, but I think I finished my final project for my Advanced Image Manipulation class. A+ work, perhaps?

Yeah, it's a Nintendo 3DS product showcase. 1 Final project down, 2 more to go.

Free backgrounds

I'm working on a project for school, so I've made more stock backgrounds to work with. It's all generally the same with the "burst-portal-warp-thingy" concept. Sometimes they're more fun to make than the actual project.

Tsunami warning for nearby beaches

Yeah, I woke up today hearing warnings about tsunami waves hitting the nearby beaches. Apparently an 8.9 earthquake hit Japan around midnight and it was IMMENSE. The waves were supposed to hit soon. Even my school's page had a warning about the tsunami since they are kind of close to the beach. I know something will likely not happen where I am but it worries me about earthquakes. First Chile, then Japan. I think Haiti got hit twice. It just feels like California is next - big one or not.

Battle Network Official Complete Works is official!

So today Udon finally uploaded the preview pages for both Official Complete works titles. I am very excited to see the book nearing completion. I am placing my order tomorrow and I hope to be reading the book by next week. The release for the Battle Network book has been set as next Wednesday and I hope it's true this time, which it likely is. I think the comments are neat and the quality of the artwork is amazing. It will totally be worth the purchase.

Also, I mentioned that there are preview pages. Just as I predicted, the preview pages featured artwork which before had only been ripped from blurry scans. I ripped the page with the BN3 bosses and I think they came out great. A little small, but clean.

Bubbleman (BN3)

Desertman (BN3)

Kingman (BN3)

Metalman (BN3)

Metalman (EXE4.5)

Punk (BN3)

Everything else has already been seen before or it's too small to be useful. Still, these are neat. I'm looking forward to the book.

The Mac users

In the past, I've posted a couple times about my encounters with the Mac computer. Sure, they're shiny, expensive computers, but that's the thing: they're expensive. I already mentioned how they completely overprice their parts. In the end, all you're really getting is a regular computer with a $25 operating system. It bothers me how due to historical reasons, designers have to be seen designing on Macs. I mean sure, that mattered...20 years ago when computers were chunky and slow. Macs had a different game and somehow designers preferred using them over Windows computers. But today, it doesn't really matter. Both Windows and Mac computers use almost identical parts and run nearly the same software.

It really just comes down to preference. I could understand why my instructors prefer using Macs. They're professionals in their field. They've been designing since the early 1990s and I think they used Macs exclusively. It's a different case for me since the first time I used a computer was around 2002 and I didn't know the difference between operating systems. The first computer I owned was a discarded Windows 95 which was later upgraded to a Windows 98 around 2002. I ended up learning Windows and never considered anything else for a while. It's just a game.

See, you learn Windows. Windows is like the "Medium Difficulty". Kind of a steep curve, but the more tech-savvy you get, the easier it becomes. I hear people complaining about how Windows always has problems and all I can imagine is people who don't really know their computers. I encountered some problems in my first years with a computer, but I learned. I don't think I've ever had to contact any form of customer support for my problems. Instead of taking the easy way out and switching to a Mac, I stuck it out and became pro. Yeah, pro.

Back to Mac, it's like the "Easy Difficulty". The system is made to be locked down and idiot-proof. Maybe it was designed this way because the majority of their users aren't and don't want to become tech-savvy. This does seem to be true as I have observed how my instructors use Macs. I don't think they know how things work. I could even say I already know more about their systems than they do. It never ceases to amuse me how quickly they resort to resetting the system to fix a problem. The computers are on Deep Freeze, there's little that resetting would do to fix anything. I can't quite describe it but it seems like they treat their computers like appliances. Expecting buttons to always do something as opposed to knowing why the buttons do what they do. Yeah, it's kind of tough to explain. They also don't seem to work as fast as I expected, and I've seen them working without a projector where explanations aren't necessary.

