The_Laird Posted August 29, 2005 Share Posted August 29, 2005 Is it me or were those "drawn" game screens on the early 2600 games completely lame? The worst thing is half of them didn't even look like the game, its a later title but Road Runner springs to mind. And didn't you just "love" the way Activision did those white movement whooshes behind the sprites! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joeybastard Posted August 29, 2005 Share Posted August 29, 2005 Some of them were complete fantasy which always annoyed me when I bought games. I wonder if screengrabs that could be used for print was even a viable technology in late 70's-early 80's? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moderntimes99 Posted August 29, 2005 Share Posted August 29, 2005 I wonder if screengrabs that could be used for print was even a viable technology in late 70's-early 80's? 920876[/snapback] Well, you could always take a photo of a TV at a relatively slow shutter speed (e.g. 1/8s or similar)... I used to do some reviews of computer games for a local magazine in the 80s and that was the way we did it then... Regards, Moderntimes99 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
128bytes Posted August 29, 2005 Share Posted August 29, 2005 Some of them were complete fantasy which always annoyed me when I bought games. I wonder if screengrabs that could be used for print was even a viable technology in late 70's-early 80's? 920876[/snapback] My guess: No, for multiple reasons. Back in those times there was almost no computerized typesetting for four-color printing, and the lead times to get the boxes were most likely greater than the time between code complete and shipping. Most likely the screen mock-ups were drawn and finished well before the game itself was finished. Also, the quality of screengrabs for print available at the time would not be good enough to do the reality of how the games looked on TV's when you played them justice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D.Yancey Posted August 29, 2005 Share Posted August 29, 2005 Many times the game looked realistic on the box, but there were things portrayed on the mock screen that could never happen in the games themselves. Stampede was a good example of this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bjk7382 Posted August 30, 2005 Share Posted August 30, 2005 Well I know they could take them if they wanted.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scogey Posted August 30, 2005 Share Posted August 30, 2005 I seem to remember Defender had a particularly dumb "screenshot" on the back of the box. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philflound Posted August 30, 2005 Share Posted August 30, 2005 Now that I'm looking at that photo, is it possible that some screenshots could have been from another system, like the Atari computer he's using there? Phil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joeybastard Posted August 30, 2005 Share Posted August 30, 2005 Well I know they could take them if they wanted.... 921238[/snapback] It was definitely possible in one form or another because I remember Parker Bros. ads always had real screenshots of all of the various systems the game was available on. My guess is that the lead time on game design and box art just made it too much hassle and besides, what's a little truth fudging with a screenshot anyway? Jeez companies still do it when they only show shots from the cut scenes and not of the gameplay. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D.Yancey Posted August 30, 2005 Share Posted August 30, 2005 That photo looks like Larry Kaplan. He used an Apple II for Kaboom! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emehr Posted August 30, 2005 Share Posted August 30, 2005 I remember the "screenshots" in the Atari catalogs and how a lot of the sprite graphics were *huge*! I'm thinking of Space War and Sky Diver in particular. Gotta love the cover art though! - Jason Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kisrael Posted August 31, 2005 Share Posted August 31, 2005 I got burned by a C=64 game that had the Amiga and/or ST screenshots on the back... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uber Troll Posted August 31, 2005 Share Posted August 31, 2005 Yeah, it got kind of questionable when companies would show a screenshot for a computer-based version when the main ad could be read to be for the 2600. I always loved it when they showed all the versions, i.e. 2600, 5200, intellivision, ColecoVision, Apple II, Timex Sinclair, Mattel Aqaurius, Apple I, Univac, Deep Blue, Earth Simulator, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philflound Posted September 1, 2005 Share Posted September 1, 2005 Some of the comic books had ads like the Popeye mentioned where you would see 6 or more different screen shots for various systems. Then you knew that your 2600 was cheesy compared to other systems. Phil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G.Whiz Posted September 1, 2005 Share Posted September 1, 2005 One of my biggest let-downs was Barnstorming. The box clearly showed a swoosh of the plane doing a loop...!?! I have never really liked the game, mostly because I have never really recovered from the vision of what I thought Barnstorming could have been (or should have been!) As for advertising in general, you have to admit that many of the games left much to your own imagination. Sure, those are tanks in Combat, and these are biplanes, and the other are jets. But the artwork really helps get your imagination going. You can't tell me that you actually like the text label of Adventure over the graphic version. And although some were really, really bad artwork renderings (Imagic comes to mind), some were good enough to at least help you fill in the blanks that the woefully-inadequate 2600 graphics couldn't. Actually, the Barnstorming incident aside, I've always like Activision's presentation and those colourful graphics and even the slick in-game "Activision" logo made me believe that they were a little more polished and professional than the rest -- including Atari. ~G Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kisrael Posted September 1, 2005 Share Posted September 1, 2005 One of my biggest let-downs was Barnstorming. The box clearly showed a swoosh of the plane doing a loop...!?! I have never really liked the game, mostly because I have never really recovered from the vision of what I thought Barnstorming could have been (or should have been!) Heh, something like "Looping"... Actually, the Barnstorming incident aside, I've always like Activision's presentation and those colourful graphics and even the slick in-game "Activision" logo made me believe that they were a little more polished and professional than the rest -- including Atari. They were, at least for a while...Atari (subcontracting out to GCC for a lot of this I think) I'd say caught up later. But the rainbow Activision thing was great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Helmet Posted September 1, 2005 Share Posted September 1, 2005 My guess is that the lead time on game design and box art just made it too much hassle 921475[/snapback] Most of the Atari box screenshots were the same as the conceptual screenshots that they released in catalogs while games were still in development. