Life Lessons from Video Games Versus Mode: Mortal Kombat

On January 9, 2013January 8, 2013 By James CastroIn Games, Opinions, Projects, Random Fun, ReviewsLeave a comment

Mortal Kombat… I admit I never played Mortal Kombat in the arcades when the cabinet first came out (though I remember it took some of the crowd away from my SFII cabinet at the skating rink…) What got my attention with this game were two things: word of mouth and the ad campaign.

I was already used to Street Fighter’s cartoon graphics and its somewhat Looney Tunes violence (even literally seeing stars when dizzy) but I heard a new game was out that upped the maturity level. It showed real violence and blood and, rumor had it, you could even kill people in this game! To a 10-12 year old this sounded amazing. I couldn’t believe any of this could be true! Then the ads came out for the home version. The epic commercial featuring 90s techno music and the single shout of “MORTAL KOMBAAAT!” got everyone’s attention. Followed immediately by the firestorm from parents’ groups and politicians saying the game was too violent for kids and should be banned. All this did was make kids like me who didn’t pay attention realize “hey I gotta see this bloody game!”

Again I got it for the Sega Genesis, and in this case I was LUCKY. While the SNES version bent to the will of parents’ groups and removed the bloody aspects, the Sega version just made you put in a code. This was before the internet folks so, like all the codes I learned, I went to the local FoodMax, opened up GamePro magazine, found the code (down, up, left, left A, right down) and repeated it over and over as I walked home. Voila. Bloody Mortal Kombat.

Mortal Kombat was like nothing I’d ever played before. I half expected it to play like Street Fighter, it was what I was used to. I was shocked when pressing back didn’t block, and finding that block button was tricky! But once I got into it Mortal Kombat, and the superior Mortal Kombat II, sucked me in. The digitized characters looked more “grown-up” than the cartoons of Street Fighter. The flinging blood, the wild special moves, and the fatalities…oh the fatalities. Finding these out was a gold mine of gaming information. I couldn’t memorize them, I had to write them all down and then play the game over and over until I could execute each one. Ripping out spinal cords (I was a huge fan of Predator so this was awesome to me), pulling out hearts, uppercutting off heads, skulls spitting fire…this was unlike anything I’d ever seen.

Again I felt lucky to have my 6 button controller and the Sega version on MK I. I learned Mortal Kombat, not playing alone, but with my buddy Mike, who was far better at it than I was (I still trump you in Street Fighter though, Mike…) We played it relentlessly and learned all the kills, environmental kills, and secret characters and levels. They still stick with me, after all these years, and its etched into my adolescent gaming memory.

So what gave Mortal Kombat its legacy?

1.) Maturity: Until Mortal Kombat the most “badass” game in the arcade was…Pit Fighter…shudder… Street Fighter was full of cartoon characters and cartoon violence, all the beat em ups had a similar look and feel. Mortal Kombat, with digitized actors playing the characters had a more “cinematic” ambience. By now I was into Tae Kwon Do and I could recognize the realism in the basic combat moves and appreciated it as a step toward “growing up” in gaming. The blood and violence just filled out what I expected as a maturing gamer to see more and more of. Boy was that right…

2.) Unique Control: After the success of Street Fighter many games copied its controls and animated style to varying degrees of success. Mortal Kombat was the first game of its kind to use high-punch, low-punch, high-kick, low-kick uppercuts, etc that I ever played. These moves were all designed to set up special moves that would do the real damage. And the special moves themselves were terrific and memorable, “GET OVER HERE!” Raiden’s nonsensical babbling during his torpedo move, and Sub-Zero’s Freeze attack. It didn’t FEEL like other fighting games at the time, but I’ve found, especially as 3D takes over the fighting game genre…the control scheme has become more popular.

3.) Fascinating Characters: As far as standard attacks, all Mortal Kombat characters essentially play the same. What makes them cool is their look and their special moves. Kano was one of my favorites, he just looked wicked with that cyborg eye. I usually played as Scorpion though. That vicious spear and 90s Ninja outfit made him a stand out option. Even non-playable Goro still sticks with me as one of the most memorable bosses in video game history.

4.) Marketing: Mortal Kombat hit at just the right time. Gamers were maturing, violence in gaming was a hot topic, and the market was expanding. All the noise people made in fear of Mortal Kombat just made it more interesting. It stays true to the cliche, no such thing as bad publicity!

