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Adapted from BOX=ART Celâl Kandemiroğlu is a Turkish-born illustrator widely known for his prolific box art for German video game companies. Celâl's work for the mighty Turrican series would reach gamers all around the world; notably for American gamers, his art for the home computer versions of Turrican II: The Final Fight was reused for both Super Turrican and Super Turrican 2 for the SNES. After graduating from the Fine Arts Academy in Istanbul, Turkey, Celâl moved to Germany, where he offered self-drawn comics to German publisher Bastei-Verlag in 1978. Throughout the 1980s, Celâl created art for home video and movie releases, positioning him at the forefront of Germany’s video game development scene as it exploded with companies making a name for themselves throughout Europe. Rainbow Arts (Turrican, X-Out, Katakis), Thalion (Wings of Death), and reLINE (Fate: Gates of Dawn, Biing!) all featured Celâl's art, and his diverse style and quick turnaround (five to seven days) made him a natural go-to for the industry. By the beginning of the 1990s, much of Germany’s box art output would be his. Celâl often cited 1988 as the year he began creating video game box art, and the majority of his output was created between 1988 and 1992. Volleyball Simulator is among Celâl's early box art and sets an artistic trend that he would use throughout his career: characters would be lit by a distinct light source afflicting heavy shadows on their faces. This style can also be seen on Spherical, Atomino, Crime Time, and Fate: Gates of Dawn. Lighting would be played to special effect on many of his boxes, with Celâl having a penchant for illuminating his subjects in often mystical or ghoulish light. His comic book background would be evident in his artistry with playful tones running through much of his box art. But high fantasy and sci-fi painters such as Boris Vallejo and Roger Dean would have an unmistakable influence when considering the detail and form composition that his characters and vehicles often had. Early box arts have an airbrushed look to them (Z-Out, Zero Gravity, Rock ‘n Roll), but his versatility would stretch to other art mediums with art for war game boxes (Berlin 1948: East vs West, Air Supply and Dyter-07) having a softer brush-painted appearance. Later with the advent of Photoshop, he would put the brush down and use digital art exclusively (Sacred series). Like many box artists of his generation, Celâl would early on become involved in the graphic art side of video game development. Using the early paint program Deluxe Paint on titles such as X-Out, M.U.D.S: Mean, Ugly, Dirty, Sport, and Dragonflight, he would create not only title screens (as many box artists did in the 80s) but also background and sprite work. Later, this would lead the artist’s career to further development roles such as editor, 3D modeler, and art director. In the 2000s, he would join Take Two and become heavily involved with the Sacred series. He later freelanced as a 3D modeler. Celâl passed away on March 12, 2022 in Turkey. The website nemmelheim.de includes a gallery with high-quality scans of a lot of Celâl's game work. OVGA has included below Celâl Kandemiroğlu's full known video game box art catalog: Detector (Time Warp Productions | Amiga | 1988) Katakis (a.k.a. Denaris) (Rainbow Arts | Amiga, Commodore 64 | 1988) Spinworld (Axxiom | Amiga | 1988) Zero Gravity (EAS Software | Amiga | 1988) Berlin 1948: East vs West (Rainbow Arts | Amiga, DOS | 1989) Black Gold (reLINE | Atari ST, Commodore 64-EUR, DOS-EUR | 1989) Conqueror (Rainbow Arts | Amiga, Atari ST | 1989) Hard ‘n Heavy (reLINE | Amiga, Commodore 64 | 1989) Rock ‘n Roll (Rainbow Arts | Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, DOS, ZX Spectrum | 1989) Spherical (Rainbow Arts | Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64 | 1989) Volleyball Simulator (Rainbow Arts | Atari ST, Commodore 64 | 1989) Air Supply (Magic Bytes | Amiga, Atari ST | 1990) Atomino (Psygnosis | Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, DOS | 1990) Big Business (Magic Bytes | Atari ST, DOS-EUR | 1990) Crime Time (Starbyte Software | Commodore 64, DOS | 1990) Domination (Magic Bytes | Amiga, Commodore 64 | 1990) Dragonflight (Thalion Software | Amiga, Atari ST, DOS | 1990) Dyter-07 (reLINE Software | Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64 | 1990) Leavin’ Termanis (Thalion Software | Amiga, Atari ST | 1990) Legend of Faerghail (Rainbow Arts | Amiga, Atari ST, DOS | 1990) Lords of Doom (Starbyte Software | Amiga, Commodore 64, DOS | 1990) Masterblazer (Rainbow Arts | Amiga, DOS | 1990) M.U.D.S.: Mean Ugly Dirty Sport (Rainbow Arts | Amiga, DOS | 1990) StarTrash (Rainbow Arts | Amiga | 1990) The Second World (Magic Bytes | Amiga, Atari ST, DOS | 1990) Tie Break (Starbyte Software | Commodore 64, DOS, ZX Spectrum | 1990) Turrican (Rainbow Arts | Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | 1990) U.S.S. John Young a.k.a. Battle Stations (Magic Bytes | Commodore 64, DOS | 1990) Wings of Death (Thalion Software | Amiga, Atari ST | 1990) X-Out (Rainbow Arts | Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | 1990) Z-Out (Rainbow Arts | Amiga, Atari ST | 1990) Fate: Gates of Dawn (reLINE | Amiga, Atari ST | 1991) Lethal Xcess: Wings of Death II (Eclipse Software Design | Amiga, Atari ST | 1991) Monster Business (Ascon GmbH | Amiga, Atari ST | 1991) Turrican II: The Final Fight (Rainbow Arts | Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, DOS, ZX Spectrum | 1991) Elysium (Magic Bytes | Amiga, DOS | 1992) No Second Prize (Thalion Software | Amiga, Atari ST | 1992) Stone Age (Eclipse Software | Amiga, Atari ST, DOS | 1992) Vision: The 5 Dimension Utopia (Softgold Computerspiele GmbH | Amiga, DOS | 1992) Super Turrican (Imagineer Co., Ltd. | NES-PAL A | 1993) Repeat image Super Turrican (Seika Corporation | SNES | 1993) Repeat image Turrican III: Payment Day (Rainbow Arts | Amiga | 1993) Bundesliga Manager Hattrick (a.k.a. Football Limited) (Amiga, DOS | 1994) Christoph Kolumbus a.k.a. Exploration (Software 2000 | Amiga, DOS-GER | 1994) Software Manager (Kaiko | Amiga, DOS | 1994) Biing!: Sex, Intrigue and Scalpels (Magic Bytes | Amiga, DOS | 1995) Ocean Trader (Software 2000 | Amiga, DOS | 1995) Super Turrican 2 (Ocean | SNES | 1995) Repeat image Talisman (Software 2000 | DOS | 1995) Panzer Elite (Psygnosis | Windows | 1999) Revenge of the Apes (Retrodesign | Atari 2600/ VCS | 2003) I Project (Simon Quernhorst | Atari 2600/ VCS | 2008) An Appendix to an interview with Celal included in a list of his box art paintings two titles published by Encore, Inc. in 2004: Söldner: Secret Wars and Sacred. OVGA has not included these titles in the above box art catalog, but is listing them here for reference. Celal is credited as having done a variety of work for the Sacred series, but the work all appears to be digital and amongst the box art images for the Sacred series, it is unclear which might have been Celal’s work. Celal’s brother Ogan Kandemiroglu helped Celal finish box art paintings in times when Celal had a heavy workload. As Celal stated in an interview, Ogan did the backgrounds of some paintings, with Celal then adding the foreground and details. Of note, Ogan was the model for the guy on the box art for Crime Time. Known box art collaborations between Celal and Ogan include Big Business and Air Supply. Celal and Ogan also collaborated on art for Biing!; however, OVGA is uncertain on whether this collaboration was for box art or for in-game graphics.

Adapted from BOX=ART Oliver "Oli" Frey’s artwork has become somewhat representative of the UK's 1980’s video game scene thanks to the artist’s contributions to popular gaming magazines CRASH, Zzap!64, Amtix and The Games Machine. Some of his magazine covers would translate to box art (see, Feud and Knight Games) but the majority would be originals and published under Thalamus. Another repurposed artwork would be The Demon's Forge (1987), which originally appeared on the cover of Zzap #13 (1986) and under the title Cauldron & Antiriad. It is one of a handful of Oli's box art paintings that the U.S. arm of Mastertronic used exclusively in the United States. Oli's art promoted the rerelease, with the original 1981 game sporting a very different cover by artist Vicente Segrelles. OVGA has included below Oliver Frey's full known box art catalog: Zaxxan (Stazone Software | ZX Spectrum | 1983) Beach Head II (U.S. Gold | Amstrad CPC-EUR, Commodore 64-EUR, ZX Spectrum | 1985) The Ket Trilogy (Incentive Software | BBC Micro, Commodore 64, Dragon 32, Electron, ZX Spectrum | 1985) Knight Games (Mastertronic | Commodore 64-USA, DOS-USA | 1986) Que-Dex | Thalamus | Commodore 64-EUR | 1987) The Demon’s Forge | Mastertronic | PC Booter | 1987) Armalyte (Thalamus | Commodore 64 | 1988) Feud (Mastertronic | Commodore 64-USA, DOS-USA | 1988) Hawkeye (Thalamus | Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64 | 1988) Retrograde | Thalamus | Commodore 64 | 1989) Snare | Thalamus | Commodore 64 | 1989) Delta Charge | Thalamus | Commodore 64-EUR, Sam Coupe, ZX Spectrum | 1990) Heatseeker (Thalamus | Commodore 64 | 1990) Venom Wing (Thalamus | Amiga | 1990) Borobudur: The Planet of Doom (Thalamus | Amiga | 1992)

