shinobi

I love reminders that there are still many people out there who love classic video games. What’s happening over at Cook & Becker right now is an excellent example of this.

“Cook & Becker asked some of the hottest artists working in entertainment and video games today to draw and create a print of their favorite classic SEGA games. The idea was to create a series of beautiful prints under direction of SEGA that would capture the heart of these classic brands, their aesthetic and what they meant for people playing them and growing up with them.” – www.candb.com

The fact that a company like Cook & Becker are selling video game related artwork/prints shows that many of our old favorite games are not forgotten. And that new material is still very desirable by many of us.

Golden Axe by Gerald Parel

Golden Axe and Shinobi are my personal favorites of these first five offering from Cook & Becker. For prints they are very expensive at $115 USD each. However they are quite large (36 x 24 inch) and exceptionally well crafted. I don’t yet know if I would buy them for myself. It’s hard to redirect money that could otherwise become actually retro video games but I am very tempted. And I do want to give credit to Cook & Becker for posting relatively large (1029×1600) versions online that will allow everyone to enjoy them. Thank you Cook & Becker!

Phantasy Star by Kilian Eng

Jet Set Radio by Roman van der Haven

I’m looking forward to summer 2015 when Cook & Becker promises more art from new artist to add to this first excellent wave.

Streets of Rage by Julien Renoult

And if you just can’t wait for the perfect piece to show up for your all time favorite game; don’t you worry! The Internet is a wonderful place. A little while ago I discovered poster called ‘Classic Women of Gaming’ featuring every strong female characters in gaming up until 1995.

Classic Women of Gaming by Ashley Riot

You can read more about the artist and this beautiful piece at kotaku.com. This is how I found Ashley and she has already drawn Alis from Phantasy Star for me. I feel that her drawing brings my little blog to life with Alis being ever vigilant as an amazing backdrop 🙂

Alis on Retro Megabit by Ashley Riot.

Alis (Mega Drive) by Ashley Riot

Be sure to check out more of Ashley Riot’s work at Deviant Art. Ashley is currently working on Odin for me right now and my good buddy Kalman the super talented comic book artist is also working on a Phantasy Star poster for me. These are exciting times! 🙂 New love for old stuff abound!

And of course thanks to geelw from Destroy All Fanboys! for bringing us this news 🙂

There are some games that I really want in the collection.

I’ve started noticing that a lot of these games are the earlier releases from when I was most into my Genesis. Shadow Dancer is definitely one of those games. It’s a great game from a great series. The mechanic of your companion dog was really well done. It wasn’t over powered but still very useful. You could set your dog on an enemy and while the enemy was busy wrestling with the dog he wasn’t able to do anything else allowing you to easily take him out. This is a very good game.

This copy is in excellent condition and cost me $20 including shipping.

Shadow Dancer