The 80′s and 90′s gave us some awesome games and systems, and even some that were the complete opposite and terrible. They also gave us something fans of retro games forget-awesome marketing campaigns, especially when it came to television ads.
Some of them showcased the highlights of the system, with heavy emphasis on graphics. Others spent more time dissing the competition. Some appealed to our sense of humor by extolling the virtues of a game with a weird rap, song, dance, or pretty much anything else.
I wanted to highlight a few of these today. Some of them actually are good or interesting, but most are just bad, wrong, or odd.
You will see common themes in some of these. For example, SEGA vs. Nintendo, with their infamous catch phrase of “SEGA Does What NintenDon’t.” Don’t forget the ill-fated Atari Jaguar, with it’s emphasis on 64 bit graphics and the two processors-affectionately named “Tom” and “Jerry.” “Do the Math” was what we were told when it came to comparing the Jaguar to it’s competitors.
The 3D0 and CD-i systems both tried to focus on being home computers and not video game systems. The CD-i seemed especially guilty of this. Compact discs as a storage medium were relatively new, and fascinated pretty much anyone. So I suppose it made sense for Philips to claim that the CD-i would be willing to play games, educational materials, movies, music, and pretty much anything else short of brushing your teeth for you.
And of course many of these systems simply did not have many games; let alone good ones. That and poor hardware helped kill many of them, as evidenced by the behemoth that was the Jaguar controller.
So in no particular order, here are some of the weirdest, most ridiculous, out-there commercials for retro games and systems.
Ms. Pac-man for the 2600:
The Legend of Zelda for the Nintendo Entertainment System (your parents help you hook it up):
The Legend of Zelda for the Nintendo Famicom:
Genesis Does (What NintenDON’T):
Sega Genesis (a whole lot more for less):
Atari Jaguar Alien vs. Predator:
Atari Jaguar Doom:
Panasonic 3DO System:
Gamecube System:
Philips CD-I System with Phil Hartman #1:
Philips CD-I System with Phil Hartman #2:
SEGA Megadrive System (India):
Atari Mario Bros.:
Dr. Mario for the NES and Gameboy:
Super Mario Land 2:
Playstation with Crash Bandicoot, Twisted Metal, and Tomb Raider mentions:
For anyone who fondly remembers the Super Nintendo game Mario Paint, you may remember the Composer section of the game which allowed gamers to create music using Nintendo symbols instead of notes.
With enough effort gamers could create everything from simple snippets of chorus to full covers and remixes of popular songs. Now with the emulation of the composer section of the game Mario Paint continues to retain it’s popularity.
So I’d like to highlight a few of my favorite covers and remixes of popular songs, as done in Mario Paint. Enjoy!
Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”
“Smooth Criminal”
Europe’s “The Final Countdown”
Katy Perry’s “Hot n’ Cold” (Kitty Purry mix)
Owl City’s “Fireflies”
Owl City’s “Fireflies” (using a different soundfont)
Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger”
Mission Impossible Theme
Lady Gaga / Beyonce’s “Telephone”
Hopefully you enjoyed these as much as I did. There are some insanely talented nerds out there.
The restaurant chain Wendy’s will team up with Namco-Bandai to release special Pac-Man themed toys as part of their kids meals.
Five toys will be released until April 10th, and include Pac-Man Tag, Pac-Man Maze; Pac-Man Hide & Seek; Pac-Man Dash; and Pac-Man Bowling. Also included with each meal will be a coupon for a discount on a downloadable Pac-man game (presumably for Pac-man Party, as it’s featured in the announcement).
So head over to Wendy’s and get your Pac-man toys while supplies last. I plan on picking up as many of them as I can.
PopCap Games will be discounting all of their iOS games on the iPhone/iPod and iPad on sale for a special limited 48 hour sale. Games on sale will include such hits as Bejeweled and Plants vs. Zombies. iPad games will sell for $1.99, while iPhone and iPod versions will be just $.99. Best of all, all proceeds will benefit the Red Cross in Japan.
The sale lasts March 19th-20th, so hurry up and download lots of greats games for cheap. Best of all you will be helping the Red Cross as they help others.
