The box art for Haunted House (not the racy, original version) always frightened me as a child. I got the same feeling when I would go through my dad's vinyl collection and would run into the cover of The Moody Blues' "On The Threshold Of A Dream." The surreal style captured the types of nightmares I would have when young.
Have you played Atari today? 11 year old me was able to always answer that question yes.
So many times the box art would totally capture my imagination. I'd ask for some cartridge for Christmas or my birthday and it was always a bit of a gut punch to see the screen for the first time.
I own the poster version ("The Art of Atari, the poster collection") and it's great. I have three of their posters hanging in my office right now. It's not just nostalgia, the art is terrific.
EDIT: the poster collection now costs $600+ on Amazon. Wow.
The spaceship beaming people up in Defender always looked like it's proportions were off. As a kid, I remember seeing the spaceship and thinking it looked like a metal glove.
The Art of Over-Promising and Under-Delivering, ha ha. (Truly, I did just want something closer to a gently stylized screenshot so I knew what I was getting.)
I loved art like this. It encouraged you to use your imagination to see the little blob of pixels on your screen as a warrior, spaceship, etc. It made the simple graphics more meaningful.
It's kinda like how in Clue (Cluedo), the characters like Reverend Green, Miss Scarlett, Professor Plum, etc. so richly detailed in the box art and on the cards are represented by simple one-color game pieces in-game.
Atari Haunted House: https://e.snmc.io/lk/o/x/5585d64c8bad9592834b18b0c8394b44/10...
On The Threshold Of A Dream: https://rockandrollglobe.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/2505...
So many times the box art would totally capture my imagination. I'd ask for some cartridge for Christmas or my birthday and it was always a bit of a gut punch to see the screen for the first time.
https://www.reddit.com/r/retrogaming/comments/11ddevl/atari_...
https://retrovania-vgjunk.blogspot.com/2016/03/the-wonderful...
EDIT: the poster collection now costs $600+ on Amazon. Wow.
https://www.bitmapbooks.com/en-ca/collections/all-books/prod...
It's kinda like how in Clue (Cluedo), the characters like Reverend Green, Miss Scarlett, Professor Plum, etc. so richly detailed in the box art and on the cards are represented by simple one-color game pieces in-game.