Arcadia / Melbourne House / Mastertronic Artwork - Looking for info...

[Archminion]

Hi,

I'm trying to find out who the artists were for a small selection of game cover artworks released by Mastertronic back in the late 80's.
It was back when the Arcadia label was used along with the then newly acquired Melbourne House.

I know that Mastertronic themselves used a company called Words & Pictures for a lot of their early covers but the following games have artists who are uncredited?

Does anyone know who painted the covers for the following games, could they point me in the right direction please? Cheers


SIDEWINDER
ROADWARS
AAARGH!
NY WARRIORS (US Version)
XENON
ROCKFORD

Thanks again

[Archminion]

bump! anyone? cheers

[DrBong]

Originally Posted by Archminion

I know that Mastertronic themselves used a company called Words & Pictures for a lot of their early covers but the following games have artists who are uncredited

Possibly Mark Brady, but while he worked on a lot of the earlier Mastertronic 8-bit game covers for Words & Pictures.....he may have not been around anymore when Mastertronic started pumping out 16-bit titles in 1987. His contact details are on his company website, in any case, if you want to ask him.

The other guy worth asking would be Antony Guter, who was the financial controller at Mastertronic and has been very forthcoming in providing insight into Mastertronic's history to the retrogaming scene for a couple of decades now. His contact details are also on his website.

Out of curiosity, why are you trying to track down the cover artist info. of the Arcadia titles? Are you working on an Arcadia webshrine or something?!

[Archminion]

Hi mate,

Been in touch with both mark and Anthony.
Turns out Mark had nothing to do with these covers and Anthony doesn't have a lead either.

Words & Pictures weren't involved with these games

I have a feeling most if not all of these covers were done by US artists...?

As for an Arcadia shrine, well, I do have a HUGE interest in this system and while I'm not really into all of the games per se, I do have an interest in some of them, and the development behind them as well.

I also do in fact own some original art from games (remember Phantom Fighter you mentioned before, I have the original cover art painting by Steinar Lund).

I would actually like to own the cover art paintings for Roadwars and Sidewinder as I think they're just very cool and nice to look at.

I do also have an interest in many failed games or game systems- I just think they often have interesting stories behind them and the people who created them.

Arcadia Super Select or Electro Choice MGX as it's also called, has some interesting history behind it, and I've grown up with Mastertronic from the Vic 20 days through to the C64 and beyond.

Some great times...

[Don_Adan]

Originally Posted by Archminion

Hi mate,

Been in touch with both mark and Anthony.
Turns out Mark had nothing to do with these covers and Anthony doesn't have a lead either.

Words & Pictures weren't involved with these games

I have a feeling most if not all of these covers were done by US artists...?

As for an Arcadia shrine, well, I do have a HUGE interest in this system and while I'm not really into all of the games per se, I do have an interest in some of them, and the development behind them as well.

I also do in fact own some original art from games (remember Phantom Fighter you mentioned before, I have the original cover art painting by Steinar Lund).

I would actually like to own the cover art paintings for Roadwars and Sidewinder as I think they're just very cool and nice to look at.

I do also have an interest in many failed games or game systems- I just think they often have interesting stories behind them and the people who created them.

Arcadia Super Select or Electro Choice MGX as it's also called, has some interesting history behind it, and I've grown up with Mastertronic from the Vic 20 days through to the C64 and beyond.

Some great times...

Hi, do you have any infos about Electro Choice MGX games?
Seems to be very rare, if exists.
I mean about next titles:

"Mr. Do! Run Run '90" - http://hol.abime.net/376
"X Soldier" (Time Soldier) - http://hol.abime.net/1437
"Zeta Force" (war game)
http://flyers.arcade-museum.com/?pag...d=3469&image=1

[Archminion]

I have the Electro Choice MGX and some games.

It's just the UK version of the Arcadia SSS, but in a different cab.
My boardset doesn't have a cab but the main boards and some of the games.

However, those 3 games you mention are ones that I am looking for info on, I reckon they don't exist...

Both Time Soldiers and Mr Do were actually released in the UK in both their standard Jamma versions, it would make no sense at all to release versions based on the Amiga hardware as well.

I have no idea if Zeta Force is a released game with a different title or something unreleased?

Electrocoin released both Mr Do and Time Soldiers themselves over here though.

My system isn't up and running but I can take photos of the boards, even though there's not a great deal to look at?

[Don_Adan]

Originally Posted by Archminion

I have the Electro Choice MGX and some games.

It's just the UK version of the Arcadia SSS, but in a different cab.
My boardset doesn't have a cab but the main boards and some of the games.

However, those 3 games you mention are ones that I am looking for info on, I reckon they don't exist...

Both Time Soldiers and Mr Do were actually released in the UK in both their standard Jamma versions, it would make no sense at all to release versions based on the Amiga hardware as well.

I have no idea if Zeta Force is a released game with a different title or something unreleased?

Electrocoin released both Mr Do and Time Soldiers themselves over here though.

My system isn't up and running but I can take photos of the boards, even though there's not a great deal to look at?

I dont know, im searching for these titles many years ago, I want to make WHDload installs. For me X Soldier and Mr. Do can exists. Almost all (except one title) Arcadia SS games were released later as disk version (sometime with different title). Then for me nothing strange with dual (arcade/Amiga) release. Some Arcadia games still are not found as ROM dumps. Very rare like Rockford and not very rare like Pool.

[Archminion]

I have a theory, but it might be totally wrong:

Some of the flyers indicate that by sending in any game boards that are no longer making money (remember this system was a confirmed failure overall), you could swap that game for a different one.

It's theoretically possible that some of the very rare titles were almost never ordered, while the more popular titles were?

The rarest boards may exist in single figure quantities or not at all?

As an example of a less rare Arcadia pcb, Leader Board seems to pop up more often and there are a few examples of this game out there.

Delta Command does exist, but was a later title, and by then the Arcadia SSS would have been all but dead.

[Don_Adan]

Originally Posted by Archminion

I have a theory, but it might be totally wrong:

Some of the flyers indicate that by sending in any game boards that are no longer making money (remember this system was a confirmed failure overall), you could swap that game for a different one.

It's theoretically possible that some of the very rare titles were almost never ordered, while the more popular titles were?

The rarest boards may exist in single figure quantities or not at all?

As an example of a less rare Arcadia pcb, Leader Board seems to pop up more often and there are a few examples of this game out there.

Delta Command does exist, but was a later title, and by then the Arcadia SSS would have been all but dead.

Maybe, Leaderboard (Arcadia version) was better than Amiga version, and exist perhaps 5 version (cracked and uncracked). But Aaargh (Arcadia version) was better too, and is very rare. You are in UK, maybe you can ask someone? Like author of "OnePlayTenPlay Control Program" ?

[Archminion]

Both those games do have differences and improvements over the home Amiga version.

Nobody talks about Roadwars but check out these 2 videos:

Arcadia: [ Show youtube player ]

Amiga: [ Show youtube player ]

[Don_Adan]

Btw. Maybe you can ask him?
http://www.aguter.plus.com/mastertronic/index.htm