#hi-bit studios

[it8bit]

198X - Launch Trailer

Over-the-top arcade action meets coming-of-age drama, blurring the lines between game & reality. 198X – where a new life is just 1 credit away.

[fancypantsrecords]

Anton Dromberg, Daniel Rosequist, U.F.L. & Yuzo Koshiro - 198X | iam8bit | 2020 | "Retro" Pink + "Classic" Black | /500

[hardcore-gaming-101]

198X

If there’s one thing in gaming that we’ve build a mystic around, it’s definitely the arcade. The glitz and glamour is part of the appeal, but there was also how this space could be a sort of escape we couldn’t find anywhere else back in their heyday. People have started professional gaming careers in arcades, as bizarre as that sounds. Oddly, there are very few games about arcades or their cultural place in the medium, with exception to strange oddities like The Coin Game, and even those are more interested in the cheesy ticket machines that became the norm in the 90s and on. Games including arcades or acting as a virtual arcade do exist, but trying to find one specifically about the magic of them has been a challenge until 2019. Enter 198X, a crowdfunded project from Swedish Hi-Bit Studios, which uses the otherworldly arcades of the 1980s for a coming of age story. 

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[retronator]

What? You’re not out of money yet? Well, as it happens, there aren’t just 3 pixel art Kickstarters active right now, here’s the fourth one (and I have to post quickly to hold this claim, because Faeland is in its last day … but then again, there are SO MANY MORE pixel art campaigns that I haven’t even mentioned yet, so …). 

Meta talk aside, what’s in front of me is quite a slippery game that I have a hard time pinpointing. 198X is a game about … games. Looks like we’re not out of meta territory yet.

The trailer/Kickstarter video sets a familiar Ready Player One vibe but doesn’t give away much. The generically named Kid who lives in a generically named Suburbia, outside the as-generic-as-it-can-be City, promises a coming-of-age story that we—gamers that grew up in the 80s—should fit like a glove. The look of the protagonist that eludes gender pronouns doesn’t seem coincidental either.

OK, but what do we do in the game? Well, everything seems to be centered around the arcade, where we’ll find a gateway to 5 classic genres: the shmup …

… racing …

… RPG …

… platforming …

… and beat-em up. (Looks like Streets of Rage punks are getting their job back.)

If this indeed aims to be Ready Player One The Video Game, it’ll have to carefully tie everything together into as compelling a narrative and not just feel like a disjointed set of minigames. The tricky part here is that you can’t simply sum 5 mediocre games into a great one—each of the arcade titles will need to be great to begin with. The designers promise unique twists and unexpected turns, which will hopefully—in combination with the enveloping story—transcend pure nostalgic copycat territory. Authors of the similarly premised 1980s-cinematic-gaming-exploration Narita Boy recently admitted struggles with bringing originality to this approach (but have eventually managed to find the spark). As I love growing up stories, I really hope 198X achieves the same.

If gameplay hangs under a question mark, one thing is quite certain: Hi-Bit Studios managed to assemble a high-class act of pixel artists from all around the world: @mrhk, @einsbern, @doomcube-art, @motocross-arts and (tumblr-less) Tim Jonsson. That’s enough of a reason for me to keep a close watch on this one.

198X has almost reached its funding goal and should have little trouble to do so in its second half of the Kickstarter campaign. Head on over if you want to travel back in time and experience your teenage years again too.

[lazarusondown]

Credit : 198xthegame (Kickstarter)

[pixelatedaudio]

198X with Sinephony - PA131

New episode featuring 198X with Swedish audio production studio Sinephony #gameaudio #indiedev #chiptune @sinephony

Today we’re joined by Swedish audio production studio Sinephony to talk about the 2019 indie game 198X from Swedish game developer Hi-Bit Studios. The game is a love letter to gaming in the 80s where you play through 5 different games (beat-em-up, shmup, racing, action platformer, and RPG) merged with cinematic storytelling. It started as a Kickstarter project and is now available for Windows,…

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[vgalmanac]

198X | Mini Review

New from Jake 'The Voice' Parr - https://vgalmanac.com/mini-reviews/198x-mini-review/

198X | Mini Review

What is it? 198X is an arcade epic by Hi-Bit Studios. It is a coming-of-age story about a teenager from the eighties who struggles with the difficulties of growing up, with things like family issues and school life getting in…Read more

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[oneangrygamer]

198X, Multi-Arcade Pixel Art Game Now Available On Nintendo Switch

198X, Multi-Arcade Pixel Art Game Now Available On Nintendo Switch | #198X #IndieGame #Nintendo #Switch #IndieGaming

A multi-arcade pixel art game from Swedish developer Hi-Bit Studios is currently available for purchase right now on the Nintendo Switch for only $9.99. The game combines a variety of different classic genres that were popular at arcade hangouts during the late 1980s, including beat-’em-ups, shoot-’em-ups, platformers, and precision racers. (more…)

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