Kazumi Totaka And Minako Hamano – Song Of Awakening

Kaido – Death of Stars

While looking around on pixiv and adding bookmarks, I found out that good artists tend to have really good bookmarks of their own. This is how I find stuff like Anime Galactus destroying some planets. Also, things that users tag as “Futsukushii”, “Hisense”, and “Click Recommended” are usually great picks, and this one has all three.

Actually, she seems sad about this. I guess that's where all the ice came from.

Source: 「星の死」/「カイドウ」のイラスト [pixiv] via Ask’s bookmarks via several recommendations for Ask’s art

Kodi

Kodi, or XBMC, is flexible open-source software for streaming media players. It has dozens of add-ons for playing video from lots of places on the Internet, right on your TV. At the fair today, I saw a couple shady vendors selling little Android boxes with Kodi for hundreds of dollars. If you really want to save money, just buy a cheap Amazon Fire TV stick and do it yourself. It’s not that hard.

Finally, XKCD makes an indirect apperance on the House of Hitstun. Randall Munroe also answers lots of hypothetical "What If?" questions online and offline. I've linked to this video in the "Source" section below.

Source: Found on an original Xbox and an Amazon Fire TV, also screenshot of my Amazon Fire TV playing Randall Munroe’s TED Talk

Grant Kirkhope – Donkey Kong 64 Soundtrack

30-Day Video Game Music Challenge (Bonus Stage) Day 31: All 30 prompts with one game From Donkey Kong 64 (N64, 1999)

Jiko points out that DK64 has a song for everything on this list. That’s a lot of music! DK64 is fun to play and fun to break.

1: Title screen music: Main Menu 2: Opening level music: DK's Treehouse 3: 8-Bit music: Donkey Kong 4: Music from a console exclusive series: Hideout Helm 5: Hub world or overworld music: DK Isle 6: Music that makes you feel relaxed: Crystal Caves 7: Music from an indie game?: Mine Cart Carnage 8: Music from a shooter (first or third person): Angry Aztec Underground 9: Music from a licensed game: uh...the N64 Logo? 10: RPG battle music: Dogadon 11: Puzzle game music: Frantic Factory R&D 12: Music that makes you sad: Wrinkly Kong 13: Music you like from a game you don't like: Bonus Barrel 14: Music featuring vocals: DK Rap 15: Boss battle music: King Kut-Out 16: 16-Bit music: Jungle Japes 17: Music you never get tired of: Enguarde 18: Music in a game released the year you were born: off by 1 but Jetpac 19: Cover of music by a different artist: Jungle Japes Underground 20: Music from a racing game: Frantic Factory Car Race 21: Music you associate with frustration: Angry Aztec Race 22: Town/village music: Fungi Forest Day 23: Underrated music: Mad Maze Maul 24: Music you constantly have stuck in your head: Snide's HQ 25: Music that gets you pumped: Rocket Barrel Blast 26: Music you like from a game you haven't played: Monkey Smash 27: Music from a handheld game: uh...Mini Monkey? 28: Music that makes you nostalgic: Pause Menu 29: Final boss music: K. Rool Duel 30: Credits music: Staff Credits

Source: YouTube, challenge by OverClocked ReMix I think?, via NintendoCapriSun

Retro Core Mega Drive Audio Showcase

I've been following Retro Core for 15 years from its original video game reviews to its recent videos about ports of games and the Chinese knock offs that play them. He's tired of people dissing the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive's sound chip, so he brought several examples of clean instruments and heavy bass. There's more Mega Drive music and a couple Super Nintendo ones where that came from.

Source: Retro Core via some search for video game reviews in 2005

Lovely Planet

Quicktequila’s Lovely Planet is the anti-modern FPS. Instead of being multiplayer, gritty, and easy, Lovely Planet is single player, cutesy, and incredibly difficult. Calum Bowen’s happy, catchy soundtrack only really fits the first couple worlds. After that, the game introduces cruel new mechanics that demand precision trick shots on the run. I couldn’t beat a single stage in world 5 except the ending. If your keyboard-and-mouse skills are awesome, give this game a shot. It’s different.

