Graphic style of old games. A bereavement. :-(

[Eszett]

I loved and miss the pixel graphic style of old games,
especially the outstanding style of the Bitmap Brothers.



Titles in order of the images:

Tyrian (PC, Epic Games)
The Chaos Engine (PC, Bitmap Brothers)
Cadaver (PC, Bitmap Brothers)
Gods (PC, Bitmap Brothers)
Shadowrun (Mega Drive, BlueSky Software)
Ambermoon (PC, Thalion)
Albion (PC, Blue Byte)
Z (PC, Bitmap Brothers)

Also, please a look at these animations: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_j1MlzjiZo#t=4m

With this, there was so much more potential for imagination than in modern 3D Graphics.
Why did we lose it? Are there modern games where can we still find it? Your comments please.

[HPE1000]

Perhaps try Shovel Knight. It is 33% off right now on steam, bringing it down to $10.04.

[rowdy]

You youngsters and your fancy graphics

What about when the best we had was this:

[rowdy]

Or even better, what about this:



Who needs all those fancy multi-coloured graphics anyway )

[Eszett]

Well, I meant a certain graphic style. Which is not ASCII-Art, and does not look like Pong or Pacman. I gave examples what I mean. Shovel Knight is indeed a rare modern example of this style, right.

[Coreda]

Perhaps try Shovel Knight. It is 33% off right now on steam, bringing it down to $10.04.

Shovel Knight is more in the NES style rather than PC. Still loved it to death. Oniken is another aiming for an NES aesthetic, although with a less modern design.

There are no doubt some obscure modern PC games that use a more old school art style, as I've occasionally come across them. As for why that particular flavor of pixel art is no longer popular, it's as more modern designs took their place and the examples in the OP are very specific (strict isometric/single perspective, 16-bit palette, 90s PC aesthetic). Pixel art is still popular for games, you just have to find decent games or alternatively play the wealth of awesome games from that era.

You could also look at SNES games, it's practically the defining style of that console.



Alundra

There are also plenty of modern games that retain a detailed interesting environment in 3D:



Anno 1404



Commandos 2



else Heart.Break()



Wakfu MMORPG

Other examples that may be similar to the OP's selections:

- Peter Moorhead's Stranded
- Confederate Express (Kickstarter)
- Wealth of games on GOG.com

[dante]

I loved the pixel art of the last generation of SNES/Super Famicon games.  I remember picking up GameFan magazine and drooling over the artwork for Japanese RPG's.

[Eszett]

Thanks for proposals. @Coreda This Video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1vayggszdo) of Confederate Express looks impressive. This is exactly the pixel art style I meant!

[dimmu]

I loved and miss the pixel graphic style of old games,
especially the outstanding style of the Bitmap Brothers.

(Attachment Link)

Titles in order of the images:

Tyrian (PC, Epic Games)
The Chaos Engine (PC, Bitmap Brothers)
Cadaver (PC, Bitmap Brothers)
Gods (PC, Bitmap Brothers)
Shadowrun (Mega Drive, BlueSky Software)
Ambermoon (PC, Thalion)
Albion (PC, Blue Byte)
Z (PC, Bitmap Brothers)

Also, please a look at these animations: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_j1MlzjiZo#t=4m

With this, there was so much more potential for imagination than in modern 3D Graphics.
Why did we lose it? Are there modern games where can we still find it? Your comments please.

Finally, someone else who played Z. Loved the graphics, animation and characters in that game!

[TacticalCoder]

IIRC the Bitmap Brothers were big on the Atari ST and the Commodore Amiga before being big on the PC...  Xenon and Speeball were two big hits they made.

If you like that style, there are probably quite some Commodore Amiga games and demos that you'd enjoy "graphically": these were the days ; )

But that type of "pixel art" (highly contrasted, lots of gradients, all hand-made graphics) kinda got lost. Thankfully now thanks to the indie game developers scene, there's a revival of various types of retro-styles graphics, including that very particular style.

Finally, someone else who played Z. Loved the graphics, animation and characters in that game!

I probably still have my original Amiga box of 'Z' somewhere: one of the very few games I bought for my Commodore Amiga. Another one I bought was Ultima V: the port on the Amiga was so bad that I went back to my Commodore 64 just to play Ultima V !

I also have NIUB boxes of Krypton Egg (still considered by some to be the best breakout clone ever written) for the Atari ST and Commodore Amiga and of "World Rally Fever" (Team 17 / PC) but that's cheating because these games were coded by very good friends of mine (whom I still see regularly and who are still in the computer games business).

