Atari Art for Modern Games

These have been out there for awhile, but I love them so much that I just had to repost them here on my blog.  Created by an artist known as StarRoivas and posted on her DeviantART page, these images give us an idea of what the box art for several modern games might have looked like if they had been released in the Atari era.  I've posted a few of my favorites, but there are loads more on the artists' home page.  Enjoy!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And just so you have some of the original Atari art to compare with these, here are a few of my favorites:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Video Game Woodblock Prints

I recently came across these AMAZING video game inspired woodblock prints and I just had to share them.  Have a look...

Artists Jed Henry and Dave Bull created these as part of their Ukiyo-e Heroes series of traditional woodblock prints.  Here's a few more...

You can see even more on the artists' homepage, Ukiyo-e Heroes. There's also videos of the design process as well as the story of how the project came to be.  Fantastic stuff!

Minimalist Mega Man

 Here's some cool video game art.  These are minimalist images that depict several of the Robot Masters from the Mega Man series.  I couldn't figure out exactly who created these pieces, but you can click here or on the image to see the rest.  Neat!

Art of the Arcade

Art of the Arcade is a fun little site dedicated to video game related art and graphics from the Atari age.  This stuff really brings me back!  The colors, the lines, the 'STACHES!  Great stuff!  In fact, speaking from experience I'd have to say that in some cases the artwork is better than the game it was based on!  Here are a few of my favorites, but be sure to check out the full site at artofthearcade.com, there's loads of great stuff there...

Pitfall!

Oink!

Cops 'n Robbers (looks a bit like an OBEY piece, no?)

Atari Soccer (The 'staches! The short shorts! Plus, is that Will Ferrell?)

It's the one people want most. Act like you know!

Bullet Hell Art

I came across this over at Kotaku and I thought I'd repost it....


It seems this fellow named Oliver Payne makes art pieces by creating stickers from Japanese "bullet hell" shooters and placing them on photos of Greek sculpture.


For those who are unfamiliar, the phrase "bullet hell" refers to a sub-genre of shoot-em-up games wherein the player must dodge wave after wave of enemy fire by finding 'safe spots' on the screen. The fine folks over at Cracked wrote a fun and informative article about them which you can read here.

Example of a "bullet hell" shooter. I don't know what the fuck is going on either.

I dig these. They have an irreverent, whimsical vibe that recalls the street art movement, and at the same time they make me nostalgic for classic shooters like Gradius, Blazing Lazers, and Raiden.

Pac-Mondrian

I recently came across this interesting little nugget... Pac-Mondrian is a flash game that combines Piet Mondrian's classic Modernist painting 'Broadway Boogie Woogie' with Toru Iwatani's classic video game Pac-Man. Players can choose from one of four distinct Mondrian-inspired boards each with their own unique soundtrack. It's modern art that's been modded! Very cool.

Click either image to play.

UPDATE: As of January 2013 it appears that the game has been taken down.  I will update this post again if it resurfaces.

Repost-O-Rama! Video Game Graffiti

Earlier today I went looking for some good examples of game related street art. I came across a few cool pieces that I thought I'd share. This first set is brought to us by the good people over at Walyou. Wacky name, cool site. Check out the original post for more.

Wario catches a lot of heat for being a fat, ugly sack of shit, but his games are actually pretty fun.

Seriously, whose idea was it to put Megaman in a blue Speedo in the first place?

Ryu Hayabusa, one of my all-time favorite 8-bit character designs.

This next set comes via Gamercrave.com. There are a few repeats in this series, but also plenty of cool originals, and even a few stencil designs. Check the original post.

Katamari Damacy, do-ba-dee-doo!

The Iceman cometh! Good thing I capped that fool Elecman first...

The Portal games feature some incredible line art. Plus, stencils are rad.


Jump, man! Mario makes David Lee Roth so proud...