Adapted from BOX=ART | Interviewed by Adam Gidney in July 2015 Steinar Lund is a Norwegian-born and UK-resident artist responsible for illustrating dozens of game boxes in Europe, including some of the continent’s earliest. Steinar was at the beginning of the UK’s home computer scene and there probably isn’t a gaming fan in Europe that hasn’t seen his work! Steinar broke into the video game industry in 1981 illustrating the box art for Quicksilva’s first release QS Defenda for the ZX81. Steinar had actually known Quicksilva founders Nick Lambert and John Hollis through mutual friends before the game industry in the UK had really taken off. As he tells it, “I knew they were starting something so I did some roughs without them asking and they were pretty chuffed with those so that’s how I got to do the first one.” The industry was so new that Steinar thinks his art for QS Defenda might have been the first game packaging art in color, at least in Europe. Steinar subsequently illustrated the art for QS Asteroids (1981) and designed Quicksilva’s color “QS” logo. As Steinar’s work with Quicksilva was freelance—as was standard back then, along with other Quicksilva illustrators such as David John Rowe and Rich Shenfield—he soon branched out and was also illustrating box art for publisher Melbourne House. Game trade shows Steinar and Dave would attend with the team from Quicksilva, portfolios in hand, gave the two opportunities to meet other exhibitors. Through these trade shows Steinar met game designer and Llamasoft founder Jeff Minter, a partner—and fellow fan of Pink Floyd—that embraced the more surreal art Steinar had been doing at the time. As Steinar explained in an interview with Adam Gidney, “[Jeff] gave me a lot of free reign, I would do various visuals, pencils, and he would go with what caught his eye most.” For Llamasoft, that free reign would often emerge in the form of vivid, almost-neon sprays of the airbrush outlining characters that epitomized the bizarre. Steinar’s illustrations would ensure Llamasoft’s products stood out and his art is perhaps just as much a part of the cult classic status of Ancipital and Attack of the Mutant Camels (both 1984) as the games themselves. And that shared love of Pink Floyd? Steinar’s box art for Yak’s Progress, a compilation of eight games Jeff programmed, would feature a stylized characterization of Jeff (a.k.a. “Yak”) sporting a Pink Floyd shirt! By the latter half of the 1980s, Steinar’s box art had started to become deliberately richer and more detailed. This shift would coincide with the dawn of the 16-bit gaming era (Amiga, Atari ST, DOS), which, with likely larger art budgets, brought a demand for higher quality art to complement the finer graphics now on offer. Box art such as Armageddon Man (1987), Hunt for the Red October (1987), and Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (1988)—one of Steinar’s personal favorites, would all display this new level of detail and would benefit from larger sized retail boxes, creating a greater “canvas” for the work of Steinar and other artists. Steinar also produced one of his most well-known works in this era: The Last Ninja (1987). Featuring a simple pair of eyes on an all-black background, Steinar’s packaging illustration captured the persona of a ninja not with covert action scenes but with an emphasis on the ability of a ninja to blend into the background. Steinar’s effective imagery, paired with the game’s runaway success, has ensured that the art remains recognizable, even decades later! Steinar’s art for The Last Ninja inspired the European box art designs for two sequels—both of which utilized a similar eye motif—and Steinar’s original image was reused for the Amiga 32 release of The Last Ninja 3 (1994). Ending the decade, Steinar teamed up with Microprose, and his versatility would again be flexed with M1 Tank Platoon (1989). The box’s realistic rendering, high level of detail, and historic accuracy would lead the artist to other similar Microprose projects such as Gunship (1989), Team Yankee (1990), and F-15 Strike Eagle II (1991) that would define his later box art career. F-15 Strike Eagle II in particular would be high-profile, being used for the game’s Sega Mega Drive packaging in Europe; the US release would instead feature the art of Mike Bates. Steinar would illustrate his final box art in 1995 for sci-fi epic Space Bucks, but the image would be heavily redesigned from the original, a first for the artist. As with many box artists of his generation, Steinar left the industry by the mid-’90s as the rise of digital art plummeted the demand for traditional illustration. Throughout his box art career, Steinar rendered his work with acrylics and inks using a combination of airbrush, traditional brushes, and erasers (see interview). The materials would prove sturdy, and acrylic paints gave Steinar the intense colors that defined his box art. Process-wise, Steinar would start an illustration with pencil sketches to flesh out the design. Once finalized, he would create a pencil mockup to transfer the overall image to a board for airbrushing; Steinar would use a Japanese Olympus airbrush. Steinar would complete his works by hand with a brush for any finishing touches. Steinar has frequently cited Spanish surrealist Salvador Dali as an early artistic influence. Picking up the airbrush in his final year of college led to other artists whose work he admired: Chris Fosse, who became famous for his highly detailed space junk on sci-fi book covers; Chris Moore; Jim Burns, for his unique style and “hardware designs”; and Tim White, as well as photorealist Michael English. Beyond contemporary inspirations, Steinar has specifically cited American artist Maxfield Parrish as an all-time favorite, describing his use of color as very influential; Maxfield would use glazes to achieve spectacular effects in his paintings and Steinar would point to Maxfield’s 1922 painting Daybreak as atmospheric and dreamy with an eloquent use of color and light. In Steinar’s 2015 interview with Adam Gidney, Roger Dean’s name was also quick to mind for Steinar, not only for Roger’s music album covers but also for the artbooks he published featuring the work of other artists. Steinar spoke contemporaneously about his video game box art in issue 14 of CRASH magazine (March 1985) and another feature transcribed here, possibly from 1988. OVGA has included below Steinar Lund's full known box art catalog QS Asteroids (Quicksilva Ltd. | ZX81 | 1981) QS Defenda (Quicksilva Ltd. | ZX81 | 1981) QS Invaders (Quicksilva Ltd. | ZX81 | 1981) Classic Adventure a.k.a. Adventure 1 (Melbourne House | Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | 1982) Dragonsbane (Quicksilva | ZX Spectrum | 1983) Smugglers Cove (Quicksilva | ZX Spectrum | 1983) Xadom (Quicksilva | ZX Spectrum | 1983) Ancipital (Llamasoft | 1984 | Commodore 64 | 1984) Attack of the Mutant Camels a.k.a. Advance of the Mega Camels (Llamasoft Ltd. | Atari 8-bit | 1984) Backpackers Guide to the Universe Part 1 (Fantasy Software | 1984 | ZX Spectrum | 1984) Blood ‘n’ Gutz (Quicksilva | Commodore 64 | 1984) Boulderdash (Mirrorsoft Ltd | Amstrad CPC, Atari 8-bit, ZX Spectrum | 1984) Dark Tower (Melboure House | Commodore 16, Plus/4, Commodore 64 | 1984) Gatecrasher (Quicksilva | Amstrad CPC, BBC Micro, Electron, ZX Spectrum | 1984) Hellfire (Melbourne House | ZX Spectrum | 1984) Mama Llama (Llamasoft | Commodore 64 | 1984) Revelation (Softek International Ltd. | Commodore 64 | 1984) Sheep in Space (Llamasoft Ltd. | Commodore 64 | 1984) Batalyx (Llamasoft | Commodore 64 | 1985) Battle of the Planets (Mikro-Gen Ltd | Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | 1985) Castle of Terror (Melbourne House | Commodore 64 | 1985) Codename MAT 2 (Domark | Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum | 1985) Dynamite Dan (Mirrorsoft Ltd. | ZX Spectrum | 1985) Dynamite Dan II (Mirrorsoft | Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum | 1985) Fighting Warrior (Melboure House | Amstrad CPC, Commodore 16, Plus/4, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | 1985) Gyroscope (Melboure House | Amstrad CPC, BBC Micro, Commodore 64, Electron, ZX Spectrum | 1985) Mad Doctor (Sparkers | Commodore 64 | 1985) Riddlers Den (Electric dreams Software | ZX Spectrum | 1985) ARAC (Addictive Games Ltd | 1986 | Commodore 64 | 1986) Cop-Out (Mikro-Gen Ltd | Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum | 1986) Frost Byte (Mikro-Gen Ltd | Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | 1986) Idris Alpha (Hewson Consultants | Commodore 64 | 1986) Jahangir Khan Championship Squash World (Krisalis Software Ltd | Acorn 32-bit, Amiga, Amstrad, Atari ST, C64, DOS,Spectrum | 1986) Knuckle Busters (Melbourne House | Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | 1986) Kwah! (Melbourne House | Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | 1986) Mermaid Madness (Electric Dreams Software | Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | 1986) Orbix: The Terrorball (Streetwise | ZX Spectrum | 1986) Raid 2000 (Mirrorsoft | Commodore 64 | 1986) Redhawk (Melbourne House | Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | 1986) Stainless Steel (Mikro-Gen Ltd | Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum | 1986) Terror of the Deep (Mirrorsoft Ltd | Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | 1986) Viva Vic! (Llamasoft | VIC-20 | 1986) πr² a.k.a. Pi-r Squared (Mind Games | Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | 1987) Armageddon Man (Martech Games Ltd | Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | 1987) Bermuda Project (Mirrorsoft Ltd. | Amiga, Atari ST | 1987) Hunt for the Red October (Grandslam Entertainments Ltd | Amiga, Amstrad, Atari ST, C64, DOS, MSX, Spectrum | 1987) IBall (Firebird | Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | 1987) Mega Apocalypse (Marteck Games Ltd | Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | 1987) Moon Strike (Mirrorsoft | ZX Spectrum | 1987) Nigel Mansell’s Grand Prix (Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, ZX Spectrum | 1987) Pac-Land (Quicksilva | Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, MSX, ZX Spectrum | 1987) Terramex (Grandslam Entertainments Ltd | EU ver. | Acorn 32-bit, Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, C64, MSX, ZX Spectrum | 1987) The Last Ninja (System 3 | CD32, Commodore 64 | 1987) The Tube (Quicksilva | Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum. | 1987) Typhoon Thompson (Domark Limited | Atari ST | 1987) Dark Side (Incentive Software Ltd. | Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, DOS, ZX Spectrum | 1988) Driller (Incentive Software | Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, MS-DOS, ZX Spectrum | 1988) Fireblaster (Prism Leisure Corp | Amiga, Atari ST | 1988) Hellfire Attack (Martech Games Ltd | Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | 1988) Hyperdrome (Exocet Software | Amiga, Atari ST | 1988) Ian Flemming’s James Bond 007 in Live and Let Die: The Computer Game (Domark | Amiga, Amstrad, Atari ST, C64, Spectrum | 1988) Pac-Mania (Grandslam Entertainments Ltd | Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, MSX, ZX Spectrum | 1988) Phantom Fighter (Martech Games Ltd | Amiga | 1988) Power Pyramids (Grandslam Entertainments Ltd | Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | 1988) Rex (Martech Games Ltd | Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum | 1988) R.I.S.K (The Edge | Commodore 64 | 1988) Star Wars (Domark | EU ver. | Amiga, Amstrad, Atari ST, BBC Micro, C64, Electron, Game Boy, Macintosh, DOS, Spectrum | 1988) Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (Domark | EU ver. | Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64 | 1988) Shoot-Out (Martech Games Ltd | Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | 1988) Trivial Pursuit: A New Beginning (Domark Limited | Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, BBC Micro, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | 1988) Total Eclipse (incentive Software | EU ver. | Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | 1988) 3D Pool (Firebird Software | 1989 | Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, BBC Micro, Commodore 64, Electron, MSX, ZX Spectrum | 1989) Andes Attack (Llamasoft Ltd. | Atari ST | 1989) APB (Domark | Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, MS DOS, ZX Spectrum | 1989) Dark Side (Micro Status | Amiga, Atari ST | 1989) different art Jaws (Screen 7 Ltd. | Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, MSX, ZX Spectrum | 1989) M1 Tank Platoon (Microprose | Amiga, Atari ST, MS-DOS | 1989) Prison (Krisalis Software Ltd. | Amiga, Atari ST | 1989) Stunt Track Racer (Microstyle | Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, MS-DOS, ZX Spectrum | 1989) Thunderbirds (Grandslam Entertainments Ltd | Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, MSX, ZX Spectrum | 1989) Vindicators (Domark | Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | 1989) Apprentice (Rainbow Arts Software GmbH | 1990 | Amiga, Atari ST | 1990) Ashes of Empire (Mirage Tech Ltd | Amiga | 1990) Chuck Yeager’s Advanced Flight Trainer 2.0 (Electronic Arts | Amiga, Atari ST, DOS | 1990) composite of 4 separate plane illustrations Lords of Chaos (Blade Software | Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | 1990) Mad Professor Moriati (Acorn 32-bit, Amiga, Atari ST | 1990) Poseidon: Planet Eleven (Hi-Tec Software Ltd. | Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | 1990) Scramble Spirits (Grandslam Interactive Ltd. | Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, MSX, ZX Spectrum | 1990) Space Harrier II (Grandslam Entertainments Ltd | EU ver. | Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | 1990) Team Yankee (Empire Software | UK ver. | Amiga, Atari ST, CDTV, MS-DOS | 1990) Xiphos (Electronic Zoo | Amiga, Atari ST, MS-DOS | 1990) Corx: Rebel Racers (Starbyte Software | Amiga, Commodore 64 | 1991) Extreme (Digital Integration Ltd. | Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | 1991) F-15 Strike Eagle II (Microprose | Amiga, Atari ST, Mega Drive, MS-DOS | 1991) Manchester United (Krisalis Software Ltd | Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, MS-DOS, ZX Spectrum | 1991) Winzer (Starbyte Software | Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, MS-DOS | 1991) Alcatraz (Inforgrames Europe SA | 1992 | Amiga Atari ST, DOS | 1992) Laser Squad (Krisalis Software Ltd. | DOS | 1992) Pacific Islands (Empire software | Amiga, Atari ST, MS-DOS | 1992) Sabre Team (Krisalis software House | Amiga, Atari ST, CD32, MS-DOS | 1992) Shadoworlds (Krisalis software House | Amiga, Atari ST, MS-DOS | 1992) Soul Crystal (Starbyte Software | Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, MS-DOS | 1992) Twilight: 2000 (Empire Sotftware | EU ver. | MS-DOS | 1992) Vikings: Fields of Conquest - Kingdoms of England (Krisalis Software | Amiga, MS-DOS | 1992) Rules of Engagement 2 (Impressions Games | Amiga, MS-DOS | 1993) Uridium 2 (Renegade Software | Amiga | 1993) Last Ninja 3 (System 3 Software Ltd. | Amiga 32CD | 1994) repeat art Legends (Guildhall Leisure Services Ltd. | Amiga, Amiga 32CD, DOS | 1996) Space Bucks (Sierra On-Line | Windows 3.x | 1996)

