Category Archives: advertising

Two Late-Stage Williams Electronics Arcade Classics

A couple of great video games by Williams Electronics, 1983.

Joust was a late-stage Williams classic, with John Newcomer as project lead, getting players slapping the flap button furiously while trying to get the upper perch on their opponents…. either computer controlled or with another ostrich-riding human knight. There’s a first from Williams in the ad I’m posting here too… a side-by-side cocktail version of Joust. As for manic shooter Sinistar, designed by Noah Falstein and Newcomer, who doesn’t love a game with voice synthesis that sounds like Johnny Cash?

I am Sinistar!

For the history of the astounding work by Eugene Jarvis and other Williams video games here at The Dot Eaters, where you can read, watch, listen and even play these great games, flap on over here: https://thedoteaters.com/?bitstory=bitstory-article-2/defender-and-vid-kidz

Williams video games for the arcade: Joust, Sinistar and pinball Defender — Williams video games for the arcade, 1983: Joust, Sinistar and pinball Defender

Oh, and also in this 1983 trade ad? Pinball Defender, featuring all the alien baddies you love to hate from the 1981 video game.

Atari’s Epic Dig Dug Commercial of 1982

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As part of a marketing push (an area where CEO Ray Kassar excelled at), Atari created a two-minute ad for arcade game Dig Dug. The funny thing about all this hoopla is that Atari hadn’t actually made the game: it was licensed by the company from Namco for release in North America.

Dig Dug, an arcade video game by Atari and Namco, 1982 — Dig Dug gameplay

Taking five days to film, the full ad ran in theatres during the summer of 1982, while a shorter 30 second version ran on TV. Originally, 60’s singing and dancing sensation Chubby Checker (The Twist) was to sing the catchy theme song in the ad, but Atari ultimately went with a younger singer, perhaps for reasons of demographics. You can hear Chubby’s version here on the Atari Museum Public Group on Facebook. The song was posted by Matt Osborne, the son of Don Osborne, who was Atari’s VP of Marketing at the time. Upon listening to it, I’m sure you’ll agree that Atari made a huge mistake not going with Chubby.

As for the visuals, the various special effects in the ad were handled by production designer Jim Spencer and crew, who among other projects had the effects-laden movie Poltergeist under their belt. They would subsequently work on films like Innerspace and Gremlins.

Created by advertising agency Young & Rubicam and directed by Manny Perez, the spot would go on to snag a 1983 Clio award in the Cinema and Advertising category. It might not be high art, but at least it reflects the most important aspect of the video game it’s shilling: it’s a lot of fun. It also got the job done for Atari; by their estimations the theatrical ad and shortened TV spots had by August of 1982 increased public awareness of Dig Dug by a whopping 227% over markets without the ads. This converted into 30% higher coin drops for the arcade game in those same markets. I can Dig that!

For more information on the history of Atari, consult your local Dot Eaters Bitstory.

Sources:

Atari Coin Connection, “Dig Dug Meets Clio”, pg. 2, Aug 1983
Atari Museum Public Group, Facebook
1982 Entertainment Tonight segment on the making of Dig Dug ad
Cash Box. Industry News – Atari ‘Customer Day’ Stresses Closer Ties With Distributors”, pgs. 38 – 39, Feb 19 1983, retrieved from Internet Archive Sept 15, 2019
Cash Box, Nov. 13 1982 article “Atari Launches National TV Push for ‘Dig Dug’

A Completely Bonkers TV Ad for Pole Position

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A lot of people might remember the manic ads that Sega put out in the 90’s (SEGAAA!), and consider them the apex (or nadir) of video game advertisements.

But Atari kind of created the mold here, with this insane 60 second spot that aired in 1983, announcing the crossing of their arcade hit Pole Position over to the 2600 and 5200 video game systems. You know that any ad which starts with a giant hand reaching down and shaking the douche-bag corporate executive “who keeps interesting things from happening” and family out of their VW Rabbit and into Formula One racecars is DEFINITELY a keeper.

Please enjoy the mayhem, and remember: THIS WAY, CLARENCE!

1983 Commodore 64 TV Commercial – “Honest Competition”

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Shilling the Commodore 64 home computer in this 1983 TV ad about its honest competition… I kinda wish Commodore would have spelled out the nature of how they “asked” various competing computer systems which one was better. Did they run a comparison program? What were the parameters? Who programmed it? Enquiring minds want to know!

For some computer gaming history, check out the Computer Gaming History section of The Dot Eaters, here:

https://thedoteaters.com/?bitstory=computer

The Ad Game: Isaac Asimov, TRS-80 Computer Mouthpiece

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Isaac Asimov. He was one of the most influential writers of our time, having written the Foundation series, along with many other SF and non-fiction works, a list of which would be too exhaustive to repeat here. And not only was he a great writer, he could rock the mutton chops and also knew a good deal when he saw one:

Here’s another one:

Ad with science fiction author Isaac Asimov shilling for the Tandy TRS-80 Color Computer

“What a value!”, 1983

And…

Some practical advice from Isaac Asimov, 1982

Even as Tandy computer spokesperson, I have a feeling Mr. Asimov didn’t say all those things. Perhaps not a single one of them. It must be a weird thing for an ad copywriter to put words into the mouth of Isaac Asimov, but they give it the old college try in this campaign. “An exciting entertainer”? “Just one of many fine computers from Radio Shack”? “During the day I might write about starships. At night, I blast ’em on my Color Computer”?!!! I also like the images of him holding the joystick like someone just plopped it into his hand, a rictus grin forming on his face with the thought “What the f**k is this thing?”.

