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MacPaint Art from the Mid-80s Still Looks Great Today

(blog.decryption.net.au)
1034 points decryption | 7 comments | 12 Jul 25 08:45 UTC | HN request time: 0.437s | source | bottom
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seabombs ◴[12 Jul 25 10:57 UTC] No.44541090[source]▶
There's a term I read about a long time ago, I think it was "aesthetic completeness" or something like that. It was used in the context of video games whose art direction was fully realized in the game, i.e. increases in graphics hardware or capabilities wouldn't add anything to the game in an artistic sense. The original Homeworld games were held up as examples.

Anyway, this reminded me of that. Making these pictures in anything but the tools of the time wouldn't just change them, they'd be totally different artworks. The medium is part of the artwork itself.

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1. mattbettinson ◴[12 Jul 25 16:51 UTC] No.44543278[source]▶
Maybe recency bias cause I’m playing it right now, but Breath of the Wild comes to mind
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2. tinco ◴[12 Jul 25 17:13 UTC] No.44543414[source]▶
It might be but it's hard to tell because it's such a recent game. The Wind Waker might be a better example because it's now 20 years old and still renders and plays basically as if it's current gen on modern hardware.
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3. z3c0 ◴[12 Jul 25 17:15 UTC] No.44543427[source]▶
I don't know, I think some improved hardware would greatly improve the aesthetics of the Lost Woods, which severely drops in frame rate when docked. Handheld, the diminished fidelity at 720p buys back some frames.

I'd be inclined to agree about some older Zelda games though, namely Wind Waker. I replayed it on GCN recently, and can attest that HD Wii U version really didn't add anything to the aesthetics.

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4. pjerem ◴[12 Jul 25 17:31 UTC] No.44543556[source]▶
Except Wind Waker is actually a good and a bad example. Its art style has not aged but the HD remaster (on Wii U) is still better looking.
5. easton ◴[12 Jul 25 20:44 UTC] No.44545013[source]▶
The Switch 2 update seems to have resolved every performance complaint I had with TotK, if you're willing to pay the price of admission.
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6. wileydragonfly ◴[13 Jul 25 03:02 UTC] No.44547144{3}[source]▶
Do the swords still break every 39 seconds?
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7. teach ◴[13 Jul 25 04:15 UTC] No.44547446{4}[source]▶
To be fair, they did say "performance" complaints. :)