What's behind your Avatar?

[ark_ader]

I didn't really know where mine came from until a kind person from our BYOAC ( I was going to say member - but it didn't sound right) midst asked.

Its from a short firm called smile.



So watch it with the lights on.

Fear is for the weak......

[Epyx]

Hands up who used to colour in graph paper to calculate the DATA statements for c64 sprites?
*hand raised*

+1

Also and obvious to many is my avatar and online name since the BBS days is Epyx, a C64 game company.  They weren't my favourite (although I liked them) but as a teen the name just sounded cool and it has stuck ever since.

Plus "The Thinker" statue modified to show him holding a joystick was pure win at the time...

[Ed_McCarron]

CT's behind my current avatar...   

Hey!

I don't start that many threads.   

He just finishes them.

[Ummon]

CT's behind my current avatar...  

Hey!

I don't start that many threads.  

He just finishes them.

Off...   (He and I are in good company that way.)

Also and obvious to many is my avatar and online name since the BBS days is Epyx, a C64 game company.

Really?  I thought it was some anime or late-model console kiddie thing, especially given the pink-toned avatar that looks like a nike ad. Wowsers.

Some friend wanted to MSN with me, and I needed a HOTMAIL account for it. I did not want to enter all the crap needed, so he gave me his spare Hotmail account. It had the name Blanka in it. Never had a clue who Blanka was. Until I started maming and played SF. So in a gamers forum, I decided to use the name Blanka as the screen name, and have a Blanka image as avatar.  

.....   Really?  I thought you were some butch ---smurfette--- in Germany or something. (Oh gawd, ahm dyin! I'm not shitting you, though.)

[Level42]

Hands up who used to colour in graph paper to calculate the DATA statements for c64 sprites?
*hand raised*

+1

I had Atari 8 bit machines, we had software to do player-missile graphics as sprites were called on those machines.

[Level42]

Epyx, a C64 game company.

They weren't a "C64 game company". They released game for all popular platforms at the time. Temple of Apshai was available on TRS-80, AppleII and Atari 400/800 long before it was release on Vic-20 and C64.
Jumpman was developped for the Atari machines.

Loads of ports were made to other systems. For some strange reason there never was a port of Impossible Mission to the Atari 8 bit machines, but it was ported to the 7800.

The best game they ever made was for the hardware platform they (co)developped: The Atari Lynx. The game ? Chip's Challenge. One of the best games ever on any platform, but the Lynx version plays best IMHO.

Anyway, they were a cool company.

[Expressline99]

Hands up who used to colour in graph paper to calculate the DATA statements for c64 sprites?
*hand raised*

+1

+1 also on the sprites but I also had to make my own graph paper...(somehow I never bought any.)

Avatar...well I'm a sick Bas****!

 

[Epyx]

They weren't a "C64 game company". They released game for all popular platforms at the time. Temple of Apshai was available on TRS-80, AppleII and Atari 400/800 long before it was release on Vic-20 and C64.
Jumpman was developped for the Atari machines.

They WERE a C64 game company...just not ONLY a C64 gaming company. Their most successful platform was the C64.  My statement was factual...of course they developed for other platforms.

Temple of Apshai was one of my favourite games, although my favourite Epyx game was Gateway to Apshai...my first C64 game on a cartridge that I bought with the system...I also owned a Lynx.

Really?  I thought it was some anime or late-model console kiddie thing, especially given the pink-toned avatar that looks like a nike ad. Wowsers.

Sorry didn't realize you were in your late teens.

EDITED in case your response was tongue in cheek...but in all seriousness, they did exist and this was their logo and yes it has a tint of the pink but whatever...I like it I also happen to still enjoy Anime at age 37...its something I enjoy with my daughter, whether its Robotech or Death Note im a big kid at heart. 

I also like consoles but computers are/were my first/current favourites.  I like gaming in general...whether arcade/pen and paper/console (kiddie)/computer

[ChadTower]

Ed, man, you set me up for an Ummon shot!  What the hell was that?

 

[Epyx]

There

[CheffoJeffo]

Really?  I thought it was some anime or late-model console kiddie thing, especially given the pink-toned avatar that looks like a nike ad. Wowsers.

Sorry didn't realize you were in your late teens.

YMMD.

 

[HaRuMaN]

Helps to see that logo full size (and not squished vertically):

[HaRuMaN]

Really?  I thought it was some anime or late-model console kiddie thing, especially given the pink-toned avatar that looks like a nike ad. Wowsers.

Sorry didn't realize you were in your late teens.

Zing! 

[Zero_Hour]

They WERE a C64 game company...just not ONLY a C64 gaming company. Their most successful platform was the C64.  My statement was factual...of course they developed for other platforms.

Epyx was also much-loved by the C-64 crowd for the development of the FastLoad cartridge, which made the painfully slow 1541 floppy drive ALMOST tolerable. Their Joystick was pretty decent as well.

