Like so many people over the last few seasons, I got caught up in the amazing storytelling and retro vibes of Stranger Things. As a Stephen King fan in my teenage years, it just hit the sweet spot of nostalgia and familiar atmosphere. So I toyed around with a few ideas – it’s such a visually stimulating universe, how could it not inspire? – and came up with a combo that felt right: Stranger Things meets retrogaming, specifically Gameboy cartridges.
I had made a batch of Gameboy cartridges featuring fairly faithful renderings of some of the old Nintendo classic games (Pokemon, Tetris, Final Fantasy and Zelda) as a gift for a friend who is a keen gamer and loves his old – and new – Gameboy, so I had a basic design to work with.
So here’s the first prototype, 4 coasters with felt backs and a smart little stand to hold them when not in use under your favourite beverage. I continued the retrogaming theme on the stand with some cool phrases in pixel script. For those not familiar, Eleven is based on the Pokemon cartridge, Mind Flayer on Final Fantasy, Legend of Hawkins on Legend of Zelda, and Upside Down on Jurassic Park.
The Legend of Hawkins one needs some more work (I tried adding a score around the letters to make them pop, but it just made them… burn!) and I’m still testing finishing coats to ensure that the wood coasters don’t warp or crack when in contact with inevitably damp glass bottoms. No one likes a damp bottom.