Retro Box Art

[Ninjamohawk]

I think we can all agree that box art was something totally different before the adoption of the internet. They were used to sell kids games, so they had to look as cool as a movie poster!

I was looking over my NES collection tonight and started picking out carts with sweet box art. The two that really stuck out were Bionic Commando (http://www.gamefaqs.com/nes/589339-bionic-commando/images/box-40611)
and Clash at Demonhead (http://www.gamefaqs.com/nes/587190-clash-at-demonhead/images/box-46893)

When I was a teenager I felt cheated that "stupid america never got the cool anime art the japanese got" but looking back now, these kick serious ass and it's no wonder I wanted them. The art makes them look thrilling.

what's some of your favorite old school box art?

[Emperor Megas]

Who ever did the illustration for that Bionic Commando cover was one of my favorite artists as a kid, and I don't have a clue who it is.

I'm assuming it's the same person who's done all of the arcade cabinet and cover art I credit them to, not one of those Rob Liefeld situations where everyone in the industry (or in Liefeld's case, everyone at Image) simply copied the same art style. The artwork is quite prolific, and I'm not exactly sure if it's all down by the same artist, but most of the work for was SNK/Data East games in the mid 80's to early 90's.

I believe the person I'm talking about did the cabinet art for all these games:

Bad Dudes vs. Dragon Ninja (http://img593.imageshack.us/img593/1198/baddudes.jpg)
Guerrilla War (http://img822.imageshack.us/img822/5889/guerrillawarsa.jpg)
Heavy Barrel (http://img695.imageshack.us/img695/5046/heavybarrel.jpg)
Ikari Warriors (http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/974/ikariz.jpg)
Karnov (http://img836.imageshack.us/img836/2227/karnov2.jpg)
Mechanized Attack (http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/1233/indexphpdf.jpg)
Midnight Resistance (http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/2811/midnightresistence.jpg)
P.O.W. Prisoner's Of War (http://img36.imageshack.us/img36/9387/powprisonersofwarmarque.jpg)
Victory Road (http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/9739/victoryroad.jpg)

The artwork was really clean, almost 'sterile' really, to the point of being bland, but there's just something about the cleanness of it that I really loved.

Back on topic though. One of my favorite covers from back in the day was for Athena for the NES, which I'm almost positive was the same artist, again. If someone know who the artist is, please let me know.

http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/bigboxshots/5/563385_52695_front.jpg

[Ninjamohawk]

Man that's so freakin' cool looking. Yeah I don't know who the artist is but damn are they talented.

I wish modern games had <i>organic</i> box art like the old ones did. Mega Man 9 and 10 had cool "box" art but that's it, and that barely counts.

I guess soon there won't be boxes anyway so.. :(

Another couple that caught my eye: Crystalis and Gradius

http://www.gamefaqs.com/nes/587209-crystalis/images/box-49864

http://www.gamefaqs.com/nes/587317-gradius/images/box-49867

[kafa111]

This
http://www.gamefaqs.com/genesis/586568-two-crude-dudes/images/box-60436

Two Crude dudes just looks soooooo awesome!

[theichibun]

Right now I'm really appreciating the cartoony aspect of most early NES Data East covers. Ring King's is pretty cool, much better than the game itself. Although to be fair we can say that about Athena's cover too.

[Arcade Antics]

I think we can all agree that box art was something totally different before the adoption of the internet.
I do not agree.

[Berserker]

A few months ago there was an article (http://kotaku.com/#!5603933/the-most-awesome-box-art-in-the-world/gallery/) on Kotaku highlighting some of the older Psygnosis box art. I'd really love to explore some of the worlds depicted in these images.

[Graham Mitchell]

Who ever did the illustration for that Bionic Commando cover was one of my favorite artists as a kid, and I don't have a clue who it is.

I'm assuming it's the same person who's done all of the arcade cabinet and cover art I credit them to, not one of those Rob Liefeld situations where everyone in the industry (or in Liefeld's case, everyone at Image) simply copied the same art style. The artwork is quite prolific, and I'm not exactly sure if it's all down by the same artist, but most of the work for was SNK/Data East games in the mid 80's to early 90's.


