Super C and Snakes Revenge - Terrorists go Nuke!

What's the ad for?

Super Contra
Year
1990

Spotted in...

The Scoop

Bill and Lance are back...and this time they mean business. Snake is back too...he also means business. Here are two sequels of highly popular games ported to the NES that were not marketed as sequels. Super C if of course a sequel to Contra while Snakes Revenge is a sequel to Metal Gear. Snakes Revenge is an interesting one as it was only released in the North American and PAL markets and not Japan. Here is what the Metal Gear Wiki has to say about the game...

"It was made as a direct sequel to the NES version of the original Metal Gear. Snake's Revenge was the first game in the Metal Gear series made without the involvement of creator Hideo Kojima, although members of the development team previously worked with Kojima on the original MSX2 version of Metal Gear. It is not part of the series' canon. The game is generally hated by fans of the series due to its removal from the series' canon, and is considered by most to have nothing to do with the Metal Gear series at all."

Ravenloft the RPG

What's the ad for?

Ravenloft
Year
1990

Spotted in...

The Scoop

Ravenloft is a role playing game that uses the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons rule set. From my limited understanding, the Ravenloft universe is an alternate time-space existence that consists of pocket universes which can appear anywhere in the Dungeons and Dragons universe. I primarily know the name Ravenloft from a popular board game that was released  a couple years ago entitled Castle Ravenloft. There have been numerous books and three video games based on the Ravenloft pocket universes, almost all of them released in the nineties. Perhaps the popularity of the board game will cause a renewed interest in the Ravenloft universe.

Demon Sword - Master the Power

What's the ad for?

Demon Sword
Year
1990

Spotted in...

The Scoop

 I'm always surprised by the regional differences in video games. It's not an uncommon occurrence or at least it never used to be. I'm not sure if they still make as many changes between Japanese and North American releases. Take for instance Demon Sword. The version released in Japan has several more stages along with several more bosses. There are also more items and magic spells in the Japanese version. Along with the added difficulty of more levels and more bosses, a Japanese player was rewarded with an ending featuring extra scenes and text that was cut out of the North American release. 

It's not all bad. Here in North America we got a life meter while in Japan they only got a life count. The box art is also vastly different. Now that I can understand. See the Japanese box art below.

image from www.gamefaqs.com

Dick Tracy - The Movie

What's the ad for?

Dick Tracy - The Movie
Year
1990

Spotted in...

The Scoop

In the months leading up to it's June release, comic books were filled with iconic images of Warren Beatty as Dick Tracy. Beatty was also the director of the film and had a definite vision for it. He used a strict seven color palette in order to more closely resemble Dick Tracy's comic book roots. Beatty also cast his then girlfriend Madonna as Breathless Mahoney. How did the film do? Pretty well. It grossed $162 million worldwide after going over-budget at $46 million. Full disclosure...I've never seen it.  Maybe it's about time I did.

 

Konami hand-held games

What's the ad for?

Konami hand-held games
Year
1990

Spotted in...

Double Dragon 3 - Deadly Weapons!

What's the ad for?

Double Dragon 3 for the Sega Genesis
Year
1993

Spotted in...

The Scoop

The third but not the last game in the Double Dragon franchise was not a well received game. Interesting to note the differences between the Japanese and Western versions of the game. In the Japanese version you could choose characters while in the Western version there were weapon shops where you could purchase weapons and extra moves. I wonder why they make regional differences in games like these? Why, Why?

Arch Rivals- Basket Brawl

What's the ad for?

Arch Rivals for the NES
Year
1991

Spotted in...

The Scoop

Unlike other basketball video games, the appeal of Arch Rivals was that you could punch your opponent in the face to steal the ball. It was the Road Rash of the the basketball set, albeit a first-gen predecessor. One of the characters from the game, Tyrone, was even featured in the animated Power Team segments that appeared in Video Power TV series.

WWF Superstars for the Gameboy

What's the ad for?
WWF Superstars for the Nintendo Gameboy
Year
1991

Spotted in...

The Scoop

One more ad for the week and another wrestling themed one to boot. From what some would call the glory days of wresting (some being anyone who was 12 years old in 1991) comes WWF Superstars. Featuring all your favorite wrestlers; The Ultimate Warrior, Hulk Hogan, "Macho King" Randy Savage, "The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase, and Mr. Perfect. Check out the sweet graphics and game-play below. 

I beat the @!#! out of Dad last night!

What's the ad for?
Wrasslin by Avalon Hill
Year
1991

Spotted in...

The Scoop

Wrasslin' was a card game released by Avalon Hill in 1990. Avalon Hill was a board game company better known for it's complex war games, although they did have a small stable of non-war games like this one in their catalog. This ad is pretty funny...and I quote " Why did you drop kick your mom when he crawled over to tag her." The type of humor definitely appeals to young buys, so I guess they knew their target audience.

You can find a fun review of the game over at the Fortress AT website.

Below are some images from www.boardgamegeek.com

Image by BGG user Gialmere

Image by BGG user mrbeankc

Splatterhouse....It's only a game

What's the ad for?
Splatterhouse for the TurboGrafx 16
Year
1991

Spotted in...

