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1UP COVER STORY
1UP COVER STORY | WEEK OF JANUARY 7 | ODDS 'N ENDS
The Deceptive Beauty of Atari Box Art
Cover Story: How a bit of creative marketing goes a long way.
T
he importance of box art seems to dwindle with each passing generation of consoles. As the average gamer nowadays is much more knowledgeable about games, very few of us wander into a store completely oblivious of what type of experience hides behind the art of a specific title. But back in the '80s, that digital tree of knowledge that we call the internet wasn't there to whet our gaming appetites, so consumers had to rely on the milk of human kindness, aka, video game box art. It turns out that sometimes that milk was a bit sour, and the art would take some rather creative liberties in its interpretation of the actual game it was promoting.
3-D Tic-Tac-Toe
One could safely assume upon first glance that this game will be about space boy and space dog engaged in some strange sort of waffle-making contest with an asymmetrical cyborg demon. Seriously -- take a look at that robot's cold demeanor and nightmarish claws, and tell me that he's not going to tear that plucky youngster to shreds. With this in mind, diving into the game itself reveals a disappointing lack of space horror, but a whole mess of tic-tac-toe action. The layered dynamic of the simple game pretty much turns it into digital Connect Four, which isn't the worst thing in the world. And while I fully understand that just having a few Xs and Os on your cover isn't going to move copies, I can't help but wonder how many disappointed dog lovers there were after realizing that space pooch is nowhere to be found in this game. Honestly though, I can't fault them too much, because every time I play tic-tac-toe, I pretend that I'm facing off against Death ala The Seventh Seal/Bill and Ted. But all joking aside, having a game with three hyphens in its title is pretty impressive. Well done space boy and cyborg demon.
Haunted House
As silly as it may seem nowadays, I really appreciate the way some Atari games presented their internal elements with such unabashed honesty. What kind of creepy things were players going to have to encounter during their stay in Haunted House? Well, ghosts, bats, and tarantulas of course. Shockingly, the box art actually reflects the in-game experience quite well. Your avatar in the Atari title is portrayed by a set of eyes that have to navigate the labyrinthine layout of the titular house. Along the way, your enemies include the trio of nouns that adorn the cover, all of which are represented by recognizable pixel facsimiles. While it's easy to poke fun at Atari boxes that wildly misrepresent the actual product, kudos have to be given to Haunted House for using an image that not only reflects the game, but also manages to exude the spirit of horror film history as well.
Video Checkers
Video Checkers is the story of a King Smug, lord of Monument Valley, and his epic game of checkers against a young boy suffering from polio. Or at least that's what the box art for this game would lead you to believe. I'm not quite sure why the creators of this game felt the need to create a narrative framing device in order to sell the concept of checkers to an unsuspecting audience. It's like trying to spruce up tic-tac-toe with...oh, i see what you all did there. Honestly though, there are multiple images of checkerboards on the cover, and the actual Atari experience is a pretty honest facsimile of the game, so at least the art isn't completely misleading. It seemed to be a recurring trend for Atari games to take a relatively simple game like checkers and, for some strange reason, create a bizarre cover narrative that really added nothing to the experience aside from befuddlement.
Maze Craze
Ok, this one's easy. From an initial glance at the box art, this game must start with Freddie Mercury breaking into that massive warehouse from the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark. After finding a single burlap sack of money that once belonged to Scrooge McDuck, the British crooner decides to snatch the loot and make a run for it. But little does he know, a rookie cop with a bionic, baton-wielding arm is prepared to murder Queen's frontman once and for all. This must be where where the players come in, with one controlling Mercury as the other attempts to hunt him down. But after viewing the actual game in action, it turns out that...holy crap, it turns out that the cover art is pretty spot on. The game basically involves the players trying to escape a maze before their opponent can. Let's pour one out for the fact that we as a society have passed the time where a simple maze simulator could be deemed as an acceptable video game.
RealSports Soccer
If someone asked me to encapsulate the sport of soccer in a single image, I'd probably take the angle of a pair of opposing players vying for position near a ball. Countless titles over the years may have used this same concept, but why mess with simplest way of conveying your sport? Well, the artist behind the cover for RealSports Soccer decided to go in a slightly different direction; one that resembles the kind of image you'd find tacked up on the corkboard of a serial killer's musty studio apartment. I have no qualms with the pair of matchups in the background -- those kinds of intense skirmishes do a great job of highlighting the intensity of the sport. But for some reason, the artist decided to superimpose a translucent player into the foreground with the face of a devil and the posture of some alien race attempting to impersonate a human being. The coup de grace is the soccer ball in the background, which seems to be about ten feet tall, making the entire sport seem like something that would fit inside the post-apocalyptic confines of a show like American Gladiators or Global Guts.
1UP editor Marty Sliva is a fan of wacky box art. His favorite, by far, was Phalanx on the SNES. If you love Phalanx as much as he does, follow him on twitter.
A Stella Anniversary: 35 Years of Atari 2600
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Comments (37)
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Title.
