Super Mario 64 Cross-Stitch for Desert Bus 2020 (You can win this!)
For the 4th year in a row, I was fortunate enough to be able to submit a Craft-Along item to the Desert Bus for Hope Fundraiser. It will be available for silent auction between 1:00 PM-9:00 PM EST on Monday, November 16th. So you, out there reading this- you can win this!
I spent over 200 hours stitching this over the past year, and I’m very proud of the work. I’m also honored to help support a great cause in Desert Bus for Hope once again.
If you aren’t familiar with Desert Bus for Hope, it’s a charity stream that raises money for toys and games which will be given to children’s hospitals. It’s a cause near and dear to my heart, as I have experienced children’s hospitals as a patient myself and as a parent of a patient.
Desert Bus for Hope starts on Nov. 13th and goes for nearly a week, so please consider supporting the cause, donating, and trying to win one of the many wonderful prizes!
Kingdom Hearts 3 Box Art Cross-Stitch (for Desert Bus for Hope 2019)
I haven’t posted in a year....so let’s change that, shall we? For the third year in a row, I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to submit a craft-along item to the Desert Bus for Hope fundraiser. This year, it’s the box art to Kingdom Hearts 3.
I spent somewhere on the order of 190-200 hours stitching this monstrosity this summer, and there are nearly 180 colors in this thing. I’m pleased that it’s got an opportunity to help raise money for a great cause.
If you aren’t familiar with Desert Bus for Hope, it’s a charity stream that raises money for toys and games which will be given to children’s hospitals. It’s a cause near and dear to my heart, as I have experienced children’s hospitals as a patient myself and as a parent of a patient.
Desert Bus for Hope starts on Nov. 8th and goes for nearly a week, so please consider supporting the cause, donating, and trying to win one of the many wonderful prizes!
Sonic Box-Art Cross-Stitch (for Desert Bus for Hope 2018)
So, if you have seen this page before, you may be aware that I contributed to the amazing Desert Bus for Hope fundraiser last year by submitting a cross-stitch that I did. Well, I did it again this year! This time, it’s Sonic- Gotta go fast!
I spent a LOT of time this summer working on it (about 175 hours), and it does certainly look like the work did not go unnoticed. This was actually featured as a prize preview on the desert bus site about three weeks ago, and I got some really good positive feedback from Facebook and Twitter on the stitch. ( https://desertbus.org/?id=19618 )
It will be up from 1AM-5AM EST on Thursday the 15th as a raffle (giveaway) prize, so if you’d like a shot at owning this, make sure to make a donation to Desert Bus for Hope (http://desertbus.org )
In fact, please make LOTS of donations to Desert Bus for Hope. It’s an amazing, amazing fundraiser that sends money to children’s hospitals to provide toys and games for sick kids who deserve to have some normalcy in their life. It is an amazing community and an amazing event....please go check it out!
Oh, and here’s some more pictures if you’d like to see more!
I got some good work done on the Yoshi cross-stitch this month, and it is definitely getting closer to done. I think that the next update will probably be the last one, but at the moment, it still is not done. However, progress has been made. Last time I checked in, I was at 70 hours of work completed.
Here’s the 75-hour mark, and almost all of the “background” is finally complete.
Here’s 80 hours, as work progressed to the tree trunks.
85 Hours.
Finally, I am currently at the 90 hour mark, and I am finally working on the big tree. Still thinking 110-115 hours will be the final result for this project. At any rate, that’s where things currently stand. Hoping to get this done soon!
Welp, no posts since January. Let’s fix that. I’ve continued to work on the Yoshi cross-stitch. Last we checked in, I was at 35 hours. I’ve made quite a bit of progress since then.
Here’s where things were at at 40 hours:
Then, here’s 50 hours:
60 Hours:
And,most recently 70 hours (finally got rid of the pink guide strings!)
I think the end is in sight now.....I’m hoping it will take about 110 hours, and I’m hoping I will get there and post it soon!
It’s time to begin my playthrough of Pokemon Gold and Silver, using the Swap Meet rules I set down in this previous post: https://dillatont.tumblr.com/post/167171719599/pokemon-swap-meet-introduction. Join me, won’t you? It should be a fun ride!
