A Game of Sources - First Battle

Here's what happens when a bunch of random shit is thrown inside a blender.

Fuck the banality of strawberry, vanilla and chocolate etc, as the following shakes taste like no other.

Clash of the Ninjas (1986) vs Cobra and American Ninja (background)

Hmmm, curious.

Tormented (2009)

Queen - Sheer Heart Attack

Bradley (Alex Pettyfer) vs Begbie (Robert Carlyle) - Trainspotting poster

Lady Sword (1992)

Conan the Barbarian

Princess Leia - Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi and Skeksis Chamberlain - The Dark Crystal

Freedom Force (1988)

Sharpshooter vs Magnum Force vs Rutger Hauer (with Max Headroom's hairstyle)

Err, yeah.

IK+ (1987)

Original cover art faded into obscurity.

Shit was redone in 1988 for 16 bits and used for subsequent budget re-releases from The Hit Squad.

Above the Law aka Nico

Believe or not, Steven Seagal was actually popular at the time.

As for the others.

Chuck Norris - American Karate (September 1988) vs Jean-Claude Van Damme

Of course, they never fought in real life.

Yie Ar Kung-Fu II (1986)

Lee Young vs Bruce Lee - Game of Death

Li Jen vs Ming the Merciless

Wei Chin vs Robert Shaw

Jim Power in Mutant Planet (1992)

Protagonist vs JCVD

Now shit kicks off.

Emil Antonowsky - Robocop

Zombified Michael Jackson - Thriller

Jet Pac

Similar, yes?

Keeping things extremely simple, Contra was released for home computers as Gryzor in 1988.

Bob Wakelin's cover got around.

Predator

Also.

Background was taken from the original Japanese flyer for Contra.

When interviewed about iconic piece, the great man said:

"My art was originally done for Gryzor - the 'Alien' style background was pasted in Ocean's studio, taken from the original Contra which has different characters in the foreground. Then my Gryzor characters on new incarnations of the Contra game. Yes, a lot of illustrative plagiarism went on in the early games industry, mostly due to the ridiculous deadlines most people were working to. The same thing applied to the games themselves... "if it sells, copy it!"

Ironically, it was Wakelin who came out on top.

Purple Heart

Xybots

Devastators (1988) vs Rambo III

I'm suspicious of tilted head.

Finally.

Contra Spirits/Contra III: The Alien Wars

Did Konami model stage 4 complete screen on Arnie or Wakelin?

We'll never know.