StevenLefcourt
8bit Fatality: Galaga
Welcome to my new project: 8-Bit Fatalities. The idea behind the project stems from growing up at an arcade, and my eventual love affair with Mortal Kombat.
Before Mortal Kombat, violence in video games was largely unheard of or ignored because of its extreme pixelized simplicity. But when Liu Kang and Sub Zero came along to finish off arcade goers the world changed and parents were in an uproar (not mine though).
I couldn't understand what the big deal was though, because as a videogame player all my life I had already considered my actions life and death. Just because you didn't see pac-man violently tearing into the ghosts with his jaws, or mario smashing in the brains of a goomba, thats what I knew was happening. I knew my goal was to kill these enemies, so Mortal Kombat wasn't a big change for me. To me, it was still just a game, where fake deaths happened as part of game progression. To uninformed adults, however, Mortal Kombat was a photo realistic depiction of kids becoming complicit in virtual murders. And so, I decided to show everyone just what I imagined was happening when these little blocky, pixelized abstractions did when they came into contact with eachother, but in a much more visceral, and gory way than could ever be shown with limited graphical systems.
Today, we have a spacetastic special event. So special I couldn't decide on which terrible half-pun to use for a title- from Galagore, and Galagunned Down to Arcade: Fire!
Also, since this is the first post since it happened, special thanks to Kotaku.com for picking this up (and my good pseudo e-pal/acquaintance Spacesick for telling me they had) and whomever chose to digg it afterwards. Totally unexpected and I appreciate all the favs and comments and support around the net. MORE SOON.
8bit Fatality: Galaga
Welcome to my new project: 8-Bit Fatalities. The idea behind the project stems from growing up at an arcade, and my eventual love affair with Mortal Kombat.
Before Mortal Kombat, violence in video games was largely unheard of or ignored because of its extreme pixelized simplicity. But when Liu Kang and Sub Zero came along to finish off arcade goers the world changed and parents were in an uproar (not mine though).
I couldn't understand what the big deal was though, because as a videogame player all my life I had already considered my actions life and death. Just because you didn't see pac-man violently tearing into the ghosts with his jaws, or mario smashing in the brains of a goomba, thats what I knew was happening. I knew my goal was to kill these enemies, so Mortal Kombat wasn't a big change for me. To me, it was still just a game, where fake deaths happened as part of game progression. To uninformed adults, however, Mortal Kombat was a photo realistic depiction of kids becoming complicit in virtual murders. And so, I decided to show everyone just what I imagined was happening when these little blocky, pixelized abstractions did when they came into contact with eachother, but in a much more visceral, and gory way than could ever be shown with limited graphical systems.
Today, we have a spacetastic special event. So special I couldn't decide on which terrible half-pun to use for a title- from Galagore, and Galagunned Down to Arcade: Fire!
Also, since this is the first post since it happened, special thanks to Kotaku.com for picking this up (and my good pseudo e-pal/acquaintance Spacesick for telling me they had) and whomever chose to digg it afterwards. Totally unexpected and I appreciate all the favs and comments and support around the net. MORE SOON.