4 ms·

> As a pixel art artist, I certainly see pixels as little squares. Then you are ignorant about the history of pixel art. Which I am not judging btw. Just sayin

> As a pixel art artist, I certainly see pixels as little squares. Then you are ignorant about the history of pixel art. Which I am not judging btw. Just saying. Pixel art from the golden years doesn't look right when displayed as little squares. It needs to be shown on a CRT or with an overlay emulating this look to do its creator's intentions justice. "The Bitmap Brothers: Universe" (fantastic book btw.) went to great lengths to replicate the original rendering of the depicted pixel art. See e.g. [0]. [0] https://twitter.com/romvg/status/776081029882937344 https://twitter.com/romvg/status/776081029882937344

nearbuy 6y ago
Funny to think we're nostalgic for something that didn't really exist.
crazygringo 6y ago
This is a bit of a misunderstood overreaction. It's true that if you were playing Super Mario on your TV, the normal experience was for it to be a bit blurry. On the other hand, if you were playing Lemmings on an Apple monitor with Sony Trinitron technology, the pixels were exceptionally clear. Here's what Trinitron looked like: https://ancientelectronics.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/svidsg.jpg https://ancientelectronics.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/svids... I'd argue that playing Lemmings in an emulator, you want the pixels to be clear, without a CRT overlay -- that this would be closer to the artists' intentions.
pixlartthrowway 6y ago
Some pixel artists indeed intended their creations to be seen as little squares, even if CRTs of the 1980s stretched the squares into rectangles and fuzzed and scan-lined them. Right now there is a story on HN about a $660,000 copy of Super Mario Brothers. Look closely at Nintendo's original 1980s box art. Mario is made up of crisp little "pixel perfect" squares: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Mario_Bros.#/media/File:Super_Mario_Bros._box.png https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Mario_Bros.#/media/File:... Look at other Nintendo pixel box art from the 1980s. Many of the earliest Nintendo games had this common box art style. It's all little squares: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metroid_(video_game)#/media/File:Metroid_boxart.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metroid_(video_game)#/media/Fi... https://www.oldschoolgamermagazine.com/early-nes-nintendo-box-art-pt-1-black-box-titles/ https://www.oldschoolgamermagazine.com/early-nes-nintendo-bo... I have an NES classic edition and it lets you select if you want the CRT effect applied or not. Sometimes I play with this effect applied (how I experienced it as a child) but other times I enjoy the "pixel perfect" mode. I designed pixel fonts back in the 1990s and I was always unhappy about how CRTs fuzzed them. I loved the sharp little squares of LCDs much better.
wodenokoto 5y ago
Some early Nintendo games needs the “rectangular” pixels in order to display obvious circles (like images of a moon) as circles, other games needs square pixels. You also see that graphic design for icons and graphics being done on square gridded paper for many early games and graphical workstation.

nearbuy 6y ago

Funny to think we're nostalgic for something that didn't really exist.

crazygringo 6y ago

This is a bit of a misunderstood overreaction. It's true that if you were playing Super Mario on your TV, the normal experience was for it to be a bit blurry. On the other hand, if you were playing Lemmings on an Apple monitor with Sony Trinitron technology, the pixels were exceptionally clear. Here's what Trinitron looked like: https://ancientelectronics.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/svidsg.jpg https://ancientelectronics.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/svids... I'd argue that playing Lemmings in an emulator, you want the pixels to be clear, without a CRT overlay -- that this would be closer to the artists' intentions.

pixlartthrowway 6y ago

Some pixel artists indeed intended their creations to be seen as little squares, even if CRTs of the 1980s stretched the squares into rectangles and fuzzed and scan-lined them. Right now there is a story on HN about a $660,000 copy of Super Mario Brothers. Look closely at Nintendo's original 1980s box art. Mario is made up of crisp little "pixel perfect" squares: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Mario_Bros.#/media/File:Super_Mario_Bros._box.png https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Mario_Bros.#/media/File:... Look at other Nintendo pixel box art from the 1980s. Many of the earliest Nintendo games had this common box art style. It's all little squares: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metroid_(video_game)#/media/File:Metroid_boxart.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metroid_(video_game)#/media/Fi... https://www.oldschoolgamermagazine.com/early-nes-nintendo-box-art-pt-1-black-box-titles/ https://www.oldschoolgamermagazine.com/early-nes-nintendo-bo... I have an NES classic edition and it lets you select if you want the CRT effect applied or not. Sometimes I play with this effect applied (how I experienced it as a child) but other times I enjoy the "pixel perfect" mode. I designed pixel fonts back in the 1990s and I was always unhappy about how CRTs fuzzed them. I loved the sharp little squares of LCDs much better.

wodenokoto 5y ago

Some early Nintendo games needs the “rectangular” pixels in order to display obvious circles (like images of a moon) as circles, other games needs square pixels. You also see that graphic design for icons and graphics being done on square gridded paper for many early games and graphical workstation.