Logs

4/14/23

Aero Fighters 2 English, Ninja Combat Japan. Done. I've not been updating here as much, business has been slow. Working on a manual that is taking literally forever, not sure when I'll be done as I can only get a few pages out of the way every week and it's like 19 pages. I thought I'd be done with it in 3 days but after getting my hands dirty it really is a lot more work that i expected. Besides that I've been working non-stop and just finished the third sprint on a game I'm helping develop. Working through the night is catching up, not feeling too hot so I'm taking it easy today, on a Sunday, as I should.

1/13/23

At some point I did an Elf game and forgot to update. Today I did 2 AES labels. Xeno Crisis and Pleasure Goal. Been busy looking for a job, maybe something in graphic design or back in the game industry if things line up for me.

10/11/23

Completed Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge for the Game Boy and 2 versions of The Legend of Zelda Link to the Past Four Swords for the Game Boy Advance. For personal satisfaction I also did Contra III The Alien Wars SNES. Have been working on a manual for Jockey Grand Prix for someone who requested it but I don't have anyplace to display that on my website, so I will have to create a place eventually. 

9/12/23

I pulled an all nighter and got a cover done for Twinkle Star Sprites on the AES. Although I have only labels posted on this website at the moment, I'm getting to do quite a bit of AES covers that I'm going to eventually give coverage here. I hadn't gotten too into covers because of  a history of buyers backing out after the work is done, but I made an exception with someone recently and it's been working out and leading to multiple requests that I not only find enjoyable but also challenging. Also, I got the label done today, that can take up to an hour, unlike covers which have taken me over 8 hours before. 

9/8/23

Got a Donkey Kong Country label for the GBA done. Client wanted a 1:1 so I made a 1:1 which was really hard because the image doesn't exist on the internet with Diddy Kong "Facing the Camera". So I had to find his face somewhere else and blend it into the highest resolution image I could find. Not only that, but DK's arm is slightly lower on the label, and all the images on the net are slightly higher, so I had to get in there and move it down on the rope and essentially do quite a bit of magic to make it happen. The background was not easy either, I had to find assets and place them piece by piece to reconstruct what they had going on in the original label design.

9/5/23

Finished "The Legend of Zelda" NES today. This was another one on the list of previously self-imposed boycott. Also, since I created the template from the ground up for the Zeda, I went ahead and made an EverDrive Pro N8 in the Zelda style (at the request of a wonderful buyer who purchased the EverDrive Pro N8 Mario 3 version. I think I'll send him a bonus Mario 2 EverDrive Pro N8 label to show my appreciation. I have my sites set on making a GBA label for Castlveania next.

9/4/23

Today I made a nicer version label of a Mario Adventure that I saw. It's a homebrew that I've never heard of until now and I thought it would be cool to make some labels for people who make carts out of them. I hope to eventually get into making those cause something about obscure rare things that nobody else has, is really attractive to me. 

Also I finally lifted my self imposed boycott on making some of the more popular labels. I made a Castlevania label today and am going to be printing it on a holographic rainbow label. I already did this with my Super C and it came out so good that I have to keep making more Konami games and others with shiny labels.

Also I got into swapping my chips so that I don't ruin the labels on the original carts. I find this to be really fun to do especially for the more valuable games that I don't like taking out of the box all the time. For example my Castlevania cart is has a little tab at the top that is about to fall off. It's hanging by a thread. So that's why I chose to do that label today as well.

Another good thing that happened today was that I got a request for an Everdrive 8 Pro "The Legend of Zelda" style, so I am going to be working on that the next time I have a chance. 

9/3/23

Got a cool request for a Robocop Versus The Terminator label where they wanted art that I was able to locate in ads. Unfortunately the ads had text and screenshots all over so I had to reconstruct it, but it ended up looking great, and I went ahead and made the 1:1 and 4 other custom versions on Red Labels lie the original. I also made 1 in the classic black label. This was fun because RVT has some great art from the comic books. 

9/2/23

So I'm on another good one here and I'm getting into the GBA stuff. I created an image for my custom label listings and posted it up. My plan is to create some of the most sought after GBA labels and in this process I came across some really interesting labels in the auction sites for unreleased games that are still in development or stuff like that. So stay tuned, I'll be posting those up in their respective places soon and telling you about it.

8/31/23

Banjo-Tooie is one I've had in my folder for a long time and I came across someone that needed it so I put it up. I remember making it was fun because I was able to clean it up big time and offer the best one anyone has to offer. That is pretty much the case with every label I make for people that order. Being a graphic designer I simply can't send people low res internet downloads like the other sellers. I remember when I was on the other end, I felt like putting the labels I bought from other sellers ruined my cartridge instead of improved it. 

8/30/23

So, Punch-Out is one of my favorite IP's in videogames even if I don't remember that it is. I pretty much am always down to play any version, so when I made that Punch-Out label yesterday, I didn't get my fill. Today I made a Wii version of the label that uses the art from the Wii version of the game. I recreated the star spangled sunburst background and then dropped in each character and logo until I had something that resembled the Wii version of the Punch Out cover. I have to say that I am so proud of this one that I sent it over to the guy that bought the other one just because I figured they might appreciate it.

