| by Adam King |
Greetings gamers. One thing I enjoy about the
video game industry is the television commercials. The companies try to pitch
their ideas to kids in different and imaginative (most of the time) ways. In
this section, I aim to spotlight different commercials, providing the words to
the commercial and some screen grabs, with some commentary.
In my first commercial, I have an TV ad for the Atari VCS, dating around 1981. A
worried mother writes to "Atari Anonymous" that she notices her family playing
Atari games and doing weird things while playing certain Atari games. We see a
shot of some gameplay, followed by the family member acting strange.
MOTHER: "Dear Atari Anonymous, my son Boris has a Missile Command
problem."
BORIS [in a monotone voice] :"My mission in life is to save all of
mankind."
MOTHER: "Lately my daughter has developed a similar problem with Atari
Warlords. Now with Video Pinball my husband is acting funny lately. With Atari
games so ingenious, so involving, so intense, I ask you, Atari Anonymous, is
this problem contagious?"
This boy is zonked out on Missile Command.
She's excited about Warlords
I don't like the look on his face, since he's playing Video Pinball.
Jeez! Even the dog is play Air/Sea Battle! This is serious!
This is who's responsible. Beware!