And On A Personal Note...

So I wanted to take a break from regularly scheduled updates and talk a bit about the purpose of this blog and where I hope to see it going in the future.

Apocalypse POW! was originally a videogame-themed off-shoot of my former blog, Cabinet of Curiosities. For a while I made the effort to keep both blogs updated concurrently, but after a few months I decided to put Cabinet of Curiosities on permanent hiatus so I could focus all my attention on blogging about videogames - primarily, videogame art. Now, after 250 posts, I feel like I'm hitting my stride with Apocalypse POW!, but I also feel like there's still room to grow.

One of my primary goals with this blog was to draw attention to some of the amazing, clever, wonderful artists out there who focus on videogames in their work, whether through painting, graphic design, sculpture, illustration, digital art and - for lack of a better word - consumer design (a category that would include t-shirts, album covers, application and device skins, and so forth). I've noticed that a lot of blogs don't bother to credit the original artist when reposting their art, and while I can understand the lack of motivation, I also can't help but think that it's somewhat unfair to that artist. To that end, I try to not only credit the artist for every piece that I post here, but I also try to provide at least one link to their home page or, if they have work for sale on Etsy, Redbubble, or the like, a purchase page. At times I've put a great deal of effort into trying to track down the original artist of an image I came across through my daily art-perusing channels, and I consider that a necessary part of what I'm trying to do here - which is to showcase and feature artists that I appreciate and art that appeals to me. Occasionally, despite my best efforts, I won't be able to locate a source for an image that I really want to share... When this comes up, or when I mistakenly attribute an image to the wrong source, I urge anyone who knows better to let me know in the comments.

Right now I'm averaging about 3000 hits a month, and while that isn't a mind-boggling number, I am kind of pleased to note that anyone at all is paying attention to what I'm doing here. All I might ask is that people comment more. I'd really like to get some feedback on what I'm doing right, what I need to be doing more of, and what I need to stop doing altogether. As starry-eyed and idealistic as it may sound, I like the idea that this blog could become more of a community, and that visitors might send me links to other cool art they've found or even their own art. The internet is a huge place, and while I do my best to trawl the more common fishing spots, there are backwaters and tidal pools and whole rivers of cool things I would be posting about if I knew they existed.

As for where I would like to take Apocalypse POW! in the future, I have a few ideas. For a long while I've been posting nothing but art, and I've gotten away from reviews and editorials. There are a few reasons for this. First, being employed full-time doesn't leave me with as much time for gaming as I had when I was in university, and whereas I might have once spent 20 hours playing through a game in the course of a weekend, now I'm lucky if I get 10 hours in a week. Secondly, I tend to write most of my posts from work. This means that while I can easily take five or ten minutes to throw some image tags into one of a handful of pre-existing templates, I rarely get the chance to conceive of, and then write, an actual article made up of words and stuff.

All that aside, I would like Apocalypse POW! to have a more editorial slant going forward. I'd like to get back to my Five-Minute Impressions and One-Line Wonders review features, and start to post more lists as well. I'd like to start featuring more music - nerdcore, geek rock and chiptune music primarily. I have a lot of ideas for Apocalypse POW!, although as always, the main obstacle in achieving everything I'd like to here is time limitations. So with any luck, you'll start seeing both new and returning features in the near future, and I'm always open to your feedback and suggestions and requests.

Would You Kindly Pick Up That Shortwave Radio?

Abra Macabra 9 by ~betteo

This past weekend, I suddenly found myself with a plethora of free time, as the Heather Monster was running amok in Mexico and we had a sudden, unexpected snowfall (not a substantial snowfall - this is the Pacific Northwest, after all - but enough of one that nobody, myself included, felt like venturing out of their cozy little abodes.) So I decided that I would do something I'd never gotten around to doing in the past: finally finish BioShock.

(Please note that this entry will not shy away from spoilers, so if you don't want any of the major plot points of BioShock ruined for you, you may want to skip it.  I repeat: only click through to read the rest of this post if you have either finished BioShock already, or you plan never to do so.  Consider yourself warned.)

