Video Game Artwork

Who remembers fuse beads?  Perler Fuse Beads?  My younger sister had these when we were growing up and at some point I thought it'd be cool to use these to create video game related artwork.  I remember trying to create something that resembled the "Z" logo from A Link to the Past, although I don't have it anymore and I don't know if any pictures of it exist.

I got into cross-stitching back in the summer of 1994.  My older sister was starting to do it and I'd watch her after I got back from school.  I'd been playing Mario Paint for about a year at that point and while watching her stitch little X's onto fabric, I realized that I was basically doing the same with with Mario Paint's pixel creation portion of the game.  Dr. Potts actually was the wizard when it came to looking at in-game pixels and recreating them in Mario Paint.  If I remember correctly, he made two separate characters for the main character in Secret of Mana and was able to animate them to look like he ran in the game.

That summer of 1994, I decided that I would create a pattern, using the pixels from Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda.  Specifically, from Super Mario Bros., Super Mario World, The Legend of Zelda, and A Link to the Past, with the Nintendo logo in the middle.  My initial plan was to have the characters facing each other with the Nintendo logo in the middle and a border of various items from the game and turn it all into a pillow.  At the time, Super Mario World and A Link to the Past were the most recent and current iterations of those various franchises (1990 and 1991 respectively).  I began this project back in 1994 and only last February 2012 did I finally complete the last item in the border.

If you follow the patter from the lower left corner to counter clockwise (New Link - Old Mario - Old Link - New Mario) that by the time it reaches around, that there's only once space between the pouch and chest from A Link to the Past.  The question of what to put in this square tied me up and kept me from finishing this project for almost 20 years.  Keeping in mind that I didn't map out and line everything up as it probably should have been, I think it turned out rather well, considering it was the first thing I'd ever cross-stitched.  You'll also have to forgive me for not having/using the correct color pallet in respect to Mario from Super Mario Bros.

Since then though, I've done a couple of other pieces that have incorporated either aspects of video games or used artwork from video games as a frame of reference.

Eternal Darkness (Gamecube)

I created the seven seal Protect Area sigil using the Mantarok sigil as the power source.  It's currently above the bedroom door.

Admittingly, this one turned out more pixelly than I had intended and I probably could have made it larger, but it was my first project in roughly 13 years.  I still don't have a frame for it yet.

Plants vs. Zombies
Each of these are about two inch squares.

The Konami Code

A pattern I created for Dr. Potts as a Christmas turned birthday present last year (2011 Christmas - 2012 birthday).

That's all I've made for the time being.  I'm not sure if I'll do anything this year as I want to focus more time on painting miniatures, of which I will most likely post pictures from that endeavor.   

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

It Happens All At Once

The Legend of Zelda Becoming Legend

I've been a fan of the Legend of Zelda games since after we first got our Nintendo, which I talked about in one of my first posts.  Something about the simplicity of the game play and the memorableness of the music made for such an amazing gaming experience for a 10 year old.  Over the years I've played through many of the games that make up The Legend of Zelda franchise, with the exceptions of Oracle of Seasons, Oracile of Ages, Four Swords Adventure, Minish Cap and Skyward Sword.  Just for whatever reason, I never got around to playing the LoZ games that came out on the GBC and GBA; Skyward Sword I haven't played because I don't own a Wii.  However, with the two aforementioned games in the series that I haven't finished, because I had stopped playing them, because I began to lose interest, I've felt in recent years, a fading of The Legend of Zelda series.

Some of my views about the games in the series, while not necessarily controversial, I don't feel are common with the rest of the LoZ fan base.  For example, I feel that Majora's Mask is a stronger game and a lot more fun than Ocarina of Time.  I also feel that music MM is more of music that I can listen to by itself and less atmospheric than in OoT.  I also think that Zelda II: The Adventure of Link is a great (albeit pain in the ass) game.  So much so that I can't imagine any of the polygonal Zelda games happening if it weren't for the side scrolling, expansive vision of Hyrule that Zelda II introduced.  I also love the animation and art style in Wind Waker.  No, I didn't mind all the sailing as the end of the game gave a fantastic explanation/reasoning behind the world existing.

And then it was great to see the same style of art/animation again in the two games on the DS, Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks.  Sadly though, this is where our tale ends.  After I finished Phantom Hourglass, I started Spirit Tracks, expecting a somewhat similar experience.  I played ST for a couple of hours before the Left Trigger button on my DS decided to stop, but by that point I had already felt like stopping.  I wasn't feeling engaged with the story and I felt like I had somewhat figured out the basis and arc of the game only after watching the opening cinematic.

I received a similar feeling while playing Twilight Princess.  I had reached a part in the game where I felt I needed more heart containers, which meant I had to forego the main storyline and wander around the beautifully created re-re-re-re-re-re-imagining of Hyrule looking for, what is it now? Five pieces of a heart container to give an extra heart?  I remember being annoyed in A Link to the Past when you had to find four pieces to create a heart container.  I however came to terms with this being another alteration in the series, so I accepted it and got over myself.

True, the LoZ series hasn't had a great deal of original-ness, with the main storylines being that you have to rescue Zelda from Ganon, or some itteration on the save the princess theme, but they've still been fun to play.  Just like the Super Mario Bros., Metroid and Castlevania games, there is not a lot of originality, but still loads of fun to play (except I haven't played through a Super Mario Bros. game since Super Mario World and Super Mario RPG, so maybe that's not the greatest of arguments).

On a similar, but slightly different note, a few months back I came across on Last.fm called ZReO or Zelda: ReOrchestrated, which initally billed themselves as symphonic orchestrations of the music from the Legend of Zelda games.  I was really excited.  I'd heard a number of symphoic orchestrations of music from this series, but the music from all the games not only sounded epic in it's attempt, but amazing in that it came from ALL OF THE GAMES!!  I began typing out an article about this ground a number of months ago but in the information gathering process, I discovered than the "group" only uses audio samples for the instruments that make up this "orchestra."  Don't get me wrong, the music sounds good and I would love to hear it performed by an actual symphony, but needless to say (which is why I'm saying it), I was a little let down.  But that shouldn't stop anyone from giving what they've done a listen as all their music is free to download.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
And They Will Play On Forever More