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 was a pretty elaborate and long commercial
In fact it caught the attention of Entertainment Tonight who discussed the making of:
Gauntlet 1985 Commercial-
Gauntlet Legends Promo Reel-
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 Promo Reel-
House of the Dead 4 – I recall this being this being Japanese commercial for the arcade version and not the PS2
Initial D5 –
Killer Instinct –
Killer Instinct 2 –
Mortal Kombat –
Mortal Kombat II –
Mortal Kombat 3 Teaser –
NFL Blitz 2000 – Most of this is to promote Midway’s Dreamcast, N64 and PSX games but it starts with Blitz arcade
Revolution X-
Silent Hill: The Arcade Game –
Space Duel –
Starcade – The TV game show dedicated to arcade gaming
Star Wars Arcade –
T-Mek
Time Traveler –
Total Recoil (Virtuality) –
Zaxxon – Reportedly this cost $150,000 to make
What is your favorite arcade commercial or promo?