So this is going to sound totally lame but, I grew up in Bellevue, Washington and several kids that I went to school with had parents who worked for Nintendo. One kid told me he had met this artist, and that his name was "Franklin Costevelt" or something to that effect. He did many NES games, as you've pointed out, several of which were for SNK. If you look for the "FC" in the lower right corner, it's him.

I tried googling that name and nothing really came up. Maybe somebody else knows more?

[stalepie]

I love Super C's, The Immortal (Sega Genesis), Rampart's and others.

By the way, if you search for "nes boxart" or similar in Google Image Search you actually get a lot at once: http://www.google.com/images?um=1&hl=en&biw=1024&bih=679&tbs=isch%3A1&sa=1&q=nes+boxart&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=

helps to refresh memory

Sometime around 92 or 93 I felt box art in America really fell off the cliff. They just weren't as good anymore. maybe not as good in japan either.

[stalepie]

A lot of 80s box art had a cool hand-drawn, hand-painted technique that you just don't see any more. I like this one I think from Europe: http://www.anotherworld.fr/images/premiere_periode/infernal_runner.jpg
It makes me want to play the game even though I've never even seen a screenshot!


Here's another, Double Dragon II: http://fastcache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/9/2007/06/doubledragonII.jpg

[Emperor Megas]

Ring King's is pretty cool, much better than the game itself. Although to be fair we can say that about Athena's cover too.Yeah, there's no denying that.


So this is going to sound totally lame but, I grew up in Bellevue, Washington and several kids that I went to school with had parents who worked for Nintendo. One kid told me he had met this artist, and that his name was "Franklin Costevelt" or something to that effect. He did many NES games, as you've pointed out, several of which were for SNK. If you look for the "FC" in the lower right corner, it's him.

I tried googling that name and nothing really came up. Maybe somebody else knows more?That's interesting, thanks! But could his name be Frank Cirroco? The closest I've ever come to an answer was the Yar's Revenge mini comic (http://www.atariage.com/comics/comic_thumbs.html?MagazineID=48) that came with the game. The artwork looks exactly the same as my mystery guy/gal's work, and they list three Illustrators on the back on the book, and one of them is Frank Cirocco. I'll have to try to follow that up more.

If it's him, he's was a great influence to me, and one of the reasons I wanted to pursued a career in art since I was a kid.

[Emperor Megas]

Damn it I believe it is him (Cirocco). I've been researching Frank Cirocco's work the past few minutes, and it's got to be the same guy. It's crazy if it is and I didn't know it all this time, considering I was a slightly more-than-casual comic fan growing up.

You guys can't appreciate how happy I am to have finally discovered who it actually was (assuming I'm correct).

More of his work:

http://media.giantbomb.com/uploads/7/73888/1415370-commando_front_large.jpg

I really love this guy's stuff. Hopefully he's still alive, I'd like to get something signed one day.

[Clownzilla]

Don't really have any specific preferences of what I like the most but I have always wanted to buy an original Atari 2600 box cover concept painting to hang in my home office. Many of those box covers are well painted and even make the most boring game look unrealistically exciting. I would imagine that even a painting of an unpopular game would still be pricey but it still would be an important piece of gaming/advertising history to add to a collection.

[Graham Mitchell]

Damn it I believe it is him (Cirocco). I've been researching Frank Cirocco's work the past few minutes, and it's got to be the same guy. It's crazy if it is and I didn't know it all this time, considering I was a slightly more-than-casual comic fan growing up.

You guys can't appreciate how happy I am to have finally discovered who it actually was (assuming I'm correct).

More of his work:

http://media.giantbomb.com/uploads/7/73888/1415370-commando_front_large.jpg

I really love this guy's stuff. Hopefully he's still alive, I'd like to get something signed one day.

That's awesome!

