“I’m from Luxembourg and I have a retro hobby. I make 3D paper dioramas of classic videogames.”
Hobbyist Wuppes’ self-introduction is refreshingly humble for someone displaying their creations online, but it hardly does them justice. Made from paper and card, these dioramas of worlds, scenes and characters from 16-bit video games are created with breathtaking attention to detail, with not a single pixel misrepresented, raising the once flat images up to give gamers the world over something new to pore over and wish they could own.
▼ The justly proud creator, Wuppes
From The Legend of Zelda to Sam & Max, creator Wuppes has crafted more than 20 scenes from classic video games in miniature. A mix of the two and three-dimensional, the framed images are startlingly faithful to their 8 and 16-bit originals, but have a sense of depth that makes the viewer want to climb in.
Check out some of his incredible work.
▼ The Light World map from Zelda: A Link to the Past
▼ The clouds closest to the frame are a neat additional touch
▼ The world map from SNES classic Super Mario World
▼ Every little detail. Look, there’s Yoshi’s house and the first Switch Palace!
▼ This game had so much hidden depth…
But it’s not just game-world maps that Wuppes is obsessed with. He also does framed scenes from some of your favourite titles.
▼ Ryu and Ken duke it out in Street Fighter II‘s Brazil stage
▼ Mortal Kombat II‘s sound designer pops up for a “Toasty!” as reptile has a snack
▼ Metal Slug mayhem
▼ Samus stands atop her ship in Super Metroid
▼ Sam & Max remind us of a time when LucasArts still made us smile
▼ Seeing Donkey Kong from a whole new angle
▼ Yes, that’s a framed Game Boy diorama, complete with a screen from Zelda
Alas, despite proudly displaying these dioramas and more on his Tumblr, none of Wuppes’ incredible works is actually for sale, the man himself confirming that he made the dioramas “just for the love of the medium” rather than to make money.
It’s a shame that we’ll never have one of these hanging on our wall (I think the Super Mario World map would look quite fetching in the RocketNews24 office), but you have to admit that their creator’s passion is admirable.
Images republished with the permission of Wuppes