eBoy: an ode and introduction

I don't know where my love for eBoy springs from, but it definitely has something to do with a childhood of 8-bit video gaming and young adult years of raving till dawn. Regardless, if you haven't been introduced to the pixel art collective, then hopefully this will kick off your education. The designers -- Kai Vermehr, Steffen Sauerteig, and Svend Smital -- have been producing some of the most distinctive and nuanced modern art in the world since 1997. As you can tell by even a casual glance at the artist's pics (we've rounded up some in the gallery below), their work is incredibly vibrant -- almost information overload -- and filled with the kinds of minute details that make looking at eBoy images less of a passive activity and more like a scavenger hunt which rewards the dedicated viewer. The eBoy team have expanded their work to run the gamut from album covers, books, advertising, clothing and footwear, and even a forthcoming iPhone game. As masters of the micro, they've built what amounts to a mini-empire.

Whenever I get a new device (typically when I'm reviewing something for the site), the first thing I do is tack eBoy images onto the wallpaper. Usually I have to crop them down or otherwise customize them for the platform at hand, and as a result I've ended up with a metric ton of tweets and emails asking where they come from. I figured as a public service I would .zip everything I could find on my hard drive to give to you, the reader. If you've been wondering where and how these came to life, wonder no more. Of course, it's eBoy's world -- we're just living in it.

And yes, that's me up there. Thanks guys!

Download: jt_eboy.zip

eBoy sampler

[HoldenMccrotch Posted May 26th 2010 2:57PM]

now all that eboy malarky makes sense!! :P

[SolidSnake Posted May 26th 2010 3:10PM]

@HoldenMccrotch
I think Josh would die without his daily eboy fix.

[a dumb cat Posted May 26th 2010 3:37PM]

@HoldenMccrotch

Why do the zipped files display so dark?

[decypherSMC Posted May 26th 2010 3:59PM]

@a dumb cat he probably darkened them so icons and text over top of these wouldn't be unreadable...

[Hidd3nFury Posted May 26th 2010 4:00PM]

@a dumb cat

JT Tweeted about this around the time of the iPad launch. He makes the images darker as to not make it difficult to see the icons on whatever device he may be using.

[a dumb cat Posted May 26th 2010 5:04PM]

@Hidd3nFury

Trust me, I appreciate the fact that Josh provided these pics to us, but I would like to receive an unaltered version if possible.

You know what, I sound whiney so I'm going to shut up now. Thanks again, Josh!

[danilka Posted May 26th 2010 5:47PM]

@HoldenMccrotch
Where is the shadow from Josh?!

[stangmeister Posted May 26th 2010 2:58PM]

Looking forward to this new blog.

[AvidTechUser Posted May 26th 2010 2:58PM]

Looking forward to interesting stuff from Alt... :)

[tobsmonster2 Posted May 26th 2010 3:14PM]

@AvidTechUser
They said the new format would be less distracting :O

[GeneralThade Posted May 26th 2010 3:01PM]

Oh god.

[yokken Posted May 26th 2010 3:01PM]

eboy is freaking awesome. found out about it 5 years ago or so, still love it as much now as i ever did. isometric pixel art will always have a special place in my heart. thanks joshua :)

[Matej Bajan Posted May 26th 2010 3:02PM]

I don't know if that's an error or something but all of the images in the ZIP except one are very, very dark.

[yokken Posted May 26th 2010 3:04PM]

@Matej Bajan

you're right. odd... it's like a 20% opacity black layer was put over everything... haha

[tylersmyler Posted May 26th 2010 3:29PM]

@Matej Bajan
yeah, it's messed

[Hidd3nFury Posted May 26th 2010 4:01PM]

@Matej Bajan

JT Tweeted about this around the time of the iPad launch. He makes the images darker as to not make it difficult to see the icons on whatever device he may be using.

[a dumb cat Posted May 26th 2010 5:05PM]

@Hidd3nFury

Ah, but if I put these on my Palm Pre I never have that issue, so an unaltered, non-darkened image would work just fine.

[Lord Vader Posted May 26th 2010 3:02PM]

At last Engadget. Our Ship is Complete. Everything is Proceeding According to plan

[skyblaze Posted May 26th 2010 3:36PM]

@Lord Vader

Josh called eBoy a mini-empire! Seems you have growing competition.....

[Plazmic Flame Posted May 26th 2010 4:50PM]

@Lord Vader

Is that Josh controlling the ship with a cellphone and wired iPad?

[GeneralThade Posted May 26th 2010 3:06PM]

Next big thing...8 bit streaming porn.

[a dumb cat Posted May 26th 2010 3:41PM]

@GeneralThade

Just add a mosaic filter and reduce to 256 colors or something.

[Son Goku Posted May 26th 2010 3:07PM]

eBoy fanboy!!!!!

