The Infinite 8-Bit Computer Game Character Archive
December 31, 2023 9:31 PM Subscribe
The Infinite 8-Bit Computer Game Character Archive
The Infinite 8-Bit Computer Game Character Archive generates character histories for an infinite amount of imaginary 8-Bit computer game characters from an infinite amount of imaginary 8-Bit computer games from some endless 1980s somewhere.
I decided to make this when I started playing Earthbound the other day, and liking the bit at the start where you can have it randomly choose names for all your characters if you can't be bothered to name them yourself.
I made the sprites in Pulp, the Playdate game maker machine, largely because I couldn't actually find any straight pixel art editor that worked properly. Anyway, that's why these are all tiny little 8x8 monochrome animations rather than anything more lavish and/or system accurate.
The list of originating systems was aided by the use of this marvellous wikipedia page. I hope they're all genuine, but who can ever truly know.
The Infinite 8-Bit Computer Game Character Archive generates character histories for an infinite amount of imaginary 8-Bit computer game characters from an infinite amount of imaginary 8-Bit computer games from some endless 1980s somewhere.
I decided to make this when I started playing Earthbound the other day, and liking the bit at the start where you can have it randomly choose names for all your characters if you can't be bothered to name them yourself.
I made the sprites in Pulp, the Playdate game maker machine, largely because I couldn't actually find any straight pixel art editor that worked properly. Anyway, that's why these are all tiny little 8x8 monochrome animations rather than anything more lavish and/or system accurate.
The list of originating systems was aided by the use of this marvellous wikipedia page. I hope they're all genuine, but who can ever truly know.
Role: writer, programmer
I like this! One minor quibble, the undo/redo buttons actually make new characters rather than allowing you to return to previous ones. I found one that tickled me, but then couldn't get back to it.
posted by Literaryhero at 6:38 PM on January 1 [1 favorite]
posted by Literaryhero at 6:38 PM on January 1 [1 favorite]
Yeah, sorry about that. That's one of the problems of making this in twine. The back button's built in automatically, but then the way I've made this the page just randomly generates new numbers each time it's loaded, and rather than remember the previous state of the previous page, the back button just goes back to the previous page and reloads it.
posted by dng at 4:24 AM on January 2 [1 favorite]
posted by dng at 4:24 AM on January 2 [1 favorite]
I just get an error:
There was an error with your request
posted by pwnguin at 10:53 AM on January 7
There was an error with your request
posted by pwnguin at 10:53 AM on January 7
Ah, sorry. What browser/system are you using? It should work in any browser, but you do need javascript turned on.
posted by dng at 8:05 AM on January 11
posted by dng at 8:05 AM on January 11
Works now; could have just been a glitch with itch.io at the time.
posted by pwnguin at 1:15 PM on January 11 [1 favorite]
posted by pwnguin at 1:15 PM on January 11 [1 favorite]
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posted by mpark at 11:06 PM on December 31, 2023 [2 favorites]