Posted: userComment.createdDate by iamhannahmedlin
The box art for a ton of those games, RealSports Soccer included, freak me the hell out. Always have. Because of this, they seem to be my favorites. I always keep the creepier ones on top or in front of all of my games, depeneding on where I keep them. But I love the box art. They keep it simple and understandable I guess.
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the lost art...
Posted: userComment.createdDate by ndefalco
Marty, those box art covers can be some seriously insane stuff. But, on the other hand, painted or hand-drawn art on game boxes are a lost art. Just take a look at Outlaw, Asteroids, Berserk, and some others to see how it could be done well and if the game turns out to be a classic, then it's just that much better to own the original box.
Not that it doesn't exist today, but there doesn't seem to be as much thought put into hand-drawn or painted art. Movie posters are even worse.Then again, this exists:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/3d/Cursed_Mountain.jpg
Reminds me of those Choose Your Own Adventure novels.
Back on topic, you know what box art is not deceptive? Pac-man for the 2600. Equally as terrible as the game:
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As a Kid...
Posted: userComment.createdDate by chi_chi_felipe
I always felt like box art was a stepping-off point for my imagination. The art in the manual, too. I would see it and think "That's what they have in mind for that 4x4 pixel pink square," and would adjust my imagination accordingly.
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Bringing it back
Posted: userComment.createdDate by DJ_Caesar
Imagine, if you will, the same spirit and effort used for the 2600 box art being used for a fairly straightforward modern release (CoD, for example). It'd be glorious.
Are you a fan of The Venture Bros.? Maybe you've seen this already, but the box art for the 3rd season DVDs pays a nice homage to the old 2600 artwork.
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Soccer or Football?
Posted: userComment.createdDate by longshotcubed
I have to say that I love how unflourished and simple the titling is for Soccer; or wait...Football? Seriously, what would I call that game if I glanced at it on a shelf? Football: RealSports Soccer seems to be what it wants us to call it by, but in the US both Football and Soccer mean different sports. The game must be having an identity crisis.
Also, the red played in that screenshot on the bottom right is either made up of pure lightning and his body is shaped like one of those "standard" bolts or he's having a seizure caused by trying to comprehend how the company wanted to title its game.. My vote is for the latter.
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Ha!
Posted: 01/08/2013 by McBiggitty
I have no idea how I missed that. I wish modern titles were that all-encompassing. I'd like to own Nintendo Wii Sports Recreational Activities: Baseball Stickball Bowling Tennis Boxing Fighting Golf Fun.
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Futbol
Posted: 01/08/2013 by manutdscot
It's probably the art from the European release -- soccer and football are interchangeable terms for the sport over there. As for which one ought to be the proper term, I'll leave that to Cleese. ;)
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IMAGINATION!
Posted: userComment.createdDate by levelsandgear
Some people already mentioned it, but it bears repeating because it's so incredibly important and a colossal part of what is missing in games today. Part of the beauty and fun of games (and other diversions) was that it allowed/required use of imagination. Most of the fun came from that. Yes, Maze Craze is an extremely basic maze simulator, but when you allow yourself to have some fun and pretend and get involved, it brings it to another level. Starmaster, not featured in this article, is another Atari classic where Imagination can be employed. Repetitively shooting the same TIE looking ships isn't much, but pretending and playing you're in a starship adds an additional element of fun. Hell, I remember we used to take turns playing and the other person (this was a one player game) would pretend to be the CO-PILOT. It was just fun. Haunted House? Same deal. Yea, not much there. But you turn off the lights, and you pretend and allow yourself to get into it... Becomes a whole new experience.
Also not mentioned here is game manuals themselves, and how much they added to the gaming experience by allowing the user to apply their own imagination and creativity to games. Box art and manuals are obviously increasingly less important in this digital age, and it is a shame.
Some of the same can be applied to digital culture in general, where EVERYTHING gets a backstory or extended lore books, articles, comics, etc - Which instead of allowing an individual to make up their own stories, force feed people something that (usually) sucks. As a very overused example, I'll apply Star Wars. How much more magical was the imagined relationship between Obi-Wan and Anakin Skywalker? How much cooler were the Clone Wars? Actually creating things that showed "what actually happened" took a lot of the magic away, regardless of your opinion on if the content itself was good. There's so much focus on "what happened before/after" etc, instead of it not mattering and letting YOU decide in your own world what happened before/after etc.
My ultimate point being Imagination was part of the magic of gaming and something that has (mostly) disappeared from the industry. Getting older doesn't help, as that sort of thing kind of fades from people over time as they need to enter the "real world". But kids today grow up in a video game era where far less imagination is required, and most things are force fed to them. I love watching younger kids play open world games on Wii specifically for this reason, they are far less interested in the endgame, stats, and progression as they are with just having fun, pretending, and exploring. It's refreshing to see.
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Please
Posted: userComment.createdDate by kidgorilla7
Tell me that this can be a regular thing. Maybe move on to the early Konami NES stuff. I love me some quality box art
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I remember those days
Posted: userComment.createdDate by Xian042
looking trough the Atari boxes for what I hoped would be a good game, usually it was just the same blocky crap in a different arrangement. Those covers sure did mke you want to play, though. A later favorite of mine is the William Shatner Strider for Genesis. But more of an example of a bad cover for a great game.
