Restoring and Preserving Historical Video Game Box Art

[Jonny Severn]

Prior to the second lockdown in the UK, I finally got around to setting up my new MAME collection in Launchbox. To my delight, most of the automatically downloaded logos were super clean and looked perfect. High-fives all around.

In the back of my mind, I’d wanted to add my favourite ZX Spectrum, Amiga, and Atari ST games to Launchbox. When the second lockdown hit and I was stuck at home, I had no excuse not to. I got over the technical hurdle of getting the older emulators running, but quickly noticed that many logos were missing or low quality. No surprise, since these systems are pretty niche and old.

Being an art director in TV, film, and games for 20-odd years, this sort of thing triggered my artistic OCD. Luckily, I still have physical copies of many of the games, so I began scanning and cleaning logos. Before long, the project snowballed into other consoles like PlayStation, PSP, and GameCube. Misaligned discs, bad cut-outs, or ones that didn’t spin properly really bugged me, so I fixed those too.

Here’s a rough breakdown of the work I’ve done by platform. When I get the time, I’ll share some of the disc templates in case they’re useful.

ZX Spectrum
I did a lot of work here, scanning original artwork and digitally cleaning logos to make them consistent. I also adjusted spacing so that the “visual mass” of each logo felt balanced in Launchbox. Notable examples: Robocop 1–3, R-Type, Overlander, Jet Set Willy.

Atari ST and Amiga
Generally in better shape, but common problems were low resolution, blurriness, and bad alpha edges from cut-outs. Many were designed for light backgrounds, so I created versions that work on dark backgrounds. Good examples: Venus Flytrap, X-Out, the Lotus series.

SNES and Mega Drive (Genesis)
Mostly solid, but I made a few tweaks here and there.

PS1, PS2, GameCube
This took the most time. I centred and cleaned disc artwork, often scanning from my own copies (e.g. Wipeout, Destruction Derby). Where possible, I pulled high-res box/disc scans online. I couldn’t cover every region, but aimed to ensure at least one decent disc per title, prioritising PAL/European editions. In total: around 75 GameCube, 165 PS1, and 265 PS2 discs. PS1 needed the most work due to inconsistent print quality.

Game Boy and Game Boy Advance
Game Boy media was generally fine, but GBA logos varied a lot in quality and spacing. I worked through about 400 GBA logos.

I’ll probably do another pass on the ZX Spectrum, Amiga, and Atari ST logos, as I’m not sure I uploaded everything.

Now that lockdown’s ending, I’ll ease off for a while. But I thought I’d share the obsessive work that’s been keeping me busy.

 

Edited yesterday at 08:36 AM by Jonny Severn

[zetec-s-joe]

Some clean work there

[gamesmame]

any news??

[Jonny Severn]

I'm currently working my way through the Amiga game covers, obsessively cleaning them up and scanning in new artwork (if required and if I have the original).  

The plan is to then move onto the Atari ST covers then finally the ZX Spectrum covers. 

I suspect the ZX Spectrum covers are going to be the biggest challenge. But it's keeping me quite until the pubs open here properly next month! 

Edited April 27, 2021 by Jonny Severn

[Jonny Severn]

Here are a few examples of  some before and after clean up work. 

[Jonny Severn]

This one is a good example, I had to overlay multiple scans to get clarity across the whole box.

[Jonny Severn]

Here are some more examples of my logo clean up work: 

Edited April 27, 2021 by Jonny Severn

[zetec-s-joe]

Real nice work

[Jonny Severn]

Thanks dude

[gamesmame]

Very cool!! continue please, good work man!!!!

[Jonny Severn]

A few recent clean up /restoration jobs

[gamesmame]

!!!!!!!! good work man!!!!

[Jonny Severn]

I've gone a bit mad / self-indulgence on this one. But it's a good game that deserves a decent box art image.

[Jonny Severn]

A new update: I do love Bob Wakelin's Ocean covers

 

Edited May 1, 2021 by Jonny Severn

[Jonny Severn]

[Jonny Severn]

Some of today's clean up work

[Jonny Severn]

Another super high resolution front cover image for Elite’s Paperboy. 

[Jonny Severn]

Another Logo

[Rincewind]

Great work on all those images, I do hope your going to upload them to the LaunchBox DB.... I know alot of the disc images needed work. And the speccy needs some love

[Jonny Severn]

Everything gets uploaded as I do them. I've submitted about 3600 changes so far. I should be getting shares in Lunchbox for all this work  

The truth is, this has been a good distraction throughout the 5-6 months lockdown here in the UK.

Edited May 3, 2021 by Jonny Severn