39,327
edits
Retraux: Difference between revisions
m
Mass update links
m (Mass update links) |
m (Mass update links) |
||
Line 1:
{{trope}}
[[File:MegaMan9BoxArt350px_4368.jpg|link=Mega Man 9
Sometimes media are produced in an intentionally old-fashioned style, designed with the intentional appearance of being decades older than is actually the case.
Line 17:
* ''[[Martian Successor Nadesico|Gekiganger]] [[Gekiganger 3|3]]''. (More so in the actual show than in the [[OVA]].)
** Interestingly enough, according to [[Word of God]], despite its 1970s-esque appearance, it was actually made in the 2090s, which means it's an example of this even ''in-story''.
* ''[[
* ''[[Sayonara, Zetsubou
* The [[ADV Films]] trailer for ''[[Chrono Crusade]]'' has narration mimicking the style of voice-over used on old-fashioned newsreels. (However, the anime itself doesn't use many [[Retraux]] effects outside of a few scenes in the opening and the grainy episode title cards and eyecatches.)
* ''[[
* ''[[Cowboy Bebop]]'' intentionally uses a drawing style and character design reminiscent of anime from the 1970s, despite being made in 1998. The latest DVD release for the show also has the DVDs looking like LPs.
* Mostly averted in ''[[
* [[Kaiba]] looks like a sixties' children anime.
* In ''[[Lucky Star]]'', Meito Anisawa and the other Animate store employees are drawn in a style reminiscent of anime (especially [[Super Robot]] anime) that's some decades older than ''Lucky Star''. There's even a visual effect that makes their shaded areas be of non-uniform color tone and change their color tone slightly over time, simulating the look of cel animation.
Line 33:
* [[Alan Moore]]'s ''[[Nineteen Sixty Three|1963]]'' looks and reads like a classic Marvel comic (complete with Moore spouting fake [[Stan Lee]] style hyperbole and including fake '60s-style ads).
* The [[Milestone Celebration|25th anniversary]] (1983) ''[[Legion of Super-Heroes]]'' story had multiple segments that took place in pastiches of different parts of the Legion's history, using the original logos, original artists, and plot elements based on stories of the time. A weaker version of this was done for the 30th anniversary in 1988.
* The humorous one-shot ''[[
* The Orson Randall one shot issues of ''[[Immortal Iron Fist]]'' are often drawn in the style of pulp era artists.
* The ''[[Transformers]]'' April Fool's comic ''[[Transformers Shattered Glass|Shattered Expectations]]'' was done in the style of the Generation 2 comics - drawn similar to Derek Yaniger and full of [[Signature Style|Furmanisms]].
Line 39:
* A ''[[Stormwatch]]'' issue concentrating on the history of century-old [[The Authority|Jenny Sparks]] depicts her in each decade as she would have appeared in the comics of the time, with the 80s flashback in particular being a clear homage to ''[[Watchmen]]''.
* Another one from [[Alan Moore]], ''[[Supreme]]'' has flashbacks with an art style that corresponds with the time those flashbacks happened. This is justified in-story; from Supreme's perspective, his recollections of (for example) [[The Golden Age of Comic Books|Golden Age]] events have such a simple, rough style to them because it was such a long time ago and everything seemed so simple back then.
* Another flashback example, ''[[
* ''Whatever Happened to the World of Tomorrow?'' by Brian Files is about a boy who is a fan of the [[Show Within a Show|Comic Within A Comic]] Space Age Adventures featuring Captain Crater And The Cosmic Kid. Four different issues of the comic (spanning the 1930s to 1970s) are presented in the book, each printed on newsprint (as opposed to the thick glossy paper of the rest of the book) and drawn to resemble comics from the appropriate era including imitation poor colour registration and printing blemishes.
* ''Alias'' by Brian Michael Bendis features a flashback to Jessica Jones attending the same school as Spider-Man, drawn in a style reminiscent of Steve Ditko era Spider-Man.
Line 56:
* The clips of ''Woody's Roundup'' in ''[[Toy Story]] 2''.
** To promote ''Toy Story 3'', two commercials made to look like they were from [[The Eighties]] were commissioned, featuring the [[Defictionalization|defictionalized]] Lots-o'-Huggin' Bear doll -- one [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6dZtNYGlLM English], one [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5ZwkcHCVkE Japanese].
* The 1930s style song "The Spirit of Adventure" over ''[[Up (
* The ending credits of ''[[Winnie the Pooh|The Tigger Movie]]'' run against sepia still images of scenes from the film redrawn in the style of E.H. Shepherd's line drawings from the books. Tigger in particular looks ''completely'' different from the Disney version.
Line 62:
== Film - Live Action ==
* 2011 French romantic comedy ''[[The Artist]]'' is 1) shot in the old 1.33:1 [[Aspect Ratio]], 2) [[Deliberately Monochrome]], and 3) a [[Silence Is Golden|silent film]].
* ''[[Hobo
* Most films by [[Quentin Tarantino]] are full of this, being [[George Lucas Throwback|George Lucas Throwbacks]].
* ''[[Grindhouse]]'', a '70s [[B-Movie]] pastiche which was presented in its theatrical cut as a double feature with scratched-up film, missing reels, [[Real Trailer, Fake Movie|trailers for ficitional films]] and an ad for a Tex-Mex restaurant adjoining the theatre.
** It gets [[Mind Screw|really weird]] when you notice that while it goes as far as to have fake ads and trailers that look like something right out of the seventies, the actual ''settings'' of the films are modern.
*** And note the tendency of the film to warp during particularly action-packed scenes. It's as if it's too intense for the celluloid to handle. More realistically, this might be because those specific scenes have been watched the most, out of context. In the '70s, it was not uncommon for the projectionist to simply cut out a particularly hot sex scene and take it home, which explains why half of ''Planet Terror'''s is [[Relax-O-Vision|gone]] and why the lapdance scene was cut from ''Death Proof'''s theatrical release.
