Air Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time. He won six NBA championships with the Chicago Bulls and holds the NBA record for highest career scoring average (among many statistical feats).
In my childhood bedroom, Jordan’s “Soaring” poster is still on the wall.
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.
The Penn State Nittany Lions mascot is NCAA Division I pixel art mascot #11 of 347. Big Ten mascot #1 of 11. (View reference images.)
I moved to Oregon from State College, Pennsylvania in 2001. Penn State is my alma mater and my primary rooting interest when I choose to pay attention to college sports.
The Oregon State Beavers mascot, Benny Beaver, is NCAA Division I pixel art mascot #1 of 347. Pac-10 mascot #1 of 10. (View reference images.)
This is the first character in what I expect will be a long series of 8-bit college mascots. I’ve pretty much decided that I’m going to draw pixel art for a retro-style game instead of finishing my master’s thesis, Mascot Identity: The Symbolic Consumption of University Athletics Brands. So, in honor of my Oregon State University M.A. studies that intellectually prepared for making pixel art like it’s the 1980s, here is Benny Beaver.
The inspiration for Mascot Mashup was 8-bit childhood nostalgia. More specifically, it was QBasic Gorillas, a turn-based artillery game first distributed with MS-DOS 5 and published in 1991 by IBM. The gorilla had four animation states, which I have redrawn (in a modified aspect ratio that matches how the program used to display on my dad’s old laptop screen). All sprites created for Mascot Mashup will be based on this style and animation.
Eve – No. 86
The biblical first woman who began life in the Garden of Eden. The story of Adam and Eve forms the basis for the Christian doctrine of original sin. In classic male chauvinist form, it is written that Eve tempted Adam to eat of the fatal fruit. Quick, someone cover her up!
Hey, isn’t the second coming of Christ supposed to occur today? If you’re reading this, I guess you didn’t make the list.