#zxspectrum fans

It's OLIVER FREY'S BIRTHDAY

How about we post our favourite work by this fantastic artist who brought 1980s computer games to rich and vivid life

Above: Backpacker's Guide, CRASH issue 9

Not only did Frey transform the stick man of the graphics into a gorgeous pin-up hero in a lush jetsuit - he also improved on the more pedestrian official game artwork

A trick he pulled off again with Everyone's A Wally - look how he took the the rather primitive official art and turned it into something gorgeously grotesque

I had no idea at the time, but he had a successful second career working on raunchy comics, and his skill at depicting the male body comes across strongly in some of these toned-down but splashily athletic covers for the teen market - reminiscent perhaps of Hockney in a way

I love the way Frey incorporates the computer into his compositions, above and in this Kong painting. And here was an innovative 3D cover, created from multiple layers placed various distances from the camera to produce blur and depth

Another classic cover, amusingly depicting a scene that never in a million years took place within the game itself, but which again echoes Frey's adult comics.

What a spectacle - something there for 1980s teenagers who liked boys, girls, both or were still undecided

Those are my favourites - Oliver is on Facebook not Twitter but perhaps he will see this thread and we can thank him for helping us to imagine detailed, rich worlds behind those simple 8-bit graphics