5.) Secrecy: This concept goes hand-in-hand with Mortal Kombat. I didn’t believe fatalities were real until I saw one myself. I just assumed it was talk. I remember when a guy in my 7th grade class, Charles, mentioned Reptile the first time. I didn’t believe the character existed…then he did. For every secret proved to be true, two more theoretical ones appeared. For every one debunked five more appeared. If just ONE of all those proved to be grounded in some reality, it made us plug the cartridges back in again and buy the next sequel!

So there is my recollection of Mortal Kombat and why I loved it. As I mentioned Mortal Kombat II was even better. I never even tried to play the arcade of that one and just bought it when it came out (or got it for birthday or Christmas…yes kids…games have been 50-60 dollars for a LONG time…) Playing as new characters, adding new fatalities, kinds of fatalities, and stage hazards made the game fresh and fascinating. It, like Street Fighter has gone 3D, added new gameplay styles and mechanics, and even jumped genres (Shaolin Monks was an awesome game…), and while it didn’t retain the very basics of the original, they have generally felt true to the original, with secrets, wild characters, and crazy kills.

Next post will be my final comparison and why I prefer one over the other (I’m sure everyone can see where this is going!)

And for bonus:

Life Lessons from Video Games Versus Mode: Street Fighter 2

On January 2, 2013January 2, 2013 By James CastroIn Games, Opinions, Projects, Random Fun, ReviewsLeave a comment

Street Fighter II… Capcom’s sequel to the now-obscure Street Fighter changed the face of fighting games. Multiple, selectable characters, specific special moves, bright graphics; it took everything that could be learned from beat em ups like Double Dragon and simplified it into a one-on-one tournament fighting game.

I won’t go into the game’s colorful history. That’s not the focus of this review, this will just be my history of Street Fighter.

My first introduction to this legend of the arcade occurred in 6th grade. Our middle school typically took students with decent grades and no suspensions on an “incentive” trip to a skating rink or a bowling alley. That six weeks we all went to an local bowling alley for a couple of hours. I wasn’t interested in bowling really, but the alley had two arcade machines. I don’t remember what the other one was, but one was Street Fighter II. There was a queue of kids lined up at one stick, and a kid named Ralph dominating the other. I got into the queue, not knowing what this game was or why there was a line and one-by-one kids fell as Ralph took them out. When it was my turn I put in my two quarters, selected the character I thought looked the most interesting (I chose Blanka…all I thought was “wow big green monster!”) and preceded to lose two rounds. I didn’t do too badly. In fact after the fight I remember saying, “I didn’t know what I was doing!” with a laugh and Ralph telling me, “Actually you didn’t do so badly…”

I only went to the arcade on rare instances or when the school went to a place that had some machines so I had to wait for a home version in order to really play games. Despite having only played the game one time, I got swept up into the craze when Street Fighter II: Champion Edition came out on the Sega Genesis.

It was here that I really learned the game. The Genesis standard controller wasn’t great for these games, but buying a six button controller made it PERFECT for Street Fighter (in fact the licensed “Street Fighter” controllers that came out with the release of SFIV look suspiciously like Sega 6-Button controllers…) and I played the game religiously. So much so that on trips to the Rivergate Skate Center during 7th and 8th Grade incentive trips I started to run the Street Fighter II machine. I originally played as Sagat, having recently seen Jean Claude van Damme’s Kickboxer but eventually moved to Ken, and solidified using Ken once super moves were introduced in Super Street Fighter II.

So what makes Street Fighter II a legend?

1.) Design: Starting with the first thing a gamer would see when they first laid eyes on the cabinet or picked up the cartridge box. The characters were all unique (except of course the Ryu-Ken similarities) and colorful. Similarly the backgrounds were all character-specific and had great animations.

2.) Graphics: Tied to design, the graphics of the game were amazing at the time. The characters moved fluidly and smoothly, their jumps and attacks all looked better than anything I’d seen before, and the special moves truly looked special

3.) Diversity: All the 14 of the 16 characters in Street Fighter II Champion Edition were unique. Though similar commands were used for special moves, they didn’t execute the exact same moves (though they may be similar) and ALL the basic attacks were individual to each character. Also each character (except essentially the four “boss” characters) had unique story-based endings that gave the game massive replayability. Beating the game with Ryu was an entirely different prospect to beating it with Vega. Similarly, fighting each enemy took thought. You couldn’t always use the same strategy to beat Zangief as you did to beat Chun Li. Until you mastered it…your brain had to be awake for this game.