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Hmm...
Posted: 01/08/2013 by McBiggitty
Can you think of any modern game with a cover that COMPLETELY misses the point? There are some awful ones (ICO in NA), but at least it kinda sorta features elements from the game.
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Data East
Posted: userComment.createdDate by Hunterman328
You should do a story on how the game images on the back of the boxes of Data East games for the NES looked in comparison to how the games actually looked on an NES. What a let down those graphics were ompared to the boxes. Karnov, the fire-breathing Russian, I'm looking at you.
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Oh Karnov...
Posted: 01/08/2013 by McBiggitty
No Russian has ever had to endure the same level of dinosaur-induced terror that he did.
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Kid Niki
Posted: 01/08/2013 by MikkiSaturn
Apparently Data East put screen shots of the arcade version of Kid Niki on the back of the boxes for all the home port versions. That was a habitual practice for them? I had no idea. This actually comes up in a you tube video about Kid Niki that I've been making. I was about to post it tonight or tomorrow.
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Re: The Deceptive Beauty of Atari Box Art
Posted: userComment.createdDate by c_anthony
Nice article! I just picked up some Atari 2600 games recently and was pondering the box/cover art myself, how most of it is either entirely misleading or just plain odd. I find it rather funny.
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Thanks!
Posted: 01/08/2013 by McBiggitty
Yeah, we kind of take modern art for granted. Very little of it is truly inspiring, but on the whole, it's inoffensive.
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SHENANIGANS!
Posted: userComment.createdDate by Daikaiju
No Adventure or Missle Command?
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Adventure...
Posted: 01/07/2013 by McBiggitty
That seahorse dragon is an egotistical asshole. It doesn't deserve any extra attention, and none shall be given.
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Early games combined artwork & imagination to enjoy primitive graphics.
Posted: userComment.createdDate by atarimuseum
During the 70's and 80's graphics and sounds were not all that great, the artwork on the boxes and on the sides of arcades allowed the player to visualize in their minds the world they were entering and the game they were playing. Back then graphics weren't pre-packaged and spoon feed to the player in the view of the programmers as they are today, playing arcades was a combination of skill and imagination which allowed you to really feel more a part of being in the game then todays games where you feel more like you are justing looking in from one side of a glass wall...
If you really want to understand more about the culture, and games of the era and specifically Atari you really need to pick up the brand new book called Atari Inc Business is Fun on amazon.
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Imagination...
Posted: 01/07/2013 by McBiggitty
You nailed it with the word "imagination." A majority of games today dwell way too much in the literal, be it visuals or narrative. I wish more people realized that a bit of abstraction goes a long way.
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Really great choice of box art samples.
Posted: userComment.createdDate by lokey013
If I didn't know any better.....I would have been drawn to buy those games too in their hey days
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Hmm...
Posted: 01/07/2013 by McBiggitty
I'm with you until the RealSports Soccer cover...seriously, that shit is where family curses come from.
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love the box art loving
Posted: userComment.createdDate by Rusty_Shackles
Been meaning to do an Atari theme FOREVER on PaletteSwap - hey 1up'ers check it out, it's my site where artists repackage videogames (and it's been shown on the 1up tumblr so I'm not totally pimping in the wild. well, just a bit) http://palette-swap.blogspot.com/
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So good!
Posted: 01/07/2013 by McBiggitty
Thanks for posting these, Bill. I kinda want to rip up my Samba de Amigo sleeve and replace it with yours.
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Marty
Posted: userComment.createdDate by BrokenH
The kid playing checkers seems "very satisfied". Er, too satisfied! I kind of envy him though. I've never gotten orgasms while playing board games. (Except for maybe Heroes Quest but I kept it to myself!)
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Yep...
Posted: 01/07/2013 by McBiggitty
But the King definitely does not approve of his carnal antics.
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Title of Comment
Posted: userComment.createdDate by roto13
I love old box art. Modern box art is more indicative of what you'll actually see in the game, and that's probably for the best, but I miss these old artists coming up with their own interpretations of what's going on on-screen. Especially since a lot of the publishers didn't apparently give a crap about what the games were trying to portray, like that hilarious old Pac-Man box art where pac-man has that creepy lanky body.
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Agreed.
Posted: 01/07/2013 by McBiggitty
The imagination on display reminds me of the unchained creativity that Polish artists are allowed to use when designing movie posters. Not always indicitive of the final product, but always gorgeous as hell. Check them out.
http://wellmedicated.com/inspiration/50-incredible-film-posters-from-poland/
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Nice shift
Posted: userComment.createdDate by The-Bavis
Nice to think about how some of that box art was actually pretty good. There's plenty out there to laugh at, mind, but this selection reminds me of how much time I would spend staring at catalogs with box art and wondering what the games were really like. Normally, the game couldn't live up to the box's delightful promises, but they were always good primer for the imagination needed to really enjoy some of those games.
Also, it's worth mentioning that Soccer Guy's right hand is ENORMOUS!
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