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What exactly is old school in video games?
Posted April 10, 2007 by KevinIf you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
I came across a video posted by user ‘Lizzy’ over on our sister site, gamediggity.com, today. It shows an NES mod that recreates Super Mario Bros. using Atari 2600 graphics. Take a look at the video:
Watching this got me to thinking somewhat about old school video games. When most people think of “retro” video games, the NES and Sega Saturn usually spring to mind. However, even before Mario was jumping on turtle shells and eating mushrooms, gaming had already begun its assault on society.
It’s interesting how today you often see 8-bit NES graphics on shirts, websites, stickers, etc. - all of which are meant to convey the overall message of “old school gaming”. Yet, as I watched Mario run through 1-1, Atari 2600 style, it reminded me what old school gaming really was - a blocky character running through blocky environments, with most everything else left up to your imagination.
But the NES was 8-bit you say. True, but not all 8-bit machines were created equal. The early 8-bit consoles were limited by more factors than just the 8-bit graphics. Taken from Wikipedia for a brief history lesson on early game consoles:
In the game consoles, high RAM prices at the time limited the RAM (memory) capacity of the systems to a tiny amount, often less than 1K. Although the cartridge size limit grew steadily, the RAM limit was part of the console itself and all games had to work within its constraints.
When the NES came out, it had more than twice the amount of RAM of the 2600, plus the ability to use expanded RAM if it was on the game cartridge. So while the Atari 2600 and NES were both 8-bit, that’s why there was such a huge difference in graphics.
In twenty years will kids be wearing shirts with a rendered Master Chief on their shirt and think they’re retro? Maybe, but one thing’s for sure … unless you were around back in the late 70’s and 80’s, I don’t think you’ll ever know what it really means to be an old school gamer.
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