As for the original topic - My avatar is from the first i am 8-bit art show, a piece called "Duck Hunter S. Thompson". Since I'm a fan of video games and Thompson's writing, it seemed like a good fit.
My alias of Zero_Hour has been with me since I started playing Quake in grad school. There is absolutely no story behind it other than I liked the sound of it.

[Epyx]

Epyx was also much-loved by the C-64 crowd for the development of the FastLoad cartridge, which made the painfully slow 1541 floppy drive ALMOST tolerable. Their Joystick was pretty decent as well.

I still have my original Fastload cart and your right ALMOST tolerable

My avatar is from the first i am 8-bit art show, a piece called "Duck Hunter S. Thompson". Since I'm a fan of video games and Thompson's writing

[RayB]

I was also going to chide Ummon for losing a bit of retro gamer street cred with his response, but I'm pretty sure he was just being sarcastic.
 

[DaOld Man]

Helps to see that logo full size (and not squished vertically):

That kinda looks like he's playing with something else.

[Epyx]

That kinda looks like he's playing with something else.

Aye a golden shaft
 

[Expressline99]

I loved/love my C64 and TRS-80...and vic-20...and original pong console... I think I have temple of apshai on cassette somewhere still.
Perhaps, even on cart.


Epyx great avatar.

[Ummon]

Ed, man, you set me up for an Ummon shot!  What the hell was that?

 

E-hehn-hehn-hehn-hehn-hehn-hehn.....Yeaaahhh. Gooood tiiiimes.


Epyx: no, I was serious, dude. I also sometimes suffer from glancing at something and not picking out its details due to what it seems to be. It does help to see it at a larger size.

RayB: alas, I didn't earn that credit, man. I wasn't hot on consoles, and computers were a bunch of work. I actually did do a {ADMITTEDLY VERY MINOR} coding project in Computer Intro! on my Odyssey2 in fifth or sixth grade. I think it worked....but it was so much 'work', I stopped there and went outside an played.

[Ed_McCarron]

Ed, man, you set me up for an Ummon shot!  What the hell was that?

 

Sorry, I just lobbed the softball.  Not my fault someone actually hit it. 

[Knave Jack]

My avatar is a picture of one of the kittens at christmas. He was seriously not amused with the bow, but it made a great picture.
My wife breeds cats, so we have a never ending supply of "CUTE!" pictures. I liked that this was more annoyance than cuteness.
I will start cycling avatars as soon as I find something I like better.
As for the nick, its simply the name I use when I play a game on line. Its easy to remember, and has nothing in common with my real name. Its nice to be someone else once in a while.
KJ

[Ummon]

Breed kittens??  Dude, give 'em space and a little food and they breed quite fine on their own.

[Knave Jack]

Weeeeel, that is true, but you dont want them breeding with each other. You run into some real problems with inbreeding. Not to mention we dont want a continuous supply of kittens. The economy is a bit too tight to be able to sell too many of them. It is nice to have them around the house though. Fun to watch them play.

[Ryglore]

My name is actually a name of a character I created when I was playing the RuneQuest RPG is used to play when I was younger. It pretty much stuck as a user name when I started playing online games and needed a unique player name. So there's that.

As for the avatar picture, it's an vectored cartoon drawing (Some how it unintentionally looks like myself) which I drew freehand and then rendered in Illustrator. Before that I used this:



It's a screen capture of Master-D's head exploding at the end of Bionic Commando: REarmed.

[danny_galaga]

A gray background.

My real name is Adam and I used to have a few really geeky friends who liked to call each other by their online nick, so I came up with AtomSmasher in the hope that they would call me Atom.....they then started calling me Smasher.  I decided to keep the name regardless.

As for my avatar, it's from one of the funniest tv shows that ever was.

Monty Python?

Ark, i was wondering about your avatar. I thought it must be a Chris Cunningham thing. Creepy.

I've had this avatar the longest. A friend found it for me when i became a postman a couple of years ago...

[dieseldogpi]

Figured I'd chime in.  The screen name is from my dog, Felix, he's an english mastiff and weighs about 200lbs, some friends have called him diesel dog on occasion. The pi comes from the fact that I used to work as a private investigator for a short time before I was a CPA.  The avatar comes from the fact that I am now a CPA. 

Oh and Atomsmasher...big fan of your avatar, crack up every time I see it.  Miss that show.

[DashRendar]

My avatar is a picture of Dash Rendar, a character from the Star Wars expanded universe (ie, from the books and games, not movies).

Dash Rendar was a Corellian smuggler and freelancer. He was an ace Imperial pilot of the Imperial Academy until the Rendar family was banished from the galaxy by Emperor Palpatine due to a freighter accident. Captain of the Outrider, Rendar eventually joined the Alliance to Restore the Republic during the Battle of Hoth. He would assist the Alliance in deposing Black Sun, acting as Luke Skywalker's bodyguard and a spy, until his apparent "death" during the Battle of Falleen's Fist.

So he was a non-mainstream Han Solo-type character.  In the books, he played a big part in a lot of key struggles against the Empire.