4.) Ease of Play: the most important aspect of a fighting game to me…and something I feel they’ve lost, even the Street Fighter series, over the years. Fighting games are GREAT because they are “pick-up-and-play” games. Like I said, I never played before losing terrifically to Ralph in that first game. But I did ok. It’s not button mashing, you don’t get far in Street Fighter doing that, but the attacks, moves, and special moves are all so easy to figure out and execute a player can easily learn how to play one or two characters after playing the game only a handful of times. This pre-dates the over-complexity that I feel has been added into fighting games. Long-strings of combos, idiotic “air-juggles,” and multiple counter moves are just more than I want in a fighting game. Keep it simple and fun for me…

5.) CONTROL: Tied to the last one but by far the most important aspect of the game. Street Fighter II‘s control was a revolution to me. It was intuitive to the player and even made sense for the actions being executed. Pressing “back” to block was a stroke of genius. Six attacks varying in strength, 3 punches and 3 kicks, all useful (thought admittedly I played for YEARS with just a jab-fierce and short-roundhouse button setup on PS1) “Down-Down+Forward-Forward” is actually the motion you’d expect a character to do when throwing a fireball. The same goes for the Shoryuken and the Hundred-Hand Slap. I don’t think I’ve ever played a game with more perfect control (but woe be unto the second player who’s used to playing first player…and has to reverse all those commands!)

Street Fighter II revolutionized arcade gaming. Through various iterations of II, eventually Alpha (Alpha 3 is my favorite of the series by far…the most balanced and best character roster I feel), a 3D game (EX…ugh), and now back to 2D with Street Fighter IV (and its iterations), it retained basically the same controls. It’s heaped on many new complex concepts, and crazy characters, but at it’s based on the same framework.

Next time will be another arcade fighting game that revolutionized the genre, Mortal Kombat!

Life Lessons from Video Games: Versus Mode!

On December 13, 2012December 13, 2012 By James CastroIn Games, Projects, Random FunLeave a comment

I’ve been playing video games since I 4 years old. My first “gaming” system was an Atari 400 and was replaced (actually it was added to by) an Atari 800XL in the mid-80s. I was a military kid who lived in secluded base-housing and, essentially, only knew my family. I just assumed that everyone was playing Centipede, Missile Command, Frogger, and Pac-Man. In addition I had loads of games that almost no one has heard of but remain my all-time favorites; Sea Horse Hide n Seek, Ducks Ahoy, and Movie Musical Madness. It wasn’t until my father retired from the USAF and we moved into “civilian” life that I first learned of what kinds of systems were popular.

I had an Atari…but never heard of an Atari 2600. My memories of Pac-Man are slightly different from most others…the 400 and 800XL computers I had played different versions that actually (to me) looked superior to the 2600 version. I only ever saw Commodore 64s and Apple IIs in school. I never heard of Colecovision until I saw it on VH1’s I Love the 80s and never heard of Intellevision until James Rolfe did a video about it. I DID hear of NES almost immediately after my we left the military lifestyle.

Atari400

Atari800

I can remember being in my elementary school cafeteria in my private school blue shirt and slacks and a vicious little rich kid snarling at me, “What? You don’t have Nintendo?! What’s ‘Atari’?” I remember telling my mom that and she said, “I bet our Atari has better graphics than their ‘Nintendo…'” And I immediately agreed. And the game was on.

Over my lifetime I’ve seen numerous competitions in video games, systems, and gaming culture in general that are all just as frivolous and subjective as this one. Sega vs. Nintendo. Street Fighter vs. Mortal Kombat. Sony vs. Microsoft. It’s been fascinating to see them come and go, and each generation of hardware and software customers act like it’s the first time these things have ever been discussed. I’ve been thinking a lot about all these various, senseless wars I’ve witnessed during my gaming life and thought I’d start sharing some of the most memorable. Since this is just a little intro I thought I’d start with a brief look at the Atari vs NES.

Of course the Atari 400, which came out in 1979, and even the updated 800XL had nothing, hardware-wise, on the NES. The NES came over from Japan with a library of games that would become classics (and some hardware strangeness that would fall into pop-culture obscurity). Since the NES clearly has the edge in nearly every technical sense, I thought I’d look at just one thing that strikes me as amusing in terms of my old Ataris compared to the NES.

