Stuff I Like: 80's

Showing posts with label 80's. Show all posts

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Brainseep: Time Masters (Les Maitres du Temps)

SOURCE bonesandrobots - Click here to go to original post

"Time Masters(Les Maîtres du temps) (1982, René Laloux and Mœbius)

Monday, May 16, 2011

The Art of the Arcade Machine Marquee (1)

SOURCE Sci-Fi-O-Rama - Click here to go to original post

Alien Syndrome Marquee

A selection of Coin-Op/Arcade Machine “Marquees” beaming gloriously in brash 80’s technicolor… Marquees (in case you didn’t know) are used to illuminate the name of an arcade game at the top of its cabinet.

Stopping with a friend recently I was reminded with just how amazing this art is as he has a small selection of these marquees as fridge magnets! and I haven’t featured any Coin Op / Pinball design for a while, so figured it was about time to run an update…

So what makes this Art so cool? for me it’s the punchy low palettes & comic-type colouring, mix this up with super striking Logotypes and the fact of course that the whole thing is designed to be backlit! It’s actually worth pointing out that I worked in a seaside arcade as a 16 year old, in retrospect it’s obviously mcuh more than just the game themselves that made a major impact me… My Favourite ever Coin-Op’s ? Turbo Out Run, Aliens, Rolling Thunder and Special Criminal Investigation aaah, things were simpler back then!

So a bit more more about the samples collected here:

Top: “Alien Syndrome” – A top down Commando/Gauntlet-esque shooter dating from 1986, designed and manufactured by Sega, it’s one I missed in the Arcade, though played it on the 8-bit home systems of the day, decent game! Here’s a video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsZ0g6HE684

2nd Top: “Sinistar” – By Williams in 1982, this an evolution of Asteroids, and is similar to Bosconion http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcyBtVwAsfg embarrassingly I’d never even heard of Sinistar before researching this post! I’m still not sure how I’ve missed it! Check the freaky Sinistar Sample too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-XEINagmaU

3rd Top: “Commando” – From Nihon Bussan/AV Japan released 1985. Another genre-defining rock solid classic, I’m more familiar with the Speccy version where you had to rotate the joystick 360 degrees to lob a grenade (very difficult). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qctKI_t5eY

4th Top: “Asteroids” – By Atari 1979. One of the most popular arcade games of all time, this marquee featuring an obvious Battlestar Galactica reference. You must of seen Asteroids, so here’s a clip of Atari’s lesser known 1987 sequal “Blasteroids” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFmhK3VM3Ng

5th Top: “Tempest” – By Atari, released 1987. The wireframe vector graphic legend that’s been recyclced many times, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxIquJIRZHU&feature=related

6th Top: “Crystal Castles” – Another Atari title, this time from 1983 – this is an Isometric platform/maze/puzzler which utilises a bizarre collection of sprites, a game I loved as a kid, and like most games I’m still completely useless at it… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f01M2l9oGJI

7th Top:”Zaxxon” – More isometric viewpoint action, this one from Sega and dating from 1982. Supremely ambitious for it’s time, in many ways this still looks great http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHORFz6ZCC0&feature=related

8th / 9th Top: “Galaga” and “Galaxian” – These classic precursor’s to the Vertical Shoot-em-up both hail released from the Namco stable, appearing 1979 and 1981 respectively. Just in case you forgot how Galaxian plays: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzitZv8Enmc

10th Top: “Bosconian” – The original 8 way shooter from Midway, released 1981. Again this is one I remember from the 8-bit systems rather than in the arcade itself, here’s a video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nC5_RYXmfsc

Bottom: “Rastan” – A left scrolling fantasy platform fighter from Taito released in 1987. If the throttled Lizard-Man hasn’t jogged your memory, here’s a clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvn2pPsaE4I

—

All games referenced via KLOV “The Killer List of Video Games” AKA http://www.arcade-museum.com

a superb reference site…

Images collected from various sources via The Google.

Vintage Scan #32: Mego Catalog

SOURCE Retrospace - Click here to go to original post

If you were a boy growing up in the seventies, chances are you owned at least one Mego action figure. I don't think I even knew my Batman was made by Mego, but I sure do recognize the many action figures and sets pictured in this catalog. If you're interested in some serious childhood deja vu, I recommend you download this catalog: Mego World's Greatest Heroes 1972-1982. You're welcome!

Friday, May 13, 2011

The fascinating anime of Hayao Miyazaki

SOURCE Francesco Mugnai - Click here to go to original post

Maybe the name of Hayao Miyazaki is unknow to your ears and eyes, because it is a little bit hard to remember the sounds and spelling of japanese language. This article is trying to put in your memory the name of Hayao Miyazaki.

Hayao Miyazaki (1941) is a filmmaker and cofounder of Studio Ghibli (animation production). When he was young drew airplanes for Miyazaki Airplane, a enterprise owned by Hayao Miyazaki’s uncle and developed a lifelong fascination with aviation and flying machines, a recurrent theme on his films.
In April 1963, Miyazaki got a job at Toei Animation. He played an important role as chief animator, concept artist, and scene designer.
Miyazaki co-founded the animation production company Studio Ghibli with Isao Takahata in 1985.
For Television, in 1974 Mizayaki created the scene design and layout of Heidi, girl of the Alps. This anime serie is based on Heidi of Johanna Spyri. Miyazaki directed six episodes of Sherlock Hound, an Italian-Japanese co-production which retold Sherlock Holmes tales. These episodes were first broadcast in 1984-85.
He was widely known with the film Princess Mononoke, but he had a long time directing movies: The Castle of Cagliostro, 1979; Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, 1984; Castle in the Sky, 1986; My Neighbor Totoro, 1988; Kiki’s Delivery Service, 1989; Porco Rosso, 1992; Princess Mononoke, 1997; Spirited Away, 2001 (winner, Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, 2002); Howl’s Moving Castle, 2004 (nominee, Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, 2005); and Ponyo, 2008.
I strongly recommend you to watch the movies with a lot of attention to the details. It was amazing for me to pause the movie and see every detail of the room of the wizard in Howl’s Moving Castle, with tons of amulets hanging in the walls and ceiling. Or be scared with the demon snakes on the film the Princess Mononoke, which by the way, is a mix between traditional animation (hand-draw) and computer graphics. Since Princess Mononoke to Ponyo Mizayaki used the mixed techniques and now he had shifted to traditional animation only.
As The Guardian said:” In the past he has been vocal in his criticism of computer-generated imagery, describing it as “thin, shallow, fake”. These days he seems to have made his peace with the beast. He admits that he likes Toy Story because it opened the doors to a new breed of animation and even admits to using CGI in his own movies (but never more than 10% of the finished print). “Actually I think CGI has the potential to equal or even surpass what the human hand can do,” he says. “But it is far too late for me to try it.”
I am leaving you with some images from his movies, but you must remember to watch at least Princess Mononoke. You are gonna be fond of him.