FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

Games

3D Dioramas Take 'Paper Mario' To Another Level

OK, so it isn't actually Paper Mario (the game)— it's 3D paper recreations of Super Mario and other classic NES games.

Super Mario World by Diego Gallardo

Old video games will forever have a place in the hearts and minds of those who grew up with them. Whether we'll see the current generation getting as misty-eyed for the Call of Duty or Grand Theft Auto series as people do for the pixilated worlds of the SNES and its contemporaries remains to be seen.

One thing's for sure, though: it'll be a lot more difficult to make 3D paper dioramas that recreate PS4 and Xbox One games than it is for 16-bit incarnations. Alain Wildgen (aka Wuppes), who hails from Luxemberg, collates and creates 3D dioramas from classic 8-bit and 16-bit video games, posting the work on his Tumblr.

Advertisement

The usual suspects are here—Mario, Zelda, Metroid, SF2—as artists take certain scenes or levels and replicate them into 3D form. In an article on Wildgen, Makezine described the typical process of turning a 2D image into a 3D diorama. It generally involves firstly finding the image you want—either from an emulator or a screenshot database like VGmaps—then uploading it into Gimp (an image editor) to modify it. Once you've finished with that, you print it out on paper, which you cut out and place onto pieces of foam with different depths depending on what elevation you need. And there you have it, an impromptu and cheapish birthday gift for the gamer in your life.

There's a whole Facebook community dedicated to the art form, too—plus, Wildgen posts starter kits on his Tumblr, should you wish to try your hand at it. You can check out some of the diorama's from Wildgen's Tumblr, below.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, by Wildgen

Kirby by Diego Gallardo

Mario Bros Level 1-1 by Wildgen

Golden Axe by WIldgen

Super Metroid by Mark Camps

Street Fighter IIby WIldgen

Mortal Kombat by by WIldgen

Mario Kart by Daniel Gilbert

via Metafilter, Makezine

Related

Plug Into A 1930s Cartoon With New, Throwback Video Game

Meet The Real World Designers Behind The Fictional Video Games Of 'Her'

[This Man Is Using Math To Create An Impossible 4D Video Game](http://This Man Is Using Math To Create An Impossible 4D Video Game)