Adapted from BOX=ART Robert "Bob" Wakelin was a British illustrator best known for his extensive catalog of box art for UK publisher Ocean Software (and related label Imagine Software) as well as his work for Marvel UK. American gamers will recognize Bob's work on the box for the NES release of Contra, originally titled Gryzor for its home computer release in Europe where it first carried Bob's art. Growing up in the 60s in North Wales, Bob dreamed of a career working in comics. After completing a local graphic design course at Deeside College in North Wales, then known as Flintshire College of Technology, Bob relocated to Liverpool and joined a studio which specialized in artwork for the entertainment industry. During this period, Bob did many commissions for rock bands, producing artwork for album covers before becoming a freelancer in 1978 and doing comic work for Marvel UK. By 1983—after a stint in the band Modern Eon—Bob returned to freelancing and talked friend Blair Wilkins into sharing a studio space. Blair had already done a couple of early game boxes for Ocean (founded as Spectrum Games) and brought Bob to a meeting with David Ward and Jon Woods. Impressed with Bob's sample pieces, they offered him work. Blair and Bob worked jointly at first before Bob eventually took over all art duties. Working alongside art director Steve Blower, Bob was soon producing art for so many boxes at once that he was unsure which might have been his first, naming Caterpilla, Road Frog, and Moon Alert among his earliest. Although neither Steve nor Bob were responsible for designing Ocean’s original logo—that piece of gaming history is likely lost —Bob is credited for jazzing it up. Originally a flat, blue on white image, Bob added a few flourishes, including a subtle blend of blue shades and some effective shadowing, transforming it into the gleaming one fans instantly recognize today; both logos would be used interchangeably until the Ocean name was dissolved in the late 1990s. Bob was exceptionally versatile and over the course of a decade is said to have produced almost 100 illustrations for Ocean/Imagine, surely helping cement the company’s place as a premier software house in Europe. As Ocean took on a broad spectrum of licensed properties based on movies and comics and struck deals with Japanese software houses Data East, Taito, and Konami to convert arcade classics beginning in 1986, they called upon Bob’s talents to produce images in a wide range of styles. To illustrate that range, many write-ups on Bob’s work point to his realistic rendering for a title like Cabal and draw a sharp contrast with his handling and imitation of Japanese box art such as his art for The NewZealand Story or Rainbow Islands. But those extremes hardly do justice to even his diversity from title to title within a single year. A sampling of his 1986 works include Comic Bakery, Galivan, The Great Escape, and Green Beret: four incredibly different boxes yet all from Bob’s hand. Mag Max and Super Bowl from that same year would only further demonstrate the depth of Bob’s technique and execution. While OVGA includes a full list of Bob’s works below with hover images, the variety of his box art catalog is on full display in this YouTube tribute video. For much of Bob’s box art career he worked with little more than a description of the game, its title, and a brief demo. The graphically basic games couldn’t be relied on for inspiration, instead leaving Bob’s imagination to fill in the gaps. Bob’s vibrant artwork bridged that divide by helping communicate the image that programmers wanted gamers to have in their mind while playing—and on occasion compensating for a game the company thought was mediocre. Calling himself a big kid at heart, his bold and colorful characters gave children something to imagine in ways the games could not. He credits knowing how to appeal to children as one of the reasons for his success. Later, with the more powerful home computers of the late 80s and the early 90s, his box paintings became richer and more complex, producing some of his best works in this period such as Ivanhoe (1990), Epic (1992), and Sleepwalker (1993). In a contemporaneous interview in Crash magazine (July 1985), Bob noted that Ocean Software had grown and expanded so quickly that he was doing nearly half his work for just the one client. He explained that it would take him four or five days from start to finish to complete a painting for Ocean, elaborating on his illustration medium and technique: “I spend a day referencing it, and then three or four days completing the artwork. I start off by doing a very tight drawing in pencils, filling in all the detail and then airbrush over so that some of the pencil lines come through the colour. I don’t like the tubular, plastic look of most airbrush work and find that the pencil technique avoids that... I generally finish the painting off, adding tiny details in gouache or felt pen.” Bob's final work before parting from Ocean was the 1994 DOS game Central Intelligence, after which he would return to freelancing for Marvel UK. Though Bob branched out into magazine and comic covers during his decade with Ocean, he rarely, if ever, produced art for rival software houses, deeming loyalty to Ocean an important facet of their relationship. Bob did lend art to a number of Imagine Software titles, though in practice Imagine had become a sub-label of Ocean, following Ocean's purchase of the company’s name and branding in October 1984. Bob spoke to ExoticA Wiki back in 2006/2007 and provided comments on several of his video game artworks. In a 2009 interview with the BBC, Bob revealed that much of the art in his possession almost never made it past the mid-90s when Ocean moved offices. As Bob told it: “They had a warehouse they were going to empty and the art director at the time phoned me and said, 'Bob, your artwork’s going in the skip'. I had a mate with a van so we immediately drove over and I rescued most of it, probably about 90 percent of the work I've done." Bob passed away on January 20, 2018. His family sells official A3 size posters of his work on Etsy: BobWakelinArtwork. OVGA has included below Bob Wakelin's full known video game box art catalog: Caterpilla (Ocean | VIC-20, ZX Spectrum | 1983) Chinese Juggler (Ocean | Commodore 64-EUR, ZX Spectrum | 1983) Digger Dan (Ocean | ZX Spectrum | 1983) Hunchback (Ocean | Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, DOS, Oric, VIC-20, ZX Spectrum | 1983) Island of Death (Ocean | Oric | 1983) Pogo (Ocean | ZX Spectrum | 1983) Road Frog (Ocean | Oric, ZX Spectrum | 1983) Royal Birkdale Championship Golf (Ocean | ZX Spectrum | 1983) Cavelon (Ocean | Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | 1984) Daley Thompson’s Decathlon (Ocean | Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | 1984) The Dam Busters (U.S. Gold | Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64-EUR, MSX | 1984) Eskimo Eddie (Ocean | Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | 1984) Gift from the Gods (Ocean | ZX Spectrum | 1984) Gilligan’s Gold (Ocean | Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | 1984) Highnoon (Ocean | Commodore 64 | 1984) Hunchback II: Quasimodo's Revenge (Ocean | Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | 1984) Jonny and the Jimpys (Ocean | Commodore 64 | 1984) Kong Strikes Back! (Ocean | Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | 1984) Match Day (Ocean | Amstrad CPC, BBC Micro, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | 1984) Moon Alert (Ocean | ZX Spectrum | 1984) Pud Pud in Weird World (Ocean | ZX Spectrum | 1984) Stunt Bike (Ocean | Commodore 64 | 1984) Cosmic Wartoad (Ocean | ZX Spectrum | 1985) Daley Thompson’s Super Test (Ocean | Amstrad CPC, BBC Micro, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | 1985) Frankie Goes to Hollywood (Ocean | Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | 1985) Hyper Sports (Imagine | Amstrad CPC, BBC Micro, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | 1985) Roland's Ratrace (Ocean | Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | 1985) World Series Baseball a.k.a. The Slugger (Imagine | Amstrad CPC, Commodore 16, Plus/4, Commodore 64, PC Booter, ZX Spectrum | 1985) Super Huey UH-IX (U.S. Gold | Apple II, Atari 400-800, Atari 7800, Commodore 64 | 1985) The Transformers (Ocean | Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | 1985) Whirlinurd (U.S. Gold | Atari 400-800, Commodore 64 | 1985) Wizadore (Imagine | BBC Micro | 1985) World Series Basketball (Imagine | ZX Spectrum | 1985) Batman (Ocean | Amstrad CPC, MSX, ZX Spectrum | 1986) Comic Bakery (Imagine | Commodore 64 | 1986) Fight Night (U.S. Gold | Atari 400-800, Commodore 64 | 1986) Galivan (Imagine | Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | 1986) The Great Escape (Ocean Software | Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, DOS, ZX Spectrum 1986) Green Beret (Imagine | Amstrad CPC, BBC Micro, Commodore 64, DOS, MSX, ZX Spectrum | 1986) Highlander (Ocean | Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | 1986) Hunchback: The Adventure (Ocean | Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | 1986) It's a Knockout (Ocean | Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | 1986) Legend of Kage (Imagine | Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | 1986) Mag Max (Imagine | Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | 1986) Mikie (Imagine | Amstrad CPC, BBC Micro, Commodore 64, Electron, ZX Spectrum | 1986) MOVIE (Ocean | Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum | 1986) N.O.M.A.D. (Ocean | Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | 1986) Nightmare Rally (Ocean | ZX Spectrum | 1986) Parallax (Ocean | Commodore 64-EUR | 1986) Super Bowl (Ocean | Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum 1986) Super Soccer (Ocean | ZX spectrum | 1986) Tennis a.k.a. Konami’s Tennis (Imagine | ZX Spectrum | 1986) Terra Cresta (Imagine | ZX Spectrum | 1986) Athena (Imagine | Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | 1987) Gryzor a.k.a. Contra (Ocean | Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, DOS, MSX, NES, ZX Spectrum | 1987) Flashpoint (Ocean | ZX Spectrum | 1987) Head Over Heels (Ocean | Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Amstrad PCW, Atari 8-bit, Atari ST, Commodore 64-EUR, MSX, ZX Spectrum 1987) Match Day II (Ocean | Amstrad CPC, Amstrad PCW, Commodore 64, MSX, ZX Spectrum | 1987) Mutants (Ocean | Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64-EUR, ZX Spectrum | 1987) Renegade (Imagine | Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64-EUR, ZX Spectrum | 1987) Slap Fight a.k.a. A.L.C.O.N. (Imagine | Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | 1987) Tai-Pan (Ocean | Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, DOS, MSX, ZX Spectrum | 1987) Tank (Ocean | Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | 1987) When Time Stood Still (Ocean | Atari, DOS, ZX Spectrum | 1987) Batman: The Caped Crusader (Ocean | Amiga, Apple II, Atari ST, Commodore 64, DOS, ZX Spectrum | 1988) Daley Thompson’s Olympic Challenge (Ocean | Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, DOS, ZX Spectrum | 1988) G.U.T.Z. (Ocean | Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | 1988) Operational Wolf (Ocean | Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64-EUR, MSX, ZX Spectrum | 1988) Phantom Club (Ocean | Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum | 1988) Psycho Soldier (Imagine | Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | 1988) Rastan (Imagine | Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64-EUR, ZX Spectrum | 1988) Target: Renegade (Ocean | Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, NES, ZX Spectrum | 1988) The Vindicator: Green Beret II (Ocean | Amstrad CPC, Commodore 65, ZX Spectrum | 1988) Wizball (Ocean | Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, DOS, ZX Spectrum | 1988) Beach Volley (Ocean | Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, ZX Spectrum | 1989) Cabal (Ocean | Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | 1989) Chase H.Q. (Ocean | Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, MSX, ZX Spectrum | 1989) Lost Patrol (Ocean | Amiga, Atari ST, DOS | 1989) The NewZealand Story (Ocean | Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, NES, ZX Spectrum | 1989) Renegade III: The Final Chapter (Imagine | Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, MSX, ZX Spectrum | 1989) Sly Spy (Ocean | Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | 1989) Voyager (Ocean | Amiga, Atari ST | 1989) title/female robot logo in background painted by Gary McNamara Adidas Championship Football (Ocean | Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | 1990) Hollywood Collection a.k.a. Les Stars d'Hollywood (Ocean | Atari ST, Amiga, DOS, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | 1990) Ivanhoe (Ocean | Amiga, Atari ST | 1990) Midnight Resistance (Ocean | Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | 1990) NARC (Ocean | Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, MSX, ZX Spectrum | 1990) Operational Thunderbolt (Ocean | Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | 1990) Pang (Ocean | Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | 1990) Plotting (Ocean | Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | 1990) Rainbow Islands (Ocean | Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, NES, ZX Spectrum | 1990) Shadow Warriors a.k.a. Ninja Gaiden (Ocean | Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | 1990) Billy the Kid (Ocean | Amiga, DOS | 1991) Elf (Ocean | Amiga, Atari ST, DOS-EUR | 1991) Epic (Ocean | Amiga, Atari ST, DOS | 1992) Parasol Stars (Ocean | Amiga, Atari ST, Game Boy, NES | 1992) Space Gun (Ocean | Atari ST, Amiga, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | 1992) Striker (Rage Software | Amiga, Amiga CD32,Atari ST, SNES |1992) Super Hunchback Starring Quasimodo (Ocean | Game Boy | 1992) Repeat image The Games '92 - España (Ocean | Amiga, Atari ST, DOS | 1992) Wizkid (Ocean | Amiga, Atari ST, DOS | 1992) International Open Golf Championship (Ocean | Amiga, Amiga CD32, DOS | 1993) Sleepwalker (Ocean | Amiga, Amiga CD32, Atari ST, Commodore 64, DOS | 1993) Alien Olympics (Ocean | Game Boy | 1994) Choplifter III: Rescue Survive (Ocean | Game Boy-EUR, SNES-EUR | 1994) Mr. Nutz (Ocean | Genesis-EUR, SNES | 1994) Mr. Nutz (Ocean | SNES-JPN | 1994) Japanese Super Famicom artwork is a combination of the SNES Europe front box art with a spot illustration that appears on the back of the box Central Intelligence (Ocean | DOS | 1994) Bob has also illustrated covers for UK magazines, including CV&G. In addition to the above, published box art, Bob created other game paintings that were ultimately unused, whether because they were rejected (Miami Vice), there were changes to the game (Kid Vicious becoming Kid Chaos—the latter of which doesn't appear to be Bob's work), or for other reasons. OVGA has not captured such material in the above box art catalog but may instead include that information as comments below.

Adapted from BOX=ART Ayami Kojima is a self-taught Japanese artist recognized internationally for her box art for the Castlevania series. Although she is now best known for her video game work, Ayami established herself as an accomplished freelance artist and illustrator through early work illustrating novel covers, including all three covers for the science fiction trilogy Cluster Saga by Sayako Asaba, beginning in 1991. She also provided black and white illustrations for page content, in particular for the Majin series and a variety of other novels by Kikuchi Hideyuki, the creator of Vampire Hunter D. In total, Ayami would illustrate the covers for more than a dozen novels before breaking into the game industry. Ayami’s break into game packaging illustration would come in 1997 with Konami’s Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (SOTN) for the European and Japanese PlayStation releases; the front of the US box would not use her artwork. Ayami not only created the fan-favorite box art but also designed some of the in-game character art. Her renditions of Alucard and others were a new look for the series, giving the characters more delicate features and complex rendering and costuming that resulted in a more feminine look than previously seen in Castlevania releases. While this new take would contrast strongly with Castlevania’s previous aesthetic, the approach worked, not only with fans but also with SOTN’s more considered pace and story-driven gameplay, which helped make Castlevania critically relevant once again. The following year Ayami would be responsible for the SOTN’s Sega Saturn box art—arguably its best attribute. She would go on to create many other classic Castlevania box arts, with her final standard box art being the PSP’s Dracula X Chronicles (2007). All would follow the same art style first seen in SOTN apart from Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (2001), which would leverage a deliberate, more animated look as it set out to appeal to the Game Boy Advance’s younger audience. Although “download only” (and thus without a traditional “published” box art), Ayami also created the artwork for Castlevania: Harmony of Despair (2010) for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360, which OVGA has included in Ayami’s box art catalog. Ayami’s non-Castlevania box art catalog includes two releases for KOEI: Soldnerschild for the Sega Saturn (1997) and Ishin no Arashi Bakumatsu Shishiden for Windows (1998) and Sony PlayStation (1999). Ayami also illustrated Chou-Denki Card Battle: Youfu Makai - Kikuchi Shuugyou for the WonderSwan (1999). Beyond box art, Ayami has provided character illustrations for Samurai Warriors (2009), Dynasty Warriors 7 (2011), and Dynasty Warriors 8 (2013). Although her game work appears to have slowed during the 2010s, in 2019, she illustrated the packaging artwork for limited physical copies for a spiritual successor to SOTN titled Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night; the game was developed by several key, former Castlevania staff members. Ayami’s art was only given to certain Kickstarter backers. To create her signature look, Ayami starts by sketching with conté crayon sticks before creating shadows with more conté and India ink. She then adds depth and texture, usually to the background followed by spreading and shaping molding paste with a palette knife. She next paints base colors into the work using diluted acrylics and finger smudging to create glows. To finish, Ayami uses metallic paint highlights enhanced with a gloss polymer. Ayami has leveraged these distinctive methods for all of her box art, an approach likely having developed out of her self-taught background. What may have begun as personal drawing techniques, Ayami's methods have since been featured in a number of art technique books. Ayami’s apparent reluctance to adopt digital techniques has been refreshing and revered by fans worldwide. OVGA has included below Ayami Kojima 小島 文美's full known box art catalog: Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (Konami | PlayStation-EUR/JPN | 1997) also the interior inlay art for the US release Soldnerschild (KOEI | Saturn | 1997) Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (Konami | Saturn | 1998) Ishin no Arashi Bakumatsu Shishiden (KOEI | Windows, PlayStation | 1998) Chou-Denki Card Battle: Youfu Makai - Kikuchi Shuugyou (Kobunsha | WonderSwan | 1999) Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (Konami | Game Boy Advance | 2001) Castlevania: Chronicles (Konami | PlayStation-EUR/JPN | 2001) Castlevania: Chronicles (Konami | PlayStation-USA | 2001) second image Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance (Konami | Game Boy Advance | 2002) Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (Konami | Game Boy Advance | 2003) Castlevania: Lament of Innocence (Konami | PlayStation 2-USA | 2003) Castlevania: Lament of Innocence (Konami | PlayStation 2-EUR/JPN | 2003) second image Castlevania: Curse of Darkness (Konami | PlayStation 2, Xbox | 2005) Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles (Konami | PlayStation Portable | 2007) Castlevania: Harmony of Despair (Konami | PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 | 2010) download only; no "box" Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night (505 Games | Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Windows, Xbox One, | 2019) Exclusive to $100+ tiers on Kickstarter