“All my life, there’s been a voice in my head. ‘Don’t get too close’. Over, and over, and over. It’s become a motto of sorts. To people, to places, to pets....to anything, really. Just don’t get too close to it. Attachments cause.....problems.”
“Never louder had I heard the voice than the day I found myself standing in the professor’s lab, with the strange creature in the palm of my hand. We had just moved, yet again, ending up in someplace called New Bark Town, and no sooner did we arrive and wake up the next when there was Mom, pushing me to go next door to a professor’s lab.”
“I did, and before I knew it, I found this in my hand.”
“Chikorita. A pokemon. Grass type. I couldn’t KEEP it.....well, not permanently, at least. That would just lead to something bad. But how could I get out of this? This professor seemed to be expecting me to go find somebody named Mr. Pokemon. I didn’t really want to do it, but how could I get out of it now? I had no choice.”
“I ran. As fast as I could. There were routes and cities along the way, but I don’t think I even knew what they were. I mean, I didn’t know my way around the place anyway. Some old man handed me a map, and I told myself I would study it a bit later.”
“Some wild Pokemon attacked. Chikorita was stronger than they were. I kept going. I found the man they were looking for.....Mr. Pokemon.”
“He gave me an egg to deliver back to the professor. Shouldn’t he have found a delivery driver or something? Or, an adult, maybe? This was nuts. I shook my head and went back to New Bark Town, hoping to finish this crazy errand and get away from this professor, whom I would probably let down.”
“I tried to, at least. Someone got in my way. He wouldn’t even tell me who he was, and I have no idea why he was so angry with me. I wasn’t anybody important. No more than him, at least. But he attacked me, he and his Cyndaquil.”
“What choice did I have? I fought him. I beat him. Chikorita was stronger than Cyndaquil. It had already grown from Lv.5 when I got it to Lv. 7. They mysterious boy stormed off. I hoped I had seen the last of him. I hurried back to New Bark Town.”
“I ran into the professor’s lab, and found out that the boy I had run into was a thief. The police had questions. It looked like they and the professor needed....help.”
“Help? Help! I’m not good at help. Help me.”
“His assistant handed me Poke Balls. 5 of them. I began to realize what was going on. They wanted me to help by capturing even more of these creatures? To be....responsible? For that many things at once?”
“No, sir, this did not look good. This looked like people trying to be close. The voice in my head stirred up again.”
“Looking back, my decision at the time made sense to me, but it’s clear now that that was the faulty reasoning of a young boy. I took the Poke Balls. I ran. Into the wild and away from New Bark Town, trying to get away from it. I couldn’t turn back, of course. Even 12-year-old me knew that. But I didn’t realize the gravity of the situation until slightly later, when I no longer had 1 Pokemon in my possession. Worse, I had...”
“Two.”
Up next: Part 2, in which our hero(?) begins his journey and actual swapping commences
I’ve been continuing to cross-stitch into the New Year, and I’ve been focusing primarily on a neat project called Yoshi’s Home. It’s a stitch of the Yoshi’s house from Super Mario World, and the end result is going to look really neat. Last time I posted, I was at the 10-Hour Mark, and things looked like this:
Currently, I am at the 35 hour mark, so a lot of progress has been made. Here’s a look at the process!
15 Hours
20 Hours (finally, a color other than black and cream!)
25 Hours
30 Hours, and the design is starting to take shape
And, finally, where I’m currently at, 35 hours. Looking forward to making progress in the weeks to come!
I started this blog as a New Year’s Resolution last year. How did I do?
Well, certainly not as well as intended. The hope was that I would post something every week. That definitely did not happen. Too ambitious of a goal for my situation, it seems. I did, however, make posts throughout the year at least, and I picked it up later in the year (especially around Desert Bus)
Really, though, the intent of making regular posts was to get myself to create more often. I did create more, though again not as much as I might have hoped. However, I did cross-stitch some neat little small projects (the Stardew Valley sprites), and a couple of big projects. (The Dr. Mario stitch for Desert Bus and the Yoshi stitch that’s currently in progress)
I also did some computer programming work (though most of that wasn’t really posted here), and I did some video game soundtrack reviews (that most certainly were posted here). I was happy that I got to listen to a lot more video game soundtracks this year, and I was able to find some neat new stuff and also exercise my writing chops.
