Retro Gaming Art

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VideoGameCritic
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Retro Gaming Art

Postby VideoGameCritic » April 11th, 2018, 10:53 pm

While playing Secret of Mana I had a flashback to an amazing ad I saw for the game in a video game magazine back in the 90's. It didn't take me long to find it on the internet. Check it out:

http://www.retrogamingart.com/search/la ... %281993%29

This is actually a really enjoyable site! Those old ads were one of the reasons my friends and I would pour over my EGM and Gamepro magazines. It seems like the few magazines left (like Game Informer) have really boring ads. The problem is, the graphics in the games have far exceeded anything you could draw in an illustration, I guess.

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pacman000
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Re: Retro Gaming Art

Postby pacman000 » April 12th, 2018, 6:06 pm

If game graphics have exceeded anything you could draw, the ads should better, not worse. Creativity trumps graphics, every time.

Not all the old ads are good tho: http://www.retrogamingart.com/2017/02/t ... -1992.html Congratulations! You've called your system a toilet! :lol:

jon
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Re: Retro Gaming Art

Postby jon » April 12th, 2018, 9:24 pm

Either I'm right or I'm becoming nostalgic about the early 2000's, but it seems that even video game mags from then looked cool compared to now. It still didn't come close to what it was in the mid 90's. It wasn't until boy I can't pinpoint an exact time, but around the time Halo got really popular, it was Halo 2 about 2005 that the magazines really starting to suck royally. The early 2000's was a mildly interesting time because of all the new systems coming out (PS2, Gamecube, Xbox), and even in 2002 the PS2 was still kind of new. So that was a lot more interesting than the end of the decade to say the least. And the PS2 actually had some good games that fixed a lot of graphical problems that hampered previous games on the PS1 like FIFA for instance. It can be argues that games for the first time had good 3d graphics. But it wasn't the 90's.

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pacman000
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Re: Retro Gaming Art

Postby pacman000 » April 13th, 2018, 12:33 pm

Less competition=lower quality

EduPortas
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Re: Retro Gaming Art

Postby EduPortas » April 14th, 2018, 7:38 pm

Hey guys. First time poster here. :D

I'm the guy behind RetroGamingArt. Thank you for your kind words.
Yesterday I noticed a spike in my blog and discovered this great community. Seems like a great place for the retro community!

I've posted very little since the last quarter of 2017, but rest assured your kind words keep me motivated to
post more regularly. Just this morning I've uploaded a cool Virtua Cop 2 add from a very old issue of Ultra Game Players.

http://www.retrogamingart.com/2018/04/v ... nt-ad.html

Thanks again. :P

jon
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Re: Retro Gaming Art

Postby jon » April 14th, 2018, 11:14 pm

That VC 2 ad from early '97 is interesting bc that's around the time that I call the end of the golden age of video games. While in another thread I said 1994 was the greatest year ever for video games. I don't know if the response was that positive. But it was. And even though things were going downhill beginning in late 1995, I still hadn't given up on Gamepro until '98. It pains me to admit, but I did enjoy the PS1 the first couple years. This means I was still into the mags in '96-'97 and I was. And it was still interesting. But I wonder how much of that had to do with being naive. In 1996-1997, there was little to no indication that things would go so wrong.

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Stalvern
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Re: Retro Gaming Art

Postby Stalvern » April 14th, 2018, 11:43 pm

Why did video games have to stop being so RADICAL?

EduPortas wrote:I'm the guy behind RetroGamingArt. Thank you for your kind words.

Thank you for the site!

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scotland
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Re: Retro Gaming Art

Postby scotland » April 15th, 2018, 1:21 pm

EduPortas wrote:Hey guys. First time poster here. :D

I'm the guy behind RetroGamingArt. Thank you for your kind words.
Yesterday I noticed a spike in my blog and discovered this great community. Seems like a great place for the retro community!


Welcome, and I hope you pop by often. You have a fun site. Heroes of the Lance ad really does have lovely artwork. Its a real throwback to the previous generation when games had to rely on imaginative and immersive artwork. TSR should have had a full rolodex of artists to tap for that kind of work.

EduPortas
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Re: Retro Gaming Art

Postby EduPortas » April 16th, 2018, 12:36 pm

jon wrote:That VC 2 ad from early '97 is interesting bc that's around the time that I call the end of the golden age of video games.


Yep, pretty much. This was the time video game mags were 200+ pages long. Video games became mainstream.
But that popularity was built around the huge surge in popularity the NES and 16-bit consoles had built since
the late 80s. So it basically took 10 years form the general public to catch-on to most gamers.

Then the PS1 came around the same time and you know the rest of the story.

EduPortas
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Re: Retro Gaming Art

Postby EduPortas » April 16th, 2018, 12:39 pm

Stalvern wrote:Why did video games have to stop being so RADICAL?

EduPortas wrote:I'm the guy behind RetroGamingArt. Thank you for your kind words.

Thank you for the site!


That's a good question. Marketing trends?

Execs probably figured that most gamers were entering their late teens around the late 90s
and shifted to a more "mature" tone in most ads.


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