In wake of the devastion in Japan caused by the tsunami, Japanese publishers are coming to the aid of others with large donations to the Japanese Red Cross and other charities.
Nintendo and SEGA are helping out by giving away 300 and 200 million yen respectively. Namco Bandai and Tecmo Koei also gave away 100 million and 10 million yen. Sony donated 300 million yen and 30,000 radios.
Other smaller publishers are helping out as well, and are encouraging charitable donations (especially to the Red Cross).
It’s good to see game publishers come together during such a crisis to support Japan. It’s unfortunate that we don’t see more of this, but during such a difficult time any help for the Japanese is bound to be appreciated. It’s always good to see gamers and game makers coming together to benefit others.
According to internal sales data, Nintendo announced that on the initial release of Pokemon Black and White on March 6th that they sold over 1.08 million copies in the U.S.
This shatters the 780,000 copies sold of Diamond and Pearl in 2007.
Charlie Scibetta, Corporate Communications Director at Nintendo of America said, “These sales numbers illustrate the continued strength of the Nintendo DS family of systems.”
Is B/W good enough to sell so many? Apparently. Black/White has been met with initial praise from critics and fans a like. The buzz over B/W had grown over the past few months, so it’s no surprise to see B/W sell so many.
Ugo.com has an interesting article about video games and 25 things people don’t understand.
Some of the more interesting ones: No one gets their video game violence fix from the original Doom game anymore. This is something that has always irritated me in the media. Doom and Mortal Kombat are two of the more frequent culprits shown as violent when the news talks about video game violence, and how it supposedly makes us violent.
Another point made was that we want others to like video games. Whether it’s on PC, PSP or Wii, we want our friends, families, and co-workers to enjoy video games with us. We’re not out to intentionally alienate anyone. On the contrary, we want to share our passions with others.
Also mentioned was how complex games have gotten. If someone isn’t paying attention they may think video games have simply gotten a visual upgrade over the years. But it’s more than that, as games get more engrossing with complex storylines, engrossing characters and emotional choices, and intuitive combat.
I often find that non-gamers have crazy ideas of what videos are, and it’s rarely good, so many of these things from the article stood out to me.
How do you explain video games to a non-gamer? Have you ever tried to do it, successfully or unsuccessfully?
Pokemon Black and Pokemon White are here! If you haven’t reserved yourself a copy go ahead and pick one up now. Check out the new Pokemon in the Unova region as you take on Team Plasma.
Have you picked up your copy yet? If so what do you think about the new Pokemon game?
Jason Kapalka, co-founder and chief creative officer for PopCap games, recently spoke at the Game Developer’s Conference (GDC) 2011. Gamespot has a write up about his speech in full here if you’re interested. It’s a pretty interesting read, so I’d recommend it if you get the chance.
Kapalka spoke about PopCap’s original hit game Bejeweled, and developing the sequels over time.
Before that however he talked about his company’s first game Foxy Poker, which was a foray into making a strip poker game. The goal was to sell the game engine to others as well; increasing profit. However the team couldn’t bring themselves to create a game with full nudity, so they self-censored it.
This was the part of the story that really stood out to me. PopCap has made so many popular games that are considered “casual” and known and beloved by many, such as Plants Vs. Zombies, Peggle, Zuma, Bookworm, Feeding Frenzy, and dozens more. The fact that they were able to be so successful without resorting to sex appeal made a big impression on me.
It’s proof that successful games can be made without a title being rated mature. It’s good to see PopCap have success at this, and I’m hoping other companies take notice and decide to make their games accordingly, whether it’s simple games or more complex multi-million dollar games like the Call of Duty franchise. As much as I would love to play the next installment in the Grand Theft Auto series I probably won’t simply because of content. If they toned it down to a lower M rating or even made another equivalent to it (a la Bully last gen) then I would definitely be interested in it.
The film industry has done something similar in recent years, toning down many movies from an R rating to a PG-13 one. Something equivalent for the video game industry would be nice.
But even better would be the PopCap approach-simply make more games that appeal to everyone when it comes to content.
