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Classic Games (Games)

Vintage Videogame Commercials 62

Posted by Zonk from the old-skool dept.
Ant writes "Bezoar has a collection of old video game commercials ranging from Atari 2600 to SNES. These WMV files (1-2 MB each) can be downloaded for nostalgia flashbacks or if you are curious (you young kids!)."
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Vintage Videogame Commercials More

Vintage Videogame Commercials

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  • ugh. (Score:1, Offtopic)

    by numbski ( 515011 ) *
    Why not divx or xvid, or at least quicktime?

    Sheesh. Always with the stupid formats...

  • Yet more crappy lo-res WMV video (Score:4, Insightful)

    by LocalH ( 28506 ) on Friday January 28, 2005 @03:39PM (#11506783) Homepage
    Why don't these sites archive this video at 720x480? Sure, it may be old VHS captures, but still, when you resize to half-resolution, you lose HALF of the available resolution immediately?

    This type stuff should be archived in standard MPEG-2 format, and offered in lower resolutions for streaming purposes only.

    • Re:Yet more crappy lo-res WMV video (Score:4, Insightful)

      by American AC in Paris ( 230456 ) * on Friday January 28, 2005 @03:50PM (#11506912) Homepage
      These guys aren't exactly archivists, and seeing as their site just got dropped on Slashdot, well, can you blame them for cutting out 75% of the frame?

      This site is there for the authors' amusement, not to preserve the history of the human race. Give 'em a break.

      • Then if you're not an archivist, and you find some rare old video, then find a friggin' archivist. Hell, if they'd send me the tapes, I'll run the tapes through a TBC to stabilize them a bit, archive them at full resolution high-bitrate MPEG-2, and send them around BitTorrent.

        I'm not ragging on these guys particularly, just lamenting that 99% of the time I find this type of old video online, it's some crappy lo-res, low-bitrate WMV (or worse, Real) video. Half the time, it's even at some shitty frame rate
    • If they were ripped from VHS, they don't have 720x480 resolution to begin with. VHS really can't give you much better than 320x240x60, or 320x480x30 (with a 2:1 pixel size) if you de-interlace. 2-hour mode isn't so bad, but back when tapes cost $5-$10 each, nobody really wanted to use anything but 6-hour mode, myself included. With SVHS, you could probably get 640x480/720x480, but it wasn't around then. And I'm sure that few of these are readily available on U-Matic.
      • Yeah, but all NTSC formats only have 240 visible lines per field. You don't deinterlace to get 480 lines at 29.97fps, you just take the 480 line interlaced video that the capture hardware gives you. In fact, most deinterlacing algorithms used prior to encoding are pure crap, and only serve to remove either temporal or spatial resolution, depending on the algorithm.

        So, 320x480 (or 352x480 preferably) would be sufficient. I just stated 720x480 because I'm used to capturing at 720x480 through an NTSC-DV conve
  • It makes the PowerGlove look so cool!!! Could you really use it in Punch-Out like that? I might need to scour Ebay for one now.
    • Could you really use it in Punch-Out like that?

      All I remember about that power glove is that you still had to use it mostly like a regular Nitendo control, but it was built into a glove, so if you were wearing the glove you could barely use the control... lame-o.

      Punch-Out lets you hit with two hands. How do you do that with one PowerGlove?

      "Left, left, Mighty Blow, Mighty Blow, left, left"

      • Right hook (Score:3, Insightful)

        by the_skywise ( 189793 )
        The power glove could sense forward motion as well as directional motion. And you could equate those to button presses. So the forward motion could become the right punch and an up-down motion could become a left punch.

        Still more hassle than it was probably worth...
    • No you can't.

      There is no doubt in my mind, the powerglove was the single biggest rip-off product Nintendo ever produced.

      I am still pissed at Nintendo because I got this piece of crap from Santa. I'd rather have 2 games then this 80 dollar piece of shit.

