The artist for the image on the basic programming cart was Rick Guidice. He did a lot of art for Nasa in the same style. [1]
A big reason video artwork from that period is so interesting is that the game graphics were limited, forcing a lot of artistic interpretation. Semi related, I recently found this, which seems like a futuristic reimagining of the original Atari style. [2]
Atari was a real pioneer in this space. They got their start doing arcade games for the midway. Which necessitates having eye popping attraction art to draw in players and collect their quarters. The quickly developed their own style which was pretty much copied all over the industry.
There's a great book called Art of Atari which is I highly recommend if you are interested in the history of this stuff. [3]
A big reason video artwork from that period is so interesting is that the game graphics were limited, forcing a lot of artistic interpretation. Semi related, I recently found this, which seems like a futuristic reimagining of the original Atari style. [2]
Atari was a real pioneer in this space. They got their start doing arcade games for the midway. Which necessitates having eye popping attraction art to draw in players and collect their quarters. The quickly developed their own style which was pretty much copied all over the industry.
There's a great book called Art of Atari which is I highly recommend if you are interested in the history of this stuff. [3]
[1] https://www.rickguidice.com/nasaart/nasaarti.html
[2] https://arcadeblogger.com/2022/12/04/what-if-ataris-pong-was...
[3] https://www.amazon.com/Art-Atari-Tim-Lapetino/dp/1524101036