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Airing this anime season, "16bit Sensation: Another Layer" goes in some depth discussing this era of computing. The anime adapts the manga source by adding a ti

Airing this anime season, "16bit Sensation: Another Layer" goes in some depth discussing this era of computing. The anime adapts the manga source by adding a time travel story, which is one of the cornerstone tropes of visual novels today, and was first realized on the PC-98. The PC-98 is comparable to the Amiga in that its audiovisual potential cemented it as a kind of "visionary platform" for certain genres of gaming - but instead of speedy hardware that could support a lot of sprites, smooth scrolling and raster effects for action games, the high resolution and color palette pushed the balance towards slower-paced adventure and strategy games. Both platforms habitually use enormous HUDs and tiny gameplay screens because filling the screen with assets would be too memory-intensive.

Dwedit 3y ago
Meanwhile, the FM Towns had the speedy hardware that supported a lot of sprites.
- snvzz 3y ago
  But x68000 was the king.
CoastalCoder 3y ago
Tangent... I really couldn't get into that anime, after watching 2? episodes. Did people find that it picked up after the first few episodes?
- hakfoo 3y ago
  Well, I identify with Mamoru, and would expect most of us to do so. [Spoiler] When he gets to travel back in time, rather than looking at the media, or the currency, or asking people repeatedly, he runs to a computer shop to see "Okay, so the model with 3.5" drives just hit the market, that proves it's 1985!"
  - bitwize 3y ago
    I find myself identifying the time period of my wife's favorite British detective series by looking at the computers the cops are using. My dad is like a walking encyclopedia of mid-century automobile knowledge, I'm sure he can do the same thing with cars in old movies.
    - CoastalCoder 3y ago
      > My dad is like a walking encyclopedia of mid-century automobile knowledge, I'm sure he can do the same thing with cars in old movies. Luxury! When I was a kid, my dad tried to get my siblings and me to learn the wheel configuration of various locomotives. It's just occurring to me now that before he passed away, I should have asked why the heck he wanted us to do that :)
ykonstant 3y ago
16bit Sen also contains a subtle meta-nod to that era: the main character's reactions/goofs/gimmicks are based on classic patterns from the 80s and 90s that you don't see often in comedy anime today; that alone makes the anime so much more pleasant for me.

Dwedit 3y ago

Meanwhile, the FM Towns had the speedy hardware that supported a lot of sprites.

snvzz 3y ago
But x68000 was the king.

CoastalCoder 3y ago

Tangent... I really couldn't get into that anime, after watching 2? episodes. Did people find that it picked up after the first few episodes?

hakfoo 3y ago
Well, I identify with Mamoru, and would expect most of us to do so. [Spoiler] When he gets to travel back in time, rather than looking at the media, or the currency, or asking people repeatedly, he runs to a computer shop to see "Okay, so the model with 3.5" drives just hit the market, that proves it's 1985!"
- bitwize 3y ago
  I find myself identifying the time period of my wife's favorite British detective series by looking at the computers the cops are using. My dad is like a walking encyclopedia of mid-century automobile knowledge, I'm sure he can do the same thing with cars in old movies.
  - CoastalCoder 3y ago
    > My dad is like a walking encyclopedia of mid-century automobile knowledge, I'm sure he can do the same thing with cars in old movies. Luxury! When I was a kid, my dad tried to get my siblings and me to learn the wheel configuration of various locomotives. It's just occurring to me now that before he passed away, I should have asked why the heck he wanted us to do that :)

ykonstant 3y ago

16bit Sen also contains a subtle meta-nod to that era: the main character's reactions/goofs/gimmicks are based on classic patterns from the 80s and 90s that you don't see often in comedy anime today; that alone makes the anime so much more pleasant for me.