      It is not to late Nintendo! If you want me to like you give me my fucking 80 dollars back!
  • Best video-game commercial ever made. The rest of them are pretty good too, but the site's missing one of those "passive-aggressive" 3DO commercials.

    BTW, I swear, some people around here wouldn't be satisfied by anything. Give them a million dollars and they would complain that it wasn't all in twenties or something.

    Rob
    • One of these days, these crappy encodes will likely end up being the ONLY existing copies of these commercials. For preservation purposes, it is essential that one capture at 720x480 or 720x576 (or 704x480/704x576, depending on hardware), at the respective frame rates for NTSC or PAL.

      I didn't say I wasn't happy that the video is being distributed, just that I wish there was an effort to preserve them in archival quality, and these WMVs are most certainly nowhere close to archival quality.
      • One of these days, these crappy encodes will likely end up being the ONLY existing copies of these commercials. For preservation purposes, it is essential that one capture at 720x480 or 720x576 (or 704x480/704x576, depending on hardware), at the respective frame rates for NTSC or PAL.

        Jesus, I realize you're a local TV news dude, but these guys are probably encoding from old VHS tapes they've found lying around the house. They're not doing it from original source material, and they didn't even have stuff
        • You're using 'lines of resolution' incorrectly. All (and I do mean *all*) interlaced NTSC devices have 525 scanlines, *period*, of which 486 are visible (and thus 480 scanlines is 'close enough'). The 'lines of resolution' is basically the number of vertical lines that you can fit inside of a perfect square at the height of the frame (this is done to make 'lines of resolution' comparable across different aspect ratios), which means that 'lines of resolution' actually refers to horizontal detail. VHS has 480
  • How about the ad campaign for Nintendo Virtual Boy that avoided showing what an actual game screen looked like?
    • Many of these commercials are like that. They'll show a cartoon of some sort and show about 3 seconds of gameplay at the end.

      The Crystalis one shows a guy running around in a really bad warrior costume.

  • Cinematech on G4 (Score:3, Interesting)

    by muel ( 132794 ) on Friday January 28, 2005 @03:46PM (#11506871)
    In similar fashion, a new episode of Cinematech on G4TechTV (the "watch other people play games with bad techno music in the background" show) focused on old game commercials from the 2600/Intellivision days. their source was a terrible VHS but it was still amusing to watch.

    http://www.g4techtv.com/cinematech/episodes/3838 /T he_Power_of_Advertising.html - check this link for rerun dates.
    • On that subject, is there a petition around anywhere to get G4 to quit with the damn "G-Spot" overlays with annoying-as-hell SFX?

      I saw the same ep you did, and aside from nearly crying at the remembered memories (born in '72 and saw pretty much the whole thing the first time 'round), that stupid spraycan made me want to kill someone...

      GTRacer
      - G4 sucks *worse* now...

      • Oh, I agree with that. That shit causes their AGC's to drop the level on the actual show down quite a bit. I haven't measured, but I know the sound effect was way too loud.

        Not to mention they squeeze the video up *partially*, but the overlay STILL covers the very bottom of the video.

        And that ugly ass "G-Spot" bug that's twice as big as the regular bug.

  • For those who remember... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by pb ( 1020 ) on Friday January 28, 2005 @03:48PM (#11506890)
    (crowd chanting)

    Mario! Mario! Mario!

    (zoom out)

    Mario! Mario! Mario!

    (Mario!)
  • I dont know what's worse, the portrayal of video gamers as ubernerds (complete with glasses, baby teeth and pocket protector) or the horribly done "white guy" rap.

    I think if you traced the decline of hip hop back through history, that is probably close to the point at which it began its long, painful descent.
  • Their server's still allowing downloads, so hit it while you can...

  • These WMV files (1-2 MB each) can be downloaded for nostalgia flashbacks or if you are curious (you young kids!)

    Oh no anymore they can't!

