I really want to see the reaction of someone whoâs seen this but not the original film.
Sigh.
Any theories on what makes this â8-bit,â or are we just resigned to accepting that the phrase means absolutely nothing anymore?
Black and white photography isnât an accurate term, but we all know what it means.
But to be fair, when you look at a B&W photo, thereâs no argument over what youâre seeing. OK, maybe its grayscale, but youâre not seeing color thatâs not there.
Here, on the other hand, thereâs no unambiguous âthis is 8-bitâ message coming through. Seeing the clip and none of the associated description, Iâd probably assume it was supposed to imitate a 16-bit game, just based on the color palette, colors-per-sprite, and all that. Only the bowling game sequence looks 8-bit.
the phrase means absolutely nothing anymore
They were nihilists, man.
Can I like this more than infinity?
So, you take issue with 8-bit Theater, too?
http://www.nuklearpower.com/2001/03/02/episode-001-were-going-where/
Now you are getting a bit detailed.
In the film, we never actually see The Dude bowl.
This is not Nam. This is animation. There are rules.
At this point I think the term is used to be consistent with the rest of the videos. 8-Bit Blade Runner, for instance, is very clearly derived from the SNES Shadowrun game.
As for the video, it doesnât make much sense at all, so quite faithful to the movie there. I was kind of expecting nonsensical bonus games based on the dream sequences, but oh well.
Personally I think 8-bit Theater took a plunge somewhere between episode 200 and 300, when Clevinger completely gave up on using pixellated backgrounds and switched to blurry photos that werenât even remotely 8-bit.
I never did finish reading that one. Thereâs a stretch in the 900âs where the thing just becomes unreadable.
Maybe itâs just having seen it a few dozen times, but I feel like the movie made plenty of sense. Whereas that video cuts out anything that might actually tie the events together. 
Still more fun than 'E.T.'on the 2600.
you know what would really tie this video together?
It is frustrating that 8-bit has just come to mean âhas visible pixelsâ, seeing as there was a definite era of home computer and videogame systems with 8-bit processors, and a definite visual style that went along with them. The visuals in the video are more consistent with the later era of 16-bit computers and videogame systems, like the Amiga, Atari ST, SNES and Sega Megadrive rather than the older 8-bit systems like the Sinclair Spectrum, Commodore 64, Apple II, NHS and Master System.
Itâs a bit like someone calling a video âPulp Fiction remade in Tudor Englandâ and then dressing up all the actors in Georgian costumes.
Well, if you look close enough at the print, it IS black and white.
Iâm firmly in this camp as well, there was a definite delineation between the style of 8-bit games and 16-bit games, and this puppy feels more 16-bit. I will say that the short clip of the dude bowling and getting a strike nods solidly towards the bowling games of the 8-bit era.
So either weâre on the cusp of a new pop-art subcategory, or weâre just anal retentive. shrug Hard to say.