So, I was happy that I’m starting down the path of creating more stuff. 2018 will be....well, hopefully more of the same, but MORE of the same.
I’m going to keep cross-stitching, and I’m hoping to do a couple of large projects as well as some more Stardew Valley sprites. I’m going to keep programming and making games. I’m also going to keep listening to (and writing about) video game music. I’m hoping to review 10 soundtracks in 2018. I also have a large-scale project that would likely be posted on YouTube that I HOPE I will get to post on here at some point.
Finally, I’m going to keep playing games. I play on posting some stuff about Pokemon play-throughs, and I’m going to attempt to learn how to speed-run a game, and I plan to post about my exploits.
I also have some big personal life stuff happening in 2018 (which I might post about here when the time is right). So, here’s to 2018, and let’s hope it’s a good one!
Throughout the year, I’ve been reviewing video game music, both because I truly enjoy the genre and as a personal creative exercise. So, I thought I would post some observations from the year. I won’t discuss best soundtrack (if you just look at my numbers I gave to the reviews, that clearly is Rakuen), but some other music experiences that I had throughout the year of reviewing video game soundtracks. Let’s dive in!
New Soundtracks I Listened to in 2017
Owlboy [2016 release]
Pokemon Sun/Moon [2016 release]
Yooka-Laylee
Rakuen
Arms
Ever Oasis
Kirby's Blowout Blast
Snake Gun (Phone Game)
Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy (Part 1)
The End is Nigh
The Franz Kafka Videogame
Pyre
Splatoon 2
Sonic Mania
Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle
Super Mario Odyssey
So, first of all, filter all of my thoughts through the lens above. I skew unabashedly towards Nintendo releases, and I did not get to many major releases this year (Breath of the Wild being the most notable example), but I still listened in detail to quite a bit.Though I only reviewed 6 of them, I was happy that I had a chance to listen to more soundtracks this year than in the past. I didn’t always have something interesting to say about some soundtracks (for instance, Yooka-Laylee, which I thought was.....fine.), and I ran out of time near the end of the year to review Super Mario Odyssey (short take: Fantastic), I was still able to get some thoughts down to the page, and I generally liked what I heard throughout the year. As I said, Rakuen, a soundtrack I have been anticipating for a couple of years, was in my opinion, the best soundtrack of the year. Having said that.....
Favorite Soundtrack of 2017
Sonic Mania.
Favorite is different than best, after all. It was an absolute thrill and joy to revisit the old-school Sonic levels and sounds, and Tee Lopes made a ridiculously fun soundtrack that was a blast to listen to again and again. If he doesn’t get more work writing soundtracks after his work for Sonic Mania, there’s something seriously wrong with the video game industry.
Least Favorite Soundtrack of 2017
Kirby’s Blowout Blast
It pains me to write that. I love Kirby games. I dearly love the soundtracks to most Kirby games. But Blowout Blast’s soundtrack is an unoriginal piece of nonsense that retreads all of the old themes, adds absolutely nothing new to the fray, and doesn’t even do the retreads well. Reusing material can be great- I loved Sonic Mania and The End is Nigh’s soundtracks this year, and both heavily relied on arrangements of prior material- but Kirby does a terrible job of this. Just really, disappointing. The pink guy deserves a better 2018.
Best Introduction of 2017 (Composer Edition)
Tee Lopes for Sonic Mania
As explained above. This is what getting a dream opportunity and smashing it out of the park looks like.
Soundtrack I Most Wish I had Listened to in 2017
A Hat in Time
This game looks adorable. I will bet the soundtrack is adorable. It’s also 5 hours long. 5 hours. Holy cow. From a reviewing standpoint, that just wasn’t happening, but I wish I had gotten the chance. Maybe next year
Honorable Mention: Cuphead, though I have a feeling I wouldn’t have liked it?
2017 Soundtrack that Really Needs a Youtube Playlist
Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles
I fully intended to review this. Absolutely, positively, could not find a full soundtrack anywhere. Tried very hard to do so. I was quite frustrated, but I hope that changes next year
Favorite Listening Experience of 2017
Final Fantasy VII
What was my actual favorite soundtrack of 2017? Honestly? It was a 20-year-old piece of magic. I’ve listened to (and thoroughly enjoyed) Nobuo Uematsu’s music in the past, but for some reason, I had never heard Final Fantasy 7 prior to this year. After watching the ridiculously fun SGDQ speedrun of the game, I had to check it out.
