August 21st, 2011
The Game Index is getting a few improvements and I can do most of them in undercover mode until the ScrollBoss is unpaused. You’ll be able to see lists of games based on something about them. For instance:
Look at all games that start with the letter A.
Look at all games from 1989, the greatest year in video game history.
Yeah, I know, like any other actual video game site. But still. The main index page will let you search by categories once the big update hits. It won’t just be a giant list dump, a lazy placeholder I was using until I got something like this together.
I’ll throw a few new 200×100 graphics in just to keep it interesting.
[…] feature can be found in this weblog post and improvements to the Game Index section can be found in this post. A new scratch-made sprite of DC’s Black Lightning can be found on Illmosis. Breakin’ […]
1989 was a truly trend-setting year. I think you could convincingly argue that it was the re-birth of pixel art, maybe even the start of a golden age of pixel based gaming. I still remember when I first saw Final Fight, Golden-Axe, Altered Beast & TMNT and the effect it had on me. Where 1989 might be considered the beginning, I think of 1996 as a pinnacle year too- in fact the last great year for pixel-art games.
Whereas games like Final Fight & TMNT showed a new exciting artistic approach, games like Metal Slug, Guardian Heroes, Ninja Master’s: Haō Ninpō Chō, Warzard, Samurai Shodown 4 were in my opinion more about the mastery of pixel-art. In 1996, Capcom & SNK had a ton of titles circulating not only in arcades but home consoles (check out Capcom’s Sega Saturn releases for that year). An abnormally high number that would eventually die down.
You see 1996 was a red letter year for 3D games too, and that’s exactly my point. 3D was beginning it’s own maturation process… and we all know how that story went. I’m not saying there weren’t any classic 2D games after that (there have been plenty) but obviously pixel art has never regained the heights it enjoyed since that point.
Here’s to nostalgia.