[tp4tissue]

Fundamentally.. a video game is an excel sheet in live-graphics form..

The more "****ty" / "simple"  the graphics,  the closer it is to the spread sheet, and further away it is from the "intended-Simulation"..


So we can use this scale...


Excel Sheet---------------------------------------------------Simulation


Now this very obviously covers RPG types..  HOW does this cover action games like CS_GO and Super Mario


Super Mario has the level system for progress tracking  world 1- level 1  world 3- level 5

ETC..

CS_GO,  is essentially a win or loss counter...  you win = 1, reset, you lose = 0, reset


GENERALLY if the video game no longer has anything to teach you, this would be the case with most adults playing games age 20+...  Then you are using games as an artificial simulator of progress in life..

Or perhaps as a drug, to numb the tacit life you lead..

Remember LIFE always ticks down, no matter what you do.. 

[tp4tissue]

IMPORTANT::::


This has NOT been a comment on worth, or whether games are good/bad..

Tp4 is merely trying to play these games for what they are.. sans the romanticism..

[Coreda]

tp how could I not see games for what they truely are – glorified spreadsheets, it all makes sense now!!

games aren't ever just meant to be fun, humorous, engaging, or thought-provoking but are all merely virtual comfort food for mindless human spawn



you must spread the word tp – it is of vital importance to every thread, whether completely unrelated to the op or not

[tp4tissue]

^^

Games can also be "those things"..

The point is there is only-so-much fun, humorous, engaging, or thought-provoking.. that can be done

So.. that is why there's the AGE 20 marker in there..   By which point it is very unlikely that a person who has crossed the line would not find the limited scope of games repetitious of what they're already very familiar with..

Again.. Tp4's not saying games are good or bad, or is he at all firm as to who should play them..

If you've never played a game until ur 20, of course games could have much to teach you..


Tp4's comment is a localized observation of  the first-world gaming community.

[Megaweapon]

[tp4tissue]

Show Image

But if you don't respond.. Tp4 wins.. 


As yourself..  Are you really -OK- with that ?


JK, Tp4 always right, ya'll r always wrong..

[hwood34]

well, my dad was 10 when Tennis for Two came out, so that's about as vintage as graphics get

[baldgye]

Steam.exe

[Eszett]

@tp4issue IMHO to enjoy pretty nonsense is the better part of life. The aesthetics of handmade pixel sprites is like listening to good music. For me.

[noisyturtle]

lol this thread

[FrostyToast]

I thought the bandwagon for the longest time was to imitate that exact art style to induce "nostalgia".

[rowdy]

The pleasure of aesthetics by watching handmade pixel sprites is like listening to mozart. For me.

Handmade pixel sprites - where each individual pixel was placed by hand.  That's the way to do it!

[Eszett]

Any other suggestions of modern games in old pixel style (incl. atmosphere)?

[baldgye]

Any other suggestions of modern games in old pixel style (incl. atmosphere)?

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2

[Altis]

Any other suggestions of modern games in old pixel style (incl. atmosphere)?

You could try Papers, Please.

It's actually an interesting game with a unique experience, but some people don't like it because it can feel like work. In a Soviet border office, at that. It's won many awards though and is highly rated.

I think the graphics and mechanics will be to your liking.

Glory to Arstotzka.

[Coreda]

Was turned on to Dark Drive by someone. While not strictly 16-bit the base graphics share that similar aesthetic.

[Eszett]

Recently I stumpled on this upcoming game, with the pixel style we love. It is not released yet, but watch for yourself:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jWYCXneCn8

[katushkin]

Any other suggestions of modern games in old pixel style (incl. atmosphere)?

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2

Kek

[Coreda]

Recently I stumpled on this upcoming game, with the pixel style we love. It is not released yet, but watch for yourself:

*Riot*

If you'd had originally mentioned you were interested in those type of pixel art games as well I could have recommended others. Your OP was very specific with its style.