Adapted from BOX=ART William Roger Dean, known as Roger Dean, is an English artist, designer, and publisher. While Roger is best known for his work on posters and album covers for musicians, his other-worldly landscapes would also leave an indelible mark on the video game industry. Roger’s name is in many ways synonymous with notable British publisher Psygnosis; he joined the company at its genesis and illustrated several of its boxes including perhaps his best known, Shadow of the Beast. Roger began his career in graphic design and fine art through a commission from British rock trio The Gun. The band commissioned Roger to illustrate the cover art for their 1968 debut album, which led to further commissions for Roger from various jazz and rock outfits of the 1970s, with his most notable and influential covers perhaps being those he designed for English rock bands Yes and Asia. Roger’s logo and title art are just as much a part of his album designs as his cover paintings. Roger’s distinctive typeface of flowing and organic curves would complement the exotic vistas that were often depicted. This style would catch the imagination of a young Richard Branson who would hire Roger and his brother Martyn to rebrand Virgin Records in the early 1970s. It would be Roger's first high-profile logo design and would encapsulate perfectly the hard rock and progressive scene of the decade. Roger would start his career in video game box art design by joining Liverpool developer Psygnosis at the start of the company’s tenure in 1984. Designing the iconic owl logo and Psygnosis font, Roger would be responsible for the company’s debut box art for Brataccas. It would be a milestone in cover art design and firmly put the studio on the map, not only because of its craftsmanship but also due to the artist’s revered reputation. Follow-ups, Deep Space (1986), Barbarian (1987), Terrorpods (1987), Chronoquest (1988), and Obliterator (1988) would all take the imagination of the home computer gamer to fantastical worlds, and help shape the gaming landscape of the 1980s. The following year saw Roger’s highest profile box art, Shadow of the Beast released. Not only a highlight of the decade but also in box art history. Roger's artwork was reproduced in a large, glossy landscape box that showcased Roger's fantastical landscape to maximum effect. The game shipped with a sought after 'Beast t-shirt' and was Roger's most used box art to date, finding home across a multitude of gaming formats worldwide. Roger subsequently created the box art for Shadow of the Beast II in 1990, starting the decade on a lofty high that few would reach before box art duties went to David John Rowe for Shadow of the Beast III, the final box art in the series. The year 1990 saw another logo des for developer Bullet-Proof Software, Henk Roger's company who designed early RPG, The Black Onyx. Roger would also provide the logo for Henk's follow up company, Blue-Planet Software in 2000. After designing the box art for Fatal Rewind (the remake of The Killing Game Show) for publisher Electronic Arts in 1991, Roger completed his final Psygnosis box art Aquaventura in 1992. Roger's final box art duties would come at the end of the 1990s when Blue-Planet Software commissioned him in 1999 to rebrand Tetris. It would be Roger's last high-profile logo design in the industry, and would be seen on many Tetris titles, most notably, Tetris Worlds (2001). In 2013, Polygon published a fantastic feature on Roger, "The art outside the box: The story of Roger Dean," exploring the artist's influences and how he fused architecture, art, music and games into one psychedelic whole. OVGA has included below Roger Dean's full known box art catalog: Brataccas (Psygnosis | Amiga, Atari ST, Macintosh | 1986) Deep Space (Psygnosis | Amiga, Atari ST | 1986) Barbarian (Psygnosis | Amiga, Atari ST, Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, DOS, MSX, ZX Spectrum | 1987) Terrorpods (Psygnosis | Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, MSX, ZX Spectrum | 1987) With Tim White. Chronoquest (Psygnosis | Amiga, Atari ST | 1988) Obliterator (Psygnosis | Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, DOS, MSX, ZX Spectrum | 1988) The Super Black Onyx (Bullet-proof Software | NES| 1988) Shadow of the Beast (Psygnosis | Amiga, Atari ST, FM Towns, Genesis, Master System, Mega CD, PC Engine, ZX Spectrum | 1989) Shadow of the Beast II (Psygnosis | Amiga, Atari ST, FM Towns, Sega CD-EUR/JPN | 1990) Fatal Rewind (Psygnosis | Genesis | 1991) Aquaventura (Psygnosis | Amiga | 1992) The Next Tetris (Bullet-proof Software | PS1, Windows | 1999) Tetris Worlds (THQ Inc. | GameCube, Game Boy Advance, PS2, Windows, Xbox | 2001) Barbarian Following on from the lofty highs of both Psygnosis’ debut Brataccas and follow up Deep Space, Roger would turn from sci-fi to fantasy with Barbarian. It would be classic Dean showcasing the artist’s talent for creating beautiful far-stretching other-worlds with sunburnt vistas. Painted on board using acrylic and coined ‘Red Dragon’, Barbarian would mimic Brataccas’ style of art whereby the foreground and background looked as though they’d been lit from different times of the day. This in turn promoted a mesmerising focus on the dragon-like creature that literally jumps of the canvas. It would be a favoured technique that the artist used again on the Shadow of the Beast box arts. Barbarian would cement Psygnosis’ ethos of fine art selling video games, and helped open the flood gates to Europe’s classic late-80 - early-90’s box art period. Brataccas In 1986 the shear quality of Brataccas' art was startling and helped push the video game box art medium to new levels of excellence in the UK. Now promotional art would start to match the quality that film and novel cover arts had enjoyed for decades. In Europe, this was daringly new and unrehearsed and a testament to both Roger and Psygnosis’ vision to create fine art to promote games. The first edition of Brataccas would be unique in Psygnosis’ box art portfolio, with it being released in a book style format, and laying claim to being the studio’s debut cover art. From follow-up Deep Space until the PlayStation era, most home computer cover arts would come housed in the standard thin-coloured border surrounded by black box (also true of the re-released second edition of Brataccas). Of interest, the first edition's uniquely styled logo would be changed for the second edition to look more in line with Dean’s follow up logo work for Psygnosis. Dean staples such as dynamic fore and background light sources, along with organic mechanical characters would bring Brataccas’ acrylic finished, alien vista alive. It also set a lofty benchmark that Psygnosis over the coming years would ever try to smash by commissioning some of the UK’s finest artists.

Adapted from BOX=ART Katsuya Terada is a prolific Japanese illustrator that has worked in every field from advertising to book illustration and from manga to video games. Though Katsuya has filled many roles throughout his career, he’s most at home with his identity as a scribbler, dubbing himself “Rakugaking”—an apparent portmanteau of the Japanese word rakugaki (meaning doodle or scribble) and the English word king. The artist posts actively on Facebook as Katsuya "t e r r a" Terada and has used a “TERRA” signature on many of his works, dating back at least to his work for Nintendo Power. Though Katsuya became famous in the West in the ‘00s through his high-profile character designs for movies like Hellboy (2004) and Blood: The Last Vampire (2009), work in the video game industry beginning in the late-’80s launched his storied career. In fact, as artists have become better credited for their game work, Katsuya’s name has perhaps since become more often attached to the Zelda series, some of his earliest work. Katsuya would start in the video game industry as the illustrator for the Tantei Jingūji Saburō (a.k.a. Detective Jingūji Saburō) series after receiving a call from animator Toshio Nishiuchi. Though Toshio Nishiuchi had painted his own concepts for the game, publisher Data East deemed them a little too cute, and Katsuya answered the call to design something “more hard-boiled,” doing the character designs, background illustrations, some art for the instruction manual, as well as the logo. Katsuya would go on to be a regular contributor to the long-running Tantei Jingūji Saburō visual novel mystery series, continuing to provide art for the series as recently as 2018 for the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 releases of Prism of Eyes. Somewhat unique within the industry, Katsuya has remained involved with the series for more than three decades. By the early-’90s, Katsuya’s box art catalog would expand beyond the Tantei Jingūji Saburō series, illustrating the Japan-only Mega Drive title Blue Almanac in 1991, followed by three titles for the Super Famicom: Prince of Persia (1992), The Legend of Bishin (1993), and Maten Densetsu: Senritsu no Ooparts (1995). His highest-profile box art of this period though would probably be Sega’s Virtua Fighter Remix in 1995 for the Saturn in Japan. Between 1988 and 1994, Katsuya was a regular contributor for Nintendo Power, the promotional magazine for North American markets. An extensive list of Katsuya’s Nintendo Power contributions can be found in this VGDensetsu blog post. Among them, he drew a remarkable set of illustrations for The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. Another set of Link's Awakening art was exclusive to the official German-language player's guide. These printed Zelda illustrations stunned players with powerful imaginations of Link's adventures—as the NES had a limited capacity to show details on a screen, a player's guide filled in the visual gaps by showing more elaborate details. Outside of his Nintendo Power work, little else of his game work contemporaneously made it to international audiences. As a result of the majority of his box art having been for Japan-only titles, his first box art to make it abroad may not have been until 2001 for Wizardry: Tale of the Forsaken Land (in Japan: Busin: Wizardry Alternative). A Jake Hunter (the English localization of Tantei Jingūji Saburō) title for the Nintendo 3DS released in the U.S. in 2009 is another limited exception of Katsuya’s work being used outside of Japan. Katsuya has counted the work of French cartoonist Moebius—of comic book Métal Hurlant fame—among his inspirations, as Moebius, in Katsuya’s mind, combined the clean line art seen in book illustration with the dynamics of manga, opening up possibilities he did not see before. "Moebius was such an influence when I was a teenager, I'm kind of embarrassed by it now. You can really draw anything, if you apply Moebius' style. Because suddenly your manga character doesn't have to be as stylized (as was custom in manga at the time), but they can be much more realistic. In short, I found a lot of possibilities in Moebius' linework." The look of Métal Hurlant’s fantastical and dystopian characters may well have influenced Katsuya’s box arts for The Legend of Bishin (1993) and Sol Divide (1998) as well as other works throughout the artist’s career. Beyond his exceptional video game portfolio, Katsuya is particularly heralded for his fantasy manga series The Monkey King, originally published by Shueisha as Saiyukiden Daienō in Japanese in 1995, then translated into English in 2005 by Dark Horse publishing. The two full-color manga books reinterpret a well-known epic of Goku, who escorts the monk Sanzo on a perilous journey across—as the flap text has it—"a wasteland filled with weird, violent, and sexy demons." Widely seen as among Katsuya Terada’s finest work, one reviewer commented: "His artwork—every page is painted—explodes with energy, overflows with baroque lineation and voluptuous figuration, and exploits color like a chameleon with multiple personality disorder." Over the years Katsuya’s work has spanned a range of media, using water-based markers, paints, brush pens and pencils, as well as digital media. Presently, Katsuya says that he sketches nearly everything on a 13" iPad Pro, allowing him to work with speed and freedom. He has built up a following through his copious sketching and has described drawing as almost a physical need to him, comparing his daily routine to the preparations of a marathon runner, “The more time I spend on drawing, the closer I get to that line that I am imagining. Every day of practice prepares you better for that one moment." Cook and Becker published an exceptional artist spotlight on Katsuya Terada, which OVGA has referenced in supplementing this biography. OVGA has included below Katsuya Terada 寺田 克也's full known box art catalog: Detective Saburō Jingūj: Shinjuku Chūō Kōen Satsujin Jiken (Data East | Nintendo Disk System | 1987) Detective Saburō Jingūj: Kiken na Futari Zenpen (Data East | Nintendo Disk System | 1988) Detective Saburō Jingūj: Yokohama-kō Renzoku Satsujin Jiken (Data East | NES | 1988) Detective Saburō Jingūj: Kiken na Futari Kōhen (Data East | Nintendo Disk System | 1989) Blue Almanac (Kodansha Ltd. | Mega Drive | 1991) Detective Saburō Jingūj: Toki no Sugiyuku Mama ni... (Data East | NES | 1991) Prince of Persia (Masaya | SNES-EUR/JPN | 1992) The Legend of Bishin (Magifact | SNES | 1993) Maten Densetsu: Senritsu no Ooparts (TAKARA Lft Co. | SNES | 1995) Virtua Fighter Remix (Sega | Saturn-JPN | 1995) Detective Saburō Jingūj: Mikan no Rupo (Data East | PS1, Saturn | 1996) Detective Saburō Jingūj: Yume no Owari ni (Data East | PS1, Saturn | 1998) Sol Divide (Atlus | PS1, Saturn | 1998) Detective Saburō Jingūj: Early Collection (Data East | PS1 | 1999) Detective Saburō Jingūj: Tomoshibi ga Kienu Ma ni (Data East | PS1 | 1999) Busin: Wizardry Alternative (Atlus | PS2 | 2001) Nanatama: Chronicle of Dungeon Master (GAE Inc. | Sony PSP | 2001) Wizardry: Tale of the Forsaken Land (Atlus U.S.A | PS2 | 2001) Detective Saburō Jingūj: Innocent Black (WorkJam | PS2 | 2002) Sword of Samurai (Majesco Entertainment | PS2-JPN | 2002) Busin 0: Wizardry Alternative NEO (Atlus | PS2 | 2003) Detective Saburō Jingūj: Kind of Blue (WorkJam | PS2 | 2004) Detective Saburō Jingūj: Shiroi Kage no Shōjo (WorkJam | Game Boy Advance | 2004) Jake Hunter: Detective Chronicles (WorkJam | Nintendo DS | 2007) Detective Saburō Jingūj: Kienai Kokoro (WorkJam | Nintendo DS | 2008) Detective Saburō Jingūj: Fuserareta Shinjitsu (WorkJam | Nintendo DS | 2009) Detective Saburō Jingūj: Hai to Daiyamondo (WorkJam | Sony PSP | 2009) Jake Hunter Detective Story: Memories of the Past (Aksys Games Localization, Inc. | Nintendo DS | 2009) Detective Saburō Jingūj: Akai Chō (WorkJam | Nintendo DS | 2010) Detective Saburō Jingūj: Fukushuu no Rinne (WorkJam | 3DS | 2012) Jake Hunter Detective Stories: Ghost in the Dark (Arc System Works | 3DS | 2017) Detective Saburō Jingūj: Prism of Eyes (Arc System Works | PS4, Nintendo Switch | 2018)

