I don't think anything could make it worse. Which is sad considering how long I have read it :crying:

Maybe Probably, but I still found them to be very funny. Probably because I liked Black Mage's and White Mage's voices so much. They hit spot on.

Also, the first few comics (which they were made for) weren't exactly as professional and neat-looking as the newer ones anyway.

While this thread is on the topic of alternate forms of media 8 bit theater could take, I'm going to throw my favorite idea into the fray.
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Wait for it...
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BROADWAY MUSICAL!!!!!!! :D

BM: Oh, Mindless slaughter, killing kids, burning churches, and Ha-do-kens.
Thief: Stealing everything, that's not bolted down, jacking everything from every town.
Together: These are a few of our favorite things!
RM: Stacking stats, with min max. Being a moron, I KNOW THAT!
Fighter: Uh... I like swords.
Together(Allthough out of time and off pitch): These are a few of our favorite things.

Sarda: Even I didn't see this coming.....

Trouble with the flash videos seems to be multi-fold. As Meister points out, an incredibly faithful 8-Bit Flash Series would end up being fairly static and extremely dialogue heavy. Like, we're talking The Lord of the Rings Super-Extended 24 hour Edition with Tom Bombadil, The Council of Elrond word-for-word, everything.

A less faithful translation would probably upset purists (or maybe not?). Some of those prolonged speeches would have to go, jokes would have to be cut left and right for pacing*, entire comics if they interrupt the scene too suddenly. I can think of an example in one of the flash videos: Episode 4 (I believe), where BM is undressing WM with the power of his mind. That speech doesn't work too well where it is, because of the sudden shift in dialogue and just the sheer length of that segment. In general one would need careful editing and discretion towards timing when dealing with the shift from last panel to first panel of the next comic.

Also, animation style is a big issue (a subjective one at that). I myself found it a bit irksome when in Episodes 3-5 the mouths became animated. I realize that staring at a bunch of lifeless sprites isn't exactly animation put to good use, but the mouths did seem kind of weird and out of place. To me it seems almost better to have the characters and setting animated from more organic, non-8-bitty design than to stick with the old sprites and then give them moving features. That would give life to the characters and the action, and with the right artists it might look really cool. But then somebody might ask why it's called "8-Bit Theater" in the first place. Well, the original used plenty of organic-type backgrounds, and as long as it's a good tribute, with 8-Bit-esque humour plus something to add of its own...We needn't really ask.

Also, I would probably stick to normal subtitles rather than try to animate individual speech bubbles, especially when they need to move around a whole lot.

A great deal has probably been said already about voice acting (and about the other stuff), so I won't go into too much of it. Reading through the lines too quickly loses a great deal of the humour, and reading them slowly and carefully (with comic beats) means cutting much more precious dialogue. If you can't understand them, then it's not really an effective 8-Bit tribute (or maybe it is?)

*c.f. The Hitchhiker's Guide, in feature film. Imagine trying to cut down lines from previous stories without violating some kind of causality of humour (like removing a few bars from one of Beethoven's sypmhonies). And of course the dialogue that is gone is sorely missed.

As has been stated, I wasn`t being serious about the flash movie thing. If someone can find a way to make it work, cool. If not, meh.

On an unrelated note, postin from my DSi.

I see one way of making the 8-bit jokes to 32 bit jokes work >_>

Instead, limit everything to some sort of cartoonish style, when someone mentions that everything is limited to 2D, and make a 3 dimensional monster come in. D:

See, it makes the joke somehow work >_> the change it be drastic, it still be a tribute, as long ast he characters and jokes are used in some form or another.

AND EVERYONE IT POSITIVELY HATE IT :dance:


Someone, make it, I wanna purists rage DX