"Pixel Heroes" by Pablo Cialoni

The eighty superheroes on this art print may be tiny, but don’t let those itty-bitty pixels fool you. They could still take you down.

Can you name all eighty heroes and villains on this print? (Click on the image to enlarge it.) I see tons of superheroes from the Avengers, the Justice League, the X-Men, the Watchmen, and many others, including a Thundercat and one notorious Star Wars character.

This 8-bit style print was created by artist Pablo Cialoni, and you can order a copy of your very own for $22.00. It’s also available as an iPhone case, laptop/iPad skins, a t-shirt, and a hoodie.

If you’d like to see all eighty heroes in extreme close-ups — where you can really appreciate the fine details of Cialoni’s work — head over to Behance.

Almost every day something new and geeky finds its way to an Etsy store and often it’s difficult to keep up with all new awesome items on Etsy – or we think they’re cool but just not cool enough.

This time though, user SceeneShoes caught my attention with a serious of handmade bras aimed at old-skool gamers and 8bit nostalgics. SceeneShoes has more 8bit items in store for Mario and Pokémon fans.

If bras aren’t really your thing, you can also settle for a pair of hand-painted Mario and Luigi shoes.

All bras are hand-painted with acrylic and start at $ 30.00. Due to popularity new orders will take at least 2 weeks.

If you strive to reach the heights of geeky-ness, go 8-bit with these awesome real-life tchotchkies you can have for your very own.

Necktie

Guaranteed to make you the nerdiest guy (or skateboard punk gal) in your office. The downside? It’s a clip on. Then again, it’d be hard to get it to look just right if you had to tie it yourself. Comes in blue or red. $14.99 at ThinkGeek.

Wristwatch

The perfect accessory to go with your 8-bit necktie. But I hope you’ve got money to burn: this bad boy will cost you 70 Washingtons. Available in black or white from ThinkGeek.

Pendant

To bad Valentine’s Day is already over, ’cause I can’t imagine a better way for a geek to express his feelings for his lady love. $39 from Etsy.

Hair Bow

Girls, have you ever dreamed of looking like Mrs. Pac-Man? Now you can, with this glossy plastic bow that comes with a metal hair clip in back. $9.99 from ThinkGeek.

Wedding Cake Toppers

Geeky guy wants pixelated cake toppers for his wedding cake. Guy calls custom designer I Do Cake Toppers and sends them an 8-bit design of his own creation. The result is a customized cake topper like no other. The cost? I Do’s website says that most custom jobs are in the $1,000 range. And the toppers are made out of polymer clay, so they’re not edible.

Barbecue

It’s wicked cool, but I wouldn’t get my heart set on it. Part of the “No Screw No Glue” line by designers Joost van Bleiswijk and Kiki van Eijk (which includes other pseudo-pixelated cabinets, a goblet, a chess set, and more), it’s only available at a handful of specialty boutiques in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. I wouldn’t even care to venture a guess how much an 8-bit barbecue runs.

Oven Mitt

An 8-bit oven mitt seems like a no-brainer, right? I was still surprised to find that it’s sold for a whopping $25 at ThinkGeek. How would Mario say “over-priced”?

Bouquet

Not long ago, we showed you these nifty pixelated plastic flowers, complete with vase. I like this one, too, even though it’s made of paper. That said, it’s way bigger than the plastic one, with seven flowers and optional leaves. $120 at Etsy.

Violin

It’s the only item on this list that you can’t buy, but it was just too cool not to include. Ranjit Bhatnagar created this thing as part of a personal project called “Instrument-a-Day.” And it really plays!

Coat Hook

Another one that makes me question its practicality. It looks cool, sure, but won’t your coat slide off of something that has no upward-curving hook? If you’d like to find out, it can be yours for $20 at ThinkGeek.

