Ralph H. Baer (March 8, 1922 – December 6, 2014) was a German-born American video game developer, inventor and engineer, and was known as “The Father of Video Games” due to his many contributions to games and the video game industry in the latter half of the 20th century. Born in Germany, he and his family fled to the United States before the outbreak of World War II. In 1951, while working at Loral, he proposed the idea of playing games on television screens, but his boss rejected it. Later in 1966, while working at Sanders Associates, his 1951 idea came back to his mind, and he would go on to develop eight hardware prototypes. The last two (the Brown Box and its de/dt extension) would become the first home video game console, the Magnavox Odyssey. Baer would contribute to the development of other consoles and consumer game units, including the electronic memory game Simon for Milton Bradley in 1978.
Scorpion is a recurring player character and occasional boss character from the Mortal Kombat fighting game franchise created by Ed Boon and John Tobias. Making his debut as one of the original seven playable characters in Mortal Kombat in 1992, he is an undead ninja specter seeking revenge for his own death at the hands of Sub-Zero. Arguably the series’ most iconic character, Scorpion has been playable in nearly every Mortal Kombat game. Scorpion yells one of two taunts at his opponents when he hits them with his spear. His most notable catchphrase is “Get over here!”
Sub-Zero is a video game character from the Mortal Kombat fighting game franchise and one of the original characters in the first Mortal Kombat game in 1992. A mainstay of the series, Sub-Zero is the only character who has appeared in every main Mortal Kombat game. The character is a formidable fighter possessing the innate ability to control ice in many forms. In his first return appearance in Mortal Kombat II, it was revealed that the original Sub-Zero had died during the events of the first game and was replaced by his younger brother. In subsequent games, the younger brother remained as Sub-Zero, while the elder brother became Noob Saibot. The most defining trait of the character is his fierce rivalry with his archnemesis Scorpion.
Happy Veterans Day! This week I’ve had my 14-year anniversary as an Oregon resident, my 11-year anniversary as lead web developer/designer at Oregon State University, and my five-year anniversary (three years married) with my wife Heidi. These major life events all happened within three days of each other (November 8-11) in different years.
Sonic the Hedgehog is an anthropomorphic blue hedgehog. He is the protagonist of a video game franchise created by Yuji Naka, and is developed and owned by Sega. The franchise centers on a series of speed-based platform games, but several are spin-offs in different genres. Sonic’s peaceful life is often interrupted by mad scientist Doctor “Eggman” Robotnik. Typically, Sonic—usually along with some of his friends, such as Tails, Amy Rose and Knuckles—must stop Eggman and foil any plans of world domination. The first game in the series, published in 1991, was conceived after Sega requested a mascot character; the title was a success and and transformed Sega into a leading video game company during the 16-bit era in the early to mid-1990s. The series has sold 150 million units as of November 2014, making it one of the best-selling franchises of all time.
Since I had a Sega Genesis instead of a Super Nintendo, Sonic the Hedgehog was a relevant part of my junior high school experience. The decision to choose Sega Genesis over SNES was easy at the time because violent arcade games like Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat, plus EA Sports titles, were important to adolescent me. Oh yeah, and NBA Jam was the best (as covered in my Mike Iuzzolino post).
Q*bert is the title character of an arcade video game developed and published by Gottlieb in 1982. It is a 2D action game with puzzle elements that uses “isometric” graphics to create a pseudo-3D effect. The object is to change the color of every cube in a pyramid by making the on-screen character hop on top of the cube while avoiding obstacles and enemies. The game was conceived by video game programmer Warren Davis and artist Jeff Lee. Lee designed the orange, armless title character and the original concept by drawing a pyramid of cubes inspired by M. C. Escher. The character jumped along the cubes and shot projectiles, called “mucus bombs,” from a tubular nose at enemies. Q*bert was developed under the project name Cubes, but was briefly named Snots and Boogers and @!#?@! during development. The game was Gottlieb’s most successful video game and among the most recognized brands from the golden age of arcade video games.
I obviously didn’t have to modify the 8-bit arcade sprite of Q*bert very much to fit the format of my Mascot Mashup: Gorillas artillery game. I’m surprised it took me almost 800 characters to make him. When I think of Q*bert, I think of playing the Atari 5200 cartridge at my cousin Brian’s house at Christmastime in West Virginia. I never owned a copy of the game, but I was fascinated by its pyramid structure.
On November 14, 2011, coinciding with Nintendo’s launch of Super Mario 3D Land, PETA released a spoof Flash game called Super Tanooki Skin 2D as part of their “Mario Kills Tanooki” publicity campaign. According to PETA, “Tanooki may be just a ‘suit’ in Mario games, but in real life, tanuki are raccoon dogs who are skinned alive for their fur.” In the PETA game, a skinned tanuki chases a blood-soaked Tanooki Mario to reclaim his fur.