I chose the name a little over 10 years ago, when I was working in a modding community of the Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance game.  (I created 3D models of almost all of the smuggler ships and had them available for download to be flown in X-Wing Alliance).  All of the main characters were already taken, so my identity on our forums, internet play, etc was Dash Rendar.

I think my avatar is from a Star Wars card set that had each of the characters.

[RobbyMac]

It's Howard the Duck... from the comic (No NOT the movie) back in the day.
Twas my first online handle back in the days of 300 baud acoustic modems and BBS's.

I look almost exactly like himm except I don't have a bill, I don't wear a hat or white golves, I don't have a blue suit (and when I do I wear pants with it) and I'm alot taller.

[Ummon]

Weeeeel, that is true, but you dont want them breeding with each other. You run into some real problems with inbreeding. Not to mention we dont want a continuous supply of kittens. The economy is a bit too tight to be able to sell too many of them. It is nice to have them around the house though. Fun to watch them play.

Mmm, I lvoes kitties. As long as they're not mine.

The avatar comes from the fact that I am now a CPA.  

.....maybe it's a little visually gratuitous......

[CheffoJeffo]

Mmm, I lvoes kitties. As long as they're not mine.

Did you mean "loves" ?

[Bones]

Me. 

[Frigo]

The name was a nickname that I've had since high school. My buddy and I were driving home from somewhere one afternoon (probably a movie), and we were flipping through the radio stations and came across a smooth jazz station. Without missing a beat, my buddy started acting like this uber-sleazy guy who called me Frigo. The name stuck after that.

The avatar is from a webtoon called "Rejected." It's supposedly about this cartoonist who submitted some animation for "The Learning Channel" but his work was turned down. The cartoons get progressively stranger and stranger until... well... check it out (EDIT: May be NSFW):



Anyway, I always seemed to identify with the picture in my avatar. So there you go.

[ChadTower]

My avatar is a picture of Dash Rendar, a character from the Star Wars expanded universe (ie, from the books and games, not movies).

I've read 95% of the books and have never heard of Dash Rendar.  Must just be the games.   

[Ryglore]

My avatar is a picture of Dash Rendar, a character from the Star Wars expanded universe (ie, from the books and games, not movies).

I've read 95% of the books and have never heard of Dash Rendar.  Must just be the games.   

Did you read Shadows of the Empire? Take place between Empire and Jedi, ha. Dash is a key player in that book, and the main character of the N64 game of the same name. 

[ChadTower]

Did you read Shadows of the Empire? Take place between Empire and Jedi, ha. Dash is a key player in that book, and the main character of the N64 game of the same name.  

I did.  Read that when it first came out, though, and the events are pretty isolated.  I'll have a peek at it when I get home.  Didn't play through that N64 game.  

All I seem to remember off the top of my head from that particular book is the showdown between Vader and Xizor.

[Ryglore]

Actually now that I think of it. The way Shadows was set up was that the book, N64 game and comics were all telling different sections of the story.

from wiki:

The main story is told by the novel written by Steve Perry, the comic series by Dark Horse, and the Nintendo 64/PC game. Each is designed to tell one part of the overall story; the story is complete only when all three venues are explored. The novel tells the overall story, focusing on the main characters. The comic book series focuses on bounty hunter Boba Fett's battle to keep possession of the frozen Han Solo. The video game allows players to control new character Dash Rendar, whose adventures in the game weave in and out of the overall storyline. All the while, a battle for the life of Luke Skywalker takes place between Darth Vader and Prince Xizor, as each tries to please Emperor Palpatine.

Anyway, I'll let everyone get back on topic.

[ChadTower]

Well that would certainly explain why I don't recognize the name. 

Never could find time to both read the books and finish the games.

[Ummon]

The avatar is from a webtoon called "Rejected." It's supposedly about this cartoonist who submitted some animation for "The Learning Channel" but his work was turned down. The cartoons get progressively stranger and stranger until... well... check it out (EDIT: May be NSFW)

....that's gotta be a ---smurfing--- joke. At some level, jesus.

[DashRendar]

Well that would certainly explain why I don't recognize the name. 

Never could find time to both read the books and finish the games.

Dash Rendar appearances:   

    * "All the Extras" - Shadows of the Empire Sourcebook
    * Star Wars: Holostar
    * Rebel Dawn
    * Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds: Clone Campaigns (Appears only in non-storyline event)
    * Galaxy of Fear: The Doomsday Ship
    * Lando Calrissian: Idiot's Array (Mentioned only)
    * Star Wars: X-wing Alliance
    * Shadows of the Empire video game
    * Shadows of the Empire novel (First appearance)
    * Shadows of the Empire comic
    * Shadows of the Empire Kenner Special
    * Shadows of the Empire Galoob Micro-Machines Mini-Comic
    * Shadows of the Empire AMT/ERTL Model Kit Mini-Comic
    * Shadows of the Empire: Evolution
    * "Or Die Trying" - Star Wars Insider 75 (Mentioned only)

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Dash_Rendar