As mega-video game conference E3 came to a close in Los Angeles, production company/art gallery iam8bit celebrated its 10th anniversary with a large group show filled with pieces inspired by retro video games. Artists delved into their childhood obsessions with arcade classics and Nintendo-era hits, referencing characters like Pac-Man, Link and Princess Peach in paintings and sculptures. We talked to artists and fans inside about the games that sparked their love of the medium and the ones that drove them bonkers. (All images and words by Liz Ohanesian/Myspace.

Melissa Buchanan, 36; James Buchanan (The Little Friends of Printmaking), 35

Homebase: Pasadena

Can you tell me about the piece you made for tonight?

James: We've been doing a lot of cat-themed stuff lately. 

Melissa: We're a little cat-obsessed.

James: We decided that we were going to do a cat arcade thing. There aren't a lot of cat games. We thought, we'll come up with our own. 

Melissa: This is a game of our own invention. 

James: It's a recollection of being young and a terrible scrounger, scrounging for quarters and hoping to play the game. These are our two little characters and they love this game even though—

Melissa: It's probably terrible. It's probably has really confusing gameplay and you're not really sure how you die.

James: Are you the cat or the mouse? Why does the cat try to steal the cheese?

Melissa: It's that level of arcade game.

What was your go-to game at the arcade?

Melissa: I preferred Bubble Bobble.

James: Or Bust A Move. 

Melissa: Yeah, or Bust A Move, because it's about love and friendship, but I also enjoyed Rampage, just because it was about fighting and you got to be an animal. 

James: I like Mr. Do! That had the small machine, so it was in a lot of Pizza Huts or whatever. Crystal Castles was good. Oh, Marble Madness. Anything with a track ball is good. 

How many quarters do you estimate that you would go through in a single trip? 

Melissa: I chose my games wisely to try to get the most out of them. 

James: I never had any money. 

Melissa: I would only give myself a stack of four. 

James: I would watch people play and, once I couldn't stand it anymore, then I would play.

Missy Ruttencutter, 24; Raven Cruz, 23

Homebases: Orange, California; Cypress, California

What was your first video game obsession?

Raven: Nintendo, I would have to say Simon's Quest. My mom gave it to me. She's a huge gamer.

Missy: Goldeneye, the original. That and Mario Party. Mario Party all day.

Raven: N64?

Missy: Yeah.

Raven: Nice.

Missy: I remember going over to my friends’ house and playing Mario Party.

What are your current favorites?

Raven: Guacamelee. It's a really cool, brightly colored platform about luchadores. Highly recommend. It's an indie game that's underrated. They do a lot of reference to old games throughout the game, so it's a good call back for the older generation, like us, and the even older generation, like my mom.

Missy: Probably Borderlands, because of this one [motions to Raven]— Borderlands 2.

What was the most frustrating game you ever played?

Raven: Final Fantasy 10 for Playstation 2. The final battle, if you go into that battle and you don't have enough potions and you don't have a healer with you, you're pretty much SOL.

 

Jon M. Gibson (co-owner iam8bit) 

What was the first video game you remember playing?

The first video game I remember playing was—that's a really tough question—it was on the Commodore 64. That was our very first system. I don't remember the game. After that, it was NES. Legend of Zelda was a pretty big deal when I was a kid. I have two older brothers and they kind of gave me everything that they had-- they're 8 and 10 years older—so I was probably playing slightly more mature, intelligent games than I should have been at that age. I was four or five, playing things like Zelda.

What was your favorite moment playing Zelda?

When the Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past—the Super Nintendo version—came out, we had the system in our basement in Michigan and I didn't want to go pee until I beat the game. I held it for like 14 hours or something. It was my reward, peeing was my reward. 

 

Doug Murphy, aka Plasticgod 

Homebase: Hollywood

Can you tell me about the four pieces you have up there?

We've got Dig Dug, Pole Position, Pac-Man and Centipede and, basically, they're based on the old school cabinet designs from the '80s, just the encasing. The concept was choosing consoles that had unique ways to play the game, like Centipede has the track ball, Pole Position has the steering wheel. They all had something unique about the look of the whole game before you played it and that's what I tried to capture in these pieces.

When you were growing up and going to the arcade, what was your go-to game?

Tron or Centipede. Tron—that was another one I was going to do, but I ran out of time-- that one had the really cool joystick. It glowed blue. I love blue. I love neon things. The light cycles I was just blown away by, in 1982.

Centipede, I still play it today. It's so fun to spin the ball and shoot the mushrooms and all the centipedes and all the little things.

How many quarters would you expect to go through in a trip? 

I don't know. My dad gave me a $5 bill. I thought that was a lot for video games. I would probably stay at Centipede the whole day. I might get a little bored and go to Dig Dug and try it out, but Centipede, I got the most bang for my buck. 

Did you get to put your name in the machine?

Yeah, and the funny thing about that is that it only allows three letters. My name is Doug, so I would put D-U-G as my letters. That's how I knew it was me.

Austin James, 28

Homebase: Los Angeles 

Can you tell me a little bit about this piece you did tonight?

It's a recreation of the really bad box art for the original Mega Man, trying to do it a little better, I guess. Kind of old Flash Gordon-y.

