More old cRPG box art, this time with some titillating booty shots, which were censored out in some release areas.
While New World Computing is the best known of their Might and Magic series, they did try other things as well. Tunnels and Trolls is based on a pen and paper RPG, originally released in 1975. I have no experience with either, this computer version or the original pen and paper game, so I can't really comment on the quality of either. It is a different kind of game from Might and Magic though. MM was, from the start, a 1st person view game, where the exploration and the combat took place in the same 1st person space. Tunnels and Trolls is shown in a top-down view, resembling more of the Ultima games prior to Ultima 6.
Anyhow, the box art was done by Akira Komeda. This particular version is from the Japanese FM-Towns release of Tunnels and Trolls. The big difference between the Japanese and worldwide covers is, that the Japanese cover is uncensored. Other countries got a cover where the female fighter crouching on the front has heavier, black loincloth and bra covering her naughty bits.
Akira Komeda is a Japanese illustrator, who did quite a few covers during the 1980s to 1990s. but, beyond that, I really don't know much else about his work. He does have a web page, in Japanse and from what I could gather from Google translation, he's been an independent illustrator since 1983. Beyond that, I don't know how relevant that page still is or what or how he is currently doing.
There's quite a streak difference between the box art for the Japanese release and the other areas in what comes to Phantasie III. While the idea is similar on both, the villain shooting magic from his hands towards the heroes, the style is quite different and Akira Komeda does sex things up a bit with a shapely female character in a skimpy thong. The composition is actually pretty similar to the cover he did for Tunnels and Trolls.
Phantasie was an RPG series that managed to get 4 instalments and for some time, it was a solid seller for SSI. The first game in the series was their best seller till 1987, but after that, the status of the series lessened when SSI got the license to make D&D based games, a brand that was attached to them for quite a long time thanks to the legendary gold box series begun with the Pool of Radiance. I've actually never played any game in the Phantasie series, so I don't know how they measure up with now more fondly remembered D&D line.
Here's another old RPG I've never played, but I'm a sucker for post-apocalyptic art. After the 3rd World War, civilization as we know it is no more. To survive, the remaining population sends brave people from the relative safety of their villages to scavenge equipment from the ruins of the world. The game seems to play more or less like an early Ultima title and the goal seems to be, well, scavenging stuff of which the biggest, game-winning scavenge is a vehicle of sorts, that allows the people to migrate towards safer pastures. The game is apparently rather hard and consists mostly of rummaging different ruins for the needed equipment. The story is more or less told during the wall of text before you start a new game. Graphically, it was dated even for its release date, having only CGA graphics
The box art was done by Dave Dorman, who has also done a lot of illustrations of such little known franchises as Star Wars, Batman and Marvel. He is well known for his sci-fi and fantasy art. You can see more of his stuff through his webpage.
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