Here's one I always dug:

http://store.classicgamesrevisited.com/images/207989-alpha_mission.jpg

I can't list others because I'm on a work computer (damn firewalls) but it appears he also did the Burai Fighter cover. He also did the Rampage NES art.

Pretty cool!

[Steve W]

Frank Cirocco also did the pencilling for Marvel Comics book Alien Legion. He's done all sorts of other things too. I think he's one of the most recognizable game box artists out there.

Psygnosis has been mentioned already, and I have to concur that they were the most amazing boxes I've ever seen. It helps that some of the best European artists of the era were licensing their works out to Psygnosis, also. Roger Dean. Pretty much all that needs to be said there.

Here's a bunch of good ones. (http://www.stanford.edu/group/htgg/cgi-bin/drupal/?q=node/435)
Here's a whole list of Commodore Amiga game box art scans that are mostly pretty damn impressive. (http://www.exotica.org.uk/wiki/Amiga_Game_Box_Scans)

[Emperor Megas]

Yeah, I have echo the Psygnosis nod; they had some really haunting artwork. The Shadow of the Beast box art was so different from anything I'd seen before it. It's still a favorite of mine.


Don't really have any specific preferences of what I like the most but I have always wanted to buy an original Atari 2600 box cover concept painting to hang in my home office. Many of those box covers are well painted and even make the most boring game look unrealistically exciting. I would imagine that even a painting of an unpopular game would still be pricey but it still would be an important piece of gaming/advertising history to add to a collection. I couldn't agree more. Man, I loved those Atari cover paintings and would certainly love to own one (or a few) myself.

[Collector_Gaming]

The 70s and 80s was a great era for movie/game art
i realized this when i was going through the Atari and NES games i acquired back in December/January
The art work seems to suck you into the fantasy world and do it in such a cool fashion

Much like one of my favorite Cover arts from comic books Heavy Metal
http://meathaus.com/wp-content/uploads/heavy-metal-mag.jpg
http://d1466nnw0ex81e.cloudfront.net/iss/600w/81/170811/5472501_1.jpg

also one of my favorite painters Boris Vallejo
http://www.fairiesworld.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10001/normal_%C2%A9Boris_vallejo_Dragons_Birth_%C2%A9.jp g
http://www.gratisblog.com/weblogs/litopascua/Boris_Vallejo/9515.JPG

you can just look at these pieces and just instantly feel like you are sucked into its world.

[stalepie]

http://www.japangamestock.com/images/sfb070706(41).jpg

Better than the U.S. version!

[Ninjamohawk]

Man those Psygnosis arts are crazy amazing!

[Gameguy]

http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/3366/gaymarioz.jpg

[stalepie]

http://www.japangamestock.com/images/sfb070706(51).jpg

This guy's like, "wtf you talkin bout, girl?'

[Collector_Gaming]

http://www.japangamestock.com/images/sfb070706(51).jpg

This guy's like, "wtf you talkin bout, girl?'

kinda reminds me of these

http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/comment/4/2010/03/8d8bde69919512d1ac6fdb41bd41bc66/340x.jpg
http://www4.picturepush.com/photo/a/1952167/480/Picture-Box/you-raff-you-ruse-2.jpg?v0

[Bronty-2]

I think we can all agree that box art was something totally different before the adoption of the internet. They were used to sell kids games, so they had to look as cool as a movie poster!

I was looking over my NES collection tonight and started picking out carts with sweet box art. The two that really stuck out were Bionic Commando (http://www.gamefaqs.com/nes/589339-bionic-commando/images/box-40611)
and Clash at Demonhead (http://www.gamefaqs.com/nes/587190-clash-at-demonhead/images/box-46893)

When I was a teenager I felt cheated that "stupid america never got the cool anime art the japanese got" but looking back now, these kick serious ass and it's no wonder I wanted them. The art makes them look thrilling.

what's some of your favorite old school box art?

Here's the original Demonhead painting if you can excuse the terrible pic and the 7 yr delay ;)

And yeah, Cirocco did around 20 NES covers.

https://i.imgur.com/QJwAHRf.jpg