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Gaming

Angry Art, Gaming, Sketchup
When there’s no more room in hell… the dead will play arcade shooters
01.26.11 | Permalink | Comment?

As I said earlier, I saved the best for last. This is my favourite of the three arcade cabinet concepts I made the other day. This one is specifically for killing the reanimated third reich. I’m not sure if it’s my favourite to look at, but it’s definitely the one I’d like to play with the most. Originally I had planned to make the cabinet look like it was a window from in the game (for those who aren’t familiar with Nazi Zombies, the players battle against undead soldiers who enter the map via windows which the player can board back up for points and a brief delay of imminent death). I quickly realized that the easiest way for people to identify it as a window from the game would be to have the boards on it. Unfortunately boards over the screen would be a little impractical.

I also considered changing the texture on the PPSH in this one to make it look more like the upgraded version – The Reaper. I changed my mind after I remembered the terrible shiny tribal patterns that the game designers decided to use in World at War. I also considered changing the crates on the cabinet to the Mystery Box. I only changed my mind on that one because I figured with my lack of texturing knowledge I’d spend a few hours trying to get it textured, and it’s a fucking box. I have no doubt that I could do it, but for what. It looks neat like this in my opinion.

The only thing I’m sad I wasn’t able to include was a Monkey Bomb. I wanted to model one to plant dead center of the top of the machine, but I decided the monkey alone would take me more time to make than both machines did combined. I even looked for a pre-made cymbal monkey in the 3d warehouse, but it seems those aren’t big on the Sketchup community’s to-do-list. I suppose I could have searched for teddy bears though, and used one of these. Maybe I’ll add one later.

I think for now, this will be the last arcade cabinet I model just for fun. I probably could have done a fair bit of work on Jon’s project instead, but I got sidetracked. It happens…

If I ever get mega-rich, I will commission whoever I have to in order to actually own one of these.
Angry Art, Gaming, Sketchup
World at War at the arcade
01.26.11 | Permalink | Comment?

I wish I was more talented and had the resources to turn these concepts into a reality. Maybe someone like Ben Heckendorn will read this and see it as either a great idea or a challenge. I doubt it, but still… a dream got us this far. And by this far, I mean my badass model of a Call of Duty: World at War arcade cabinet! I made a pair of these last night (the second is coming shortly) after dinner. I used a few components I already had, mainly the PPSH and the bullets. To be honest this was the second of the pair, but I like the other one better so I’m saving it until last.

The way I see it, this cabinet is for playing the campaign mode in WAW. Players would use the PPSH replica to defeat the Wermacht, while hiding behind crates for cover. The major flaw in this design is the lack of player movement control. For it to work at all, the game would have to be redesigned as a rail shooter, but it still looks cool. And at 25₵ a play, that’s a steal!

Like with my Bully cabinet concept, the idea of rendering a “realistic” version of this is impossible. Although I did manage to make a material for the cabinet graphics (minus the title), there is still no way for me to render the screenshot. I suppose I could do one where it looks like the screen is off, but that’s just not as cool.

I have one more to come, but since Holly just came home in dire need of food it’ll have to wait.
Angry Art, Gaming, Sketchup
Bully: Cobra Canem Edit
01.26.11 | Permalink | Comment?

Lately I’ve been playing through Bully: Scholarship Edition for the third time. The first time I played it was the day it came out on the PS2 (or perhaps a few days before… man I miss the old days of simple video game piracy) back in 2006. I instantly fell in love with it. I was already a big fan of Rockstar’s sandbox games which seemed to get better every time, and this game quickly became my favourite of the bunch. It had my two favourite modes of transportation from the Grand Theft Auto series; bicycles and go-karts, along with some fun game play and an amazing soundtrack. I still listen to this soundtrack regularly, if you’re interested most of it is up on youtube.

When the game was re-released for the xbox 360 I got a copy and decided to finally get 100% completion (never quite got it on the PS2 I don’t think). The game had other plans, and I got stuck with 99.9% and no way to get the last point. If you’ve never played the game (or one like it), there are many random (nothing is REALLY random when everything is programmed, but whatever…) missions which pop up when you’re in the right place at the right time. In my game however, one of these instances refused to trigger. I got frustrated and gave up trying to get my last achievement.

I am currently 78.9% of the way to my goal. I lost my old game saves along with all my old save data when I lent my xbox to my brother. I have played a lot of games (thousands… maybe tens of thousands?), but rarely do I ever play a game twice. Even more rare is when I play it a third time. I can only think of about a dozen off the top of my head. This time I’m loving it more than the others. I’m not sure what it is about this game, but I can’t get enough of it.

