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Tech

If You're Nostalgic for 'Mario 64' You'll Want to Play 'Macbat 64'

'Macbat 64' wants to make a new 1996 platformer in 2016, crappy graphics and all.
Image: Siactro

When you think of the term "retro gaming" several images will come to mind depending on your age. I'm about to turn 30, so for me the term brings up memories of 16-bit games like Super Mario World, or even 8-bit games on the original Nintendo Entertainment System. For older gamers, the term probably evokes images of simpler times, blocky games on the Atari 2600, or monochromatic matches of Pong.

Increasingly, the term has expanded to include the early days of polygonal graphics in the mid '90s, when the first PlayStation and the Nintendo 64 forced the shift from 2D games to 3D games. Just check out this project on Steam Greenlight, Macbat 64, which aims to recreate the look and feel of games like Mario 64.

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There's been something in the air this past year about 3D platformers, a genre that dominated the late '90s, but that has largely disappeared for almost two decades. Last year, there was a lot of excitement about Yooka-Laylee, a Kickstartered platformer by the people behind Banjoo Kazooie, another Nintendo 64 hit. But whereas Yooka-Laylee is trying to recreate the style of 3D platformers with all the advantages of modern graphics, Macbat 64 is also trying to recreate the look of those old games.

As someone who clearly remembers the transition from 2D to 3D games, that makes me ancient. At the time, Mario 64 and other games of that era were mind-blowing. There have been 3D and pseudo-3D games prior (Battlezone in 1980, Doom in 1993, etc), but they didn't become the norm until the late '90s. It was only a few years later that it became clear what a rough start that was. By the mid '00s, it was hard to go back to the Nintendo 64. Real time 3D graphics progressed incredibly fast, and games quickly pushed more polygons, cool lighting effects, and sharper edges.

I'd put The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time in again, arguably one of the best games ever made, but couldn't play it through. It just seemed ugly. Unlike the 2D games I grew up on, the early 3D games aged badly.

Or at least so it seemed. Now it's 2016, and the jaggy, low-poly look has a certain charm again. What I remember as the cutting edge of gaming is now retro.

Advancement in 3D graphics has stalled a bit in recent years. Games continue to look better—amazing, near photo-realistic graphics are almost the norm—but developers aren't making the same kind of leaps they did 10 years ago. Suddenly, the Nintendo 64 look seems novel.

If you don't believe me, you can download a short demo of Macbat 64 from itch.io for free, or play developer Siactro's previous Nintendo 64 tribute, Kiwi 64. For a full effect, you'll want to run it at a 640 x 480 resolution stretched at full screen. That really makes the polygons jaggy along the edges, like back in the day.

If you like what you play you can vote on the Greenlight page to get Macbat 64 on Steam. The full game will have 10 levels, different game modes inspired by the era, and support for a Xbox 360 gamepad as well as a Nintendo 64 USB controller.