They just don’t make covers like they used to. Video games of the 80s and 90s were usually accompanied by hand-drawn and detail-rich box art and if it was a title published by Ocean or Imagine, chances are the artist was Robert Wakelin. Sadly, Wakelin passed away earlier this month, but a part of him will continue to live on through his amazing artwork.
Bob Wakelin enjoyed a brief stint in a “post-punk/new wave band” called Modern Eon before he started drawing covers for Ocean Software, according to a biography on retro-gaming wiki Exotica.
He’d go on to craft box art for a great many games, including the three pictured above (from left to right): Epic, Athena and Choplifter III.
If those somehow don’t ring a bell, then how about New Zealand Story? Wakelin.
Operation Wolf? Wakelin too.
Over his 11-year career, Wakelin was responsible for “almost a hundred pieces” of box art, despite having “no interest in video games”.
Wakelin died on January 20, 2018 — he’ll be greatly missed. To see more of his art, a nice collection including commentary from the man himself can be found on Exotica.
Legendary cover artist Bob Wakelin passes away [Eurogamer]
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