One-Line Wonders: B:AA, SH:H, Cogs, KH:358/2D

Today marks the debut of what I hope to be an ongoing column. One-Line Wonders is my attempt to cut back on my usual word-salad approach to blogging and review a handful of games in a single sentence (or equivalent.)

So without further ado, here are your One-Line Wonders for Tuesday, January 26th, 2010.

Batman: Arkham Asylum (PC, 360, PS3)

Graphics: 8/10
Sound: 8/10
Gameplay: 8/10
Design: 9/10
Batarangs: ∞
dB of vocalised alarm expressed upon the unanticipated appearance of Killer Croc when attempting to open an entirely mundane, though mercifully locked, door: 77

I never realised until THIS MOMENT just how utterly devoid of meaning my life was without the ability to hang upside down from a gargoyle, silently pick off an escaped convict, and then observe from afar as his cohorts discover him and absolutely lose their shit in unbridled terror.

One quickly learns that the goal of Batman: Arkham Asylum is not survival, but how best to screw with otherwise calm and collected individuals

Silent Hill: Homecoming (PC, 360, PS3)

Graphics: 6.5/10
Sound: 7.5/10
Gameplay: 5/10
Design: 7/10
Pyramid Heads: 1 (to date)
Duration between end of intro cinematic and start of gameplay to realise you are indescribably fucked: 10 seconds

It may be a rehash of every entry in the franchise to date, but if nothing else, Silent Hill: Homecoming has the dubious distinction of making me lose control of my bowels more quickly than any other game I've ever encountered (critical moment of bowel-loosening: Pyramid Head, in shadow, dismembering someone on the other side of a locked door before you've even managed to extricate yourself from they gurney you were strapped to during the intro.)

Silent Hill's legendary toilet stalls return in full force

Cogs (PC)

Graphics: 4/10
Sound: 5/10
Gameplay: 7.5/10
Design: 8/10
Steampunk appeal: 9.5/10
Severity of curse-word obscenity prompted by the first dozen puzzles: Impolite even within sea-faring company

Why is this game so hard, goddammit?

I HATE YOU I HATE YOU I HATE YOU

Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days (DS)

Graphics: 8/10
Sound: 7/10
Gameplay: 8.5/10
Design: 7/10
Days that are actually playable: less than 358
Bars of sea-salt ice cream eaten by Roxas: 8 million

The foundation is there for this to be a watershed entry in the Kingdom Hearts series, but recycled music, enemies, characters, worlds and weapons, along with a bland and uninspired storyline, trite, tedious cutscenes, and the game's tendency to abruptly skip over weeks of unplayable days at a time makes it feel like a hugely wasted opportunity - and maybe just a phoned-in contractual obligation on Square Enix's part while they invested the bulk of their efforts into the far-superior Birth By Sleep.

Ah, the Rocky Expanse, from Disney's classic nature film The Suicidal World of Lemmings... My childhood nostalgia has been fulfilled

2010 Indie Games Festival

Boing Boing has a feature on 20 or so stand-out games from the 2010 Independent Games Festival, which I'll just refer you to rather than attempting to emulate here.

I will, however, point out that amongst the many fine indie games mentioned (including personal favourites Cogs, Miegakure, and Today I Die,) is a long-forgotten gem which I mentioned in one of my very first gaming-related posts on my other blog - Limbo. After four years of total silence on the part of the developers, I'm excited to see that this game is finally coming to fruition.

In Boing Boing's words:

Limbo is one of IGF 2010's biggest surprises, both for having fallen completely off the map for over three years (it was originally featured here on BB in early October, 2006), and for re-emerging with one of this year's best-realized atmospheric treats.