Steve/Woz Busts

Every good Apple devoté builds his or her own Steve Jobs/Steve Wozniak shrine, don’t they? Here are a pair of pixelated busts that will make that process mondo easy. You pop these out on your desk next to your iMac, and you’re good to go. They’re made by the space-age process of 3D printing (ooh! ahh!). Which probably explains why Shapeways has them priced at $125 for Jobs and $139 for the Woz. I just wish I knew why Steve Jobs looks so angry.

8-Bit Flower Bouquet

How else should a geek say “I love you” than with a pixelated vase full of pixelated flowers? It boasts 3 layers of depth and stands 13 inches high. $14.99 plus shipping, from ThinkGeek.

Cyberflora Garden

An interactive art installation by the robotics department at MIT, the Cyberflora garden consisted of four “species,” each of which could sense and respond to humans in unique ways. The goal was to mix animal-like and plant-like characteristics into something that humans could interact with.

LEGO Rose

Now that’s some genuinely original use of LEGO bricks. There are plenty of LEGO flowers out there, but I have never seen bricks woven together quite so beautifully. Made as a valentine gift. By Chris “Wunztwice.”

Magic: The Gathering Dice Flower

Inspired by the Mana colors in Magic: The Gathering, centered with a D10 dice. By MountainMusings.

“Princess Leia” Iris

Unlike most of the entries on this list, this flower is the real deal. It just happens to be named for Princess Leia. A hybridized flower, it was engineered by a florist in Australia, and has won a number of prestigious awards. It’s a cross between two Irises — a “Gladiator’s Gift” and a “Desert Jewel.” If that means anything to you. By Iris Haven.

Robot Flower

I’d never heard about this before today, but apparently it’s a very well known landmark in Buenos Aires called Floralis Genérica. The giant flower has robotic qualities because it opens during the day and closes at night in a way that mimics living flowers, drawing its power from sunlight. Each of the six petals is over 42 feet long! Gorgeous HDR photo by Stuck in Customs.

“Star Wars” Magnolia

Another real flower named in honor of the universe that George built. An engineered hybrid that’s a cross between Campbell’s Magnolia and the Lily-Flowered Magnolia. Said to be a large flower that can bloom twice in one year. Photo by Black Diamond Images.

Steampunk Daisy

Made from wood and brass as a wedding present for a relative. By Will Segerman. Even more impressive is that it was made out of leftover parts from this bad boy.

Storm Trooper Boutineer

It has to be true love if the bride agrees to have boutineers with Star Wars characters embedded in them. The person wearing the one in this photo is actually one of the mothers! The groom wore Vader. By Nancy Che Mahan.

Tron Hairpin

Combines the awesomeness of TRON with the perennial coolness that is all things duct tape. $8.50 plus shipping from Etsy retailer DuckTapeRose.

This year for Game Over IV an upcoming show at Giant Robot San Francisco, Jude Buffum has created a more G-rated art pieces, also inspired by Super Mario and Legend of Zelda, namely 8-bit terrariums. Jude was inspired by his own terrariums and the imagination of how the plants from videogames would look like in a terrarium.

Toadstool Terrarium

The above terrarium is my favorite one out of the three that Jude created. It contains clouds, the climbing tree and many plants you encounter early on in the first NES Mario Bros game, call it nostalgia.

Hyrule Terrarium

I’m not very familiar with Zelda, a quick Google search made me aware that Hyrule is from Zelda. This also made me realise you have to be a fan of the game to appreciate the art of it.

Belmont Terrarium

The last one is from Castlevania, which I have never heard of, but the name reminds me of the game, ‘Duck Tales’.

Read more about these pixel terrariums and view photos of real ones at Jude’s weblog.

The next time that you feel the urge to get some spray paint, consider making some moss graffiti instead.

These illustrations are not just any meat diagram, they are diagrams of 8-bit video game characters like our beloved Yoshi and the always present Koopa amongst others. Imagine you where to eat these video games animals; what would the meat parts be names, how to cook them best and what side dish and drink goes well with it.

