'Head Over Heels' Game Cover Artist Quizzed

Thanks to Redkeyreddoor for its interview with former Ocean videogame cover artist Bob Wakelin, known for his airbrushed game covers for classic '80s UK titles including The Great Escape and Head Over Heels. Wakelin explains the creative process: "I'd go over to [Ocean's] offices and down into their basement, where one of their 'slaves', as I called them, would show me the games. At that stage they were just bits and pieces of code, full of bugs. They'd show me 20 pixels that were supposed to represent a mighty warrior", before concluding by noting of the Wizball cover art: "I think I was very stoned when I did it."

obviously..

[gl4ss]

the wizball wizard enjoys heavy metal.

ROCK ON!
.

OMG!

[blacksway]

OMG - I played all of them, they where ace! (Except moon alert, don't remember that one)

What a classic flash-back moment... wizball was one of those games that was really hard to get started and if you ever lost a life you where back to square one, something to do with collecting colored ink drops if I rember correctly...

Re:OMG!

[iainl]

Yeah, Wizball was relatively sensible gameplay under its mad exterior.

Shoot stuff. Stuff drops ink, with different colours from different enemies. Pick up the ink. Once you've got enough of any one colour, you can use it to fill one of the background colours of a level (there were three, I think, per level to do). But the level with the right colour isn't necessarily the level where you need to use it, so you have to switch back and forth between them by diving through the wells.

Great game, I thought, though because there were stacks of powerups to pick up, the game was most difficult by far early on, and cleaning up the last few levels was really simple.

I see

[Prien715]

1. Play games.
2. Get Stoned.
3. Draw
4. PROFIT!

Anyone else have trouble reaching step 4?

Re:I see

[phauxfinnish]

Get stuck on #2 every time...

Re:I see

[dcordeiro]

with one 3 year old kid and another who is only 1 month old, I have trouble getting into step 1 !!!

Wizball

[lowmagnet]

You had to be stoned to understand wizball. But it was still entirely enjoyable, especially when one picks up the catball. And the metal riffs! Who could ever forget the metal riffs?

Re:Wizball

[Dr.Dubious DDQ]

You had to be stoned to understand wizball.

You're not supposed to understand it, you just play it!

I enjoyed that game immensely, despite a lack of stoned'ness, but then, I've always had a taste for the surreal...

Geek stubby fingeredness is Universal!

[ObsessiveMathsFreak]

So even back in the 80's the programming "slaves" still couldn't even fill up a 20x20 sprite and need to call in a pro.

What hope now for those of use who wan to make a game, but need to draw 300+ sprites in high resolution. Maybe I should take art classes.

Re:Geek stubby fingeredness is Universal!

[Wuukie]

Back then memory was quite limited, so it explains the low number of frames per sprite.

Graphics tools have gone a long way. Back then one had to draw sprites pixel by pixel where as nowadays you would probably draw it on paper first, scan and then paint it in Photoshop or whatever. Or even more frequently they just render 3d models into sprites. Usually those hand painted ones look much better, IMHO. (Yesh! I've always wanted to use "IMHO" in my writings!)

So in a way drawing sprites in higher resolution is much easier. ...and most important yet, use graphics artist instead of programmers. :)

Re:Geek stubby fingeredness is Universal!

[Lehk228]

what are you talking about? most modern games use 3D models.

I was thinking of playing Great Escape again.

[terrox]

Wow weird, I was thinking about Great Escape over the last few days - almost trying to play it again but fearing that it wouldn't live up to the nostalgia as so often happens. Remeber the good old days? yeah they sucked bad.

Also need another fix of that bouncing halloween pumpkin game, that was weird.

Re:I was thinking of playing Great Escape again.

[KDR_11k]

You mean Cauldron (or Cauldron II, I think both games differed greatly...)? I never go what that was about, but it was fun to bounce around and see various rooms and environments...

Ah, yes, the Ocean we all remember..

[eddy]

:-)

"Although every so often, I would get a call or be summoned to a meeting, and Ocean head Dave Ward would say, ''Bob, this needs to be your best-ever illustration.'' Of course, that was invariably because it was for their worst-ever game!"

Dreaming with a Minotaur

[hoferbr]

"The Minotaur was wearing a gold towel down his front, and somebody wrote a letter saying that it looked like it was masking a giant erection. A complete accident, but entirely subconscious, I assure you."
We all believe you, dude. We all believe you...

http://www.penny-arcade.com/view.php3?date=2002-05 -06&res=l

"stunning graphics"

[orn]

The phrase "stunning graphics" on the WizBall poster is especially hilarious since you could buy the game on cassette for the C64. I played those games. I was not stunned. :-) Even back then.

Now, Karateka and Prince of Persia on the apple stunned me. Wow.

"Stunned"? Floored? Rued? :)

[Xentax]

Do you work for Daily Radar or something? Just wondering [penny-arcade.com].

Or maybe Cleanmates [penny-arcade.com]?

Xentax

Re:"Stunned"? Floored? Rued? :)

[orn]

Hehhe. Hilarious. Thanks for the great link.

Wizball

[__aamkky7574]

Damn, that was a good game. I played the Sinclair Spectrum version, which obviously suffered a bit in the color-graphics department, but the gameplay still rocked. I'm going to have to dig that one up.... P.