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In the modern era, video game trailers get criticized for the overuse of CGI cutscenes instead of using actual game footage. They are selling you an idea of what the game is, rather than the reality. It’s something that’s not all that necessary, as gaming and graphics have become so advanced over the decades that simple footage should be enough to get people interested.
Back in the ‘80s, we didn’t have that option. Yes, there were good games out there, but advertising was more of a challenge. Everything around the gameplay was going to have to do the heavy lifting and really get you to think that 2600 Pacman was going to be something special. The commercials that really put in the work at least stayed with children and helped paint a reality that the limited graphics were trying to push.
Here are some that truly stand out from our most fool-pitying decade. Oh, and Super Mario Bros. 3 came out in the US in early 1990, so it just barely misses the cutoff.
15. Back to the Future Will Eradicate Your Whole Family
This one is held back by the repetitive, soul-crushing music, but the rest of it is fantastic and strangely dark. A kid plays through NES Back to the Future while his family quietly watches behind him (as families do in 90% of old video game commercials), but the further he goes into the game, the more each of them fades away. All the while, he doesn’t seem to notice their plight, as he tries talking to his mother long after she is raptured out of existence. As he fails to beat the game on his very first try, he too fades into nothingness. Presumably, another family will suddenly be living in this house, surprised and intrigued to find this NES setup and a game of Back to the Future ready to be played. And so it begins again. Rod Serling stands nearby, narrating.
The lesson to be learned here is to never play an LJN video game. You might destroy the fabric of reality and you might get a milkshake thrown onto the floor. Also, they’re just bad in general.
14. Young Jack Black is Psyched About Pitfall
Imagine the end of the Michael Jackson “Black or White” video, only these people are constantly talking about how awesome it is to play Pitfall. But also, one of them is a 13-year-old Jack Black. Kind of insane to see a young version of the future Bowser, as he looks like 35 when he’s playing a high schooler in the third Neverending Story movie. Still, here he is, excitedly talking about Pitfall Harry and laying the seeds for decades later when he’d be singing about how much he loves video games.
This is one of the rare Atari 2600 ads that really works when showing off the game itself. Pitfall genuinely looks fun, even on such early hardware, and has those kickass sound effects that just feel right. The excited monologues by the actors go with the action and it all helps get you interested in getting your hands on the game. Well, I’m not sure about the girl thirsting over Pitfall Harry, but thirsting over jungle adventurers with square anatomy would be huge a decade later, so I guess she’s just ahead of the curve.
13. No, That Guy is Definitely Trapped in Tunnel Runner
In the earlier days of video games, there was something truly magical about the visual of live-action actors being shown inside the world of a video game. Getting to do the bonus round of Nick Arcade just seemed like the coolest thing imaginable. The commercial for Atari’s Tunnel Runner really brings that imagination, albeit in a borderline nightmarish way.
Our hero insists that he isn’t trapped but is forced to travel through an in-game maze to survive and hopefully find a way out. The way they mix the guy and the graphics just feels so right, as he reacts to peril with a mix of alarm and false bravado. By the end of the commercial, he finds himself in a new maze, and his repeated delivery of, “I’m not trapped,” feels like he’s both excited for a new challenge and desperately in denial about how hopeless this all is.
12. The Nintendo Entertainment System is the Future Personified
The stretch of time between the Famicom’s release in Japan and the NES’ release in North America really allowed the NES marketing team to run out, guns blazing. They already had a ton of games ready to go, and countless more coming out. They didn’t need commercials for Super Mario Bros. or Duck Hunt. All they had to do was say, “Look at all this shit we have! It’s awesome!” And it worked! The initial commercials played up the toy aspect of it all, mainly with the light gun and the infamous ROB peripheral. ROB was practically worthless in real life, but damn if those commercials didn’t make it seem like a gift from the heavens.
The “Now You’re Playing with Power” tagline really popped here, especially with how magically sci-fi the early commercials became. ROB was hatched from a celestial egg. Playing these games caused a house to fly into space. They really hit the apex in this commercial, where playing NES games is treated like some kind of ominous space action movie. It’s as if our protagonists are too busy playing Kung Fu to be worried about an alien xenomorph on the loose. I can’t blame them, considering how sweet that setup is.
11. Donkey Kong Junior Needs You to Help Save Papa
For the home releases of Donkey Kong, mainly for the Colecovision, they did a pretty fun commercial showing what is likely the first live-action Mario as he plays the game on the couch and is so into it that he doesn’t realize that a guy in a gorilla suit is carrying away a frantic Pauline. The sequel has the same Mario actor but goes way harder by swinging for the fences when it comes to set design.
