Seeing as today is the birthday of 88-year-old Ralph Baer -- creator of the first video game console (Magnavox Odyssey) and considered by many as the
"father of video games" -- now seems the perfect time to share some fanart for the celebrated figure.

The piece above drops Baer next to a Super Mario Bros. question block and some sort of terrifying beast fashioned together with elements from the Nintendo series. Artist Ashley Anderson created it for a silent auction by "taking photographed imagery, scanned imagery, and digitally hand drawn imagery and forcing them all to sit in the same pictorial space".

She adds that the pixelated figured behind Baer is the ghost of William Higinbotham, creator of Tennis for Two, which, having debuted in 1958, is the first known precursor of Pong. This isn't the only tribute I have to share today for Baer; After the break, I've included another illustration of the inventor taken from a series devoted to notable game industry stars from artist Bartotainment.