The entire system is oversimplified discouraging their users to get to know their system more. Perhaps a bit too oversimplified to the point where their hardware is impractical. During the summer, the Mac labs were using Apple's "Magic Mouse". It was absolutely horrible. I know they want to look shiny and nice, but it's just not fit for human hands. There is a reason today's mice curve up towards the back and that is because it's ergonomically comfortable. It fits the human hand more naturally and guides the fingers to the two buttons. The Magic Mouse is a symmetrical oval with a pathetically useless scrollball and invisible buttons. Yes, it has buttons despite looking like it has one button. Even if you set it up for two buttons, it's still very uncomfortable to use. Buttons don't work and I find myself holding it from the sides because it lacks grip. There are also buttons on the side which end up being pushed as a result of bad grip. The scrollball is even worse. Again, there is a reason scroll wheels are designed the way they are. If it's long, your finger can turn it easily allowing greater control. The ball on the Magic Mouse is nearly impossible to move because it's too small and stiff. That is just bad design.

The keyboard is another minor problem. I had a hard time learning the shortcut keys because the labeling is inconsistent. The bottom-left is the most troublesome. On a standard Windows keyboard, you have Control (Ctrl), Windows, and Alt. On the Mac keyboard, you have: a "control key", the Option key, and the key with the squiggly shape. The "control" key is the most ridiculous. For those who got used to one-button mice, that acts as their right-click. Why push two keys to do the effect of one? Stupid. It's also the only way to switch between tabs in Firefox. This particular shortcut isn't the same as in Windows since you need to push Ctrl+Page Up/Down to do the same. The drop-down key doesn't reflect any Windows key. The option key sounds redundant, but it acts like the Alt key on Windows. The key is also labeled "Alt", so I never get that one confused. The last key is the most confusing of all. I've heard it called the Apply key and the Command key. Both are completely unobvious. See, the Mac has a bad habit of using strange, indescribable symbols to represent keys on their keyboard. They don't always appear on their keyboard either. Windows does this right by having symbols used in the system match the keyboard. It just seems like it's more complicated than it should be.

I mentioned hardware before. Computers all really use the same internal hardware nowadays. So if I'm gonna be paying $2000 for a computer, I better get a damn high-end computer that will be futureproof for at least 5 years. It's ridiculous how a Mac computer with last-gen processors still got for upwards of $1000! I heard someone in class boldly proclaiming how he's a Mac person. That's quite rare considering not many people are rich enough to afford those computers. I don't think I'll ever really be a Mac person. I can use them, but I can have a better computer for the same price their mid-range computers go. I don't have bottomless amounts of money to spend on overpriced computers. And it's not like I had a good foundation either for being rich, either. My parents grew up on a mountainside in Mexico. There's no way I would ever have the luxury of owning a Mac computer. I guess it's up to your own personal choice. It's amusing to watch people fumbling with their slow, cluttered MacBook Pros. I'm sure paying $1500 for a computer still using Intel Core 2 Duo was well worth it now lol.

There is one thing I like about the Mac and that is the F3 key. That's the one that floats all the windows. I like being organized and I find it really annoying that about 10% of the screen is wasted as a Program Files preview. I like minimizing the windows I'm not using and those get stuffed on the far-right corner. The F3 function is useful because all the windows become visible and I can simply select the one I want to go to. It's kind of neat because it's very visual and it makes up for their poor minimizing. Obviously some people don't mind. I've seen ALL of my instructors simply shove windows aside! I could never put myself to do that. I almost always full-screen my windows and shoving windows aside just feels clumsy and unorganized. Watching them dig for windows they want is even more amusing. If they're going to work this messily, at least use F3 to find your windows. And there's plenty of room on the 2560x1600 monitors, so it's not like windows should be getting lost.

The software is where all historical basis is pointless. Windows and Mac can run the Adobe suite just fine. Maybe the Windows on campus could run it better if they weren't still using 4-year-old processors and graphics cards. I think some people are still under the impression that only Mac computers can design. So how does that explain how a majority of the tutorials online are Windows users teaching Mac users new tricks. It must have something to do with generations. I have no reason to believe the two systems are very different. They are actually very much the same when you observe the things that really matter. There are few things that vary between the Windows and Mac versions of Adobe programs. The Mac version opens the program to a transparent window, which I find annoying. It's easy to click through to the desktop and have to find the program again. On the Windows version, there is a gray screen and the program can be minimized. Opening a document, the Mac version opens a separate window. If this window is maximized, it still has its visible controls at the top. This ends up wasting a lot of room. Fortunately, I found out you can enable "Application Frame" which compacts it similar to Windows. The maximized version is more organized this way and there is less wasted room. The Windows version comes this way and I have no problem. There are no holes to the desktop on maximized mode.