I started watching AVGN when the new Ghostbusters game was set to come out on current-gen consoles. I heard a funny online reviewer had reviewed the NES Ghostbusters game and I was intrigued, I didn’t know there WAS one. I turned on his review and was alarmed to see him reviewing a game I knew…only I knew it from my Atari 800XL…I knew it on floppy disk……and I knew a MUCH better version! Smoother gameplay, more “ghostbuster-y” graphics, and less idiotic additions (like the gas station…) Granted it was still a monotonous “wtf is going on?” kind of game, but the NES version looks like a butchered port…of an Atari game. The Atari version was no masterpiece…but it’s definitely competitive with the later NES version!

That little fact did indeed help remind me that, although the most popular system might dominate the market, the reviews, and rewrite the history, for the minority of us who lived with other brands…we might have found a nice classic gem.

In two weeks I’ll start versus mode in earnest, and will try to do one every two weeks. The first one will be the most appropriate way to start such a contest and has been a heated debate for almost 20 years…ladies and gentlemen…it will be: Street Fighter vs. Mortal Kombat!

Atari GB

NES GB

Off the Artboard #3 – Vault-Boy-Like Character Creation Part 1

On December 5, 2012December 5, 2012 By James CastroIn Art, Projects, Random FunLeave a comment

This is a tutorial requested by my good friend and fellow Illustrator neophyte, Ron Peaks. Looking to use a simple cartoon character for a manual similar to the cartoon Vault-Boy character from the Fallout series, yet still usable in a non-Bethesda-Obsidian publication. It sounded like a good challenge so I took him up on it.

I have two warnings about this! First, it’s a LOT longer than intended, because it has a lot of screenshots. Second, this is just the way I figured out how to do it with my limited Illustrator knowledge. I’m sure there are other, better ways, but if you want to learn how to make this kind of character with just basic tools this was the way that was most intuitive to me. It uses just a few basic tools and is easy to color and personalize.

I’ve tried hard to not sound like Strong Bad trying to teach everyone to draw a dragon… (draw and “s”…then a more different “s”…)

This post will appear in two parts, this on shows how to make the character’s head. One in a few weeks will show how to make his body.

An Illustrator Simpleton’s Guide to Making a Character that Resembles, Yet is Legally Distinct, from Fallout’s Vault-Boy:

Step 1:

Create a perfect circle by selecting the ellipse tool, holding alt+shift and left click dragging it onto the page.

Step 2:

Add two anchor points using the add anchor point tool (it is in the same family as the pen tool left click and hold the pen tool and select it from the list that appears) in between the left bottom and right top existing anchor points on the circle. Click the “direct selection” tool, click each of the new anchor points you’ve just created (you may have to click them then click them again to ensure you’ve selected them). Click and hold and drag them to a new location to warp the circle and make it appear a bit more square.

Step 3:

Create an oblong ellipse for the left eye. Select it, ctrl+c to copy, ctrl+b to paste it behind the original eye. (DO NOT click off of an object you’ve copied behind another object. It will be extra steps and finagling to get it selectable again. Any time you ctrl+c, ctrl+b in this tutorial DO NOT click anywhere else on the artboard, as it will deselect the new object and you’ll have to navigate to find it again.) Then using the arrow keys nudge it to create the right eye. While the right eye is selected shift+alt and resize and make it slightly smaller than the left (for perspective)

Step 4:

Select the star tool from the polygons. Change it from 5 points to 3. Click on the art board to create a triangle.

Step 5:

Rotate the triangle so the top point faces left.

Step 6:

Using the direct selection tool again, move the various specific anchor points to create the desired shape of the nose.

Step 7:

Using direct selection tool, select the central anchor point on the back of the nose. Once it’s specifically selected hit delete to remove the line segment.

Step 8:

Using the ellipse tool create a wide oblong ellipse. ctrl+c to copy it, ctrl+f to paste it forward and nudge it up. This will be to create the smile, so feel free to move it to the desired position to make a bigger or different mouth. You can also change the shape of the circle to make a bigger smile, a frown, or using different shapes and warps to make various expressions.

Step 9:

Select both circles. Using the shape builder tool in CS5, hold alt and click and hold the top circle as shown. Drag the curser through the top of the circles and release. This will remove the unwanted shapes.

Step 10:

You’ll be left with just the desired “smile” shape.

Step 11:

Position the new “smile” in the desired place on the head.

Step 12:

With the smile selected, ctrl+c to copy, ctrl+f to paste it in front of the smile. Then, with the new shape selected, go to the menu, click Object–>Transform–>Rotate and type 90 into the box. Then resize the item using shift+alt again to get it the appropriate size and move it to the corner of the mouth as shown.

