Before I get into this article, I’d be remiss in not acknowledging the 25th anniversary of Tetris. So long ago…. Kind of wild to think about that.

That said, I started thinking about classic gaming, and the simple appeal of an era gone by with the advent of motion control of HD gaming. I recently eBayed a copy of The Hobbit for my Apple IIc (how’s that for “old-school”?), and one of the most eye-catching things of the entire package was the game’s artwork on the box.

When I think about it, one of the things I really look for these days is a game’s logo when making my selection. Artwork these days are either a result of Photoshop or some computer rendering. Very few games today use traditional artwork, or photography, or certainly do not looks as “epic” in scale. A prime example would be looking at old Atari 2600 covers. They had lavish illustrations on the cover for Space Invaders or Haunted House or Adventure that bore little to no resemblance of actual gameplay. But who cared? The people running for their lives on the cover of Defender looked pretty cool.

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The site is in Japanese, but the pictures are fantastic, if you’re an old-school NES fan.

That’s one thing I like about pixel art. It never ages badly, and the games still retain their charm.

Well, unless the game was ugly in the first place, and that’s sort of their fault, isn’t it?