Atari in movies

[Inky]

I was just reflecting on Atari in movies, either as a prop or in the script and I remember this exchange.. See if you can guess what movie its from?

 

A: Do you have Space Invaders?

B: No

A: Do you have pac-Man?

B: No

A: Do you have Asteroids?

B: No, but my dad does. Cant get him off of the toilet some days.

 

That's not a word for word, but pretty close..

[Tempest]

National Lampoon's Vacation.

 

I remember that line, I laughed my ass off everyone else just sat there with a blank look on their faces (this was a few years ago, I guess some jokes are only good for a short time).

 

Tempest

[Mountain King]

Another movie you might want to watch is "Blade Runner" The Director's vision of the future where there's a lot of Atari advertisements. My friend pointed them all out to me after giving me an Atari Shirt for Christmas.

[+Random Terrain]

Don't forget Superman 3 for Atari sound effects. You probably also read about Atari doing work for the film in Atari Age magazine.

 

I don't know how many movies, TV shows, and commercials I've seen over the years that either use the sounds from Atari Pac-Man or Coleco Donkey Kong for the 2600. It's like the sounds from those 2 games are the only ones that exist.

 

I hate it when you see two kids playing a fake game on a system that looks like a hybrid of the SNES and the Playstation and you hear the sounds from Atari 2600 Donkey Kong. It's goofy.

[Wntermute]

Atari sound effects and screens in movies... I can certainly name a couple:

 

- Airplane: 2600 Basketball on one of the rader screens

- Airplane II: Yars' Revenge sounds when the guy fiddles with the autopilot machine in Houston Ground Control

- My Blue Heaven: 2600 Pac-Man sound effects from a NES! (During Rick Moranis's motel stakeout)

[bangles66]

Yes I remember the movie.

It's National Lampoon's Vacation with Chevy Chase.

It's when Chevy's son "Russ" is talking to his cousin.

 

Does anyone have such a list of when atari is seen in tv shows or movies?

 

Good be a good list to start.

[Inky]

Another movie line I liked (although not Atari related)..

 

"If Jason came around here, you'd probably challenge him to a game of Zaxxon"

 

-- Friday the 13th Part 4: The Final (hahahA) Chapter

[Inky]

Let's think here...

 

Cloak and Dagger, Blade Runner, Airplane and Airplane 2, National Lampoon's Vacation, Modern Problems, Running Scared had a BattleZone machine as a prop

 

TV, Gary Shandling's show had Atari 8 bits as props, Silver Spoons had a Tempest Machine as a prop. Someone once mentioned an episode of Three's Company

 

 

What game system were they playing in Vacation in the beginning? Was it a Fairchild or an Astrocade?

 

"Rusty, don't eat the Family Truckster"

[+Random Terrain]

Inky:

 

You asked, "What game system were they playing in Vacation in the beginning? Was it a Fairchild or an Astrocade?"

 

You can find your answer at:

 

http://www.classicgaming.com/gamingmuseum/bally.html

 

Here is an excerpt:

 

"...the console did have one brief shot at immortality - it was featured in a scene from the 1983 hit National Lampoon's Vacation. Father Chevy Chase is trying to plan the family trip on their Apple II computer. Drawing a map on the family TV set complete with car, son Anthony Michael hall uses the Bally Astrocade sitting next to the Apple II to start chasing the car. The daughter uses the other controller to fend him off. Funny scene, if not technically impossible, but it is the only known appearance."

[Marco(2)]

Well, it's not movies, but two things immediately came to mind:

 

The Frogger episode of Seinfeld

The Game Over episode of Dexter's laboratory

 

 

 

Cheers,

 

Marco

[Marmaduke]

Does anyone remember what game is that

boy from BIG (the Tom Hanks movie) playing at the begining of the movie? It looks like an interesting adventure game and I have always wanted to play it since the first time I saw that movie.

[TheSmirk]

quote:

---

Originally posted by F of i:

I don't know how many movies, TV shows, and commercials I've seen over the years that either use the sounds from Atari

Pac-Man

or Coleco

Donkey Kong

for the 2600. It's like the sounds from those 2 games are the only ones that exist.

 

I hate it when you see two kids playing a fake game on a system that looks like a hybrid of the SNES and the Playstation and you hear the sounds from Atari 2600

Donkey Kong

. It's goofy.

