On the replay value of dead people

ds106 assignment on reappropriating game screenshots.

Game: Pac-Man

Original context: Eat dots, avoid ghosts. This is 1980! There is no context!

Reappropriation:

"Day 1000. I still don't know how I got into this maze, or if I'm ever going to get out. Frankly the way this is going I'm beginning to give up hope. Occasionally I find fruit on the ground though...which despite the mystery of how they got there proves a necessary, even delicious source of sustenance. Nevertheless I feel that my time may soon be up; I have begun hallucinating, seeing multi-coloured ghosts floating around these bland, blue halls. Little by little everything is becoming so colourful to me...and I can't help but feel a sense of twisted melancholy at this unforeseen development..."

Original screenshot here. One interesting consideration this time was how to integrate text into a game as old as this without it seeming out of place and what I opted for in the end was to use a "dot-style" font to try and camouflage the line in there with the white dots, with the intention of blending dots with the "..." that might be part of the line itself.

As for the "how", well there wasn't much photo manipulation done this time around, but a big part of the process, as mentioned, was applying the right "dot-style" font so I guess I'll elaborate a little on finding and installing new fonts to your computer. What you wanna do is basically do a simple Google search on "free fonts", which will give you a list of sites where you can download...well, free fonts! (surprised?)

You can search for basically anything (even ones which mimic a specific movie font) but once you have your file downloaded you wanna go and unzip the folder (it's usually zipped), look for a file with the font name that ends with the extension "TTF", "OTF" or similar, and do the following:

1. Go to "My Computer"
2. "Local Disc"
3. "Windows"
4. "Fonts", and basically drop the TTF/OTF file in there.

After that...well there's no after that actually. The next time you open any font-using program (can you say Photoshop?) your new, shiny font should be added to your list of selectables! Go ahead and use it for your next assignment!

On the replay value of Poke-stalkers...

ds106 assignment on reappropriating game screenshots.

Game: Pokemon Yellow Version
Original context: Pikachu is the protagonist's main pokemon, and follows behind him obediently wherever he goes.
Reappropriation:

"I met it one day while out walking in the tall grass. It was yellow...with pointy ears that stuck out from the green around it. I don't know why but our eyes met, if only for an instant and in that moment I saw the depths of absolute terror in its beady, black little eyes. This was a monster. I ran like the dickens for my very soul...and have been running ever since..."

The process here was a simple Google image search for an appropriate screenshot, with the subsequent addition of the text and textbox. I think the fact that Pokemon is such a popular franchise and that the game itself looks old-school adds to the fun of reappropriation...I'm in ur Pokemans, messin' with ur childhood!