01
Step through the eras
Esc, then ← → on ERA. Each crossfades in over half a second: CGA, VGA, 8-bit, handhelds, arcade, 32-, 64- and 128-bit consoles.
Playable demo · URP · Unity 6
Twenty retro eras on one camera — from a four-shade handheld to a 128-bit console. Survive the graveyard, press Esc and change the era, the palette, the dithering, the screen and every other setting of the look while you play.
Try this
02
Compare
Tab at any moment turns the whole effect off: the same scene, as Unity draws it, under the retro picture.
03
Tune the look
Q E switch tabs: colour, edges, fog, CRT, VHS, screens. Palettes, dithering, outlines and scanlines change live.
04
Old hardware, new engine
GEOMETRY wobbles vertices and warps textures like a 32-bit console; FPS steps enemies, the hero and particles in whole frames.
Controls
| Action | Keyboard & mouse | Gamepad |
|---|---|---|
| Move | WASD / arrows | Left stick |
| Aim (turns the camera) | Mouse | Right stick |
| Fire (hold) | Left click / F | RT |
| Grenade | Right click / G | LT |
| Switch gun | 1 2 3 / wheel | X / LB / RB |
| Reload | R | — |
| Dash | Space / Shift | A |
| Pause and settings | Esc / P | Start |
| Settings tabs | Q / E | LB / RB |
| Pixel Eras on / off | Tab | Y |
| Play again | R / Enter | A |
How to survive
- You start with the blaster. Crates hold the shotgun and the rifle, and a second crate of a gun you carry makes it stronger.
- Food heals and clears poison; shields add armour.
- Burning runners explode when they reach you; green spitters keep their distance and throw poison.
- A grenade clears every regular zombie in its blast — you too, if you stand too close.
- Every kill earns experience: each level makes you a little faster and dash more often.
What the demo shows
Twenty eras
Ready styles from 4-shade handhelds to HD pixel art. Make your own in Retro Studio; switch or crossfade them from one line of code.
The look
Game resolution, palettes and colour depth, Bayer, blue-noise and custom dithering, pixel outlines and highlights, banded fog.
Old screens
CRT tubes with curvature, scanlines and phosphor masks, VHS tape, composite cable and handheld LCD grids with ghosting.
Retro materials
Vertex snap, affine texture warp, three-point filtering, light bands and rings, draw-distance pop-in.
Motion in steps
Animators and objects move in whole frames, on one clock with the camera, while physics and game code stay smooth.
Made for production
URP and HDRP from one package, Retro Studio and a project Doctor, zero allocations per frame, full documentation.
Pixel Eras for URP & HDRP
Unity 6 or newer. One package, every era of the demo, the full source of this demo scene.