Sam Derboo

Many years ago, I compiled a big gallery of game art ripping off other art for Hardcore Gaming 101 @hg101.bsky.social Now I've started rebuilding it as a database with browsing by tags and fun comparison sliders at samderboo.com/tracing.php

Not the top Steam review of Dressmaker making me cry this morning!

BE YE NOT FOOLED.

what the fuck the new Ecstatica re-release is insane. The game offers multiple versions of the games art and a...software renderer that does the whole thing in real time that goes up to crazy resolutions in an extended graphics settings. It also lets you toggle different versions graphic adjustments

The fact that a (demade) version of Myst can be played on the Atari 2600 blows my mind. deater.net/weave/vmwpro...

2015 Russian Spectrum game called Metal Man Remixed. You briefly drive a forklift on one of the levels & can move cars around. spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/30401/...

spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/15863/...

Dunno why I never thought of hitting @gamehistoryorg.bsky.social's digital archive for this project before, but now I did and it helped me find a whole bunch more early 2D video game forklifts (and some more recent 3D ones, but I haven't gotten around to adding those yet) samderboo.com/forklifts.php

We're so proud that the VGHF Digital Library's handy search functions are helping research efforts by the Video Game Forklift Museum 🍴🏋️!

😂 Well, I don't know if this counts, but a real forklift appears on Crime Patrol. You can tell it's a NAMCO model (not the Pac-Man one), but I couldn't identify exactly which one. I noticed it looks similar to the one in the photo, but the person who posted it doesn't know the model. Maybe a LC2015?

I've made a large-ish update to my page samderboo.com/forklifts.php and now I've documented more than a hundred video game forklifts.

ICYMI I just released WOLF last week. A 3D First Person Shooter for the Game Boy Color! RT to spread the word please. @itch.io -> thalamusdigital.itch.io/wolf-game-bo... #gameBoy #indieDev #retroGaming

Dug up from digital archives: a cute bit of mid-90s CG rendering of an MSX from an old '95 PCMania CDROM.

Added this one and a bunch more to my page now. samderboo.com/forklifts.php

video games

We don't enforce any DRM for games and stuff on @itch.io. Buy, download, and never connect to the internet again for all we care ✌️

@samderboo.com spotted another one, Kaettekita Cyborg Kurochan on PS1 from 2002

Thing I made for a game jam. 10-minute driving game where you try to catch ghosts. derboo.itch.io/curse-catchers

In the fifth SNK game patent I found a title screen is finally seen: Fantasy (1981). In this hot air balloon adventure you must rescue your girl Cheri from pirates. The layouts for all ten level screens are here. Fantasy would be licensed to jukebox giant Rock-Ola for distribution in North America.

Extremely goated box art on this early Jeff Minter game.

#pixelart

We worked real hard and did a huge amount of quality of life stuff (mouse control, text logs), added New Game Plus, and a bunch of extra dialog bits for Demonschool. It's also currently the Steam daily deal at 30% off! Good time to grab it if you haven't.

A picture of the team behind Sega's 1985 arcade game Ninja Princess. From left to right: Makoto Oshitani, Rieko Kodama, ??, Yoshiki Kawasaki. via @gamingalexandria.bsky.social archive.org/details/beep...

Not sure what this is going to look like in-game...

This is Clash at Demonhead's bad ending in the Japanese version of the game. For some reason, it was removed for the U.S. release. 36 years later, it's still more relevant than ever.

After a bit of optimising (screaming at screen when it wasn't working, overjoyed when it finally was), here's WIP C64 Delphian running on a stock 1Mhz C64.😀 It's around 2-3 times faster than it was, and there's still more I can do... Should be pretty zippy on a C64U at 64Mhz, so will try later.🙂

Ganondorf in the Pyramid of Power for Super Zeldathon this summer @zeldathon.com made from bristol paper, cardstock, & sketchbook paper (+ micro LEDs)

It looks like Eric JW Lee did indeed reference this Dolph Lundgren still from Masters of the Universe for his Phantasy Star III illustration for GamePro!

