Big Game is not a Williams, it's a Stern.

Yeah, I really don't mind those cards on Big Game.

Annnnd I'm out.

I don't think it's fair to look back on artwork of the 70s/80s and declare "how it should be done differently" from a 2022 mindset.

It was a different time, with different cultural and artistic influences, which resulted in the artistic styles of that time.

A better approach might be to say "if you wanted to retheme this game today, what might you do?”

True artists are rarely understood in their times

Well, you did sort of ask "What's wrong with the Mona Lisa, and how specifically would you fix it?"

Well...

I see a red door and I want to paint it black!

I prefer the cucumber artwork.

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I’m not gonna sit here and take all this Big Game art Slander!!

Gerry Simkus and Doug Watson deserve better.

On gottlieb spring break, on the playfield, I would have put more people on the beach besides just the girl and the dog. And, of course, a new backglass/translite. Always thought that game had a good layout but the art dragged it down.

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I've always felt that a free market will determine the monetary value of a skill or profession.

So you don't think artists are appreciated enough so you tell us some things they sucked at and want us to chime in on ways they suck?

If you want to be paid handsomely for doing something you love you better be dang good at it.

OP made a big mistake picking a game with some of the best art of its era.

Paging Aurich to talk about the letter H

Well, I wish they would have changed the art on AC/DC to hand drawn art.

Haha yes too true...let's not let Fonts sneak by us!

I just want to know how the hell in 2022 the art on Rush happened. Have you seen the abomination that is Neil Peart on the cabinet sides?

And this is where this thread gets ugly.
That artist is a part of our community. You don't like it, that's fine, but abomination? Really? You don't think the band approved it?

Also, side cab art: Who cares? If you don't have pins on both sides blocking it anyway, you're doing it wrong.

Artists of all ilks are temperamental. No one is ever going to agree. I think the guy above who mentioned retheming is spot on, if you prefer something different just do it! It's all personal taste.

I'm guilty of changing alot of my pins to my own custom feel, some of my friends like them , some don't.
It's just what I prefer.

Right now I'm putting an AFM together where I have modified the pf and cab art slightly. I never liked how the front corners of the cab art didn't line up or the green saucers. But I've slso radically changed machines to my own liking. Few pics below.

I will say the older games like Big Game are to me historical and should be left alone and just blinged up with chrome etc. I personally can't stand most of the modern games art packages, Stern in particular, too much happening....but some of my friends totally disagree...that's art for you!

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I love Big Game, the game. I always thought the bingo cards seemed out of place, too. So, in my head, the bingo cards are the hunters keeping score on their big game hunts. Now, I don't mind the bingo cards, cuz I made it part of the theme.

Next he'll want to redo Doug Watson's artwork on Sterns Scramble monitor bezel.

Someones been watching Westworld.

That along with Galaxy, Stargazer and Seawitch.

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... and why do I keep hearing the phrase "Shoot the Pyramid" when I look at a couple of those back-glasses?

I’d like see Todd shor do pin art.

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I have no Artistic skills to have an opinion.

I can criticize, but I cant offer an alternative.
A common thing today.

So, Im a Consumer of this art, and Im happy to get, what the original Artist created,
until I am offered an Alternative that suits me.

So Basically Red and Black door for me, maybe others.

Why would a professional artist get a pass? We’re not talking a high school art show here.

I wish I could find a photo of it but Neil’s right arm is coming out of his hip. This isn’t subjective, it’s straight up bad. Don’t get me started on the hands, we’re talking Data East level here.

And don’t play that “side art isn’t seen” crap, if there’s one thing that Stern’s years of photoshopped crap has proven is that art matters. If Spooky can deliver amazing work like on my Ultraman, Stern has no excuse.

There is literally no excuse for bad art, especially after the amazing run Stern has had the last decade.

Not an excuse, but an explanation: the more time pressure an artist is under, the more likely he/she will make some strange looking art. Even the best artists do it.

Also, art directors commonly make demands for changes - compositionally, to include licensed products, to add sponsored products, etc.. Current contracts often allow actors who play the characters being drawn to have right-of-refusal.

After several revisions, some originally good looking compositions get to be resented by their own artists!

That's not to say artists don't have bad days or slop through stuff sometimes....

I'll take any and every Stern ever produced over that garbage game

A few people like that one just because it's just so weird and exhibits the oddity of the time period. I opted to replace mine with an the alternate translite based on the metropolis film that was floating around a number of years back.

It's not. You just framed the question poorly.

You started out by saying artists should be valued, and then you seemed to disparage artwork of past artists, which resulted in contradictory viewpoints.

We just think your opinion sucks