/vr/ - Retro Games

[Anonymous No.667572]

Is there a term for when games feel dark and melancholy solely because of the hardware they were made for? Created from the primitive graphics, primitive sound, primitive processing, and so forth.

The best possible example that most people will understand is the feeling of Pokemon in its first two generations in comparison to everything that came later. I'm sure that if the series started on GBA, it would have been cheerful and completely non-menacing from the very start. You could say that this was an intention Game Freak had, but was unable to carry out because of limitations, which is a very good thing, I think. I liked Pokemon when it seemed a little darker.

Mega Man is another good, popular example, actually. 7/8 felt totally different mood-wise.

[Anonymous No.667598]

I don't know but there should be. I feel like System Shock 2 would be half as scary if the monsters were high-poly.

[Anonymous No.667593]

>>667572
It's called not being able to look at things from the perspective of the time they were created.

[Anonymous No.667604]

I call it "bleakness", OP.

That feel from sparse screens and blank backgrounds, often pitch black on the NES, hollow tinny music...the games feel lonely and eerie often.

[Anonymous No.667609]

Just look at Ken Sugimori's early artwork and try asking that question again.

Personally, I think you're right, since Game Freak was also invested with the Jerry Boy series, but you can't say Pokémon isn't thought to be competitive. Maybe the style reflected that.

[Anonymous No.667621]

>>667593
I disagree, there are some games that felt creepy to me solely because of the primitive graphics even in it's era... pokemon certainly wasn't one of them though...

[Anonymous No.667635]

I'm sorry. I don't get that feel at all. It may be because I'm well in to my 20s and remember when that stuff was cutting-edge, and had to use a pinch of imagination.

Low-poly 3D, 8-bit, whatever. It has to be extremely shitty for me to notice. I can appreciate older games for what it is instead of thinking it's "creepy" because it's not fucking cawadooty-level brownanblooman 3D.

Don't get spoiled on graphics, kids.

[Anonymous No.667645]

>>667593
wut

I recently played SMT 1/2, and those game are extremely dark thanks to the hardware, and how clunky the mechanics are. Nuclear explosions too. It's pretty phenomenal, even it's not that fun for me.

I looked at some of the gameplay in the remakes and it doesn't seem to radiate the same atmosphere.

[Anonymous No.667646]

Early 3d stuff always gives me that feeling, because everything is so disproportionate, crudely shaped and brightly colored, and the levels and landscapes are usually very empty.

Glover in particular always filled me with some weird sense of dread. Can't quite put my finger on why, I guess the reasons I mentioned earlier + the music,.

[Anonymous No.667665]

>>667635
I really don't think that's what they are saying at all... there are some games that just have this odd desolate feeling to them whether they meant to or not, just because of the minimalism of the systems... personally I don't agree that pokemon is one of them though.

[Anonymous No.667689]

>>667665
That's exactly what they're saying. It comes off like a bunch of teenagers spoiled on XBox AAA graphics who can't appreciate an older game from the viewpoint of when it came out. It's really bad when it comes to old 3D games. I just see it as an art-style choice because of the limitations and it doesn't phase me at all, but then you have people who go as far as to see the most benign of 3D games and think it's creepypasta material.

[Anonymous No.667695]

>>667646
>Can't quite put my finger on why

[OP No.667713]

>>667689
Anon, anon, I *did* grow up on older games.

At the time, I didn't think they were scary at all. I only felt that way when I went back after witnessing all the new stuff in gaming in the sixth and seventh generations.

[Anonymous No.667712]

>>667695

I don't see what's so funny here. It's not always easy to get a handle on these things.

[Anonymous No.667715]

>>667689
I agree for the most part as I grew up on the SNES and GB. Though I don't think a place like Lavender Town would have been as creepy/eerie with full color and non-8-bit music. So there are times where it does make a game creepier.

[Anonymous No.667732]

>>667713
>I only felt that way when I went back after witnessing all the new stuff in gaming in the sixth and seventh generations.

Case in point. Spoiled on modern shit.

There's nothing creepy about old low-poly or 8-bit stuff unless it's actively trying to exploit the medium.

[Anonymous No.667742]

>>667689
you seem overly angry for no reason
also I'm >>667621
I'm also 33

[Anonymous No.667746]

I remember being 11, playing pokemon yellow and all, and sometimes I would get this nihilistic, empty feeling from the game. Didn't quite understand how to process the feelings.

