Speaking of the idea of no boxes anymore--Bill, I know you're a huge fan of the professionally-produced homebrew stuff. I'm curious--are those guys going out of their way to make slick looking or highly artistic box art and the like? It would make sense if they're really trying to appeal to the snobbish "old school" types like us. ;)
AtariAge occasionally ran label art contests which became box art for Atari 2600 homebrews, but the vast majority of homebrews either use borrowed art, semi-pro art, or adapted art. There are few truly original high concept covers for obvious reasons. Finding a top flight artist to donate their work to a run of product in the 25 to 200 copy max range is tough, and paying an artist is impractical, since it's hard enough even to reach a break even point on the work/effort required for these things. They probably "earn" at best in the range of a rung or two below niche book authors. ;-)
By the way, most homebrew boxes are assembled by hand with old fashioned cutting and gluing. If done properly, you can't tell much difference between these and professional boxes of the past. The printing is usually where the vast majority of expense comes in, and most methods require a minimum run (an issue that the upcoming 25 copy run of "War" on the Bally Astrocade is running into).
Speaking of the idea of no boxes anymore--Bill, I know you're a huge fan of the professionally-produced homebrew stuff. I'm curious--are those guys going out of their way to make slick looking or highly artistic box art and the like? It would make sense if they're really trying to appeal to the snobbish "old school" types like us. ;)
AtariAge occasionally ran label art contests which became box art for Atari 2600 homebrews, but the vast majority of homebrews either use borrowed art, semi-pro art, or adapted art. There are few truly original high concept covers for obvious reasons. Finding a top flight artist to donate their work to a run of product in the 25 to 200 copy max range is tough, and paying an artist is impractical, since it's hard enough even to reach a break even point on the work/effort required for these things. They probably "earn" at best in the range of a rung or two below niche book authors. ;-)
By the way, most homebrew boxes are assembled by hand with old fashioned cutting and gluing. If done properly, you can't tell much difference between these and professional boxes of the past. The printing is usually where the vast majority of expense comes in, and most methods require a minimum run (an issue that the upcoming 25 copy run of "War" on the Bally Astrocade is running into).
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Bill Loguidice, Managing Director | Armchair Arcade, Inc.
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Bill Loguidice, Managing Director
Armchair Arcade, Inc.