Great Big Pokemon Art Project - For Charity!

https://www.doodlebender.com/auctions/rare-candy-a-pokemon-gallery-charity-auction/items/
all 151

151 original Pokemon, 151 different artists, Wow!  I heard some buzz about this project from John B, and now the news has been picked up by Kotaku.  If you're in San Jose, you can swing by the Umpqua Bank and check the project out in person.  The pictures featured on the Kotaku page look great!  There is much variety and characterization.  The simple designs of Pokemon are a great palette for these artists to play with.  And there's clearly some love for the little monsters themselves.    

Now, I never played Pokemon, and have only a passing familiarity with the show.  My favs were Squirtle, Bulbasaur, Koffing and PsyDuck.  I thought Charmander was lame as hell, so it was really great that he was the one who kept evolving.  And Meowth is such a strange name, even if it makes sense.  Yes, those opinions are what qualifies for a 'passing familiarity' with Pokemon.  Pokemon nerdity goes deep.  Hell, Pokemon is practically the perfect economic science of Nerdness, what with the "Gotta catch 'em all" tagline.  

But despite how painfully consumeristic this franchise is, and how sad I feel when I think about that - this art show redeems it.  Viewing the 151 images, these pictures really come across to me as a labor of love.  Which is how it should be, if I do say so myself.  And I do.  Isn't  visual art great?  Describe, compel, renew.  <--- that's a quote from this Propagandhi song.  regarding Music, but I like to think that it applies to visual art.  And maybe video games :)


Anyhow, I forgot the best part:  The pictures are being auctioned off for a really cool charity:  Canines for disabled kids.  A match made in heaven, as the saying goes.  You can buy yourself a print of some sweet Pokemon art, thus treating yourself to some joy from your own childhood -- While at the same time, your purchase contributes to the pairing of a service dog with a child in need - an incredible and amazing animal-human coupling.  How much more true to the 'man's best friend' idea can you get-- than a service dog?  


It's an auction, so somebody will be walking away with each of these pictures.  You should definitely check out, and if you have any money left after contributing to Shadow of the Eternals, you should put some down on a Pokemon Print!

-D

But don't bid on this one - this one's mine!

Cooperative Gaming Coop

Saturday I hopped a train to San Jose and swung by my pal John's Art installation.  This installation is a combination of an arcade and a game swap.  There were lots of cool games there, and some finely decorated cabinets.  I'll see if I can get a list of the featured games, so that we can look up an play the ones that are available.

Alright, that being covered, go ahead and check out the website for the gaming coop.   John also has his own website called ArtFail.  And a Tumblr. He's always doing video games as art events and stuff. 

There weren't many people, so I didn't get the full effect.  However, for the same reason, I got a lot of one on one time with the curator (John) so I got the scoop on a lot of games.  There's a crazy game that is sort of like real-time chess.  Another that was commissioned by occupy oakland, 2-players where you fly through a maze and hit switches to mark your distance.  Great flying controls.  Another game where you rescue beagle puppies, really fun.  Oh man, there was another called like Super Puzzle Platformer, I think.  That game is solid gold.  Then there was a really sweet fighting game that sort of played like smash bros but had an atari look.  Yeah, too many good games to count.  All totally free and independently made with heart and elbow grease.  

I'll fill in more on this event as I get better information.  I do know that they had one of these: A Winnitron, which they called Winnitron SJ. Winnitron is the product of an indie gaming collective in Winnipeg, Canada, and they license out the Winnitron design to others to make their own arcade cabinets full of indie games.  Click the links above if you want more info.

I want to play some of those games again.  Like the platformer where you just walk and jump, but when you die you go to a parallel world where the ceiling is the floor, and then later you kind of jump between the screens and it's a puzzle platformer and the graphics are nice, remind me of cavestory +.   Oh, and the MIT game where you slow down the speed of light and thus increase the range of the visible spectrum, but it controls like complete shit, which stunts the whole experience.  Neat idea though.

Okay, again, trying to end this post.   I would like to organize it into a series of previews, when I can get some titles for yah.   TTFN.


***Edit:  I just remembered one of the games:  Nidhogg!  This game is stupid amounts of fun.  It's two players, so you absolutely must have a second player to have all the great fun available.  I highly recommend playing it in an arcade cabinet if you can get to one.   

***10/16/2012: another edit:  I got the games list.  You can find it here:  List of games featured at Cooperative Gaming Co-op.  I will be reviewing the games I played and looking for links to play them online.