Well, since I was in an arcade cabinet modeling mood the other day I decided to get imaginative (even though Roan says I’m incapable) and model something that I wish already existed (even though I’d be incapable of affording it). I present to you all my concept for a Bully arcade game. It features a slingshot controller, 1p and 2p joysticks, a beam cola dispenser, and a working bicycle for leaving Johnny Vincent and the Greasers in a trail of dust, while inadvertently getting Lola hot to dance – in her pants.

I had intended on doing a sweet rendering of this machine, but that idea got scrapped once I realized the imported images (meaning the screenshot on the display and all the graphics and logos on the cab) don’t work with Indigo. It would have been pretty sweet, but whatever. I still dig it.

There are a few more of these to come. I’ve had some spare time…
Angry Art, Gaming, Sketchup
Cobra cabinets
01.24.11 | Permalink | 1 Comment

This weekend I decided to model some old arcade cabinets after my xbox crashed and I lost a bunch of unsaved progress in my re-play through of Bully: Scholarship Edition. I didn’t feel like redoing all the missions I had just completed so I thought I’d get to work on some models for Jon’s project. I need to make environments as well as weapons, so that means I need lots of little items to fill these environments (think furniture, crates, common everyday items).

I have recently had an urge to go spend a few hours at an arcade. A few days ago I watched a short documentary about arcade-fighter tournaments (which don’t really happen on arcade cabinets anymore), and one on the evolution of the first person shooter (which is more about PC gaming than it is arcades, but it still reminded me of tons of games I used to love as a kid and haven’t seen in years) while I was working. I’ve also been talking about pinball table restoration with my dad a lot since we brought the family table out of storage, so all these things lead to modeling the above cabinets.

Originally I had planned to just model the cabinets and leave the screens blank (as if they were unplugged), but then I decided to have some fun and make up some games that never existed (but if they did, I’d want to play them). I tried to keep with the tradition of retro arcade games and put far more impressive visuals on the cabinet than actually appear within the game.

The machine on the left takes it’s inspiration from one of my favourite games to play at the 7-11 when I was a kid: Golden Axe. Originally I planned to call it Swordious the Savage Slayer, after my very short lived World of Warcraft character – Swordious. Then my hatred for all things WOW prevented me from doing so. The game on the right is my own original concept for a space shooter called Pew³ (or Pew Pew Pew: Space Shooter Awesome!). I would pump quarters into both these machines based on name and cabinet graphics alone.

I did my best to make the text and images on the displays look like shitty 8-bit graphics, but I don’t think it shows up well. You can click the images if you want to see a slightly bigger version. I doubt these cabinets will actually get used for Jon’s project, but I had a lot of fun making them and imagining what they would actually be like (in terms of game play, story, etc.). I may still use the cabinet model, but I’ll strip it right down probably. It all depends on what environments they decide to use really.

I also plan to make a cabinet for Bully. I want to write an entry about why I love that game, and I thought it would be cool to make an image of an arcade version to go along with it. First I have to finish it again. last time I played it was in 2006! I almost couldn’t remember the hot art teacher’s name…
Angry Art, Gaming, Sketchup
Misreads: As Ed rims, Me ass rid, Mars is Ed
01.24.11 | Permalink | Comment?

Here’s my attempt at illustrating what the recoil would look like on this gun if it were to actually fire (which it never will).

I’ll dedicate an entire blog post to commending the cleverness of the cobra who can correctly identify what the hell the deal is with this posts’ title.

Send your guesses to cobrachronic@gmail.com.
Angry Art, Gaming, Sketchup
Cobra Custom Cremator
01.14.11 | Permalink | Comment?

Here’s a 360˚ view of the flamethrower I created the other day. It’s got two full tanks of something flamable, and an Obus Forme orthopedic backpack/headrest. I thought about modeling an iPod dock and some speakers for the person that has to lug this thing around during a zombie apocalypse, but luckilly I sometimes manage to stop myself before doing things that sound good or funny in my head.
Angry Art, Gaming, Sketchup
BFG4aBFF
01.13.11 | Permalink | Comment?

I like this model a lot. Generally when I like a model a lot it’s difficult to decide on a particular angle to take an image of. Instead I often export a series of .png files and compile them into one animated .png (like the one above). Expect a couple more of these in the near future. I really like a lot of the weapons I’ve been making for Jon and look forward to doing many more.
Angry Art, Gaming, Sketchup
Guns = funs
01.11.11 | Permalink | Comment?

