X-Com Explosions are skulls

[The Reaver of Darkness]

I love that the explosion graphic is somewhere between a mushroom cloud and a skull. It makes for a neat easter egg when you manage to notice it. The easiest way to see it is by screenshotting or slowing the game down, but I first began to notice it as a nearly subliminal skull that seemed to pop up and disappear just barely too fast to see.

[Warboy1982]

spoiler: everything in xcom is skulls

[The Reaver of Darkness]

[Solarius Scorch]

Are you interested in a hit animation as well?

https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,5097.msg77668.html#msg77668

[RockDoctor]

I love that the explosion graphic is somewhere between a mushroom cloud and a skull.

I think I was still dealing with swapping DOS memory configurations when I spotted that.
But on the other hand, I'd probably been playing the game for a year or so too. It is a nice touch, and I've got a faint memory of having seen such an effect in a movie and thinking "that director plays UFO!"