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... Drawn painstakingly one pixel at a time, with a palette of 4096 possible colours, pushing the limits of these 80's era machines memory, these early graphic artists and hackers alike have left an indelible mark on the world of digital art and internet culture, only to be forgotten in the passing of time. But what made this boring business computer from Japan so special?

The strange world of Japan's PC-98 computer [contains some NSFW pixel art] / More striking imagery: Incredible pictures from an era of games we never got to experience [CW: flashing lights] - Tumblr: High quality [SFW] pixel art from PC-98 games - Pixelation.org: The Art of PC98 - Amino: The world of PC-98 Pixel Art - Galleries from @noirlac, @item, and @densetsu.ch

A downloadable pack of over 7,000 PC-98 images and GIFs [check the current page for v4, coming soon-ish] Video: PC-98: Japan's Own Era of Early PC Gaming [CW: flashing lights] Video: Over 50 NEC PC-98 Games In Under 30 Minutes TVTropes has an extensive primer on the platform followed by a long list of game articles Music: A selection of unique PC-98 tracks by composer Takeaki Watanabe Hardware: Restoring & Learning All About The NEC PC-9821 [transcript included!] DIY: PC-98 Emulation For Beginners A collection of PC-98 image files for use with an emulator