Adapted from BOX=ART Yoshitaka Amano is one of the most revered Japanese illustrators of his generation; a legendary artist who defined the the long running Final Fantasy series. While visiting a friend in Tokyo in 1967, Yoshitaka boldly took his paintings to the famed animation studio Tatsunoko Productions. His talent was instantly recognized, and at the age of 15, his family reluctantly moved him to a company dormitory in the capital city. During his fifteen-year tenure with Tatsunoko, Yoshitaka prospered, carving out the then-unheard role of character designer, penciling such classics as Gatchaman and Casshan. In this period, Yoshitaka would develop his trademark style of delicate, wispy lines, bold comic book inspired coloring, and effeminate looking characters. After Tatsunoko, in 1982, Yoshitaka went independent and became a freelance artist, finding success as an illustrator for numerous authors, and worked on best-selling novel series, such as The Guin Saga and Vampire Hunter D. Yoshitaka illustrated the cover for the first Vampire Hunter D novel, and in creating the enduring design for the character D, Yoshitaka would find worldwide recognition with the titular character’s debut anime: Vampire Hunter D (1985). In 1987, Yoshitaka joined fledgling developer Square as a promotional illustrator and character designer for its latest game, Final Fantasy, with Yoshitaka also creating the game's debut box art. With the success of Final Fantasy, Square set about turning the game into a series and Yoshitaka’s artwork would be used on the Famicom releases of Final Fantasy II and Final Fantasy III (1988 and 1990). Strangely, Final Fantasy IV and Final Fantasy V’s box arts on the Super Famicom (1991 and 1992) eschewed Yoshitaka’s hallmark painted style in favor of character art reminiscent of their equivalent in-game sprites. Yoshitaka would however remain responsible for the title and logo design for these games in what would become an enduring tradition, as Yoshitaka’s title/logo designs have graced the boxes of every main-series release to this day. Among his work with Square for the Final Fantasy series, Japanese studio KSK enlisted Yoshitaka to illustrate the box art for Silver Ghost and First Queen, two titles that helped establish KSK’s newly invented "Gochyakyara" (ゴチャキャラ "Multiple Character") system, a unique hybrid between the real-time strategy, action role-playing game and tactical role-playing game genres that would later inspire such series as Shining Force and Fire Emblem. Yoshitaka would illustrate the next two entries in the First Queen series, after Jun Suemi was tapped to take the reins. For KSK, Yoshitaka would also illustrate the boxes for Duel (1989) and Kawanakajima Ibunroku (1992). Yoshitaka returned to illustrate the box art for Final Fantasy VI (1994), but it would be the last time until a plethora of compilations and remakes, from the PlayStation era onwards, started using his works. Amazingly, these compilations and remakes would be the first exposure for Western gamers to Yoshitaka’s original box art, as North America’s Final Fantasy I–III had little-to-no connection to his artistic vision and Europe didn’t receive the games at all. In 1995, Yoshitaka would lend his talents to another Square series in creating the box art for Front Mission followed by the art for its sequel Front Mission: Gun Hazard (1996). Beyond his long-running work with Square, in 2000, Yoshitaka teamed up with Capcom to illustrate the box art for all seven releases of its Japan-only episodic series El Dorado Gate for the Sega Dreamcast. While the depicted characters display traits familiar to those in Yoshitaka’s earlier box art, he would execute the art for these boxes with a distinct, anime-inspired look of heavier linework and shading in complement to the in-game cel shaded aesthetic of the franchise. Post-El Dorado Gate, his box art catalog has almost been exclusively for the Final Fantasy franchise, returning to the traditional painted style of the debut’s box art, using watercolor and ink. With his open appreciation for the western art that has inspired his works—from 60s comic books to art nouveau—Yoshitaka has astutely pointed out that he owes his global success over the past twenty years to his blurring of both eastern and western art styles. Moreover, beyond his own success, his resulting blended style was pivotal in distinguishing Final Fantasy as one of video games’ most enduring and iconic series. OVGA has included below Yoshitaka Amano 天野喜孝's full known box art catalog: Final Fantasy (Square | MSX, NES-JPN, PS1 | 1987) Final Fantasy II (Square | NES-JPN | 1988) First Queen | Kure Software Koubou (DOS, PC-98, X68000 | 1988) Silver Ghost (Kure Software Koubou | PC-88, Sharp X1 | 1988) Duel (Kure Software Koubou | PC-88, PC-98 | 1989) Duel II/ 98 (Kure Software Koubou | PC-88, PC-98 | 1989) Final Fantasy III | Square | NES | 1990) First Queen II (Kure Software Koubou | PC-98, X68000 | 1990) Ys (Nihon Falcom | X68000 | 1991) Kawanakajima Ibunroku (Kure Software Koubou | PC-98 | 1992) First Queen III (Kure Software Koubou | PC-98 | 1993) Final Fantasy IV | Square | SNES | 1994) Front Mission (Square | SNES, WonderSwan Color | 1995) Front Mission: Gun Hazard (Square | SNES | 1996) Final Fantasy IV (Square | PS1 | 1997) Final Fantasy VII (Square | PS1 | 1997) Kartia: The Word of Fate (Atlus Software Inc. | PS1 | 1998) Final Fantasy Anthology (Square Enix | PS1 | 1999) Eldorado Gate vol. 1-7 | Capcom | Dreamcast | 2000-2001) Final Fantasy Anthology: European Edition (Square Enix | PS1 | 2002) Final Fantasy XI Online (Square Enix | PS2-JPN, Windows-JPN | 2003) Front Mission 1st (Square Enix | PS1 | 2003) Final Fantasy XI Online (Square Enix | PS2-USA/EUR, Windows-USA/EUR | 2004) Final Fantasy IV Advance (Square Enix | Game Boy Advance-USA/EUR | 2005) Final Fantasy IV Advance (Square Enix | Game Boy Advance-JPN | 2005) Front Mission Online (Square Enix | PS2, Windows | 2005) Final Fantasy III DS (Square Enix | Nintendo DS | 2006) Final Fantasy V Advance (Square Enix | Game Boy Advance | 2006) Final Fantasy VI Advance (Square Enix | Game Boy Advance | 2006) Final Fantasy Anniversary Edition | Square Enix | PSP | 2007) Final Fantasy II Anniversary Edition | Square Enix | PSP | 2007) Final Fantasy IV DS (Square Enix | Nintendo DS | 2007) Final Fantasy XI Online: Wings of the Goddess (Square Enix | PS2, Windows, Xbox 360 | 2007) Final Fantasy XIV Online (Collectors Edition) (Square Enix | Windows | 2010) Final Fantasy Type-0 (Square Enix | PSP | 2011) Final Fantasy IV: The Complete Edition| Square Enix | PSP-USA | 2007) Final Fantasy IV: The Complete Edition | Square Enix | PSP-EUR/JPN | 2007) Final Fantasy XIII-2 (Nordic Edition) (Square Enix | PS3, Xbox 360 | 2012) Final Fantasy XI Online: Seekers of Adoulin (Square Enix | PS2, Windows, Xbox 360 | 2013) Final Fantasy XIV Online: A Realm Reborn (Collectors Edition) (Square Enix | PS3, PS4, Windows | 2013) Final Fantasy XV: Deluxe Edition (Square Enix | PS4 | 2016) Final Fantasy XV: Royal Edition (Square Enix | PS4, Xbox One | 2018) Final Fantasy The box art that debuted the enduring Final Fantasy series would also be the start of Illustrator Yoshitaka Amano’s career in video games. He would bring this delicate ukiyo-e style design to life through the use of his trademark wispy lines and vibrant colours, and flavour it with eastern romanticism. It was a cover art seeped in sorrow and anguish, setting the tone for one of gaming’s most epic adventures. The cover's artistry would be quite unlike anything seen on the Famicom at that point and would be a central part of the game’s - and series’ - early success. It was a style of fine art at odds with a great deal of Manga/anime inspired Japanese box art in the 1980's, of which is especially apparent when compared to the cover art to Final Fantasy’s main competitor, Dragon Quest. The art arguably allowed Amano to complement Square’s vision of promoting video games that could emotionally appeal to their audience through story and art. Unfortunately, as with much Japanese artwork from the late 80’s, Final Fantasy’s cover would be deemed unsuitable for the American market in 1990 and replaced. It would not see a western release until over a decade later.

Adapted from BOX=ART Peter Andrew Jones (frequently signing his pieces “PAJ”) is a British artist that illustrated video game box art for nearly every major British publisher, including Domark Software Ltd., Image Works, Gremlin Graphics Software Limited, Psygnosis Limited, and U.S. Gold Ltd. While attending Saint Martin’s School of Art in London, friends and lecturers took note of Peter’s highly-developed skill of rendering realistic imagery. His rendering ability enabled convincing depictions of characters and worlds that didn’t exist, which lent itself well to the fantasy and science fiction genres. Peter produced his first commercial science fiction work for Puffin Books—the cover art for Penelope Farmer’s A Castle of Bone—while still in school, and within a few weeks he was also creating covers for Panther Books. So even before graduating in 1974, Peter’s career had taken off with a bang, and he very quickly earned respect as one of the foremost illustrators of the science fiction genre during the 1970s. By the early ‘80s, Peter’s work would make it onto game boxes. The first known game box to feature Peter’s artwork, Llamasoft’s 1983 space shooter Laser Zone, was actually reused artwork first commissioned in 1975 as the cover for a collection of Isaac Asimov short stories titled Buy Jupiter. In what would be a somewhat common trend for European box art—with perhaps Laser Zone representing an early example—most of Peter’s early credits for game box art, including for every game published by Psygnosis/Psyclapse, had in fact first been painted for book covers. While some of Peter’s art reused on game boxes shared no relation to the paintings’ original usages, his second box art in 1984 for the ZX Spectrum game The Warlock of Firetop Mountain had begun in 1982 as wraparound artwork for a role-playing paperback book cover of the same name (the first in the now-legendary Fighting Fantasy series), both published by Puffin Books. Virgin Games’ Falcon: The Renegade Lord was also based on a 1985 book of the same name published by Sphere, and similarly Peter’s artwork was carried over for the project. Peter’s first pieces of art commissioned specifically as game box artwork appear to have come in 1988, with Gremlin Graphics’ Dark Fusion and U.S. Gold Ltd.’s Echeon. However, the following year, Gamestar Software’s Alien Legion (no relation to Frank Cirocco’s comic work of the same name) would reuse artwork Peter first painted for a 1977 for science fiction compilation book Deep Space. This trend of reusing book art would continue for every Psygnosis game featuring Peter’s art: Blood Money (1989) - cover art for Larry Niven’s Protector (1979) Stryx (1989) - cover art for Mick Farren’s The Neural Atrocity (1977) Matrix Marauders (1990) - cover art for The Imperial Stars (1976) Spell Bound (1990) - cover art for The Enchanter Compleated (1980) Cytron (1992) - cover art for Jerry Pournelle’s Future History (1980) Though Peter had made a name for himself as one of the foremost science fiction and fantasy book illustrators, some of his most impressive works were those done exclusively for games. Standout images include Interphase (1989) and Omnicron Conspiracy (1990), both for Image Works, as well as the Capcom-developed and U.S. Gold Ltd.-published Black Tiger (1990). Compared to his work for book covers, illustrating game boxes gave Peter the opportunity to branch out stylistically. Box art such as Badlands (1990) and Venus the Flytrap (1990) are less realistic than Peter's book work, featuring tighter, action-packed scenes that may have also introduced more airbrushing into his process. With all of Peter’s exclusive game box art commissioned between 1988 and 1992, his game catalog represents just a small sliver of his professional career, both temporally and in volume. The Internet Speculative Fiction Database (ISFDB) has recorded an exceptional list of Peter’s book illustrations spanning more than 20 years. Beyond his game catalog and deep oeuvre of book art, Peter has done work for film posters and advertising in addition to contributions to many BBC TV and commercial TV programs and projects. Peter’s own website features a rather robust biography of his life and works, from which OVGA has drawn some of this information. OVGA has included below Peter Andrew Jones' full known video game box art catalog. Titles marked in purple indicate reused works: Laser Zone (Llamasoft | Commodore 64, Dragon 32, VIC-20, ZX Spectrum | 1983) The Warlock of Firetop Mountain (Puffin Books Ltd. | ZX Spectrum | 1984) Falcon: The Renegade Lord (Virgin Games Ltd. | Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | 1987) Echeon (U.S. Gold | Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64-EUR, ZX Spectrum | 1988) Dark Fusion (Gremlin Graphics | Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | 1988) Alien Legion (Gainstar Software Ltd | Amiga | 1989) Artura (Gremlin Graphics | Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, DOS, ZX Spectrum | 1989 Badlands (Domark Software | Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | 1989) Black Tiger (U.S. Gold | Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | 1989) Blood Money (Psygnosis | Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, DOS | 1989) F.O.F.T – Federation of Free Traders (Spotlight Software | Amiga, Atari ST | 1989) Interphase (Image Works | Amiga, Atari ST, DOS | 1989) Last Duel: Inter Planet War 2012 (U.S Gold | Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | 1989) Stryx (Psygnosis | Amiga, Atari ST, DOS | 1989) The Kristal (Addictive Games Ltd. | Amiga-EUR | 1989) Targhan (Silmarils | Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Macintosh, DOS | 1989) Dynasty Wars (U.S. Gold | Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, DOS, ZX Spectrum | 1990) Knights of the Crystallion (U.S. Gold | Amiga | 1990) Matrix Marauders (Psygnosis | Amiga, Atari ST | 1990) Omnicron Conspiracy (Image Works | Amiga, Atari ST, DOS-EUR | 1990) Spell Bound (Psyclapse | Amiga | 1990) Venus the Fly Trap (Gremlin Graphics | Amiga, Atari ST | 1990) Gauntlet III: The Final Quest (U.S. Gold | Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | 1991) Wheels of Fire (Domark Software Ltd. | Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | 1991) Cytron (Psygnosis | Amiga | 1992) Shadowlands (Domark Software Ltd. | Amiga, Atari ST, DOS | 1992) The Big 100 (Wicked Software | Amiga, Commodore 64, DOS | 1992)