After observing the Adobe programs, I can actually conclude that the Mac version is actually worse than the Windows version. I've always considered them equal but apparently, only on the Mac version of Photoshop CS5, when running in 64-bit mode the Lighting Effects filter can't be used. Ha! That's crazy. Another time, while I was working on something in Photoshop CS5, a layer went missing and the graphics corrupted. Some of the letters I had in the document were showing an error message. I can't confirm if it's exclusive to the Mac version, though. They still haven't fixed the Create Layers glitch in either version as well. That's when you make a 2-color Outer Glow effect and right-click on the layer and select "Create Layers". I also just recently discovered another crazy glitch in InDesign CS5. After I created a table and continuously linked text frames on a Master Page, Command+Shift clicking the object instantly crashed the program. I was amazed that I could repeatedly crash the program after opening the file again. Seems like a very critical error on Adobe's part. I've never found a bug this...repeatable from such a reputable company. I haven't tried it on Windows, either so I don't know if it's exclusive.

That's enough. The conclusion is that it depends on what you're used to. I find that generally the older users are more loyal to Mac. There are even a few rich kids that tend to favor it. Preferring the Mac based solely on historical basis is pure crap. There is no reason one system will do the same job better than the other. You either spend more to idiot-proof your system, or you spend less and go pro. I find that people that learn their system often work better and faster than someone using their system as a statement or using it based on a bias.

I just can't wait until I encounter someone who will be trying to put me down for using a Windows computer to design. It has the same programs, stupid!

New images added to the TREZ Gallery

Due to the increase in image discovery, I've decided to upload more images to the TREZ Gallery. It's nothing I haven't posted here before, but it should give you an archive that makes searching easy.

You can find the gallery by clicking on the link in the links section on the right, or here.

Youtube-Google account linking

Today Youtube finally forced me to link my Youtube account to my Google account. It's kind of annoying. I was very lucky that I had it registered with my Inbox.com email. I will never forget how I lost my account the second time. They were recently suggesting users link their Youtube and Google accounts and I decided to link. Unfortunately, I lost my account the first time using my ISP Yahoo email. Upon linking, I didn't realize the Google account was using the banned email. As a result, linking accounts got me banned and those bastards never unbanned me. Fortunately that isn't the case now. I linked, but I don't really see the benefit. I consider my Inbox.com email to be disposable. I am using a fake name on it anyways. Maybe someday I'll open a permanent Gmail account under my real name that I will protect. Right now, my school gave me Gmail, but it's only temporary. It's kind of nice, too.

A frustrating day

So today was unusually more frustrating than normal. I keep learning how little problem almost always snowball into larger ones. It's all school-related. Here's how it started.


I had my self-portrait project all finished and ready to be turned it. Perfect there. During the car ride, I remembered that I forgot to upload important project files for my afternoon class at 12:30. I don't get the luxury of driving myself to school on the days I have a morning and afternoon class.
On Mondays, I also don't get to carry my cell phone since GM needs it to phone home when his ROP class is over around 7pm. As soon as I got to class, I used Yahoo Mail to send my phone a text message telling GM to quickly upload my project files somewhere so I can have them by 12:30. The ZIP of the files totaled to 396MB, which took about 2 hours to upload. He didn't have that kind of time since he has school as well. Luckily, some file uploaders allow you to send the upload to an email. This was perfect since I kept a tab on my email during class. When I finally received it, I began downloading. At this rate, I felt as though I'd have everything by 12:30. However, about 35 minutes in, the download froze. I was forced to cancel it and it was very difficult to download again. When I got it up again, it froze at about an hour in. I tried other computers in the room and apparently they all share the same IP address. I felt hopeless!
Because the TREZ Chatbox is mostly filled with nubcakes in the morning, I couldn't get help there. Thankfully Prof. 9 was online and he was willing to help me. Apparently, the US has really bad Internet service when compared with the rest of the world. I thought the school's internet was fast because it was faster than my home internet. Turns out they're both poop. With an average download speed of 2.2Mbps, it's no wonder it was taking 4 hours to download 396MB. The school's internet is using the fastest available ISP in the area and the speed test revealed it had an unusually high upload rate. Prof. 9's ultra-fast 26Mbps European download speed got more than half of the file downloaded in less time before it froze on him as well. He was able to send me partial files that I eventually got much later. He could finish the download, though and began sending me more of the files. I felt relieved and thankful now.
Unfortunately, when class started, the instructor was feeling sick and decided to cancel class after 15 minutes. It was SUCH a waste of time. I wasted all morning trying to get my files and then they weren't even looked at! Why couldn't I have been informed of this sooner so I wouldn't have had to panic?