Why Mega Man?

It was one of the first things that popped into my head. I like drawing sci-fi and I think of the old box art, specifically Capcom stuff, stands out to me and I wanted to do something in that vein. The old box art has some notoriety for being really bad, so I thought it would be fun to revisit.

What was the first game you played where you felt like you were really kicking butt at it?

Mario 3, which I was deeply in love with.

When Mario 3 came out, it was kind of mind blowing, the difference in the worlds and the environments from an artistic standpoint and game play. It was exciting.

Do you remember your most intense moment playing the game?

It was probably getting the tanks, which is terrifying, and also the sun. Everyone remembers the sun that fuckin' chases you through the desert. Terrifying.

Nikkolas Smith, 30

Homebase: Burbank 

Can you tell me about your piece?

This is called Columbia Broadcasting System Logo, also known as CBS Pac-Man. I was sitting on my couch one day, a random Saturday, and I can't explain what happened, but it was like an epiphany. I sat up and I was like, the CBS logo looks like Pac-Man. I have to graphically and visually display this somehow.

It matched up perfectly. I honestly think there's some kind of conspiracy.

What was the first video game you remember playing?

Pitfall, I think that's Atari.

What do you remember about it?

Jumping and falling. It was the coolest thing in the world to me, just the fact that you could jump from platform to platform and swing or whatever you're doing.

My dad brought home a computer and it was my first time using a computer and all you had was a card game, like a memory game. That was the extent of video games until I was 5 or whatever, then somebody brought home Atari and it was the best game ever.

What was the first game you were obsessed with?

I don't know what the name is, but the Nintendo running pad. We had to run track and then do the hurdles. It's like, run, run, run and jump. Me and my siblings always fought and competed. It's a really strenuous and active, crazy game.

 

Danny Haloossim, 34; Krisha Mendoza, 32

Homebase: Los Angeles

What was your first video game obsession?

Danny: I think everyone our age was.

Danny and Krisha [in unison]: Mario Bros.

Danny: Because that was the free game that came with your Nintendo, so everyone started with that.

Krisha: My family, we would have a lot of Tetris tournaments.

Did you ever have marathon sessions?

Danny: Oh, yeah. Me and my cousins would play all day and night, weekends. That was our quality time.

Krisha: We would do Mortal Kombat or Street Fighter tournaments.

What was the first game that you felt like you kicked butt at?

Krisha: I was always bad.

Danny: Super Mario 3. I don't know how I learned all the secrets and tricks and shit, but that one.

Daniel Omectin, 24

Homebase: Inglewood, California

What was your first video game obsession?

Probably, my two biggest video game obsessions were Sonic and Battle Toads.

How deep did the obsession go?

The Battle Toads one, not so long, but Sonic, I'm still really into Sonic.

How long have you been playing now?

I got my Sega when I was, I think, about 10. I still play it today, so 10 to 24.

What was your most frustrating moment playing a Sonic game?

I think it was the second, Sonic 2, the pinball one. The level that looks like a casino was really hard.

 Morgan Perry, 24; Kevin Slackie, 24; Noah Roman, 27

Homebase: Los Angeles

What was your first video game obsession?

Morgan: It's still Pokémon.

How bad did it get?

Morgan: It's so bad. I have 200 hours logged on to the latest game. Before that, it was close to 700. That's crazy.

How about you?

Kevin: It would have to be either Street Fighter 2 or Wolfenstein. Both, I've probably played until the age of three or four.

My entire room is covered in nerd stuff. I have too many shelves of video games and about two and a half terabytes worth of games on my hard drive.

Noah: Super Mario Bros. and Pac-Man. When I would go out for the day with my parents, when I was a kid, I would leave my NES on because I couldn't save anything. For seven or eight hours—I know, it sounds bad—it would stay on until I got home and then I would turn the TV on and continue where I was. Most of the time, it was fine, but, sometimes, the game would freeze and I would have to shut it down and restart.

Ashley Troub, 25

Homebase: Ventura, California

What was your first video game obsession?

Probably ChronoTrigger for the Super Nintendo. That was my go-to for everything.

How many hours do you think you put into it?

Too many. Well over 400 with ChronoTrigger. There are a lot of alternative endings, so to be able to get them all is pure chaos.

What's your favorite game right now?

Right now, I'm replaying Fallout 3 right now. I just started a new campaign. Doing a lot of Skyrim. The one that I play the most out of everything is Final Fantasy 9.

 

Leesasaur, 28

Homebase: Los Angeles

Can you tell me what you did for tonight?

I have a few things. I did the functional Bubble Bobble piece. I did a bunch of keychains

What was your first video game obsession?

It was A Boy and His Blob on the original Nintendo system. You have to give jellybeans to the blob so that he can do things for you.

How hardcore were you about it?

I remember, back in the day, printing out the cheat sheets and referring back and forth. Depending on what flavor you game him, it was something different.

It's kind of my first RPG game, I guess.

It's not on an actual game system. I'm kind of obsessed with Simpsons Tapped Out because I'm a big Simpsons fan. You get addicted to collecting all the characters and making them do silly things.