A lot of people remember now-defunct magazine Computer Gaming World for the fact it was one of the world’s finest PC gaming rags. Me, I just remember it because of these badass covers.
While game magazines today rely on images supplied by a publisher or sleek, stylistic pieces drawn up by an internal art team, in the early 1980s things weren’t so easy. I mean, there wasn’t even Photoshop!
So you had to do things the hard way. And Tim Finkas, the original artist (and art director and photographer) for Computer Gaming World through the early-to-mid-1980s, did things the hard way. With amazing results.
A graphic designer who had also worked in the Dungeons & Dragons business (doing some box art and book illustrations), Finkas produced almost every single one of CGW’s covers between its debut issue in 1981 through to the end of 1985.
Posted in this gallery is a collection of some of Finkas’ best work. In some, you’ll see the artist himself (the Sauron cover from December 1983), and others, loved ones (Apr-May ’85 is Tim’s father).
This is why I loved (and in some cases still love) video game magazines. Sometimes for the writing itself, but always for the package. The sense that each issue, like a band’s album, was a curated slice of time.
And if the writing was the slice, then the artwork was the cherry on top.
Total Recall is a look back at the history of video games through their characters, franchises, developers and trends.
[pics courtesy of the Computer Gaming World Museum]
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