Step 13:

Select the new mouth corner, ctrl+c to copy, ctrl+b to paste it behind. Nudge it to the other side of the mouth. Go to Object–>Transform–>Reflect and select vertical. The select the main mouth shape again. ctrl+c to copy, ctrl+b to paste behind. Nudge it below the original mouth. shift+alt resize it to make it smaller to create the line under the smile as shown.

Step 14:

Click the main smile shape again. Ctrl+c and ctrl+f and move it above the eye.

Step 15:

From the menu select Object–>Transform–>Reflect and select horizontal to flip it. Then shift+alt resize to get it the desired shape. You can also select the object and free transform rotate it to get it the desired angle (you can make angry eyes, arched eye brows, etc.)

Step 16:

Select your new eyebrow. Ctrl+c, ctrl+b and nudge it with the arrow keys over the right eye. Go to Object–>Transform–>Reflect and select vertical to flip it and get it the correct angle. Shift+alt resize it to make it a bit smaller for perspective.

Step 17:

Click the left eye (his left!) Ctrl+c, ctrl+b, to paste the copy behind the original. Nudge the new one up so it’s visible peeking out over the original eye and repeat the process for the other eye.

Step 18:

Using the ellipse tool, shift+alt to create a perfect circle on the side of the head.

Step 19:

Select the head shape and the new circle. Using the shape builder tool, click inside the head shape, hold, and drag to the new circle to join the shapes as shown.

Step 20:

Using the ellipse tool create a series of circles on top of the head. This will be for the hair so feel free to make an arrangement you like. Just remember we’ll be joining these using shape builder, so it may take a few tries at this to ensure you get the desired final shape.

Step 21:

If you want the little swooshes as show, create two overlapping circles as shown, and select only those two.

Step 22:

Using shape builder, select the top circle, click hold+alt to delete the unwanted shape elements.

Step 23:

Drag the new crescent to the other circles, select ONLY the ellipses you created for the HAIR (Don’t select ANY of the other elements, especially the head shape. This will mess up your art…) And join them using click+hold+drag over all the selected shapes. You may have to do that several times inside the new “hair” shapes to join any extra shapes that might have been missed with the original join actions.

Step 24:

To add any extra “Swooshes” repeat process Step 21 as many times as you like and shape-builder them into the hair shape. You can resize them and overlap them to make different shapes. You can also resize the entire hair section.

Step 25:

Create a square using the rectangle tool in the location shown.

Step 26:

Using direct selection (again you may have to click each anchor point twice to make sure only the anchor is selected not the entire polygon) drag the points to the locations shown.

Step 27:

Select the “hair” shape and the newly-shaped polygon and join them using shape builder. Feel free to resize or shape to create the look you’d like.

Step 28:

Create an ellipse in the location as shown and ctrl+left bracket ( [ ) key to send it to the back.

Step 29:

Selecting the new ellipse, Ctrl+c, ctrl+b to paste it and nudge it to the other side of the head. You may wish to reposition it to give it the right angle.

Step 30:

Create a rounded rectangle and free-transform resize it as shown.

Step 31:

Free transform rotate it so the angle matches the angle of the square you create for the hair.

Step 32:

Ctrl+c, ctrl+f to copy and paste it as many times as desired. Shift+alt resize them to get them the correct size and move them into position as shown. It may help to move them down and left or right with the arrow keys to keep them in line rather than moving them with the mouse.

Step 33:

Color your shapes as desired. Select each shape and select a color from the swatches to give them the desired color!

Step 34:

Create two overlapping white ellipses in the left (his left!) eye.

Step 35:

Selecting your new ellipses, ctrl+c, ctrl+b them then nudge them to the right (his right!) eye. Shift+alt resize them for perspective again.

There it is, you’ve created a legally-distinct Vault Boy-type character head!

As a bonus!

Want to give him a gruffer look?

Step1:

Overlap the face with another ellipse.

Step 2:

Select the head shape and new ellipse shape and use the shape builder tool and click+alt to erase the outside ellipse shape.

Step 3:

Recolor the ellipse any shade of gray, brown, etc.

Step 4:

Change the opacity to the desired shade to give him a 5 o’clock shadow look!