    PS: I hope someone atleast warned the poor guy hosting the videos.

  • If this sparks nostalgia... (Score:4, Informative)

    by fwitness ( 195565 ) on Friday January 28, 2005 @03:56PM (#11506997)
    You should also check out X-Entertainment's media section [x-entertainment.com] which features a bunch of 80's ads also (some are video games). Amatuerish site content at best, but some damn fine memories.
  • The FFVI commercial for example, is for the PSX rerelease of FFVI, not the original. Note the high quality FMV and the word "playstation" at the end. Hardly "old school".

  • Nintendo Cereal (Score:3, Funny)

    by dmauro ( 742353 ) on Friday January 28, 2005 @04:05PM (#11507134)
    The commercial for the Nintendo Ceral is still my favorite.

    And why does everyone give me funny looks every time I say "OCTOROKS! Which... way.. to.. go..?" I thought everyone remembered that commercial.

  • Karma whoring (Score:3, Interesting)

    by tweder ( 22759 ) <stwede@gmai l . c om> on Friday January 28, 2005 @04:13PM (#11507254) Homepage
    It's ugly, but it works. :)

    #!/bin/sh
    wget "http://bezoar.org/downloads/videogamecommercials/ 1stnescommercial_nes.wmv"
    wget "http://bezoar.org/downloads/videogamecommercials/ adventureisland2japan_nes.wmv"
    wget "http://bezoar.org/downloads/videogamecommercials/ adventureislandjapan_nes.wmv"
    wget "http://bezoar.org/downloads/videogamecommercials/ aladdin_genesis.wmv"
    wget "http://bezoar.org/downloads/videogamecommercials/ backtothefuture_nes.wmv"
    wget "http://bezoar.org/downloads/videogamecommercials/ bayoubilly_nes.wmv"
    wget "http://bezoar.org/downloads/videogamecommercials/ caveman_nes.wmv"
    wget "http://bezoar.org/downloads/videogamecommercials/ donkeykong_gameboy.wmv"
    wget "http://bezoar.org/downloads/videogamecommercials/ drmario_nes.wmv"
    wget "http://bezoar.org/downloads/videogamecommercials/ froggerstarwars_atari.wmv"
    wget "http://bezoar.org/downloads/videogamecommercials/ kirby_nes.wmv"
    wget "http://bezoar.org/downloads/videogamecommercials/ macdonalds_nes.wmv"
    wget "http://bezoar.org/downloads/videogamecommercials/ marioandluigi_gba.wmv"
    wget "http://bezoar.org/downloads/videogamecommercials/ metroid2_gameboy.wmv"
    wget "http://bezoar.org/downloads/videogamecommercials/ metroidradracer_nes.wmv"
    wget "http://bezoar.org/downloads/videogamecommercials/ nintendodeluxe_nes.wmv"
    wget "http://bezoar.org/downloads/videogamecommercials/ northandsouth_nes.wmv"
    wget "http://bezoar.org/downloads/videogamecommercials/ pitfall_atari.wmv"
    wget "http://bezoar.org/downloads/videogamecommercials/ punchout_nes.wmv"
    wget "http://bezoar.org/downloads/videogamecommercials/ sega_terradrive.wmv"
    wget "http://bezoar.org/downloads/videogamecommercials/ sonic2_genesis.wmv"
    wget "http://bezoar.org/downloads/videogamecommercials/ squirrel_gamegear.wmv"
    wget "http://bezoar.org/downloads/videogamecommercials/ starsoldier_nes.wmv"
    wget "http://bezoar.org/downloads/videogamecommercials/ supermarioland2_gameboy.wmv"
    wget "http://bezoar.org/downloads/videogamecommercials/ supermetroidjapanese_snes.wmv"
    wget "http://bezoar.org/downloads/videogamecommercials/ tetris_nes.wmv"
    wget "http://bezoar.org/downloads/videogamecommercials/ tomcatalley_segacd.wmv"
    wget "http://bezoar.org/downloads/videogamecommercials/ warioblast_gameboy.wmv"
    wget "http://bezoar.org/downloads/videogamecommercials/ yoshi_nes.wmv"
    wget "http://bezoar.org/downloads/videogamecommercials/ yoshiisland_gba.wmv"
    wget "http://bezoar.org/downloads/videogamecommercials/ zelda2_nes.wmv"
    wget "http://bezoar.org/downloads/videogamecommercials/ adventureisland2_nes.wmv"
    wget "http://bezoar.org/downloads/videogamecommercials/ adventureisland3japan_nes.wmv"
    wget "http://bezoar.org/downloads/videogamecommercials/ adventureislandjapanalt_nes.wmv"
    wget "http://bezoar.org/downloads/videogamecommercials/ atari_atarilynx.wmv"
    wget "http://bezoar.org/downloads/videogamecommercials/ bartsimpson_nes.wmv"
    wget "http://bezoar.org/downloads/videogamecommercials/ bonkjapan_pcengine.wmv"
    wget "http://bezoar.org/downloads/videogamecommercials/ crystalis_nes.wmv"
    wget "http://bezoar.org/downloads/videogamecommercials/ doubledragon2_nes.wmv"
    wget "http://bezoar.org/downloads/videogamecommercials/ ff6japanes_snes.wmv"
    wg
    • Good idea. I will try just that.
    • At least it did until the server's bandwidth got exceeded.

