Atari Game Art info needed

[lapetino]

Ah, I think I've solved it. That's "Kenyon", isn't it? On both the list videotwit provided and other lists of freelancers I've seen who worked for Atari, there's a "Steve Kenyon", but if you look at the art for Battlezone, it's the same surname signature as that Asteroids piece, only the initial is "C", not "S". I don't know where the name Steve came from, but I think it's actually Chris Kenyon that I'm looking at.

 

 

Yep, you're correct. It is Chris Kenyon. I've spent many an hour researching these artists.

[Laemeur]

Well, ain't it a small world. I read your "How Atari Made Me a Designer" article on the Hexanine site some days ago when I was initially on the trail of Cliff Spohn.

 

I don't suppose you're aware of any sort of database that matches-up designers/illustrators with the their Atari work, are you? I've managed to identify a few of the artists I'm most interested in, but I'm still in the dark about whoever did the coin-op artwork for Asteroids Deluxe and Space Duel and other games.

[lapetino]

Well, ain't it a small world. I read your "How Atari Made Me a Designer" article on the Hexanine site some days ago when I was initially on the trail of Cliff Spohn.

 

I don't suppose you're aware of any sort of database that matches-up designers/illustrators with the their Atari work, are you? I've managed to identify a few of the artists I'm most interested in, but I'm still in the dark about whoever did the coin-op artwork for Asteroids Deluxe and Space Duel and other games.

 

That's cool! Thanks. Yep, Hexanine is the design firm I own with a partner, and we've done some video game related work. I've gotten a chance to talk at length with Cliff Spohn, and he's a pretty great guy. It's a lot of fun to hear some of his stories from back in the day, setting much of the style for the art of the 2600. As for the coin-op art, I'm really not sure. I know George Opperman did quite a lot of it, but not sure about those two you mentioned. I'm almost exclusively a 2600 guy.

[+Allan]

Well, ain't it a small world. I read your "How Atari Made Me a Designer" article on the Hexanine site some days ago when I was initially on the trail of Cliff Spohn.

 

I don't suppose you're aware of any sort of database that matches-up designers/illustrators with the their Atari work, are you? I've managed to identify a few of the artists I'm most interested in, but I'm still in the dark about whoever did the coin-op artwork for Asteroids Deluxe and Space Duel and other games.

 

I have a large poster of Asteroids Deluxe. It has the artist on it. It's hard to make out the name though. I think I've seen it before.

 

Allan

[lapetino]

I have a large poster of Asteroids Deluxe. It has the artist on it. It's hard to make out the name though. I think I've seen it before.

 

Allan

 

Yeah, Allan, I don't know who that is. Do you have a year on the poster release? I'm much more familiar with the early Atari artists.

[+Allan]

Yeah, Allan, I don't know who that is. Do you have a year on the poster release? I'm much more familiar with the early Atari artists.

 

Look right underneath it. 1981. If any of you figure out any of the 5200 artist or even get to talk to them I'd love to hear about it.

 

Allan

[ferghead]

Yep, you're correct. It is Chris Kenyon. I've spent many an hour researching these artists.

Just saw the article that mentioned your upcoming book about this subject! I was doing some research for my show about the artists and the article came up. I'm really looking forward to this. It's amazing that the cover artists' names were printed on the games, but not the actual game designers.

 

http://www.theverge.com/2013/9/19/4716444/how-atari-box-art-turned-8-bit-games-into-virtual-wonderlands

[lapetino]

Just saw the article that mentioned your upcoming book about this subject! I was doing some research for my show about the artists and the article came up. I'm really looking forward to this. It's amazing that the cover artists' names were printed on the games, but not the actual game designers.

 

http://www.theverge.com/2013/9/19/4716444/how-atari-box-art-turned-8-bit-games-into-virtual-wonderlands

Very cool, freghead! Glad you dug the article (Andrew and the Verge team did a nice job!) and the book concept. We're working on it, but there is still a lot to do. As for the artists' names, they weren't explicitly mentioned in the games, unless they signed their work. AND that assumed that the way the art was finally cropped kept the signature in the frame. So, there are still many unidentified pieces out there, and much of the answering of "who did what?" has come from the artists themselves, and other people who worked at Atari at the time. But it is a shame the programmers and game designers weren't credited. Things have certainly changed.

 

Your podcast sounds very cool! Let me know if there's anything I can do to help. Sounds excellent!

