driph Posted October 21, 2012 Share Posted October 21, 2012 Do any of the paintings/drawings used for Atari 2600 box & cartridge art still exist? Is there a secret stash of original art somewhere, or did most of the pieces get lost/destroyed over the years and acquisitions? Man, wouldn't it be amazing to see these pieces in real life? I'd roadtrip to go to that art museum. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rastignac Posted October 21, 2012 Share Posted October 21, 2012 Afaik, Jim Huether keeps the WarLords painting in his home, because it shows Jim dressed as a knight... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kennetzel Posted October 21, 2012 Share Posted October 21, 2012 I would tend to think the artists may keep the originals over time. I work in the art industry and we would take the ads we do and other art and store them in files for a long time. But after time it came up to cleaning out those files and the work was either tossed or the artist took it. I did the Black Beauty blue print art for the Round 2 release of the model kit of the Black Beauty, and I have all the original art on my computer and framed in my home. Round 2 has a copy too...but I have the originals. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kennetzel Posted October 21, 2012 Share Posted October 21, 2012 Sorry for the double pic post...but the forum is acting up for me today and it didn't say it uploaded, so I did it a second time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kennetzel Posted October 21, 2012 Share Posted October 21, 2012 Sorry for the double pic post...but the forum is acting up for me today and it didn't say it uploaded, so I did it a second time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bennybingo Posted October 21, 2012 Share Posted October 21, 2012 Jimmy two-times... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kennetzel Posted October 21, 2012 Share Posted October 21, 2012 Well, I have NO idea as to how my apology post posted twice. There hangs a mystery. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bennybingo Posted October 21, 2012 Share Posted October 21, 2012 Well, I have NO idea as to how my apology post posted twice. There hangs a mystery. Between the hours of 3 AM and 5 AM EST, I have had that same problem as well...it must be some sort of AtariAge witching hour type of thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the.golden.ax Posted October 21, 2012 Share Posted October 21, 2012 Someone was selling limited number reprints of original box arts some years back. Can't find the link. Anyone? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ranthulfr Posted October 21, 2012 Share Posted October 21, 2012 Well, the artwork used for Warlords and Backgammon made an appearance at Classic Gaming Expo 2003. But I've got no idea who it belongs to or if it's been back since. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
driph Posted October 21, 2012 Author Share Posted October 21, 2012 Well, the artwork used for Warlords and Backgammon made an appearance at Classic Gaming Expo 2003. But I've got no idea who it belongs to or if it's been back since. Ooh, was wondering how large they'd be, glad there's an Atari Video Music next to the Warlords painting for reference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+cvga Posted October 21, 2012 Share Posted October 21, 2012 Well, the artwork used for Warlords and Backgammon made an appearance at Classic Gaming Expo 2003. But I've got no idea who it belongs to or if it's been back since. Thanks for sharing. I have the corresponding artwork for Asteroids and Space Invaders. Those aren't paintings though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
y-bot Posted October 22, 2012 Share Posted October 22, 2012 There were some on display at World Of Atari '98, probably the same ones from CGE 2003. I know for sure that some of them showed up on Ebay in the early 2000s. AtariHQ or something like that maybe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
number six Posted October 22, 2012 Share Posted October 22, 2012 My other 'money sink' (lol) is original artwork. I've tried to combine that with video games as much as possible (ie original video came art) but it's not easy. Classic cover art is hard to find. I've tried to find artwork from the old Atari cartridges before but never really had any luck. I think a lot of the original artwork got lost, tossed out, whatever. You hear horror stories. Obviously some of it survived (as above) but its hard to find. It's easier to track down stuff from the later 80s/90s but even that ain't easy. I always loved the 2600 box art the most. Since the games were so simple that art really had to convey what was going on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
