Modern video games covers as classic books

February 4, 2009 6:13 PM

Modern video game covers reimagined as Classic Books.
posted by ColdChef (30 comments total)

The World Of Warcraft cover is particularly ... poignant? Yes, let's be charitable and say poignant.
posted by grabbingsand at 6:17 PM on February 4 [10 favorites has favorites]

I loved them.
posted by hellphish at 6:17 PM on February 4

Yes! These are excellent.

Video game cover art is the ugliest art there is.
posted by painquale at 6:24 PM on February 4

Very nice. Reminds me of the stark difference between the N. American cover art for Ico and the version everyone else got.
posted by brundlefly at 6:31 PM on February 4 [1 favorite has favorites]

brundlefly: better check your second link. Looks like the webmaster of www.geekculture.dk isn't too happy about people linking directly to images there...
posted by jozxyqk at 6:33 PM on February 4

I like alot of those. Also this is just plain true.
posted by Sargas at 6:34 PM on February 4

opps that link was posted in the post, my bad.
posted by Sargas at 6:36 PM on February 4

Ha! Whoops. Here's the second link.
posted by brundlefly at 6:38 PM on February 4

The Hitman one is awesome.
posted by Cyrano at 6:40 PM on February 4

Jeez man, cite your sources. These are a few images from a (still-active) Something Awful photoshop thread that Kotaku highlighted in a recent article. Many, many more can be found under the first link.
posted by flatluigi at 6:43 PM on February 4 [13 favorites has favorites]

Those are nicely done.. I also like the Giorgio de Chirico style Ico box.
posted by podwarrior at 6:58 PM on February 4

MOVIES TOO!
posted by pokermonk at 7:12 PM on February 4 [1 favorite has favorites]

I was thinking of printing some of these and slipping them into my game cases, but then I got to the Gears of War cover and said, "Screw it." I'm not wasting that much ink.

My girlfriend's printer though...
posted by Science! at 7:17 PM on February 4 [1 favorite has favorites]

These are ...beautiful.

The Penguin Classics Format has been a huge boon for designers and jokesters alike. It's a hard and fast system of roles that you can play with. Follow the Penguin Square, use 3 colors, and you have something that works. As a designer and bibliophile, I've always loved the ways people remix the Penguin format into something exciting, especially the newer series which mimics the older style. This is just icing on the cake.

(I would totally buy half these books)
posted by The Whelk at 7:19 PM on February 4 [1 favorite has favorites]

Awesome find! Now I'm tempted to try my own.
posted by Phire at 7:23 PM on February 4

Two great tastes that taste together--thanks, ColdChef.
posted by box at 7:24 PM on February 4

MOVIES TOO!

Yes, this was discussed five days ago in a very badly tagged post! Seriously, why isn't that tagged with "books" and "covers" and something that might join these two posts together!
posted by crossoverman at 7:42 PM on February 4

"Hey," He said, "...You're pretty good."
posted by fuq at 8:26 PM on February 4

man, what can't be improved by a bit of 60's book cover minimalism?
posted by doobiedoo at 8:27 PM on February 4 [1 favorite has favorites]

I love the Penguin style. My folks have a lot of Penguin paperbacks on their shelves. This is a really sweet and nostalgic remix.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 9:04 PM on February 4 [1 favorite has favorites]

Jeez man, cite your sources.

Not everyone surfs the internet in the same order you do.
posted by Cyrano at 9:09 PM on February 4 [2 favorites has favorites]

Not everyone surfs the internet in the same order you do.

I don't see what that has to do with citing sources, but please, don't let a snark go unsnarked.
posted by Liver at 9:41 PM on February 4

Missile Command is my favorite by far; I wanted more like these... Pac Man, Kangaroo, etc... I'd also like to see Spyro the Dragon done up all YA Eragon-style.
posted by not_on_display at 9:50 PM on February 4

Jeez man, cite your sources. These are a few images from a (still-active) Something Awful photoshop thread that Kotaku highlighted in a recent article. Many, many more can be found under the first link.

The first post in that Something Awful thread says: "As recently seen on Kotaku..." Who's linking who? I think my head just exploded.
posted by Ben Light at 9:59 PM on February 4

Olly Moss made several. Kotaku posted them. User Wonderpants on SA started a thread calling on other users to attempt the same. Kotaku ran another story about that, and this FPP is a link to the gallery for that story.
posted by Liver at 10:23 PM on February 4 [3 favorites has favorites]

I really want to write Bubble Bobble now. Come on, look at that cover. The saga of two great nations, teetering on the brink of collapse, locked in an epic struggle for supremacy...

The greatest thing about these is how well it illustrates how incredibly important graphic design is, or can be. By reinventing the context for some words - even very familiar words! - you can twist and spin their interpretation, and suddenly an ancient 8-bit game is a classic masterpiece of literature.

I love good design.
posted by Super Hans at 11:31 PM on February 4 [1 favorite has favorites]

Someone needs to do one of these for Rolling Thunder.
posted by Eideteker at 3:06 AM on February 5

I highly recommend clicking through that Something Awful thread. Some fantastic work there.

(Presumably, there was a story on Kotaku that linked to the gallery, mentioning the SA thread. In the post, all we're given is the gallery, which gives no context or attribution at all. I think a link to the original Kotaku post would have helped, at least.)
posted by graventy at 7:18 AM on February 5

Came to post "Hey go read the SA thread because it's fucking brilliant" but it turns out to be unnecessary. :D
posted by Pope Guilty at 8:55 PM on February 5

Some of these ideas are very good for web/layout designs; could be of use for a Smashing Magazine feature.
posted by querty at 11:44 PM on February 5