The Scoop

 I remember that when Splatterhouse came out 22 years ago, it caused a small stir. It was violent and bloody and...not much of a big deal when you look back at it. It was one of the first games in North America to receive a Parental Advisory sticker. Of coarse the game looks pretty crappy compared to today's standards (see video below). This is no Dead Space. The TurboGrafx version was a toned down version of the arcade original. Maybe the arcade version was scarier. 

You can play a browser version here.

 

Monster bone(ers) and Shi(f)t Happens

 

What's the ad for?
Kemco video games for Nintendo systems

 Year
1992

Spotted on the back cover of...

The Scoop

Kemco was best known for their Top Gear driving games, but that's besides the point. What were they thinking with these ads? Who was the target audience? I guess they weren't kids, or perhaps they thought they could hit both the kids and the teen/adult comic reader. "Shift Happens" is okay, kinda funny. "Get a Monster Bone"? That one missed the mark in my book. The copy is full of puns. Ghoulfriend, Bone Voyage. Perhaps it fits with the theme. They certainly grabbed your attention with the large, provocative black text.

What do you think? Do these ads work?

Target: Renegade

What's the ad for?
Target: Renegade for the NES
Year
1990

Spotted in...

 

The Scoop

Wow. That dude looks intense. This ad boasts "Sound effect so real you can feel the punches" and "Graphics so real their looks could kill." I'll let you judge for yourself. To me it looks like a Double Dragon rip-off. It was however, popular enough for a group of individuals to create a Windows-based remake entitled Target; 2006. Also interesting is the box cover art.

It's a total ripoff of the cover to Joe Lewis's book "World's Greatest Fighter Teaches You How To Master Bruce Lee's Fighting System". I wonder if Lewis ever received any money for that?

 

 

Ninja Turtles Cereal - "It's Radical Tasting Cereal Dudes!"

What's the ad for?
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Cereal
Year
1991

Spotted in...

The Scoop

 Oh nostalgia. It will make people do things like try and recreate a crappy cereal they ate as kids. You gotta check out this link here, where some dude tries to recreate the TMNT cereal using the available cereals of today. I guess he didn't see the eBay listing for an unopened box. Only $49.99.

 

 

House Ad - The 1990's - Batman: Dark Knight, Dark City

Dark Knight, Dark City ran in Batman 452-454 back in 1990. A good story arc, it would later go on to be used in Grant Morrison's Batman run twenty years later. Check out this interesting article and comparison on the Comics Alliance website.

www.comicsalliance.com/2010/11/01/batman-and-robin-16-preview-dark-knight-dark-city/

More proper ads to come next week.

TurboGrafx-16

What's the ad for?
TurboGrafx-16 video game console
Year
1990

Spotted in

The Scoop

I remember being pretty impressed with by ads for the TurboGrafx-16 system when it first came out. 

 

 

Not because it seemed better it's contemporaries, Nintendo and Sega, but because it seemed exotic. No one I knew had one. Then while keeping my cousin company while she was babysitting, I got to try Keith Courage in Alpha Zones . The household had a TurboGrafx-16 and she called me over to play it with her once she had put the kids to sleep. The first thing I noticed was that there was only one port for a control pad. What kind of video game console has only one controller? In reality you could have up to five people playing the system but you needed to buy an additional peripheral called the the Turbo Tap. I didn't know that and I wasn't impressed.

 

The system didn't do that well in North America and ranked number four in sales behind the Sega Genesis, SNES and even the older but still popular NES.  In the end TurboGrafx-16 didn't have a Mario or Sonic. They only had Bonk and let's face it...he wasn't that cool.

 

The third party support for games wasn't at the level of Sega and Nintendo. Software developers did not want to take a chance on developing games for the system until it became more popular yet in turn the system would not become more popular without the software. Ironically enough, you can now buy TurboGrafx-16 games for the Nintendo Wii virtual console.

Web of Gold

What's the ad for?
Web of Gold, the board game

Year
1990

Spotted in

The Scoop

Web of Gold was released by TSR in 1987. It looks like it was a simple pick up and deliver game. Game components look cool but game play is reportedly lame...

Image courtesy of boardgamegeek.com

Marvel trading cards

Don't tell anyone but I once paid a grade school classmate $10 to steal me a box of these cards...Can you identify who all the hands belong to?

Flashback, The first CD-ROM game in a cartridge!

Do you remember this game from 1993? It came out for the 16-bit systems, both the Sega Genesis and the Super Nintendo. I was blown away with the graphics, so fluid, so unlike anything I had seen at that point. Visit this page for a history and screen-shots of the game

House ads - The 1990's - Starman

This just looks...so bad.

House Ad- The 1990's -Ravage 2099

So I finally found a Marvel house ad and it's a bad one. Ravage 2099. This book stank. Ravage was created by Stan Lee and was the first new creation in the Marvel 2099 family of books. Read this article for more information. Bad book....really bad book. Were they trying to go for a Jonah Hex look? Yikes.