Vintage Videogame Commercials

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!)."

Comments

Yet more crappy lo-res WMV video

[LocalH]

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

[American AC in Paris]

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.

Re:Yet more crappy lo-res WMV video

[LocalH]

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 like 10fps or something.

Preservation is a laudable goal, regardless of the target of the preservation. Sure, perhaps these people aren't set up to preserve such media, but they should get the video to someone who is.

Re:Yet more crappy lo-res WMV video

[b1t r0t]

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.

Re:Yet more crappy lo-res WMV video

[LocalH]

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 converter box (since DV is always 720x480, that's what I'm limited to).

Cinematech on G4

[muel]

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.

For those who remember...

[pb]

(crowd chanting)

Mario! Mario! Mario!

(zoom out)

Mario! Mario! Mario!

(Mario!)

If this sparks nostalgia...

[fwitness]

You should also check out X-Entertainment's media section which features a bunch of 80's ads also (some are video games). Amatuerish site content at best, but some damn fine memories.

Saves money

[AtariAmarok]

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

It keeps the budget very low. You don't need to hire any actors or stage anything. Just sneak a camcorder into any typical sci fi con.

Re:Check out the original Zelda commercial

[pb]

Or the classic Don't Copy That Floppy... Gah... :)

Nintendo Cereal

[dmauro]

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

[tweder]

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

Right hook

[the_skywise]

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...

Re:ugh.

[joeljkp]

I convert things to open formats on my website. I'll try to get to these tonight. Expect Theora/Vorbis.

Re:ugh.

[karnal]

Didn't you hear the previous poster? Stop with the stupid formats!

(it's supposed to make you smile.....)

The REAL vg commercial archive.

[wheresdrew]

Over 2100 videogame commercials

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.

Commodore 64 commercials at another site...

[dstone]

Here's a catchy radio commercial. Well, catchy in a mid-80s sort of way...

Check out the price and RAM comparison in the TV commercial.

And lots more here.

Re:The "alternate" Zelda ad

[LocalH]

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 visible scanlines just like Digital Betacam, and every one of those scanlines will have it's own detail. Due to the way NTSC is transmitted on a line-by-line basis, it is pretty much impossible to lose vertical detail unless the format used specifically threw away a field (as some earlier home video formats did). Remember that - you ALWAYS have 525 total scanlines, on ANY NTSC-native format.

Thus, at 240 scanlines, you've immediately lost one half of the fields. So as long as the video was 480 lines high, I'd be happy, even if it was only 320 pixels wide. Stored as MPEG-2 (or any other format that retains aspect ratio metadata), most decent players should stretch a 320x480 video to the proper aspect (either 640 or 720 pixels wide, depending on the device).

Re:My favorite was the PowerGlove!!

[GregoryD]

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!