Off the Top of My Head #7: The Thanksgiving Bird is the Word

On November 28, 2012November 28, 2012 By James CastroIn Projects, Random FunLeave a comment

Last Thursday was Thanksgiving. That usually means family, food, and time off work. And typically when people say “the bird is great!” they’re referring to a roasted turkey they’re eagerly devouring along with various vegetables, pies, rolls, and sauces. It’s as often as not a bald-faced lie too as, it turns out, turkey is apparently rather difficult to cook to perfection. My dad usually has a good-turkey trick, but I’ve heard not everyone has as fool-proof a poultry plan.

This year, however, when I think of the “bird” from my 2012 Thanksgiving, I’ll think of THIS:

After our Thanksgiving food-fest, I went to a store for a major caffeine hit, and when I returned this guy was waiting at the house. He swooped down in most magnificent fashion, then performed daring, aggressive leaps at a small bush at the terrified little birds hiding within (he didn’t get any of those).

He then flew to a nearby powerline (where he imposingly glared down at me) …

Hawk — I took this pic and the above pic with my phone…which is why it’s as grainy as it is. Don’t believe the hype…phones aren’t cameras…

…and then to a pole where he regally surveyed the surrounding terrain for more accessible prey. He stayed there long enough for me to run inside, grab my a55, and run back outside telephoto lens attached. I was in such a rush I didn’t have time for the tripod set up. Fortunately he lingered long enough for hi-drive speed to net me some good pictures!

I was able to get over 150 photos of him perched up there before he locked eyes on something a hundred or so yards away and again dove impressively out of site to either another near miss or on top of a less-fortunate small animal than the birds hiding in the lucky shrub.

I learned a few things from this:

1.) There’s something unique about seeing a natural predator like this in the suburbs.

2.) Birds of prey are fearless and seem naturally pretentious, the whole time he looked at me it was as if he was thinking, “Look at that clumsy mammal down there staggering around me for no reason…”

3.) No matter how old you are if you see such a thing in action the only thing you say is, “Wooooow…”

I think he was a juvenile Cooper’s Hawk, but can’t say for sure.

Seeing him definitely changed my definition of the Thanksgiving “bird” for a while!

To see more on strange avian holiday visitors see Story of the Month for November written by my lovely RevPub counterpart!

Next week will be a requested Illustrator tutorial, and the following week a return to Life-Lessons from Video Games!

Veterans Day Event: The Korean War and The Vietnam War

On November 15, 2012November 15, 2012 By James CastroIn ProjectsLeave a comment

Sunday was Veterans Day in the United States (originally “Armistice Day” for those who don’t know their World War I history!) and for the first time I got to participate actively in the creation of an event to celebrate the holiday. At my previous job I was the chair of an exhibits committee, which created visual exhibits in the lobby of the building consisting of materials from our collections. For the last exhibit I was to ever be involved in, I chose to honor two specific individuals, David Brock a veteran of the Korean War, and Christopher Ammons a veteran of the Vietnam War and tell the story of their war, through their eyes on our exhibits panels.

I had previously worked with the Mr. Ammons, and another staff member worked with Mr. Brock, so we divided up the work and installed the exhibit.

The physical exhibit was finished on November 7 and we held an official opening event on November 9; inviting both Mr. Brock and Mr. Ammons to the event, as well as the secretary of state and the commissioner of Veterans’ Affairs.

This event turned out better than I’d hoped. Mr. Brock and Mr. Ammons were both blown away, not only to have been featured in an exhibit, but also for the reception they received from the crowd on hand.

A colleague told me he felt that Mr. Brock, who hadn’t spoken about his Korean War experience much, if at all, since his return from service, “left his war at the exhibit,” finally being able to unburden himself of the memories. I was later told that Mr. Ammons said the experience was the, “best day of my life,” as he was being driven back to his home.

For those of us who attended the opening with them it was important to remember that everyone who served in those wars served for their own reasons, and what they experienced only they could really know. I was ecstatic to have had a hand in being able to shed some light on the stories of these two individuals and honoring their service was long overdue.

Though it was the last thing I did before leaving that job, it was the best thing I ever did in that position and I was thankful for the opportunity.

A brief slideshow of the exhibit is featured below, along with links to the material selected for a digital archives page of the Vietnam War Veteran. Detailed pictures, along with photos of the event and a video of the event will be coming soon!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

A news article featuring Mr. Brock appeared on the front page of his local newspaper! Link located here.

Link to more of Mr. Ammons’ Photographs located here.

Revenant Publications

Category: Projects