Video Game Art: Atari In Space

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VideoGameCritic
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Video Game Art: Atari In Space

Postby VideoGameCritic » September 15th, 2010, 2:53 pm

This was the first of what could possibly be a new series of "game art" review pages for the site.  I had some fun with this.  Let me know what you think.

soporj1
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Video Game Art: Atari In Space

Postby soporj1 » September 15th, 2010, 3:01 pm

Love it! More please!

ZetaX1
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Video Game Art: Atari In Space

Postby ZetaX1 » September 15th, 2010, 5:21 pm

I always thought that the Space Invaders box art looked a bit (too much) like Boston's "Don't Look Back" album cover...

          

Cool graphic, but doesn't seem nearly as menacing as those "monsters" from the arcade cabinet... 



Though, what the hell where those things supposed to be?  I don't recall the Space Invaders being biped/humanoids...

Lucky Man

Video Game Art: Atari In Space

Postby Lucky Man » September 15th, 2010, 5:52 pm

That's great, Dave!  I don't know about the dark blue text, though.  It's a little hard to read against the black background.


Blueguy93

Video Game Art: Atari In Space

Postby Blueguy93 » September 15th, 2010, 6:03 pm

show the ET artwork, it looks better than anything you'll find in the game! 

Are you going to do Colecovision and Nes next?

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Video Game Art: Atari In Space

Postby VideoGameCritic » September 15th, 2010, 7:46 pm

ZetaX - you are dead on about Space Invaders!  What a rip-off.  I may have to incorporate your comment and graphic.

I was going to do some other Atari genre next, but I'm open to ideas.


Orion1
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Video Game Art: Atari In Space

Postby Orion1 » September 15th, 2010, 10:07 pm

Wow Zetax, I never knew about the Boston cover.  Looks like the album came out in 1978, and the game was released in 1980.  Each of them has cliffs in the background, a UFO with a city on top, and three beams shooting down.  I'm 99% sure the Atari artwork was plagiarized.


Leo1
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Video Game Art: Atari In Space

Postby Leo1 » September 16th, 2010, 3:41 am

[QUOTE=The Video Game Critic]ZetaX - you are dead on about Space Invaders!  What a rip-off.  I may have to incorporate your comment and graphic. [/QUOTE]

I see some vague similarities (Both show UFO's with beams of light exiting the bottoms of the ships with mountains in the background), but I'd hardly call it a rip-off.

They both look quite different with the Atari image being far superior.


snakeboy1
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Video Game Art: Atari In Space

Postby snakeboy1 » September 16th, 2010, 3:55 am

[QUOTE=Leo]

[QUOTE=The Video Game Critic]ZetaX - you are dead on about Space Invaders!  What a rip-off.  I may have to incorporate your comment and graphic. [/QUOTE]

I see some vague similarities (Both show UFO's with beams of light exiting the bottoms of the ships with mountains in the background), but I'd hardly call it a rip-off.

[/QUOTE]

That's kind of what I thought at first, too, but then I noticed that both spaceships had cities underneath a dome at the top. If it isn't a ripoff, then that is one big coincidence.

Zenzerotron

Video Game Art: Atari In Space

Postby Zenzerotron » September 16th, 2010, 12:10 pm

Many thoughts........

For the Space Invaders cover, I always thought that the UFO's had a reflective surface on top, and you're seeing a mirror image of the city below, NOT that the city is actually inside the UFO. And I DO like the cover for Space Invaders, as it's a good tribute to old school belief in flying saucers visiting Earth,  the "little green men" days, instead of today's "grey" alien beliefs.

For Berzerk, I LOVE this cover and it fascinated me as a child. It doesn't reveal too much, there's a mystic about it. Also, I think the hero on the cover is meant to look like Luke Skywalker, regarding his hair. This cover art is also superior to the cover art on the 5200 version, where the hero looks like he's on steroids and he's carrying a load of poop in his pants.

Defender's cover art is very unsettling and creepy to me even to this day. Remember "V"?? It was this television series about Reptilian aliens, disguised as humans, whom invade Earth, under the false pretense of being friendly, to take all of Earth's resources and made food out of every living thing, including humans. For whatever reason, both seeing the cover and playing the game, it's was always about the "V" aliens abducting people(for food), while you're trying to save them. I kind of watched "V" and played Defender at the same time and they blurred together in my young mind. Today, the cover makes me think about today's culture of UFO abduction cases, the Defender cover still creeps me out.

I wonder why Missile Command isn't in your feature?? I'd say the cover art for this game is totally lame.

Phoenix.........what a lame-o game. So many better single-screen vertical shooters to play back in the day. Maybe the cover is the best thing about the game?



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