I was fortunate to be able to preserve a small collection of some of the artwork used to create the covers of Mastertronic computer games. They were painted onto board and then photographed to form the backing artwork on top of which were overlaid the company logo and graphics for the game title and details. In our early days the artwork was framed and kept in our offices – later on as the pictures piled up they were slung in a cupboard and forgotten. I took them before they went in the skip when our offices moved.
Most of these pieces have been sold – the remainder are no longer available for sale.
The colours may seem different to the printed covers. In some cases the print emphasised certain colours. Some of the artwork may have faded over time and perhaps some of the inks are more susceptible to fading than others. The photographs of the artwork were taken in July 2002.
The description beneath each thumbnail is the title of the game, the computer formats on which it was released, the label under which it was published and the year of first publication.
Click on the thumbnail to see the full size image.
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| Billy the Kid, Amstrad / Spectrum, Virgin Mastertronic Plus 2, 1990 | Video Poker, C64 / C16 / Amstrad / Spectrum / MSX, Mastertronic 199, 1986 | Space Scramble, Vic, Mastertronic 199,1984 and Star Force Fighter, C64, Mastertronic 199, 1987 |
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| Master of Magic C64, Mastertronic (USA only) 1985 The UK version had a standard MAD games cartoon cover. |
Caves of Doom, Amstrad / Spectrum, Mastertronic 199, 1985 | The Captive, C64, Mastertronic 199, 1985 |
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| Masterchess, C64 / C16 /Atari /Amstrad / Spectrum / MSX, Mastertronic 199, 1986 | Journey’s End, Spectrum, Mastertronic 199, 1985 |
Kane, C64 / Spectrum /Amstrad / c16 / BBC, Mastertronic 199, 1985. (and also for Kane 2, C64 1988) |
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| Whodunnit, Spectrum, Mastertronic 199, 1984. | Doodlebug, Vic 20, Mastertronic 199, 1985 | Spectipede, C64 / C16 / Spectrum / BBC / Electron, Mastertronic 199, 1984 |
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| Orbitron, C64, Mastertronic 199, 1984 | Neutron Zapper, Vic 20, Mastertronic 199, 1984 |
Phantom of the Asteroids, C64, Mastertronic 199, 1986 |
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| Starace, C64, Mastertronic 199, 1984 | Tank Trax, Spectrum, Mastertronic 199, 1984 | Into Oblivion, Amstrad, Mastertronic 199 1986 and probably used on another cover much earlier as the painting was made well before the game was published |