Heck, I do an occasional nuzlocke and I still get the same feeling.

I feel you OP.

[Anonymous No.667749]

>>667732
We get it, you have more retro cred than us.

[Anonymous No.667751]

>>667732
I grew up with the NES and I disagree. The potential for creepy shit is much higher. NES games used to give me nightmare simply because they were so primitive. I don't even play modern games mind you. I've always found games like Duck Hunt and Dr. Mario inherently creepy due to their sound design, and their general... weirdness.

[GT3000 !Q5taavazbM No.667756]

Expectations and current perception. It's like people who feel BBSes (precursor to the modern forum) are this wonderful little nostalgic moment in internet history when it's the same crap we have today with internet forums.

Pic very related.

[Anonymous No.667758]

>>667572
God dammit OP, now I want a new 8-bit Pokemon game.

[Anonymous No.667763]

>>667712
>finger
>glover

[Anonymous No.667770]

>>667756
that's actually a horrible analogy, that comparison makes no sense at all

[Anonymous No.667783]

>>667635


Wow, You COMPLETELY misinterpreted what OP was saying.

You were aiming for China and hit fucking Barbados.

[Anonymous No.667785]

>>667763
>handle
>like hand

[Anonymous No.667801]

>>667732
>Spoiled on modern shit.


Oh fuck off. I thought Pokemon was eerie the day it came out in the 90s.


Missno
The burnt building
The music
The graves
The emptyness

Stop being a shithead and actually pay attention to what people are talking about.

[Anonymous No.667806]

>>667742
>says he's 30+
>using roundabout version of "u mad"

You're not 33. You've obviously mistyped "13."

>>667783
I nailed that shit on it head. He even proved my point about being so accustomed to modern-day graphic powerhouses that he finds older stuff creepy.

Why is /vr/'s user base so young? You can always sniff out who's young (and who's lying about being older) by how they react to older graphics.

[Anonymous No.667812]

>>667806
ugh... stop trolling, the only person you are making a fool of is yourself

[Anonymous No.667817]

>>667751
Here is more or less what I speak of

>Duck Hunt Theme
It's creepy as fuck and has absolutely no reason to be.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHHoR5kMooY

>Dr. Mario Game Over
The abrupt pause at the end. It's also not nearly as bad on SNES, N64, or any other version for that matter
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iscSBjRZQFc

>Beetle Juice (entire fucking game)
Death Sound. Game over Screen. Music... Just everything would have been less effective if not for NES hardware being as primitive as it is.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gv0bF3NjfKg

[Anonymous No.667815]

>>667751
I see what you're getting at. And I agree, in your own childish mind, you didn't know how technology worked so you were like "Couldn't they just draw stuff like they do on cartoons instead of this nonsense?". I also asked this question myself, but since my first platform was a PC, cartoony adventure games eventually filled the blank for me.

[Anonymous No.667820]

>>667806
>Why is /vr/'s user base so young? You can always sniff out who's young (and who's lying about being older)

Oh, and anyone who calls other posters "kids" or "dumb kids" is usually a child himself.

[Anonymous No.667821]

>>667806

>>>/v/

[Anonymous No.667825]

>>667817
the entirety of the first Metriod is a good example too... I think no one has mentioned it because it's supposed to be like that though.

[Anonymous No.667845]

>>667825
See, with Metroid, the ominous theme makes perfect sense. With Duck Hunt, the theme makes no sense and fucking weirds you out big time.

ignore the faggot and he will go away.

[Anonymous No.667837]

>>667689
/vr/ is a bunch of casual hipster Nintendobabbies

[Anonymous No.667841]

>>667635
>>667806
>>667689
>I'm well in to my 20's
We're on /vr/ buddy, you don't need to pull this "I'm this many -" stuff on here. It's embarrassing, and makes the whole board look bad.

[OP No.667849]

Is every thread here like this? I thought you guys were supposed to be better than /v/ or something.

[Anonymous No.667858]

>>667837
how do you tell?

[Anonymous No.667853]

>>667841
Besides, it marks you as an underage person trying to pretend you're a wizened old gamer.

[Anonymous No.667872]

Zelda 2 freaked me the fuck out. I still refuse to go back and play it. Mostly the towns and houses with all the villagers gave me the creeps - I wasn't used to seeing NPCs like that.