[Mef]

Hey. I know it's necropsting, but I recently got sucked in into the search for those illustrators and similar works as well.

I was looking at the signature on Asteroids Deluxe poster close-up and decided to give my mad deciphering skills a try and started searching for:

"Asteroids Deluxe Viljam**" (trying different letters as **) and actually found something!

 

"(...) Opperman points to the art
on Asteroids Deluxe, which he directed,
Finnish abstract painter Marty Viljamaa
designed and Flemate illustrated, as one
of his favorite works. "On Asteroids
Deluxe we got to try some different
things, like using a four-color process
rather than fill-in line art," Opperman
says. Among the 70 to 80 games he and
his staff have illustrated .Centipede and
Space Duel are also among his favorites.
Opperman may have his favorite
game designs, but the design for which

Among the 70 to 80 games the Atari coin-op art staff
has worked on, Opperman counts the intergalactic war
scenes in Space Duel as among his favorites. (...)"

 

Here's the source:

https://archive.org/details/Video_Games_Volume_1_Number_09_1983-06_Pumpkin_Press_US

PDF download:

https://archive.org/download/Video_Games_Volume_1_Number_09_1983-06_Pumpkin_Press_US/Video_Games_Volume_1_Number_09_1983-06_Pumpkin_Press_US.pdf

 

The article on Opperman is on page 30.

Edited August 4, 2014 by Mef

[Buyatari]

 

Hey. I know it's necropsting, but I recently got sucked in into the search for those illustrators and similar works as well.

I was looking at the signature on Asteroids Deluxe poster close-up and decided to give my mad deciphering skills a try and started searching for:

"Asteroids Deluxe Viljam**" (trying different letters as **) and actually found something!

 

"(...) Opperman points to the art

on Asteroids Deluxe, which he directed,

Finnish abstract painter Marty Viljamaa

designed and Flemate illustrated, as one

of his favorite works. "On Asteroids

Deluxe we got to try some different

things, like using a four-color process

rather than fill-in line art," Opperman

says. Among the 70 to 80 games he and

his staff have illustrated .Centipede and

Space Duel are also among his favorites.

Opperman may have his favorite

game designs, but the design for which

 

Among the 70 to 80 games the Atari coin-op art staff

has worked on, Opperman counts the intergalactic war

scenes in Space Duel as among his favorites. (...)"

 

Here's the source:

https://archive.org/details/Video_Games_Volume_1_Number_09_1983-06_Pumpkin_Press_US

These three guys mostly illustrated for Atari arcade and pinball games.

 

George Opperman was truly a master but died in the mid 1980s. A few years back I was able to pick up a Superman painting Opperman did from another Atari employee who saved it. This painting was for an ad in Replay magazine for the Superman pinball machine.

 

[NVil]

The artist for this piece is my grandfather, Marty Viljamaa. He was born in Finland and graduated from Helsinki University with a degree in Fine Arts. Took up his first career as an artist/marketing manager with one of the Swedish airlines. My father was born in Oslo but emigrated to Australia in his teen years with his mother.

Grandfather (his actual name is Juhani Marti Viljamaa) emigrated to the US and worked for Atari in the 80’s. He used to send us little paintings and sketches and often Atari posters. He changed his name to ‘Marty Viljamaa’ to give himself a more westernised sounding name. 
 

He visited us in Australia in the 80’s when I was a kid. We thought he was super cool! I have little bits and pieces of his artwork he drew for me as a kid. There used to be a lot more information about grandfather himself online, but he passed away in 2005 and most of the information about him now is the Asteroids pic that featured on Stranger Things. Which is a little bit sad because he painted in many different styles. Outside of Atari, he had artwork in galleries, private collections and a couple of pieces commissioned for the US airforce. 
 

He lived alone in the end in Florida (Palm Springs?). And unfortunately died alone. It was devastating not being able to fly over for a funeral, and I believe after he passed away a lot of his things were pilfered. He was alone with the exception of a son (not my father), who he had no relationship with and was just interested in selling out. It’s sad that some of his bigger pieces weren’t kept in the family. I have a lot of information about him, letters, drawings. I won’t ever part with these but if anyone is interested in Marty Viljamaa, I’m happy to answer any questions. I do have a Facebook account, Nina Viljamaa, and live in Australia. As I said, happy to fill in gaps where I can for anyone interested in him as an artist.