Freedom!

July 23, 2012 5:35 AM

PCKTKNFE is an entertaining little stop motion short about what happens when video game characters escape the confines of their consoles.

The makers, James Donhour and Robert Kinsella, used bead sprites to create the real-world versions of their 8-bit characters.

[via]

posted by quin (5 comments total)

I'm somewhat stupefied by the nostalgia for NES/8 bit gaming. I grew up on it, but I wouldn't trade the laptop i'm using or my PS3 for a Turbografix or NES any day. There were great games that I played on every system I've ever owned, spent uncounted hours on them, but it all seems weirdly like a current version of Mayberry - revisiting your youth and finding the nuggets of greatness and then marketing them.

Seeing people younger then me wearing 80's fashion and extolling the virtues of how simple that time was constantly freaks me out. Most of these kids (in their early 20's now!) have just a vague notion of that time.

I don't personally pine for a return to 70's fashion and technology, and I'm constantly reminded of this, and this.

Of course, maybe I'm tired and feeling my age.
posted by efalk at 6:02 AM on July 23, 2012

I'm somewhat stupefied by the nostalgia for NES/8 bit gaming.

There was an Atari 2600 for sale at the flea market yesterday and it game with a huge bin full of games, including classics like Joust, Yar's Revent and Pitfall. I almost bought it just to show the kids but I knew we'd never play it after that and it didn't seem worth the hassle.
posted by DU at 6:05 AM on July 23, 2012

I'm somewhat stupefied by the nostalgia for NES/8 bit gaming.

Seriously! I grew up with a NES too, but I reserve all my nostalgia for SNES/16-bit gaming.
posted by oulipian at 7:48 AM on July 23, 2012

I'm looking forward to Wreck-It Ralph! But yeah, nostalgia alone does not a good game make. Though I may have cut my teeth on the NES, the best of those games have little in common with quality titles from the current era. At best they were an exercise in memorization, patience, and dealing with frustration. I enjoyed trying to conquer them as a nerdy kid but just don't have the same tolerance or availability of time for that sort of thing now.

Like oulipian said, the 16-bit era marked a turning point when games really started to gain depth and a modern form of playability. I still love playing Genesis/SNES games today, but rarely bother with anything older than that.
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 9:54 AM on July 23, 2012

I disagree, I find NES games generally tend to be better experiences than SNES games, as having fewer elements to work with generally forced developers to make a sharper, better game. Mario, Zelda, Mega Man, Castlevania and Contra all illustrate my point: all of these series appeared on the SNES, and many of them had great games on that, but those aren't the versions I choose to play when I figure I want to.
posted by JHarris at 3:07 PM on July 23, 2012