Kids, when I was your age, 8-bit games were all we had, and they cost around $50, which back then was the average down payment for a DeLorean, and we used then to drive uphill both ways to our Weird Science classes and Breakfast Clubs. Ah, the 1980s were a good time. What was I talking about? Oh, yeah.
Abel Alves, a Spanish comic artist living in Uruguay, has made an adorable 8-bit video game based on “A Game of Thrones,” and it’s free to play!
Check out some gameplay footage!
You can download the game yourself here!
Sadly, I cannot actually play it because I’m a dirty Macintosh heathen, but this colorful PC side-scroller looks exactly like the type of game I would have paid good allowance money for back in ’85 or so. Abel chose four title characters to lead the action: Jon Snow, Daenerys Targaryen, Tyrion Lannister, and Davos Seaworth, which book readers will recognize as some of the major point-of-view characters George R.R. Martin centers each chapter around. He then used Arcade Game Studio, a tool to help create the look and feel of classic 1980s games such as Commando, Ghosts′n′ Goblins, and 1942. Mix in some classic 8-bit theme music from YouTube user FloatingPoint — who will be very relevant to your interests if you’re a gamer — and you’ve got yourself an authentic success.
No stranger to nerdery, Abel is also a comic artist of a few comics, which I would probably appreciate a lot more if I spoke Spanish.
According to Wired, this was a 100% passion-fueled project Abel worked on in during some free time at work.
“I never imagined [it would] be so successful,” he says. “I guess from now on I’ll come at this with a little more intensity, maybe even find a career opportunity in this world. I love the idea of transforming current products into retro games, so I may follow that path.”
Let’s hope he quits that day job and pours more of his heart into making fun games that people would gladly pay for!
