An article on how retro gaming has influenced the arts. Published in Issue 4 of One More Robot.
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Nostalgia makes everything beautiful. It doesn’t matter how tough times were, you can always recollect moments of childhood bliss. Any owner of a videogame console can attest to this, be it creating something wonderful on your ZX Spectrum, reaching that giant pill and turning the tables on your ghostly nemeses or showing Bowser what-for and saving the elusive princess. Today’s games may have awe-inspiring visuals, well written plotlines and more intricate levels of gameplay, but the games of yesterday had a certain charm about them that is hard to let go of. So much so that a whole generation of musicians, artists and filmmakers have drawn inspiration from the videogames they played as youths.
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One of the most memorable aspects of retro games is their simplistic music, which is still being used in the music style known as chiptunes. Sounds are synthesised by a computer or games console’s soundchip, creating music like those heard in 8-bit videogames. The scene took flight within the eighties and nineties with the rising popularity of home computing, giving the average person access to new creative technologies. The turn of the millennium saw a re-emergence, thanks to the development of new tools to create this music. “The scene is definitely growing exponentially, but in the scheme of things is still quite small,” says Dot.AY, a.k.a. Alex Yabsley, a chiptunes composer who has written extensively on the subject, “Worldwide it can seem that it is a massive movement with 17,492 members on (online chiptune community) 8bitcollective now and when I joined a few years ago there was lucky to be a few hundred.”
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8bitcollective is just one of several internet communities that have been developed to promote chiptunes music. An online record label called 8bit Peoples also exists, which composer Mister Spastic is a member of. “The community is just a bunch of great people who are very positive about promoting and creating alternative sounds,” he says. “So many people come in as fans and come out as musicians just due to the overwhelming support within the community. It’s a very dynamic community with the most stereotypical nerds to the ‘too cool for school’ kids. I’m lucky to be a
part of it.”
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8Bit Peoples organise Blipfest, a yearly festival aiming at gathering musicians, visual artists and fans together to celebrate the style. Composers also host their own live shows to spread the love for their 8 bit music stylings. Dot.AY explains his setup. “Live I perform by basically DJ-ing my original songs between two Game Boys running Little Sound DJ (a homebrewed cartridge used for music creation). I also run them through live effects so I can fiddle and mash with the songs. I also occasionally use a Wii Guitar Hero Controller to play melodies live off my laptop and also a DDR dance mat for the audience to trigger samples… these controllers whilst seemingly gimmicks are actually really expressive alternative controllers.”
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Each artist seems to have their own method of making music, using different software and gaming hardware in order to create their own sound. Mister Spastic claims that he’s in it for his own enjoyment, particularly during live shows: “I just jump around and push buttons and twist knobs and hope people enjoy my shenanigans.”
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With so many different methods of creating music, what is it about chiptunes that unites artists? Dr Octoroc, both a chiptunes musician and pixel artist, thinks that the limitations of the music can make it identifiable. “Many of the chiptunes tracks I hear follow a lot of the same patterns as the original video game soundtracks which utilised the same hardware.” he says, “But even with the strict limitations of the hardware lending itself to a similar sound from one chiptunes artist to the next, I’m impressed by the variations between each one.” Dot.AY doesn’t feel that chiptunes can be easily categorised. “It is debatable whether chipmusic is even a genre, at least not in a traditional sense.” he says “The only consistent aspect of this music is the timbre everything else can change and still be considered chip, as long as it is created with physical or emulated retro computers it is chipmusic.” With that in consideration, this loose definition could be the style’s biggest strength – it is not limited to certain musical conventions and each artist can make it into whatever they want it to be.
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Music is not the only way retro gaming is paid homage to. A massive amount of art exists, depicting aspects and characters from oldschool games or using the pixel-based graphical style to create their own work. Dr Octoroc feels that his pixel art is no different from other more conventional styles. “I use my eye and interpretation just like one would for any other form of art, be it oil paintings, clay sculpture, etc. Sure, there are techniques, but they are developed into motor functions as an artist advances.”
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There’s a huge interest for this art, reflected by the existence of the “i am 8-bit” exhibition. The show is an annual event and is held in Los Angeles. It includes over 100 artists reinterpreting their favourite video games characters through numerous different art forms. The minimalist styled 8-bit characters are transformed into works of sculpture and painting, giving old school nostalgia more beauty and depth. Artist Dennis Larkins’ painting, ‘Playing the Nuclear Option’ was initally created for a videogame themed Gallery 1988 exhibition in LA before appearing in the 2005 i am 8-bit show. It depicts Pacman and Ms Pacman grinning after appearing to have detonated a nuclear bomb.“I picked Mr. and Ms. Pacman as characters because of their insatiable appetite for gobbling up their adversaries without regard to the consequences.” he explains, “They also represented, for me, suitably themed representatives for global corporate domination and geo political brinksmanship.”
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In spite of the influence gaming has had on this art, many of the musicians and artists I spoke to don’t see themselves as gamers. Yet the games of the past have endured so greatly, influencing the numerous works they’ve created. Retro gaming has many distinguishing characteristics to it, from it’s blippy music to its low key graphics. These aspects are so familiar, that they instantly take anyone with a games console back in time.
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Many upcoming movies borrow many of these attributes for this appeal. The fact that a new version of Tron is coming out reflects the demand for nostalgia. The original film based around a software engineer who sucked into a videogame that he is designing. He must avoid deletion by winning a series of game related tasks, and, with the help of the friendly and heroic computer AI Tron, finally escapes this virtual prison. While the new movie focuses on upgrading the dated look of the original, it still has the familiar neon landscapes and the gaming related plot to hark back to the 80s classic.
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A lot of current and perhaps, more mindlessly violent films that are being released today could reflect the violence in games. The fact that the 2009 film Gamer’s tagline is “In the near future, you don’t live to play… you’ll play to live.” sums it up nicely. The film is set in a world where gamers’ character avatars are actually living human beings who are being controlled to play this deadly game. Perhaps film is an optimal area to explore the nature of this violence and the lack of real life consequences to it. Or perhaps it’s just to get the adrenaline junkie audience to get their kicks with film too, such as the mindless action seen in 2006 film Crank.
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Upcoming film Scott Pilgrim vs The World also contains many nostalgic gaming aspects to add to it. The film is based off of a graphic novel about young man who has to win his girlfriend’s heart by defeating her seven evil exes. The original comic included a lot of gaming ideas, such as when Scott defeated an ex, they would disappear and leave behind items, such as coins. The new film appears to be following suit, having an announcer exclaim “KO!” when Scott wins a battle, reflecting fighting game victories. It’s no coincidence that it’s being directed by Edgar Wright, whose previous cult-hit sitcom Spaced, contained plenty of gaming references, such as it’s infamous Resident Evil spoof.
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Dr Octoroc agrees that it’s the nostalgia factor that allows retro gaming to have such an influence on the arts.“The generation of kids who grew up playing retro games can now look at an old Nintendo and be reminded of a time when they didn’t have a care in the world.” he says, “Once school was out they would head right home, grab a fruit-roll-up, and play video games. Now that this generation is all grown up, hypothetically speaking of course, we have to face our responsibilities and obligations as adults and, much like every generation before us, we don’t like it one bit. Just like our parents had rock ‘n’ roll, we have our escape.”