I’m still waiting to hear from James about how we’re going to proceed with the layout, so I suppose I’m technically on vacation. Since I have nothing to work on for him, I’ve spent a little time working on some models for Jon. He’s creating a game with some friends in his spare time, and asked if I’d be interested in doing some artwork. I told him I was more than happy to help out in any way, and promised to start as soon as I had the time.

I can’t go into too many details about the game itself, but I am allowed to tell you it’s going to have zombies in it and will be totally and completely badass. I can also tell you that I’ll be modeling the weapons and environments for them for now, and maybe even the finished assets for the game. That would be neat!

At first Jon wasn’t sure what I should model, he just said “Weapons.”. I took it upon myself to model a few machetes and a sawed-off shotgun (essential in any zombie game I figure). I sent some images of the models to Jon and he was pleased. I asked him if I needed to model replicas of real-life weapons or if fantasy was allowed. He gave my imagination the ‘okay’, and I spent a few hours last night making all these models.

In case you can’t figure it out, there is a pistol, a flamethrower, and what is commonly known as a BFG (Big Fucking Gun). I want to do some sweet renderings of each one of these, but I’ll wait until I’m done the book layout I think. I would hate for my machine to die on me because I was messing around with Indigo.
Cobra Classics, Gaming
Retro ads make me feel all cold blooded and scaly inside
01.07.11 | Permalink | Comment?
Holly and I have been watching a lot of Mad Men lately (which you may have already read) and the other day I was looking at old game ads when I came across one for something I remember from my childhood. It’s one of those things that I can vividly remember the first time I ever saw it. I was at my friend Trevor’s house. My best friend (and former bandmate) was also there and Trevor was bragging about something he had that was better than an NES. In fact he had two of them, both working perfectly. When he pulled them out of their boxes I was amazed and completely jealous.

He was right, it was better. It had cool transparencies you stuck to the screen (which was built-in!), a sweet joystick, and it was portable (portable enough). We played almost every time I was at his house for years after that, and I still regularly discuss that day with Dallas when we get on the topic of gaming.

I like it when things trigger memories. I mean, I can relive that memory anytime, but I couldn’t help but relive it when I saw the ad.

The ad (from 1982) boasts the new Vectrex Arcade System is “A revolutionary breakthrough… real arcade sites and sounds… real arcade controls…!” , and goes on to further challenge the consumer to “Convince yourself! – Comapre the Vectrex Arcade System with any ordinary home video game system.“. I decided to do just that.

My PS3
- CPU = 3.2 GHz Cell Broadband Engine with 1 PPE & 7 SPEs
- RAM = 256 MB system and 256 MB video
- Display = 46″ Samsung LCD, 1080p
- Software = Blu-ray Disc, DVD, Compact Disc, PlayStation game disc, PlayStation 2 game disc, Super Audio CD, Digital distribution
- Audio = 5.1 surround, DTS
Vectrex Arcade System
- CPU = Motorola 68A09 @ 1.5 MHz
- RAM = 1 KB (two 4-bit 2114 chips)
- Display = 9″ x 11″ Samsung 240RB40 monochrome CRT (240mm diag. display)
- Software = 8 KB cartridge (one 8-bit 2363 chip)
- Audio = 3″ electrodynamic paper cone speaker
I’d have to say the Vectrex doesn’t stack up. The system memory in my PS3 equates to 262144 x that of the Vectrex, the processor is 3200 x more powerful, and the disply of our 46″ LCD can’t even be compared to the 9″ monochrome CRT. Although the Vectrex does have built-in electrodynamic paper cone speakers, and I guarantee is built to last longer than anything Sony has made in the last decade.

I wonder what Don Draper would have to say about the ad.
Fuck Microsoft, Gaming
Create-a-cobra
12.26.10 | Permalink | Comment?

For the last couple weeks Gage has been grounded from the xbox because he hates homeless kids. Since Roan has grown bored of it (which I believe is strictly because everyone else is so into it, he wants to be different – I understand), Holly and I have had plenty of opportunities to kill dudes together. I’ve completely converted her into an online gamer (a n00b, but not for long), and think she’s soon ready to move on to trash talk and teabagging. She is so proud of how good her avatar turned out, she made me redo mine so it looked like me, and then I had to take a photo (above).

I never bother to try and make my avatars look like me since so much of me is my big dumb ears, which is never an option in any create-a-character. Instead I tend to create two different types of dudes, depending on the options – a ridiculously tough looking brute in inappropriate clothing, or a really creepy gay-leather-daddy type with an awesome moustache. I suppose if I buy a black hoody for my guy it would look more like me, but butt fuck digital micro-transactions. Microsoft already has too much of my money.

Is it sweet or creepy that I think a video game version of Holly is gorgeous and kind of turns me on?

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