Adapted from BOX=ART Jun Suemi is a Japanese master in fantasy realism, with a distinctive style that has made him renowned throughout the role playing game (RPG) world, with notable work for the Wizardry and Brandish series. After graduating from the Musashino Art University as an oil painter, Jun would go on to produce his first commissioned artwork for the novel Galaxy Crusade in 1983. Book cover art would become a staple in his career, with Jun producing artwork for the long running series Guin Saga and Makai City Blues, among many others. Although Jun’s early work for the Wizardry series (see below) likely elevated his profile as an illustrator in the video game industry, he had already illustrated box art for games as early as 1984, within a year of his first commissioned artwork. Jun Suemi’s first box art appears to have been for Japanese 8-bit home computers, a title from Login Soft named The Hokkaido Serial Murders: Missing in the Okhotsk (Hokkaidō Rensa Satsujin: Okhotsk ni Kiyu). In the next two years, Jun would illustrate two MSX boxes for ASCII Corporation followed by Silpheed box art in 1986 for Game Arts Co., Ltd. Jun would return to illustrate Silpheed again in 1993 for the Japan and Europe Mega CD releases. In 1987, Jun served as a monster designer for the Famicom release of Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord from the long-running Wizardry RPG series. The monster illustrations Jun created would later appear on the back of the box for Nexoft’s U.S. NES release of the game in 1990; OVGA has included in Additional Images Jun’s monster design work for the first Famicom Wizardry game. Jun would remain associated with the Wizardry series for many years. He would be credited as a monster designer for both subsequent Famicom Wizardry releases as well as for the 1992 Super Famicom release of Wizardry V: Heart of the Maelstrom. Later, Jun would provide box art for two titles in the series: Wizardry: Llylgamyn Saga (1998) and Wizardry: New Age of Llylgamyn (2001), both for the Sony PlayStation. His 1998 art for Llylgamyn Saga also adorns the box art for the rare 1999 Super Famicom release Wizardry I•II•III: Story of Llylgamyn, a remake and compilation of the first three Wizardry games. While not primarily known as a mecha designer, many of his early box arts—Silpheed (PC-88 MkII SR, 1986), Veigus: Tactical Gladiators (PC Engine, 1990), Fire Hawk: Thexder the Second Contact (MSX, 1989), and separate box art for Slipheed (Mega CD, 1993)—would show his talent in this area reminiscent of veteran mecha illustrators Yoshiyuki Takani (Phalanx, Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake) and Shigeru Komatsuzaki. Starting with the box art for Brandish 2 on the PC-98, Jun’s distinctive look of strong, slender and eroticized women accompanied by equally slender, handsome and armor-clad men would be established. His Brandish 2 box art would also depict a style of art he would repeat in many subsequent boxes—instead of a detailed background, Jun would paint colored swirls of mist and bellows of dense fog surrounding his characters as if they were far removed from their world. This design choice imparted on his characters a look of lofty, heroic and grandiose qualities: a sense that perhaps they were fallen angels, seeped in ancient history. Jun’s skilful use of oils gave his art its aged look (see Asuncia and Brandish 4) that would be complemented by characters rife with Middle Age design traits. He’d carry on through the 1990s producing excellent box art for Nosteratu (Super Famicom, 1994), Renny Blaster (PC Engine, 1995), and Asuncia (PlayStation, 1997) as well as for sequels Brandish 3 and Brandish 4. Closing the decade he’d become involved in a new series; Zill O’ll (PlayStation, 1999). In the new millennium, Jun would carry on with the Zill O’ll and Wizardry series in addition to character design for the PlayStation Portable series Rengoku (2005–2006). He would also be in demand throughout this period as a collectable card game illustrator for games such as Battle Spirits, Monster Collection, and Culdcept Saga. Renowned for being media shy and not one for interviews, Jun’s box art thankfully does the talking for him. OVGA has included below Jun Suemi 末弥純’s full box art catalogue: Hokkaidō Rensa Satsujin: Okhotsk ni Kiyu a.k.a. The Hokkaido Serial Murders: Missing in the Okhotsk (Login Soft | PC-6001, PC-88 | 1984) Hokkaidō Rensa Satsujin: Okhotsk ni Kiyu a.k.a. The Hokkaido Serial Murders: Missing in the Okhotsk (Login Soft | MSX | 1984) Seiken Achō a.k.a. Kung-Fu Master (ASCII Corporation | MSX | 1985) Dungeon Master (ASCII Corporation | MSX | 1986) Silpheed (Game Arts Co., Ltd. | PC-88 MkII SR | 1986) Veigues: Tactical Gladiators (Game Arts | PC-88, Turbografx-16| 1988) Fire Hawk: Thexder The Second Contact (Game Arts | DOS, MSX, PC-88 | 1989) Libros de Chilam Balam (Right Stuff Corp. | PC-98 | 1992) Brandish 2: The Planet Buster (Nihon Falcom Corp | PC-98, SNES| 1993) Slipheed (Game Arts | Mega CD-EUR/JPN | 1993) Brandish 3: Spirit of Balcan (Nihon Falcom Corp | PC-98 | 1994) First Queen IV (Kure Software Koubou | PS1 | 1994) Nosteratu (Seta | SNES | 1994) The Hybrid Front (Sega | Mega Drive | 1994) Sword World SFC2 | T&E Soft | SNES| 1994) Brandish RENEWAL (Nihon Falcom Corp | PC-98 | 1995) Brandish 2: The Planet Buster RENEWAL (Nihon Falcom Corp | PC-98, SNES| 1995) Brandish 3: Spirit of Balcan RENEWAL (Nihon Falcom Corp | PC-98 | 1995) Dark Seraphim (Kure Software Koubou | PC-98 | 1995) Renny Blaster (AV | PS1 | 1995) Brandish VT (Nihon Falcom Corp | PC-98 | 1996) Not Treasure Hunter (Acti-Art | PS1 | 1996) Asuncia: Curse of Matsue (XING | PS1 | 1997) Brandish 4: Nemureru Kami no Tou (Nihon Falcom Corp | Windows | 1998) Wizardry: Llylgamyn Saga (ASCII Entertainment Software | PS1 | 1998) Zill O’ll (Koei Co. | PS1 | 1999) Apsaras (Koei | Windows | 2000) Wizardry: New Age of Llylgamyn (ASCII Entertainment Software | PS1 | 2001) Rengoku: The Tower of Purgatory (Hudson Soft | PSP-JPN | 2005) Rengoku: The Tower of Purgatory (Hudson Soft | PSP-USA/EUR | 2005) Rengoku II: The Stairway to Heaven (Hudson Soft | PSP-EUR/JPN | 2006) Rengoku II: The Stairway to Heaven (Hudson Soft | PSP-USA | 2006) Trinity: Souls of Zill O’ll | Koei Co. | PS3 | 2011) Trinity: Souls of Zill O’ll Premium Box (Koei Co. | PS3 | 2011) Wizardry: Twin Pack / Wizardry (ASCII Entertainment Software | PS3 | 2011)

Adapted from BOX=ART | Interviewed by Adam Gidney in October 2013 David John Rowe (often signing his pieces “DJR”) is a British illustrator and an early pioneer in the UK and Europe’s box art scene in the early 80s, continuing through the mid-90s. David would become one of Europe’s most prolific and enduring box artists of his generation, illustrating over 70 box arts. David began his freelance career in 1975 after graduating Brighton Polytechnic Faculty of Art and Design. During this period and before he made his name as a box artist, David illustrated catalogues and brochures on commission, did acrylic portraits of people’s pets, and lectured life drawing at Southhampton College of Art, where David himself had once taken a foundational course before Brighton. It was then in returning to Southhampton, through a chance meeting with Quicksilva co-founder Nick Lambert, that David got his start in games. Founded in 1981, Quicksilva would soon become one of the UK game industry’s first big companies, where David—along with artists Steinar Lund and Rich Shenfield—would pioneer the use of quality artwork for computer games from 1982. At this time, with the exception of the occasional box art re-used from the United States, there was little in the way of box art in Europe. Still finding its feet, the UK game industry was a modest enterprise and box art in general was either non-existent or crudely implemented. David Rowe’s first box art for Quicksilva would be The Chess Player in 1982. He would follow it up with several boxes in 1983, including the classic Ant Attack. Sandy White’s isometric adventure would be well complimented by David’s 50s B-horror movie style box art, so much so that David would also illustrate the Ant Attack’s 1984 sequel Zombie Zombie. David’s box art would remain exclusive to Quicksilva until about 1985, when he began to expand to other publishers, beginning with Electric Dreams and Melbourne House. As David tells it, attending game fairs in London with the team from Quicksilva, he was able to show his portfolio to other exhibitors, resulting in companies other than Quicksilva commissioning David’s work, not just for game boxes but also computer book and magazine cover illustrations. He would enjoy this new artistic expression facilitated by the games industry, stating it almost demanded the art be fun and whimsical. David’s early box arts were a mix of airbrushed liquid acrylics, and coloured pencil. To cap off the 1980's, David would create his most widely known cover, Populous (1989). This box art was used across the globe and was published on no less than three Japanese systems - quite the feat for a western artist's work in the 1980’s. David would come up with the design after having rare early access to the game at developer Bullfrog’s head quarters. The artist remembers that the finished piece took some at Electronic Arts a little time to warm to - it being mocked as a painting of a golf divot! However, Populous' wild success soon appeased even its fiercest box art critic... With the advent of the 1990’s, David was a busy and sought after box artist, being in demand from big name publishers such as Electronic Arts, Domark and Core Design. His work in this period, such the fantasy laced Risky Woods (1992) and the cartooned hijinks of The Super Aquatic Games (1992) showcased a broad range of ability and artistic creativity. Artworks were also becoming more detailed and elaborate, with the somewhat functional covers of 1980's covers such as The Way of the Exploding Fist (1985) giving way to creatively rich designs such as Shadow of the Beast III (1992). This final "Beast" box art would see David take the reigns from fantasy painter Roger Dean who had painted the first two. It would be one of David's more complex pieces and one the artist looks back upon fondly. The lettering would retain Roger Dean’s font. As packaging, advertising and promotion was contracted to large design and PR firms, David shifted to other areas of game art, including in-game graphics for platform hit Alfred Chicken (1993). David was also responsible for producing many magazine covers for Emap, Europress and Future Publishing. Not one to let any media left untapped, he would work within television with his greatest contribution being the interior perspective paintings for the popular ITV children's program Knightmare. On his website, David sells high-quality giclée prints of his 80s and 90s artwork for computer games, magazines, books, and television. OVGA has included below David John Rowe's full known video game box art catalogue: The Chess Player (Quicksilva | ZX Spectrum | 1982) Ant Attack (Quicksilva | Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | 1983) Frenzy (Quicksilva | ZX Spectrum | 1983) Skyhawk (Quicksilva | VIC-20 | 1983) Ultisynth 64 (Quicksilva | Commodore 64 | 1983) Wild West Hero (Timescape Software | ZX Spectrum | 1983) Fred | Quicksilva | ZX Spectrum | 1984) Sting 64 (Quicksilva | Commodore 64 | 1984) Zombie Zombie (Quicksilva | ZX Spectrum | 1984) Black Thunder (Quicksilva | Commodore 64 | 1985) Death Wake (Quicksilva | Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | 1985) Glass (Quicksilva | ZX Spectrum | 1985) The Way of the Exploding Fist (Melbourne House | Amstrad CPC, BBC Micro, Commodore 16, Plus/4, Commodore 64, Electron, ZX Spectrum | 1985) Winter Sports (Electric Dreams Software | Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum | 1985) Bounces (Beyond | Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | 1986) Chameleon (Electric Dreams Software | Commodore 64 | 1986) Dandy (Electric Dreams Software | Amstrad CPC-EUR, Commodore 64-EUR, ZX Spectrum | 1986) Dante’s Inferno (Beyond | Commodore 64 | 1986) Fist II (Melbourne House | Commodore 64-EUR, ZX Spectrum | 1986) Infodroid (Beyond | Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64 | 1986) Off the Hook (Electric Dreams Software | Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | 1986) Prodigy (Electric Dreams Software | Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | 1986) R.M.S. Titanic (Electric Dreams Software | Commodore 64 | 1986) The Sentinel (Firebird Software | Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, BBC Micro, Commodore 64, DOS, ZX Spectrum | 1986) Spindizzy (Electric Dreams Software | Amstrad CPC, Apple II, Atari 8-bit, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | 1986) Xarq: The Zimmerman Trenches (Electric Dreams Software | Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum | 1986) Xeno (Bug Byte | Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | 1986) Deathscape (Ariolasoft | Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | 1987) Delta (Thalamus | Commodore 64-EUR, SAM Coupé, ZX Spectrum | 1987) Dogfight 2187 (Ariolasoft | Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | 1987) Enterprise (Mastetronic Plus | ZX Spectrum | 1987) Flying Shark | Firebird Software | Amiga-EUR, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST-EUR, Commodore 64-EUR, ZX Spectrum | 1987) Hybrid (Ariolasoft | Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | 1987) I Ball II (Firebird Software | Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | 1987) Mean City (Quicksilva | Commodore 64 | 1987) River Raid (Firebird Software | ZX Spectrum | 1987) Tempest (Electric Dreams Software | Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum | 1987) Throne of Fire (Melbourne House | Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum | 1987) Chubby Gristle (Grandslam Entertainments Ltd. | Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, MSX, ZX Spectrum | 1988) Crosswize (Firebird Software | ZX Spectrum | 1988) IO (Firebird Software | Commodore 64 | 1988) Monkey Nuts (Bug Byte | BBC Micro, Electron | 1988) Pandora (Firebird Software | Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64 | 1988) Peter Beardsley’s international Football (Grandslam Entertainment | Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, MSX, ZX Spectrum | 1988) Speedball (Image Works | Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, Master System, DOS | 1988) Tetris (Mirrorsoft | Amstrad CPC-EUR, Commodore 64-EUR, MSX-EUR, ZX Spectrum | 1988) Xarax (Firebird Software | ZX Spectrum | 1988) 3D-Pinball (Mastertronic plus | Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | 1989) Chambers of Shaolin (Grandslam Entertainments | Amiga, Amiga 32CD, Atari ST, Commodore 64 | 1989) Continental Circus (Virgin Mastertronic | Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, MSX, ZX Spectrum | 1989) Cygnus XI (Atari | Atari 8-bit | 1989) Friday the 13th (Bug Byte | ZX Spectrum | 1989) Kelly X (Virgin Mastertronic | Amiga, Atari ST | 1989) Micro Mouse (Mastertronic | Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | 1989) Populous (Electronic Arts | Acorn 32-bit, Amiga-EUR, Atari ST, DOS-EUR, Genesis, Master System, PC-98, SNES-EUR/JPN, X68000 | 1989) Tank Attack (CDS Software Ltd. | Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Amstrad PCW, Atari ST, BBC Micro, Commodore 64, DOS, Electron, ZX Spectrum | 1989) Tetris (Virgin Mastertronic Ltd. | Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum | 1989) Mastertronic re-release; different art from Mirrorsoft release Will Harvey’s Zany Golf (Electronic Arts | Amiga-EUR, DOS-EUR | 1989) F-16 Fighting Falcon (Virgin Mastertronic | ZX Spectrum | 1990) Flood (Electronic Arts | Amiga, Atari ST | 1990) Hunter Killer (Mastertronic | Amiga | 1990) John Madden Football (Electronic Arts | Genesis-EUR | 1990) Pyramax (Atari Corp. | Amiga, Atari ST | 1990) Yes, Prime Minister (Mastertronic plus | ZX Spectrum | 1990) Budokan: The Martial Spirit (Electronic Arts | Amiga-EUR, Commodore 64-EUR, DOS-EUR, Genesis-EUR | 1991) James Pond II: Codename Robocod (Millennium Interactive | Amiga-EUR, Atari ST-EUR, Commodore 64-EUR, DOS-EUR | 1991) Populous II: Trials of the Olympian Gods (Electronic Arts | Amiga-EUR, Atari ST-EUR | 1991) Silkworm (Mastertronic plus | Commodore 64 | 1991) Bill’s Tomato Game (Psygnosis | Amiga | 1992) Risky Woods (Electronic Arts | Genesis | 1992) Shadow of the Beast III (Psygnosis | Amiga | 1992) The Aquatic Games Starring James Pond and the Aquabats a.k.a. The Super Aquatic Games Starring the Aquabats a.k.a James Pond's Crazy Sports (Electronic Arts | Amiga, Genesis, SNES-EUR | 1992) The Clue! (Kompart UK, Ltd. | Amiga, Amiga CD32, DOS | 1994) Dark Universe (Max Design GmbH & Co. | DOS | 1995)

