Sorry for the downtime, welcome back!!

skater43 stitches Zelda games

Video game craft projects made with thread and needles...
Post Reply
skater43
Rank 6 - Tanooki Mario
Rank 6 - Tanooki Mario
Posts: 259
Joined: Tue Dec 12, 2017 4:34 pm

Re: skater43 stitches Zelda games

Post by skater43 »

Thank you. :) Pleased with how it's turning out so far myself. I did catch a mistake the other day, so had to undo some of what I'd done that day, plus a little from previously. Did set us back about a day, but that's not a huge deal and we want this to be right. Have finished up the floor tiles for this section, today we'll finish the door, tomorrow we'll do a bit more by the triforce then start finishing up the bricks on top and the right.

skater43
Rank 6 - Tanooki Mario
Rank 6 - Tanooki Mario
Posts: 259
Joined: Tue Dec 12, 2017 4:34 pm

Re: skater43 stitches Zelda games

Post by skater43 »

So this is where we'll pause this project. As you can see, we've made quite a bit of progress in the bricks/walls/floors. Ballparking things, we're about 80% done with this part of the project. This is the most tedious and labor intensive part of the project, with all the bricks to fill, so once we finish here, we'll get more fun things to stitch/look at, more variety, moving around and such. At least we have Link and the triforce here, so at least some color/something to look at besides grey. But, we'll pick this up in a few weeks or so. Dates for SGDQ2021 have been announced (July 4-11), so I want to get that project done and framed/ready to go for when they start accepting prizes. The event will be online only again, but they've shown the past couple of events that that works just fine. And as I've said, is actually better for international streamers/speedrunners because they don't have the hassle/expense of flying to the US. Do have a pattern and everything for that worked out (and did a bit of stitching on it today, just to get it started), but we'll detail that in my other thread.
Attachments
personal project WIP 4-4-21 IMG_20210404_113040592.jpg

User avatar
Firehawke
Rank 12 - Yoshi Mario
Rank 12 - Yoshi Mario
Posts: 2501
Joined: Sat Jan 04, 2014 12:26 pm

Re: skater43 stitches Zelda games

Post by Firehawke »

You are getting such great detail!!! Nice!!!
"May we maintain the courage to defy the consensus. May we ever choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong." - President Thomas S. Monson

skater43
Rank 6 - Tanooki Mario
Rank 6 - Tanooki Mario
Posts: 259
Joined: Tue Dec 12, 2017 4:34 pm

Re: skater43 stitches Zelda games

Post by skater43 »

Thank you. As I've said, one of the things I like about doing NES games is the fact that there's a 1:1 pixel to stitch ratio, so I can take screenshots and easily turn them into patterns. And since the NES was limited in how many colors it could have on screen, color choice isn't going to be overwhelming. But at the same time, we're a step or two up from old Atari games and such, so do get some more detail, better looking objects and the like. Looking forward to finishing up the bricks when we resume this so we can get to more interesting stuff and really looking forward to the final reveal when I can share why I chose this shot, the significance and all that.

skater43
Rank 6 - Tanooki Mario
Rank 6 - Tanooki Mario
Posts: 259
Joined: Tue Dec 12, 2017 4:34 pm

Re: skater43 stitches Zelda games

Post by skater43 »

And we're back at this. Dropped Kirby off at The Artery last week, so that's in their hands to work on once they finish my SGDQ prize. And this means we can get back to this project. Biggest thing since we left off last time is we have finished outlining our bricks and have the full length of the picture. I figure it'll take a couple of weeks to fill in the rest of the bricks, but at least that portion of the picture is coming to a conclusion. Stuff above the bricks, text below, so still a couple of months worth of work left, but good to be getting back to it and making progress. Biggest snag so far was last Thursday when I spent about an hour stitching, and a little over an hour and a half un-stitching. Realized I had gone a brick too far when some of my other lines weren't matching up, so had to undo the upper right corner. And since I had gone all the way to the right, then back left, it was a bit of a hassle to undo. But, things wouldn't have lined up, it wouldn't have been symmetrical, so there was no question of having to undo it. But, that's what days off are for, right? Otherwise, things in this corner have gone well. Got our statue, so a little more color/something else to look at besides bricks, got all the outlining done, so brick filling we a-go.
Attachments
personal project WIP 6-1-21 IMG_20210601_104638673.jpg

