Tuesday, November 8, 2022

Imagining Bug-Eyed Monsters

🎮 I did some freelance work for the Atari game called "Galaga." The painting below is in oil.

🎮 The actual screen graphics were pretty basic. Orderly lines of bug-like monsters swarm overhead and drop bombs on you.



🎮 The whole idea with the package art was to develop the 3D fantasy in the player's imagination.

🎮 Although there were home versions of the game, you had to play the arcade version to see the ultimate levels. I wasn't very good at playing the game, so I went to the arcade and offered quarters to the kids who were good at it. I said all I wanted to do was watch them play and sketch the monsters. When I came back the next day there was a whole line of kids with their hands out. Don't know if I would do that now.






8 comments:

Bevan said...

I remember that game. And you're right, in today's world people would raise an eyebrow if you were doing that, regardless of how innocent the cause.

Cedar said...

What a fun way to do art research!

--Cedar

Esteban Berazadi said...

True

Jim Douglas said...

It never occurred to me before, but does it seem odd to use analog artwork to promote an electronic video game? Maybe not. Actually, I think there's something about seeing the same subject depicted in different ways and through different means that makes it feel more real. Like, if you see a statue, a painting, and a movie of a person, the overall representation of that person feels richer.

David King said...

That machine ate a lot of my quarters when I was a kid.

Newt said...

Wow! I remember that package art. I never would have guessed you did it!

That's a great story about the arcade kids. The endless quest for quarters to feed into arcade machines was a feature of my generation's childhood; I bet those kids thought they'd struck it rich.

erc said...

Galaga?!Woah!.I wish this was on a t-shirt.

Rafal Ziolkowski said...

In whole The Art of Atari book and they have no mention about this! That's an overlook. Amazing art!

I loved the game version on Amiga especially those moment when something "went wrong" between levels :)