- Sword & Sworcery EP (atmospheric action point and click game)
- Hyper Light Drifter (gorgeous isometric action game)
- Dungeon of the Endless (isometric RTS tower defense-esque, superb soundtrack)
- The Last Light (upcoming Cyberpunk Kickstarter based on the existing Last Night short game)
- Glorious Leader (in progress action sidescroller with Kim Jong-un as the hero, 16-bit era aesthetic)
- Aegis Defenders (in progress stylized action platformer with Studio Ghibli inspired characters)
- Chasm (soon to be released stylized action platformer)
- Eitr (in progress Dark Souls esque isometric fighter)
- Broforce (sidescroller/platformer multiplayer action game)


Not a pixel art style but great looking isometric games:

- Pillars of Eternity (in progress old school isometric RPG)
- Stasis (in progress isometric stranded sci-fi adventure game)
- Torment: Tides of Numenera (another in progress old school isometric RPG, from the makers of Planescape: Torment)

[Eszett]

@Coreda Wow, that is a comprehensive reference of upcoming pearls you show here. I checked the Last-Night mini browser game ( http://timsoret.itch.io/the-last-night ), it is impressing how they blend blade runner themes, sf-noire pixel gfx (reminds me to Gemini Rue) with Disco tunes of the 70ies ), what an atmosphere!

[smarmar]

@Coreda Wow, that is a comprehensive reference of upcoming pearls you show here. I checked the Last-Night mini browser game ( http://timsoret.itch.io/the-last-night ), it is impressing how they blend blade runner themes, sf-noire pixel gfx (reminds me to Gemini Rue) with Disco tunes of the 70ies ), what an atmosphere!

Wow, Last-Night is really cool. Complete with vapor-wave soundtrack! It reminds me a lot of Flashback and Out of This World, two great games from the early 1990s.

Check out this other browser game "Ripple Dot Zero" designed by Simon Stalenhag and Tommy Salomonsson. It has one of the most amazing soundtracks I've ever heard: http://www.rippledotzero.com/

[CPTBadAss]

Hotline Miami

[smarmar]

You youngsters and your fancy graphics

What about when the best we had was this:

(Attachment Link)

Yep, back in my day before all your fancy pixels and rasters were invented we played our games using phosphor-burning electron beams on top of printed overlays. And we liked it, by jove!

I cut my gaming teeth on 1970s vector arcade machines and wood-paneled home consoles. I remember my aunt taking me to the local arcade to watch her play Pac-Man. God, she was good! I'll never forget the awe and amazement I felt the first time I watched one of my friends moving the pictures on his TV using a little black box with one red button and a stick! Before that moment television, to me, was static entertainment. My world was forever changed. 

[Lain1911]

[Coreda]

Bump for awareness.

Tower 57 - Isometric 2D run and gun shooter with outstanding sprite work. Trailer. Kickstarter. Steam Greenlight.

[Clicky]

Definitely check out Axiom Verge.  I played through it on PS4, but I think it's available on Steam as well.  Very similar to Metroid/Super Metroid.  IMO it had gorgeous pixel art and a ridiculously awesome soundtrack.  I thought it did a great job with establishing a creepy atmosphere for the world you explored, a fun "glitch" mechanic, and it nailed the Metroidvania element of finding new tools to get to places you couldn't previously.  It had a part or two where it was a little difficult to tell where you needed to go to next and the story was a little esoteric.  I definitely recommend picking it up if anything I've said tickles your fancy.

[NewbieOneKenobi]

Fundamentally.. a video game is an excel sheet in live-graphics form..

The more "****ty" / "simple"  the graphics,  the closer it is to the spread sheet, and further away it is from the "intended-Simulation"..


So we can use this scale...


Excel Sheet---------------------------------------------------Simulation


Now this very obviously covers RPG types..  HOW does this cover action games like CS_GO and Super Mario


Super Mario has the level system for progress tracking  world 1- level 1  world 3- level 5

ETC..

CS_GO,  is essentially a win or loss counter...  you win = 1, reset, you lose = 0, reset


GENERALLY if the video game no longer has anything to teach you, this would be the case with most adults playing games age 20+...  Then you are using games as an artificial simulator of progress in life..

Or perhaps as a drug, to numb the tacit life you lead..

Remember LIFE always ticks down, no matter what you do.. 

Yup. But it's also quite easily (hopefully) to notice how good design is largely independent from new A/V tech. Old games used to have great design, if simple. However, nothing prevented the designers from weaving very complex networks of conditions and events, a really complex Excel sheet that was more human-like and less paper-scissors-like than many modern titles that even have broadth but lack the depth (Crusader Kings 2 comes to mind, or perhaps the hopes it disappoints with how shallow everything is in that game), including the dumbing down of the RPG genre etc. (strategies probably too).