This is a real creative piece, it does take some fantasy to come up with something so unique and also the illustrations are done in pixels which is my favorite. Give me a 8-bit video game and I’m happy.

Like the illustration says, Yoshi tastes like chicken. You can have a fried yoshi leg or a yoshi sandwich whith french fries and a coke.

As a carnivore I’m not disgusted by this but I could see that vegetarians wouldn’t find these illustrations that amusing. But this is art, and this particular one is so simple and unique I can’t help but find it brilliant. After all it is our human nature to know what all is edible, even if it is a non existing video game animal.

View the rest of the illustrations.

Muse may not be every geek’s choice when it comes to music, but this one has a thing for Matthew Bellamy and his gang.  One, he does have a British accent (yeah, some are suckers for that).  Two, he is not bad looking at all (ask Kate Hudson).  Three, he is a musical genius! (Maybe I should have listed that first…)

So anyway, a friend posted an 8-bit music video of Muse’s Uprising, and I had so much fun listening to it. Never mind that the magical voice of Bellamy is gone or that the “real” instruments cannot be heard – listening to the melody and being transported back to many many summers ago is so worth it.

Non-Muse fans may just give me a blank stare, but I am taking the chance that are some Muse fans on FG. Here’s that video.

Here’s another song – I think my current favorite: Super Massive Blackhole.

If you want to know more about Muse, you can visit their official web site. (I strongly suggest that you do if you want to listen to awesome music.)

Now what about other songs that you might want to hear in 8-bit? Do a quick search on YouTube – you’ll find lots. From what I have read, I think you can DIY. Does anyone know how to do this exactly? (For those times when you feel like tearing your hair out because of boredom…)

You can use it like shown in the photo above, for your computer cables or you can use it to hang your coats and clothes. These hangers would fit very well in an design, webdev or other web company. If you have a geeky decorated room this would be perfect for it too.

Details about the hanger:

• Made from sturdy MDF and acrylic
• Dimensions: approx 8 x 7 x 1,5 cm (3” x 2,8” x 0,6 ”)
• “8-bit” style shape and decoration
• Screw is permanently attached

You can order these cool hangers ta Meninos for 19.99 dollar a piece.

They sell more cool geeky stuff like this Dharma external hard-drive case. Or a Space Invaders lamp shade.

Although seeing the reactions to the Lost finale I doubt the fanaticism is still big enough to shell out 290 dollar for a Lost branded product.

In true FG fashion, DJ Zantho took true childhood heroes and converted them with Ableton to amazing ’8-Bit artwork’. Among the awesome works: Donkey Kong, Mario, Darth Vader, Mega Man, Zero and many more.

It may be really hard to believe but this appears to be really done in sound editing software. Mac boys, run to GarageBand and now make something similar, while respecting the Apple UI Guidelines!

More images at DJ Zanthos’ Deviant.

PIXELS by PATRICK JEAN.
Uploaded by onemoreprod. – Watch original web videos.

My life has revolved around video games ever since I could remember. When I was a kid, I was in competition with Bryan Roda. I had an Atari 2600 which I loved, but sometime after I moved next door to him, he got an Atari 7200 which he played on his mammoth 32-inch TV. And it was in his bedroom, too! Between that and the G.I.Joe Aircraft carrier, old Bryan had a few edges on me, and it was quite upsetting.

Flash to middle school, and my life with Nintendo Power magazine. I had a subscription since the first issue, and it guided me through tough times in Zelda and Mario games. High school brought Sega, Street Fighter and NHL 95, and I feel in love with my wife because of her love for Mario Kart.

The video above is named Pixels, and it was done by Patrick Jean. It tells the story of video games – old school video games, no less – popping out of a TV and attacking New York City. It includes classic appearances by Donkey Kong, Space Invaders, and even Pong. Plus the production value is pretty spectacular. You know, I have no idea why I’m vamping on about this thing. Just watch the video because I said so.

