I think graphic design becoming much faster and cheaper, and elaborate custom-designed and custom-printed/manufactured signage, wraps, et c., becoming far cheaper to make, is part of the cause.
I also suspect much of this is a very visible case of Graeber's "Bullshit Jobs", specifically of the "zero-sum competition" variety—which makes sense, given the relation of this to marketing and ad-spending. I don't think Target having the entire facade of its buildings designed & built to be "on brand" does very much good of any kind, per se, nor do brand-driven price tag or end-cap sign designs and such, and the (apparently) increasing tendency to tear down rather than repurpose—I assume because making the old building fit your design system would cost about as much as building new, anyway, and if you build new you also get... a new building—sure seems socially harmful. However, they feel they have to, so they don't look shabby next to all their competitors.
Graphics Meltdown. That's right, now we have some textures.
These days there's still a lot of boundaries being broken but it feels less pronounced than it did in the 80s and 90s. The difference between HD and 4k is pretty small from a reasonable viewing distance vs the difference from SD to HD. Never mind the jump from 8 bit colour pallets to 16 bit colours, CGA to VGA, or even the first time I hooked up a colour monitor to my Amstrad after using a literal green screen for years.
I remember seeing a blurb in a magazine for Morrowind (two years before it came out) with a picture of a dark elf's face and thinking that there was no way I would ever own a computer capable of rendering that.
A lot of high end tech is becoming more accessible, and I think because of this, will also become more modular. I'm excited for it.
Don LaFontaine of movie trailer fame narrates this Perfect Dark commercial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrM3EETABK0
Scans of every issue of Computer Gaming World, ads and all.
> In my job I work with professional programmers working on personal computers. I have met hundreds of such programmers and have developed a good feeling for their characteristics as a group. I can say with sad certainty that the average programmer is not sharp enough to write good wargame programs. Very few programmers in this business are bright enough to handle the task. Most programmers work in BASIC, a language for beginners. Even among programmers producing commercial software for personal computers, fluency in assembly language (the most powerful language) is rare. It is impossible to fully realize the power of a personal computer without using assembly language.
It was a picture of someone putting a fork into a toaster with the caption "there's an easier way to get force feedback...". I want to say it was for something in the Microsoft Sidewinder range, but I can't find it! It's stayed with me though as I thought it was both clever and terrifying!
Might even be in that collection somewhere...
RSS is also available: https://retrocgads.tumblr.com/rss
I noticed the Wayback Machine doesn't fare well with Tumblr and images.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Over_(video_game)
That and Barbarian...
Gotta say though, seeing quasi-cubist art, for ‘Hyperblade’, is a bit of a pleasant surprise. Even if it's quite in vein of business magazine illustrations from the 90s to this day.
"quit smoking? Hey, you've got two lungs!" https://retrocgads.tumblr.com/image/663553593320898560
edit: they also have Chuck Rock! https://www.etsy.com/listing/690598064/1992-chuck-rock-super.... This is bringing back good memories.
"How many different a fonts can we jam into a single ad!?"
Apparently all of them!
