Jump out of your seats for old game commercials

by JC Fletcher on May 4th 2009 11:30AM

We've seen many of the classic video game console commercials in this GamePlayer feature before, but never all in series like this. The site has compiled one ad each, in roughly chronological order, for game consoles from the Atari 2600 to the PlayStation 3, revealing a lot of actors who are very excited about video games.

That seems to be the common thread throughout most of these ads: since realistic enjoyment of video games doesn't play well on television, these commercials exaggerate the excitement of games to the point of personal injury. The Saturn commercial after the break, for example, makes some pretty terrifying suggestions about what playing Sega Saturn does for your body. At least it doesn't make your head detach from your body like the 3D0 does.

Source

Tags: commercials, retro, sega-saturn

Reader Comments (53)

Nothing will ever top the ad for "Pole Position". Most extreme commercial EVER! Youtube it.

I was really hoping it was gonna involve Judas Priest, since the video for their song Free Wheel Burning had pole position in it

I dunno. I'd say the Super Mario All-stars commercial was pretty good. It basically devolved into the person saying Mario every half a second.

You look like a real jerk.

Whoa, hey sorry Michas, I downvoted you before I remembered the Pole Position commercial and got the ref. My bad.

I do love that commercial, though.

I'm sorry but NOTHING will beat the "Segata Sanshiro" commercials for the Sega Saturn. Sure they may only be in japanese but they are damn hilarious even if you don't know the language.

@chispito:

No worries.

So the notion of shitting your pants is appealing...?

You don't, you know... lock the door to the computer room and shit your pants every once in a while?

Yeah, we're all shitting our pants, all the time. You don't want to be the only one without shit in your pants, do you Chris?

If shitting your pants is cool then just call me Dean Martin.

I just shit my pants and I'm kick ass.

Open the window and a breeze rolls in and I

shit in my pants

All the cool kids shit their pants!

I just ate a grape

Well apparently a woman taking a dump "is living" so I can only assume pant-shitting is the advertising pre-cursor.

@ Mr. ESC

diarrhea has a soft core. You're only hardcore if your shit is hardcore, and that can't be determined until after you shit your pants.

Shit your pants, swish it around, and see if you're hardcore. Personally, I think anyone who can shit their pants is not as hardcore as someone who tries to shit their pants but cant... because the core is just too hard.

Shitting? The commercial said the sphincter is tightening. So...umm...yeah...use your imagination on the rest.

Terrifying.

:45 in the video makes it look like he has a KKK member in his brain. SEGA won't stop at anything to be offensive with their sensationalist marketing.

They are supposed to represent the cones and rods of the eye. I can understand, though, how someone ignorant to that knowledge might assume it was a KKK uniform. I'm not specifically addressing you, but it is usually the ignorant who are the most easily offended.

I'd like to thank everyone on Joystiq for the biology lessons.

Today I learned that KKK jokes = never funny ever.

I got that they were cones, but they still look alot like kkk members.

KKK members? Not rly.

It's a pretty clever joke, but I think you'd have to be pretty ignorant to not see the similarity.

http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/9861/conekkk.jpg

Ah, young Bobby Angles... I'd forgotten all about you!

W E L C O
M E T O T
H E N E X
T L E V E L

Genesis does
what Nintendon't.

lawlz... those were the days.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEESjUQPhws&feature=player_embedded

Sphincter (sp?) clenching really is the oft-forgotten, secondary pleasure of the gaming experience. Kudos to you Sega Saturn marketing department.

90s + Right Said Fred + Sonic 3 =

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvymBkpKDzo

Our Mega Drives paid for that.

KKK seriously?

Google "how eyes work". The "theater" is the eye and those guys watching, are rods and cones.

Sheesh, talk about being a funbuster.

Talk about a jokebuster.

Oh... that was supposed to be funny?

Wow, pure gold.

The guy in the first playstation one murdered an abortion doctor on law and order once. Although that's not nearly as impressive as Paul Rudd playing SNES

the Jaguar lady also does Beano commercials

Oh he rules the entire realm? Oh my bad.

Holy crap I remember that SSB commercial! I hadnt thought about that in years!

the believe ads for Halo 3 were incredible, they had more of an emotional and lasting impact than Halo 3's actual story did

i think the Halo 2 ads were pretty sweet too. I really dont remember anything about them except the prophet of truth saying "There are those who said this day would never come. What have they to say now?" The guy who voiced Truth in H2 was waaaaaay better than H3

The PS2, GameCube, PS3, and original Xbox ads were all incredibly strange.

Kinda glad we're moving out of that phase of strange advertising, though Microsoft's more recent "stuff happening in the back of your open skull" run isn't helping much.

remember that PS3 magazine ad that had a small army building a statue of a regular kid in a ball cap? It was supposed to be like no matter who you are IRL you're the best in game, but it really looked more like Nazi propaganda

I think someone should post the old MGS commercials, whether they were for 1 or 2 i dont remember but they had the Japanese boss doing all kinds of solid snake moves to avoid paying his employees

Nintendo had some memorable ones too, like the Yoshi's Island commercial where the fat dude exploded. Or the Metroid commercial with the doberman and Chihuahua. Great stuff man.

3? Really? I mean I liked it and all, but I think potentially I even like The Room more than 3. The mechanics of the 1st person perspective in the apartment was a cool way to add some creepiness, but overall I think it kinda sucked.

I remember in 3 being really spooked when you were in this room with a huge mirror, and everything kinda morphed slowly into a more hellish appearance. 2 will always be my fave. Have you played Homecoming? I want to pick it up at some point as I'm assuming it's decent enough fan service.

SH2 is the best- followed by 1, then 3, then 4, and finally 0rigins, IMO. Homecoming would be a distant 5th- maybe even 6th, behind the SH Experience UMD video. It's not very good at all. There are a few creepy moments, but you'll be fighting the controls the whole time and it just feels... so... wrong. You'll see... Play it if you're a Silent Hill fan, but don't expect much. I was pretty let down and I'd call the Silent Hill series my 2nd favorite franchise of all time behind Resident Evil. Sadly, until Team Silent gets back to developing a real SH game, the series is on a downward spiral. Hopefully they'll save it before it's all flushed away...

@ wayne.

I agree about the Halo 3 ads.

I got choked up when that old guy said "he gave us hope"

People may say that Halo as a series is crap, but they fail to understand the Cheif.

Plenty of nitpickers say the series is crap and that it's generic. It seems generic to me, but that's likely because I never played the 1st two Halo game so I'm missing out on all the backstory. I'd like to go back and play the 1st two so that I can better appreciate Halo 3, but it just ain't gonna happen. Maybe I'll have to scour the webz to find some overview of the story.

This one was always a favorite of mine as a teen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVL3uW9uV4E&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.splendad.com%2Fads%2Fshow%2F1646-Sega-Game-Gear-Color&feature=player_embedded

Hey that's the guy from My name is Earl!

Yeah, I'll be damned if that's not Ethan Suplee. He's been in a lot better stuff than Earl... Mallrats comes to mind. Jason Lee's been in better stuff, too... Mallrats comes to mind... again.

Good call, Ryan! :)

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Jump out of your seats for old game commercials

Reader Comments (53)

Posted: May 4th 2009 11:38AM MLS said

Posted: May 4th 2009 11:49AM TheDarkWayne said

Posted: May 4th 2009 12:02PM Suichimo said

Posted: May 4th 2009 12:26PM michaspi said

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