Return Of The Obra Dinn

Rogue Invaders (2015) In choosing to design in a 1-bit style, indie studio Squishy Games faced the same challenges as their predecessors 30 years ago—how to create legibility when working with only a white canvas and a single color. “Any color you put on it is dead black,” said Squishy Games artist Nathan Rees in a 2015 Gamasutra article.

Cosmic Osmo (1989) Drakmyth Castle (1991) Shadowgate (1987) Deja Vu: A Nightmare Comes True (1985) Richard Moss collected dozens of screenshots of classic Mac Plus games when compiling his book, The Secret History of Mac Gaming. For an even deeper dive into the '80s visual aesthetic, click through this gallery of his screenshots.

The Fool's Errand (1987) Players are tasked with solving complex puzzles without any rules of engagement. The game is tricky and trippy and loaded with beautiful imagery, like monochromatic tarot cards and jumbled photographs, “Cliff Johnson, the designer, took a lot of inspiration from art nouveau” says Moss, “He created a totally unique art style.”

The Return of the Obra Dinn (2018) “It would have been really difficult to get something of the Obra Dinn kind of fidelity on the original Mac,” says Moss. “And there’s smoothe 3D animation which never could have been done. It’s an old aesthetic style, decades old now, combined with new technology.” Obra Dinn's designer Lucas Pope references the Mac Plus when discussing his game's dither-punk aesthetic: “I never once thought it needed more colors.”

Dark Castle (1986) Players control a hero who must traverse a castle by solving puzzles and avoiding dangerous objects. "The designers came up with this really gritty, dreary castle and managed to combine it with old school animation techniques," says Moss, “The style was totally unique at the time, and I think it still looks amazing today."

The Macintosh Plus is gaming’s unsung hero. It’s not revered like the Atari. It didn’t have a splashy reboot like the NES. But a collection of gamers swear by its legacy. “It’s quite surprising, the influence the early Macs had on video games,” says Richard Moss, author of The Secret History of Mac Gaming. “All these little strands came together and impacted the broader industry.” One of those strands was the Mac Plus’ visual mood. “No other personal computer had high-res graphics like it,” says Moss, “But the tradeoff was that it was in black and white.” That 1-bit limitation forced innovation. “Developers had to come up with techniques to show contrast and legibility,” says Moss. One technique, known as dithering, used alternating black and white pixels to mimic shadows and depth. The dither-punk aesthetic was born. Now, more than 30 years later, games like indie-darling The Return of the Obra Dinn are using dither-punk to create stand-out visuals. Obra Dinn’s designer, Lucas Pope, combined a bold visual mood with high-end tech. Pope, whose first family computer was a Mac Plus, writes: "Obra Dinn is basically just a callback to all of that.” Below is a celebration of dither-punk, from the iconic Mac Plus games to today’s indies that pay homage to them.

Words by Alyssa Mercante Design by PETER CARLSON

Back in black (and white)

WHAT'S BEHIND TODAY'S COOLEST INDIE GAMES? A 1980s MACINTOSH.

"There was something just right about the 1-bit display that I missed when technology moved on."