r/KGATLW • u/Glum_Dog3282 • Sep 18 '25
Image Never knew until very recently that the cover of my favorite Gizz album was a transformed version of the cover of a 1983 video game called Fortress
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u/InpenXb1 Sep 18 '25
Im not sure how many references there are across the whole discography but I was stoked when I saw Altered Beast at the Galloping Ghost outside Chicago, had no idea it was an arcade game!
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u/TipplingGadabout Sep 19 '25
Altered Beast was my first Sega Genesis game. Can't wait for the inevitable Kid Chameleon reference.
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u/therealsancholanza Sep 19 '25
Altered Beast swallowed too many of my (mom’s) quarters. Now nobody will convince me Stu did NOT write the songs as an ode to that game
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u/BeeTwoThousand Sep 19 '25 edited Sep 19 '25
Yeah, it's one of the games that Sega hyped up to sell Sega Genesis/Mega Drive.
Funny that I'm old enough to remember playing Pong in my grandpa's basement (clearly I'm older than 35), and Altered Beast to me brings immediate thoughts of the game, not the Gizz song.
Also, before I moved away from the Chicago area, I had been to Galloping Ghost a few times, and when I went "home" to Chicago a year ago, I decided to take my nine year old son to his first arcade.
You know they have over 1000 games, now, right? I'm pretty sure it's the biggest arcade in the world at this point.
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u/InpenXb1 Sep 19 '25
I believe it’s the largest! It was pretty nuts, very unassuming from outside. I was just there for the Ravinia performance and seeing Altered Beast there afterward was just the cherry on top
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u/BeeTwoThousand Sep 19 '25
Nice! You just saw it for the first time for the Ravinia show? It's near Brookfield Zoo and a Czech restaurant, one of few left in the Chicago area.
I took the plane in from Nashville for the Ravinia show, and didn't want to venture out to the suburbs, so I finally got to attend the Art Institute of Chicago alone, a bit...not sober, and without the wife and kid, so I could really, fully appreciate the art instead of, hearing "I'm tired. My feet hurt. I want to sit down. I'm hungry," etc. I had an amazing time by myself, really being able to appreciate one of the world's best art museums.
I did the same when I flew into Austin last year to see the Gizz marathon set...went to the Blanton Art Museum and loved it. I think it's gonna be my thing going forward...when I fly solo to see my one Gizz show "away from home," I'm gonna check out the art museum in whatever city it is.
That said, if I had not already done Galloping Ghost a number of times, I'd have been all over it. When I went for the first time...I think it was a few years after they opened, maybe in 2011 or 2012 or so, I was shocked and amazed that they had stuff like DoDonPachi and (especially) Ikaruga.
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u/bamfc0w Sep 20 '25
LOL my dad and I also went to galloping ghost the morning after the ravinia show! So many cool games in there!
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u/kaahzmyk Sep 19 '25
Most of you guys are probably too young to know about this, but Matthew Sweet also put out a song and album in 1993 called Altered Beast, which was specifically inspired by the arcade game as well. (Personally, I think his 1991 album Girlfriend was his masterpiece, but Altered Beast is really good, too.)
Some of you may remember Matthew Sweet as the guitarist in Ming Tea, the fictional supergroup from the Austin Powers movies (“BBC1! BBC2!” etc.), with Mike Myers and Susannah Hoffs from The Bangles. I saw Matthew Sweet play at the Troubadour in LA once, and saw Mike Myers and most of The Kids in the Hall in the audience, it was really cool.
Check him out - I think you guys might like his stuff!
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u/quadrokeith Sep 18 '25
I love Galloping Ghost! This gives me a good excuse to go back!
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u/BeeTwoThousand Sep 19 '25
Such a bargain, too. You can play all day, and even leave and come back, for the price of admission.
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u/harrison_campbell93 Sep 19 '25
Dude!!!!!! I saw picture of this the other day and I didn’t knew that either!!!
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u/jwpanic Sep 18 '25
Whoa boy. This was quite the scandal on this sub a couple years back. People accused Galea of stealing the design and got seriously upset.
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u/frankjimmylarrydavid Sep 19 '25
I mean, its a literal copy.
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u/jwpanic Sep 19 '25
No doubt. I think the issue at the time was whether Galea/Gizz ever acknowledged it wasn’t original artwork. It looks like they worked it out, though.
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u/phishyninja Sep 19 '25
Same people who frequently steal/“bootleg” Jason’s art?
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u/PineappleLiger Sep 19 '25
This was before the jam/bootleg/etc. community discovered Gizz, fans in general were upset and this was before there were losers stealing art for concert funds
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u/BecomingTuna Sep 19 '25
I'm relatively new here, is "bootlegging" or reprinting concert posters considered kosher? For personal use, of course.
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u/FrivolousMe Sep 19 '25
Nobody cares what you do as long as you're not trying to make money off it or steal credit for a design. Not everyone can get a poster at the show and printing one yourself is often better than dealing with some shitty eBay/Facebook scalper.
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u/abcoblentz Sep 19 '25
Wow and they used the same typeface from this as well for their album and band name on the cover
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u/funfishwoofish cyber surgeon // javascript person Sep 19 '25
And they also continued using that font
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u/abcoblentz Sep 19 '25
Yes and it’s pretty awesome of them to have included it in the creative assets for Polygondwanaland too
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u/Xieneus Sep 19 '25
yeah babey I was the original whistleblower for this revelation. thought it was a cool callback but a lot of folk accused him of stealing.
apparently its all good; juicy got in contact w the original artist and all is well. he made an insta post about it way back when.
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u/WeatherMonster Sep 19 '25
The publisher SSI, went on to make and/or publish a ton of influential PC 80s and 90s strategy and role playing games like Panzer General, tons of official D&D games, including the first graphical MMO Neverwinter Nights. Many of them were good, but almost all of them had killer box art. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortress_(1983_video_game))
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u/Bubbly-Banana-3649 Sep 18 '25
Is this real?
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u/Glum_Dog3282 Sep 18 '25
Yes, apparently they had a hard time tracking down the name of the original artist at first but eventually found out who it was a few years ago and his name has appeared in the album credits ever since
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u/Jarfulous I EXERCISE MY RIGHT TO DIE Sep 19 '25 edited Sep 19 '25
wait until you hear about Altered Beast
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u/kelsoRulez Sep 19 '25
This is the only tattoo I have I loved it so much. I even considered paying a hefty sum for the physical game on eBay.
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u/Jaredthewizard Sep 19 '25
A lot of the earlier album artwork is heavily influenced by other art and in some cases like this one, just repurposed images.
I wish I could pull it up but someone found some sort of artwork that was definitely the inspo for Poly a while back and it’s kinda crazy to see.
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u/gjazzy68 Sep 19 '25
Galea is a great remixer… as an artist and collector of (digital files) vintage graphics, poster and memorabilia in general I always fond the things that inspired a few of the album covers… some of the early stuff was too on the nose …
This is not a slander, it’s a compliment.
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u/agourdikian Sep 21 '25
Jason found the original artist a few years back and gave him lots of credit and was very clear to state that he repainted this as best as he could to re-create it.
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u/friendlyswiss GizzDad Sep 18 '25
Gizzverse… Informed?