Jim Power PC Engine CD cover (1993) 🔗

Now, the original Amiga box art of Loriciel's Euro platformer has its own history of 'inspirations', but when Jim Power was brought to Japan for the PC Engine CD, it got a brand new cover image – which was once again cobbled together from other media. The hero is represented by Arnold Schwarzenegger from the poster for Raw Deal, whereas the president's daughter he's tasked to rescue in the game is Lesa Ann Pedriana ripped straight from a Playboy photoshoot (which Loriciel had sourced for a cover before). There's two things I'd like to know about this cover: First, why did the artist feel the need to change up the positioning of both character's arms, quite weirdly in Schwarzenegger's case. Second, did they like the little rocket man in the background (scraped from a book cover painted by Peter Elson) so much that they chose him as the only element retained from the Amiga cover?

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...?

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After Jordan Mechner's Prince of Persia made waves on the already outdated Apple II, it got ported to a lot of different platforms over several years.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.

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.