Source: http://www.quicktequila.com/lovelyplanet.html via their booth at PAX East 2015, also YouTube and Bandcamp

Wave – Commission - More Meowvels

Getting into MUGEN territory here. You know, in case Marvel wasn't broken enough for you.

Source: Suzuran’s DeviantArt via Capcom Unity five years ago

A commission from someone on DA to draw more Meowvel vs Catcom. XD

Artist Alley Arcade Stick

I’ve always wanted to put some one-of-a-kind hand-drawn art in my Qanba Q4RAF, so at last weekend’s Ohayocon, I brought a blank template and and asked a couple of the artists there to draw their original characters. The team of Iota Soul knocked it out of the park with Killer Bee on the left side. Kuroitenshi added her D&D fighter on the right side and gave me some crucial advice on how to complete the design from there. I drew some Vewlix lines at the top, put it in the stick, and changed all the buttons out to black and white to complete the hand-drawn sketch look.

This replaces my previous art on that stick, which is all about Kohaku from Melty Blood, a series of really nice doujin fighting games that never made it out of Japan.

(What follows is the mouseover text for all seven images, edited slightly because they’re plain text on Tumblr now.)

So many photos on this blog lately. Maybe I should have made a Tumblr instead. Problem is, hitstun.tumblr.com is already taken. Some jerk registered my name, posted once, and abandoned it. (Four years later, I checked and hitstun.tumblr.com was available again, so I snatched it up and moved this post there.)

For this post, I'm actually doing the Facebook cross-post as a photo upload instead of a link post. Since it's a photo, I get to tag Killer Bee and Fighter to include links to their creators. (Closest I can do on Tumblr is a link to Kuroitenshi’s fighter.)

Here's a scan of the finished design that is now in the arcade stick. Click the image for the full 300dpi version.

I retired the Melty Blood stick art last night at Fight Night at Donatos on OSU campus. I played Melty Blood for the first time in months.

For some reason, Wordpress is having trouble with my full size designs. Click the photo for the 300dpi version.

Also, here’s the template I printed out for Ohayocon. Click the template below for the 300dpi version, and it will print at just the right size for the Qanba Q4RAF.

You'll want to actually click this for the 300dpi version that fits the Qanba Q4RAF. If you’ve got an Eightarc Fusion, just remove the Start button. (Not sure if Tumblr corrupts the DPI settings on these images, but just make sure it’s 300dpi before you start working with it.)

Sources: A white and red Qanba Q4RAF, buttons, and bubble top from Video Games New York, replacement plexiglass from Focus Attack (out of production), Iota Soul, Kuroitenshi, Melty Blood Actress Again Current Code PC version, Zerochan, and the Qanba thread at Shoryuken

Phonebloks

I like a good half-baked design every now and then, and this modular cell phone caught my eye. Each of my past few cell phones have met their end from just one component failing. With a Phonebloks phone, you could simply replace the bad component and be good as new. Motorola’s on board with this now, and I hope the project continues to gain traction. How about blocks for buttons and a D-pad?

Source: Phonebloks – YouTube via WebUrbanist

Today Phonebloks is launched!

Katrina Yu – Witching Activities

When foraging for /r/FloatingIsFun content, sometimes I find something with a special mass appeal. Katrina Yu is a crazy talented photomanipulation artist that loves levitation. This gallery on Bored Panda features her as a witch going about her daily life. There’s plenty more from her on Reddit, Behance, Flickr, Tumblr, Instagram, and Redbubble.

Have you ever wondered what witches do on their ordinary days? I like to think that they’re always there, living among us and witnessing the world’s ordinary miracles. So this for Halloween, I imagined a daily life of a witch and tried to recreate it through my work.

Source: Katrina Yu

Brad Fuller and Hal Canon – Silly Race

30-Day Video Game Music Challenge (Super Hard Mode) Day 18: Music in a game released the year you were born From Marble Madness (Arcade, 1984)

The first FM sound chip in a video game. That poor thing… Normally, we’d game over first, but this song’s pitch and speed can keep on increasing until the sound chip can’t handle any more.

Source: YouTube, challenge by OverClocked ReMix I think?, via NintendoCapriSun