Original Castle Wolfenstein Painting Goes Up for Auction

Andy Chalk

One Flag, One Fleet, One Cat
Nov 12, 2002
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Original Castle Wolfenstein Painting Goes Up for Auction


The original painting used as the cover image of the 1981 Apple II game Castle Wolfenstein [http://www.mobygames.com/game/castle-wolfenstein] is now up for auction on eBay. (And it ain't cheap.)

Some of you young whippersnappers out there might think that Wolfenstein originated in the early days of Doom [http://www.idsoftware.com]. Well, you're wrong! The original Castle Wolfenstein was released in 1981 for the Apple II and later ported to DOS, the Atari 400/800 series and the Commodore 64. Aside from the basic premise of escaping a Nazi prison, the two games have almost nothing in common; Castle Wolfenstein was a top-down game in which stealth, not shooting, was the priority.

But that's neither here nor there. What we're interested in at the moment is that the original painting used as the Castle Wolfenstein box art is now for sale on eBay. It's not a print or a copy, but the real, one-of-a-kind deal created by John D. Benson, so as you might imagine, it won't be cheap to bring this thing home. At the time of writing, more than five days remained in the auction and bidding had already hit $300.

It's not Andrew Wyeth territory, but you can buy an awful lot of DLC for 300 smackers - and you can be sure it's going to go a lot higher than that before the auction is over. But if you've got some bucks, some wall space and a burning desire to show off your appreciation of high-geek culture, head over to the Castle Wolfenstein Original Cover Art Painting auction [http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280628053563#ht_500wt_1156] on eBay and take your best shot!


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esperandote

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Feb 25, 2009
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I thought it would be thousands.

I'll make a bid ala Joey (Wasn't it the one that guessed the price wins)
 

evilengine

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Nov 20, 2009
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you have to love the jolly brightly coloured font they used for the title, perfect for the harrowing violent escape from a Nazi castle...oh wait, it's the german flag colours? huh...I guess the swastika was too extreme
 

HentMas

The Loneliest Jedi
Apr 17, 2009
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........
damn!

its amazing! i´m a sucker for "one of a kind" and "colectors editions"

-.-

too bad i´m not that much of a fan of the game or the author or whatever else related to this img

still... i find it cheap for being a one of a kind, if something like this goes online about, say, Metal Gear (or other game i actually care about and has a really long line of evolution), i would pay 1000 dollars, at least.
 

HentMas

The Loneliest Jedi
Apr 17, 2009
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evilengine said:
you have to love the jolly brightly coloured font they used for the title, perfect for the harrowing violent escape from a Nazi castle
because the collors of the german flag on the name would seem a little too obvious?

look closer man
 

Sennz0r

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May 25, 2008
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Wow. To be honest that looks awful. But I guess if you're a fan you wouldn't care, or you'd think it's fantastic. So great for the fans :)
 

Quesa

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Jul 8, 2009
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The original Castle Wolfenstein was one of those games in my formative years whose box taunted me, calling me to play it when I in fact had no money. I also didn't have an internets to whine about how things I want should be free. Woe was mine.
 

Zerbye

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Aug 1, 2008
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When I was a kid, I remember it took two people to play this effectively. One guy controls movement, and the other guy controls the direction of the gun and shooting. That was true co-operative play! Don't even talk about mouse support (mouse? what's a mouse?)
 

JediMB

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Oct 25, 2008
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This only reminds me of the amusing fact that the Wolfenstein series has been around since 1981, with seven incarnations in total, but the first game in the series to simply be called "Wolfenstein" came out in 2009.
 

Tom Phoenix

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Mar 28, 2009
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Andy Chalk said:
It's not Andrew Wyeth territory, but you can buy an awful lot of DLC for 300 smackers
Fortunately, noone could possibly be dumb enough to spend $300 on DLC.....right? I mean, you could buy a lot of games for that kind of money.

HankMan said:
WAAAAAYYYYY better than the Mega-Man cover.
That's not really saying much. Its preety easy to be better than that....thing. :p
 

Eclectic Dreck

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Sep 3, 2008
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HentMas said:
........
damn!

its amazing! i´m a sucker for "one of a kind" and "colectors editions"

-.-

too bad i´m not that much of a fan of the game or the author or whatever else related to this img

still... i find it cheap for being a one of a kind, if something like this goes online about, say, Metal Gear (or other game i actually care about and has a really long line of evolution), i would pay 1000 dollars, at least.
Just get a print of a particular frame of the Terminator and you've basically got the cover:

 

imperialreign

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Mar 23, 2010
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Wow . . . that image brings back some memories. I played the hell out of that on the C64, and it's sequel.

Good times.
 

Trogdor1138

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May 28, 2010
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HankMan said:
WAAAAAYYYYY better than the Mega-Man cover.
I would actually highly consider bidding on the original artwork for that. It's a serious part of gaming history now and would be absolutely hilarious to own.
 

Sandytimeman

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Jan 14, 2011
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I'm amazed that this thing even survived and really surprised it didn't for tens of thousands of dollars.