Pixel art pioneer Hiroshi Ono, sprite designer for Galaga, dies

[ArugulaZ]

Namco pixel artist Hiroshi Ono has passed away

Hiroshi Ono, graphic designer and pixel artist at Namco, has passed away.Known as Mr Dotman, he was responsible most fa…

www.eurogamer.net

Was there anyone in the early 1980s arcade scene who made better, more iconic sprites than Hiroshi Ono? Maybe Shigeru Miyamoto, and that's about it. Ono was a master of his craft, giving many of Namco's older games the polished presentation that helped make them famous. When your ship is captured in Galaga and spins around wildly to join the enemy's formation, that wasn't hardware rotation... each frame had to be drawn by hand, and it was Ono who did it.

 

[ArugulaZ]

And here's a pretty good summation of his life and work, courtesy of GSK and Retronauts.

Legendary Namco pixel artist and designer Hiroshi 'Mr. Dotman' Ono dies at 64

The 'god of dot art' and decades-long Namco veteran has passed away.

retronauts.com

I heard about Golly! Ghost! in the past, but I didn't really understand what it was or how it played. From the footage on this page, it seems to be an augmented reality light gun gallery shooter, a bit like Namco's later Quick and Crash. Images of ghosts are projected over a cross section of a mansion, with the phantoms popping out of refrigerators and toilets. It merges toys and video games, something Nintendo is best known for, and may even have been a hint that Namco would be gobbled up by toy giant Bandai years later.

 

[Kirin]

Golly Ghost looks super neat. A real pity that Ono didn't live to finish the documentary that was being worked on about his life.