Despite the time between there and here, it still offers pretty much exactly what you wanted it to from that first video teaser above: a warmly and softly lit monochromatic world that stands in surprisingly harsh opposition to the cold realities that await your young adventurer within (that bit with the terrifying tree-monster in the video? That doesn't end so well on your first encounter), and a series of delightfully modeled physics-based challenges that give that world real weight.

And for reference, here's that clip.

Back To The Future Crysis Mod.

Despite FPSs being my videogame drug of choice, I haven't yet played Crysis (sadly). One minute and forty-nine seconds after pressing play on this video, however, I am now consumed by the need to rectify that, if only so I can install this mod.

Click through for the larger version, as always.

(Delorean Time Machine mod for Crysis, via www.crymod.com)

Epic Mickey - Slowly Becoming Reality

I've been fighting off illness for the last week and today it finally developed into a full-blown (swine? maybe!) flu. My weekend has been spent sitting on the couch listening to The Cash\Dylan Sessions (the aural equivalent of chicken noodle soup), re-watching Twin Peaks, and trying to keep down greasy take-out, but I couldn't resist posting this update on what is starting to look like my most anticipated upcoming game of 2010: Epic Mickey.

Until now, precious little information had been released on Epic Mickey other than some intriguing concept art (which you can see below the cut). That's starting to change, however, with Game Informer's leak of their November issue wrap-around cover.

Game Informer also promises a month of regularly-posted updates on the game at their Epic Mickey Portal, which you can be sure I'll be keeping a close eye on.

What has been revealed about Epic Mickey thus far:

· It's being developed by Junction Point Studios and produced by Warren Spector, the man behind Wing Commander, Ultima, System Shock, and the brilliant Thief and Deus Ex games (fun fact: he also designed the pen-and-paper RPG Toon for Steve Jackson Games with the legendary gaming god Greg Costikyan, whose blog is required reading for anyone interested in gaming culture).
· It will be released on the Wii with a projected date of third quarter 2010.
· "Epic Mickey" is most likely a working title and not final.
· It will be a platformer and has been described as "steampunk" (coincidentally, before I started coughing up chunks of lung and downing Nyquil like Kool-Aid, I was working on a post on steampunk-themed games, so watch for that once I return to my typical fine fetter).
· It will blow your mind.

I've long held the conviction that Disney is a lot more subversive than the watered-down, family-friendly image it's known for. That, or it's such a massive superstructure that internal subversion goes overlooked. If you still have your doubts, check out their 1995 short "Runaway Brain" below:

Anyway, on to the Epic Mickey gallery:

By Fred Gambino:

By Gary Glover:

Super Mega Mario Kart Panorama.

As those of you who read Copperpott's Cabinet of Curiosities may be aware, I have a bit of a yen for panoramic pop-culture art. And so much the better if that piece happens to be the collaborative effort of over forty very talented artists, and based on one of the greatest Nintendo games of all time - one that, appropriately enough, is itself founded on the principles of collaboration, competition, and group play.

Thus we have The Mario Kart Collab, v.0.1: the (nearly?) final product of an assortment of artists from DeviantArt, each taking one character and their vehicle from the Mario Kart games and rendering it in their own unique style.

Click on the image below to see the full-length work.

(Mario Kart Collab, v.0.1, by various)

(I hope that Themrock and Deviantart forgive me for the direct link to the larger piece, but Photobucket refuses to host such a large file for me without resizing it first, and trust me, you want to see it in all of its glory.)

To quote Tara from Purple Peep Bits (and Birdo artist):

Almost a year ago I was invited to take part in this collaboration project that my good friend Dirk was throwing.

It's a collaboration done with over 40 of the finest artists you can find on DeviantART. Independent and people who already work in the industry came forth for the project from all over the world.

It's an absolute MUST to full view the original picture and check out everyone's interpretations of each driver. They're all fantastic!

