Video Game Ads 16-Bit & Beyond

We return to our look at advertisements from the nineties by moving up to the 16-Bit era. Improvement in graphical muscle can only mean a parallel improvement in the marketing of games, yes?

 

First up, US Gold (remember them?) and Delphine Software bring us Flashback on the MegaDrive. Boasting that it's the first game to sqeeze CD quality images onto a humble cartridge, using a massive 12 Megs! The cut scenes in this game were brilliant for the time, but I honestly can't remember getting past the first level? Doesn't this print Ad just ooze excitement??

Hey Chico! The WWF got everywhere back in the 90s. Here we see the 5 major systems of the time each getting a wrestling game. But the main focus is on Royal Rumble, which was coming out on the SNES and Genesis. A fun game in multiplayer, made all the better by including one of the best wrestlers ever in the roster, 'The Model' Rick Martel. His pic does not appear on this Ad unfortunately!

What can I say about Mortal Kombat II that hasn't been said? It came out on all the main systems, and everyone played it at one time or another. Of all the versions that came out in the end, the 32X version is my favourite.

Konami released one of the best games on the Genesis with Rocket Knight Adventures. Its part platform game, part shooter. It's bright and colourful and stars an Opossum called Sparkster. Later Konami released a sequel, simply called Sparkster.

Go west young man! Konami follow up the popular Lethal Enforcers game with a sequel set in the old west called Gunfighters. It was ported over from the Arcade to the MegaDrive and MegaCD. You could also buy it with the Justifier LightGun, shown here bottom left. I think it only came in bright blue though, so police wouldn't confuse it with a real gun and blow you away while playing the game.

Video Game Ads from Comic Books of the late 80s

Now we start moving up in years, and onto the powerhouse advertising of the NES. By far the biggest console of the late eighties and early nineties. If you did not have one under your telly yourself, you would certainly know someone who did.

Back in 1989 Hulk Hogan and the WWF were massively popular. And Acclaim brought out the first official game just in time for WrestleMania V, where the Hulkster defeated the Macho Man Randy Savage to win back the Championship belt. The game featured 6 of the most popular wrestlers of the day, and despite the limited move-set was good fun in multiplayer. It was very different from the WWF games that followed over the next number of years. It was developed by Rare and I'm guessing sold bloody millions. Well, maybe an exaggeration, but surely sold more than the VCR board game they also advertised. How would that work?

Who doesn't know Pac-Man right? Althought the picture of him on this Tengen NES conversion isn't the most flattering! Tengen released an unlicensed and licensed version for the NES, (this one's licensed) but it was just a reworking of Namcots Famicom Pac-Man that had come out in 1984.

Taito had a big hit on their hands with the Operation Wolf coin-op, and it was released on every system around at the time. This NES version was a little slow for my taste, but at least you could dust off the old Zapper gun, which was only used for shooting ducks. This ad has some pretty cool Commando style artwork, but sadly no screenshots. Hmmm... something to hide maybe? You weren't expecting an arcade perfect conversion now were you?

Again Taito refrain from putting screen shots on the advertisement. This time for the arcade conversion of Bubble Bobble. Maybe they thought the text would suffice in selling the game to people? But when the first line is the rather tongue-twisting, 'These are two hungry Dino-Mights and they've got bubble fight'n fun down tight', I'm not so sure.

Here Taito show four of their NES arcade conversions on one page. Focusing mainly on the rather solid conversion of Bubble Bobble. The ropey Operation Wolf conversion that has already been mentioned. A conversion of Toaplan's Sky Shark, also known as Flying Shark. Taito also converted Technos' Renegade, but it was only one-player and not a patch on the later Double Dragon.