Interesting Comparison of LOOM EGA/VGA artwork...

Started by LimpingFish, Wed 01/06/2022 21:17:47

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LimpingFish

...here.

I've always liked the minimalist (usually by necessity) quality of EGA-era graphics, and the above demonstrates nicely how more doesn't always equal better.

I'm not sure if it's a nostalgia thing, though. As a child, I did my adventuring on an Atari ST. The ST had a display comparable to EGA, using 16 colours (from a palette of 512), and a 320x200 resolution, so the ST and EGA versions of a game looked fairly similar.

Bonus points to the article for also highlighting the importance of good background composition and lighting.

I did a forum search to see if this article was posted previously, but it turned up empty. Apologies if this has been posted before.
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Danvzare

Looking through them all, while there are a few where the EGA version clearly looks superior, I personally think on the whole, the VGA versions look better.

Quote from: LimpingFish on Wed 01/06/2022 21:17:47
I'm not sure if it's a nostalgia thing, though.
The problem is, I'm not sure if my opinion is affected by nostalgia either. My earliest gaming memories are of an Amiga, which is much closer to VGA than EGA. As such, I'm fairly sure I have a preference for anything that looks or sounds even vaguely like it could be on an Amiga.

I also didn't play any adventure games until my dad got a Windows 95 computer, mostly because he's always been more into his platformers and he didn't have any adventure games on the Amiga.

Darth Mandarb

Quote from: LimpingFish on Wed 01/06/2022 21:17:47I'm not sure if it's a nostalgia thing, though. As a child, I did my adventuring on an Atari ST. The ST had a display comparable to EGA, using 16 colours (from a palette of 512), and a 320x200 resolution, so the ST and EGA versions of a game looked fairly similar.

It's definitely a nostalgia thing for me! I love the EGA color palette!

I actually feel that most of the VGA versions of Loom lose a lot of the charm and character they had in the EGA versions. The colors feel dull and washed out on most of them and lack the vibrancy that made Loom (EGA) so great and memorable!

Last year I wanted to see if I could master the 16 colors so I started by doing some paint-overs of several Space Quest 3 backgrounds (in my opinion it was around the SQ3 era when digital artists had really sunk their teeth into EGA and were creating some great works). By the time I was "done" (are we ever really done?) I had done maybe 10 or so paint-overs. I really got a feel for stretching those colors to the max!

newwaveburritos

As a guy who works pretty much exclusively in the EGA palette I have to say that I agree with everything here.  You can also see a great comparison of the Last Crusade EGA to VGA on the same website and the same thing is true there.  Of course, these games were designed with EGA in mind so it's no real surprise that the VGA upscalings are kinda bland because I don't think they got the time and attention that everything got the first time but even so I still love EGA.  It's not 100% nostalgia for me but it is, I must admit, a little nostalgia.  The games I liked the best were always VGA as a kid but looking back I really think that the EGA era (looking at you Colonel's Bequest!!) is really a sweet spot.  It's a shame that the era couldn't have lasted another year or two longer so we could have a bigger sample of games.  And it's a shame it's so hard to play to original versions of Indy 3 and Monkey Island.  I just love those sixteen weird colors.

LimpingFish

#4
Quote from: Darth Mandarb on Thu 02/06/2022 16:32:23
in my opinion it was around the SQ3 era when digital artists had really sunk their teeth into EGA and were creating some great works

Agreed. That whole '89-'91 era of both Sierra and LucasArts (pre-Monkey Island II, anyway) is largely responsible for my love of adventure games. That EGA style was, in my mind, what adventure games were supposed to look like. I was only exposed to the VGA versions of these games, and newer titles, around the turn of the millennium, when I first owned a PC.

EDIT: And all this talk has made be go back and run some of these games again, and now I have a mind-boner for EGA graphics, and all I can think about is 16 colours...and I think I might cry because I'm old...and I miss my childhood innocence... ???
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Darth Mandarb

Haha yeah...

I just went back and re-played Space Quest 1-3. It's such a great nostalgic feeling. I can actually smell the house and hear Bon Jovi (et al) when I play those old games. Transportive.

If somebody finds a way to bottle that nostalgia they'll be extremely wealthy overnight!

Babar

Thanks for the interesting comparison! I can definitely see images where the EGA art was made to utilise the the limitations in cool ways, and the VGA update simply "Filled in the inbetween lines" and ruined it. Sad that they didn't go back to the "lineart" and properly make use of VGA.

Still, I get the feeling that a general preference to one or the other is almost completely based on nostalgia and what you grew up with. I'm guessing that Darth and LimpingFish are a couple years older than me, and their "formative" games are the ones that initially came out in EGA. For me, while I caught the tail end of the EGA train, most of the "formative" games I played in childhood were VGA, and I really like the oomph the extra colours bring.
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Danvzare

Quote from: Babar on Tue 14/06/2022 09:10:23
Thanks for the interesting comparison! I can definitely see images where the EGA art was made to utilise the the limitations in cool ways, and the VGA update simply "Filled in the inbetween lines" and ruined it. Sad that they didn't go back to the "lineart" and properly make use of VGA.

Still, I get the feeling that a general preference to one or the other is almost completely based on nostalgia and what you grew up with. I'm guessing that Darth and LimpingFish are a couple years older than me, and their "formative" games are the ones that initially came out in EGA. For me, while I caught the tail end of the EGA train, most of the "formative" games I played in childhood were VGA, and I really like the oomph the extra colours bring.

I couldn't agree more on everything you just said.  (nod)

Darth Mandarb

Quote from: Babar on Tue 14/06/2022 09:10:23I get the feeling that a general preference to one or the other is almost completely based on nostalgia and what you grew up with.

I think so too! I remember being blown away by EGA because I had come up on Atari 2600, Intellivision, Colecovision, etc. EGA felt so futuristic to me! I loved VGA when it came out (and gladly left EGA behind) but as the years rolled by I find my nostalgia is much more focused on those 16 magical colors. Funny how that works.

Quote from: Babar on Tue 14/06/2022 09:10:23I'm guessing that Darth and LimpingFish are a couple years older than me...

Just a couple (nod)


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