twh/f2 Posted December 2, 2017 Share Posted December 2, 2017 Hi there, seeing all these nasty ad-sponsored smartphone games of today I wonder if there were games in the 8bit age with similiar commercial approaches. Obviously In-app sales wasn't a 80s thing But were there games with commercial breaks?! I know that few Atari games had commercials and/or sponsorings. Beside game demo disks from software vendors here is what come to my mind: * Tapper (Mountain Dew/PepsiCo) * Thera-Med Zahnschutz Spiel (Henkel) * Kennedy Approach? (Air France, Delta, American Airlines) Can we create a list of other commercial / promotional games? Or games with references to real corporations? thanks twh! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+davidcalgary29 Posted December 2, 2017 Share Posted December 2, 2017 Do you mean interludes like Pac-Man, or in-game ads, like the Fuji billboards in Pole Position, or sly in-game references to other games, such as the multiple references to Zork in the Enchanter series, and in Wishbringer? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Level42 Posted December 2, 2017 Share Posted December 2, 2017 I higgly doubt those airline companies paid anything foe being mentioned in Kennedy Approach. I always asumed that it was just functional.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twh/f2 Posted December 2, 2017 Author Share Posted December 2, 2017 Do you mean interludes like Pac-Man, or in-game ads, like the Fuji billboards in Pole Position, or sly in-game references to other games, such as the multiple references to Zork in the Enchanter series, and in Wishbringer? Well no. I'm not talking about interludes or any in-game reference to other games. I'm talking about advertisements for marketing reasons or some kind of product placement like it was common practice in the movies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twh/f2 Posted December 2, 2017 Author Share Posted December 2, 2017 I higgly doubt those airline companies paid anything foe being mentioned in Kennedy Approach. I always asumed that it was just functional.... No question. It's extremely unlikely that there was some kind of marketing in Kennedy Approach. But still the game was doing references to real world commercial corporations like these Airlines. The exist up until today! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twh/f2 Posted December 2, 2017 Author Share Posted December 2, 2017 I wonder if there were any promotional games by the governments like the US Army or other organizations. I think it was kind of fashion in the early 90s though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+davidcalgary29 Posted December 2, 2017 Share Posted December 2, 2017 What about the A8 MacDonald’s game? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_The Doctor__ Posted December 2, 2017 Share Posted December 2, 2017 so just to define the parameters... anything that could promote or mention another product or name/logo is and or could be a form of advertising much like word of mouth... if it's in the software/product, it should count Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Level42 Posted December 2, 2017 Share Posted December 2, 2017 (edited) No question. It's extremely unlikely that there was some kind of marketing in Kennedy Approach. But still the game was doing references to real world commercial corporations like these Airlines. The exist up until today!Yeah....they were lucky not to include Pan Am I miss KLM though Edited December 2, 2017 by Level42 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kr0tki Posted December 3, 2017 Share Posted December 3, 2017 There is a game with commercial breaks! The Polish game "Super Fortuna", itself an adaptation of the Wheel of Fortune quiz show that was was at the height of popularity in Poland back in 1993, copied the show's format to the letter, including the commercial breaks. The two "commercials" in the game (actually just single non-moving screens) were for the games publisher, Mirage Software, and the paper magazine "Świat Atari" (also published by Mirage). 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twh/f2 Posted December 3, 2017 Author Share Posted December 3, 2017 so just to define the parameters... anything that could promote or mention another product or name/logo is and or could be a form of advertising much like word of mouth... if it's in the software/product, it should count Correct. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twh/f2 Posted December 3, 2017 Author Share Posted December 3, 2017 The list is growing: * Tapper (Mountain Dew/PepsiCo) * Tapper SE (Pilsner Urquell) * Thera-Med Zahnschutz Spiel (Henkel) * Kennedy Approach? (Air France, Delta, American Airlines) * McDonald's (Fast food *g) * Super Fortuna (Commercial breaks!!!) any more? Nice one: 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irgendwer Posted December 3, 2017 Share Posted December 3, 2017 any more? It depends: You can take all games with the references to e.g. Comics ("Hulk", "Superman" etc.) or motion pictures ("007" etc.) or just ignore them... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kr0tki Posted December 3, 2017 Share Posted December 3, 2017 A bit of a stretch: "Action Biker" was a tie in to the KP Skips snack, with the protagonist being one Clumsy Colin, a character from KP Skips commercials. The tie-in was evident only in the packaging though. The ending of "Hacker" reveals a Washington Post page. The box writes "With special thanks to (..) Washington Post", so it was official, although not much of an advertisement. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zzip Posted December 4, 2017 Share Posted December 4, 2017 Kool-Aid Man? Chase the Chuckwagon? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brentarian Posted December 4, 2017 Share Posted December 4, 2017 Gamestar Baseball advertising Scuba Dooba Doo (ficticious title). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+davidcalgary29 Posted December 5, 2017 Share Posted December 5, 2017 Those QuestProbe games were really as much marketing for Marvel as much as they were standalone games in their own right. And wait...werent there issues of each game published as comics? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kr0tki Posted December 5, 2017 Share Posted December 5, 2017 Gamestar Baseball advertising Scuba Dooba Doo (ficticious title).It was a teaser for Gamestar's upcoming game, sadly never finished. Sorlurce: Video Game Update Mar. 1983 p. 5. It depends: You can take all games with the references to e.g. Comics ("Hulk", "Superman" etc.) or motion pictures ("007" etc.) or just ignore them...They are what they are - licenced games. I think it's a separate category. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mister-VCS Posted December 17, 2017 Share Posted December 17, 2017 California Games (Atari 2600) - instead of countries you start for a company of your choice (e.g. CASIO). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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