Adapted from BOX=ART Steve Purcell is an American cartoonist, animator, game designer and voice actor most widely known as the creator of the Sam & Max media franchise, for which he received an Eisner Award in 2007. For many gamers, Steve’s name is likely synonymous with LucasArts, having worked on, and illustrated the box art for, many of the company’s 1990s hits, including the Monkey Island series. After graduating from the California College of Arts and Crafts in 1982, Steve would spend several years as a freelancer and as a penciller for Marvel comics. In this period, Steve would continue to develop his most enduring characters: Sam & Max—characters that originated in the 1970s with Steve's younger brother Dave and that Steve produced in weekly comic strips for his college's weekly newsletter beginning in 1980, after receiving the rights to the characters from his brother. It was also in this early period that Steve illustrated his first two game boxes, scarcely known 1983 titles from London Software for the Atari 8-bit: Parallax and Trion: in 3 Dimensions. Lucasfilm Games’ artist Ken Macklin would introduce his art director, Gary Winnick, to the newly released Sam & Max comic strip (1987), and on the strength of the strip, Steve was hired in 1988 as an adventure game artist and animator. His first task would be the box art for Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders (1988) before working on in-game pixel art for Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989). In 1989, Steve would also undertake the box art for Pipe Dream. While playful and still perhaps purposefully cartoony, Pipe Dream would introduce changes to Steve's rendering and would begin to show a departure from his comic roots and his art for Zak McKracken. Steve’s work on The Secret of Monkey Island (1990), including the game’s box art, would bring his art greater international exposure. By this third box art for LucasArts, Steve had developed rapidly as a painter. Steve would remain true to his style and consistent in his use of lighting while nonetheless capturing a more serious tone in The Secret of Monkey Island. Using dyes and gouache (an opaque watercolor), he would go all out in rendering the painting, his most developed yet for LucasArts. Steve would credit the following year’s sequel Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge (1991) as a more successful box art, from a design perspective. Steve created the box’s character art by taking photos of his girlfriend modeling in pirate attire whilst being dramatically lit. LeChuck’s Revenge would be painted in oils over the course of a month, and as with the first game, Steve would additionally be responsible for conceptual art and animation. What followed would surprise Steve. LucasArts approached him on using the Sam & Max license. Sam & Max: Hit the Road was released in 1993 and would be a landmark game in character development, humor, and design. Steve would be involved at every level of the game’s creation including the duo’s box art. Steve has said that he always found painting box art fun because it gave him the opportunity to flesh out the pixelated characters on the screen, defining their look and world in paint rather than computer art. This traditionalist viewpoint could also go some way in explaining why he created the box art for Telltale’s Tales of Monkey Island (2009) using acrylics at a time when most artists favored digital art; Steve has always favored traditional media even when creating comic strips. Leaving LucasArts in 1996 would free Steve to pursue a Sam & Max animated series and also gave him the opportunity to freelance for other developers and their characters. OVGA has included below Steve Purcell’s full known box art catalog: Parallax (London Software | Atari 8-bit | 1983) Trion: in 3 Dimensions (London Software | Atari 8-bit | 1983) Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders (Lucasfilm Games LLC | Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, DOS | 1988) Pipe Dream (Lucasfilm Games LLC | Amiga, Atari ST, Apple II, BBC Micro, DOS, Macintosh, ZX Spectrum | 1989) The Secret of Monkey Island (Lucasfilm Games LLC | Amiga, Atari ST, DOS, FM Towns, Macintosh, Sega CD | 1990) Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge (Lucasfilm Games LLC | Amiga, DOS, FM Towns, Macintosh | 1991) Defenders of Dynatron City (JVC Musical Industries, Inc. | NES | 1992) art first used as a comic cover for Marvel's Defenders of Dynatron City #1 (Feb 1992) Sam & Max: Hit the Road (LucasArts Entertainment Company LLC | DOS, Macintosh, Windows | 1993) Mortimer and the Riddles of the Medallion (LucasArts Entertainment Company LLC | Macintosh, Windows | 1996) Herc’s Adventure (LucasArts Entertainment Company LLC | PlayStation, Saturn | 1997) Tales of Monkey Island (Telltale, Inc. | Macintosh, Windows | 2009)

Adapted from BOX=ART Toshiaki Mori, best known under the pen name of Shinkiro, is a Japanese illustrator and conceptual artist who used to work for SNK during its golden age. He has since been with Capcom for two decades, where he stands tall alongside SENSEI, Kinu, and Dai-Chan as one of Capcom’s elite in-house artists. Shinkiro’s art has adorned some of the highest profile video games since the early 90s and his style has developed into one of the most recognizable in the industry. After graduating from a design school, Shinkiro worked at an illustration office, drawing illustrations of architecture and home appliances before later working as a freelance illustrator and manga artist. He would join SNK’s design department in 1990 amidst the dawn of the Neo Geo, where he would work alongside the company’s founder and producer Eikichi Kawasaki. Shinkiro’s first box art design would be for SNK’s ASO II: Last Guardian (also known as Alpha Mission II) and he would finish that busy year with additional box art for Sengoku, Robo Army, and Eightman, among others. In a brief interview in 2001, Shinkiro identifies his personal favorite box art as Ghost Pilots (1991), a wonderfully charming illustration with an interesting color palette and cool title art—complete with a depiction of the Grim Reaper—although it lacks the characters that make Shinkiro’s box art so great. Reviewing Shinkiro’s 1991 box arts, one could be forgiven for thinking they were done by another artist, or even each by separate artists. Comparing Sengoku, Ghost Pilots, Robo Army, and ASO II, the difference in style, technique and the mediums used is diverse, ranging from anime (Robo Army) to traditional 80s sci-fi (ASO II). The only box art indicative of Shinkiro’s style to come would be in Sengoku, with its unmistakable heavy shading, chiseled jaw lines, and confident look to its characters. This box art would also start a trend for the artist whereby he juxtaposes the main characters in the foreground against background characters colored in distinctly darker, contrasting hues. Art of Fighting, Fatal Fury Special, King of Fighters ’97 (Neo Geo CD) are further examples. Shinkiro’s use of shading and lighting are well known among his fans and give his images a more realistic feel, rather than an animated look seen in manga or anime. Studying Shinkiro’s character posture and shadowing, the influence of American painter and illustrator N.C. Wyeth—identified by Shinkiro as one of his favorite artists—is apparent. By 1992, Shinkiro’s had moved artistically toward his now familiar aesthetic, with two of SNK’s first big series, Art of Fighting, and Fatal Fury, and continued in 1993 with Samurai Shodown and the delightfully camp 3 Count Bout. All would have the characteristics detailed above and would exemplify a common complaint made about Shinkiro’s art: that his faces, whether masculine or feminine—with very smooth, soft transitions and edges, often with striking eyes with dark shadows, almost as if even the men were wearing eyeliner—all exhibited a certain “sameness.” Shinkiro appears to have begun incorporating digital techniques into his art around 1995, with the art for the Neo Geo AES and Europe/North America PlayStation releases of King of Fighters '95 being a possible first digital foray. Other illustrations from this period appear to mix traditional and digital elements, and despite toying with digital techniques for some releases, Shinkiro continued to produce fully traditional box art paintings into 1998, particularly for Neo Geo AES releases. Despite the jump to digital, Shinkiro would largely succeed in maintaining his style, especially as his digital execution improved. Shinkiro was with the original SNK until it closed its doors in 2000 (and later became SNK Playmore), upon which despite this massive shakeup, Shinkiro was quickly snapped up by rival Capcom. Shinkiro has also produced works for Marvel with the Unlimited Spiderman comics as well as for UDON’s Street Fighter comics. Still going strong with Capcom, Shinkiro is arguably one of the great Japanese illustrators of his generation. OVGA has divided Toshiaki Mori 森気楼 Shinkiro's box art catalog between SNK and Capcom eras, including below his known box art catalogs for each era. SNK era (1991–2000*) ASO II: Last Guardian a.k.a. Alpha Mission II (SNK | Neo Geo AES-JPN, Neo Geo CD | 1991) Burning Fight (SNK | Neo Geo AES, Neo Geo CD | 1991) Eightman (SNK | Neo Geo AES | 1991) Fatal Fury (SNK | Neo Geo AES-JPN, SNES-JPN | 1991) Ghost Pilots (SNK | Neo Geo AES, Neo Geo CD | 1991) Robo Army(SNK | Neo Geo AES-JPN, Neo Geo CD | 1991) Sengoku (SNK | Neo Geo AES | 1991) Art of Fighting (SNK | Genesis-USA/EUR, Neo Geo AES, Neo Geo CD, SNES | 1992) Fatal Fury 2 (SNK | Neo Geo AES-USA, Neo Geo CD-USA | 1992) Mutation Nation (SNK | Neo Geo AES, Neo Geo CD | 1992) 3 Count Bout (SNK | Neo Geo AES | 1993) Fatal Fury Special (SNK | Neo Geo AES, Neo Geo CD, Sega CD, SNES-JPN, X68000 | 1993) Samurai Shodown (SNK | Game Boy-USA, Game Gear, Genesis, Neo Geo AES, Neo Geo CD, Sega CD-USA, SNES-USA | 1993) Sengoku a.k.a. Sengoku: Denshou (SNK | Neo Geo CD, Sega CD | 1993) second image Art of Fighting 2 (SNK | Neo Geo AES, Neo Geo CD | 1994) Art of Fighting 2 (SNK | SNES | 1994) second image King of Fighters ‘94 (SNK | Neo Geo AES, Neo Geo CD, Windows | 1994) Samurai Shodown II (SNK | Neo Geo AES, Neo Geo CD, Windows | 1994) Fatal Fury 3: Road to the Final Victory (SNK | Neo Geo AES, Neo Geo CD, Windows | 1995) King of Fighters ‘95 (SNK | Neo Geo CD, Saturn | 1995) King of Fighters ‘95 (SNK | Neo Geo AES, PlayStation-USA/EUR | 1995) second image; possible first use of digital techniques Fatal Fury 3: Road to the Final Victory (SNK | Saturn | 1996) second image King of Fighters ‘95 (SNK | PlayStation-JPN | 1996) third image Real Bout Fatal Fury (SNK | Neo Geo AES, Neo Geo CD, PlayStation, Saturn | 1996) King of Fighters ‘96 (SNK | Neo Geo AES, Neo Geo CD, Saturn | 1996) King of Fighters ‘96 (SNK | PlayStation | 1997) second image King of Fighters ‘97 (SNK | Neo Geo AES | 1997) King of Fighters ‘97 (SNK | Neo Geo CD | 1997) second image Real Bout Fatal Fury Special (SNK | Neo Geo AES, Neo Geo CD, Saturn | 1997) King of Fighters ‘97 (SNK | PlayStation | 1998) third image King of Fighters ‘97 (SNK | Saturn | 1998) forth image King of Fighters ‘98: The Slugfest (SNK | Neo Geo AES | 1998) King of Fighters ‘98: The Slugfest (SNK | Neo Geo CD | 1998) second image Real Bout Fatal Fury 2: The Newcomers (SNK | Neo Geo AES, Neo Geo CD | 1998) The Last Blade (SNK | JP/ NA Neo Geo AES, Neo Geo CD | 1998) King of Fighters ‘98: The Slugfest(SNK | JP PlayStation | 1998) third image Metal Slug X (SNK | Neo Geo AES, PlayStation | 1998) King of Fighters: Dream Match 1999(SNK | Dreamcast | 1998) King of Fighters ‘99: Millennium Battle (SNK | Neo Geo AES | 1998) King of Fighters ‘99: Millennium Battle (SNK | Neo Geo CD | 1998) second image King of Fighters ‘99 (SNK | PlayStation-JPN | 2000) third image Metal Slug 3 (SNK | Neo Geo AES, PlayStation 2, Xbox | 2000) The King of Fighters: Evolution ((Agetec, Inc. | Dreamcast-USA | 2000) forth image King of Fighters ‘99: Millennium Battle (Agetec, Inc. | PlayStation-USA | 2001) repeat image; published in 2001 by Agetec following SNK's 2000 closure Capcom era (2001–2018) All of Shinkiro's works from this era are believed to be digital The Capcom list is incomplete and has omitted non-box art and titles for which Shinkiro's artwork role is not clear Capcom vs. SNK 2 EO a.k.a. Capcom vs. SNK 2: Mark of the Millennium (Capcom | GameCube-USA, PlayStation 2-USA, Xbox-USA | 2001) Capcom vs. SNK 2: Mark of the Millennium 2001 a.k.a. Capcom vs SNK 2: Millionaire Fighting 2001 (Capcom | Dreamcast, PlayStation 2-EUR/JPN | 2001) second image Final Fight One (Capcom | Game Boy Advance | 2001) Capcom vs. SNK 2 EO: Millionaire Fighting 2001 (Capcom | Gamecube-EUR, Xbox-EUR | 2002) third image Dinostalker a.k.a. Gun Survivor 3: Dino Crisis (Capcom | PlayStation 2-EUR/JPN | 2002) Dinostalker (Capcom | PlayStation 2-USA | 2002) second image Super Ghouls ‘n Ghosts (Capcom | Game Boy Advance | 2002) Resident Evil: Dead Aim a.k.a. Gun Survivor 4: BioHazard - Heroes Never Die (Capcom | PlayStation 2-USA/JPN | 2003) Capcom Fighting Jam a.k.a. Capcom Fighting Evolution (Capcom | PlayStation 2-JPN | 2004) Glass Rose (Capcom | PlayStation 2 | 2004) Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy (Capcom | PlayStation 2-JPN | 2004) Resident Evil: Deadly Silence (Capcom | NDS-JPN | 2006) Ultimate Ghosts ‘n Goblins (Capcom | PSP | 2006) Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Cross Generation of Heroes (Capcom | Wii-JPN | 2008) Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars (Capcom | Wii | 2010) Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (Capcom | PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Vita | 2011) Street Fighter: 30th Anniversary Collection (Capcom | Switch, PlayStation 4, Windows, Xbox One | 2018)

