Official announcement that the Annual Inc Awards have begun!
Please head over to the Awards Thread to see this years ballot and rules!
http://www.sprites-inc.co.uk/showthread.php?tid=1004
Good luck to everyone!

Hi all. Just a reminder that it's getting close to that time of year again. In 3 weeks we will be starting the Awards again. The process will remain largely unchanged from last year. It will be done in two stages: Nominations and Voting. When the Nomination Period starts on Black Friday, you will PM me with your list of nominees for each of the categories. Once that ends, the top nominees will be included in the final Voting where you will choose this year's winners!! It's all dependent on you, the members. For an idea of how this works out, feel free to check out last year's thread. So start figuring out who you want to see win each of these categories! If you have any questions or even some clarification, feel free to message me or catch me on DeadChat. Good Luck to you all!

Well about two weeks late (chalk that up to work and overall exhaustion) but the update to the Classic section is finally complete! (yaaay).

I still have some minor maintenance to do regarding the labels on the navigation tabs so I don't need reminders for those. I'll be working on them for the next week to get the whole section perfect.

What I'm asking from you all is to check out some of the links, peruse the section as it were. To make sure everything links correctly, none of the images are borked regarding the actual archive (again, i'm aware some of the Title Screen images aren't there yet) and just let me know if anything is broken or mislinked that I need to repair.

The X section will be next \/

Got this tweeted in from Joseph Collins:

Quote:Hey, @Sprites_Inc, @AWDtwit, @Brelston, and @SumthingDigital... All the #MegaMan copyright claims vanished! Acknowledged or not!

If you have any interest in the future of the miniature franchise that is the Christmas Carol games, then be on around 8pm UK Time (3pm Eastern in the US) for a livestream, probably hosted at http://www.livestream.com/acespark

UPDATE: Livestream over. Thanks to all who joined. I'll be making a forum post with the specifics and for people to catch up if needed.

Two pages have been added to the Media Room: Software and Boss Runs.
These will be the depository for.. like their labels say.

Added to the Software Page:
* Podcast Player
* PC Alarm

Added to the Boss Run Page:
Official Games
* Megaman 2 (Gameboy)
* Megaman (Game Gear)
* Rockman & Forte: Challenger from the Future (Wonderswan)

Fan Games
* Megaman Christmas Carol Remix Perfect Run
* Megaman Christmas Carol 2 Perfect Run

Alternatively titled, the fourth podcast, "The Erasure Incident".
Long story short? Music companies are starting to take down Megaman videos from Youtube in a manner that violates fair use laws, and the fandom needs to do something about it. Please give us 20 minutes of your time and check out the podcast, which is linked above.

We at INC are amongst a legion of fans who rely on the Fair Use Doctrine to make our projects without having to worry about legal and copyright backlash.
This also gives us the peace of mind that our content won't be taken down or steamrolled by CEOs with axes to grind. The Fair Use Doctrine is really the only legal clause of the US Copyright Act that allows us to do these sorts of things (fangames, remixes, LPs, reviews, etc.), and without it we'd all probably be in a heap of legal trouble.
These three companies, from what we've experienced and seen, are claiming Megaman and other copyrights as their own and issuing take-downs and monetizations to both thin the fanwork herd and make an extra few bucks. This is a problem in and of itself, but they're also sidestepping Capcom, WHOM HAVE PUBLICLY STATED THAT THEY ARE NOT DOING THIS AND WANT NOTHING OF THIS SORT TO HAPPEN, in order to do this. So basically, you have three companies claiming copyrights that weren't theirs to begin with, issuing legal takedowns of anything relating to it that they deem unfit, sidestepping the companies they're supposed to represent, and by destroying information of the series are indirectly hurting potential sales figures on Capcom's part by eliminating word-of-mouth and free advertising.

The mere claiming of copyright isn't the crux of the issue here either, it's the fact that these Music Companies are either blocking videos by country or outright taking down these legitimate videos.

Contact Capcom:
Twitter user @Brelston seems to be the current guy in charge of the Megaman section at Capcom Unity, so he might be the best person to contact.

Contact the guys behind the Megaman CDs:
Here.

Again, we aren't here to place blame on Capcom, because it is not Capcom doing this. I must stress this if you choose to contact them.

These are the music companies in question:
Universal Music Group
Merlin Network

A mistake on my part mis-intentifies a dead music group, Shock, as one of the claimants, in fact the music group in question is Phonofile
My apologies for this, as I was going off reports from fans and messages I've received, and named the wrong group. I've only noticed this after the podcast has been recorded, and yet again, you have my deep apologies for a mistake like this.
The real third music group can be found here:
Phonofile Music Group

Feel free to re-post the podcast where-ever you can. I am getting a Youtube ready video version of the podcast ready and should be done with that shortly.

For those wondering about evidence, what else can we give other than, "Yes I have had to deal with these copyright claims myself." and "People have been reporting to me on Youtube that their videos are getting taken down." Often to keep accounts in good standing on Youtube, videos taken down are often deleted by the uploader. It's a sad case of affairs all around really.

Download Podcast:
Here - 12meg
Download Video Format of Podcast:
Here - 40meg

Hey guys. So unless you've ventured into DeadChat over the past couple of weeks, you're probably wondering "what the heck is going on with some of the Classic section sprites?" Well time to fill you in.

We're attempting to complete Ace's idea of full integration of the archives with the forum. Where you can see and access Forum stuffs while browsing through some of the sprites. Or quickly access some sprites from the forum. Just basic integration overall. Well this too comes with a bit of redesign to match the new layout of the forum.

So as of right now, all of the Classic Main Characters have their own pages set up, as well as some of the games. I hope to have the entire Classic section fully upgraded with the new design by the end of the weekend. This will allow us to change over the Classic Home Page to the new design!

Once these are set up, I would appreciate any mislinks or bad links sent my way so that I can ensure the best possible experience using the archive. Once Classic is done, I will migrate over to the X section and try to get all of that fun sorted out!

Following has been added to the archive:

Classic Series
Rockman and Forte 2: Challenger from the Future
* Two enemies added to the enemy sheet. (me)

X Series
Megaman X1
* Misc Game Objects page is back up with additions, yay.
To wit, following added:
* Explosions and other effects added. (Me, and DarkSamus993)
* Items added. (me)
* General game items. (me)
* Cars added. (Unknown ripper)
Weapons
* X-Buster has "reflected" frames added.
* Hadoken has "reflected" frames added. (Thanks Qarabe!)
* Fire-Wave has been tile-ripped. (me)
Enemies
* Slide Cannon re-ripped and has been added to the re-rip section. (me)

Additionally various sheets from various sections have been moved to their correct locations.

Another Podcast has been added to the media room, this time forum member Lamda Bamda giving his thoughts on Megaman Design, in story aspects, game designs, and all sorts.

Get it here:

Download - 40meg