driph Posted October 22, 2012 Author Share Posted October 22, 2012 Thanks for sharing. I have the corresponding artwork for Asteroids and Space Invaders. Those aren't paintings though. If you get a moment, could you post pictures to this thread? If they aren't paintings, are they prints of the originals, or were they created with different media? My other 'money sink' (lol) is original artwork. I've tried to combine that with video games as much as possible (ie original video came art) but it's not easy. Classic cover art is hard to find. I've tried to find artwork from the old Atari cartridges before but never really had any luck. I think a lot of the original artwork got lost, tossed out, whatever. You hear horror stories. Obviously some of it survived (as above) but its hard to find. It's easier to track down stuff from the later 80s/90s but even that ain't easy. I always loved the 2600 box art the most. Since the games were so simple that art really had to convey what was going on. I wish I would've thought about this during CGE, might've had an opportunity to get a little information from the Atari guys at the show. This is an interesting topic that doesnt appear to have been explored much... I wonder if folks who've gotten ahold of old Atari assets (Best Electronics, Scott from atarigames.com, etc) have run into anything along the way? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+cvga Posted October 22, 2012 Share Posted October 22, 2012 If you get a moment, could you post pictures to this thread? If they aren't paintings, are they prints of the originals, or were they created with different media? I wish I would've thought about this during CGE, might've had an opportunity to get a little information from the Atari guys at the show. This is an interesting topic that doesnt appear to have been explored much... I wonder if folks who've gotten ahold of old Atari assets (Best Electronics, Scott from atarigames.com, etc) have run into anything along the way? Mine are just like the Warlords and Backgammon pictures. They are matted and framed exactly the same way. I bought them many years ago (pre ebay) from someone who had worked at atari. My understanding is that these used to hang on the walls at Atari's home office. They are definitely among my most prized possessions. There are pictures of my gameroom already on AA that shows them hanging on my wall. I'll see if I can find the thread. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phattyboombatty Posted October 22, 2012 Share Posted October 22, 2012 Well, the artwork used for Warlords and Backgammon made an appearance at Classic Gaming Expo 2003. But I've got no idea who it belongs to or if it's been back since. Also made it to CGE 2012... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philflound Posted October 22, 2012 Share Posted October 22, 2012 (edited) I always loved that Warlords art. It is a shame how things always got thrown out. My wife and I save some of the weirdest things, though there are probably collectors out there for it. My big thing which has slowed due to money has been scratch off lottery tickets. When you scratch off the ticket, you either win and turn it in, which then gets destroyed by the store owner so it can't be attempted a 2nd claim, or you toss the ticket. The idea came out of the King Kong movie that came out several years ago. New York had the King Kong Millions and I purchased a couple of tickets on the last day. Though I didn't win, I put the tickets next to my computer monitor for some reason. 2 years later I was cleaning up the area and saw the tickets. I was about to throw them away when the light bulb went off. How many of these tickets remain? Though there is no photo, it still says, "King Kong Millions" on the ticket. And a die hard King Kong collector out there would probably pay some kind of money. Even $10 would be a great return on my losing $1 ticket. Then it struck me again about the scratch off tickets. How many people save those? I found that there is a group of people who collect lottery tickets, from various states and/or countries. They are called lotologists. I became one. My big thing was collecting NJ tickets, since I live here and it's easy for me to acquire. I actually am sent voided samples each month or so of new tickets. Though you can't scratch and win these, the tickets are brand new and come with full latex covering. I then try and acquire a scratched version for my collection. You try and salvage as much of the latex as possible. Here in NJ, you only need the last 4 digits of the code under the latex. If you know where the number is, you can scratch just that section. If you think it's a little crazy, here are some highlights of tickets: video games such as Tetris, Pac-Man, and Space Invaders. Game shows like Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune. Famous people like Elvis, I Love Lucy, Marilyn Monroe, and Yogi Bera. Sports like Giants, Jets, Yankees, and Mets. Holidays for Halloween, Christmas, Easter, Mother's Day, and Father's Day, Valentine's, St Patricks's, 4th of July, and probably some other stuff I can't remember. Plus a whole lot more. Even