Tracing the Influence: Retraced Edition

Tag: Boris Vallejo

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Ikari III: The Rescue cover (1989) 🔗


This was not the first time SNK's Ikari Warriors series borrowed famous templates, but the sources they went to this time are a bit surrising. I guess the logic would have been Arnold Schwarzenegger played a lot of muscly military dudes, he also played Conan the Barbarian, so go to fantasy illustrators who also drew Conan.

The Boris Vallejo reference discovered by Trickless from the Insert Credit forums.

Tags:Frank Frazetta (8)Boris Vallejo (7)Fantasy illustrations (12)War (11)Ikari Warriors (2)Ikari 3: The Rescue (1)SNK (3)Sources wanted (10)

Breach 2 cover (1990) 🔗


Breach is a series of hardcore tactics game by Omnitrend Software. Publisher Mindraft brought artist Bruce Eagle on for the cover art, who is no stranger to borrowing from Boris Vallejo. His alien seems quite original to me, but the poor space man it shoots down holds a quite familiar pose.

Tags:Boris Vallejo (7)Fantasy illustrations (12)When Hell Laughs (2)Breach 2 (1)Mindcraft (1)Bruce Eagle (2)

Sindibad: Chitei no Daimakyū cover (1990) 🔗


Sindibad is neither the fanciest nor the most high-effort of RPGs on the PC Engine. As the game jumbles together elements from many different stories from the tales of 1001 Nights, the cover art jumbles together various works by Boris Vallejo. It’s funny to see the closest thing of Vallejo as an anime character, as I believe the center piece was one of the paintings he posed for himself.

The spear boy was identified by Trickless from the Insert Credit forums.

Tags:Boris Vallejo (7)Fantasy illustrations (12)The Eternal Champion (2)In the Underworld (1)White Magic (1)The Mercenary (1)Sindibad (1)

Moulin Rouge Senki: Melville no Honō (1992) 🔗


I don't know the name of the artist who painted the cover for this Japan only Famicom strategy game, but I know for a fact that they're Boris Vallejo's biggest fan on earth. Somehow they managed to fit bits and pieces from no less than nine of the master's paintings on the box. (Well, they're a bit cropped on there, actually, but luckily Famitsu printed the full image in their coverage of the game.) From popular pieces such as The Eternal Warrior to obscure erotica like the Snake Women and Vallejo's dreamy painting of a demonic hookah, it has just about everything. I feel the central woman character's hair (and possibly facial features) might have some other source, and maybe the castle...?

Tags:Boris Vallejo (7)Fantasy illustrations (12)The Eternal Champion (2)Of Men and Monsters (1)When Hell Laughs (2)Molly Hatchett (1)Berserker’s Planet (1)The Web of Wizardry (1)King’s Daughter (1)The Snake Women (2)Hookah (1)Music albums (8)Erotica (4)Moulin Rouge Senki (1)Gakken (1)

Prince of Persia Sega Genesis version cutscenes (1993) 🔗


After Jordan Mechner's Prince of Persia made waves on the already outdated Apple II, it got ported to a lot of different platforms over several years. When it finally made its way to the Sega Genesis, the graphics were updated quite a bit, adding new full screen art for the intro and ending sequences. The artist must have liked Boris Vallejo quite a bit, cause practically all the scenes originate in the master's paintings. My favorite of them all has got to be the ending where the hero finally gets to embrace he princess, but in the original he was a fearsome winged demon.

These sources have been discovered by barbarus from the Hardcore Gaming 101 forums.

Tags:Boris Vallejo (7)Fantasy illustrations (12)Erotica (4)Vampire’s Kiss (1)Prince of Persia (1)

Tunnels & Trolls: Crusaders of Khazan cover (1990) 🔗


Crusaders of Khazan was not only the sole CRPG adaption of the Tunnels & Trolls role-playing game in it’s time, but also a rare collaboration between US-based New World Computing and the Japanese CRPG publisher StarCraft. The cover was painted by Akira Komeda, who in his early career seems to have had a bit of a tendency to get overly inspired by famous artists. The cover for Crusaders of Khazan is a proper who's who of fantasy illustrators: A dwarf by Clyde Caldwell, a warrior by Michael Whelan, a kneeling rogue by Frank Frazetta, and a wizard by Larry Elmore. The towering sorceress they’re all facing is a Chimera cobbled together from various paintings - the wings come from Boris Vallejos Incubus, her left forearm from his Snake Women. The model for her overall posture seems to come from Frazetta's A Fighting Man on Mars illustration (including the positioning of her legs, although those have been modified just enough to make them not match close enough for an overlay), as well as her necklace. The origin of her staff arm (and possibly her hair) is still shrouded in mystery.

Some elements discovered by drpepperfan from the Hardcore Gaming 101 forums.

Tags:Clyde Caldwell (1)Frank Frazetta (8)Michael Whelan (1)Larry Elmore (1)Boris Vallejo (7)Land of Terror (3)Dragons of Despair (1)A Fighting Man of Mars (1)The Snake Women (2)Fantasy illustrations (12)Erotica (4)Tunnels & Trolls (1)StarCraft (company) (1)New World Computing (1)Akira Komeda (1)Sources wanted (10)

Ultima II: The Revenge of the Enchantress cover (1982) 🔗


Ultima is one of the foundational works of fantasy CRPG history, so no wonder its production was inspired by two of the giants of fantasy illustration at the time. The demon's torso and parts of his pose come from a Frazetta paintign aptly titled Swamp Demon (sorry about the rough cutout for the comparison - it kind of blends in with the shadows, so it's hard to tell where the monster ends and the background begins), whereas the adventurer is teleporting in from Boris Vallejo's futiristic Behind the Walls of Terror. Ironically, it wouldn't be long before Origin System found themselves at the other end of such a "transaction" - and reportedly weren't amused.

Tags:Frank Frazetta (8)Swamp Demon (1)Boris Vallejo (7)Behind the Walls of Terror (1)Ultima (1)Origin Systems (2)Fantasy illustrations (12)Science fiction (8)
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