Favorite Box or Cartridge Art

[+sramirez2008]

Okay, here we go. What's some of your favorite box and/or cart art? This is obviously subjective and there's so much to choose from, but I thought we could have fun displaying some of our favs. I'll kick things off with 2600 Commando and London Blitz, which are a couple of my favorite games. 

 

Note: There's a lot of amazing homebrew art as well, but for now, I'll leave you with Penult. I think this artwork is simply stunning. Oh and the game is excellent too.🙂

[scifidude79]

Ah, cartridge artwork. One of my favorite parts of collecting cartridges. I love seeing the ones that have really cool artwork on them. I selected a few from my collection.

 

Up first is Berzerk. I love the Sci-Fi artwork. The character looks like a classic Sci-Fi hero, especially from a lot of the great classic Japanese Sci-Fi. And Evil Otto looks absolutely menacing. My original cartridge isn't in that great of shape, so I photographed the Enhanced version:

 

 

Next is just a set of 4 loose carts that I have that kinda just say "Classic Atari" to me. I love the artwork for Centipede. The way the Centipede is curling around the shooter with the Spider getting ready to pounce on the character. With Dig Dug, it's all about the dragon's reaction to the ball thing getting inflated. It's funny to me. Galaxian is just boss looking with those cool ships flying in front of the sun. And, Joust is just boss looking because of the way the Jouster is kind of flying out of the label at you. And all 4 look great bordered in that classic Atari silver.

 

 

And this last set just has some fantastic artwork. The movie poster cover is actually why I bought Flash Gordon. Never having even heard of that game, I saw Ming on the cover and I had to have it. Star Trek looks great with the view from the Klingon bridge as they target the Enterprise. Superman makes use of Warner Communications owning DC Comics with some boss looking Sueperman comic artwork. And, finally, my first 2600 homebrew, Tower of Rubble. I like everything about this artwork. The "alive" tower, with the rays shooting down, the 3D lettering on the bottom and the character climbing up. And the colors are fantastic.

 

 

Anyway, those are the standouts from my collection so far.

[scifidude79]

56 minutes ago, sramirez2008 said:

 

That box art is gorgeous. Is the game fun?

[+sramirez2008]

6 minutes ago, scifidude79 said:

Ah, cartridge artwork. One of my favorite parts of collecting cartridges. I love seeing the ones that have really cool artwork on them. I selected a few from my collection.

 

Up first is Berzerk. I love the Sci-Fi artwork. The character looks like a classic Sci-Fi hero, especially from a lot of the great classic Japanese Sci-Fi. And Evil Otto looks absolutely menacing. My original cartridge isn't in that great of shape, so I photographed the Enhanced version:

 

 

Next is just a set of 4 loose carts that I have that kinda just say "Classic Atari" to me. I love the artwork for Centipede. The way the Centipede is curling around the shooter with the Spider getting ready to pounce on the character. With Dig Dug, it's all about the dragon's reaction to the ball thing getting inflated. It's funny to me. Galaxian is just boss looking with those cool ships flying in front of the sun. And, Joust is just boss looking because of the way the Jouster is kind of flying out of the label at you. And all 4 look great bordered in that classic Atari silver.

 

 

And this last set just has some fantastic artwork. The movie poster cover is actually why I bought Flash Gordon. Never having even heard of that game, I saw Ming on the cover and I had to have it. Star Trek looks great with the view from the Klingon bridge as they target the Enterprise. Superman makes use of Warner Communications owning DC Comics with some boss looking Sueperman comic artwork. And, finally, my first 2600 homebrew, Tower of Rubble. I like everything about this artwork. The "alive" tower, with the rays shooting down, the 3D lettering on the bottom and the character climbing up. And the colors are fantastic.

 

 

Anyway, those are the standouts from my collection so far.

@scifidude79 you started out strong with your selection of artwork.👍

[+sramirez2008]

7 minutes ago, scifidude79 said:

That box art is gorgeous. Is the game fun?

The game is great! It doesn’t run (yet) on the 2600+ but it’s available in the AA Store. You can read about it here.

[Dr Karnov]

Although I don't actually own the box myself, my favourite box art is definitely:

 

 

[Warboss Gegguz]

I feel like early Activision's box art captures the entire aura of the second console gen perfectly.

The SUPER late 70s/early 80s color palates + the minimalism is just awesome to me.

 

 

Like, they'd look perfectly fine painted on the side of like a 70s VW van, lol.

Edited January 10 by Warboss Gegguz

[+sramirez2008]

20 minutes ago, Dr Karnov said:

Although I don't actually own the box myself, my favourite box art is definitely:

 

 

Excellent choice. I always liked the Marauder and Viper like space craft.

