Issue 1 - Video Dreamer - Page 1-2 - Arcade Action

[Adam Dravian]

Man, figuring out how we wanted to display this two-page spread on the website was a pain in the ass. We looked at the way some other webcomics handle two-page spreads but none of the options seemed appealing. Thankfully, our Web Dude, Ghoul, figured out the current solution.

Aside from briefly dicking around with one of the old RPG Maker games in her early teens, this was Jessica's first time doing pixel art. She was going to make the pixel resolution lower, more like an 8-bit NES game, but I convinced her to aim more for a late-80's arcade game, like Final Fight.

Originally, these two pages were a single panel on top of one page, but it was so small that you could hardly even tell it was pixel art. Since the panel was so rad, we rearranged the first few pages to turn it into a glorious two-page spread.

[Ghoul]

I was wondering about the resolution bit. I didn't realize arcade machines in the late 80s achieved such a high level graphical detail for the time. It looks like a Super Nintendo game! The ignorance of being a 90s child...

[Jessica Safron]

Part of me still wishes the game had been lower res, but my love for those stupid sprite expressions outweighs that wish.

[Matty2310]

Adam, you said I could do this, so I've decided I'm going to resurrect damned threads from the dead to guess their references.

OK, so the title of the arcade game looks to be a mash-up of Double Dragon and Bad Dudes Vs. DragonNinja, as do the characters, as they're both wearing singlets, one black but the other red, along with bandanas. The gameplay looks as though it's from the arcade Ninja Gaiden while the background looks as though it's from Castlevania. The werewolf in the corner has the outline of TeenWolf while it's clothes are that of Back To The Future, so Michael J. Fox 1985. How good did I do?

[Jessica Safron]

Adam, you said I could do this, so I've decided I'm going to resurrect damned threads from the dead to guess their references.

OK, so the title of the arcade game looks to be a mash-up of Double Dragon and Bad Dudes Vs. DragonNinja, as do the characters, as they're both wearing singlets, one black but the other red, along with bandanas. The gameplay looks as though it's from the arcade Ninja Gaiden while the background looks as though it's from Castlevania. The werewolf in the corner has the outline of TeenWolf while it's clothes are that of Back To The Future, so Michael J. Fox 1985. How good did I do?

Double Dragon and Bad Dudes, check. Don't remember if I took from Ninja Gaiden for this page, but I was probably looking at it, among a ton of other arcade games. Castlevania was an influence on the background. The were-creature is actually one of the most direct, mostly unaltered nods to a single thing (besides the fact that it's basically a pixel version of the thing), and actually has nothing to do with Teen Wolf/Michael J. Fox.

[Matty2310]

Damnn, I was so sure I was correct (although in my defense, I only said the outline of the wolf looked like it). That totally looked like a red vest to me, but now that I look closer, it does appear to be a wooly coat.
And I've actually seen The Thing and yet I don't remember a wolf-like creature in it, although it was four years ago and I saw over half of it on a projector screen in a classroom with tones of light coming in, so I could barely see anything.
We were watching because my 20th Century history class was looking at media from the Cold War era, and The Thing was set in a very cold place in a war against The Thing. Get it....
Actually it was because it was allegory for not knowing who and who isn't a communist, and the levels of ditrust.

[Adam Dravian]

Damnn, I was so sure I was correct (although in my defense, I only said the outline of the wolf looked like it). That totally looked like a red vest to me, but now that I look closer, it does appear to be a wooly coat.
And I've actually seen The Thing and yet I don't remember a wolf-like creature in it, although it was four years ago and I saw over half of it on a projector screen in a classroom with tones of light coming in, so I could barely see anything.
We were watching because my 20th Century history class was looking at media from the Cold War era, and The Thing was set in a very cold place in a war against The Thing. Get it....
Actually it was because it was allegory for not knowing who and who isn't a communist, and the levels of ditrust.

Ah, you took Jessica too literally when she called the were-beast a "thing." She wasn't referring to the movie (which, by the way, is a fuckin' badass movie and that's awesome that they showed you it in school). The creature (I'll avoid calling it a thing so as not to add to the confusion) is wearing a letterman jacket.

[Matty2310]

Damn. I think I might leave it at that. But yes, The Thing is an awesome movie (although it would suck if you're Norwegian because what the guy says at the start in Norwegian spoils the movie).