* The 2005 ''[[
** The makers of it are currently doing Lovecraft's ''The Whisperer in Darkness'' in style of a 1930s movie.
* [[Tim Burton|The director]] and cinematographers of the film ''[[Ed Wood (
* [[Woody Allen]]'s ''[[Zelig]]'' is a Mockumentary about a "chameleon man" of the 1920s and '30s. The supposedly archived footage of the era was actually filmed using cameras and such of the period. This, in addition to ''[[Forrest Gump]]'' style editing (though this movie predated that one by over ten years), created a nearly impenetrable illusion.
* ''[[Far From Heaven]]'', set in [[The Fifties]], imitates the look of movies produced back then, specifically Douglas Sirk's movies - the plot is almost lifted from ''All That Heaven Allows''. The score is by Elmer Bernstein, who composed music for several famous films in the '50s.
* The French musical ''[[Eight Women]]''. The look of the film evokes the look of films made in the 1950s, and the songs are all performed in a 1950s style, despite some of them being from as late as the '80s.
* [[Orson Welles]] used this trope in ''[[
* ''[[Mirage]]'' is a 1965 movie filmed in black and white and in the style of classic noir.
* ''[[Good Night and Good Luck]]'': Filmed in black and white, with only [[Archive Footage]] of Joe McCarthy used to portray the senator, and every scene in the movie shows a character with a cigarette in his or her hand (as was the case in the 1950s)
Line 85:
* ''The Mexican'' (2001) had the flashbacks filmed in a hand-cranked camera to evoke this trope.
* ''[[Down With Love]]'' is an [[Affectionate Parody]] of a certain subgenre of early-1960s romantic comedies, filmed with more than a few [[Retraux]] touches. It's particularly noticeable in the set design and background music.
* The [[Mel Brooks]] film ''[[Silent Movie (
* The [[Mel Brooks]] remake of ''[[To Be or Not
* For ''[[Back to The Future
* The Bayeux Tapestry-esque opening of ''[[Bedknobs and Broomsticks]]'', complete with the film's Nazi invasion depicted in Medieval tapestry style
* ''[[Kung Pow]]'' used old footage from an actual Hong Kong martial arts flick that was worn, so most of the new parts edited into the movie were artificially worn to match the rest of the film.
* Just about anything directed by Wes Anderson (''[[Rushmore]]'', ''[[The Royal Tenenbaums]]'', ''[[The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou]]'', [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spCknVcaSHg his American Express commercial]) is full of it. Actually, Wes Anderson himself is pretty Retraux. ([[Outdated Outfit|Have you seen how he dresses?]])
* The "Maroon Cartoon" opening of ''[[Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
* ''[[
* Several parts in ''[[CSA: Confederate States of America]]'' are made to look like older films, including an old, silent movie.
* The Mel Gibson crime movie ''Payback'' is very stylized film-noir; colors are washed out, characters wear vintage clothing, even the cellular car phones are rotary dial.
* ''[[
** It's even being released on VHS.
* Nearly all of Guy Maddin's films are made to replicate the look of films from the 30s and the silent era, with considerable success.
* ''[[Iron Man (
** An expanded version of the song also appears in ''[[Captain America:
* ''[[Catch Me If You Can]]'' a movie set mostly in the 1960s has a [[Saul Bass]] style animated opening credit sequence.
* The ''[[Moulin Rouge]]'' commentary track mentions how much trouble they went through to put imperfections in the film in order to evoke this.
* The 1977 war film ''The Ascent'' is made up to look like a film from the 1940s, with its World War II setting, uses of Academy ratio (an aspect ratio long disused by then) and black and white cinematography.
* The 1984 film "Nothing Lasts Forever" is filmed in the style of ancient black-and-white SF films. It looks so convincing that first that it takes the unmistakeable appearance of Dan Ackroyd to alert the audience to its true age.
* ''[[
Line 111:
* ''[[The Onion]] Presents: Our Dumb Century''.
* Thomas Pynchon's novels ''Mason & Dixon'' and ''Against the Day'' are both written in prose styles similar to literature from the eras in which they're set.
* Stephen Baxter's ''The Time Ships'' is a sequel to [[The Time Machine]] by [[
* In a similar manner to ''Jonathan Strange'', ''[[The Baroque Cycle]]'' consistantly uses the word "phant'sy" to mean "imagine", although "fancy" was pretty well established by the 17th century, and had already aquired a couple of its modern meanings.
* ''[[The Scarlet Letter]]'' was written in the 19th century, but it's often taught in high schools as an example of 17th-century writing.
* It's not in the actual text, but some printings of [[The Bible]] contain supplementary material that looks like a seventeenth- or eighteenth-century pamphlet. For instance, "deluxe" versions of the New American translation contain, in the preface, a "[[Long Title|Synchronous History of the Nations, Showing Their Origin, Chief Events, Changes or Extinction, from the Earliest Period Through New Testament Period.]]" This version was printed in 1970.
* ''[[Watchmen (
== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* ''[[
** In addition, the flashback sequences often feature popular music that likely ''would'' have been featured in a TV show episode from whatever year the flashback would have taken place in.
* ''[[
** The same goes for a song featured in one episode ''One Track Lover'' [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BwQBjJvN5Y link] which certainly sounds like a cheesy pop song from [[The Eighties]].
* Same for ''[[Look Around You]]'', which mimics 1980s educational TV despite being made in 2002 (for the first series) and 2005 (for the second).
* And in turn, ''The Peter Serafinowicz Show'', from the creator of ''Look Around You'', has featured faux 1970s [[Public Service Announcement|public information films]] (complete of course with authentic faded colour, grain and scratches).
* One episode of ''[[Ashes to Ashes]]'' does this for the [[Show Within a Show]], being shot on 1980s style video with very limited lighting and makeup, scratchy sound and cheesy backing music. ([http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=K7BNZjUhmXk link] - could arguably be a minor spoiler).
** Speaking of which, its parent show ''[[Life On Mars]]'' revelled in this trope for advertising, even going as far as having a recreation of the BBC One ident of the 70s precede broadcasting of the second series. [[Life On Mars
* The TV version of ''[[In the Heat of
* Harry Enfield did this a lot in his sketch shows, especially with the Cholmondley-Warner & Grayson sketches on ''[[Harry Enfield and Chums]]''. His later series ''[[Harry and Paul]]'' featured Retraux versions of modern films, such as a 1930s melodramatic version of ''The Bourne Identity'' and a silent version of ''Brokeback Mountain'' starring Laurel and Hardy.
