Originally published at: Site collects old video game advertisements | Boing Boing
…
4 Likes
5 Likes
I still have a collection of the newsletters that Infocom put out back in the day to advertise their new games. It was originally called The New Zork Times, but the “real” NYT threatened to sic the lawyers on them, so it became The Status Line.
3 Likes
The stuff you could get away with before Jamie Bulger was murdered.
4 Likes
I had to look that up. How horrible…
2 Likes
The crap ads, or specifically that particular trope there about unruly/anarchic/violent kids as a British kids-media staple?
Now I think about it, that was about the time the Beano got cleano.
2 Likes
what a great find. gotta love ZORK and Sirtech! i remember that first Zork ad like it was yesterday. still have a boxed version of Zork and Zork 2 around here somewhere…
i was hoping for some ads for Sierra Systems, but i didn’t see any.
welp, no joke, I do want to play Hyper Blade now…
hiring professional artists and designers to promote its (often slapdash or vaporware) games
It seems like the '80s English PC game industry produced a disproportionate number of chancers. After all, Tim Langdell came out of that as well (who, before he became a trademark fraudster, was apparently infamous for not paying his developers). That didn’t seem to be true in the US until the '90s.
I’m fascinated by how game ads have changed over the years. In the early days, I was irritated by the glossy illustrations because they were so, so much more interesting than the graphics any game could possibly serve up - it felt like a bit of a cheat. Now similar illustrations are simplified, abstracted versions of the actual game art, with ads looking like movie posters (for similar reasons).
1 Like
I still have a bunch of Atari Age, Nintendo power, others… love love love those old ads
Rob - thanks for the link to filfre.net - it’s a site I rediscover and then forget once a year or so. The story of Imagine Software is a remarkably sordid one. I don’t remember playing any of their games at the time, but I remember being overawed to see some Roger Dean art on some game boxes - now I know what was inside.
2 Likes
The amazing thing about Imagine is that the people behind it went on to form Psygnosis.
In 1983, that whole futuristic psychedelic dream of what video games might be was essentially a marketing scam wrapped around vaporware. Once 16 bit machines turned up, through, everything clicked and it became defining magic for a generation of computer gamers.
2 Likes
I wouldn’t pay £20 for a rubber keyboard now, never mind paying that in 1980s pounds.
Unless it is a ZX Spectrum replica. That might just be worth it.
1 Like
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