[derekdevine Posted May 26th 2010 3:09PM]

Joshua, you're so artistic!

[Girish Posted May 26th 2010 3:14PM]

Is there any tool to create these things. Or is plain photoshop, inkscape etc.

[yokken Posted May 26th 2010 3:26PM]

@Girish

it's just photoshop with a 1px pencil tool. have fun!

[nacido Posted May 26th 2010 3:15PM]

great post to start the new alt section (i know it's the third post!).

and showing some love to the talent overseas is always appreciated.

[MishkaGreen Posted May 26th 2010 3:16PM]

Thanks so much for the .ZIP file! Already have it on my HTC Magic and spruced up the wallpaper!

Thanks again, Josh.

-M. G.

[Cwill127 Posted May 26th 2010 3:22PM]

AWESOME, thanks!!

[abedinthehouse Posted May 26th 2010 3:26PM]

This makes me want to sing.....

"Come with me and you'll be,
In a world of pure imagination.
Take a look and you'll see,
Into your imagination"

[yokken Posted May 26th 2010 3:31PM]

@abedinthehouse

reading this brought back some memories. i went and downloaded the soundtrack :) thanks for that.

[ndukyh Posted May 26th 2010 3:27PM]

Is it just me? All of the images seem to be dim. Trying to download again to see if it's just something weird that went on with the first download.

[skyblaze Posted May 26th 2010 3:29PM]

Very nice read, Josh... and thanks for the pics! Downloaded straight to my n900 and soon to be the disignated wallpaper on atleast one of my phones.

Really liking this Alt idea already. Engadget continues to evolve by the day... and I plan to stay and watch every step =)

[michaspi Posted May 26th 2010 3:29PM]

Thanks, Josh.

[Unit333 Posted May 26th 2010 4:48PM]

Thanks-

[JarekPL Posted May 26th 2010 3:34PM]

Holy sh*t. This pixel art is amazing!

[JarekPL Posted May 26th 2010 3:35PM]

@JarekPL And the guy in this picture: http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2010/05/josheboy1.jpg looks like Steve Jobs :P

[yokken Posted May 26th 2010 3:37PM]

if you read the entire post, you'd see that it's obviously joshua topolsky. plus that pixel man has too much hair, not to mention sandals, for it to be steve jobs.

[N900 Posted May 26th 2010 3:36PM]

Pew Pew Pew

[Rick Posted May 26th 2010 3:36PM]

I spy with my little eye... Spongebob Squarepants!

[joelaf Posted May 26th 2010 3:44PM]

pew pew pew, all your base are mine!

[Vicada Posted May 26th 2010 4:00PM]

Guys, just a quick note, Photoshop's "Auto tone/contrast" feature will fix the darkness. Haven't tried yet with native Windows programs though.

[dudenamedsteve Posted May 26th 2010 4:37PM]

This reminds of emogame.com. Anyone else remember that? That was awesome. And now I have another delicious way to not work while at work...

[thomanthony Posted May 26th 2010 4:44PM]

May I start with the statement that love this work. Relevant, intricate, and engaging.

My primary issue is with the article itself. PLEASE stop using the term "modern" to describe all art created in the past 15 years. "Modern art" refers to a specific era encompassing the late 1800s through the 1970s (although generally concerning only art before the 1940s). The proper term for art created is recent cultural memory is "contemporary."

Contemporary art can be very informative and revealing for an audience, but if it is clumped unwittingly with modern art then our ability to appreciate movements and innovations in creativity is greatly diminished.

Cheers.

[scar45 Posted May 26th 2010 4:46PM]

You folks might like my eBoy Edition Sims Snowboard (Full res pics): http://protogenlabs.com/ext-resources/eboy-edition-sims-snowboard

I actually use the angled shot for my x360 NXE background as it just so happened that it lines up nicely with the tiles.

BTW, the board rides super smooth too!

[Knoc Posted May 26th 2010 4:49PM]

We have a few of these posters kicking around the office. Bright colors and pixels cheer me up.

[franktronic Posted May 26th 2010 5:05PM]

The only fitting companion to the above art:
http://www.8bitpeoples.com/artist/nullsleep

Check out the song Her Laser Light Eyes by Nullsleep.
http://www.8bitpeoples.com/mp3/get/487/8bp077-01-nullsleep-her_lazer_light_eyes.mp3

[Munny Swirl Posted May 26th 2010 5:13PM]

art is too dim, what's up wit dat josh?!

[Erdbeerkuchen Posted May 26th 2010 5:31PM]

On another note; I need that game for my Android phone.

[lmwong Posted May 26th 2010 5:44PM]

Love eboy. Been rocking this wallpaper on my iphone for awhile now.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ctieman/4400616386/

I love the eboy coke ads.

The engadget podcasts'/shows' music intros are quite fitting.