* ''[[Smallville]]'' has a [[Film Noir]] episode framed as Jimmy Olsen's dream sequence.
** So did ''[[Lois and Clark]]''.
** And ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'' (season 4's "Monster Movie").
* ''[[Star Trek]]'' loves to use the holodeck for this kind of thing. [[Star Trek:
** Special mention must be given to the ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
* ''Jimmy McDonald's Canada'' was a parody of current events shows from [[The Sixties]], filmed in black and white, and occasionally stopping to advertise cigarettes. Richard Waugh, who played Jimmy, somehow managed to convey "[[The Sixties]]" in his very speaking voice.
* ''[[Mad Men]]'' on AMC is supposed to be set in the early 60s, and is filmed with a dark, slightly fuzzy/grainy look to it. This is in keeping with the show's obssessive focus on setting -- the furniture is all vintage, along with the clothing. Even to the point of making the actors wear authentic undergarments that are never seen.
* ''[[
* The DVD menus of ''[[The IT Crowd]]''. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoOkoP5GGQI The first series] is a pastiche of vintage computers, complete with tape loader and extremely elaborate (for a DVD '''menu''') parodies of ''[[Head Over Heels]]'' and ''[[
* ''[[Yo Gabba Gabba]]'' has an 8-bit sounding opening, prominently features chiptunes during scene changes, and occasionally features episode filler scenes that pays homage to 80s video games, complete with blocky graphics.
* ''[[
* ''[[Chuck]]'': "Chuck vs. the Role Models" has a [[Cold Open]] of a '70s/'80s style [[Special Edition Title]] (mostly a parody of [[Hart to Hart]]'s credit sequence.)
* ''[[The Larry Sanders Show]]'' does this a little:
** We occasionally see clips of Larry's shows from the five years prior to the start of the series. Not a terribly long time compared to most examples of this trope, but the producers take care to make these clips look different from Larry's "current" shows.
** Larry's talk show is, itself, rather Retraux. Like [[The Tonight Show|Johnny Carson]], Larry does a lot of big, broad sketches where Larry and Hank wear elaborate and silly costumes. This style of comedy sketch became more or less extinct in late night after Carson's retirement, however. Characters occasionally remark [[In
* For the entirety of ''Late Night with [[Jimmy Fallon]]'''s Video Game Week in June 2011, the opening credits were turned into an animated sequence with the look of 8-bit Nintendo games of [[The Eighties]] (including direct visual references to ''Mega Man 2'' and ''Ninja Gaiden''), with digitized music to match.
* ''[[Top Gear]]'' did a 1970s style intro for a fake detective series, ''The Interceptors'', complete with era-appropriate [[Porn Stache|Porn Staches]].
* ''[[
* ''[[
* A ''[[Spitting Image]]'' sketch claimed to be celebrating the show's 100th aniversary, and showed a clip from the supposed first show in the 1880s. This was a black and white scene of two [[Punch and Judy]] style puppets, and silent movie captions reading "I say, [[William Gladstone|Mr Gladstone]]! You're not very good!"
* ''[[Hustle]]''. An exposition scene explaining how an old-style con worked was done in the form of a black & white silent movie.
Line 158:
== Music ==
* [[Pop Revival]]
* The [[
* The whole "electroclash" genre of music, which mimics 1980s [[Synth Pop]].
** Likewise "sleaze metal", which evokes 1980s [[Hair Metal]].
*** Hundreds of [[Thrash Metal]] revival bands have sprung up ever since metal started making a comeback in the early 2000s.
*** As well as the [[
* Most of [[Brian Setzer]]'s career, starting with the [[Stray Cats]], has been in the vein of early-fifties [[Jazz]] and [[Music/Rockabilly|Rockabilly]] sounds.
* German cover band [[The Baseballs]] has this as their schtick, playing modern songs as [[Music/Rockabilly|Rockabilly]] and even dressing up for the part.
Line 175:
* ''Blue Country Heart'', a collection of '30s country and blues covers by former Jefferson Airplane guitarist Jorma Kaukonen, features songs recorded in a single take on period instruments.
* [[Monster Magnet]]'s early material (the two EPs, ''Spine of God'' and ''Superjudge'') is this kind of throwback to 1970s acid rock.
* [[They Might Be Giants (
** They also recorded a version of their song "The Edison Museum," fittingly, as they recorded it '''at''' the Edison Labratories.
* Australian artist C.W. Stoneking sounds and acts like a 1930s blues singer.
Line 190:
* The [[Squirrel Nut Zippers]] and their various spun-off and overlapping groups are famous for songwriting that meticulously recreates early- to mid-twentieth-century pop and jazz styles, but special mention goes to SNZ alumnus Andrew Bird's Bowl of Fire, recording live-in-studio with a single microphone.
* YMCK is [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWH97mNioX8 all about this.]
** Bonus points for referencing classic games such as ''[[
* One track on the [[Space Channel 5]] Part 2 soundtrack, "Mellow Medley", is a medley of Space Channel 5 songs done in the style of 16-bit game music.
* Max Raabe & Palast Orchester are a faux 20s jazz orchestra from [[Berlin]], they cover modern popsongs in this style as well.
* As any Authentic Mississippi Delta Blues Aficionado [[Tradesnark|™]] will testify, Robert Leroy Johnson is well-known as the great-great-great-great-great-grandfather of Authentic Mississippi Delta Blues Music [[Running Gag|™]]. Johnson was well-known for his mastery on guitar, small back-catalogue of hard-to-find blues recordings, [[Sex, Drugs and Rock
* [[Lupe Fiasco]]'s "1985" which was done in the style of rappers of that year.
* [[Franz Ferdinand]] has an addiction to old equipment, especially if German or Soviet. Particularly notable is the ancient Soviet synthesizer they used for their third album (''Tonight: Franz Ferdinand'') which had been designed by Soviet engineers as an imitation of Western models without actually ever having seen the innards of a Western synthesizer.
