the 80s called. they want their ringtone back.

I'm going to do my best to write more anecdotal posts in addition to the mini-analyses I'm always tempted toward, since those are often useful in brainstorming as well.  Here's the first of more to come.

When I got my first phone that allowed for custom wallpaper and ringtones, I went a little crazy.  It wasn't enough to make my favorite images into wallpaper or my favorite lesser known songs into ringtones--they had to work together into some sort of theme.

One such theme was (of course) NES--specifically, the first Mario game.  I measured the size of my screen in pixels by the guess-and-check method using bitmaps of various sizes.  Once I figured out the number of pixels there were to fill, I edited a screenshot image found on the net to fit the external screen of my phone:

Mario is outside here, so naturally this image had to be on the outside of my phone.

And one to fit the internal screen:

Mario has descended to the innards of the Mushroom Kingdom, so this one had to go on the inside.

Then came time for the sounds.  I wasn't as interested in getting the Mario music for a ringtone; that was already a thing to do by my peers.  There were still sounds of the game that others weren't using, though, and I found a Mario Soundboard online from which to record them.

For the alert that played when I received a text, I alternated between using the sound of Mario getting a 1Up and the sound of Mario getting a coin--both positive things that happen in the game.

For my voicemail alert, I used the sound of Mario dying.  I kinda hate voicemail.

I was beat at my own game, however, when I talked to a friend who also made symbolic use of Mario sounds on his phone.  He had his cell set so that whenever his ex-girlfriend would call, the music that you hear as you approach Bowser would play.

Ex-girlfriend = Bowser

Touché.