Brand New, You're Retro

Secondlife is built of state of the art software, using the finest in modern graphic technology and IT innovations. It is full of sharp images. But, it seems to be human nature to hark back to simpler times, like those of our youth, when video games involved charmingly clunky collections of pixels, housed within linear stories in our pc’s or consoles. We didn’t have your fancy megapixels, crisp quality soundcards and HD videos. We had 4bit graphics, a speaker making blippy noises, and hard drives that your phone would wet itself laughing at, but we were happy.

It’s heart-warming nostalgia exactly like the grey-haired rambling above that has inspired the appearance of Retro-Style in Secondlife, and one man at the forefront of this is Eagan Snowdrop, founder and designer behind the store “Old School Avatars”, building avatars that look like they stepped out of the old Sierra On-Line games of the 1980’s in into our 21st century virtual world. I spoke with Eagan about his creations:

Voodoo Buwan: So, what was the inspiration behind Old School Avatars?
Eagan Snowdrop: I'm a really big Sierra fan, always was. Their characters had a certain look, in a "3d" world for the time (3d meaning that you can move behind objects). Anyway, I always loved Leisure Suit Larry on the PC. I couldn't decide what I wanted my av to look like, so I made Larry and really liked the look. So I made more.
Voodoo Buwan: What sort of reactions have you had to the av's in this world of photo real textures and the like?
Eagan Snowdrop: Well, mostly people like them. Although, I think if people don't like it, they really don't like it. I suppose, it’s love or hate:) I get more dances when I wear Larry (I have no idea why on that one)
Voodoo Buwan: Must be the polyester leisure suit
Eagan Snowdrop: lol. Well, maybe leisure suits never should've gone out of style.
Voodoo Buwan: So, have you found many other closet Sierra fans?
Eagan Snowdrop: Well, in most of the crowds I go into with them, at least one or two people know who it is. I don't know how many people are big enough fans to waste a perfectly good Sunday evening making a 3d Larry though, but a lot of people remember the game fondly.
Voodoo Buwan: So, any plans to extend your unique style to any other classic characters? Maybe outside of the Sierra canon?
Eagan Snowdrop: I'd like to, certainly. However, I think I have to be careful. While I don't think anyone will be real upset about these characters as avatars, other companies might feel very strongly about it.
Voodoo Buwan: Yes, I suppose the thought that you may be profiting from copyrighted material?
Eagan Snowdrop: To be honest, what is most important to me is that people have fun with them. As long as I can make my rent here, $L isn't a huge deal to me. Hmmm then again, maybe that's not good business to say that! :D
Voodoo Buwan: Well... good luck with your fantastic designs... Hope to see more soon.