A long while ago Ken Fejer started a project called ISOCITY. At it’s core, isocity is a portfolio listing presented in a creative way. Each listing is presented as a house on a street block where users visit portfolios by clicking on the houses. Each house is created by the artist who’s portfolio it represents.
I’ve liked being a part of CG Society. I’ve not been super involved with the facebook sprawl of the past few years, but I do have an account. I don’t have a myspace account, and never did… and I don’t tweet [yet 
]. I did sign up for LinkedIn after a fellow creative suggested it, and am pretty happy with that. I joined DeviantArt after years of resistance. It’s been fun, but I am starting to get bored with it.
I’ve just been turned on to a new Social Network - CGHUB.COM, which claims to be the social network for the entertainment industry.
http://www.gametab.com/news/3268693/
So I’ve gotten into the Wizard of Oz a bit lately. Given that it’s the 70th anniversary of the famous Victor Fleming film, there has been a lot of coverage recently, and I started digging online like I usually do. I did happen to be lucky enough to stumble upon this little gem from Shanowar and Young - and it really got me inspired. So I started some master study sketches of some of Young’s work and this is how they turned out.
Here’s the first image that I did - starting with light marker and working into darker and some inks. The spiraly nature of all the clouds and foliage doesn’t show through in the smaller res images linked here - I’m holding those back a while till I’ve had a chance to refine them some. See some more after the break.
The magic of our modern day. I was 6 when I first heard about the NES. Though I wasn’t very sure was it was or did, I was sure that I wanted one. I got my first chance to see Super Mario Bros. played when I visited a friend in the hospital. I can’t remember what he was in for, but I know that his mom bought him a NES as a means to make him feel better. So when I went to visit him in the hospital, he was as eager to brag about the new NES as I was to play it.
A gleaming golden cartridge…reminiscent of the golden triforce bound within its plastic walls and now primitive circuitry…a triforce hidden behind hours of adventure and challenges.
This cartridge, when powered by the NES console will produce true magic. It springs to life with the most beautiful opening melody and a [though now iconic] completely random opening screen of a waterfall. I think this is the accidental genius that emerges over time. Emerges, in that it is never genius in and of itself, but because of a connection to the game that lies behind it, the random title design now becomes iconic by association.
This was one of the most misunderstood titles in the early NES days by my experience. When it was first covered in Nintendo Power, I was really turned off by the game - I did not have a good reason why. I suppose that the biggest thing that bothered me was that this game was displacing my favorite games on the Nintendo Power top 30. I remember being furious when I was sent the Strategy Guide instead of a regular issue of Nintendo Power that I’d been expecting. Granted, I was like 8 at the time, so these were sufficient reasons to hate a game i’d never even played.
Little did I know, that once I HAD played it, I would be completely sucked into the world of this final fantasy.
Over two decades ago… July 4th, Nineteen Eighty…Seven, I believe… just months after an expensive Christmas holiday blessed me and my cousin with NES systems… I found myself visiting family for the holiday. That very same cousin was along for the ride and had brought his NES along giving “us kids would have something to do” while the adults did their thing. Down in the basement, hooked up to a 13″ color Zenith TV [using the old school prong adapters, prior to coaxial was on TVs], was this blessed gem of a game.
Long ago in a galaxy far far away…I made a choice. I was about 10 years old and was saving my allowance for quite some time to buy a game for my NES. I’d narrowed it down to just two titles: Mega Man and Blaster Master. Once I got to the store I saw them both sitting behind the glass, staring at me, commanding me to make a decision.
After was seemed like an eternity, I finally picked a game an brought it to the counter. I traded all the cash I had for the winning title. Still to this day I have absolutely no clue why on earth I skipped over both titles and picked Bugs Bunny’s Crazy Castle by Kemco. No Joke.
Perhaps one of the lesser known titles that will appear on my list, Duck Tales still boasts some classic gameplay and style that is worthy of recognition. Developed by Capcom, it shared some of the staff that was responsible for the Mega Man titles of the time. Both the producer and the composer of Duck Tales hold similar credits on Mega Man titles.
This probably leads to some of the striking similarities in gameplay between the two titles. Non-linear level selection, Segmented Boss stages, and even a scoring mechanic that matches the scoring in Mega Man 1. All this aside, the game certainly has its unique elements. The pogo cane for example is one of the best weapons/movement controls in a NES game.