Driver artists:
Toad - Mike Jungbluth
Baby Mario - Patricio Betteo
Dry Bowser - Robb Mommaerts
Luigi - Dirk Erik Schulz
Funky Kong - Hugh Freeman
Yoshi - Henry R. Frew
King Boo - Grim-Amentia
Princess Peach - Makani
Baby Luigi - Adrián Pérez
Mario - Andrew Kauervane
Donkey Kong - Fubumeru
Baby Peach - Basakward
Waluigi - Dapper Dan
Bowser jr. - Erin Hunting
Bowser - Richard J. Smith
Dry Bones - Neilando
Birdo - Myself
Daisy - Vernavulpes
Diddy Kong - Becky Dreistadt
Wario - Zach Bellissimo
Toadette - Kyle A. Carrozza
Petey Piranha - Sam Mckenzie
Koopa Troopa - Mario González
Shy-Guy - Benjamin Anders
Para Troopa - Emma Särkelä
Rosalina - Der-shing Helmer
Baby Daisy - Chris E.
Lakitu - Sabrina Alberghetti

Background Characters:
Luismario
Michael Perez
Explosiv22
Emily Jayne Weber
Frobman
Yves Bourgelas
Cotton-Gravy
Lindsay Smith
E. D. Thweatt
Adrian vom Baur
Psycho Time
Cheezadiddle
Evanatt

I really hope that "I am 8bit" checks this out.

I second that. I want a poster-sized print of this for my living room so badly it's not funny.

(via Offworld)

Indie Games Are Go!

A while ago (well, two and a half years ago), I posted about Limbo, an independently-developed game which, it seems, never made it off the ground. It's a shame, as I thought the monochrome style and retro 2D side-scroller engine were very original and unlike anything else to be seen in the then-current crop of games, indie or studio.

Things have changed since 2006, though. There's been an upswing of independent games released in the last few years, motivated not by a desire to tap into and exploit a particular market of gamers by rehashing the same old genres and tropes, but instead to take the medium in new narrative and stylistic directions. Some pretty incredible games have come out of this movement. Here's my quick rundown of recent indie games that you should make a point of checking out.

11. Judith (distractionware, free, PC)

Judith is everything an off-the-cuff indie game should aspire to: simple interface, lo-fi graphics, and a focus on plot. There are no monsters to kill, no real puzzles to solve, just an interactive story which you can run through in about half an hour. It's built on the Wolfenstein 3D engine, but the textures hearken back to the old AGI look of the Sierra adventure games of the 1980s and will be eminently familiar to anyone who grew up playing PC games during that decade.

10. Fez (Polytron, upcoming, platform TBA)

Although it's not yet released, Fez is worth keeping an eye on for no other reason that it looks to be graphically breathtaking (It won the Excellence in Visual Art award at the 2008 Independent Games Festival, and was nominated for the Design Innovation award as well). It's nominally a platformer, in which Gomez, a two-dimensional character, explores a world that has become three-dimensional. Much like the classic novel Flatland, Fez delves into the nature of dimension, space and geometry in a way that games have rarely done in the past.

9. Audiosurf (Dylan Fitterer, $10 through Steam, PC)

One of my fondest videogame memories is of playing the classic DOS game SkyRoads on my 386 PC in the mid-90s, and so when I discovered AudioSurf, I was enamored with it from the start. AudioSurf builds on the racer format of SkyRoads and allows the player to create a track synchronised to an MP3 of their choice: by analysing the song, AudioSurf determines your level's speed, position of blocks and obstacles, and background environment. There are a number of ships available, as well as an impressive array of game-mode options. In all, the game manages to take a done-to-death genre and inject new life into it.

8. Kingdom of Loathing (Asymmetric, free\donation, browser)

Kingdom of Loathing is the xkcd of MMORPGs. Visually, the game is nothing to write home about (in fact, with the exception of a few crude stick-figure icons, it's primarily text-based), but it has gained a considerable following thanks to its clever design and often surreal sense of humour and wordplay. KoL is an antidote to the current, bloated MMO market, playing with and subverting the conventions of that genre with open glee. It warrants a mention here because, underneath the mockery, cheap artwork, and non sequiturs, KoL is actually a fantastically well-designed game, offers a startling amount of content, and has an interface which is both unique and totally intuitive.