Line 199:
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knAkB8kI5yw The Spirit of Adventure] is an affectionate parody of 1930s styles. It was a reward for stragglers through the credits for [[Up]]. Plus for the plot references since it's a narraration of Charles Muntz's life.
* The Swedish band Änglagård, who recorded two albums in the mid-[[The Nineties|1990s]], offered a surprisingly authentic take on the [[The Seventies|1970s]] [[Progressive Rock]] sound, complete with actual vintage instruments (Hammond organ, Mellotron) and production techniques. Many fans credit them for the resurgence of interest in the progressive rock genre in the 90s.
* [[R. Kelly]]'s song "When A Woman Loves." Aside from the obvious synthesizer use in the instruments, his singing is pretty much old-school 1950s Motown crooning.
* The band F.L.Y. does retro [[
* [[Them Crooked Vultures]] wouldn't be out of place on classic rock radio. Upon hearing it, it's easy to think their debut album came out in 1975 instead of 2009. It helps that the bassist for the band is [[Led Zeppelin|John Paul Jones.]] One review remarked that the song [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGp97OVybUM "Scumbag Blues"] almost sounded like it belonged on ''Led Zeppelin II.''
* Some works in the Futurepop subgenre of [[Industrial]] invoke this, such as [[VNV Nation]]'s latest album.
Line 211:
* The 2006 [[Special Edition]] of Klaus Schulze's ''Timewind'' had vinyl textured CD's, and the original liner notes for "Wahnfried 1883" were printed on the back cover.
* [[Alison Moyet]]'s cover of [[Billie Holiday]]'s ''That Ole Devil Called Love'' was recorded in 1985, but still feels like the 1944 original.
* [[
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loYzKVTTujs "Technicolor Dreams"] by [[The Bee Gees]]. Sounds like the 1930s, released in 2001.
Line 224:
** Arctic Monkeys' 2006 video for their song "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xm69M3jtZl4 I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor]"
** Oxford Collapse's 2008 video for their song "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16XlqgMdQgs Young Love Delivers]"
* [[
* "Closer" by [[Nine Inch Nails]].
* silverchair's video for [http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=h7dGlFgw12I "Across The Night"] was done entirely in the manner of early 20th-century black and white surrealistic film.
* The Mindless Self Indulgence song 'Shut Me Up' has the framing device of a 50s Public Awareness Announcement, complete with grainy black-and-white clips taken from the movie ''[[Reefer Madness (Film)|Reefer Madness]]'', a vaguely science-looking guy, and ending with an ominous warning that it (succumbing to Punk-Rock) could happen to ''YOU''.
* [[Rob Zombie]]'s video for "Living Dead Girl" combines this with a massive [[Homage]] to ''[[
* Sum41's video for [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUultIb2pPc We're All To Blame] takes place on the 1980s TV series ''Solid Gold'', complete with glitter and spandex-clad dancers has 70s/80s era effects and even plugs their [[Fake Band|hair metal alter-ego band]]. More jarring is the fact the band is wearing 2000-era clothes, [[Soundtrack Dissonance|singing a very serious song.]]
* The video for Q-Tip's [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhumw8f_SB4 "Move"] appears to be shot on VHS... right down to VCR blue-screen and on-screen displays at the beginning.
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_sBOsh-vyI Muse's "Knights of Cydonia"] (which actually has [[Knights of Cydonia|its own trope page]]), includes a fake copyright notice of 1981 at the end of the video. The song itself is also heavily based on the old 1960s instrumental piece "Telstar", of which Muse frontman's Matt Bellamy's father was part of The Tornados, the band that recorded it.
* [[
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJzWGkgFcTU The Ghost of Stephen Foster] mimics the look of old cartoons so well that people often ask if they used footage from those cartoons.
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfqL7bwx9fs Move Your Feet] by Junior Senior. The video was actually animated in Deluxe Paint on an Amiga.
* Beyonce's "Why Don't You Love Me?" is ''very'' dedicated to the retro look.
* Kasabian's video for [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mM5YDI7ttME "Vlad the Impaler"] mimicks Italian exploitation flicks of the seventies and other such fare. Complete with the title character wearing an [[Manos:
* Mark Ronson's "Bang Bang Bang"
* Yolanda Be Cool feat D-Cup: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkjljBNTLs4 "We no speak Americano"]. The Song itself is retraux to some extend, as it starts like a Song from the 50s and then turns into Electro. The song they covered it from however, is from that time period: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqlJwMFtMCs Renato Carosone - "Tu Vuò Fa' L'Americano"]
Line 259:
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* "[[Mazes and Minotaurs]]" is a [[What If]] on ''[[
* "Labyrinth Lord" is a Retraux as well -- this time much closer to the original version of ''Dungeons & Dragons''
** As well as "Swords and Wizardry," which draws on [[Heroic Fantasy|Sword and Sorcery]] as opposed to Labyrinth Lord's [[High Fantasy]] and which also takes out the Thief, leaving us with the Fighting Man, the Magic User and the Cleric of original D&D.
** There are a fair number of other retroclones out there, including OSRIC and Basic Fantasy for 1e. In addition, the makers of "Labyrinth Lord" also made "Mutant Future," which is a close-as-you-can-get-it remake of ''[[
* Also, [http://www222.pair.com/sjohn/encounter-critical.htm Encounter Critical], deliberately designed to look like a mid-70s D&D-knockoff made by a pair of sci-fi fans.
* ''[[Magic:
** And cumulative upkeep. Don't forget that.
** The joke set ''Unhinged'', the nostalgia set ''Time Spiral'', and the online-only reprint sets all bring back retired frame designs to evoke this trope.
* ''[[Cartoon Action Hour]]'' kisses up to the action cartoon of 1980s.
* Goodman Games used the slogan "Third Edition Rules, First Edition Feel" for their ''[[
** Necromancer Games has a similar design philosophy. Their best-known [[Sourcebook]], ''Tome of Horrors'', consists largely of 1E monsters that [[Wizards of the Coast]] wasn't using and let them publish. Complete with high-contrast pen-and-ink black and white illustrations.