>>667849
Like any other slow board, we're very easily trolled.

[Anonymous No.667865]

>>667837
I noticed an interesting correlation

>the amount of views/comments a game video gets on Youtube is nearly always proportionate to the amount of replies a thread about it gets on /vr/

[Anonymous No.667885]

It's not the game, it's you. You are projecting your insecurities onto the game.

Low-resolution graphics cause you to use your imagination more than hi-res, and it's your imagination that is causing you to feel this way. Healthy brains do not work this way. It's a sign of mental disease and you should seek professional assistance.

[Anonymous No.667893]

>>667885
gr8 b8 m8

>>>/v/

[Anonymous No.667902]

>>667865
popular things get more replies
that's true of any board... or any place on the internet really

[Anonymous No.667916]

>>667646
Not sure if that was actually meant to be an elaborate setup, but the overworld in the beginning was actually kind of creepy.

[Anonymous No.667935]

>>667817
>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gv0bF3NjfKg
Jesus christ.

[Anonymous No.667951]

The closest thing I can think of is "The medium is the message" which was coined by communication theorist Marshall McLuhan.

He basically argued that all messages are altered by the form of media through which they're transferred, stemming from the rules and limitations of that medium.

For example, you can take a book that promotes a new diet and a movie promoting the same diet, and the two will ultimately have different impacts on the way message is perceived by people.

Books force the human mind to rely more on imagination and personal interpretation. The book saying the diet will "make you look and feel great" could mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people.

Conversely, movies are a collection of visual scenes, connected one by one in a sequence from start to finish. People can directly see exactly how great other people look and feel from the diet, watching them transform over time. The reliance on personal imagination is diminished, making the audience more susceptible, if even just slightly, to believing in what the diet promotes.

In another example, going to a theater and seeing a movie about violent crime won't make people feel as worried about crime as seeing a TV show about crime in their home will, because the TV show affects people differently by the inherent nature of TV as a medium. It brings that fear of crime into the audience's home, their very living room, where they feel most secure, rising the chances they'll feel less safe.

Now apply the theory Pokemon.

Older Pokemon games were emptier, less detailed, and forced the player to fill more blanks because of space constraints than newer games. The sprites were less detailed leading to varying perceptions of whether the monsters were cute or scary, friendly or aggressive, etc. There was less text and characters to fill in the world, giving rise to varying interpretations about how safe or dangerous the world of Pokemon might actually be.

[Anonymous No.667991]

>>667572

I agree OP. Just a lot of things were open to interpretation. When I was young I couldnt make out what some of the trees and boulders were supposed to be. My mind filled in the gaps as if this were a jittery 24p movie. It left an ominous fear of the unknown in my heart.

To me Viridian Forest, Team Rocket Hideout and Cinnibar Mansion were more scary as Lavender Town because of their presentation. I would think of Beedrill attacking me in an anime like fashion, or I would imagine myself getting jumped by Pokemon Gangsters, or of all the deaths of ex Scientists who've succeeded in making the ultimate Pokemon. But they never came. Its like sleeping with one eye open. Lavender Town? Boo! A ghost! So typical. An episode of Scooby Doo would get a bigger jump out of me.

Other things added to that. Sometimes when you would fight Pokemon that were rare to a route they had an odd pre battle lag that would extend their entry into battle (Chansey and Onix, Im looking at you) It gives your heart the opportunity to skip a beat... and then another.

Music seemed very stern in its direction. Every note was a narrative of my journey. I could make my grave at any minute. Before I found out that blacking out lets you try again with no penalty, I thought I had one chance at Nugget Bridge. It was THE Elite 5 before I heard of the Elite 4.

Just typing this out makes me realize how much I hate this generation. Fuck you Madden/CoD/BFfags. Fuck you so god damned much.

[Anonymous No.668046]

>>667991
>An episode of Scooby Doo would get a bigger jump out of me.
I wouldn't knock Scooby Doo. That show got pretty real at times.

[Anonymous No.668057]

>>667572
Mother 1 vs. its sequels are a good example from this, the limitations of the NES made it a sinister game than its sequels could not bring

[Anonymous No.668090]

>>667817
You actually think this stuff is creepy? Especially the DUCK HUNT theme?
Good god.

[Anonymous No.668101]

>>667598
They would be. The less you can understand of them the better it is the little bit you do understand. It's what made the ending scene of penumbra overture so terrifying. It's what makes modern horror games (the few there are that are any) good.

