I've shown one Dave Dorman piece before this one. The previous entry of his I had in this series was his postapocalyptic cover for Scavengers of the Mutant World, which dripped 80s apocalypse cheese. This one, the cover for Star Fleet 2 has more of a pulp sci-fi feel to it. I can easily imagine a cheap 1950s sci-fi flick with a similar piece of art as its poster.
Star Fleet 2 is a strategy game, in which you step in the shoes of a commander climbing the military ranks by completing missions. These come in a couple of forms: planetary invasions, station battles and ship battles. Graphically speaking, you won't be seeing anything similar to the box art, as the game uses ASCII graphics.
Dave Dorman has made name for himself as a fantasy artist, who dabbles in all things pop culture. His website offers a good display of his more current works.
Another old strategy game with a nice cover. Albeit I'm not entirely sold on the bug-eyed, leering face hidden in the clouds.
Interestingly enough. Darkhorn is a real-time strategy game, where 4 fantasy races clash on a battlefield. Each race can be played by a human, so essentially, it is a 4 player game. Friendless can play against the computer, but I do have a feeling, this game might be more fun with people.
Jim Talbot, the artist of the piece, did quite a few boxes, or at least his works were used in quite a few, games for Avalon Hill and is currently doing illustrations for the game and toy market. There's not much info about him floating around, but I do believe this to be his web portfolio. They aren't the most exciting stuff around, mostly more or less typical advertisement stuff. But, like the box art for Darkhorn shows, he has done a bit more intriguing stuff as well during his career.
I know very little of this old Apple II strategy beyond that it seems to have been inspired by the game 3CPO and Chewbacca play in Millennium Falcon. 4 beasts, controlled either by the computer or the players, move on a circular board. When the monsters meet, they enter battle. I'm guessing the one with the most points, in the end, will win the game. If there's a story, it most likely matters very little.
The box scan is not the best possible, but I do like it. The painting, done by Jim Talbot, might not be the most original idea, but I like it.
It is a shame, all his current works seem to revolve around advertisement art for toys and such. Despite some Googling, I was unable to find little else of his works floating in the public at least. Then again, maybe doing something like these two box pieces are doesn't interest him that much. Or those examples I found are done by an entirely different Jim Talbot. That's entirely in the realms of possibility.
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