7. Minotaur China Shop (Flashbang Studios, free, Flash)

The name says it all. While playing this, I couldn't help thinking about Steven Sherrill's criminally-overlooked "The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break", if only in that both the game and the novel present the Minotaur as a regular working-class schlub trying to make ends meet. In the game, you play the titular Minotaur, who has found it necessary to obtain gainful employment, but the only available work he can find is in a china shop. Breaking the shop's wares loses you money; do too much damage and you enter Minotaur Rage mode, which really needs no explanation. Appropriately, the controls have been designed to make your Minotaur unwieldy, slow to stop, and, well, literally a bull in a china shop. Simple, straightforward and graphically appealing.

6. Darwinia\Multiwinia (Introversion, $16.60 each through Steam, PC\Mac\Linux\XBox 360)

Darwinia, and its multiplayer sequel Multiwinia, is unlike any other game ever made. Nominally it draws on the real-time strategy model, but the end result bears little if any similarity to games of that genre. The game takes place inside a digital universe created by one Dr. Sepulveda, populated by AI polygon creatures, and the player is tasked with combating an invading virus which threatens to undo all of Sepulveda's work. RTS elements come into play here, but over time an element of artificial evolution is introduced, hearkening back to Conway's cellular-automata model and its ilk. Like many indie games, Darwinia and Multiwinia embrace a distinctly retro-gaming approach to design and interface, and ultimately result in a totally immersive universe which is better experienced than described.

5. Citizen Abel: Gravity Bone (Blendo Games, free, PC)

Gravity Bone is a short, first-person adventure game built on the Quake II engine, but revamping it so drastically that it has become an entirely new beast. In the game, you play a secret agent inhabiting a 1960s spy-flick world attempting to unravel, as is your stock in trade, a mystery. All the characters in this world resemble papercraft dolls a la Cubees (an artistic decision both clever and practical, given the Q2 engine's limitations) and one can't help but be reminded of LucasArts' legendary Grim Fandango or Terry Gilliam's Brazil (from which it plunders its soundtrack). It can be played from start to finish in under half an hour, has a plot that makes absolutely no sense, and - without giving anything away - seems to serve little other purpose, in the end, than as an elaborate prank on the player. But practical jokes, if designed well enough, can be an art-form unto themselves, and Gravity Bone is a case in point.

4. Alien Hominid (The Behemoth, $10, Playstation 2\XBox 360\Gamecube\Xbox\GBA\PC)

Amongst its other virtues, Alien Hominid could be seen as the indie game that finally broke indie games into the public arena. Though it started as a humble flash game on Newgrounds, it quickly developed into a cross-platform juggernaut, thanks in large part to The Behemoth's remarkable business savvy. But Alien Hominid is more than just a well-marketed indie success story; the frenetic 2D sidescroller features entirely hand-drawn artwork by Dan Paladin, boasts an outstanding soundtrack by Matt Harwood, and contains numerous subtle asides and humourous in-jokes. There's also a bit of self-reflexivity going on here: when the player accesses the alien's PDA, they're able to play a simple Pitfall-style game-within-a-game. Recently, Alien Hominid was released in a High Definition edition on XBLA, and the updated resolution proves without a shadow of a doubt the talent that went into the game's design.


3. Castle Crashers (The Behemoth, $15\1200 Microsoft Points , XBox 360)

If Alien Hominid was built on the engine of run-and-gun side-scrollers like Contra and Metal Slug, The Behemoth's followup Castle Crashers takes it up a level and riffs on the arcade four-player beat-'em-up engine of Golden Axe and Final Fight. The game's graphics are of a similarly hand-drawn style as its predecessor, but are cleaner, more detailed, and far, far more bloody. What makes Castle Crashers stand out, like many of the games on this list, is that it breathes new life into a familiar genre: it brings in elements of RPGs, player-vs-player, and 'cute animal sidekicks', each with a different supplemental ability, it contains more cartoon gore than one might ever reasonably expect, and the character, monster and level designs are both original and stylistically consistent. Perhaps its greatest appeal, though, is that the creators offer downloadable-content packs, unlocking new characters, weapons and abilities, resulting in an entirely playable work-in-progress with near-infinite replayability.

