I'm temperamentally prone to prefer the past to the present, so my opinions on some topics are understandably suspect to many people. This doubly true when it comes to matters of art, which are already highly subjective. Nevertheless, I'm (once again) going to show off a couple of pieces of older fantasy art I greatly prefer to most of what we see nowadays. They're both from the manual for Quest for the Rings. Unfortunately, I don't know the name of the artist who created them.
Meanwhile, this painting depicts the nightmare minions of the Ringmaster: the dragons (named Scortha, Goldfang, and Mythrog), the Spydroth Tyrantulus, the doomwinged bloodthirsts, the orcs, and the firewraiths.
Clearly, Quest for the Rings borrows liberally from Tolkien, but that's hardly surprising. When it was released in 1981, The Lord of the Rings was probably the most popularly known example of epic fantasy. Given that, I think it only makes sense to use it as inspiration for the game's monsters and overall story. Still, these paintings are pretty evocative. Much like movie posters from this era, video games from the '70s and '80s used to boast some impressive artwork. I'd love to see illustrations in this style return to prominence.
You and me both. While we're at it, can we see those rocking murals start gracing the sides of vans once again?
ReplyDelete; )
I did love the Quest for the Rings trappings, but the game-play itself was not as good as Adventure (on my friends' Atari), or the incomparable Ultima on the Apple ][.
ReplyDeleteIn that sense (as compared to its contemporaries), it was a bit of a disappointment. ...but that didn't stop me from playing the heck out of it.
Were you aware of the recently released Nox Archaist game for the Apple ][ (and emulators)? An Ultima descendant and throw-back.
https://www.6502workshop.com/p/nox-archaist.html
I now recognize the game! I had a copy of this myself and loved playing the Phantom and Changeling characters. It ran on some kind of Philips console, right?
ReplyDeleteMagnavox in North America, which I believe is a subsidiary of Philips.
DeleteHere in Europe, well Italy at least, it was Philips Videopac or something similar.
DeleteThat Magnavox unit was known as the Odyssey2. They made some pretty clever games, including the Pac-Man-inspired K.C. Munchkin.
DeleteQuest for the Rings was not great, but 2 players could play together, co-op, which wasn't a very common feature then.
Jerzy Kosinski, author of Being There, once described literature as the most democratic of art forms because as the consumer, we have freedom in almost every regard to our participation in the art — when, where, and what everything described looks like. In contrast, he equated TV and movies with totalitarianism: our only choice is whether or not to watch.
ReplyDeleteOld-School art is more akin to Kosinski’s understanding of literature: it leaves out details (like color, realism, etc.) so that with our imagination, we can fill out the details as we want them to be. We are invited to participate.
New-School art is akin to Kosinski’s understanding of TV and movies: it is so detailed in every aspect that it leaves us nothing to do with it. We can’t participate in it, we can only accept it as it is.
I find it an interesting corollary that the old rule sets were much like their art: sketchy in details allowing the user to come up with interpretations and new rules to fill in the gaps.
Thanks for this insight! I now realise why I dislike Larry Elmore's art but really like Erol Otus'.
Deletegod, that looks like Otus, no?
ReplyDeleteThat was my first thought too
DeleteThe artists appear to be Ron Bradford and Steve Lehner.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.the-nextlevel.com/odyssey2/articles/bradford/