They made an entire scale model of a Donkey Kong Junior stage for this baby, as we see a guy in a DK Jr. costume trying to maneuver around while talking to the camera. Some of it is low rent in action, but good God does it feel ambitious for an early video game commercial.
10. Playing Game Boy Will Help You Survive the Wasteland
I love this one because it makes zero sense but is filled with all sorts of imagery you would want to sell a video game console. The story is that a cyborg roams a burning hellscape, uses finger lasers to summon a happy teenager holding a Game Boy, the two hook up their Game Boys to play Tetris 2-player, the teen wins, and he destroys the cyborg with his own finger lasers. I feel like I’m missing a lot of context here, but maybe it’s better that way.
Otherwise, it’s a solid way to talk up the new handheld and what it can do. As awesome as “the outrageous, new game Tetris,” is, it’s challenging to not only explain it to the masses as worth playing, but also as the pack-in title for this brand-new piece of hardware. Instead of insisting it’s addictive, just point out that you can play against other people on the go. Perhaps even a robot man in the post-apocalypse! Radical!
9. Spider-Man for Atari is a Menace
Marvel’s very first video game wasn’t a very good one. Spider-Man on Atari 2600 was nothing but repetitive building-climbing while dodging threats. At least its commercial went completely all out with the only comic-faithful Green Goblin that isn’t in a screen test or Universal Islands of Adventure. Not only does the guy playing him look really good for 1982, but he gives it everything he has. The voice and body language are completely on point. This game does not deserve a version of the Green Goblin this good.
That’s not to say the NYC rooftop and Spider-Man aren’t impressive in their own right. Spider-Man, stuck with having to pretend to play the game, sounds legit in his performance, especially with that he had to work with. The only problem is when he dramatically asks if this is too much action for Spider-Man to handle. At this point, he sounds like Deadpool sarcastically harping on the product. Plus he’s so distracted from the game that he doesn’t seem to notice a pumpkin bomb has been left right next to him. Spidey-sense my ass!
8. Sega Master System Looks Like an NES Killer
The Sega Master System really shined when it came to advertising, even if they were advertising some of the worst uniform box art we’ve ever seen. Those commercials really felt like you were getting something that was truly going to blow the NES away, even more than the initial Sega Genesis commercials. Maybe the kids were playing a little too close to the TV, but when you’re a kid watching that, it’s just part of the sales pitch. Either way, they had the right balance of trying to make it look like someone’s playing a video game but placing it in a production set.
This one really stands out because of the brilliant use of the Master System’s box design. Zooming in on it and tilting to the side, showing that it’s 3D and there’s a real console sitting there is pure cinema. Though nothing beats the serotonin that comes from when they show off all the games in their library. It really links you to that feeling as a kid when you go to the store and see a wall full of so many video game titles.
7. Mr. Arcade is the Fonz Meets Robin Hood
Coleco offered a series of mini arcades where they took popular games and tried to emulate the experience as best they could with LCD setups. To advertise this, they came up with their own mascot named Mr. Arcade. Mr. Arcade’s deal was that he would just kind of linger around arcades, wearing sunglasses and a reflective, white windbreaker, and walk over to a patron when he felt needed. Then he would use his mutant power of shrinking arcade cabinets into mini arcades and letting people go home with them. I don’t know what kind of authority he had, but the arcade owners never chose to press charges considering how many of these commercials we got.
Highlights include him dealing with Donkey Kong (a guy in a gorilla suit), Donkey Kong Jr. (an actual chimp), and bringing in his better half Mrs. Arcade when giving another loving couple a copy of Ms. Pac-Man. Should I be disturbed that he and his girlfriend share a last name? (Editor’s Note: I assumed Mr. Arcade is a traditionalist and insisted that Mrs. Arcade – maiden name, Sarah Skeeball – take his name in marriage).
6. Dragon Warrior is an Epic Adventure
RPGs were brand new to North America. This was unmanned territory. How do you advertise a brand-new type of game to an audience that might not truly understand it? The commercial for Dragon Warrior did its damnedest by having an elder tell an armor-clad hero about his quest and sending him off. Sure, the game lacked horse riding, but the commercial can be forgiven for tossing those visuals in there.
What really sells this one isn’t just the general production value, but rather the way the color of the live-action shots feels at home with the game’s 8-bit color scheme. The greenery in both realities seem to pop in sync, allowing the commercial’s narrative to flow almost seamlessly into the gameplay footage. A year later, they would try to be more in-your-face about getting people to play the game by advertising Dragon Warrior as a free bonus if you bought a year subscription of Nintendo Power. Never thought I’d say this, but I’ll take the real horse over the CGI dragon.