User avatar
Firehawke
Rank 12 - Yoshi Mario
Rank 12 - Yoshi Mario
Posts: 2501
Joined: Sat Jan 04, 2014 12:26 pm

Re: skater43 stitches Zelda games

Post by Firehawke »

Glad that you were able to catch that issue quickly...and before it got any worse!
"May we maintain the courage to defy the consensus. May we ever choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong." - President Thomas S. Monson

skater43
Rank 6 - Tanooki Mario
Rank 6 - Tanooki Mario
Posts: 259
Joined: Tue Dec 12, 2017 4:34 pm

Re: skater43 stitches Zelda games

Post by skater43 »

Yeah, it was a hassle to undo, but it needed to be corrected. That side would have been too off and the diagonals not lined up (which is how I discovered it). I know the framers are going to cringe when I walk in with a new project with lots of bricks (which apparently are a hassle to stretch and look straight and all), but that regular pattern did help show something was off. Back doesn't look great with some extra straggly bits, but those should get tucked under/covered up when I fill the bricks in. Have finished a couple of sections of the wall, so we're getting there, but likely another week and a half or so to go to finish filling in the wall and then the border bricks. Then we get to move onto some more interesting stuff to stitch/look at. :)

skater43
Rank 6 - Tanooki Mario
Rank 6 - Tanooki Mario
Posts: 259
Joined: Tue Dec 12, 2017 4:34 pm

Re: skater43 stitches Zelda games

Post by skater43 »

Here we go, more progress is made and yay! Bricks are done! Yes, all the bricks, wall, etc. in the bottom part of the picture are complete, filled in and otherwise done. And so, we begin with the stuff at the top of the picture. Means more interesting things to look at, more color and so on. Had a couple of choices for the blue and while I almost went with a more royal blue, I like this one and think the other would have been too dark. For Mega Man, we had issues seeing stitches of black on blue fabric. This time, we get the opposite. But we're making it work. This weekend, I'll be able to finish up this little map we're currently working on. Some text above it, then we'll move over to show some items, our life, etc. Thought I could do all the top stuff by the end of the month, but not so sure now. Text at the bottom of the picture will take about a week, so I'm looking at mid-July or so to finish up. Good news is there's no deadline on this one, so it goes a little longer or something, that's not a big concern.

After this, do have a quick project I want to bust out that does have a deadline on it, then we'll jump into our next Zelda project to continue stitching the games in the series I've beaten. Next on the docket is Twilight Princess for the GameCube. This one should be interesting/fun/challenging as the whole thing is stitched, no background fabric coming through, and uses possibly more colors and colors similar to one another, than any of my previous projects.

And speaking of projects, got word from The Artery that Mega Man and Kirby are both framed, so I'll pick those up tomorrow, get pics to you guys and get things submitted to GDQ.
Attachments
personal project WIP 6-17-21 IMG_20210617_141115089.jpg

skater43
Rank 6 - Tanooki Mario
Rank 6 - Tanooki Mario
Posts: 259
Joined: Tue Dec 12, 2017 4:34 pm

Re: skater43 stitches Zelda games

Post by skater43 »

So, story behind this picture. Go into a bit of detail for the non-gamers out there. Realize I'm on a gaming crafting site, so a lot of this is known, but just in case (that and this is basically copy and pasted from an email I sent friends and family showing it off). In The Legend of Zelda, you start with a max health of three hearts. When you beat the boss of a dungeon, a heart container drops to increase your max health. In addition, there are 5 heart containers hidden in the overworld to find/collect. Find collect all of them and you can have a max health of 16 hearts. Which is important not only to be able to take more hits/damage, but also both of the sword upgrades require you to have a certain amount of hearts to get. However, you are not required to get any of the heart containers in the game in order to beat it. Obviously, this poses quite the challenge. Not only can you only take a few hits before dying, but you are also stuck using the beginner sword the entire game. Tough, but possible to beat the game this way (should also be noted that it is possible to make it all the way to the final boss without any sword at all, using bombs, arrows, etc. to kill enemies. However, you can't beat the game as the final boss, Ganon, can only be hit by a sword). Which I've done here. You see my max health of only three hearts and I've got the wooden/beginning sword on my A button. But wait, there's more.