It's the great thing about objects which are before the uncanny valley. In System Shock 2 the models are practically origami stilt walking diamonds and triangles stuck together, coupled with a low resolution texture, and they look horrifying. Even when analyzed, they become even scarier. Look at the rumbler, it's a mass of flesh, muscle, teeth, and a slightly humanoid shape. If you look close enough you can see the face of the man it took over near its left shoulder, and that little element of a screaming tortured face adds to its quality as a setpiece of horror.

Having grown up with pokemon, I don't find it scary at all. I can't even call it particularly emotionally engaging, I just don't find it to be. I think it's shifts in mood are too small to effectively engage someone, and the people who are engaged by the small shifts have a much stronger fantasy playing in their head than what's being presented to them, and that more than anything is a product of the community around it.

[Anonymous No.668264]

>>668090
Yeah, It's been ingrained in me for over 20 years. if I heard that theme randomly in the middle of the night I'd shit myself harder than if I heard anything else I think.

[Anonymous No.668273]

>>668101
pokemon had a creepy feel simply because of how wierd it was compared to the cartoon, which prior to playing I had spent watching for a few months on UPN. It had some cool stuff inbetween commercials that The Kids WB version lacked.

[Anonymous No.668382]

>>667572
is that a real thing there, anon? is there a gbc romhack for the 5th gen games to be played on the gbc? because that would be awesome as fuck.

[tim the tool man taylor No.668419]

I think Metal Gear Solid is like this. the ps1 graphics and textures really enhance the coldness and bleakness of the Alaskan wilderness

of course that's what the developers intended, but the PS1 experience now I find really enhances the atmosphere

[Anonymous No.668475]

You guys are just projecting your own melancholic, bleak outlooks onto these games because they require you to use your imagination more than more modern games.

You're also just kind of echo chambering one another to try to make it a real thing outside of your own insecurity, but it's not.

[Anonymous No.668490]

>>667885
>>668475
oh, hello there samefag who didn't get enough attention from his initial post. here, have some delicious troll feed.

[Anonymous No.668534]

>>667817
Is this some kind of multiple choice question?

Am I supposed to circle the one that doesn't belong or what?

Fucking weirdo.

[Anonymous No.668565]

No, the only thing I get that feeling from are games like Shadows of the Empire where after wandering around in empty low draw distance fog mazes for an hour I want to curl up in a ball and rock back and forth.
If you get that feeling from Pokémon you should just head over to >>>/x/

[Anonymous No.668581]

>>668264
Did your father beat you with a light gun?

[Anonymous No.668615]

>>667885
So that's why CGA and EGA games give me creeps sometimes?

[Anonymous No.668620]

I dunno, i didn't get any eerie feeling.
On the other hand, jesus, n64 zeldas.
But it's mainly because they hit uncanny valley like motherfucking Kenshiro.

[Anonymous No.668648]

>>668620
the N64 Zeldas were far too cartoony and low-poly to be uncanny valley territory.

[Anonymous No.668664]

>>668648
They were cartoony uncanny valley, cutesy, but at same time wrong.

[Anonymous No.668768]

>>667872
>that death screen with Ganon's shadow

[Anonymous No.668787]

>>668534
>>668475
>PLEASE NOTICE ME! NOBODY IN MY REAL LIFE WILL!!

[Anonymous No.668871]

I always thought C64 games by Paul Norman had an extra vibe.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udtsv15fWH0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j86veyiIcS8

[Anonymous No.668870]

>>668787
>MULTIPLE PEOPLE CAN'T POSSIBLY THINK I'M FUCKING RETARDED! THE WHOLE THREAD IS JUST ME AND ANOTHER GUY!

[Anonymous No.668909]

>>668870
Different guy here.
I played a lot of NES and didn't feel anything was "creepy" or "eerie".

[Anonymous No.669889]

>>667572
>dem horrid ugly sprites
>weird word of mouth lore
>creepy glitches
>marowak DIES
seeing the cartoon on TV was probably the only thing stopping it from being super creepy

[Anonymous No.669917]

>>668768

I think it's freakier in the FDS version. Ganon's laugh sounds really lame in the English one.

Japanese game over screen is just "GAME OVER RETURN OF GANNON" on a black screen with that terrifying boss roar sound. Go check some youtube video or something.

