Andy Green is one of the most prolific ZX Spectrum artists of late with over 100 screens produced in the last 3 years. But it’s far from just quantity that puts him in the top 3 most popular artists list of the ZX Spectrum graphics archive ZX Art—any developer in the 8-bit era would be delighted to have his careful recreations of 80s artworks accompany their gaming creations.
While Andy’s drawing roots do go all the way to the Spectrum era, he mostly sharpened his skills in the Amiga scene back then. It wasn’t until decades later that he started producing his invaluable body of loading screens that never were, usually ZX renditions of cassette inlay or poster artworks that back in the days just didn’t receive the budget (or skill) to be properly translated to the trademark limitations of the Spectrum’s 8-color, attribute-clash video output.
Richard Langford, a developer of retro games (amongst other things), was similarly impressed with Andy’s colorful renditions of Spectrum nostalgia. So much so that he produced a hardcover book, Better Late Then Never, with all of Andy’s loading screens to date (and then some). Together with contributions from Shaun McClure and John Davies, the four of them navigate across the memories of ZX Spectrum games, with many comments from Andy on the production process of the artworks themselves.
The beautifully-designed 140-page coffee table book will be a welcome addition to any ZX Spectrum fan’s living room. It was produced from pure admiration of Andy’s pixel art skills, with all proceeds of the sales going to charity. If you’re looking for a (Christmas) gift for yourself or a fellow gamer from the Sinclair camp, you can grab a copy on Amazon (hardcover, $45).
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