      #!/bin/bash
      # Quick script to grab a bunch of files off the web
      # Filetype is a search string (regex)
      # Examples: avi wmv images/*.jpg
      # Location is the url of the page you want to grab from
      # Example: foo.com/page.html
      tempHTML="somethingthatdoesnte x ist"

      echo "What kind of file do you want to grab?"
      read filetype
      echo Grabbing $filetype

      echo "From what location?"
      read location
      echo "Retrieving file $location"
      wget $location -O $tempHTML

      for name in $(grep $
    • Or you could just do wget -A wmv -r -l 1 'http://www.bezoar.org/?poop=2' --span-hosts -nd -c except they're past their bandwidth cap now.
  • Not from the era featured but I always liked the N64 Super Smash Brothers television spot. Very funny!
  • darnit, I wanted to see that again. If I remember right, they just showed the japanese ad, which came off really cool and weird (Japanese ads are really different to begin with, they tend to be half the length of an American add, so they have to hurry up and catch your attention).

  • The REAL vg commercial archive. (Score:5, Informative)

    by wheresdrew ( 735202 ) on Friday January 28, 2005 @05:20PM (#11508121) Journal
    Over 2100 videogame commercials [majkel.mds.pl]

    In almost every format (quicktime, divx, wmv, real, mpg), so have all your players and codecs loaded. I doubt the person running this site is doing the archiving himself, and is just hosting whatever people send him, hence the hodegpodge of formats.

    It's a great collection, but could really use a good sorting. (Presently, everything's arranged by the date it was posted.) If ever a site could benefit from a search feature, this one is it.

    • Over 2100 videogame commercials

      Nice, but as it says right on the site, 90% of them are Japanese. Which is cool, but doesn't really satisfy the nostalgia factor that most of us westerners have (I realize there are probably some Japanese here too, but most Japanese residents probably just read their own Slashdot [slashdot.jp]).

      Would be great to have a site like this that really focused on western stuff, as a counterpart, not instead of this site (since Japan has a long and storied game history as well, just not one mos

  • Commodore 64 commercials at another site... (Score:3, Informative)

    by dstone ( 191334 ) on Friday January 28, 2005 @07:31PM (#11509517) Homepage
    Here's a catchy radio commercial. [commodore.ca] Well, catchy in a mid-80s sort of way...

    Check out the price and RAM comparison in the TV commercial. [commodore.ca]

    And lots more here. [commodore.ca]

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