What's the deal with artists for old CRPGs feeling the need to put a noise texture on everything? I'm mostly thinking of Dungeon Master-likes, Wizardry VI, Black Crypt, but non-first person ones too (unfortunately I can't think of any off the top of my head). Maybe I'm just over privileged because of this place and modern pixel techniques but I don't see how that became so pervasive and tied with that certain era and genre of games. Something about the late 80s/early 90s RPG nerd zeitgeist that caused them to search for distressing textures, or just a cultural memetic thing?
In any case, that kind of absolute dingyness doesn't happen much anymore.