[Anonymous No.669935]

>>667817
Duck Hunt's theme plays on a descending chromatic scale in the melody and resolves to a supposed tonic with a minor second. The second of the two phrases in the theme departs from the chromaticism briefly to introduce a major third and perfect fourth before going back to the original pattern and resolution. That moment of happiness contributes to the unsettling nature of the resolution and chromaticism because it feels like it doesn't belong.

This is one justification of how creepy it seems to you. I think the harmony and simplicity alleviate it somewhat into becoming just tense, really.

[Anonymous No.669951]

>>669935
Also, the triangle (bass) part only becomes in to highlight the minor second resolution, so I suppose you can add that to reasons the song is spooky. That's about it though, the percussion is pretty stock.

[Anonymous No.669960]

>>667572
Pokemon? Pokemon is jolly happy compared to for example the emptiness of early '80s space sims. Try Star Raiders or Elite.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_VDM8nC9sM

[Anonymous No.670197]

>>667609
>That "I'm gonna rape your skull with my pokémons" face

Oh god the nightmares

[Anonymous No.670234]

>>670197
And then he sends out...a Pikachu. THe fight with Red is cool, but damn is it anti-climactic.

[Anonymous No.670415]

The NES seems to be a pretty conducive medium for this sort of thing, mostly due to the system's limitations. For me, it creates a similar effect to watching a VHS tape warped with age or listening to an old warbly cassette with tons of wow and flutter. I think part of the effect comes from the games being from a time before you could get much information about them. These days, you can sometime even find "making of" features on sites like JewTube for certain well-funded games.

Some NES games that give me the jibblies:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_S9NCZ7lb4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDx180lsx5A
>>667951
Solid post, m9.

[Anonymous No.672590]

>>668057
Very good example, I never got very far in Mother 1, because it was just so goddamn fucking creepy and haunting in comparison, the monsters just had a greater impact on me.

Mother 2 on the other hand, I steamrolled, but it was still a fucking weird and crazy game (another reason to love it).

[Anonymous No.672842]

>There are people here who are scared by the Duck Hunt theme and fucking Pokemon

I... I just don't know anymore. Take me for a troll, whatever. But you people need to grow some balls already. And I'm not a hurr durr nothing scurres me kind of a guy, I get scared easily. But when the situation demands it, for example, when I'm playing a horror game. I honestly can't understand how someone can feel creepyness from these kind of harmless games.

[Anonymous No.672846]

>>667817
Are you a big baby or something? None of that is even close to scary, unless you're one of those people that are like "OH GOD SLENDERMAN!!!!! OH MY GOD BEN IS DEAD" type of idiots. And those morons still exist on /v/ and /x/.

[Anonymous No.672863]

So while you bicker among yourselves about pokemon, here's a game that has fog covering the limited clipping distance, which passed for horror game atmosphere.

[Anonymous No.673087]

bump

[Anonymous No.673146]

>>672842
I actually burst out laughing when I read >>668264

[Anonymous No.673149]

>>672863
Yeah but that's intentional.

I don't think Hip Tanaka composed the Duck Hunt theme to make children involuntarily shit themselves our of fear.

[Anonymous No.673159]

[Anonymous No.673167]

>>670234

This. It's always bothered me that Red is always depicted with that useless Pikachu.

Wish they gave the guy a Scyther. That thing manages to look cool, at the very least.

[Anonymous No.673181]

>>668057
>>667572

I just don't get this at all. Earthbound and Pokemon always seemed happy and bright to me. Always.

[Anonymous No.673187]

>>672863
>Silent Hill

you know nothing of horror
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyUsFjVqjL4

[Anonymous No.673198]

>>668046
That fucking episode man
>Oh hey Scooby got sent into the future by the villain, I guess he has to team up with his older friends or something right?
>NOPE
>Earth is a Post-apocolyptic wasteland that's somehow purple
>Scrappy and that faggot kid somehow had no other positive influences so they became wasteland biker thugs
>Daphne's an overweight cleaning bitch and probably sex slave for the villain
>Incompetant duo of ghosts are fucking shit over all over the place
>Shaggy lost his sanity waiting for Scooby to come back, has been reduced to a disheveled bum living in a pile of garbage who doesn't even recognize Scooby when he sees him

[Anonymous No.673271]

Most of the time I found the dark backgrounds cozy, like in Mario Bros (the two player one), Donkey Kong, Popeye, Tank City, Load Runner, Contra, Ice Climbers, Robocop 3 and most of the NES games. Never got any weird vibes from Dr Mario or Tetris, I though they were fine.