It gets worse. When class was canceled, I sent my dad a text message through Yahoo Mail telling him I'm out early. I never got a response and apparently he was waiting outside for 45 minutes around 2pm! He came back around 4:30pm and I didn't know he was already there before (it's a 35 minute drive). Needless to say, today was a disaster that should never happen again.

This is what I learned. Apparently not having a car is really inconvenient. Perhaps I should start trying to take a bus. I haven't been on a public bus in 12 years and I didn't have cash on me. It's also really inconvenient not having enough cell phones. I think cell phone plans are one of the biggest rip-offs going on today. Charging for minutes and kilobytes. It's insane!! Also, despite yesterday's careful preparations, I still forgot my project files even though I used my USB yesterday. It must have slipped my mind.

And last, but certainly not least, I learned that Megaupload is the worst file uploading service available! All those hassles from the morning were exponentially made worse by Megaupload's horrible service. I've tolerated the blatant advertisement. I've tolerated the ridiculous limits set on downloading. And I've tolerated their stupidly expensive downloading subscriptions they keep rubbing in your face. I'm already paying for Internet. Why should I pay for doing something I was already supposed to do? Megaupload's incompetent service of today means I will never use Megaupload again and I will try to avoid it as much as possible from now on. I think all these "premium" download sites need to reconsider their strategy. If anything, they're making money off piracy since that's what the majority of these sites are used for anyways. For now, I'm content with Mediafire and Box.net. At least those sites don't bombard you with annoying ads everyone stopped caring about 6 years ago and expensive membership plans and long wait times. I would continue using Box.net if they could finally make it work in Firefox again. Mediafire is still the best file uploading service, though.

I was going to go on about more observations regarding the Mac OS and its users, but I'll save that for tomorrow. This is enough for today.

More Japanese websites stuff

So following the success of my previous harvest, I decided to look around for more existing (and now defunct) Japanese websites in hopes of finding rare images. My search led me back to the TakaraTomy site. This time for Star Force accessories. Unfortunately, the entire website wasn't archived and there wasn't enough flash content. I did get a few things worth sharing and I can actually post all of them here.

These images were featured in a little Flash movie. It's nothing special. Just Mega and Geo appear and become Megaman.

I excluded the purple city background. I think it already exists somewhere. This movie featured something I hadn't seen before. The strange blue background with the yellow wave road is kind of neat. Might work well as random background filler since that's the only thing I can think of that would make it useful. Also, some green lines accompanied that background to create an effect. Also neat stock. And finally, the game's Japanese logo was featured, and fairly large with transparency. This is good reference because someone I made a logo for on TREZ wanted a new logo based slightly off of this and it helps to have a decent quality reference.


Ah, and one more thing. I took a look at the Battle Chip Stadium website again and I looked around for the TV commercial it claimed to have. Well I found the page where it was supposed to be on but the commercial does not exist anymore, unfortunately. The small flash visual did use another piece of artwork with transparency, though.

It's the artwork from the Falzar version boxart. Neat that both were available because just like last time, it's difficult and maybe even impossible to get them out this clearly. It's great that all their sites back then were almost entirely based on Flash. Oh, and the TV commercial could have been seen in two sizes: 320x240, and 480x360. It's interesting to see how quickly technology advanced considering 480x360 was the highest resolution you could watch the video at in 2006. Today, 1920x1080 video streaming is very possible and 480x360 resolution video is the minimum. And if you look at the dinosaur that is Windows Movie Maker for XP, you can still save videos for a "Pocket PC" playing at a mere 208x160 pixels and "video for dial-up" at 160x120. That was before Youtube, obviously. Videos have come a long time since the days of the Battle Chip Stadium website.

Japanese Rockman EXE website stuff

Yesterday I decided to go looking for this one website I found one time shortly after EXE6's release in Japan. Unfortunately, it becomes very difficult to look for these sites since they have removed the page. The regular Wayback Machine at Archive.org wasn't working very well. It was too slow or incomplete, so luckily the featured a new beta service with faster speeds and more complete pages! Here are all the goods.

