Low colour 80's 90's games that look good today

[copse]

In the Cecconoid thread there's reference to some people lamenting the use of a monochrome approach to the graphics. It makes me curious. I recently spent some time looking through Amstrad CPC games and found some that I really liked that were low colour and had a retro look I personally find works today.

I'm not interested in a discussion of how we can do better today and how more colours is better, but rather recommendations for games you personally still think look good decades later with their low colour and style.

One is Monument (looks like 5 colours? white, yellow, orange, gray, black).

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Another is Myth: History in the Making (looks like 4 colours? white, orange, red, black).

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Another is Movie (looks like 4 colours):

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[AestheticDebris]

Originally Posted by copse

One is Monument (looks like 5 colours? white, yellow, orange, gray, black).

Is actually just four colours, the "white" is just creative use of the pastel yellow colour.

I think Head over Heels on the CPC was a fantastic example of four colour graphics.

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Although obviously the real home of monochromatic games was the Speccy and stuff like RoboCop still has a certain charm

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[Megalomaniac]

The Amstrad at least had that big, vibrant 27 colour palette to switch between, the constant changing of colours perhaps makes the graphics look like they have more than 4 colours.

On the Spectrum side Fairlight ( [ Show youtube player ]) jumps to mind immediately, Knightlore too (except the magenta screens, I found that colour eye-searing in almost any game) ( [ Show youtube player ]). IK+'s playing area is well-judged with great use of shading ( [ Show youtube player ]), though I'm sure the additional colour in the background probably makes it look better than it does

[dreadnought]

There are simply too many 8-bit games with great low colour gfx I could mention. I guess it's just state of mind...for me "aged badly" is a misnomer. The game either looked bad back then already, or looked good and still is.

ZX Spectrum had many mono or very low colour count games (which were still awesome, eg Ant Attack), but also countless cleverly designed ones where the playfield would be B & W or single colour, but other stuff quite colorful thus creating illusion of using more colours. Eg Dan Dare or Exolon.

[TCD]

I always liked the style of Bruce Lee on the C64: [ Show youtube player ]

[lionagony]

Blade Warrior on the Amiga still looks really good to me today

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[saimon69]

Cecconoid would look perfect in the Amstrad hi-res mode!

[Photon]

In the 80s and 90s, users (not only gamers) bought/even bothered to play a pirated copy mostly based on screenshots! It was really the only way to get an idea if it was something you liked or not. I think gameplay footage plays the same role today. You will find out the perspective, the pace, and the tone, setting, or type of game this way.

Magazine reviews would punish both dreary graphics and bad sound, while they wouldn't automatically give a dull game with lots of eyecandy a high total score. There are many examples of this. There were also separate awards for games in reviews, like Commodore User's "Screen Star".

The thing is, if you have to find a gem despite low color count or poor graphics (let's call it "bad screenshots", then, unless a friend you trust says "you'll like it, it's sort of like that game that you like", it will take quite some time to find that gem.

And once you have a game that you like to play, you play it in part to see the great graphics. There's a lot to say for great graphics in games. Especially, it's how you tell foreground and background apart, enemies from friends, and how to interpret the UI.

Amiga obviously can have great graphics in games, so that's what every game compares to. And we celebrate the ones with smooth, great graphics and even some janky and choppy ones.

Head Over Heels is a great example of an interesting monochrome-ish screenshot on Amiga. I think the graphics look smashing. But the game idea and the obligatory black background is also clearly 8-bit - as in tons of games that didn't have backgrounds because they couldn't.

The Amiga can, and whether something looks good enough is judged entirely per platform. An MSX user's jaw drops if there's seeming more colors than possible, and a Spectrum user judges a game with excessive color clash or reverting to complete monochrome. On C64, I think Spectrum ports or even Spectrum-looking games suffered greatly both from poor sales and being played, even if many games used the same charmode. I think it's all judged from what you've seen before on the platform.

But the question is: could a lesser artist pull the same off? Because I think if you play HoH, it's in large part due to the spot-on, interesting-looking, pixel-perfect graphics.

I think in some ways the same is true for Bitmap Bros games. With average graphics, Xenon 2 would not have been played at all, I'm quite sure of that.

Examples of hidden gems with... not very few colors, but fewer colors, and not professional quality graphics are Gravity-Force by Kingsoft and Master Blaster.

[van_dammesque]

Walker on the Amiga

[jotd]

most ZX spectrum isometric games can't use more than 2 colors and some are so great and mysterious in terms of gameplay. Knightlore, Alien 8...

Amstrad certainly has its share of good isometric stuff. I love isometric, so the number of colors probably don't matter.

I had an Oric and some games did well in 8 colors (Zorgon's Revenge, Xenon, l'Aigle d'Or). Revamping them could be disappointing (I did revamp l'Aigle d'Or in 16 colors for Windows/SDL and it was pretty good though)

[abu_the_monkey]

Originally Posted by lionagony

Blade Warrior on the Amiga still looks really good to me today

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never knew of this title. looks cool, thanks for sharing

[DisasterIncarna]

I sucked at it, but maybe something like The Sentinel on C64/others.

[jotd]

Originally Posted by lionagony

Blade Warrior on the Amiga still looks really good to me today

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perfect example of low color dual playfield game with smooth animation and at some point noone cares if it's mainly black. You just let your imagination do the rest...


(I knew this game but never played it, I remember that Abaddon did JST/Whdload installs)

[abu_the_monkey]

Originally Posted by jotd

perfect example of low color dual playfield game with smooth animation and at some point noone cares if it's mainly black. You just let your imagination do the rest...


(I knew this game but never played it, I remember that Abaddon did JST/Whdload installs)

a case of 'sometimes' less is more

[Megalomaniac]

Technically its lots of different shades of gray, but the black and white modes in Rick Dangerous games might count.

[Tigerskunk]

Didn't know "Monument".
That game looks crazy amazing to me.

[copse]

Originally Posted by Photon

.. trimmed lots of rationale about good graphics and gameplay not being linked ...
Examples of hidden gems with... not very few colors, but fewer colors, and not professional quality graphics are Gravity-Force by Kingsoft and Master Blaster.

Maybe you mean these.

Gravity force
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Master blaster
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[copse]

Originally Posted by van_dammesque

Walker on the Amiga

Maybe you mean this.
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[copse]

Originally Posted by DisasterIncarna

I sucked at it, but maybe something like The Sentinel on C64/others.

Probably mean this
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[copse]

Originally Posted by Tigerskunk

Didn't know "Monument".
That game looks crazy amazing to me.

Yeah, I think a lot of people rediscovered it at one point. I think it is a case in point of a beautiful design/look not being able to be realised into a good game and just being sold as a budget title with a minimal "run and gun" game.