** Robert Kuntz also used the same trade dress for his retro modules as well -- of course, [[Justified Trope|he was one of the old hands at TSR at the time this style was originally being used for Dungeons and Dragons]].
Line 281:
== [[Video Games]] ==
* The poster boy for this trope, ''[[Mega Man (
** And it continues on with ''10'', also in faux 8-bit sprites. Its faux box art has more-or-less the same style of Mega Man as 9's, with now-unlocked-from-the-start Proto Man joining the badly-drawn fun, and boasting "Dual FX Twin Engines" and a "Parallel Hyper-Bit Interface" much like how ''Mega Man 9'' promised an "Ultrasound Graphics Synthesis" and an "8-Bit Fidelity Engine". The [http://www.gametrailers.com/video/exclusive-the-mega-man-10/62738 "lost" commercial] for ''10'' comes complete with all the attitude of video game ads in the 80s and poor VCR tracking. (The commercial music, though, is [[Mega Man X
* [[Battle Kid Fortress of Peril]] is a Metroidvania released in 2010 and it's completely with 8-bit graphics and music. Which makes sense, considering that it's a real NES game, cartridge and all.
* ''[[Grand Theft Auto]]: [[Grand Theft Auto Vice City|Vice City]]'', a game from 2002, mimics the loading screen of a [[Commodore 64]] upon booting up, a reference to the game's 1986 setting.
Line 293:
* ''[[Stubbs the Zombie]]''. Retro-future setting and they intentionally put a grainy "filter" of sorts to complete the ensemble.
* ''[[Mass Effect 1|Mass Effect]]'' has a similar film grain screen filter, in order to better emulate the 70s-80s science fiction movies that inspired it.
** Though this can be turned off in the Main Menu. The default setting for ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'' has it turned off, probably because of the shift in style - the sequel has more in common with the [[Darker and Edgier|darker and more serious]] sci-fi of the [[The Nineties]], such as ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'' and ''Babylon5''.
* ''1942: Joint Strike'' is designed to look like a World War II movie, complete with film grain, sepia tones, and the projector winding up and down at the start and end of each <s>reel</s> level.
* The Timeless River in ''[[
** As well as everyone switching to their earlier/original designs, including Sora, who switches to a simple version of his original outfit.
*** It actually gets even more meta: he looks like a character straight out of an ''[[Astro Boy]]'' manga-era [[Osamu Tezuka]] work.
Line 303:
** The first, and more perplexing occurrence, is in the [[Flash Back]] [[Cutscene]] to the two Lt. Price sniper missions. These are shown in sepia tones and simulated film graininess... despite being set roughly a decade after the Chernobyl accident (1986).
** The second is a ''cheat'' setting, unlocked through collecting items in-game, that changes the in-game rendering to mimic early ''Ragtime'' films, complete with all the sound being replaced with a piano tune.
* ''[[
* ''Test Drive: Eve of Destruction'' has a similar cheat, the description of which claims that it is "newly discovered racing footage from 1912".
* ''[[I Wanna Be the Guy]]'' focuses almost exclusively on the [[Nintendo Hard|difficulty of older games]] with an occasionally matching graphical and audio style.
Line 310:
* ''[[House of the Dead]]: Overkill'' takes a page from ''Grindhouse'' and manages to turn the franchise into [[Up to Eleven|even more of a terrible B-movie game than it already is]].
** "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKUD2sLE5rM They've come for brains.] [[So Bad It's Good|You'll give them... bullets.]]"
* ''[[La
** Similarly, ''GR3'', developed by the same people who worked on ''La.MuLANA'', is designed to mimic the MSX ''Gradius'' games, complete with the graphics, HUD, two-option limit, and jerky scrolling.
* [[Baldurs Gate II]] [[Throne Of Baal]] had a quest in the Tower where the player had to let go of the main character, and play a [[Dialogue Tree]] driven pen and paper RPG in order to obtain a [[MacGuffin]].
Line 316:
** Konami made an entire series out of ''ReBirth'' titles, with the other games being ''[[Contra]] ReBirth'' and ''[[Castlevania]]: The Adventure ReBirth''.
* Almost everything in the ''[[Fallout]]'' games is designed to basically be what [[The Fifties]] thought the future would be like. ''Fallout 2'' strayed from it somewhat, but ''Fallout 3'' brought it back and stuck to it like glue.
** Bethesda also created a [[Web Games|browser game]] based on ''Fallout 3'' that used 8-bit graphics similar to the early ''[[
*** Ironically, that actually looks similar to ''[[Wasteland (
* The 1st part of the opening sequence for ''[[Power Stone]]'' is made to look and sound like a faded film reel from the early 20th century is being run. This is appropriate since the game scenery and characters are throwbacks to that era.
* Sega's ''[[Fantasy Zone]] Complete Collection'' in their Sega Ages line includes a reinterpetation of ''Fantasy Zone II'' if it had been developed by Sega's AM team on Sega's System 16 arcade board like the first game, instead of the vastly inferrior [[Sega Master System]] hardware and System E arcade board. For extra authenticity points, they developed this remake on the actual System 16 hardware. Fans of the series [[Fan Nickname|called it]] ''Fantasy Zone [[Beatmania|II DX]]'' to destinguish it from the original ''Fantasy Zone II''.
Line 323:
* ''Pole's Big Adventure'' uses this trope to its fullest as it is a [[Parody]] of the 8-bit [[Platformer]]
* [http://www.tigsource.com/features/demakes/index.html The Independant Gaming Source's Bootleg Demakes Competition]. Name says it all.
** Most notable of them is ''[http://www.ganggarrison.com/ Gang Garrison 2]'', a fully functional 8-bit platformer version of ''[[
* ''[[
* In ''[[Red Dead Redemption]]'', the player can watch old-time cartoons (complete with dialogue cards and period music) in projection rooms.
* ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[Retro Game Challenge]]'' (also known as ''Game Centre CX'') is a collection of faux 8-bit games, presented in-story as having been sent back in time by the host of the Japanese television show it's based on. At one point you actually have to blow on a cartridge to make it work.