[scifidude79]

56 minutes ago, sramirez2008 said:

The game is great! It doesn’t run (yet) on the 2600+ but it’s available in the AA Store. You can read about it here.

Yeah, it's one of the games that caught my eye in the AA store, that's why I asked about it. I'll wait until it can be played on the 2600+ to buy it, but I'll definitely add it to the list.

 

43 minutes ago, Dr Karnov said:

Although I don't actually own the box myself, my favourite box art is definitely:

 

 

Agreed, that box art is gorgeous.

[Dr Karnov]

I already posted these pictures in another thread but Tigervision carts are gorgeous.

 

I should have another one by the end of the week too!

[MikeM_]

4 hours ago, Warboss Gegguz said:

I feel like early Activision's box art captures the entire aura of the second console gen perfectly.

The SUPER late 70s/early 80s color palates + the minimalism is just awesome to me.

 

 

Like, they'd look perfectly fine painted on the side of like a 70s VW van, lol.

In addition to being beautiful art, I love how they actually represent the game play in most cases (exaggerated I admit). This goes to the label art too. You know exactly what you’re about to play at a glance, before you even power on the system. 
 

I only wish their labels held up better over time. 

[Slider271]

I love the Imqgic art that was done with models (or is it just really impressive art? I still can’t tell), looks so cool along with the shiny boxes/carts. 

[Sean_1970]

11 hours ago, MikeM_ said:

In addition to being beautiful art, I love how they actually represent the game play in most cases (exaggerated I admit). This goes to the label art too. You know exactly what you’re about to play at a glance, before you even power on the system. 
 

I only wish their labels held up better over time. 

Yeah, though I liked the Atari box art, Activision got props for being more true to actual game 👍

[+Intellivision Master]

For me this box art looks really cool.  It's one of the best I've seen.  

[DEANJIMMY]

I only kept a handful boxes to show people how they looked like, I collect games but not boxes anymore, as I do not have shelf space left.

 

But some of them look really nice 🤙

[+sramirez2008]

1 hour ago, Intellivision Master said:

For me this box art looks really cool.  It's one of the best I've seen.  

There are two versions of the artwork for the carts. The CIB comes with a double sided poster. Below is what the other artwork looks like. I really like this one too. I have all of the Champ Games.

[+Intellivision Master]

1 minute ago, sramirez2008 said:

There are two versions of the artwork for the carts. The CIB comes with a double sided poster. Below is what the other artwork looks like. I really like this one too. I have all of the Champ Games.

I have the game with the poster.  Were those scorpion enemies in the original Galaga?  I don't remember.  They might be exclusive to Galagon.

[+sramirez2008]

1 hour ago, DEANJIMMY said:

I only kept a handful boxes to show people how they looked like, I collect games but not boxes anymore, as I do not have shelf space left.

 

But some of them look really nice 🤙

Love the H.E.R.O. box. I only have the cart. I also have Draconian (CIB) and lose copy of Demon Attack

[+sramirez2008]

1 minute ago, Intellivision Master said:

Were those scorpion enemies in the original Galaga?

Yes, they appear in the coin-op, just like they do in Galagon. You get extra points for killing all three when they appear.

[+sramirez2008]

Okay, one more homebrew for now...

[insertclevernamehere]

4 hours ago, sramirez2008 said:

Okay, one more homebrew for now...

I love the box art and own the game but the one thing that bugs me is the title on the spine goes up instead of down.  Why did they do that?  Deliberate or a cock up?

[Ben from Plaion]

On 1/10/2024 at 7:34 PM, Warboss Gegguz said:

I feel like early Activision's box art captures the entire aura of the second console gen perfectly.

The SUPER late 70s/early 80s color palates + the minimalism is just awesome to me.

 

 

Like, they'd look perfectly fine painted on the side of like a 70s VW van, lol.

These are so clever because of the minimilistic artstyle. It matches the simplicity of what you actually boot up and play. I'd say they are the best. But I also like Imagic, Parker Bros and most of the Atari first party styles.

Edited January 11 by Ben from Plaion

[Happytoe]

Fast food has always been one of my favorite.  

 

Edited January 12 by Happytoe
Bad pic

[+LS650]

And for LEAST favorite... any of the M-network games!  🤑

🤣

[Glorkbot]

6 hours ago, Ben from Plaion said:

These are so clever because of the minimilistic artstyle. It matches the simplicity of what you actually boot up and play. I'd say they are the best. But I also like Imagic, Parker Bros and most of the Atari first party styles.

The Activision boxes are also an exceptional example of visual branding. You know at a glance if a game is by Activision. Really top notch graphic design there. Do we know who came up with it?