PETA’s incendiary politics (and its inhumane 90+ percent kill rate of stray cats and dogs) aside, I enjoyed their 8-bit Tanooki game. Mario’s Tanooki Suit, which resembles a tanuki and gives him shapeshifting powers, first appeared in Super Mario Bros. 3 in 1990. In ancient Japanese folklore and popular culture (see Pom Poko), raccoon dogs are mischievous masters of disguise. My favorite tanuki is my part-Siamese cat Tanuki.
A diminutive Mexican luchador in Capcom’s Saturday Night Slam Masters, a 1993 professional wrestling arcade game. This masked Mexican wrestler amazes crowds with his high-flying speed and techniques. Also known as El Stinger, he is based on real-life Mexican wrestler Lizmark, who’s very popular in Japan.
A fictional character known in Japan as Kinopio who belongs to an anthropomorphic mushroom-like species of the same name in Nintendo’s Mario series. As a citizen of the Mushroom Kingdom, Toad is one of Princess Peach’s most loyal attendants. He was created by the great Shigeru Miyamoto.
A video game character created by Capcom. Ken, an American karate master, is a main character of the Street Fighter series and has appeared in all games in the franchise. In the original 1987 game, best friends and rivals Ken and Ryu were the only two playable characters.
A video game character created by Capcom. Ryu is a karate master and the main protagonist of the Street Fighter series. He premiered in the original Street Fighter in 1987 as the lead character, along with his best friend and rival Ken Masters.
A video game character created by Capcom. Chun-Li, a master of Chinese martial arts, is notable for being the first female playable character in a fighting game. She was first introduced in Street Fighter II in 1991 and entered Street Fighter II‘s tournament as an undercover Interpol agent.
An infamous character in Duck Hunt, released in 1984 for the Nintendo Entertainment System. In the game, players use the NES Zapper light gun to shoot ducks on screen for points. The laughing dog became a hated icon of the game because he giggles every single time a player fails to shoot a duck.
Note: Apparently today is National Hunting and Fishing Day, so I chose between drawing this dumb dog, Elmer Fudd and Yosemite Sam.
The android protagonist of the Mega Man video game franchise from Capcom. The series is known as Rockman in Japan. The first Mega Man game was released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1987. The series now includes well over 50 releases, easily making it Capcom’s most prolific franchise.
An almost-unstoppable enemy in Kid Icarus, which was an action platform video game for the Nintendo Entertainment System, first released in 1987. The Eggplant Wizard (or, as we affectionately called him, the Eggplant Priest) could turn the protagonist’s (Pit’s) upper body into an eggplant by tossing eggplant projectiles at him. See this evil creature in action.
The first athlete to be named an All-Star in two major American sports (baseball and football). He won the Heisman Trophy in 1985 and became a household name in 1989-90 through Nike’s “Bo Knows” advertising campaign. He was also the most unstoppable athlete in video game history (see “Tecmo Bo” in Tecmo Super Bowl for Nintendo).
The main protagonist in Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda series of video games. Created by Japanese game designer Shigeru Miyamot, this magical swordsman has been traveling through Hyrule, attempting to save Princess Zelda and her kingdom, since 1986. I love the music from the original Zelda game. A lot.
A giant ape, created by Japanese game designer Shigeru Miyamoto, who stars in a series of Nintendo games. In the original 1981 video game, Jumpman (now known as Mario) had to rescue Lady (now known as Pauline) from this barrel-throwing ape.
I’m taking a break from political leaders and revolutionaries for a couple of video game characters. Childhood nostalgia runs deep with this Italian-American plumber who first appeared over 25 years ago.
I briefly considered posting an 8-bit Mexican luchador today instead (as a weak tie-in to Cinco de Mayo), but the force of Nintendo was too strong.
Sub-Zero (Mortal Kombat) – No. 932
Sub-Zero is a video game character from the Mortal Kombat fighting game franchise and one of the original characters in the first Mortal Kombat game in 1992. A mainstay of the series, Sub-Zero is the only character who has appeared in every main Mortal Kombat game. The character is a formidable fighter possessing the innate ability to control ice in many forms. In his first return appearance in Mortal Kombat II, it was revealed that the original Sub-Zero had died during the events of the first game and was replaced by his younger brother. In subsequent games, the younger brother remained as Sub-Zero, while the elder brother became Noob Saibot. The most defining trait of the character is his fierce rivalry with his archnemesis Scorpion.
Happy Veterans Day! This week I’ve had my 14-year anniversary as an Oregon resident, my 11-year anniversary as lead web developer/designer at Oregon State University, and my five-year anniversary (three years married) with my wife Heidi. These major life events all happened within three days of each other (November 8-11) in different years.