Please.

A few months back, my wife and my mother were talking about decorating our then-impending child’s baby room, and the subject of painting the room came up. My mom had painted Sesame Street characters along the wall, so that started the ideas. I’m not sure if my wife wanted to one-up or top my mom or not, but she decided to paint the entire room in Dr Seuss. Characters, background, etc. One giant Dr Seuss room. It took a few months, but she got it done and it’s amazing looking.

Which brought up the topic of what to do with this new talent in the future. We used to have a video game room prior to the baby, so the subject of doing a room painted with a Super Mario Bros scene – level 1-1 we were thinking – going around the perimeter would be pretty cool. Ideas are still flowing, but we’re a little ways off before we’ll start on that project. But I’m always on the lookout to find cool decorations for this room. That’s when I found this bad boy.

It’s a hanger – for clothes, headphones, bodies, whatever – that mounts to the wall via a fairly sturdy system. This would be perfect for our room, and it’s on my to-buy list. The 8-Bit hanger. Perfect.

Of course that led me to the next big find, the Wall Bar. It’s a plain and simple physical version of the very first set of Photoshop tools. I’m not a graphic designer, but I am a photographer and having a piece of work like this near my desk would be awesome. Is it a definite purchase? Not so sure, because it is $69.99. But it’s definitely pretty cool.

See? Random stories lead somewhere eventually.

I’m reminiscing about the Atari 400 — my first real computer. As the ad below shows, it was a bit of the poor relation to the Atari 800 – less pricy but less memory.

I’m not sure if that keyboard was supposed to repel spills, but I remember getting quite adept at typing on it.

It certainly had an interesting look to it. Lots of brown colouring and a bit like some sort of console you might find on a spaceship’s flight deck in a cheap movie from the ’70s.

Here’s the manual for the Atari 400/800. Mum has only been given one instruction: “Press the play button”, while the son looks on and wonders when his folks will leave so he can finish that primitive ASCII porn program he started writing yesterday.

Ah, yes, that amazing cassette deck. Unlike the Spectrum, you couldn’t get away with plugging any old player into the computer. No, the Atari 410 was the business.

This poor fellow seems to have a manual for the Disk Operating System II, unaware that it was nigh impossible to use the Atari 400 for that. Time to upgrade to the 800, methinks.

Ahh, Atari 8-bit and 16-bit side by side (well, except for those pesky Commodores sitting in the middle. Who the hell put those there?)

OK here’s one musical use for an old Atari 400 and joystick trigger buttons.

Stick a Dalek on top, we can play Doctor Who on this thing.

Uh, hang on, have you seen the screenshot?

Ahh, I spent many a happy time learning the Atari’s idiosyncratic version of BASIC that missed out some vital bits other 8-bit machines had. INKEY$ anyone? I seem to remember missing that a lot.

Did I tell you about the first program I tried to type in on the Atari 400, without ever pressing Return?

It didn’t work.

Wow, green and orange Chess. You could never put it on the high levels because not only would the computer beat you but it would take about twenty times as long as a human to play each move.

Who says computers have to be fast?

Is it true, or just folklore, that people really bought an Atari computer just to play Star Raiders? I’m doubtful.

Anyhow, there’s a quick nostalgic tour of my beloved Atari 400. Worth all of $20 now I’m sure, but a lot more in memories.

Anyone else have the Atari 400? Are you still running it?

Here we have 11 Daft Punk tracks covered using 8-bit gaming systems:

1. Around The World by The Listrix
2. Short Circuit by Random
3. Voyager by Zombectro
4. Revolution 909 by Note!
5. Aerodynamic by Je deviens dj en 3 jours
6. Superheroes by Stage7
7. Crescendolls by Flashbob
8. One More Time by Microchip
9. Teachers by Fluxxin
10. Indo Silver Club by Motone
11. Veridis Quo by EvilWezil

Go grab the free download and cover art.

Via