But for some reason Bubble Bobble was really unnerving along with Pac Man and Baloon Flight. Also Excitebike had that really strange minimalism to it that was weirdly comforting yet not.

I actually prefer 8bit aesthetics in my gaming. Only wish there wasn't music being cut by sound effects and constant sprite flickering.

PS I hated the 2hard4u platformers like Ninja Gaiden, Castlevania and Megaman that flooded NES, Their fnabases can go fuck themselves, NES had better games than that shit

[Anonymous No.673336]

>>667817
Maybe the last two are a bit eerie, but one is Beetlejuice and the other is failing to stop a serious illness. I have no idea how you could possibly find any part of Duck Hunt to be scary.

[Anonymous No.673350]

>>668101
Morrowind's various dreamers, with a gaping maw where a face would be and sometimes shit growing out of them, would be either kind of cheesy or.... absolutely terrifying rendered in modern graphics.

dragons aint got shit on this. I don't sympathize with lizards, there isn't the same element of horror as a humanoid creature missing a face.

LSD comes to mind as a game that might suffer catastrophically or greatly benefit from a modern treatment.... really depends on how talented the artists are.

[Anonymous No.673371]

>>673198
I don't understand why Daphne was hanging around Shaggy so closely in that series.

Did she break up with Freddie and go for the quick and easy rebound?

[Anonymous No.673416]

>>673350
Michael Kirkbride, man, brilliant writer.
Strange, strange man.

[Anonymous No.673432]

>>673271
>PS I hated the 2hard4u platformers like Ninja Gaiden, Castlevania and Megaman that flooded NES, Their fnabases can go fuck themselves, NES had better games than that shit

[Anonymous No.673442]

>>673271
>2hard4u
>Megaman
cracks me up every time

[Anonymous No.673460]

>>667646
I fucking gloved that game.

[Anonymous No.674748]

>>673149
Just because it happens to you it doesn't mean it's a nightmares inducing piece of music. Jesus.

[Anonymous No.674751]

Unintentional Nightmare fuel.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaAb3l2OK7k

[Anonymous No.674752]

I get that feeling from the first Spyro the Dragon.
Pretty game, but god damn is it lonely.

[Anonymous No.674753]

>>673271
>Mega Man
>hard

Dear god. Mega Man doesn't even come close to being hard on the NES.

[Anonymous No.674754]

>>667785
>>667695

It's not that funny.
You need to get a grip.

[Anonymous No.674764]

>>670415

Those are both pretty spooky games.
Thanks for introducing me to The Search for Dr. Livingston, I'd never heard of it before.

[Anonymous No.674803]

>>672842
>>673146
It's not scary in a Scary Movie 4 "help imma be eaten by a evil monser" way. It's more of a melancholy creepiness, like there's something insidious in the code which wasn't placed there by any of the games' creators.

[Anonymous No.674823]

>>670415
>the effect comes from the games being from a time before you could get much information about them
>>>/playskool/

[Anonymous No.674916]

>>667572
Don't think there's a term. I've been trying to convince other people that the PS1 has this same feel in most of its games. Something about that thing's bizarre ass lighting engine makes EVERY game feel like a sliding gradient to Nightmare Creatures.

[Anonymous No.674937]

>>673336
>Beetlejuice
But that movie was a COMEDY

[Anonymous No.676024]

>>668273
I feel like this is a good observation. I also watched the show first, and playing R/B afterward, everything seemed a little more grave, I'm not sure why. I wouldn't say it's 'dark', but it just felt kind of serious and melancholy. For a kid's RPG, it didn't have much comic relief other than 'smell ya later!'

[Anonymous No.676349]

>>673181
They were happy up until some certain points of the of the game.

For the original Pokemon games, it is Lavender Town. In Earthbound it is the battle with Giygas.

[Anonymous No.676531]

>>676024
What about the cheery music? The silly NPC banter at the beginning of fights? The overall childish story? The cute creatures? No, nothing? Couldn't it be that you people are trying to see stuff that isn't there?

