childhood endings

SNES video game endings at VGmuseum

Find yr favorite end screens!

ghostpatrol

ghostpatrol gallery, via offworld

Some nice watercolors, mostly video game themed. I saved this in my bookmarks folder over a year ago with the intention of posting it and never did. I’m trying to get through that folder now…

Update: ghostpatrol’s full gallery

spelunky

download here!

I’ve been playing this freeware game almost obsessively for the last few days. The graphics and gameplay harken me back to the simpler days of Commander Keen and “100 games on 1 CD!”. But unlike the lo-fi side-scrolling games of yesteryear, this game features randomly generated levels and an INSANE difficulty level. There aren’t many cheap deaths, but the game doesn’t hold your hand as you learn how to play, and there are virtually no power-ups to save you. I’m up to around 90 deaths, and have only now been able to open the shortcut to the ice world (this will make more sense to you if you play the game). Anyway, I’m not sure if anyone who reads this blog would be interested in this, but if you do play and have any questions, leave a comment.

lose/lose

lose/lose from topless robot

One of the more interesting concepts for a no-budget freeware game I’ve heard recently- in this Space Invaders-esque (for the casual video gamers) shmup (for the hardcore gamers), every alien baddy represents a file on your hard drive. Zap the alien, say goodbye to your file. Also, one collision with the aliens kills you, and uninstalls the game from your computer. Pretty intense. I’m going to have to assume that the high-score leaders for this game found a way of having the game only delete spoof files, or else they are playing on computers that don’t belong to them (ha ha).

daniel johnston: the videogame

Touch me I’m slick: Daniel Johnston rolls toward Laurie in Hi How Are You

I have to admit I’ve never really listened to Daniel Johnston at all. Uh, nor do I have an iphone. But maybe you do?

video game fonts!

text adventure

Video game fonts!!
Video game fonts!!!!
Yeah, I dunno why I find this interesting. You could probably put together a gallery of almost anything, and as long as there was some recurring theme tying it together, I’d find it interesting. What’s up with the ghost/snowman watching this hockey game, though? Also: I totally started listening to Metallica’s “Hit the Lights” after looking at the image and it took me several minutes to realize that I had done so because the name of this video game is “Hit the Ice”. I thought I just wanted to listen to that Metallica song. I am apparently very suggestible.

video game box artwork

boxart

Pretty much what it sounds like- box art from all generations of video games. Some very nice stuff in here, especially if you are a gamer- and you might even see some games you’d forgotten about. These are some of my favorites:

ugh good thing you blew yr brains out dude

Seriously, I’ve been a semi-apologist for Courtney Love for a while now, because I kind of believed that a lot of the hate directed towards her was pretty misogynistic in nature, which is what I think too of the hate directed towards Yoko Ono (who also let her famous ex-husband be digitally inserted into a video game…. hmmm…). But this has basically made me reconsider all of that. I don’t worship Kurt Cobain or anything but seriously FUCK THIS.

pixel art

pixelstyle

This site posts art made in a pixelated style, whether original works, video game stills, or others. I find a lot of the art contained here not terribly interesting, but some of it is pretty great. There are some pretty amazing pics worth tracking down. I maybe would have liked it more if it was limited to video game captures, but I guess that’s just a personal preference. Also, it’s probably worth noting that the site is occasionally NSFW (if pixelated nudity can be considered offensive).

arcade design

art of the arcade

Late 70’s/early 80’s graphic design is super nostalgic to me, for pretty obvious reasons I guess. It seems maybe strange, but I feel like the 70’s were a big part of my childhood (even though I wasn’t born until the early 80’s). There were certainly many 70’s era products around my house growing up, 70’s-edition books on the bookshelves, 70’s TV on reruns. This gallery showcases design of late 70’s, early 80’s arcade machines and fonts, and some of them are quite nice. I’ve found myself enjoying graphic design more these days, probably a result of exposure to web galleries like this one.