When Nintendo programmed the game, they noticed that they had only used about half of the available memory. So, to use up some of the extra space, they added a second quest, accessible after beating the first quest or entering a special name on the naming screen. Items/dungeons were in different locations and some of the enemies got harder. In addition, Nintendo added 4 or 5 rooms in dungeons where you get locked in when you enter them. The only way to leave is either pay 50 rupees (monetary system of the game) or give up a heart container. Obviously, paying the money is the better option because that's a permanent heart container loss. Now, as people started playing the game more and doing challenge runs like the 3 heart challenge (not picking up any heart containers), the question came up: well, what if you only have 3 hearts in one of those rooms and chose to give up a heart, what happens? Turns out, you go to 0 health and the next thing that hurts you kills you (unless you restore your health first). So you can never go below three hearts and in a 3 heart challenge, it might be better to "lose" a heart rather than pay 50 rupees in these rooms. But we can go one step further. In dungeon 7, there is a place where you can go from one of these locked rooms to another almost back to back (see http://www.vgmaps.com/Atlas/NES/LegendO ... evel-7.png about in the middle of the map). So the question came up, well, if you're at 0 health from the first room and then go into the second and choose to give up a heart, what happens? So, I decided to find out. Unfortunately, I must have done this prior to 2008 as I can't find a record of my post on GameFAQs any more (the archives only go back so far). However, I did find
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/56 ... a/75543508 where I mention it and point to a few other posts I'd made on the subject. Short version, nothing more happens, you just stay at 0 health.

Now, in order to get to that series of rooms, I had to play through a majority of the second quest. As noted, this is in dungeon 7 and there are 9 total. So at that point, I figured I'd go ahead and finish beating the second quest with only 3 hearts. And that is what this screenshot shows. This picture was taken from an emulator for the sake of ease getting the screenshot, but this challenge was originally done on my NES. Took me 125 deaths but I beat it. Most of those deaths were on Ganon and that was even with the life potions (can refill your hearts twice, which is obviously more useful when you have 16 hearts as opposed to 3) and the rings to boost my defense. The most impressive gaming accomplishment I've done? Don't know about that, but it's up there. So this picture is a reminder of that accomplishment.

As for the verse below the screenshot, well, it's a good one to keep in mind. Few years ago, I was managing a store for my current company. Not something I especially wanted to do, but they needed some one and thought I could handle it. I could, but it was rough and I was glad to go back to an assistant manager after a few months. Last year, I was working at another store that had a lot of issues/was a challenge. 5, 6 years ago, I had some health issues. We face difficult situations, some of our own doing like beating the second quest of Zelda with 3 hearts, some outside our control, but either way, we aren't going it alone. And now I'll have this picture (or will once it gets framed :) ) to remind me of that.

As for what's next, got a quickie couple of week project I want to bust out and then we'll be back to goal/project of stitching something for each of the Zelda games I've beaten. Next up is Twilight Princess, for the GameCube. Got all the colors for this, so we'll be ready to jump into it. Lot of greys/similar looking colors, so a bit of a challenge from that standpoint. And I believe it is all stitched, so there won't be any background cloth showing, so that'll be something new for me. But looking forward to seeing how that goes and hey, I don't have to worry. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. :)

For those curious, I am also including the screenshot/pattern I made. Colors used (all DMC) listed below:

3885 is the map
826 for the arrow tip
820 for the arrow shaft
BLANC for the text, white in the bricks
415 is the light grey in the bricks
414 is the dark grey of the bricks
349 the red of the hearts, the statues, Link's hat, most of the pile of Ganon's ashes
221 is the little bit of dark red/brick color in the pile of Ganon's ashes
977 is the triforce, Link's skin, key/rupee up top
3713 is the pink in the hearts
420 the blade of the sword, Link's hair and outfit
Attachments
personal project done 7-8-21 IMG_20210708_134305255.jpg
legend of zelda white text cropped.png
legend of zelda white text cropped.png (4.42 KiB) Viewed 3578 times

User avatar
Firehawke
Rank 12 - Yoshi Mario
Rank 12 - Yoshi Mario
Posts: 2501
Joined: Sat Jan 04, 2014 12:26 pm

Re: skater43 stitches Zelda games

Post by Firehawke »

That looks fantastic...and thanks for all of that info! And I love that verse...perfect match!!!
"May we maintain the courage to defy the consensus. May we ever choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong." - President Thomas S. Monson

Post Reply