The most misleading commercial in the history of the world

[e1will]

[Emehr]

If you watch it with the sound off it's pretty accurate. They showed actual game play screens right down to the flickering ghosts. Even the animation at the beginning portrays Pac-Man eating the "wafers" instead of dots.

 

Pac-Man on the 2600 wasn't arcade-accurate, but it was fun enough in its own right.

[bohoki]

 

 

i dont know where all this hate for 2600 pacman comes from at the time i thought it was fine of course pacman on the 5200 looked awesome

 

i dont understand what was misleading they showed what the gameplay looks like

 

other than the ghosts looked like dudes under sheets who cares that was just artistic licence ever seen any other game art nothing ever looks like what is going on screen

[Atari2008]

 

LMAO! That is too funny. Really makes you feel like you're about to play a hot game. Too bad, they didn't allow more time for development, expectations were obviously through the roof.

 

I'm curious though, since I wasn't there, was this game panned as much by gamers at the time as it is today?

Edited February 17, 2010 by Atari2008

[+Ransom]

Nice shelf full of boxed games!

 

As far as the accuracy of the commercial, I can't really fault it.

[BigO]

It's been a long, long time since I played 2600 Pac-man, but I don't recall the sound effects matching what I heard on that video.

[+Ransom]

It's been a long, long time since I played 2600 Pac-man, but I don't recall the sound effects matching what I heard on that video.

 

Buckner and Garcia should have totally provided the soundtrack for the 2600 cart!

[+save2600]

Not sure it was as misleading as it was covering up some of the "finer" aspects of the game. Most notably, the in game sound effects. Sly marketing if you ask me. Might have inadvertently helped Buckner & Garcia out too. lol

 

Thanks for posting, I do not remember seeing that back in the day!

[e1will]

 

 

i dont know where all this hate for 2600 pacman comes from at the time i thought it was fine of course pacman on the 5200 looked awesome

 

i dont understand what was misleading they showed what the gameplay looks like

 

other than the ghosts looked like dudes under sheets who cares that was just artistic licence ever seen any other game art nothing ever looks like what is going on screen

 

Showed, yes. Your speakers must not have been on.

 

For the record I don't (and didn't) hate the game at all: I logged many, many hours playing the 2600 version. But putting the arcade sounds in the commercial instead of the 2600 sounds was a leetle shifty IMO.

 

--Will

[VectorGamer]

To me it is painfully obvious what is misleading and that is the audio effects.

 

And yes, Pac-Man was panned more in the day than it is today.

[Philflound]

I actually loved this game. I had developed a pattern to complete the board easily. Probably alot of people did. So after going on for a long time, I probably would quit like I used to do with Space Invaders. Once you turn it over, it gets boring.

 

Phil

[jetset]

 

Oh wait...2600 related?

[frogstar_robot]

i dont know where all this hate for 2600 pacman comes from at the time i thought it was fine of course pacman on the 5200 looked awesome

 

 

Because it deserves it. The 2600 is capable of a decent Pac-Man port and there are few you can download right here. Atari also did a decent port of the more complicated Ms Pac-Man so you really have to wonder WTF Atari was thinking putting out that total bodge of a port.

 

For instance:

 

http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?app=core&module=attach&section=attach&attach_id=121302

Edited February 17, 2010 by frogstar_robot

[Animan]

I thought the Tiger Electronics Sonic 3D Blast handheld commercial was more misleading...They barely showed actual gameplay, let alone sound...

Edited February 17, 2010 by Animan

[Keatah]

For something more current, look at all the cellphone adverts. They depict going from app to app in a fraction of a second and 10,000 MBit speeds, all with video that looks like nextgen HD that has not been invented yet.

 

Or the family going on vacation, they show the "perfect family" mommy, daddy, son and daughter and a dog running around the perfectly groomed suburban house, going on a vacation. Then they show a 2 second plane ride, then 8 seconds of running around on the beach. What they don't show is the traffic jams or security or flight delays or screaming kids or momma's bloody period or daddy's fatigue from a 60 hour workweek.

 

None of this can happen realtime, you see, and the brain gets horribly confused and disrupted with all the discontinuity. Resulting in anger and depression and anxiety and restlessness is what happens; the advertisers know it, and they control it very carefully in a way to jerk your reward circuit back and forth just enough to get you wanting more and more of whatever it is they are selling.. etc..

[Lonely Mountain Hermit]

I don't recall being quite as excited as the people in this commercial the first time I played 2600 Pac-Man.

[Nukey Shay]

Pac-Man was panned more in the day than it is today.

 

Not by a longshot. The funny thing is that greater numbers today completely ignore the number of things that the game did right as being the first licensed "Pac" game.

 

If you have to ask what those were, I've proved my point.

 

 

Topic:

Is it known exactly when the commerical aired? If it was anywhere near the game's development period, I wouldn't be so quick to yell shenanigans.

[Buck]

Topic:

Is it known exactly when the commerical aired? If it was anywhere near the game's development period, I wouldn't be so quick to yell shenanigans.

That's an excellent point. How many times has one looked at the "screenshots" in advertisments only to find that the game appearance deviates? Is Donkey Kong 2600 an example? Kong in the 2600 game doesn't look like what is on the back of the box. With PacMan, when marketing a product, I suppose they would assume that the game would have sounded close to the arcade. Maybe they were surprised as well when they actually heard the game? :-)

[e1will]

Topic:

Is it known exactly when the commerical aired? If it was anywhere near the game's development period, I wouldn't be so quick to yell shenanigans.

 

Good question. I don't know, but the fact that they used the Buckner & Garcia tune (released in December 1981) and the fact that the screenshots look spot-on to the eventual release may narrow it down.

 

--Will

[tetrode kink]

For something more current, look at all the cellphone adverts. They depict going from app to app in a fraction of a second and 10,000 MBit speeds, all with video that looks like nextgen HD that has not been invented yet.

 

Or the family going on vacation, they show the "perfect family" mommy, daddy, son and daughter and a dog running around the perfectly groomed suburban house, going on a vacation. Then they show a 2 second plane ride, then 8 seconds of running around on the beach. What they don't show is the traffic jams or security or flight delays or screaming kids or momma's bloody period or daddy's fatigue from a 60 hour workweek.

 

None of this can happen realtime, you see, and the brain gets horribly confused and disrupted with all the discontinuity. Resulting in anger and depression and anxiety and restlessness is what happens; the advertisers know it, and they control it very carefully in a way to jerk your reward circuit back and forth just enough to get you wanting more and more of whatever it is they are selling.. etc..

Ah, Keatah, kindred spirit. Speak Truth. Pierce the thin membrane of pretense that shrouds our modern society, that for which advertisers are mercenaries with full Prozac/Xanax/Ambien armament; the placant that unrelentingly endeavors to convince us that "everything is going to be alright." Rant on, friend, rant on. You will meet intense (even violent) resistance from the masses, as those such inured can no longer recognize the Truth. Just know that you have friends out there.

 

-or-

 

Hmm, maybe someone should call a shrink to talk Keatah in off the ledge...

 

-tet

[Tr3vor]

Topic:

Is it known exactly when the commerical aired? If it was anywhere near the game's development period, I wouldn't be so quick to yell shenanigans.

That's an excellent point. How many times has one looked at the "screenshots" in advertisments only to find that the game appearance deviates? Is Donkey Kong 2600 an example? Kong in the 2600 game doesn't look like what is on the back of the box. With PacMan, when marketing a product, I suppose they would assume that the game would have sounded close to the arcade. Maybe they were surprised as well when they actually heard the game? :-)

 

 

That reminds me of the intellivision box for donkey kong, on the box the latters are overlapping loops, and donkey kong was his regular color, but he was green in the game (why the heck was it green?) and the 2600 version didnt sound like the arcade, although i do find it infamus, as every friggin tv show with a video game uses those sound effects, lol.

[Herbarius]

Topic:

Is it known exactly when the commerical aired? If it was anywhere near the game's development period, I wouldn't be so quick to yell shenanigans.

That's an excellent point. How many times has one looked at the "screenshots" in advertisments only to find that the game appearance deviates? Is Donkey Kong 2600 an example? Kong in the 2600 game doesn't look like what is on the back of the box. With PacMan, when marketing a product, I suppose they would assume that the game would have sounded close to the arcade. Maybe they were surprised as well when they actually heard the game? :-)

 

 

That reminds me of the intellivision box for donkey kong, on the box the latters are overlapping loops, and donkey kong was his regular color, but he was green in the game (why the heck was it green?) and the 2600 version didnt sound like the arcade, although i do find it infamus, as every friggin tv show with a video game uses those sound effects, lol.

 

Interestingly, the movie Superman III used the 2600 Pac-Man effects for their mock-up "Video Game" scene (when the bad guy - not Lex Luthor this time - tries to shoot down Superman in the canyon).

[+save2600]

Interestingly, the movie Superman III used the 2600 Pac-Man effects for their mock-up "Video Game" scene (when the bad guy - not Lex Luthor this time - tries to shoot down Superman in the canyon).

2600 Pac-Man and DK sound samples were released to the public domain a long time ago. That's why you heard and continue to hear them even today in stuff!