---

 

Amen to that! Just the other day I saw a Best Buy commercial that was using old sound effects, even though they were playing a Dreamcast or PS2....maybe those sounds are"public domain"

[TheSmirk]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Mountain King:

Another movie you might want to watch is "Blade Runner" The Director's vision of the future where there's a lot of Atari advertisements.

---

 

Well, if infogrames has their way....that might not be too far fetched!

 

On a similar note, I had to laugh when I recently watched "The 6th Day" and they said it was in the near future...and they were showing an XFL game...LOL, don't think anyone is going to try to pick up that dog!

[Joel D. Park]

About the Big (Tom Hanks Movie) Question above.

 

I remember looking for that game too and not being able to figure out what it was. I remember like "USE ICE POD" or something he had to type in..

 

I haven't seen that movie in a long time but I remember it was like 4-Color CGA on a PC of some sort.

[Tempest]

I remember the room description was something about the "The slain bodies of ice elves are all around you" or something like that. And the command was "Throw Thermo Pod At Ice Wizard" or something to that effect.

 

The game does exist, I knew what it was at the time but can't think of it now.

 

Tempest

[Joel D. Park]

Not a movie, but Freaks & Geeks, had an episode about the Atari 2600 in it.

 

I don't actually watch the show, but I watched it just to find this episode. I was dissapointed though..

 

The only game it ever showed them playing was Asteriods and it was the Arcade Vector edition.. I couldn't believe it. Wouldn't it have just been alot easier to plug the Atari 2600 into the TV. :-)

 

All in all the episode had alot of little unaccurate Atari 2600 refrences.

[khryssun]

quote:

---

The game does exist, I knew what it was at the time but can't think of it now.

---

 

Maybe I'm wrong, but some times ago I was searching infos about that game and I found a web page dedicated to "BIG" where they said the "game" wasn't a commercial game. It was programmed for the movie only. Not a complete game in fact.

[mr johnson]

jim carrey was playing pacman in man on the moon.

[Tempest]

Maybe I was thinking about something else. It looked so damn familar like all EGA adventure games do. It kind of reminded me of Demon Forge a bit. If it wasn't a real game then they borrowed heavily from a real one because I've played something very very similar.

 

Tempest

[MikeMika]

I was watching Soylent Green just the other day, and behold: A white Computer Space in the prostitues(I think) apartment. Charlton Heston goes to visit her for some "action" and there are people there, etc. It is brief, and a rare sighting nonetheless. I actually have a lot of notes on Atari sightings, with all of the above posts mentioned already. Let's not forget E.T. the movie, with the 2600 hooked up to the television and Elliot showing E.T. how to play. Fred Savage in Princess Bride is playing Hardball on an Atari 800 (I think). He at least is using an Atari joystick. I can't remember much more from my "geek" list. It is so funny how I would make so many mental notes of Atari games in movies. The no-brainer, Tron, with Atari Football 2/4-player trak-ball edition, etc. Marble Madness was just in a movie, too. Oh well.. It would make a nice coffee table books, with scenes from movies... maybe not.

 

Mike

[Osbo]

I don't remember any movie right now... but I do remember the TV show "V" the episode in with the lizzard-guy was sitting next to a blonde girl, who was pregnant with his child and he's playing Space Invaders in a black and white TV set... oh no... wait a minute, my TV set was b/w... oh well...

Cheers!

[liquid_sky]

i remember an episode of that 70s show where they mod pong to be harder or somethin

[moycon]

Heh REAL old thread but I have a new one.

 

Revenge of the Zombie AKA : Kiss Daddy Goodbye

 

An obscure horror flick from the early 80's.

Two children who have psychic powers use them to avenge the death of their father, who was murdered by a biker gang.

 

There is a scene in the movie where the two kids are playing Video Olympics on the Atari 2600 using their psychic abilities instead of controllers. Not that it mattered. They kept showing the Atari joysticks sitting on the coffee table as they played. Thing is Video Olympics used paddles...not joysticks!

[Artlover]

Heh REAL old thread

Only 7 years, 2 months.... Ya think.

[Rik]

Saw a Different Strokes BIO/MOVIE last night,and the actor playing Gary Coleman was playing Star Strike on an INTV 2in his dressing room between tapings, like the real Gary used to do,but the game sound was from 2600 DK,AS USUAL!