In short, amazing. If you’ve listened to it before, you know this. I could not stop listening to it, and I would arguably put it in the Top 10 (perhaps Top 5) video game soundtracks of all time. Just simply amazing, and I’m so glad I finally (if belatedly) discovered it.
Best Video Game Cover Artist in 2017
insaneintherainmusic
Insaneintherain does jazz covers of video game music, playing primarily on tenor saxophone and piano, but also utilizing guest artists regularly. They are stunningly good, and with a release scheduled every 2 weeks, you’ll continue to be entertained regularly by new stuff. I didn’t discover him until late in the year, but wow, what talent and creativity.
Honorable Mentions: Smooth McGroove and Mariachi Entertainment System are amazing, but didn’t put out a lot of material this year....hope for more in 2018!
Top 10 Tracks of 2017
Finally, let’s count down the best that this year had to offer....
10. “Character Select” from Arms (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSWWI85L7xQ&index=23&list=PLFwObPlg7Y1p-7C6LTTfiJMIvNJ2y-h0A)
I had my issues with this game, but it’s hard to deny that this theme is catchy and a lot of fun.
9. “Steam Gardens” from Super Mario Odyssey (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HEEuCeclSM)
Pleasant use of a “surf-rock” style guitar? Yes, please!
8. “These Grey Walls” from Rakuen (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgUNZV6nqWs)
This is refined, cautious, and just beautiful, much like the whole soundtrack.
7. “Broodals Battle” from Super Mario Odyssey (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMYZVEJzChY)
I have a soft spot for video game music that sounds “weird”, but maintains its’ catchiness. This goes even moreso when it’s boss music. This hits all the spots nicely.
6.”True Final Boss Theme” from Sonic Mania (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhS2WV_1Bok)
Now this is how you end a game.
5. “Mori no Kokoro” from Rakuen (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sl8KnBtROPo)
This piece quite literally combines 5 different themes together. It is immaculately constructed, and just stunning when it all comes together.
4. “The Arid Flats” from The End Is Nigh (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uX4kzOs7lI)
I know this is not “original”, but main does this arrangement rock.
3. “Final Boss Theme” from Sonic Mania (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8mGwpwd1cI)
The final boss of a game should be dangerous, and this fits the bill incredibly well.
2. “Studiopolis Zone, Act 1″ from Sonic Mania ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGR5fTO2oio)
I literally cannot keep a smile of my face while listening to this. It’s just fantastic.
1. “Jump Up, Superstar”, from Super Mario Odyssey
I mean, what more can you say about the theme from Super Mario Odyssey? It’s just pure fun in concentrated form. Seriously.
So, with that, let’s turn the page on video game music in 2017. I’m looking forward to doing this again in 2018, and I hope that I get to hear some amazing soundtracks!
So, I made a thing again! This time, it’s a game. I’ve done programming for about 5 years in Game Maker, and I’ve made (though never released) some text-based sports games before, and I’ve dabbled with some retro overhead-style games that I hope to someday make in more detail. However, this year, I decided for the first time to participate in a game jam! It was for Desert Bus for Hope 2017, and the theme for this year’s game jam was Sleep Deprivation. So,I made a game where you have to get coffee from the LRR Moonbase to stay awake. If you don’t stay awake.....well, you’ll have to see it for yourself. That’s why the game is called “Peak Bus”, after all! Here’s a link to the download on itch.io, and some screenshots of the game. Enjoy!
Desert Bus 2017 will be starting Friday, November 17th at 10:00am (PST). This is what it is, which is that it’s awesome but also reaaallly hard to explain.
Dr. Mario Box Art Cross-Stitch (for Desert Bus for Hope 2017)
Is it time for secret-project-revealing? Why, yes, I believe it is! Here is my secret cross-stitch project from the year. I made a painstakingly detailed version of the box art from the Dr. Mario Game Boy game, and donated it to the Craft-Along at the Desert Bus for Hope 2017 Charity Fundraiser, which starts this Friday, Nov. 17, at 10 AM PST.