* The FB Games Directory held a [http://games.freebasic.net/competition1.php programming competition in 2008], where the task was to create a Retraux game using the [[wikipedia:FreeBasic|FreeBASIC]] programming language.
* ''[[Banjo-Kazooie]]: Nuts and Bolts'' has a mini-game called "Hero Klungo Sssavesss teh World!" [sic], a parody of 8-bit games, right down to the strange (but awesome) promotional art that has nothing to do with the actual game.
* ''[[Eversion]]'' is a very 8-bit-like game released in 2008. The cute, low-res graphics, however, are a facade for the game's {{spoiler|much more sinister side}}.
* ''[[
* The flashbacks in the ''[[Final Fantasy IV the After Years|Final Fantasy IV: The After Years]]'' (including a playable one in Porom's chapter) are deliberately done in the same style as the the original SNES version of ''[[
** ''[[Final Fantasy the 4 Heroes of Light]]'' is a [[George Lucas Throwback]] intentionally modeled after ''[[
* ''[[Castlevania]]: [[Symphony of the Night]]'''s Prologue uses the HUD from its predecessor, ''[[Castlevania Rondo of Blood|Rondo of Blood]]'', which makes sense as it's a pseudo-flashback to ''Rondo'' and the game is a direct sequel to it. Richter and Maria modes also make use of this HUD.
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQ6VA1loiPw The sixth level] of ''[[Parappa the Rapper]] 2'' is done with graphics and music resembling old 8-bit video games, and gets progressively less detailed as your performance dips into the "bad" and "awful" levels.
* ''[[Cortex Command]]'' is an in-development retraux game which is a 2D side-scroller with a look of the early 90s, though it wasn't even started until the year 2000.
* The entire [[Roguelike]] genre qualifies. Roguelikes, such as ''[[Nethack]], [[Ancient Domains of Mystery|ADOM]]'' and ''Angband'' (among others), use primarily ASCII graphics. This style, along with the gameplay, is a deliberate attempt to evoke the feel of the classic game ''[[Rogue (
* The "Void Quest" dungeon in ''[[Persona 4]]'' mimics 8-bit graphics and even, during the boss fight, old-style RPG menus - with a twist (you're the monsters being attacked, and the boss is the hero).
* One of the many ''[[
* ''[[The Dark Spire]]'' is a close imitation of 1980s ''[[
* The Bitlands in ''[[
** ''The Thousand Year Door'' has this too - in addition to the traditional ability to turn Mario into an 8-bit sprite (as seen in the other ''Paper Mario'' games and ''[[
* The [[Wii Ware]] game ''Bit Boy'' features six levels each based on a different generation of consoles and with graphics to match.
* [[Steampunk]] game ''[[Steel Empire]]'' has the levels start with an old sepia-tone video.
Line 356:
** Also, "Noiseless Mound" is a 2-D fan "remake" of ''[[Silent Hill 1]]''.
* Whenever Babe Ruth appears in ''[[Backyard Sports|Backyard Baseball]]'', he is drawn in a crude style, unlike everyone else.
* ''[[
* ''[[Half Minute Hero]]'' features blocky sprite graphics reminiscent of the old ''[[
* In ''[[The Legend of Zelda]]: Oracle of Ages'' and ''Oracle of Seasons'', you have access to a ring later in the game that makes you look like 8-bit Link from the original 1986 game.
* Released for Nintendo DSiWare is ''[[Dark Void]] Zero'', which is basically ''Dark Void'' reworked as an 8-bit action side-scrolling platformer. It was even marketed with a fictional development history, saying that it was originally developed for the PlayChoice-10, taking advantage of the technology available. It also supposedly featured "System Zero", a chipset that increased the limitations of the NES. Capcom found the promotional materials for the game and began tracking down a surviving copy of it, and found that a promotional prototype copy of a home version was given away to a young [[Jimmy Fallon]]. It was this version of the game that the DSiWare version was supposedly based on. [http://www.capcom-unity.com/shana/blog/2010/01/18/the_mysterious_history_of_dark_void_zero! More details are here.] [http://www.capcom-unity.com/shana/blog/2010/01/25/vaporware_no_longer_–_the_resurrection_of_an_unreleased_classic! Part 2] describes the attempts to get the supposed ROM working.
* Independent PC game ''8-bit Killer'', is a [[First-Person Shooter]] with NES-style graphics, sound effects and music.
* In ''[[Super Robot Wars Z]]'', the older super robots such as Baldios, [[God Sigma]] and [[Getter Robo]] G get some very awesome retro-looking animations in their finisher attacks, COMPLETE WITH CHOPPY ANIMATION AND TRIPPY RETRO "LASER BACKGROUNDS" AND PASTEL-FRAME EXPLOSIONS! This is a first for the franchise and was the key to [[And the Fandom Rejoiced|exciting many people]] who weren't very excited about the game initially and also demonstrates the degree of love the designers have for the older shows, preserving them in all their glory. Needless to say, many mech-anime fan tears of joy were shed.
* ''[[Nostalgia]]'' provides [[Exactly What It Says
* ''[[Video Games/Darwinia|Darwinia]]'' provides a pseudo-retro style graphics with very little textures and many of the characters are 2D sprites. In addition, game intros provide homage to the older times. One is ZX Spectrum loading screen. Another is a deliberate recreation of Cracktros which tells how it's been cracked by DMA Crew. The Steam release got delayed by an hour because it was thought to be authentic.
* ''[[
** Game Land Zone from ''[[
* In ''[[Okami]]'': The song during the narrator's closing words. If you actually sit and wait after the music pauses, an [[Chiptune|8-bit remix]] of the song "Ida Race" starts to play.
** There were also official renditions of some of the game's areas as NES RPG style maps.
* ''[[Evil Genius (
* [[Exile|Any]] [[Avernum|games]] by [[Geneforge|Spiderweb]] [[Sub Terra|Software]] are about ten years behind normal games in both their style and their engines, although they advance at the same rate as the rest of the industry. There is a very good reason for this: they have a development team of three people, and if they tried to make modern-style games they wouldn't be able to finish them at a reasonable pace.
