Mark Heine (1961–2025)

Mark Heine is a Canadian artist and illustrator. Mark's education and work in the Vancouver area likely positioned him well geographically for work with Seattle-area video game companies, including Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sierra. Marked worked his way through art school as a fishing guide, and subsequently produced box art for multiple fishing video games. His first, Sierra’s Trophy Bass, won an illustration award at the time.

OVGA has included below Mark Heine's full known video game box art catalog:

1. R-Type III: The Third Lightning (Jaleco | SNES | 1994)
2. Trophy Bass (Sierra | Windows | 1995)
3. Space Quest Collection Games I-V: Roger Wilco Unclogged (Sierra | DOS, Windows | 1995)
4. Space Quest 6: Roger Wilco in the Spinal Frontier (Sierra | DOS, Windows, Macintosh | 1996)
5. Games Sampler 2 for Windows 95 (Microsoft | Windows | 1996)
6. Rapala Pro Fishing (Activision | PS2, Xbox, Windows, GBA | 2004)
7. Rapala Trophies (Activision | PSP | 2006) this game is a port of Rapala Pro Fishing and reuses the same art but flipped
8. Rapala Tournament Fishing (Activision | Wii, Xbox 360 | 2006) second, new painting
9. Rapala Fishing Frenzy 2009 (Activision | PS3, Xbox 360 | 2008) reuses Rapala Pro Fishing art again, with additional lures added digitally

Beyond his published box art, Mark also created the key art for the two unrealized SNES ports of Irem games: In the Hunt and Undercover Cops. Mark’s images were intended to be the box art for each of the games, and while the games themselves were cancelled his illustrations were featured as full page ads/previews in gaming magazines in 1994; Mark may have painted the pieces in 1993, possibly pre-dating R-Type III as his first video game works. More than a decade later, while Mark only did two paintings for Rapala, used across at least four games, a fifth game (Rapala Pro Bass Fishing for WiiU) is fully digital and not by Mark but appears to have been based on his Rapala Tournament Fishing painting for Activision.