2. World of Goo (2D Boy, $20, PC\Mac\Linux)

World of Goo is the indie-gaming equivalent of a Fellini film: impressionistic, dream-like, and justifiably critically-acclaimed (the game has even inspired some Svankmajer\Fellini-esque short films). At face value, World of Goo may be best described as a Lemmings-style puzzle game - players construct towers and bridges out of sentient Goo balls in order to overcome obstacles and achieve obectives. What is most impressive about World of Goo is how it juxtaposes visual artistry with physics - gravity is your primary foe, and the solution to most of the game's levels lies in building the most structurally-sound architecture. The excellent soundtrack by Kyle Gabler was released as a free download (it can be grabbed here) and designer 2D Boy has maintained an admirable on-going dialogue with players and fans through his blog.

1. Braid (Jonathan Blow, $14.99 on Steam or 1200 Microsoft Points on XBLA, XBox 360\PC)

Jonathan Blow's Braid is the Citizen Kane of indie games. It completely overhauls the concept of what games can and should do, and playing it is a near-transcendental experience. You are cast in the role of Tim, a tie-wearing 2D sprite who must travel through six worlds of his own memory, searching for the "Princess" (here, his ex-girlfriend), but this goal might better be described as not a straight-forward 'save the princess' adventure a la Super Mario Bros. but more along the lines of trying to figure out why his relationship went sour. It's heady and philosophical - each world is intercut with Tim's simple but heart-breaking journal entries - but what Braid does that no other game has every managed to effectly pull off is how it plays with time. In, for example, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, the player was able to undo mistakes and reset levels by making use of a time-rewinding device, but Braid adds a layer of bittersweet nostalgia and remorse to the mix, and the time-shifting element becomes not merely a tool of convenience but an integral part of the story. Each world uses time in a different way - in the first world, Tim is able to, for example, jump into a pit and then rewind himself back to an earlier part of the level, while in the second world, he is able to carry objects with him as he rewinds - and consequently each new world requires a reconsideration of the strategies learned in the previous one. There are also self-aware references to its inspirations (ie: Super Mario Bros., Donkey Kong) and clever and unexpected solutions to the various puzzles which he encounters (at one point, Tim must assemble the puzzle pieces he's collected thus far in order to form a new platform and reach an otherwise-inaccessible area). Through it all, Blow's extraordinary vision and skill as a game designer, David Hellman's (creator of the webcomic A Lesson Is Learned But The Damage Is Irreversible) superb and supernal artwork, and unconventional classical score by Jami Sieber, Shira Kammen and Cheryl Ann Fulton come together to produce a kind of elegance rarely if ever encountered in the sphere of videogaming.

Dotter Dotter and Bill Mudron.

I don't make a habit of posting videogame-themed art. For that matter, although there is some pretty amazing CG artwork out there, I prefer to stay away from that as well; it's sort of outside the parameters of Cabinet of Curiosities. That said, every once in a while I come across something astounding enough that I have to pass it along. Such is the case with Japanese artist Dotter Dotter's rendered NES-inspired work. Click for larger versions.

Unfortunately, I don't read Japanese, so I don't know the titles of any of these.

Anyway, while we're on the topic of Nintendo art, Bill Mudron (who's Anne Frank Conquers The Moon Nazis web-comic is long-time favourite of mine) has recently redesigned his portfolio site with an NES theme and is featuring a number of his Nintendo-y illustrations.

