Saturday, January 13, 2007

Illustration Friday: 80s

"Yeah, my nephew got that new Nintendo game deal for Christmas. Christmas afternoon everyone took a turn on it. I embarrassed myself. Couldn't get the hang of it," Charlie said. "No aptitude for it, I guess."

Louie shook his head and drained the last of his beer. "Tell me about it. Last video game I could ever play was PacMan. 'Member that one?"

A sheepish smile came over Charlie's face. "Don't remind me of the 80s. I spent half of that decade trying to drink myself to death and the other half repenting. Less said of that time the better."

Charlie threw a tennis ball across the lawn for his dog to retrieve. The dog gave the ball a tired glance and waddled over to his water dish. "Couldn't play that PacMan game either. Hated that crazy music and those weird sound effects." He sighed, then turned to Louie quickly. "Hey, how about a game of pool? Now there's a game."

Louie nodded, "Yeah... timeless."

Peace to you all, and watch out for Blinky, Inky, Clyde, and that other ghost, whatever his name was.

22 comments:

Tony LaRocca said...

Inky, Pinky, Blinky, & Clyde. (When playing Ms. PacMan, Clyde was replaced with Sue.) God, I'm such a geek. I think in the cartoon, the ghosts worked for someone named Mesmatron, or something like that.

Unknown said...

Love the composition!

Michelle Lana said...

great work!

Unknown said...

Haha! I love the story! Great illustration too. Love the colour contrast!

Ginger*:) said...

I loved remembering this one.... My all time favorite must be the original Space Invaders on Atari, but I'm not sure which year that is.... so now, which is harder the Electric Slide or Pac Man?

Your post, illo and story hit the mark!

studio lolo said...

Once again, excellent writing and illustration! For some reason I'm craving M&M peanuts now :D

Amy Zaleski said...

One of the only video games I was ever good at. Your dialogue is always fun to read.

Digital Scott's Illustrationblog said...

Great work, Twisselman! PacMan, what a great idea!

Larry Lee said...

I remember watching people who knew the pattern and could play for level after level. I was not one of those people. Asteroids was my favorite.

Larry Lee said...

Thanks for the visit. Your hint is: "Willie Nelson, Gene Simmons, Ted Nugent, Glenn Frey, Frank Zappa, Phil Collins, Miles Davis, and Frankie Valli all played a part in it"

Robert McLaughlin said...

Hi Twizzelman,

My first go at video games was pong. I sucked at it. Just couldn't get the hang of getting the paddles in the right place.

In the 80s when the incredibly complex PacMan came on the scene I didn't even try it. Nintendo? Mario? Not them either.

Not too long ago I got my son a Nintendo game cube with the Star Wars game. I couldn't get past level one. I could handle the tutorial levels though.

Are there any games out there where you can't die?

Great illo, I like the boxing gloves, I'm afraid of PacMan.

steve said...

Oh yeah, Pac man fever! Love how you cropped this one Twisselman. Great, classic game indeed.

° said...

lol video games uhmmm no apptitdue here either how bout pinball?

Kim de Young said...

My brother got a Pac-Man birthday cake for his 7th birthday. There was so much yellow frosting on that cake. I love the moody feel to your drawing, it has a very pop-culture feel to it.

Liz Jones said...

Great stuff! I like the text and the illo. I answered your question about livejournal on my blog-- you actually posted just fine! But if you want to put an account there, that gives you more options. I do that with blogger!

Anonymous said...

Yeah... I was too unfortunate to havegrown up with pacman... It was JUST before my time... All I had was Mario. >> But I play Pacman on my computer. But yeah... I like the style of the art. Great job.

HARDWAX said...

I have a kid sister who was ferocious in her passion for Packman, me, I'm Charlie, no aptitude for it, Trivial Pursuit is more my thing.
Packman looks vigorous with the cocky smile and boxing glove this illo sparkles and the story makes it even more fun.
Wonderful!

J.Crysallis said...

Hey - Just wanted to say thanks for commenting on my illustration. So you know- she is not from the batman series - she's just someone I thought might make an interesting character. Anyhow - I like your image too. I really like the composition - it's very interesting.

Heartful said...

God that takes me back to a childhood where my brother and dad ignored me cos they were glued to the screen playing asteroids and other stuff, as well as pacman! Arrrggghhh!!!

Anonymous said...

great job my nephew loves pacman really good keep it up.

Julie in the studio said...

I wonder how many quarters I've wasted...um, I mean used playing pac man in college. Some questions will never be answered I guess.
I love the long format you used. Really nice work.

Unknown said...

I like the illo a lot, but you may be in danger of out-writing your illustrations! -Loved the narrative.

I believe I made it to the 9th or 10th "key" level using patterns from a book. I was vidiot -to a fault. But I found Pac Man boring. Defender was my game. Fast and furious was the only way to survive. My high was somewhere around 1,800,000 point... 2-hours on one quarter. Now THERE'S some nostolgia...

Thanks for the "defence" comment. :-) I REALLY do want to get back to more involvement, but attending college full-time, taking on most of my cyatic-crippled wife's chores, and desperately trying to avoid bankruptsy keep surfing time to a minimum.

DEFINATELY "Peace" to you!