Commercials changing over time...

[KAZ]

This is just a random thought I had...

 

I remember video game commercials from the 80's, it was amusing because most of the time there would be like .0002 seconds of the game advertised actually being shown. There would be more actors and props than anything.

 

As we moved to the early 90's, there was more of a balance. It seemed that the advertisers weren't quite so "embarrased" by the quality of the games, so they decided that more of the actual gameplay of games would be shown.

 

Jump to today, and it almost seems like entire commercials are what the game screens are like for real. Like ads for PS2 Spiderman come to mind.

 

I wonder what the commercial for 2600 Spiderman was like. Probably like 1 second of actually showing the game being played on a TV, the rest was probably all cartoonish, or actors.

[Punisher5.0]

The commercials are no fun anymore though . In the 90's I remember Atari and Sega slamming other companies. And the cool Mortal Kombat commercials. The commercials for Deadly Alliance sucked. Those were the good old days... .

[Mikau]

has anyone seen the sony ads? the ones for the ps2, no game in specific. they remind me of the outer limits, they are just weird.

 

and the new nintendo ad is also strange... i guess they are taking a new aproach to advertising or something. i wish they would just show some gameplay...

[Vic George 2K3]

I thought the Best Buy store TV ad for the Spiderman game for the PC was the best of this year's gaming commercials. Ranks right along with their ad featuring a customer being a proxy for Rocky Balboa fighting against Mr T's early-80s self as Clubber Lang.

 

The 2600 Spiderman TV ad was a re-enactment of the print ad that appeared in the comicbooks, with Green Goblin and Spiderman trading quips with each other as someone in a Spiderman costume plays the actual game on the screen.

[NE146]

This is just a random thought I had...

 

I remember video game commercials from the 80's, it was amusing because most of the time there would be like .0002 seconds of the game advertised actually being shown.  There would be more actors and props than anything.

 

I wonder what the commercial for 2600 Spiderman was like.  Probably like 1 second of actually showing the game being played on a TV, the rest was probably all cartoonish, or actors.

 

Too true too true... Don't forget too that even in PRINT ads they tended to pad the looks of the games (if they even showed it at all). Even in reviews a lot of times the game's "screenshots" they'd show were mostly artists renditions. I don't know if it was because they didn't have a reliable way to take a screenshot at the time (heck, it's hard to do now sometimes with an emulator), or if they were embarrased by the look of their games... But it left a lot of us guessing since the only way to see how a game actually looked was to buy the friggin thing.. I mean, check out Pitfall with the multiple onscreen items! Whasup wit dat?!

 

[moycon]

Back in the day I can recall Worm War 1 being advertised. They had this 60 second commercial (or what ever) people running around screaming, bombs going off and the screens of the game came in quick 1 second flashed like that subliminal advertising.

[Vic George 2K3]

In answer to your question about why the game companies went with using artist renditions of actual game screens, NE146, it's partly because they didn't have a way of capturing game screen shots other than just plain old photography, which would require taking a picture of the screen using a darkened room and a camera with a low shutter speed and no flash. Another reason, at least in the case of Activision, from what I remember hearing in Electronic Games magazine, is that they need to make sure gamers know what kind of things the games contain as far as objects and obstacles, even though an actual game screen of Pitfall for example wouldn't contain all those elements on any given screen at the same time. I don't think it has anything to do with the quality of the games.

[Nukey Shay]

Now we need hacks that resemble the game's magazine mockup picture.

 

Any volunteers?

[heavy-sixer]

The new Rocky video game commercials on the radio are great!!

[Starcadefan]

I miss the old days of video game advertising. Call me crazy, but I'd rather watch Nintendo's old Play it Loud commercials instead of these new commercials.

[Nukey Shay]

Nothing beats Vic20's "fishbowl" commercial.

[joeybastard]

I thought the Xbox commercials for DOA3 were funny. They had a bunch of geeks talking about the various female characters in the game. It was kind of coyly saying, "Hey geeks you can masterbate to this!"

 

The Sega commercial that was in the style of the Ginsu knives commercial was the best videogame spot ever.

[kisrael]

Another reason, at least in the case of Activision, from what I remember hearing in Electronic Games magazine, is that they need to make sure gamers know what kind of things the games contain as far as objects and obstacles, even though an actual game screen of Pitfall for example wouldn't contain all those elements on any given screen at the same time.  I don't think it has anything to do with the quality of the games.

Eh, it has *something* to do with the quality of the graphics of the time. On the other hand, it's cool that the artist's renditions sometimes would give an indication of how things were moving...the MegaMania one is a good ecample, and often the even more stylized cover art used the Activision rainbow to indicate movement.

 

What really burned my butt was the C=64 games that came out for multiple platforms, and would only have the Amiga art on the back... cheap shot!

 

As for commercials today, I dunno. Nintendo tends to be "artsier" at the moment, with fewer screenshots and more abstract ideas....like the previous "things [basketball player, tie fighter] in cubes" line at launch, and now this weird and kind of gruesome thing with its "Kevin Bacon in Hollow Man"vibe...I was channel surfing with friends after gaming, and they said "ewww" when that came on...guess they're trying a little too hard to shake the kiddy image. And then there's...I dunno, Ratchet and Clank is it? WIth the morpho-ray? That is mostly an odd "Jackass" mockumentary style, but has some screenshots...

 

Here's an interesting point...with most of the old games, a tv commercial with multiple bits of footage would be showing the same thing over and over, but these days, games have lots of different scenes and things to show.

 

I still think the "SEGA!" scream at the end of the old Sega commercials was a great unifying device, and am glad that it seems to be making a little bit of revival...

 

Whew, long rambling post! Good topic.

[Malix]

As far as commercials go let me say a few things, those PS commercials with the guys racing on the hover jets things were frickin great. The ones were the cop pulls him over and he tries to run. Those were funny!

[kisrael]

"Hell hath no fury like a womens scorn for (videogames)" Jason Lee

I think it's funnier with the original "Sega"...even if you're not a big Sega fan, people'll know what you mean, and it sounds better.

[Malix]

I changed it not to try and make it funnier but because this is an Atari Site that talks about all kinds of games, not just sega.

[kisrael]

I changed it not to try and make it funnier but because this is an Atari Site that talks about all kinds of games, not just sega.

I know, but changing it to "videogames" makes it a lot less funny, almost preachy.

There's no rule that says .sigs have to be 100% truthful/ontopic for the board...people know that in this case "Sega" is standing in for the general plight of video game "widows" everywhere.

It's a great quote but 400% in its original form, especially for people who have seen the movie.

[kisrael]

Oh, also, I think it's "than a woman scorned for Sega", not "woman's scorn for Sega"...she was upset because she was being ignored in lieu of making Gretzky's head bleed! (or wait, am I thinking of a different movie ) (I think it was Swingers with the Genesis and the bleeding and the oy flaven!)