The world of Japan's PC-98 computer

You’ve probably wondered where these otherworldly pixel-art images seen across the web are coming from. The answer is the PC-98. Ubawareta Houkago – PC-98 (1995) Pastel cities trapped in a timeless future-past. Empty apartments drenched in nostalgia. Classic convertibles speeding into a low-res sunset. Femme fatales and mutated monsters doing battle. Deep, dark dungeons and glittering star ships floating in space. All captured in a eerie palette of 4096 colours and somehow, you’re sure, from some alternate 1980s world you can’t quite remember… The Style of ‘PC-98’ Now beloved by legions of obsessive artists and collected by accounts like Noirlac, ITEM, and Densetsu.ch, this now-forgotten art style native to Japan is known, shorthand, as “PC-98” X-Girl PC-9801 (1994) With it’s unique style of colours and hand-made gradients, it has spawned an underground subculture of collectors and creators dedicated to keeping the unique PC-98 art form alive. Drawn painstakingly one pixel at a ... Read full article.