(Dotter Dotter's blog)
(Dotter Dotter at pixiv)
(Bill Mudron)

Limbo: The Game

I'm not really in the habit of posting about videogame art (just art inspired by videogames,) but every once in a while, something comes along that grabs my attention. Limbo is one of those. You can tell from the above screenshots that the game is highly stylised - My impression that that you, as the small Boy in Silhouette, have to run around a forest and an industrial factory and avoid being smushed by falling boxes and impaled by spikey trees. The 2-dimensional, sidescrolling aspect of the game reminds me of classics like "Out Of This World" and "Flashback" (both by Delphine Software), but the fact that the designers of Limbo have chosen to present the game not only entirely in black and white but also almost exclusively in silhouette appeals to me.

The website is perversely void of information about this game - how far along it is, when it might be released, even information on the storyline - but what is there is more than enough to pique anyone's interest. If anyone knows anything more, feel free to email me.

I AM 8-BIT, pt. II

Back in April, I wrote about the I AM 8-BIT group exhibit at Gallery Nineteen Eighty-Eight (who, incidentally, with their recent Disney-themed "Remixing the Magic" group exhibit - expect an update on that sometime this week - along with I AM 8-BIT, are rapidly becoming one of my favorite L.A. pop art gallery.)

Today I finally received my copy of "I AM 8-BIT: Art Inspired By Classic Videogames of the 80s" from Amazon, and... wow. Considering the remarkably low price ($15 plus shipping,) I was not expecting it to be even half as lovely as it actually is. Every one of its 156 pages reproduces a glossy, full-colour print that was featured in the show, and although it doesn't provide complete coverage - there are a few works from the exhibit that are nowhere to be found here, and a few that I suspect were actually done after the show, specifically for inclusion in the book - it is certainly a comprehensive look at 8-bit videogame-inspired art.

There are art books and there are art books. This is the sort of book you actually want on your coffee table: anyone under the age of 30 is going to freak right out when they see it. Forget "Historic Barns of Minnesota" - Do yourself a favour and order this book right now. Or wait for the second volume to come out (no guarantees, of course, but they've had at least two seperate I AM 8-BIT shows, so Gallery 1988 has no shortage of material) and order them together. You won't regret it.

I AM 8-BIT

Sean Clarity, Peter Gronquist, Gabe Swarr
(click image for full-sized version)

Another day, another reason to move to Los Angeles. Gallery Nineteen Eighty-Eight, located at 7020 Melrose Ave. in L.A., is hosting the second annual I AM 8-BIT exhibition, and... wow. The first series was pretty neat, but this new one is amazing. So much videogame love.

Michael Gagne, Martin Ontiveros
(click image for full-sized version)

The list of contributors is a veritable who's-who of the contemporary pop surrealism scene: Tim Biskup, Steve Purcell, Jim Mahfood, Luke Chueh, Gary Baseman, Brandon Bird, and dozens more. Who knew that Nintendo was so universal and profoundly influential? Most works draw their inspiration either from the NES roster (Super Mario Bros, Megaman, Metroid) or from the earlier Atari era (Pacman, Asteroids, Donkey Kong,) with few if any references beyond the late '80s. A handful even comment on the nature of videogaming itself.

Jose Emroca Flores, Love Ablan, Yosuke Ueno
(click image for full-sized version)

If you live in or near L.A., you could do worse than to plan a visit to Nineteen Eighty-Eight this weekend. If you don't, you're still in luck. The first I AM 8-BIT collection has been collected and recently published by Chronicle Books, and is readily available at Amazon.com. At under $15 USD, the book is stupidly affordable and you really owe it to yourself to add it to your own library.

Link: I AM 8-BIT website.
Link: Gallery Nineteen Eighty-Eight.
Link: I AM 8-BIT: Art Inspired by Classic Videogames of the '80s at Amazon.

(note: All above photos were originally posted at Vinyl Pulse, an art blog which I heartily endorse and recommend. I cropped them and did some other minor tweaks for presentation's sake but all credit goes to Vinyl Pulse and the original photographer.)