* ''[[
* Team Meat, the developers behind ''[[Meat Boy
* ''[[Retro City Rampage]]'' plays like an 8-bit ''[[Grand Theft Auto]]'' and is chock full of [[Shout-Out|Shout Outs]] to stuff from [[The Eighties]].
* ''[[Halo]] [[Atari 2600|2600]]''. Out now in your [http://www.codemystics.com/halo2600/ favorite web browser].
Line 379:
* The opening credits of ''[[Guitar Hero]] Encore: Rocks the 80s'' features an Atari-era Activision logo, and a retro Harmonix logo.
* A Chinese developer known as ''Waixing'', who's being known for its' notorious RPG conversions, actually remade the original ''[[Resident Evil]]'' for [[Dendy|famiclones]].
** And it doesn't just end there! How about [[
* Eggman's Sonic Simulator in the Wii version of ''[[
* ''[[
* The logos for Aperture Laboratories in "The Fall" in ''[[
* The [[Nintendo 3DS]]'s Virtual Console allows you to play Game Boy and Game Boy Color games, and added a few Retraux touches to enhance the experience: for example, on original Game Boy games it's possible to swap between a grayscale screen and a green screen that emulates the look of the original Game Boy, even including a motion blur similar to that in the old system. It's also possible to view the games in their original resolution, with a border representing the original system surrounding the screen- the 3DS's 3D effect is used to give the appearance of the screen being set back from the border, and they even emulated the battery light dimming as the 3DS's battery runs low.
* In ''[[Zettai Hero Project]],'' the main character had just taken over the mantle of the Unlosing Ranger; since no one believes in him, he has no sponsors. So for the first few times he goes up against Dark Death Evil Man, it's set to an 8-bit RPG system akin to ''[[
* The [[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
* The whole ''[[
* Every game in the ''[[Super Smash Bros]]'' series has at least one stage made in the fashion of Nintendo games of the old: the original had Mushroom Kingdom (complete with the 8-bit Mario theme); ''Melee'' had Kingdom and Kingdom II (the latter, inspired by ''Super Mario Bros. 2'', and with the music from this game); ''Brawl'' had Mario Bros. (from the eponymous arcade where Luigi debuted) and 75m (from ''[[Donkey Kong]]'') - and yeah, there is original 8-bit music available for these stages. Oh, and let's not forget the Flat Zones in ''Melee'' and ''Brawl'', which are essentially set in Game & Watches running composite games as you fight (though both have original music).
* ''[[Marvel Ultimate Alliance]]'' allowed you to play ''[[Pitfall]]'' with your active hero after the boss fight with Phoenix. While the hero still appears in 3D, the rest of the stage (save for the end point) is entirely made like in the Atari 2600.
* ''[[
** Donators can ask for "ASCII Art" that depicts part of a story in Dwarf Fortress style Ascii. Donators who continue to donate get to continue this story.
* The Flash game ''[[Tower of Heaven]]'' has graphics in shades of green that would look at home on the original [[Game Boy]].
* ''[[Scott Pilgrim
* ''[[
* The [[Nintendo 3DS]] game ''[[
* The Indie Game ''[http://wretcher.com/ Wretcher]'' is an attempt to mimic old horror adventure games, and uses a 16-bit style remniscent of the ''[[Clock Tower (
== [[Web Animation]] ==
* The "Old Timey" cartoons in ''[[
** Pretty much any of the Videlectrix games on ''[[
*** To add to the retrauxness, the employees of Videlectrix are the Brothers Chaps dressed up in polo shirts and fake mustaches. And their games are programmed on an Apple IIe.
** Furthermore, they occasionally make toons in their own older style, like [http://www.homestarrunner.com/stuckincraw.html "The Homestar Runner Gets Something Stuck In His Craw"].
** Let's not forget [http://www.homestarrunner.com/cz110.html "Coach Z's 110%"], which is made in the style of an old [[Infomercial]].
* In episode 35 of ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Abridged Series
{{quote| '''Kaiba''': "Your brash nature offends me, Mr. Moto! I shall soon put an end to your impertinence!"<br />
'''Yami''': "You have assembled several creatures! Surely this is a violation?"<br />
Line 413:
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* ''[[
** ''Narbonic'' also had the ''Dave in Slumberland'' strips once a year, which were drawn in the style of ''[[Little Nemo]]'', and provided immense foreshadowing.
* [http://www.topatoco.com/graphics/00000001/rb-vol1.jpg Issue 1] of ''[[
** Flashbacks in ''Dr. McNinja'' use the shading style of the time when they take place (e.g. when the story was told about how Gordito got his guns, the comic dropped shading.)
* ''[[Wondermark]]'' is made to look like it was made in the early 1900s, and was: the author takes old-style printings and adds dialog.
** ''[[Married to The Sea]]'', from the people who do ''[[Toothpaste For Dinner]]'' and ''[[Natalie Dee]]'', follows the same formula as Wondermark, except in single-panel format.
* ''The Laugh-Out-Loud Cats'' is a webcomic based on [[LOLcats]] made to look like it's from the early 1900s.
* The back cover of the first ''[[
* In commemoration to Geocities shutting down... Behold! ''[[
* The ''[[Jet Dream (
** Evidence in ''Jet Dream'' letter columns and other material suggests that the publisher believed in mass-scale [[Wholesome Crossdresser|wholesome crossdressing]] by boys to prepare for humanity's future as a [[One-Gender Race]]. The wholesome, hoped-to-be [[Comics Code|Code approved]] Jet Dream comics were only one of his business ventures aimed at cashing in on a "Fem Is In!" movement that... never quite developed.
* ''[[Unicorn Jelly]]'' looks like something drawn in an 8-bit MS-DOS paint program, and with good reason: it ''was'' drawn in an 8-bit MS-DOS paint program.
