More 70’s / 80’s Retro Sci-Fi in the form of Book Cover Art, this striking piece was produced by the late Peter Elson (1947-1998). Peter was a British Illustrator whose work appeared on the covers of numerous science fiction paperback novels in a style not dissimilar to Chris Foss (also mentioned on this blog). Peter’s work had a heavy influence on the first version of the PC game “Homeworld” according to artists who worked on the title.
Read more about him at this excellent fan site put together by Luca Oleastri
The parched surface of Mercury with the Sun looming large above the horizon, painted by the “Father of Modern Space Art” Chesley Bonestell (1 January 1888 – 11 June 1986). His paintings were a major influence on science fiction art and illustration, and he helped inspire the American space program, read more about him over at Wiki here.
Atari’s Vertical Scrolling Arcade Shooter “Xevious” from 1981.
Wedge shaped spacecraft flying in and out of frame, a limited colour palette, and heavy black outline, a really good example of early 80’s arcade cabinet art. In retrospect these cabinets are much more exciting than the games themselves especially when measured by todays standards. Xevious was a vertical scrolling shooter, as opposed to the horizontal - not sure which is better as I’ve always been shit at both.
Cover art for the ZX Spectrum Version of “The Hobbit” 1983.
The Hobbit was an text adventure game for 8-bit computers like the C64 and the Speccy, it’s considered a bit of a classic, what’s interesting is the ZX Spectrum branding - 48K of RAM! The game itself featured some very early pixel art, crude but atmospheric and remember the speccy only had a palette of 7 colours!
Read more about the game at Mobygame.com http://www.mobygames.com/game/zx-spectrum/hobbit
