Wow, did anybody get the number of that truck?
I can barely remember what I was down about in February because March was so much worse. And I’m certain April will top it, but at least we won’t feel so blindsided this time? Outside of something completely unexpected like a robot takeover.
On the surface it looks like I had an extremely productive March, but like February most of these projects were things I finished back in January or December, when I was feeling a lot more optimistic.
Best Box Art (Part 2): Computer Games On Printed Paper
What was the first computer game with cover art? That’s the question I set out to answer, and got a whole lot more than I bargained for.
Pixels In Print (Part 2): Advertising Odyssey – The First Home Video Game
The first draft of this was written a few years ago because I was attempting to write the first three parts simultaneously. But if it hadn’t gotten sidetracked, this installment would’ve been only half as long.
Where In North Dakota Is Carmen Sandiego?
I didn’t write this one, but I co-edited it for Frank Cifaldi and David Craddock, and contributed some of the graphics (such as the header image above). It’s a good read.
Carmen Sandiego: To Steal Or Not To Steal Walkthrough
Carmen Sandiego got a new Bandersnatch-style interactive film on Netflix, and I wanted to be the first to contribute a “map” to all the choices. Maybe one day I’ll do one for Bandersnatch in the same style.
Nebula
Tom Scott created an interesting five-part game show for Nebula called Money that I contributed some graphics to. I also contributed slides to Polymatter projects.
And for Half As Interesting I designed the thumbnails for “How A Fitness App Revealed Secret Bases,” “Warcraft’s Virtual Pandemic,” “A U.S. Town Found In Mexico,” and “California’s Airplane Boneyard.”
Twitter Threads
MAR28: Grill-Off With Ultra Hand!
APR01: Unexpected Mini Consoles
Around The Internet
VIDEO: (Twitter Thread Above)
Make sure you check out the Twitter Thread I linked above, “A Busy Week FOr New Video Essays.” Lots of recommendations.
VIDEO: SMB Movie Deleted Scenes - Spike & Iggy Edition
A political subplot was cut from the Super Mario Bros. movie, which contains my favorite scene in the context of the movie: Spike & Iggy in a truck with Mario & Luigi discussing the political situation.
VIDEO: Animal Crossing’s Fake Language Is Different In Japan, And Here’s Why (Polygon)
An interesting mini-history of gibberish in video games. I’m not sure it actually answer the “why”? I have a suspicion that the audio wasn’t rerecorded for localization reasons, but rather the gibberish is synthesized and reading from the localized text.
THREAD: The True Villain Of Animal Crossing (Kelsey Lewin)
THREAD: Game-Feel Secrets In Celeste (Matt Thorson)
THREAD: The Secret Origin Of “Triscuit”? (Sage Boggs)
THREAD: An Alternate “Triscuit” Theory (Charles Louis Richter)
THREAD: Wild 3D View-Master Art From The ‘60s (Connor Ratliff)
ARTICLE: How The ‘Coming Out Of Their Shells Tour’ Happened (Gamespot)
I admit went through a brief phase of doodling this incarnation of the Ninja Turtles. I had the VHS (and possibly still have it somewhere) and the cassette tape (stolen by a classmate during a school party). How it came to be was not what I expected.
That’s all for now. And as always, you can support my research on Patreon.