Strat O Gems Deluxe (PAL)

Which came first, Columns or Acid Drop? Does it matter? Not when you have a solid, pretty little game like John Payson's Strat O Gems Deluxe. That sliding shine effect on the title screen is slick! Anyway, that static blue structure in the original game screen is oddly reminiscent of an ancient Greek temple, given the isoceles roof and the 6 columns holding it up. Speaking of Columns, Sega gave their game an obviously ancient Greek theme, so I decided to go with that line of thinking for this artwork for Strat O Gems. The marble slabs with shadowed gemstones was inspired by cover art for Columns 3. The bezel background image is of Santorini at night. As always, I try to preserve as much of the original cartridge artwork as possible, so I decided to reconstruct the title graphic for the marquee. I couldn't get MESS to display this game in NTSC so I decided to work in PAL for this one. On an emulator that doesn't matter much so it seemed like a simple enough compromise. I just have to remember to use a2600p when I load it.