Adapted from BOX=ART | Interviewed by Adam Gidney in October 2016 Dermot Power is a British illustrator known for his work in comics and for his box art for Virgin Games from 1990–1992. Fans of British comics will recognize Dermot’s contributions to comics anthology 2000 AD, one of Britain’s most significant and long-running comics. It was in the pages of 2000 AD #2 (1977) that Peter Harris and Mike McMahon created Judge Dredd in a five-page story. As Judge Dredd grew in popularity and came to be illustrated by Brian Bolland and Simon Bisley, among others, it would have been difficult to be an aspiring British comics artist without being keenly aware of their work; Dermot was no exception, counting both artists as inspirations. Ironically then, as is detailed in the 2016 Adam Gidney interview above, although Dermot was a fan of both 2000 AD and Bolland, his opportunity to follow one of his artistic heroes in illustrating Judge Dredd for 2000 AD came about through his box art of the character for the video game from Virgin Games. When Dermot went in to interview with Virgin Games, he was unaware they were doing a Dredd game. By pure coincidence he had some sample pages in his portfolio of Dredd—as he had been hoping to get into 2000 AD—catching the eye of the art director and securing the commission, which Dermot considered “very much an homage to Bolland.” Dermot’s portrayal of Judge Dredd for Virgin Games was duly noted by 2000 AD staff, and within a few months of the game’s release he’d be commissioned to illustrate the cover for prog (short for “programme”) #699. Dermot’s covers would quickly establish him as a significant talent, launching an eight-year career in the comic book industry where he became a much-loved artist depicting not only Dredd but also Celtic ax master Sláine, joining artists Simon Bisley (Gods, The Terminator: Rampage) and Glenn Fabry (Speedball 2, The Incredible Hulk) in immortalizing the character. Dermot would follow-up his Judge Dredd box art with box art for the Amiga and other home computer ports of Sega’s arcade smash Golden Axe (1990). Dermot proved capable of working in a range of styles, some of which were inspired by his artistic heroes. Noticeably, Dermot could ramp up or down the proportion of traditional to airbrush painting, as the situation required. Where Golden Axe is a typical fantasy image painted with what appears to be relatively little airbrush, his box art for Supremacy / Overlord, released the same year, instead relies on significant airbrushing while leaning into a limited palette. Perhaps the most vivid and memorable box art Dermot created for Virgin was Wonderland, launching the start of a long history for Dermot of illustrating Lewis Carroll’s Wonderland characters that would later also take him into TV with the Hallmark series (1999) and into film with Tim Burton’s 2010 offering. The painting for Wonderland is a personal favorite for Dermot and one he has kept, despite selling nearly all of his other game art originals.. As was common of the period, all of Dermot’s box arts were created using traditional media, specifically acrylic and gouache on Cs2 paper. Dermot Power illustrated his final box art in 1992 (Lure of the Temptress), the beginning of an 18-year hiatus from the video game industry that would be briefly interrupted in 2010 with some design concept work for 2K’s Bioshock 2. In the late 1990s, Dermot moved on to design concept work and storyboarding within TV and film, cementing a truly international presence by working on the art team for Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones (1999). This job opened up his career to other high profile movies such as Batman Begins, V for Vendetta, Alice in Wonderland, and the Harry Potter movie series. More recently the artist worked on Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens within the costume design department, along with some contributions to sets and environments. OVGA has included below Dermot Power's full known box art catalog: Judge Dredd (Virgin Games | Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64 | 1990) Golden Axe (Virgin Games | Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, DOS-EUR, ZX Spectrum | 1990) Not Genesis Supremacy: Your Will Be Done a.k.a. Overlord (Virgin Games | Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, DOS-EUR, NES | 1990) Wonderland (Virgin Games | Acorn 32-bit, Amiga, Atari ST, DOS | 1990) The Magnetic Scrolls Collection (Virgin Games | Acorn 32-bit, Amiga, Atari ST, DOS | 1991) Realms (Virgin Games | Amiga, Atari ST, DOS | 1991) Sarakon (Virgin Games | Amiga, Atari ST, DOS | 1991) Lure of the Temptress (Virgin Games | Amiga, Atari ST, DOS | 1992)

Adapted from BOX=ART Jerrol “Jerr” Richardson is an American artist responsible for box art illustrations for many of Mattel’s first-party releases for the Intellivision. Jerr’s art and design would play an outsized role in defining the console’s brading. As a staff employee at Mattel Toys, Jerr illustrated catalog and packaging artwork for Barbie and other children’s toys throughout the 1970s. The work would position him for an influential design role as Mattel Toys' subsidiary Mattel Electronics devised a home console, the Intellivision, to compete with the runaway success of the Atari VCS (later rebranded to Atari 2600). Jerr would be responsible for the layout and design of the Intellivision’s game boxes, helping give Mattel’s console distinct branding. Beyond box colors early on that were used to signal to consumers the genres of the games themselves, the art on those boxes—Jerr’s art—adopted a recognizable layout scheme. Each painted box art would feature multiple scenes, usually without a repetition of characters; these scenes were often structured using circular windows of varying sizes to offset a primary image from supplemental action shots. While the aesthetic of Jerr’s box art may well have been inspired by early art from Atari artist Cliff Spohn, as much of Intellivision’s box art was done in-house, Mattel’s box art had a reputation for being accurate to the games, depicting characters, enemies, or features all actually within the games. The Intellivision peaked in popularity and sales in 1981. Mattel Toys and Electronics would split that year, but Electronics—without a dedicated visual arts department—still farmed out packaging duties to Mattel Toys and Jerr until 1983. The U.S. video game industry would crash in 1983, leading Mattel Electronics to lay off most of its staff; it would close the following year. Considering this timeline, Jerr’s final box art may have been Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Treasure of Tarmin (1983). From 1983 onward, most Intellivision releases were from third party publishers, at which point Jerr was unlikely to be involved. Little more is known about Jerr at present other than that he was born in 1928 and died in 1991 at age 63. Given his year of birth, it is probable that his illustration career began well before the 1970s. Based on the style of his art, he may have been involved in book cover art design. OVGA has included below Jerrol Richardson's full known box art: ABPA Backgammon (Mattel Electronics | Intellivision | 1979) Armour Battle (Mattel Electronics | Intellivision | 1979) Auto Racing (Mattel Electronics | Intellivision | 1979) Checkers (Mattel Electronics | Intellivision | 1979) NASL Soccer (Mattel Electronics | Intellivision | 1979) NFL Football (Mattel Electronics | Intellivision | 1979) Golf (Mattel Electronics | Intellivision | 1980) Las Vegas Poker and Blackjack (Mattel Electronics | Intellivision | 1980) Las Vegas Roulette (Mattel Electronics | Intellivision | 1980) Major League Baseball (Mattel Electronics | Intellivision | 1980) NBA Basketball (Mattel Electronics | Intellivision | 1980) Sea Battle (Mattel Electronics | Intellivision | 1980) Skiing (Mattel Electronics | Intellivision | 1980) Space Battle (Mattel Electronics | Intellivision | 1980) Tennis (Mattel Electronics | Intellivision | 1980) Astrosmash (Mattel Electronics | Intellivision | 1981) Boxing (Mattel Electronics | Intellivision | 1981) Space Armada (Mattel Electronics | Intellivision | 1981) Space Hawk (Mattel Electronics | Intellivision | 1981) Star Strike (Mattel Electronics | Intellivision | 1981) Utopia (Mattel Electronics | Intellivision | 1981) Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (Mattel Electronics | Intellivision | 1982) Frog Bog (Mattel Electronics | Intellivision | 1982) Night Stalker (Mattel Electronics | Intellivision | 1982) Reversi (Mattel Electronics | Intellivision | 1982) Royal Dealer (Mattel Electronics | Intellivision | 1982) Shark! Shark! (Mattel Electronics | Intellivision | 1982) Sharp Shot (Mattel Electronics | Intellivision | 1982) Sub Hunt (Mattel Electronics | Intellivision | 1982) Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Treasure of Tarmin (Mattel Electronics | Intellivision | 1983)

Adapted from BOX=ART | Interviewed by Adam Gidney in August 2020 Roger Motzkus is an acclaimed freelance artist known to gamers for his box art illustrations for storied franchises Fatal Fury and Doom. Growing up in Northern Utah, Roger would earn his Bachelor in Fine Arts in 1987, and upon leaving university was already working as a professional artist. His early career saw him work within the TV animation industry as a story board and layout artist, alongside him growing an international career in illustration. He broke into the video game industry producing the cover for the unreleased version of The Berlin Wall (Game Gear, 1991). Although unreleased, Roger's art would appear in print advertisements previewing the game. His first published box art was the wonderfully dramatic Fatal Fury for the North American Neo Geo AES release, a fine example of the realistic style of character art that was becoming popular in the early 90s (also see Boris Vallejo and Julie Bell's early 90s work). Fatal Fury would showcase Roger's talent for highly detailed and expressive character art held together with a slight comic art design. Roger’s box art would be used exclusively on the North American AES release with the Japanese version being designed by SNK artist Shinkiro. Shinkiro’s cover was arguably a little too stylized for what American kids were used to at the time and was understandably replaced. The 1990s would be full of video game advertisement gigs and further box arts, including possibly his most high profile, Doom (1995) for the Sony PlayStation. The latter would also be the artist’s first and only box art to be used in the Japanese market. Roger's box arts were designed on illustration board coated with gesso. The initial “under drawing” was done with graphite, charcoal and Prismacolor pencils, before adding a transparent glaze of acrylic paint with a paint brush or airbrush. Finally, more highlights and details are then added using Prismacolor pencils or paint. Artists that have influenced Roger over the years include, Norman Rockwell and J.C. Leyedecker for emotional expressions and stylistic characterizations. Maxfield Parrish for colors, Bernie Fuchs, David Grove, Michael Dudash and Mark English for their technique and compositions. And the movie posters of Bob Peak, Steven Chorney and Drew Struzan. The artist's final box art to date was Road Rash: Jailbreak (2000). Today Roger works as both a traditional and digital artist for a multitude of international clients, whilst also teaching art and celebrating his legacy through the fan art market. OVGA has included below Roger Motzkus' full known box art catalog: Fatal Fury (SNK | Neo Geo AES-USA | 1991) Basketbrawl (Atari Corporation | Lynx | 1992) Doom (Williams Entertainment | PlayStation-USA/EUR, Saturn-JPN | 1995) Powerslave (Playmates Interactive Entertainment | DOS, PlayStation, Saturn | 1996) Small Soldiers: Globotech Design Lab (Hasbro Interactive | Windows | 1998) apparent composite from individual character illustrations Road Rash: Jailbreak (Electronic Arts | PlayStation-EUR | 2000) In addition to his box art, Roger created spot illustrations for the Game Gear release of Streets of Rage 2 for Sega's Welcome To The Next Level ad campaign by Goodby Silverstein & Partners.