Retro Sonic Poster

It’s established, I love the Nintendo Game Boy – but I can’t ignore the fact that the SEGA Genesis was also a big influence on my early artistic development, whether it was in game design, music, or other graphic art. The Genesis continues to be an inspiration for me to this day – (which is why I’ve started making music with the YM2612 sound chip.) As far as Genesis games go, I am particularly partial to the original Sonic the Hedgehog games (Sonic I, II, III, Sonic and Knuckles.) With the recent release of Sonic IV, all the memories of the original Sonic have come back in their shining retro splendor. As a consequence I’ve been revisiting the awesomeness that is the original Sonic games – with an emphasis on Sonic III and Knuckles, my favorite of the bunch. With the music, effects, artwork – I just love the whole aesthetic of the original Sonic series.

With a resurgence of Sonic imagery and sound, I was inspired to create some sort of homage to the original games that inspired me so much in the nineties. Here’s a preview of the Sonic-themed poster I created after a wave of inspiration.

This piece is comprised of sprites from Sonic I, II, III and Sonic and Knuckles – ripped directly from their respective SEGA Genesis ROMs. The sprites are overlapped and arranged in a collage of nostalgia and speed (not the drug, well I guess you could consider it Sonic’s drug, metaphorically speaking of course.) The piece is very dense, and the differing layers of sprites range greatly in size, color, and opacity. Some of the detail is lost in these resized versions. The picture of the poster detail at the top of this post can give you an idea of the denseness and sharpness of the piece.

And for an actual preview of what this piece looks like as a poster, I submit to you: blurry photographic evidence. I held it up against the wall to keep my hand in the shot for scale. This print is laminated heavy matte at 18×24 inches.

I’ve also hidden a few little surprises in the poster – some of which you can see in the watermarked preview above.

Hint(s): Two of Sonic’s competitors (at least they were in the nineties) made their way onto the poster. Beyond that, their are some very hidden baddies in the backdrop – no, not Dr. Eggman/Robotnic, these guys are much more hidden.

Currently this print is not for sale. But don’t give up hope. This and other prints will be available in the near future!