Nostalgia is a very popular lens to look through, as it allows us to look back at something imperfect from the past and make it perfect in our minds, ’rounding off the edges’ so to speak while comparing it with some modern imperfection currently riling us. Illustrator Florian Fournier has done exactly that, but in this case the source of his nostalgia was nigh on near perfect; the Nintendo Game Boy.
The original Nintendo Game Boy was released in 1989 and to date has sold in the region of 120million units globally and despite the arrival of other more visually attractive colour screen competitors arriving it was the gameplay of the 8bit graphic Game Boy that captured the imagination of the world, and gave it the longevity that not even Nintendo could have foreseen.
A personal project, Renner looks to reimagine the popular console for a new generation; to meet our modern gaming needs, whilst retaining the visual aesthetics of the original.
One element ‘lost’ by modern gaming handhelds, is the lack of need to change cartridge, after all the games can be stored internally and updates streamed and downloaded via the internet. But then there is something rather of changing the cartridge, a magic that adds to the ceremony of gameplay.
You turn the console off, remove the cartridge currently in use then put then file it away for future usage. You then pick up the cartridge, the label themselves doing as much to excite and build towards the . Then comes that satisfying ‘click’ signifying the cartridge is properly inserted. This cinematic buildup is all something that adds to the excitement of gameplay – and the enjoyment itself. It’s a ‘best things come to those who wait’ scenario at its compact best. In his design, Renner retains this element, but redesigns the cartridges to be slim yet more solid, whilst modernising the artwork to a new, more minimal format.
Retaining the elements of gameplay that we loved from the old, and adding the technology we require from the present, one could argue that the Nintendo GAME BOY 1up represents nostalgia in its truest form.
FLORIAN-RENNER.com