8/29/23

I love getting requests like this. Punch-Out...not Mike Tyson's. I love helping people out with their collections and this was a request I jumped on. This, like many hard to recreate labels, did not have a full hi-res image that was available online that would allow me to simply drop it in a template and finish off. I had to pull from multiple resources and then doctor up several spots to erase branding, labels and all that nonsense, only to put it all back together using hi-res assets. I had so much fun making this label and am so happy with the results.

8/27/23

NAM 1975 for the AES was so much fun to make. Again, like most labels, most of the artwork has to be "kitbashed" in a way to get one full image that matches the labels. In the end, I found matching the label colors was hard since it was not the same as the art used in the rest of the advertising material. The reason for that was to create contrast with the title at the bottom of the label. They even made a white smoke that really makes it pop, and that I had to do by hand with my art skills.

8/24/23

Someone requested Earthbound for the NES label and they sent me an example. I had a great time recreating this one because the example that I got was extremely low resolution and unusable. I was able to source the base images and had to meticulously modify the "Earthbound" logo to bend into the design the way the example was. I got so into it, that it took me really no time at all. there is a saying that ha always stuck with me, "Nothing to it, but to do it."

I also had a little extra time to ride off the inspiration I had from that last MVS order I got and I made an artsy "Windjammers" label. Someone had ordered a regular one, so I sent that over along with the cool custom I made because I if they are willing to buy the original boring design, then why wouldn't they like to have a cool one on hand in case they want to use tha tinstead or just put it somewhere else. 

8/24/23

RC Pro-Am 2 for the NES was really fun to work on. It rekindled my love for making NES labels (did I ever stop?...nah). I love this label because of the colors. It has a comic book feel and the top of the label is purple. How cool is that? Tetris does that, but this is light purple with white logo.

8/12/23

I had a little landslide of progress today. Somebody requested an Ever Drive Pro 8 label in the vein of SMB3 for the NES. So I did that and it came out so coo looking that I made one in the SMB2 style. The most challenging part of this was replicating the font for the titles on both to say the new title. Check it out in the NES section.

I got to make a label for "Savage Reign" for the Neo-Geo AES too. That was challenging because there are pretty much no resources online with high res images. I recreated the background lightning on the label and found hi-res images of each element within the labels art composition. I put them all together and got a great looking label.

Another request I had a blast making today was the AD&D Heroes of the Lance label. Another one where I had to source multiple pictures to compose one complete label art. I really like getting into labels wit hart like this because I'm a fan of the Boris Vallejo, Julie Bell, and Frazetta kind of stuff. So just working with stuff like that is fun even though they didn't make this one. 

I also made a couple of Secret of Evermore labels for someone but they never paid up so the sticker never was born but the art is done in case they or anybody else wants it in the future.

8/1/23

Made that Real Bout Fatal Fury label and it came out more awesome than ever. 

7/30/23

Someone ordered some AES and MVS labels that I didn't have but I managed to whip something up that looked great and was enjoyable. So, good thing is that I enjoyed it so much I will be making many many more eventually. Final Vendetta was specifically really fun to do because I didn't think MVS would be challenging at all, but since it has art on the label, it was. Besides that someone asked for a Multi-Cart label which, if you look at the original, is really bland. That was my opportunity to make something better and I came up with something really nice I was able to send over. The AES label was for Real Bout Fatal Fury Special. I realized later that the customer asked for another one, so I'll be back tomorrow with the right one.

7/25/23

I got a request for Aaahh!!! Real Monsters for the Genesis this time. I had made the SNES one a while back and pretty much did the same thing again, maybe a little faster and a little better too. Lots of redrawing things from scratch to get a beautiful reproduction of the original. 

7/5/23

Added 3 versions of the Jet Force Gemini label for the N64. This was fun, I had to get in there and fix up a ton of the artwork because it was hard to source hi-res images. They turned out great.

6/9/23

Created 3 custom Super Famicom (SFC) FX Pak labels for a client. Very fun project, I enjoyed creating the different background textures and choosing that 80's videogame type color for another one. 

5/22/23

Got 8 new labels designed for the GBA. Added the GBA page to the site. Created the Carousel and also updated the "What's New" carousel. Also added the MVS page/list of replacement labels and the MVS carousel.

5/21/23

Added Kizuna Encounter Super Tag Battle US and Japan versions (as far as I can tell) for the Neo-Geo While holding a sleeping 2 year old in my arms. Looking forward to doing some GBA and DS labels for a buddy.

5/17/23 

Knocked out a couple more requests I came across on Ebay (Paper Mario and Pokemon Puzzle Quest). Posted them up on Mercari since I'm close to the 250 listing limit on Ebay. I usually sell them under the "Custom" listing anyway, so I won't have to be creating all these listings. Carousels and N64 page has been updated to reflect latest labels.

Recently I've been focusing on Neo-Geo AES labels which I think look beautiful. Large stickers with lots of real estate for art. Also a customer has gotten me into making stickers that are sized somewhat ideal for front placement on an MVS cart, you go over some of the "air holes" ion the case, but it's not very noticeable and even looks pretty cool. 

I also found the Jamma website with everything I needed to start making MVS top labels. I was able to break down the MVS top label to make a template and start working on some creative versions too. Coming soon.