But still, you have to take it from Isaac. What a value!

source of first ad: knmoor, via his flickr stream

(This article was originally posted to The Dot Eaters on Feb. 2, 2013)

Promotional Photo Theatre: Crazy Lady

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Some advice on romance for you from a retro video game historian: Find someone who looks at you the way this lady looks at the guy running the Aquarius Home Computer System, by Mattel Electronics.

On second thought, maybe don’t. She looks like she’s thinking about slitting his throat while he sleeps tonight, and whether she could completely bathe her naked body in the amount of blood that came out of him.

And another thing: this photo seems to prove just how unuseable the crap keyboard on the Aquarius was. Look at the man’s fingers, curled up like an old, arthritic witch in order to press on those tiny, rubbery chiclet-keys. The computer came with a built-in flavour of Microsoft BASIC, but can you imagine trying to program on that thing? 20 minutes and I’d be longing for release, as the pumping blood from my carotid artery splashed on my wife’s writhing body.

Also, the dude has a Mini Expander AND two memory packs, but hasn’t installed them into the computer? That means he’s stuck with the anemic 4K standard RAM in the Aquarius. Yes honey, you can bring the kitchen knife to bed tonight.

For more information on the Mattel Aquarius, as well as the company’s famous home console Intellivision, consult your local Dot Eaters entry, here.

The Visual Cortex: Intellivision Attacks!

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Today the Visual Cortex is sporting an Intellivision magazine ad, featuring the system’s well-heeled attack dog, author George Plimpton.

Plimpton featured prominently in a series of attack ads by Mattel that highlighted their system’s advanced graphics capability, especially when compared with the anemic visuals of their chief rival, Atari’s VCS/2600 unit. You might be excused for thinking, “Why Plimpton?”. Well, Plimpton came to national prominence as a kind of high-brow intellectual for the Budweiser set, a sportswriter who would poke fun at his high-falutin’ ways by attempting to play sports at the pro level and then write about his haplessness. So he was a pretty good fit for the Intellivision, which specialized in sports games like NFL Football and MLB Baseball that blew away the Atari versions in terms of both graphical quality and realistic gameplay. Here is the ad:

Magazine attack ad for the Intellivision, a home video console by Mattel

George lays into Atari

These hard hitting attack ads irked Atari president Ray Kassar so much that he complained about the “unfairness” of the comparisons to the TV networks airing them and threatened legal action. Eventually Atari would come out with their own version of the highly intellectual pitchman; a child dressed up in a suit and glasses who would point out the versions of popular arcade games that were absent on the Intellivision. Of course, Mattel then struck back with Plimpton schooling their own version of the pint-sized pitchman.

As a couple of bonuses, here is John Hodgman’s spoof on the Plimpton ad, used to shill his own book The Areas of My Expertise in 2006, as well as a link to Newground’s hilarious (and fun to play) fake web-based ColecoVision game George Plimpton’s Video Falconry, created in 2011.

An ad for John Hodgman's book The Areas of My Expertise, meant to spoof the George Plimpton Intellivision ads 2006

A spoof of the Inty ad featuring John Hodgman, 2005

Click to play.

For more information on the Intellivision and the Great Mattel/Atari Video Game Wars, consult your local Dot Eaters entry.

This article was originally posted to The Dot Eaters on Jan. 9, 2013

The Dreadful 1995 Atari Jaguar Infomercial

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If you can think of anything less cool and hip and high technology than a television infomercial, please write in and let me know. But the ad gurus working for Atari in the mid-90’s thought this format would be a great way to move the Jaguar off shelves.

The Jag had already been on the market two years, and in 1995 had Sony’s PlayStation and the Sega Saturn breathing down its neck. Touted by Atari as the first 64-bit game machine, inside there were actually two 32-bit chips called Tom and Jerry connected to system memory by a 64-bit wide data path. This configuration made developing games for the machine difficult, hence third-party games were slow in coming. Meanwhile, the game libraries of its rivals swelled, and Atari discontinued the struggling Jaguar the next year.

Hard to see why, with hip and happening advertising like this. C’mon, Bob!

Atari’s Epic Dig Dug Commercial of 1982

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Dig Dug gameplay

For more information on the history of Atari, consult your local Dot Eaters Bitstory.

Sources:

Activision Pivots (1983)

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The original 3rd-party video game maker for the Atari 2600, Activision apparently saw the writing on the wall in 1983. That was the year they made their move from consoles onto computer platforms, such as porting Kaboom! and River Raid to the Atari 8-bit XL line as seen in this ad. Moving to computer platforms helped the storied company survive the big video game crash of 1983-84, allowing them to become one of the biggest video game companies still around today.

Activision makes their move.

For more information on Activision and the Atari VCS, consult your local Dot Eaters entry.