Contrary to the prevalent opinions here, though, I think this "Checkers" box looks.... sterile. In fact, that was my opinion of the Intellivision back in the day: sterile.
That's not a bad descriptor. We didn't necessarily say we liked it, just appreciated the art of it. I suppose that's a key difference.
Rowdy Rob wrote:
I couldn't tell you why the Atari VCS seemed more inviting to the casual gamer, but perhaps this "Checkers" box might be a clue. The cover artwork does not scream "videogame excitement." In fact, the cover art would look more at home on the cover of the "Saturday Evening Post" than on the cover of a videogame box. And I'm saying this as a big fan of Norman Rockwell. The Intellivision artwork looks generic. It looks early 80's, even 70-ish. (And it probably was.) Although I can't prove it, since I have never owned an Intellivision, I suspect that most Intellivision boxes looked similar (I assume you, Bill, can prove me wrong on this one).
This was the typical style for the late 70's to early 80's for Atari and Mattel videogames. They definitely got looser and more fun by the 80's.
You'll see not a huge difference, and third party was very consistent between platforms.
Honestly, I don't think it was necessarily the packaging, but the way the Intellivision was advertised and the way the games looked (often with drab color pallets) and played (often slower than an equivalent on the 2600). The Intellivision was incredibly powerful, but it did have some disadvantages in comparison to the 2600.
I'd say all things considered, the Atari 2600 and Intellivision had the best cover art for pre-crash systems. I always liked the Coleco stuff, but all they really did was slap arcade cabinets on the cover.
Rowdy Rob wrote:
In contrast, I think that today's videogame boxes have a much wider variety of cover art, and are certainly less generic-looking and sterile than Intellivision Checkers (or "Draughts," for you Europeans who don't know the correct term).
I suppose, but there just doesn't seem to be that "art" feel that a lot of the hand drawn stuff of the past did.
Rowdy Rob wrote:
To be fair, most Atari VCS games had similar boxes. I think most VCS boxes were ORANGE, if I recall correctly. I don't know what was going on in the marketing department's heads, but I think they were going for an "encyclopedia" look on the bookshelf.
That's actually one of the interesting things. Atari and Mattel both experimented with different colored boxes, sometimes to represent a theme ("sports") or sometimes to represent a mini era (a period of a few years). You wouldn't see that today. For instance, all of the Wii software is in predominantly white cases and the 360 and PS3 have similar consistent looks.
Rowdy Rob wrote:
In twenty years, we'll all laugh at how quaint the videogame boxes of the 2000's looked.
qoj hpmoj o+ 6uo73q 3Jv 3svq jnoh 77V
I would just love to see a return to hand drawn covers, but it's unlikely that will happen, particularly since in 20 years we may not even have boxes anymore!
Contrary to the prevalent opinions here, though, I think this "Checkers" box looks.... sterile. In fact, that was my opinion of the Intellivision back in the day: sterile.
That's not a bad descriptor. We didn't necessarily say we liked it, just appreciated the art of it. I suppose that's a key difference.
I couldn't tell you why the Atari VCS seemed more inviting to the casual gamer, but perhaps this "Checkers" box might be a clue. The cover artwork does not scream "videogame excitement." In fact, the cover art would look more at home on the cover of the "Saturday Evening Post" than on the cover of a videogame box. And I'm saying this as a big fan of Norman Rockwell. The Intellivision artwork looks generic. It looks early 80's, even 70-ish. (And it probably was.) Although I can't prove it, since I have never owned an Intellivision, I suspect that most Intellivision boxes looked similar (I assume you, Bill, can prove me wrong on this one).
This was the typical style for the late 70's to early 80's for Atari and Mattel videogames. They definitely got looser and more fun by the 80's.
These pictures are tiny, but you can see how things started to brighten up and energize a bit by the 80's, though the earlier style persisted: http://www.intellivisiongames.com/gamecatalog.php
Compare that to the Atari stuff: http://www.atariage.com/company_page.html?CompanyID=1&SystemID=2600&Syst...
You'll see not a huge difference, and third party was very consistent between platforms.
Honestly, I don't think it was necessarily the packaging, but the way the Intellivision was advertised and the way the games looked (often with drab color pallets) and played (often slower than an equivalent on the 2600). The Intellivision was incredibly powerful, but it did have some disadvantages in comparison to the 2600.
I'd say all things considered, the Atari 2600 and Intellivision had the best cover art for pre-crash systems. I always liked the Coleco stuff, but all they really did was slap arcade cabinets on the cover.
In contrast, I think that today's videogame boxes have a much wider variety of cover art, and are certainly less generic-looking and sterile than Intellivision Checkers (or "Draughts," for you Europeans who don't know the correct term).
I suppose, but there just doesn't seem to be that "art" feel that a lot of the hand drawn stuff of the past did.
To be fair, most Atari VCS games had similar boxes. I think most VCS boxes were ORANGE, if I recall correctly. I don't know what was going on in the marketing department's heads, but I think they were going for an "encyclopedia" look on the bookshelf.
That's actually one of the interesting things. Atari and Mattel both experimented with different colored boxes, sometimes to represent a theme ("sports") or sometimes to represent a mini era (a period of a few years). You wouldn't see that today. For instance, all of the Wii software is in predominantly white cases and the 360 and PS3 have similar consistent looks.
In twenty years, we'll all laugh at how quaint the videogame boxes of the 2000's looked.
qoj hpmoj o+ 6uo73q 3Jv 3svq jnoh 77V
I would just love to see a return to hand drawn covers, but it's unlikely that will happen, particularly since in 20 years we may not even have boxes anymore!
Books!
Bill Loguidice, Managing Director | Armchair Arcade, Inc.
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Bill Loguidice, Managing Director
Armchair Arcade, Inc.