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Design

The Smiths Songs as 8-Bit Video Games

By Judy Berman on

Mediocre pop-culture mashups are everywhere on the Internet, but when you mess with The Smiths, you’ve got to bring some inspiration. Thankfully, Brazil-based designer and illustrator Butcher Billy has done just that with a series of unexpectedly appropriate images combining Smiths song titles with 8-bit video game characters. We can’t imagine how Moz would feel about this project, which we discovered via It8Bit — but we’ll certainly have “Bigmouth Strikes Again” running through our head the next time we play a Mario game. … Read More

Books

8-Bit Versions of Classic Novel Covers

By Caroline Stanley on

We previously posted about Oliver Miller’s awesome 8-bit illustrations of the opening lines of several famous short stories; today, he’s back with yet another pixelated project, this time focusing on the covers of classic novels like The Sun Also Rises and Frankenstein. The results are a bit of a mixed bag, and in most cases, we imagine that the authors would have been none too pleased to see their work simplified down into ugly clip art. “Great books should not be fucked with; though I’ve fucked with them here,” Miller admits. “But fucked with them in a tender way. And somehow, I feel like F. Scott Fitzgerald would grin ruefully upon seeing Tender Is the Night in 8-bit form. But maybe that’s just me.” Want to find out if you agree? Click through to check out a few of our favorite re-imagined covers, and head over to Slacktory to view the entire collection. … Read More

Television

Play the Interactive 8-Bit "Mad Men" Video Game

By Emily Temple on

The Mad Men Season 5 premiere is almost upon us, and we think it’s pretty obvious by now that we’re excited. But we have good news — to while away the hours between now and then, get caught up in this choose-your-own-adventure 8-bit Mad Men game, in which you must help Don Draper attain the trifecta of personal success: confidence, new ideas, and inner peace! With three different endings, lots of alcohol, and all the sass and berating you’d expect from Don, Roger, Betty and the gang, it might just eat up half an our or so of the time between now and the premiere Which is all anyone’s really looking for at this point, right? Click through to play Mad Men: The Game, and see if you can save Don — or help him save himself. … Read More

Art

Laura Bifano’s Strange Paintings of Pixelated Animals

By Caroline Stanley on

Here’s something that we just spotted on MetaFilter that we think all of you Minecraft fans can get behind: Menagerie is a series of “10 polygonal animal paintings” inspired by Canadian artist Laura Bifano’s love of nature and classic video games; each work juxtaposes the soft lines of a lush, natural landscape with animals that are decidedly block-like. Click through to check out a slide show of her paintings, and if you’re interesting in purchasing a print version, visit her shop on Etsy. … Read More