These were undoubtedly done with emulators, but it’s still awesome to see what I couldn’t do in 15 years accomplished so quickly.

SMB1

SMB2

SMB3

Bonus: Super Mario World

SO psyched.

 Via Fox News Photo Essay
 

"Orbital Space Station" 

"Lunar Base"

"Saturn from Rhea" 

Asteroid

And, my favorite - I remember this one from when I was a kid:

 "War of the Worlds", from New Challenge
of the Stars.

VIA David A. Hardy’s homepage 

From Barlowe’s Guide to Extraterrestrials. I loved this book when I was a kid. It was publised in 1979 - I was a fetus - it’s some talented nerds’ depiction of martians from various sci fi books. I like the HP Lovecraft guy from The Mountains of Madness (see above) the most because it’s exactly how I pictured the monsters when I first read the story. The scenes when the explorers are wandering through the ancient city are really amazing, and it’s too bad thy never made any sort of good movie from it, since it’s all so cinematic. In reality, though, the movie would be a bunch of guys in parkas wandering around saying "Wow" in a really expensive set with very little happening.

Furthering the "nerdy science fiction books I liked as a kid" topic is Expedition, also by Barlowe, being a bunch of really nice paintings of martian landscapes. I really loved the bizarro expansiveness of this book. I remember buying it at the weird toy store across the street from the Natural History Museum as a kid, and some of the images really reminded me of the dioramas in the museum:

This one is pretty much cribbed straight from the African wing, but we’ll let that go. Also strange that my favorite images are essentially depictions of space-livestock in their natural habitat, not the more outlandish ones of the crazy flying green elephants carrying stalagtites, or oceans made of Jell-o, etc. The boring ones jst seemed more plausable, I guess.

I think everyone gets a little nerdy for stuff like this. Let’s hear it for really lush weird sci fi paintings!

Barlowe’s website

Gallery of GtE images

A good Barlowe gallery

So I really like The Mountain Goats. I get nerdy for John Darnielle (ref.) So how I missed The Extra Glens record (way back from 2002) is a little beyond me. I just picked up a copy this weekend at the awesome AKA Music in Philadelphia, and we listened to it on the way nack to NYC while a huge (at least, it seemed huge) blizzard tried to get me to drive my car off the road. I’m not saying this record will make you a better driver, but I refuse to attribute our survival tonight to pure chance.

As a side project (it’s Darnielle and Frank Bruno, frequent collaborator and member of Nothing Painted Blue), the Glenns sound a whole lot like the Goats - Darnielle’s up front, throwing it down lyrically, interesting arrangements behind him, though the Glenns are decidedly less sparse and rough than most of Darnielle’s output. The songs really seem measured and deliberate, and refreshingly poppy. Musically, Darnielle and Bruno are keeping it loose and fun - “Memories” sounds like JD channeling Bob Dylan behind a piano in a New Jersey hotel lounge. This is one of those records that a lot of Mountain Goats fans will probably love a whole lot as a break from protocol, and non-fans will get into if they ever hear it.

~MP3~

The Extra Glenns - Going to Marrakesh

More here.

Here.

This is not me.

Some sweet Lord of the Rings art.