if you don't collect lottery tickets per se, you get many cross collectibles that tie in. Multiply that by the majority of the country and then other countries, and you have some great collectibles. On top of that, I save the promotional header cards given to the stores when I can get my hands on them, along with any other promotional material. It pains me to hear about things getting thrown away. Most people know about the mid-1970s comic book collection called the Mile High if you are into comics. Thousands of vintage comics in very nice condition were brought into the marketplace and many of those books are the best known today. What most people don't know is that the family THREW OUT a dumpster full or so of magazines and pulps before the comics were offered. If the condition were similar to the comics, you can imagine what those would command today. By the way, these items were from the 1930s-1950s for the most part. The one thing I always tell people I know is that they should never throw anything away before consulting me. Especially when they are doing spring cleaning or moving. And when I say, nothing, I mean pretty much anything unless it is total garbage. Several years ago my aunt worked for a couple in a clothing store. She was the book keeper. Their son had passed away in his mid-30s. A few years after that, she talked to them saying that I sold things on Ebay. So they contacted me and they had some items of their son's that they wanted to get rid of but try and get some kind of money from. So after working out a deal, I took the items. Some were toys, posters, and other advertising pieces. One thing he had a lot of were Ding-A-Lings. These were robot toys battery operated that ran along a track like a roller coaster. They were made by Topper Toys and they had playsets and different characters like police officer, construction worker, etc. Besides brand new sealed and boxed complete items, they had a huge tub full of loose characters and parts. I put them together as much as I could. Most sealed items were selling between $25-75 with the playsets in the $100-250 range. There were 3 miscellaneous robots that were broken, i.e. missing a limb, hat, etc. So instead of throwing them out like any normal person would, I put the lot of 3 together and started the auction at $5. It turned out these were the rare of the rare, say Holy Grail of Ding-A-Lings. The 3 broken pieces sold for $525 to someone in the UK. So once again, something that should have been thrown away had been saved and gone to a collector who needed the parts to complete his own. Sorry for the big story, but I always love hearing about how things were saved by someone who had foresight, or even by accident. I'd be a great picker if I had time and money. Phil Edited October 22, 2012 by Philflound 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bennybingo Posted October 24, 2012 Share Posted October 24, 2012 I just noticed this while cruising through eBay: eBay Auction -- Item Number: 261114687954 I bought a full set of these from the same seller a while back...he/she must be sitting on a truckload of these! They look great though! Just figured I would share. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the.golden.ax Posted October 24, 2012 Share Posted October 24, 2012 I just noticed this while cruising through eBay: eBay Auction -- Item Number: 261114687954 I bought a full set of these from the same seller a while back...he/she must be sitting on a truckload of these! They look great though! Just figured I would share. Yeah I'm thrilled... NOT I spent $125 on a set of these around 4 years ago.. he said it was the last set and he wasn't going to sell more. Ever since it has been one set after another and lowered and lowered. It's my own personal Moto / Road Runner (for those of you who know about that). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
driph Posted October 24, 2012 Author Share Posted October 24, 2012 Yeah I'm thrilled... NOT I spent $125 on a set of these around 4 years ago.. he said it was the last set and he wasn't going to sell more. Ever since it has been one set after another and lowered and lowered. It's my own personal Moto / Road Runner (for those of you who know about that). Interesting, wonder if they are they legitimate, or reprints? What kinda material are they printed on, anyway? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bennybingo Posted October 24, 2012 Share Posted October 24, 2012 Interesting, wonder if they are they legitimate, or reprints? What kinda material are they printed on, anyway? I have a set...they seem to be legit NOS (new old stock). They are on a thin tag-board...kind of near the thickness of a manila folder. Printed on both sides. IMHO, even though they seem to be readily available (not too rare), for $10 a pop, they make for very inexpensive decorations in my game room! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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