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Modern Day WebGL Retro Games

| WebGL

TankX WebGL Retro Game

 

Technically as Wiki states,? the word “retro” derives from the Latin prefix retro, meaning “backwards” or “in past times”. This can have a literal meaning if you are referring to actual old copies of things, But are we seeing a resemblance of retro games today in webGL?

Above is Tank X from PlayCanvas. At first glance, the game plays well, taking clear advantage of the hardware acceleration. The PlayCanvas site is filled with games like these that run off of it’s WebGL based engine. Looking closely one might see a slight resemblance to Tron or and old arcade space shooter.? solid colors and catchy music. Are we subconsciously creating cool retro games from our childhood memories?

Looking back, I have foggy memories of going to the corner store, and spending whatever change could be scraped together on Street Fighter. And who could forget the RTS games like Starcraft 1 that friends lost girlfriends over as I recall. Ah, those were the days. Friends of mine even talk about pong ? first game they remembered, back in the 70’s… Whatever the age was, it seems that the game of their time entertained them for hours.

space invaders super mario bro contra pac man

turbografx 16. sega genesis megaman.

on and on…

Perhaps it’s just a co-incidence, either way it’s nice to see that with the rise if frameworks like WebGL and three.js, it’s easier than ever for indie developers to push out interesting modern but retro-istic games to our browser finger tips!

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