Sorry, once in a while I just need to include a "breaking news" bit of only tangential relation to a post's overall theme. This was that -- we're still exploring textmode renditions of video game characters and situations, but the hottest, flashiest developments in this minuscule niche these days appears to be the pseudo-PETSCII conversions using JP "vectorpoem" LeBraton's EDSCII editor. This was a striking rendition of the starting location of Square's amazing SNES JRPG Chrono Trigger.
But human excellence is always more impressive than algorithmic rigor. So here we have one more roundup of video game references from the past releases of the reigning champions of the extremely small rump textmode art "scene", Blocktronics. For crying out loud, I somehow missed that they had released a pack themed after Space Invaders. How could it fail to be filled with video game references? Especially, well, Invaders. These excerpts feature a whole fleet of Invaders as well as some distinctly Centipede and Q*Bert scenery.
(This is an experiment post, initially begun under the old videogamecomicads.blogger.com brand: I've finished it up there and copied the code for posting here -- but I'm not 100% sure that the images will display, as in a sense I'm hot-linking myself. Please bring it to my attention if these are all blanks.)
This piece is not at all
about invaders (nor Androids, for that matter) and yet it is filled with them. All I can say is: that would be one hell of a set of Dance Dance Revolution instructions, perhaps issued to an octopus player?
Is it worth including this giant logo just for one Pac-Man standing in as a letter C? Yes, it is, because it's one hell of a logo. (He's also eating an "o" standing in for a Pac-pellet. Good enough!)
We don't see this character with any great frequency, another Cats from the memetically radioactive "Zero Wing", but he is distinct and unforgettable:
This classy bit of monochromatic ASCII art celebrates Popcap's monster hit Plants vs. Zombies, the app that bought the local gamer den the Storm Crow Tavern:
Another piece celebrating a relatively recent game, this one is a love letter to League of Legends:
In the Acid Trip megajoint a pretty complete roster of the Star Wars Angry Birds are presented, as well as some other subjects -- this excerpt misses out on a great smallscale portrait of Steve Jobs contemplating the competition...
(Sometime, quite a bit later in the massive piece, the circle is completed with an Angry Birds Chewbacca as well:)
And a piece by the Blocktronics member who embodies video game textmode art more than any other, Reset Survivor, depicting... well, in his own words: "It's Susumu Hori, better known as, Mr. Driller! Taking out a Gumby Blockhead." Of course, that's just the icing on the cake, after the piece goes through little gamer-Tourettes moments invoking Tengen Tetris, Plants vs. Zombies again, and Dig Dug!
Since you've been so kind of read all the way to the bottom, some cleaning of house: it's time for me to announce, if I haven't already, that my twice-annual retro video game party is coming up -- this time, my birthday edition on April 11th. I have, well, a pile of old machines and hundreds of games for them, and dust them off two times a year for people to enjoy some catchup on, socially.
Also, I'm only accumulating more and more redundant Steam codes for games I already own. I thought I could give some of them away here, but so far I've had no takers for the Dreamcast collection (final paragraph) and am wary of increasing the ante with additional offers without the appearance of any ... takers.
That's all for now! Thanks for stopping by and... game on!
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