I started with the Takara Tomy site linked to from the Rockman EXE  page at Capcom.co.jp. I knew that page worked, but the link stopped working several years ago. Thanks to the Wayback Machine, I was able to visit the page and was greeted with an interesting flash visual. It featured lots of transparent, blurry, PNGs, but good enough quality that I want to post here.

It opens with the Rockman EXE Beast logo. It's kind of hard to get this at a clean resolution since almost all sites related to the anime used very low-quality graphics on their web pages.

Buster Megaman artwork. I found a higher-res version before but this one, being a derivative of the original, already has a transparent background and therefore keeps that sparkle on the tip. Removing the background with the sparkle intact would have been rather tricky.

This is the least interesting visual from the batch since it already exists somewhere, in higher-res, and it isn't very difficult to remove the background.

I've wanted this graphic for a long time. It first appears in the EXE6 preview trailers. It's basically the Gregar render only with attack elements.

The Falzar render with the attack elements. These look a little more distracting, but at least you can finally see the tip of Falzar's tail! It's always cut off in other prints.

The page was still sort of interesting. It's kind of like the Megaman NT Warrior site, only with the focus being on the merchandise. I was looking for a page with the Battle Chips on it, and this wasn't the site. Upon further investigation I found the Batosuta Battle Chip Stadium website. Unfortunately, the site was taken down around late 2006 and has since been replaced by an abandoned fan site. Luckily, the Wayback Machine preserved all their content before they went off and it is filled with goodies.

The opening visual features the Battle Chip Stadium logo.

The flash document then compiles the same graphic as seen on the Gregar version boxart. Lan is seen separate here, which is GREAT since removing him properly from the boxart was difficult, if not impossible.

Same goes for Megaman. Finally, it's just him AND it's a transparent PNG.

 The Gregar image is also on its own separate layer and FINALLY he can be seen almost completely and against a transparent background. 

The background is the last layer and it uses a neat little trick. Rather than use the same background one time, they sloppily chopped it up where it wouldn't be seen and made it look continuous. Too bad it's too small to be useful for anything.

That was just the opening visual. The small flash promo is where the best goods are.

That's right. You saw it here first! A medium-quality version of the Forte Falzar Beast thing. I think they added some weak outer glow to it, but it shouldn't be that difficult to fix. It's a transparent PNG, so it's good to go. I mean it! Go ahead and overuse it. It's been absent from the Internet for too long!

Sometimes it's hard to forget that the Battle Chip Stadium was the only "game" from the EXE series that used 3D graphics in their battles. A bit lazy with the emotion windows being their mugshots from the game, but the 3D models seems to be accurately resembling their sprite, which is really neat. Maybe if a clearer, up-close shot of Bass's sprite there could be found, a very accurate sprite could be spritten.

Oh, and there is also this dark Protoman. I hate how they can never get their "dark" color correct.

He's clearly purple here so I can only assume the 3D model is more correct. The mugshot is also purple, so yeah.

Falzar Beast artwork without a background! Again, the original background made it tricky to remove properly, especially with the motion blur they crafted.

In this screenshot, both 3D models closely resemble their sprite counterpart. If only they had higher-quality screenshots in 2006.

Gregar Beast render without the background. These are still decent quality despite being on a flash page.

It's amazing how it just looks like a 3D version of the sprite. I bet it would have idle animations as well so he wouldn't just be standing there awkwardly.

The flash page also had this unusually high-res background.

The BCS page also had a preview of all the chips, including a PDF. PDFs usually have more vector content, but the site only used them to hold low-quality JPEGs, so that's too bad. The chip images are also quite oversaturated. Maybe somebody thought they looked dull? I'm sure they're not THAT saturated. The chips were also small and low-quality. They're still higher-quality than the game's chip images, though. Here are some previews.

I'm really glad I found this site before it was truly gone. It's just too bad I couldn't archive Capcom USA's site from 2006. That would have been neat.

Oh, but "How do you get to see all the chip images?". I've made an archive of all the goods a snatched available for download. The Battle Chip Stadium website also had some background music, so I threw that in, too. I haven't heard it, but it can't be that great.

Download the goods

Update: I forgot to download and include the other chip pages in the archive. You can download the rest of the chip pages along with the extracted PDF image in another archive.