It has been a sloooow week for arcade news, thanks to the vacuum any trade show leaves in its wake. So here’s an arcade interest related article.
One thing the arcade industry has not exactly been good at in modern times is marketing itself. Reliance on word-of-mouth and viral advertising hasn’t changed much, it is just handled online more than “around town”. Still, there have been a number of commercials and promos created to market games to players or operators in the past.
Generally the TV commercials are going to be the shorter ones but there are exceptions like Dig Dug. Otherwise you could look at the operator promos much like flyers for games in the industry.
This one will be heavy on the videos and note that most are pretty low quality due to age and compression.
Area 51: Site 4
Atari R&D Promo – Thanks to their Warner Communications connections, Atari was able to produce a lot of promos. I find this one fascinating for the behind-the-scenes look at how Atari tested out new arcade games.
Centipede
CounterStrike NEO
Crusin’ USA
Crusin’ World
Dariusburst Another Chronicle EX
Dig Dug
This one caught the attention of Entertainment Tonight who discussed the making of it:
Gauntlet
Gauntlet Legends
Genesis commercial w/ arcades: Sega had a few of these when the Genesis launched to convince people about the Genesis’ power.
Gravitar
Guardians of the Hood
House of the Dead 4 – I recall this being this being Japanese commercial for the arcade version and not the PS2
Initial D 5
Killer Instinct
Killer Instinct 2
Mortal Kombat
Mortal Kombat II –
Mortal Kombat 3
Revolution X
Silent Hill: The Arcade Game
Space Duel
Starcade – The TV game show dedicated to arcade gaming:
Star Wars Arcade
T-Mek
Time Traveller
Zaxxon – Reportedly this cost $150,000 to make…
What is your favorite arcade commercial or promo?