I kept this under wraps the whole year, but suffice to say, I spent a LOT of time working on it.....probably 300-400 hours total (I honestly didn’t count). This was my first really “big” cross-stitch project, though in retrospect I probably should have jumped in with something a little bit smaller. However, I figured I had to go big to get accepted as part of the Desert Bus for Hope Craft-Along, so, well, I did.
So, what is Desert Bus for Hope? There’s a decent chance you already know this if you’re seeing my post, but it’s really cool charity fundraiser run by my favorite comedians, LoadingReadyRun. They play a terrible game called Desert Bus for a week straight and run an internet telethon while they do it. It’s very entertaining, weird, and a lot of fun.
I submitted for the Craft-Along for the first time this year, with the idea being that I know how to cross-stitch, and that a video game box art cover in cross-stitch form would look cool. After get accepted...then I had to actually MAKE it. That, um, wasn’t easy. It was WAY more complex than I thought it would be, and I really am a novice at all this, but I was very pleased with the end result. Please watch Desert Bus for Hope 2017 starting Friday, and be on the lookout for my stitch (I’m hoping it raises some money for the children!).
I had an idea recently. It was just after I purchased Pokemon Gold on Virtual Console on my 3DS. Gold/Silver are some of my favorite games of all time, and I’m thrilled to get the chance to replay it and enjoy all of the fun. However, if you played it multiple times like I did back in the day, you’ll remember that it’s not very, well, difficult. Like, there’s grinding, but other than a few tough spots (Whitney’s Miltank being the most obvious), you’ll seldom lose unless you have absolutely no grasp of Pokemon strategy.
So, my current playthrough needs to be harder. But I don’t want to do a Nuzlocke....not really my style, and it’s been done and overdone by this point. So I thought.....why not create a new game format.
Introducing.....Pokemon Swap Meet! (Or Swaplocke, if you will). What is it? Well....
Pokemon Swap Meet’s main idea is this. Each and every time you catch a new Pokemon, you have to swap it onto your team. When you do, you have to send one of your current team members to the PC, never to return. Swap Meet will force you to think about every decision, plan ahead, and grind like crazy to make sure that your new Pokemon can handle the tough tests ahead. Here are the rules:
*Every time you catch a new Pokemon, you must swap it out for one of the Pokemon currently on your team
*Once it's swapped out, it can't be swapped back in
*You MUST catch at least one Pokemon in every Route/Cave/etc., and you must catch it before you proceed to the next area (you can’t come back “later” to catch something- if there are Pokemon available, you’ve got to catch at least one)
*You can catch multiple Pokemon per area, if you so choose, swapping each time
*The only way to add to your team size is through gift/event Pokemon (being given a Pokemon or buying a Pokemon through Game Corner means you don’t swap)
*IF you breed two Pokemon, you can put the egg on your team, but you have to swap BOTH Pokemon out
*Eggs have to hatch before you can swap them out
*All in-game trades are mandatory as soon as you are able
*Items can be transferred freely between Pokemon as needed
*You MUST fight all battles
Other than that....go nuts and have fun! I’ll be posting about my own journey as I travel along, so that you can see how a Pokemon swap Meet goes. Enjoy the trading!
I haven’t posted recently about cross-stitching, but I’ve done a LOT this year. One huge project, which was finished in early September, will remain a secret for now....but trust me when I say that I WILL be posting more about it soon.
However, I do have another big project already in progress that I am willing to share. It’s a stitch titled “Yoshi’s Home”, and when it’s done, it’s going to look like this:
It’s going to go up on the wall in my house, and I’m really looking forward to completing it. Here’s what I’ve done so far:
First, I got a 15″ by 18″ canvassed prepared (properly this time, by taping down the edges and by using pink thread as a guide to help me center the design), and I began stitching (see below).
After 2.5 hours, the design was starting to show some of the text outlining in place (see below):
Then, after 5 hours, it looked like this, with some of the additional cream background in place (see below):
7.5 hours looked like this (see below):
And finally, here’s where the design stands as of the 10 hour mark this weekend (see below). I’m happy that the upper corner is mostly filled in, and that letter and tree are starting to become visible. I expect this project to take 100 to 120 hours, so I’m hoping to continue filling in a lot in the weeks to come!
