Has your view on 8bit (and 64bit) graphics changed over time?

UltraDolphinRevolution

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I had experienced a few years of 8bit gaming (C64) and once I was accustomed to 16bit, it was difficult for me to go back to playing anything 8bit. It stayed this way until about the end of the GC/Xbox/PS2 era. Since then I really enjoy the atmosphere of many 8bit games (maybe because of the dark backgrounds or that something is left to the own imagination) and recently I even developed a "fetish" for 64bit graphics - even if I still don't like low framerates (which you could see in some/many 3rd Party titles).

What about you?

I have to say though, that I'm still not a fan of anything earlier than 8bit (Vektrex, Atari 2600 etc).
 

ShinyLatios

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The graphics from the 8-bit era are honestly very, very good in a lot of ways. Being one of the first home console eras where you could convey a world properly due to having proper coloring was a big plus, yet it's limited enough to be left up to your own imagination. Take for example the difference between Castlevania and Castlevania II on NES. Where the first game only uses a few colors, but uses it properly, it's a world far more pleasant to look at. Castlevania II pushed those limits and tried to convey more by using more color in it's world, but it ended up looking worse as a result due to simple things like being able to use less detail. This is exactly why "conveying a world" through graphics was so hard before this era; more or less all games had the problem where adding more variety would take away from something else. However, using the "8-bit style", even now, allows the human imagination to fill in certain blanks, creating a connection to the game you're playing using graphics alone. A perfect example of this is Shovel Knight.
 

raulpica

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I suppose it all depends on what you grew up with. I started with an Amiga and my first console was a NES - I remember also receiving an Atari 2600 clone and gifting it over to my cousin IMMEDIATELY. I didn't stand the graphics after being used to the goodness that the Amiga games produced.

Funnily enough I love the NES graphics, even if inferior to what the Amiga could, so I suppose it all comes back to nostalgia - the games on it blew me away, they were so much better than most of the Amiga games, gameplay-wise! The Atari 2600 games just sucked, even gameplay-wise, but I suppose that's expected since they came much before.

I find most C64 games to be okay even if I didn't play any when I was young, so I suppose my "breaking point" is from C64 onwards.
 

Clydefrosch

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all depends. have to admit that i do enjoy the later, more sophistiated 8 bit graphics more than the earliest once. tbh, i feel that many nes games would've looked better in grey like on the gameboy.
but when 16 came around, i am very happy with most of what i got. and I'm still playing those a lot today.

also like most modern retro style graphics. though sometimes, they're a bit overloaded with too many details. the restrictions of old hardware weren't always a bad thing
 
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UltraDolphinRevolution

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I don't like the grey/green Gameboy colors. Super Gameboy and esp. Gameboy Color were a great improvement in my opinion.
So I don't think it's all nostalgia. I also love graphics of NES/C64/SegaMS games I haven't played but I don't like the grey/green colors of the Gameboy even though I have played it.
 
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