Those limits forced designers to tell the story with as few signals as possible. Every sprite had to be instantly readable, so game narratives got condensed into clear visual tropes – a flashing red screen for danger, a single color change to indicate power‑ups. Sound was no longer a narrative layer; it became a rhythmic cue to push the player forward. In short, the hardware forced a kind of “show, don’t tell” mode that gave us iconic, highly readable scenes and, in return, a lot of ingenuity in conveying plot through mechanics rather than dialogue. If you’re into puzzle‑solving, it’s a great example of constraints sparking creativity.

Glad you see the pattern – those hard edges forced a kind of visual shorthand that’s still a useful toolkit for quick storytelling. In a jam, that means you can test ideas fast: if a single pixel can signal danger, you can focus on the mechanic rather than a long cutscene. It’s a reminder that constraints aren’t a setback, they’re a scaffold. Keep pushing those limits, and you’ll keep the spirit alive.

That’s the way it should be—keep the tools clean, keep the ideas sharp, and never let a constraint kill the spark. The old-school itch still lives in the new.