Remembering the good old days, when game box art lied to us
Go back 30 or 40 years, and video game cover art had some clear issues. It didn’t always follow precise style guides. It was frequently made in a vacuum by someone who had no idea what the game looked like. It relied on limited concept art, data, and technology. And it often sold a fantasy that didn’t accurately represent the game inside the box.Yet the lack of those things led to thousands of amazing illustrations that we’d never have gotten otherwise, with many sticking in players’ heads as strongly as the games themselves. And last year, Bitmap Books released The Art of the Box, collecting more than 350 of them. The 564-page book spotlights 26 illustrators, many of whom made their names on early game box art.As part of an effort to spotlight game-related books and documentaries, Polygon is running an email interview series with the people behind them. Check out the full list to read up on an Immortality book, a Street Fighter 2 documentary, and others. Below, Bitmap Books founder Sam Dyer discusses The Art of the Box, his love of classic game artwork, and what went into tracking down the illustrators and their work.Polygon: I love the concept of the book and how it spotlights the illustrators as much as the work itself. Where did the idea start for this one?Sam Dyer: The Art of the Box was an idea I had way back at the beginning of Bitmap Books. I’ve always loved art in general, and some of my strongest memories of games as a child are the actual cover art of games. Those powerful images of opening Batman on xmas day with that awesome gold logo, or seeing rows and rows of games in the local newsagent will stay with me forever. With the general move to non-physical in the gaming industry, it felt like the perfect time to capture the art of creating a game cover, and design a book that would preserve this dying art forever. The idea really started to progress after the premature passing of artist Bob Wakelin. The sad truth is that none of us are getting any younger, and it felt like the perfect time to make The Art of the Box happen. Teaming up with long-time collaborator Steve Jarratt, who would take care of the editorial, meant that I could wholly focus on the design and acquiring images, which made taking on the project much less daunting.Dermot Power’s Golden Axe artwork is a personal favorite of Sam Dyer’s. Photo: Bitmap BooksDid you have any specific criteria for which illustrators you chose to include?Quality was the main one, but the biggest challenge was finding artists that: a) wanted to be involved, and b) had high-res scans of their artwork. We decided very early on that we wanted the art to appear in its original form, before the logos, text and flashes were added. This way, it can be seen as pure art, in its rawest form. These restrictions really made it tricky to get a roster of artists to contribute, but after months and months and emailing (and begging!) we got there in the end. I’m really proud that the final book showcases 26 artists, including Bob Wakelin, Steve Hendricks, Ken Macklin, Tom DuBois, Steinar Lund, Marc Ericksen, Julie Bell, and Susumu Matsushita, among many others. I know there’s a decent-sized collector’s market for original versions of these pieces. Did that help or hurt in any specific ways when you were hunting for images for the book?I was aware of the collector’s market for video game art, however there was (for a variety of reasons), a reluctance from some collectors to share these images for the book. Of course, this is absolutely their right as the owners of the original art, but it did mean that certain artists could not be featured as sadly, they didn’t keep high-res images of their art before it was sold. Saying that, some collectors such as Nicola Ferrarese were huge supporters of the project, and offered access to their collection, and were very generous with their time.Were there any images that were particularly difficult to track down for other reasons? Any interesting stories there?There’s not one particular image, but more generally, we ran into issues when an artist was supplying us with images, but there were gaps because they had not photographed an artwork before the original was sold. In these instances, we had to try and locate the image by reaching out into the community, and also lots and lots of internet research. In very rare instances where we hit a brick wall, we worked with the excellent Gary Arnott and Jefferson Taylor who very respectfully (with the original artist’s approval) helped to restore [and] enhance lesser quality images so they were sufficient for the book. Personal favorite piece in the book?Golden Axe (home computer ports) by Dermot Power is a favourite. I have always been a fan of Dermot’s comic book and video game work, and seeing the full size Golden Axe piece in all its glory was amazing. As a child, I only saw a small cropped version on the game box, so to see the level of detail in the full piece was pretty staggering. I also love the fact that it was painted directly onto black board, which gives it an incredible richness and dark mood, suiting the game really well.See More:
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