[Anonymous No.676572]

>>676531
I think so personally. Maybe it's because I grew up with it, but I have no idea what people see in older games that makes them feel like there is additional atmosphere. Maybe I just don't get emotionally vested in games like that, or maybe I'm fine with it.

Honestly black and white empty backgrounds are what I expect from old games, it's just how it was done.

[Anonymous No.677170]

>>676531
Honestly, I really don't get why people are so unsettled by R/B/Y as a whole aside from Lavender Town and a whole bunch of bizarre glitches in the game.

Seriously though, as a child I got pretty worried that my Pokemon would die because of Lavender Town.

[Anonymous No.677874]

The only creepiness I've felt that I can think of is when playing some of my GBC games as a kid. I had a set of 3 PPG games. Everyone knows the original cartoon is girly and colorful. This wasn't translated well at all to GBC and its washed out and bland color palettes. The sprites for the girls were small and when they got hit, their facial expression was weird to me. The villains were also strange. Prison fugitives, some with a gun. A weird flying octopus...etc. Also, the stages. You would die if you landed on an empty train track in the subway stage and the bonsai garden had these towering cliffs or whatever. Didn't scare me as much as make me feel strange and like I was playing something totally different than what I should've been.

[Anonymous No.679246]

>Can't believe no one posted this yet.

I totally agree OP. Picture and video related. Creepy as fuck.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLFW2t3JDzY

[Anonymous No.679405]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fihc2ONQ5v0

[Anonymous No.679430]

I used to get that with the first Spyro game. It had this weird "last man alive" sort of feel, and even though the level design is brilliant, there's a lot of empty vistas that, combined with the PS1 hardware, made the game subtly creepy to me. Plus, the music fades out after looping a few times, and it stays silent for a minute or so before picking back up again.

[Anonymous No.679459]

Old games are creepier for three reasons, I think.
>limited technology means you fill in the blanks; we're better at scaring ourselves than anyone else can ever be
>glitches used to be much more extreme due to limited testing
>creepy rumors were really hard to disprove without the readily accessible internet, so you never knew what kind of shit the game might pull on you

[SINISTAR No.680754]

>>673159
>BEWARE I LIVE!!
>RUN! RUN! RUN!
Mhm, yup. Total nope for me.

[Anonymous No.680782]

THPS 2 was like that for me. I loved that game, but after a while the lifelessness of the levels started getting to me. They're just so empty... A school shouldn't be that empty and devoid of life! And when the music stopped playing for a while... Oh God. Not to mention the "contest" stages and the invisible crowds cheering you on. Gave me the creeps.

There's been a bunch of other games that I always felt were creepy, but they were usually designed to be that way. A lot of Amiga games had a surreal art style that just dug into your skull, European games especially excelled in that department with the limited technology.

Also, check this out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-M_a4VbuWk
Wait for the gameplay and tell me that music and that art aren't creepy and eerie as all hell. That some Lovecraftian shit right there.

[Anonymous No.680795]

>>674803
>It's more of a melancholy creepiness, like there's something insidious in the code which wasn't placed there by any of the games' creators.
there's something insidious in your brain, it's turning you into a hysterical loon

[Anonymous No.680824]

>>680782
>Shadow of the Beast music

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TKV_90aYgI

[Anonymous No.681437]

>>680782
I'm currently replaying THPS2 and I was thinking, because I read this thread, "Surely, no one can possibly even think that this game is creepy in any way". I mean, it's a fucking skateboarding game with a punk soundtrack.

But no, you people just sink lower and lower.

[Anonymous No.681516]

>>681437
What's the problem? I don't think it's ZOMG SO SKERRY, it just feels weird how dead the game is.
It's not like I lost sleep over it, it's just that occasional tinge of unease. It's no /x/ shit.

[Anonymous No.681736]

Pure evil. I have heard stories of seriously bad luck befalling those unfortunate enough to put this damned cart into their NES. Sparse 8 bit prognostications about the future and unknown forces invited into your NES?

Thanks, but no thanks.

[Anonymous No.681770]

I seriously loved the feeling of Pokemon Gold. The music, the fact that there was a nighttime.

I honestly think games are getting overly complicated in some ways. I barely remember music from newer games. They're like background noise now.

[Anonymous No.681812]

>>667593
Fuck you all for dismissing this shit as nostalgiafagging or for not being from that era.

Particularly Gameboy and Gameboy Color games, I remember why I liked it s