Phantasy Star 4 Heroes: Rune

Rune is a powerful magic user that joins your party in Phantasy Star 4. Here are his battle and explore poses in Perler beads:

Here is the sprite sheet that I used:

Rune keeps showing up in all the Phantasy Star stories, but under different names. This is most likely due to different translations of the game, and the fact that his character reappears every 1000 years to help the next generation defeat Dalk Falz. Notice that he appears as Noah is PS1 and as Lutz in PS2:

Here are the three PS4 heroes that I have completed so far together on the wall:

Phantasy Star 4 Heroes: Rika

Rika is the character that becomes Chaz's love interest by the end of the game. She is a numan, which is part human / part cat-like animal. Numans first appeared in Phantasy Star 2 with the introduction of Nei. Here are Rika's battle and explore poses in Perler beads:

Here is the sprite sheet I used:

A screenshot from Rika's introduction in the game:

Phantasy Star 4 Heroes: Chaz

I decided to work on some bigger projects next. I wanted to do a few of the main characters from Phantasy Star 4 in both their battle and explore poses. Since the main character was Chaz, I started with him. Here are both poses in Perler beads:

Here is the sprite sheet that I used Chaz:

Two screenshots showing Battle Mode and Explore Mode:

R-Type

R-Type was one of my favourite side-scrolling arcade shooters from the 80s. In this game, your mission was to control a space ship (R-Type) and fight off the evil Bydo empire. As I remember it, the game was fairly difficult to defeat. Here is the ship with the basic "pea shooter" starting weapon:

Some screenshots from this very cool game:

Bomberman

Having the new colours was also important to completing a couple of smaller projects. Here is Bomberman and one of his bombs:

I always enjoyed the "anime chibi" look of Bomberman ^_^

Here is the Bomberman sprite sheet that I used for reference: 

Sworm

In Phantasy Star, the first enemy that Alis has to fight is the Sworm. These guys were pretty easy, but you had to beat up a lot of them to get anywhere at first. This was my first big Perler project. Even though it was a small enemy in the game, it still took four pegboards to build out of Perler beads...

Here is an animated .gif file that I used for pixel reference, as well as a screenshot from the game:

Beads Arrive!

When the beads finally arrived, I was ready to move onto some bigger projects with more colours...

The colours arrived in little 1000 bead bags, and the name of the colour did not appear on the bag. So the first challenge was to figure out which colour was which...

Since black runs out the quickest, I decided to get a 6000 bead bag...

I also had to get a couple of trays to hold the sorted beads while working with them...



Megaman ~ Rockman

I love robots...

...so I decided to make Megaman (known as Rockman in Japan). The finished Perler art was a manageable size, and only required a few colours. (I was still waiting for the big Perler bead order to arrive). I used most of what remained of my Walmart beads to complete this guy...

A screenshot of the first Megaman for the Nintendo Entertainment System:

As an aside, I've always wanted to find a copy of The Settlers of Catan : Rockman version...anyone know where to find this? [See boardgamegeek.com]

Dragon Warrior III

After finishing the Phantasy Star characters, my big order of Perler beads had not yet arrived, and I was getting low on colours. I thought of another low-bit game that might serve well for small bead projects...Dragon Warrior III. This is another 1988 game that was later released on the Game Boy Color.

A great feature of this RPG was the ability to customize your adventuring party by creating your own characters from a range of character classes (male & female). So far, I've chosen to make Perler versions of five character types: the male hero, female warrior, male mage, female cleric, and female fighter:

If I get more time, I would like to create a few more...such as the jester and bard. Here are some screenshots of the Game Boy Color version of the game:

Phantasy Star Characters

After making the Luveno, I was hooked. So I decided to put in my own order of Perler beads. But what to do until they arrived?

I found some mixed beads at Walmart and a couple of peg boards. There were just enough colours for me to make the four main characters from Phantasy Star: Alis, Odin, Noah, and Myau...

Here are the four characters exploring the world of Palma:

The Luveno

So Doug came over one evening and brought his trays of Perler Beads all sorted by colour. I gave him a few bucks to cover him for enough beads to start my first project.

I got thinking about how much I loved those old school 8-bit games. My favourite by far was Phantasy Star on the Sega Master System. This 1988 game was way ahead of its time, and I remember playing it when I was in Junior High School. It featured the illusion of 3D dungeons and highly-detailed monsters. It had a great story that mixed both fantasy and science fiction. What I enjoyed the most was the ability to explore three different planets by hopping on various spacecraft.

Hence, my decision for a first bead project. The Luveno was a spacecraft that the Phantasy Star main characters had to find part way through the game in order to make their way to the third planet, Dezoris. Some screenshots...

Overall, the Luveno took about one hour to complete as my first Perler Bead Pixel Art project. The beads were able to fit on one regular-sized Perler peg board. Once all the beads were in place on the board, they were fused together using an iron. The results (on my ugly wall)...

From Pixel to Perler

So I have this friend Doug who calls me and says (in a giddy voice), "I've just discovered the most excellent geek hobby you can imagine...it has changed my life...go check out the latest pictures on my Facebook profile..."

Doug had discovered how to turn video game sprites into Perler Bead Pixel Art!

And so a new Geektivity was born!

Having been inspired by Doug's Perler renditions of 8-bit and 16-bit characters from Mario Bros, Final Fantasy VI, Zelda, etc...I started thinking about a particular room in my house. This room has plaster walls and the most awful "Granny" wallpaper you can imagine. I can't get rid of the wallpaper because it will tear off the plaster.

Solution = cover it with random stuff to hide the wallpaper...including Perler Bead Pixel Art.

If this sounds like an excuse to validate a geektivity...well I guess you're right...it is. And this is an activity that registers pretty high on the old Geek-O-Meter scale!

Below is a picture of the room. Note the Granny wallpaper, and the addition of some new Perler Bead Pixel Art: