Old video game ads

[SoulBlazer]

Okay, I asked in a eariler thread if there was any intrest in this, so I'll upload some ads from old Spider Man comics as I come across them.

 

These first two are not video games, but they are handheld games. The Wildfire one I had as a kid, great memories.

 

These two are from late 1980.

[StanJr]

If there is interest, I can fill a database with ads from Marvel Comics from 1977-Present.

[tz101]

This would be great stuff, Stan, especially if there were some archaic peripherals in some of the ads. Please post away.

[SoulBlazer]

Here's one from 1981 -- when 7-11 was having a contest. A Atari 2600 was one of the things you could win.

[SoulBlazer]

1982 is when the video game ads started to show up, along with another contest one.

[SoulBlazer]

1983 saw a explosion of game ads. There were at least 1, and usually more, in each issue. Most of the advertising was done by just two companies, though -- Parker Brothers and Mattel. Why they chose to place ads here and no one else did, I'm not sure.

[OldSchoolRetroGamer]

Man I remember them all and I friggin LOVED the Wildfire Pinball electronic game!

[SoulBlazer]

1984 saw a large ammount of game ads also, despite the video game crash that was going on this year. I imagine a large reason for this was due to the lead time that was required to run the ad in the comic book. I'm not sure how much it was, but it was probaly a few months at least. Atari started doing ad's for their games for the first time, and they all say that Atari was a 'Warner Communications company' despite some of the ad's apearing in 4th quarter comic books -- clearly after Atari was sold.

 

By the same token, you saw ads from Mattel after they had dumped their Intelivision line in January of 1984. Oops.

 

You also saw a trend to computers during this year, as companies started to push their computer lines more and more with the video game crash going on. Parker Brothers ran some ad's just talking about computers in general, with no game names mentioned.

[SoulBlazer]

The only ads that apeared in 1985 ran in the first two issues of the year, and they had to have been sent in in late 1984. No shock about that, with the video game market pretty much destroyed by this point.

[SoulBlazer]

1988 saw the return of video game ads -- a bit later then I expected. After all, both the NES and SMS had been released in 1986 and by 1987 the NES was starting to gain major market space. But it wasn't until January of 1988 that the first video game ad by Konami was run, showing what games they had for the system. Of course it would have been ordered in 1987, so I guess it counts.

 

In fact, Konami and their subsideray company Ultra advterised quite heavily this year. Capcom, Acclaim, and Tradewest did the rest of the ads.

 

Sega fans, there was also one ad for the Master System. It ran ONE time, compared to the others.

 

I also included a scan of the ad for the Freedom Stick as it was the first time I've seen a video game console accsorory ad like this.

 

Note the Infocom ad also, with the 'interactive comic book on the computer' thing. I'd never heard of this before, it sounds rather interesting. Can anyone shed any light on this?

[Algus]

That Popeye one is amazing. Unf. most of these predate me as I wasn't really reading comics until 92-93 or so

[StanJr]

That comic-style ad for the 2600 Spider-man is one of the coolest things I have ever seen! Soul Blazer, very well done. I can't think of any I might have that you do not. I've been meaning to do something similar for years for lack of a good scanner!

 

Albert should ad all of these to the database (for the VCS). The good folks at NintendoAge would probably like the others!

[SoulBlazer]

1989 saw both old and new companies hawking their stuff. Konami/Ultra, Capcom, and Acclaim continued to push their games, joined by smaller companies FCI and Taxan. I suspose those companies wanted to advertise their games as much as possible to make up for the fact that they were 'new' to the scene.

 

Also Tengen advterised heavily this year, to make up for their games not being licenced by Nintendo and to get kids to ask for them at their local store.

 

Note also how both styles of the NES 'Seal of Quality' are used here. If I recall correctly by 1989 the old style one was not being used any more and Nintendo had changed totally over to the current style smaller white one. I suspose this could be explained due to mockup's and lead times.

 

I also included any video game related product scans -- Nintendo food, Tiger handhelds, and the U-Force, for example.

[tz101]

Was there much for Sega Master System, Colecovision, or even Intellivision in the comic book ads? It looks like mostly VCS and NES ads.

 

Unfortunately, my comic books predate video games, so I only have ads for strange stuff like x-ray glasses, selling greeting cards, Grit newspaper, and such.

[SoulBlazer]

Was there much for Sega Master System, Colecovision, or even Intellivision in the comic book ads? It looks like mostly VCS and NES ads.

 

Unfortunately, my comic books predate video games, so I only have ads for strange stuff like x-ray glasses, selling greeting cards, Grit newspaper, and such.

 

I'm posting EVERYTHING video game related that I am seeing in these scanned original copies of The Amazing Spider-Man. What you see is what was in the comics. I'm not posting duplicates, or very minor changes like release dates.

[tz101]

^

Sweet. Keep it coming.

 

 

One more weird item they used to advertise in the older comic books: A submarine kit. I kid you not. The ads state that you can use it underwater. The amazing thing is I never heard of any kids drowning in one of these things back in the day.

[SoulBlazer]

^

Sweet. Keep it coming.

 

 

One more weird item they used to advertise in the older comic books: A submarine kit. I kid you not. The ads state that you can use it underwater. The amazing thing is I never heard of any kids drowning in one of these things back in the day.

 

TZ, we talked about that submarine kit and a CSI episode about a kid drowning in it in this thread:

 

http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/172269-has-anyone-heard-of-this/

 

I'll keep posting the ads as I get to them, I haven't read past 1989 in the comics yet.

[tz101]

Oops, sorry. I committed the cardinal sin of not knowing the complete context of every thread ever discussed on a gaming forum before making a comment or posting a new thread.

 

Also, if it was done on a CSI episode, does that mean it was based on a true story? I never watch that show, so do not know if it is fictional or "fact based" in content.

[SoulBlazer]

Oops, sorry. I committed the cardinal sin of not knowing the complete context of every thread ever discussed on a gaming forum before making a comment or posting a new thread.

 

Also, if it was done on a CSI episode, does that mean it was based on a true story? I never watch that show, so do not know if it is fictional or "fact based" in content.

 

No worries, bud, just letting you know. I just thought that since it came up (ironicly enough) recently I'd mention it.

 

I don't know if it was based off a true story, sorry.

[StanJr]

Oops, sorry. I committed the cardinal sin of not knowing the complete context of every thread ever discussed on a gaming forum before making a comment or posting a new thread.

 

Also, if it was done on a CSI episode, does that mean it was based on a true story? I never watch that show, so do not know if it is fictional or "fact based" in content.

 

easy there, buckaroo! I think SB was just pointing you in the direction of a similar interest.

 

There is no foul on the play.

 

SB, again if you find any gaps, let me know, you and I appear to have the same Amazing Spider-man collection. I have everything from 246-Current. How far back do you start?

 

[SoulBlazer]

The collection I bought from Amazon was published in 2004 and contains complete scans on CD in Adobe format of the first 500 issues of the Amazing Spider Man. It's a easy matter as I'm reading the comics to hit Print Screen, go over to Paint, and paste and crop the image and save it to post here. I've been looking at all the comics, and 1980 was the first time I saw anything mentioned for video games. Well, there were a couple toy pinball machines and Pong clones mentioned as 'possible prizes' to win from one of those large companies in the late 70's, but they didn't seem to count.

Edited November 29, 2010 by SoulBlazer

[Video]

Wildfire is an awesome game. I still have mine somewhere around here. I'll have to dig it out and play it.

 

That epyx add with the weird controller is cool. I got that exact controller for the C64...but one thing bad about it, while it was awesome and comfertable, it was terrible quality plastic, and was quickly broken. I don't know how many times I glued that thing back together.

[Blarginatorr]

I'd eat cereals every day if there still was videogame related ones...

 

Anyways, these ads are superb!

Most are just so cheesy that they're actually quite comical.

[SoulBlazer]

Here's the ads from the first six issues of 1990, so the first part of the year. The usuall companies Konami, Tradewest, and Acclaim are here again, as well some new companies. And there's also a ad for the Turbo Grafx, which surprised me.

Edited November 30, 2010 by SoulBlazer

[StanJr]

yeah, I remember the influx of TG-16 ads back then. I thought it must have been the greatest video game system ever.