bead art

For the 1 year anniversary of Retro Video Gaming my fellow retro game collector Stopxwhispering hosted a very fun contest.

“In celebration of Retro-Video-Gaming’s anniversary I will have a little contest! The contest will be up for 1 week and there will be a winner who will get a secret prize! 😀
The question that needs to be answered is:
How many Famicom Disk System games do I have?“

Click here for Retro Video Gaming’s 1 Year Anni Post.

My response was this:
“OK, I’m ready. My guess is 44! Yeah, that’s right. I’m sure I nailed it 🙂
I know I’m very happy that you’ve spent so much time posting and blogging about your collection. Happy 1st Anni!”

From the other guesses I saw posted I don’t think anyone else thought to browse through Stopxwhispering’s collection pictures. I started browsing collection photos until I found the Famicon Game Diskettes. I wasn’t really sure those games to the right of Pac-Man and the Ghosts were Famicom Disks but they looks about the right size.

But… I was right! And even though they were very hard to count I nailed it! Just like I said… Almost, I was off by one. At the time of the contest Stopxwhispering had 45 Famicom Disk games.
*If you haven’t seen Stopxwhispering’s collection you really should have a look. Both the collection and the Gaming Room are amazing.

And my prize? Check it out 🙂 A custom gift for TheSegaDude.

Sonic and cupcakes! A very fun start. I was of course very curious to get into it. It didn’t take long to find actual unwrapping instructions. The fascination was increasing.

Found this at the front door.

Look up?!

Things were getting more serious now. I was sure I had found my entry point! And if gift wrapping and a sealed box were not enough intrigue; I found a very cool Retro symbol that nicely reinforced the mystery 🙂

Getting there…

What’s inside?

Look at that. There’s a lot of stuff in there. A lot of very cool Sega goodness. I love this bead art and it’s going into my collection. And that copy of Tiny Toon Adventures is the first PAL Mega Drive game I have ever had. So that is also very fun. I tried this PAL game on my Sega Genesis and it would not load. It got as far as the Konami logo and then nothing; it just froze. But with my Super Key it plays perfectly 🙂

Look at all the lute!

SEGA! Right on!

I’m not yet 100% sure where I’ll place the Bead Art but I wanted to see what they look like in the collection right away. Below is a fun screen shot showing off my new stuff. Of course everyone loves Sonic! But Stopxwhispering figured out that Fantasy Zone and Opa Opa is a HUGE favorite of mine. I always found the Fantasy Zone games hard but I do love Opa Opa.

The Sega Collection with Stopxwhispering Prizes 🙂

Happy 1st anniversary Retro Video Gaming! And thank you very much Stopxwhispering for this really awesome prize!!

Ever since a good friend of mine gave me my 20th Anniversary Sonic the Hedgehog I’ve decided that I would like a few Sega characters sprinkled throughout my collection. I was surprised by how much I liked seeing Sonic standing next to my TV and games. It really added some charm to the collection. The problem is unlike Nintendo there aren’t many Sega figures being made. So I was very surprised to find that there is an Earth Worm Jim figure.

Earth Worm Jim Figure

I first saw this relatively new Earth Worm Jim at Fan Expo this past fall for $20. And somehow in the excitement I forgot to buy him. About a week ago I found him again by chance at a local comic book shop for the same price. So I picked him up (along with a cool Gordan Freeman figure)!
Jim is very well done. The sculpt and paint are perfect. I don’t think he could ever be done more accurately. He could have a little more articulation but for me he’s perfect. I’ve placed him next to his game on one of my more sparse shelves. He helps fill it out a bit.

Jim’s New Home in the Collection

And if Jim weren’t cool enough, my good buddy has struck again and given some more goodness for the Collection. Below you’ll see bead art for the main characters of Phantasy Star 1.

Phantasy Star Bead Characters

This craft is very clever and particularly well suited for 8bit and 16bit video games. Up close they don’t look that great but from the right distance they look excellent. I don’t think this will be their final home. I might move them to the top of the book shelf once I figure out a way to get them to stand.

Jim, Alice and the crew in the Collection

My buddy who gave me the bead figures (and Sonic) has a pretty good retro video game collection himself. He’s been focusing on 8bit and older. If he ever gets around to posting his own stuff I’d love to put up a link.

This is his blog about the little things in life; the mundane, the silly and the fun: robinsbyacres.blogspot.ca But don’t bother going there. He doesn’t care anymore.

On an unrelated note: While I was searching online to find out what people call ‘bead art’ I found this little graphic that someone whipped up. Looks like they intend to make this graphic into a bead art version. Of course I’m a big Retro fan and I also really enjoy my xbox so I couldn’t help but fall in love this little gem. A Bill Gates boss battle! Epic!.. and even a bit ominous looking.
Great job Doctor Octoroc! You Rocked it! You might want to check out Octoroc’s own site (www.doctoroctoroc.com) where you’ll find some pretty unique stuff like a Sonic Christmas level mock-up complete with 16-bit Xmas music.

Pixel Art by Doctor Octoroc