Yesterday @reified-systems.itch.io pointed out that Basil's face from this Fawlty Towers VHS collection is nearly exactly The Expression from Disco Elysium, and my mind is blown. I genuinely think this may be the original inspiration! So many details match up

Here's an addendum to an older page. Aside from Michael Whelan, Clyde Caldwell and Frank Frazetta, turns out this cover also takes from Boris Vallejo and Larry Elmore, for a massive who's who of classic fantasy illustrators. samderboo.com/tracing.php?... #TracingTheInfluence

Haven't gotten all elements yet, but I think it's enough for a comparison now. Lots of elements from a Frazetta b&w illustration for an Edgar Rice Burroughs book, plus a weight lifter by Vallejo. Kicking guy and kneeling guy are still at large. #TracingTheInfluence samderboo.com/tracing.php?...

Paul E. Stinson frequently swiped Boris, so I was sure that was the case for the back box art for Marauder (Atari 2600, 1982). Was finally able to match this to Boris Vallejo's piece Nubian Warrior (1978)

Hey the Guide to Japanese Role-Playing Games is back in stock! www.bitmapbooks.com/products/a-g...

Thanks to @samderboo.com I knew that Metal Morph SNES referenced this Frazetta, but now I'm going back through Bruce Eagle's catalog and I see that Bruce referenced the same Frazetta for the dino in the foreground of his box art for Magic Candle III (which I'm sure has plenty more references within)

There's a little bit of Boris Vallejo in this cover, too! #TracingTheInfluence samderboo.com/tracing.php?...

Spear guy has been identified! Shouldn't have been so fixated on fantasy paintings... Not gonna make a new video, but it's updated on the page (might have to do a forced refresh if you've seen the first version.) #TracingTheInfluence

I'd like to post these more regularly, but well, sometimes the day job grinds me down, sometimes I get absorbed in other projects... anyway, here's Sindibad. The boy with the Spear seems also familiar, but I couldn't find a matching reference yet. #TracingTheInfluence samderboo.com/tracing.php?...

I've wished for Arab-made games about Arab mythology for so long, and despite assisting on the project I still can't believe there's one swinging for the fences this hard. House of Hikmah is something very needed in a time where the world would rather erase us. www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZTu...

Transfer Point is now available! It’s a point-and-click adventure game about regret, forgiveness, and email. It was made in World Builder, a Mac app from 1986. You can play it free in your web browser. InvisiClues are available if you need a hint! robotspacer.software/transfer-poi... #MARCHintosh

When I was in high school, I was roped into editing the lit mag since I knew how to type. So of course I abused my position and stuck in a poem about Thunder Force V

The Missing People (1982) was technically "published", but it only sold one copy. It was rescued quite recently by the author from an old disk. I give the history behind the author (who I was able to interview) and play through the game. bluerenga.blog/2026/03/22/t...

Packy & Marlon, an SNES mascot platformer where you learn about diabetes through the power of elephants www.hardcoregaming101.net/packy-marlon/

🎉 picoCAD 2 is out! 🥳 Model, texture, and animate - in a single lo-fi, easy to use package.  GIF, GLTF, OBJ, and sprite sheet export.  Available now on Steam and Itch! Check it out! picocad.net Thanks for boosting! ❤️ 🙏

Never mind that DLSS5 nonsense, if you wanna look at cool before/after comparisons of game art, I've got the website for you. samderboo.com/tracing.php

Hello @samderboo.com, this illustration of Kyotaro Nishimura looks like it's lifted from photo. I tried to find but failed and it's bugging the hell out of me. Please take a looksee if such source exits whenever you got completely nothing to do. Thank you!!

I fucking love my job. #sounddesign #gamedev

@samderboo.com Here's one for Tracing the Influence from Idol Hakkenden (NES): Larry King

"The 45-second film, made around 1897, was the first appearance on film of what might be called a robot" HELL. YES.