Line 436:
** Similarly, [http://www.hollywoodeasttv.com/video/its-the-world-wide-web It's The World Wide Web]
** Mid-'90s retro. Raise your hand if this ''doesn't'' make you feel old.
* ''[[The New Adventures of Captain S]]'', a series made by [http://www.pbc-productions.com/ PBC Productions] about a gamer who can phisically enter Sega games, is supposed to look like it was made in the early 1990s. It takes inspiration from ''[[Captain N:
* [[The Totally Rad Show]]: [http://revision3.com/trs/5_12_86 5/12/86] - where the whole show is done in the style of a 1980s public access show.
* [http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/504353 This] [[Transformers]] [[Affectionate Parody]] gives an account of Transformers appearing in [[The Gay Nineties]].
* "[http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/thatguywiththeglasses/ask-thatguy/20495-ask-that-guy-violates-ma-ti Ask That Guy VIOLATES Ma-Ti] is done in the style of a silent film, complete with the text screens after the dialogue and black-and-white footage. {{spoiler|The illusion is broken at the end after Ma-Ti takes down [[Ask That Guy With
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WF-7jPXvPEA This fake trailer] depicts what ''[[The Legend of Zelda]]'' would have been like as a [[John Hughes]]-esque [[The Eighties|Eighties]] teen movie. Bonus points for including period music, an Orion Pictures logo and VHS artifacts; if you ignore the obvious parody bits, you could ''easily'' mistake it for an actual '80s trailer from an old videocassette.
* One of the more unnerving "photos" of [[Slender Man]] is [http://actualplay.roleplayingpublicradio.com/wp-content/uploads/Slender-Man-2.jpg designed] to look like it was taken in the early [[The Nineties|Nineties]]. Details of note include a date watermark and added graininess, the latter of which is more pronounced due to the camera distortions that always pop up when Slendy is around.
Line 445:
* For [[April Fools' Day]] 2011, [[YouTube]] added a button that would turn the video you're watching into sepia tones, add jittering and scan lines, and replace the audio with jazz music. Its featured video that day was of a few of its most famous videos redone in this style.
** Even more brilliantly: if you were watching a video that used YouTube's subtitle functionality, the text would appear as intertitles as in a silent film.
* ''[[
** Also, the dramatic lens flare that show up in CGI episodes in Season 9.
* The internet once claimed that [[Orson Welles]] had made a movie adaptation of ''[[Batman]]''; although it was revealed to be an April Fool's joke perpetrated by Ain't It Cool News and Comics Should Be Good, but that didn't stop someone from making a rather believable [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lu5tJGfZsgc two part trailer] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iU0Ivs55-Hw of the non-existent movie].
* [http://www.traileraddict.com/trailer/watchmen/nbc-nightly-news-march-11-1970 This viral campaign ad] from the ''[[Watchmen]]'' [[Watchmen (
** If there were an early 1990s ''Watchmen'' cartoon, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDDHHrt6l4w&feature=related this would be it.]
*** And in the ''Watchmen'' universe itself, that cartoon is something that Veidt Enterprises ''would conceivably have produced'' to market its toy action figures...
Line 455:
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* ''[[
** And the third-season DVD is presented in the style of an Atari 2600 game, down to the packaging and ''[[Pitfall]]''-style menu screens.
* In fitting with the ''[[
** Additionally, one episode featured clips of the Warners guest-starring on such old cartoons as ''[[Yogi Bear
* The short-lived ''Whatever Happened to Robot Jones?'' was deliberately drawn to resemble a late 1970s/early 1980s vintage cartoon.
* ''[[How to Hook Up Your Home Theater]]'' basically takes 1940s [[Goofy]] and puts him in a contemporary setting. You can read about this [http://animated-views.com/2007/deja-and-henn-on-the-return-of-the-goof here].
* There were a couple of [[Scooby Doo]] made-for-video movies in 2002-2003, ''Scooby-Doo and the Legend of the Vampire'' and ''Scooby-Doo and the Monster of Mexico'', that were deliberately done in a retro 1970s-esque style to resemble the old ''Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?'' cartoon series (something that ''What's New, Scooby-Doo?'' and the other made-for-video movies generally avoided), even going as far as bringing back the original voice actresses for Daphne and Velma (as [[Frank Welker]] was already Fred and Scooby-Doo's main voice actor, and [[Casey Kasem]] was still available to voice Shaggy any time he was needed), using synth/keyboard remakes of the classic Scooby-Doo background music, featuring many of the old Hanna-Barbera sound effects and even putting the gang in their classic 1970s outfits and designing them in the same manner.
** In ''Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase'', the gang is sucked into a video game about their adventures. In the final level they meet themselves (or rather, their video game doubles), who are drawn in the older style.
* A short on one of the ''[[
* The Tinpo shorts on CBS' Kewlopolis block (which can also be seen online) use 8-bit style music (although one can also hear actual modern electric guitars on the soundtracks as well).
** The music, incidentally, is by a band named Anamanaguchi, whose members actually write music using an NES music tracker and play the resulting code on ''an actual NES'', with electric guitars to accompany it. It's awesome stuff.
* An episode of ''[[
* In an episode of ''[[
** ''Futurama'' packaging and merchandise also often evokes [[Zeerust]] aesthetics (like some things in the show - Bender himself is an example).
** The episode "Reincarnation" has three different segments each done in a different retro style: an early 1930s black and white cartoon, a 1980s 8-bit video game, and a 1970s anime.
* In ''[[
* ''[[Scooby Doo Mystery Inc]]'' has the clothing style and style similar to the first series.
** In the episode "The Mystery Solvers Club State Finals", the [[Dream Sequence]] uses the original [[Hanna-Barbera]] designs, a sharp contrast to the new series' modern drawing style.
* The ''[[Peanuts]]'' movie ''Happiness Is a Warm Blanket, Charlie Brown'' is hand-drawn, has the same style as the classic series, and has voices to a similar effect of the originals.
* ''[[Regular Show]]'' has a very washed-out color scheme, the soundtrack is sourced from a lot of '80s bands, and the characters always play retro-styled video games on a [[Sega Master System]].
* The 2011 ''[[Winnie the Pooh (
* The short-lived ''[[Code Monkeys]]'' was an animated series done completely in the style of an 8-bit video game, with the cast resembling characters from mid-80s Taito games such as Renegade and Mat Mania.
| |||