Also, I have a feeling that in those old games there was warmth and care and a certain such outreach to the player, with a lot of humility included. On the other hand, modern games tend to be about flashy graphics and shocking the audience with this or that or showing how the company is (to be) worshipped on social media, or how designers will pout and pucker and preen or just flip the bird at you because they're so cool (and better than you).

EDIT: I also remember the switch around 2002 from isometric to rotate-cam 3D RPGs. That was ugly. Renders can be great, but the fine art of drawing seems to be lost.

[Shapey Fiend]

I like well executed artwork. The problem with most of this 2D revival stuff is it's going to look pretty shoddy compared to the early 90's when you'd big staffs of cutting edge graphics artists at the top of their field poring over every frame.

A lot of these new 2D games have hi resolution sprites with few frames or South Park style ragdoll type animation. I don't blame them it's just what's practical. It ends up making things look a bit 'flash game' though.

3D is less labour intensive. I think it can look really pretty as well if they get some talented individuals involved and don't go down the photorealistic route, which tends to be the approach the majority of western developers take. The Japanese are a lot more comfortable with stylisation.

[naasfu]

Who needs all those fancy multi-coloured graphics anyway )

one of my favorites:

[KatzenKinder]

It's not exactly that style, but there are games that have really good color use and style like Hyper Light Drifter:

Even for mobile gaming there's things like FEZ and Monument valley that aren't as close to realism in that style, but really show efficient pixel usage and beautiful environment design.



I think there are games that are in the same spirit, like Bastion. Higher resolution, cleaner lines, etc. But still very much so made with great attention to detail in texturing.



What's that other one... Transistor also!

[twiddle]

3D is less labour intensive.

This primarily depends on the level of stylisation and the number of items that need to be viewed from multiple angles. Those concerns aside, 3d animation/art for games in the modern context is far more labour intensive.

Model base mesh -> sculpt in zbrush/maya/mudbox -> (optionally retopologise and simplify high-res mesh into new base) -> bake back from high-poly to low poly

is a far more involved process than 2d. For 2d you might block the animations out, but you don't need to shade and provide form for a low-poly version because the high-res details are free, performance wise, so they just go straight onto the asset.

 

Also, I have a feeling that in those old games there was warmth and care and a certain such outreach to the player, with a lot of humility included. On the other hand, modern games tend to be about flashy graphics and shocking the audience with this or that or showing how the company is (to be) worshipped on social media, or how designers will pout and pucker and preen or just flip the bird at you because they're so cool (and better than you).

I suspect there is a significant amount of rose-tinted glasses here. One of the reasons for the industry's crash in the early 1980s was because studios (that is to say Atari) became convinced they could treat the consumer with contempt. Not to say that there weren't lovingly crafted games back then, or that some games today aren't soulless cash grabs, but it really isn't such a binary thing in terms of attitude.
I'm curious about your references to being 'worshipped on social media ... [designers being] better than you'. Can you give an example of this? It certainly doesn't seem to be the norm from where I'm sitting (technical designer), though the aforementioned issues with executive-level contempt for the audience are still something that comes up from time to time.

[NewbieOneKenobi]

It seems an HD version of Heroes III has come out. I didn't buy it today, but I looked at the screenshots on the box. It's not really the most old-school kind of old, but still old for 2015. At the same time, it's as smooth as modern graphics. Just uses the old style, from the time Heroes 3 was released.

[MyBoolean]

i remember the pixel days of gaming.

that was the start of my caveman times

[rowdy]

i remember the pixel days of gaming.

that was the start of my caveman times

The days when you could actually write a better game yourself, and didn't have to worry about hiring design teams and production teams to make a small multi-millino dollar game.

[sth]

tyrian is my favorite game of all time!

[Lain1911]

https://www.youtube.com/user/rpgmakerweb/videos

[sth]

https://www.youtube.com/user/rpgmakerweb/videos

spent hours and hours on that as a kid!  Thank You Based Don Miguel

[raymogi]

I'll just leave this here.

http://www.mother4game.com/

[smarmar]

Who needs all those fancy multi-coloured graphics anyway )

one of my favorites:

Show Image

ADVENTURE for the Atari 2600 -- I believe I have spent more time in that virtual land than any other game to date (expect for, maybe, Morrowind). It's simply incredible how rich those worlds were to me, growing up playing those flat, bare, top-down games. I play them today and I'm still filled with the same sense of wonder. It's crazy how one's imagination will fill in the blank spaces.