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philflound Posted September 1, 2005 Share Posted September 1, 2005 My guess is that the lead time on game design and box art just made it too much hassle 921475[/snapback] Most of the Atari box screenshots were the same as the conceptual screenshots that they released in catalogs while games were still in development. 923116[/snapback] I have to agree. If code wasn't finished, they wanted to give you an idea of what the game will look and feel like. The catalogs a lot of times enhanced the graphics, making them look bigger than they really were. Remember, they were trying to "sell" you an idea. I also agree that you used your imagination. When I first began playing Dungeons and Dragons at the age of 13 in 1983, my whole world of thought opened up. We had our teacher at the time be the dungeon master. And even though he wasn't the greatest, he made our first imaginative experiences with the game a great one. In fact, all I wanted to do was become a dungeon master, and for several years, that is what I did. Imagination holds a lot. As adults, it's harder for us to "pretend play". We've gotten accustomed to sensational graphics and surround sound. Creators leave little to the imagination. I thought sounds were better than graphics, at least when you first heard them. If you could hear something that you could not see, then you would use your imagination. So I'm not disappointed, even at the age of 35, with games I used to love. In fact I still play a few on cyberstella once in awhile if I'm not doing anything. Phil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foxsolo2000 Posted September 1, 2005 Share Posted September 1, 2005 A classic example of this has to be the artist conception of the James Bond game for the 2600 in which James was seen on top of a train in black suit and tie fending of thugs that came at him from both sides. The released game was nothing like the proposed screen shot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joeybastard Posted September 1, 2005 Share Posted September 1, 2005 A classic example of this has to be the artist conception of the James Bond game for the 2600 in which James was seen on top of a train in black suit and tie fending of thugs that came at him from both sides. The released game was nothing like the proposed screen shot. 923166[/snapback] Shame too, I remember seeing that and being really excited by that "screenshot". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawn Posted September 1, 2005 Share Posted September 1, 2005 My first experience with getting "mislead" by a company ad was when I was about 5 or 6 years old when I THOUGHT Yars Revenge was gonna have the best graphics I had ever seen. Glad it was my cousin that got it for his birthday and not me..lol.. Man where we pissed!! I thought that the graphics on the box where gonna be the graphics in the game. Man was I wrong. But hell, I was only 5..lol.. Damn video game company Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justin42 Posted October 2, 2005 Share Posted October 2, 2005 A classic example of this has to be the artist conception of the James Bond game for the 2600 in which James was seen on top of a train in black suit and tie fending of thugs that came at him from both sides. The released game was nothing like the proposed screen shot. 923166[/snapback] I am pretty sure they originally intended on making a game for Octopussy, which is what that scene was from. For whatever reason, that went nowhere, and we got the weird hodge-podge generic "James Bond" game instead. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lauren Tyler Posted October 2, 2005 Share Posted October 2, 2005 I seem to remember Defender had a particularly dumb "screenshot" on the back of the box. 921309[/snapback] I think there was something like that in the catalogs as well, not to mention something similar with Haunted House. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zonie Posted October 3, 2005 Share Posted October 3, 2005 (edited) My biggest letdown was Astro Chase. The opening graphics were gereat. They even made it to the game, but then you had to sit though that "cartoon" every time. The game itself was pretty lame. If you look at the pics in the early VCS catalogs, you can see a drawing of the console. They didn't even get that right. I always liked the style of the illustrations in the VCS caalogs. And yeah, what was with that space war screenshot. It also had a dashed border around it IIRC. Imagination played a HUGE role back then. Something that is lost on today's kids. They couldn't imagine their way out of a cardboard box while we built submarines and spaceships out of them. Edited October 3, 2005 by Zonie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moycon Posted October 3, 2005 Share Posted October 3, 2005 A classic example of this has to be the artist conception of the James Bond game for the 2600 in which James was seen on top of a train in black suit and tie fending of thugs that came at him from both sides. The released game was nothing like the proposed screen shot. 923166[/snapback] I was always under the impression that the James Bond games were two different games. James Bond 007 that was released came out in 1983 (Not sure what the month was, it was in the 1983 catalog though) but ads for James Bond Octopussy were showing up towards the end of 1983. Here's one.... http://www.watler.computed.net/atari/Jb007oct.htm I would think that the artists conception of the train was based on Octopussy...not the game that was possibly already released. I always thought the James Bond we currently have was on the market before the Octopussy ads showed up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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