5. The Mario Bros. Need to Stick Together or Else!
Our first look at a live-action Luigi (who I’m not entirely certain isn’t a time-traveling Horatio Sanz) comes from this inspired advertisement for the Atari 5200 version of Mario Bros. A jaunty little tune plays over Luigi’s attempts to do actual plumbing work while also surviving monster attacks from every direction and doing goofy physical comedy. All the while, he wonders/sings, “Mario, where are you?!” as a cute way to talk up the two-player co-op.
The puppet work here is just fantastic as all the different enemies are adapted perfectly while also looking equal parts cartoony and terrifying in live action. Much like the Mortal Kombat II commercial (save that for the ‘90s counterpart to this list), this is one of those commercials that feels like a proof of concept for its eventual movie. Boy, do I wish the Bob Hoskins flick looked more like this.
4. Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! Live from Tyson’s Evil Lair
Mike Tyson’s star in the ‘80s was such a unique experience. Athletes getting the spotlight is one thing, but the guy was so unstoppable in the boxing ring that instead of getting a game where you play as him, they made a game where he was the nigh impossible boss. This commercial, showcasing him in a way that made him look like an ominous supervillain awaiting your challenge, really hit the nail on the head.
The ad really steps it up with the insane monitor layout. Seeing someone play NES via 36 TV screens stacked into a grid was one of those godly images that every kid kept in their back pocket just in case they ever won the lottery one day. It’s also notably unique that, despite Tyson being the guy with his name in the title, they actually show footage of him in-game. Usually, games from that era would try to make their final bosses mysterious, but here he is in full 8-bit glory.
3. Phil Hartman is Ready for Ice Hockey
It’s 1981 and a mild-mannered man wants to buy a copy of Ice Hockey for Atari 2600. From the very brief flashes of gameplay, there is not much to this game. It’s incredibly basic and lifeless. Thankfully for Activision, they hired two guys who could sell the bejesus out of this product. The clerk is actor/comedian Howard Mann while the customer is none other than a Groundlings-era Phil Hartman. Yes, long before you might remember him as a caveman lawyer and a cartoon lawyer, Hartman was losing his shit over this throwaway sports game.
Watching this young, pre-SNL Hartman go full-on Incredible Hulk over Ice Hockey while Mann eggs him on is addicting to watch. These two guys give everything to make this game seem like a big deal and the one bystander is rightfully freaked out from seeing Hartman snap. The way Mann casually comes back down to earth to end the commercial, followed by Hartman screaming, “ICE HOCKEY BY ACTIVISION!!” is just plain beautiful.
2. Pole Position is for Real Jerks
The opening seconds of this rather lengthy commercial set the stage for what kind of madness we’re about to experience. The announcer aggressively accosts a random family, calling the uptight father a jerk, and the father just takes it in stride. The announcer insists that they are going to play Pole Position, and the next thing you know, a giant hand pulls the car off the road, shakes everyone out of the windows, and everyone falls perfectly into unmanned, moving racecars. I have SO MANY QUESTIONS. Is this announcer God? Is God punishing this nerdy executive and his family?
Oh. Two questions. I only have two questions.
A rocking theme kicks in as the horrified family of four is forced to drive faster than any of them are ready for. The son has kind of a podracing Anakin Skywalker vibe to him. As reality keeps shifting into gameplay (good transitions!), the family members gradually crash and presumably die. Well, the later, extended commercial shows that they all survived, albeit with crazy post-explosion haircuts and smoke coming out of them. Amazing. No notes.
1. The Commercial for Centipede is…a Lot
Most video game commercials are based around only one idea, as you only have a limited amount of time to get your point across. This Centipede commercial for Atari 2600, on the other hand, has like 5-6 commercial ideas and decides to just toss them into one ad, turning it into a trippy music video. There’s a guy getting dragged into his TV and turned into a Human Cent—I mean, a half-man/half-centipede. Centipedes of varying size are attacking and/or replacing people, and the only thing that can stop them is stock military footage with game sound effects. It feels a lot like Cronenberg meets the alternate ending from Little Shop of Horrors.
What really brings it together is the sweet new wave music playing over it all, completely ripping off B-Movie’s “Nowhere Girl.” This is all so much better than the later Centipede commercial we’d get, filled with cheesy rapping. I want my MTV body horror!
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