Incredible pictures from an era of games we never got to experience

[asper]

Absolutely gorgeous stuff, beautiful graphics! Otherworldly... The idea of a whole world of games that we missed is indeed intoxicating...

You made one of the best threads on this forum in 2012.

Thanks!

 

[Hobo Elf]

And all we get from Japan now is Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts and Pokeymans. Fuck.

Well, at least it's comforting to know that if I ever do run out / get tired of the good western games, all I need to do is break a barrier and the world is my oyster once again.

 

[TheEntitledOne]

I don't feel like starting a thread to ask this, but would anyone be interested in an LP of Last Armageddon? I got it working on an emulator, and I can use my magical powers to translate the moon runes on the fly. It would be a blind run, and considering I just died like 5 minutes after starting the game, it may not turn out well, but ya know.

That's me after stumbling onto a camp of aliens. The Dragonewt (the purple lizard dude) wanted to attack them, so we did, and got fucking smoked. The alien dude is calling us a bunch of weaklings.

Go for it.

Err.. The plot is Random Monsters Vs Invading Aliens, right?

 

[DwarvenFood]

@OP put some pics in spoiler tags shit is making my browser sluggggg... great screenies btw.

 

[john danger]

Hey, does anyone know what this amazing picture of Vishnu lazin' on Shesha (spinning a mandala?) is from? Tineye & Google have no hits (apart from some tabletop campaigns), but I can't imagine any game mechanics capable of ruining this art style for me.

it's this one

 

[deuxhero]

Ah, the days when Enix made torture porn.

 

[Phelot]

Isn't this from one of the Samurai Showdowns?

 

[abnaxus]

Last Armageddon really pulls no punches.

 

[felipepepe]

Ahhhh, the glorious days when Hokuto no Ken was the model to follow, not Naruto...

 

[eric__s]

Hey, does anyone know what this amazing picture of Vishnu lazin' on Shesha (spinning a mandala?) is from? Tineye & Google have no hits (apart from some tabletop campaigns), but I can't imagine any game mechanics capable of ruining this art style for me.

it's this one

Unfortunately I don't know what it's from, although I have two thematically similar pictures you might be interested in -

Last Armageddon really pulls no punches.

It was actually this picture of the minotaur exploding that got me into these old games to begin with. I think ultraviolence was kind of common in this era. Check out the intro to Xak 3. These giant monsters kill the king and when the princess sees him dead, she kind of rhetorically goes KILL ME TOO!! The giant monster then casually rips off her head. Some of this stuff was totally insane.

 

[oscar]

Wish I could see more than the first few pictures on the first page but it kills my browser

 

[eric__s]

I added spoilers for some of the biggest offenders and a few more pictures I meant to include.

 

[Jadeite]

I wouldn't want to experience them honestly. Early '80s RPGs are shit. The later ones all got console ports if they were good, just like Western RPGs.

 

[SerratedBiz]

So these are the new banalshitboring shitposter alts I keep hearing about.

 

[dnf]

Popularity logic, how retarded.

 

[flabbyjack]

Not really from any video game but what the hell

 

[Taxnomore]

Haven't several of these been fan translated ? I'm quite sure some did ; there are definitely videos of Snatcher MSX/PC-88 out there on youtube.

 

[dnf]

where can i download these games, if i may askM

 

[eric__s]

I have no idea, unfortunately! I've never played any of them (actually I've played the one with the fat dude hovering over the ships, it's called Silpheed and it was released in the US in the late 80s on DOS - check out the weird disembodied head that comes out of nowhere and says unintelligible garbage at you in the beginning) and have no idea where to get them, but @CrookedBee told me she once played the MSX version of Phantasie IV, so maybe you should ask her.

 

[Trash]

Fuck me, I've played a few of those on the MSX back in the day. Never knew what the fuck was going on but I did dig the pretty pictures. I'm still happy my parents got an MSX instead of one of those banalshitboring C64's everyone had. Konami was king but the nips made heaps of classics for that platform including the first Castlevania, Nemesis, Snatcher and Metalgear and absolute fuckloads of wierd moonshit noone knows or remembers.

Anyway, I think at least two of the pictures are from Thexder. One of the absolute greats from way, way back. Loved that game to death. The MSX version is also absolutely stunning compared to the other releases.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thexder
http://www.mobygames.com/game/msx/thexder/screenshots/gameShotId,123574/

EDIT: Awesome thread btw.

 

[fizzelopeguss]

I miss the dirty, raw look of late 80's and early 90's art.

Programmers need to start limiting palettes so modern derpshit game artists relearn the basics of colour theory.

 

[Trash]

They had to work with very little and thus had to use their creativity to the max. It really did bring out the best. I love that old art*.

*Partly nostalgia for sure but come on, that shit looks rad.

 

[Helly]

where can i download these games, if i may askM

For dnf, and anybody really, here are some of the stuff I found:
Torrent at Nyaa
40gig, yeah, but it's (probably) most of the Sharp X68000 and NEC PC-98/95 games.
Obviously most of them are in moonrunes I'm still currently downloading the package, but I'll keep seeding anyway. I didn't try any of the games/emulators yet, I'll keep you updated.

If you just want the Sharp games, you can find a pack there:
Pack at emuparadise
I tried a lot of those, and most of them work perfectly with XM6 Pro-68k

If you have any problem with the emulator, ask away - I don't know much about technical specificities, but I know how to make the games start up

 

[dnf]

Thanks Helly

 

[eric__s]

I miss the dirty, raw look of late 80's and early 90's art.

Programmers need to start limiting palettes so modern derpshit game artists relearn the basics of colour theory.

Yeah, the palette limitations really lead to some incredible art.

That first picture is like 4 or 5 colors and that second one is only 1. Just incredible technical ability.

 

[eric__s]

This isn't Japanese or from a game, but it's an absolutely amazing example of what you can do with just 4 colors.

I'd like to see more artists attempting stuff like this. What makes games so interesting to me is that they've developed an aesthetic that is completely unique to the medium - there was no pixel art or chip music before computer games. These artforms were developed out of necessity and because of the limitations of early hardware. We've expanded beyond the limitations and we're leaving these artforms behind for art that's not immediately distinguishable as video game art.

Braid is a very nice looking game, but this could be anything. It could be a clip from a movie or a children's book or a flash ad or a television show or anything really, but the pictures in the first post are undeniably from video games. Entire subcultures like the demo scene and the chiptune scene were built around beating the limitations of computer hardware and the stuff they've made is arguably as good or better than the things being produced with modern technology. It's the limitations of the medium that bred the creativity and skill we see in these games.

I think games should continue to explore aesthetics and take them in new directions but to me, the best looking games will always be the ones from the 80s and 90s that pushed its hardware to the limits. A lot of people on this site seem to give indie games a lot of shit for LOOKING LIKE INDIE GAMES or whatever, but I think it's an aesthetic that should be celebrated and proliferated not because it's cool or trendy, but because until very recently, that is just what games looked like.