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."

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.

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?

 

 

Taito - Bring out the hero in you!

What's the ad for?
Taito video games for the NES
Year
1988

Spotted in...

The Scoop

Renegade was a "immediate technological predecessor to Double Dragon". Similar to Double Dragon, you also get to beat up women. The game was a westernized conversion of a Japanese game called "Nekketsu Kōha Kunio-kun". Which when roughly translated means to "Hot-Blooded Tough Guy Kunio". Nice!

Elevator Action was a much older game. It first came out in the arcades in 1983. It was intended to be ported over to the Atari 2600 but never made it.

The Legend of Kage first appeared in arcades in 1985 followed by this NES release in 1987. 

Arkanoid came packaged with the controller pictured below.

The controller was called the Vaus and was the rarest of controllers released for the NES. The game and controller were never sold separately and today fetch a pretty penny on eBay. I'm talking hundreds of dollars.

So this ad looks to me to be giving games that were not new releases a second push. I would assume that is why there is four games featured in the ad and not one. Taito already made a push with these games the years they came out.

Another thing that jumps out at me is the way the video game industry was centered around the arcade. It was similar to the movie and book industry where you would find a film or book being first released in the theater or hardcover format, followed by a release on VHS or softcover at a later date. You don't see that anymore.

Bubble Bobble is Dino-Might!

What's the ad for?
Bubble Bobble for the NES
Year
1989

Spotted in...

The Scoop

A great game from the eighties. When theme meant little, if nothing. I mean, come on, dinosaurs blowing bubbles? Works for me!

Two Ways to Win in the Ring...

What's the ad for?
WrestleMania for the NES
Year
1989

Spotted on the back of...

The Scoop

 

Operation Wolf

What's the ad for?
Operation Wolf for the NES
Year
1989

Spotted in

The Scoop

As a kid I used to sneak into an arcade called Fridays to play Operation Wolf. It was a unique game for it's time as you played the game by shooting a life-sized Uzi!

Friday's was the only arcade in town that had Operation Wolf. The arcade was dark and had loud music playing. It was the"older kids" arcade. I mean, you could probably buy pot from somebody there.

(see photo below)

 

. As a result our folks didn't allow us to go there.We had to go to the arcade attached to the comic shop. It was an okay arcade but after awhile you get tired of playing Contra and Double Dragon. We wanted to play the new games, games like Operation Wolf. I was pretty happy to see the game come out on the NES...yet it wasn't quiet the same. Maybe it was the added danger of playing the game in the older kids arcade.

Bayou Billy - Fightin' Drivin' Zappin'

What's the ad for?

Bayou Billy for the NES

Year

1989

Spotted in

The Scoop

This is one of those ads like Metal Gear that really appealed to the teen-age me. The game actually became a comic book published by Archie Comics  in 1989 and was one of the earlier books drawn by the amazing Amanda Conner. Check out the TV commercial below. The first three seconds had me very worried...

We Rescued Breakfast!

What's the ad for?

Nintendo Cereal System
Year
1989

Spotted in

The scoop

 A cereal based on a video game? Not a first but the Nintendo Cereal System was unique that it gave you the choice of two different cereals. The box was split in half with one side offering fruity flavored Marios, Koopa Troopas and other Super Mario related characters while the other sided featured berry flavored Zelda related gear like boomerangs, keys and shields. A box of this cereal recently sold on eBay for $200! You can see the TV advert here.

Mega Man 2 and Strider

What's the ad for?

Mega Man 2 and Strider video games for the NES
Year
1989

Spotted in

The scoop

I really enjoyed the arcade version of Strider and remember being very excited for the release of the NES version. The NES version was a completely different game but I soon grew to love it. Hardcore Gaming 101 has a great page dedicated to the game and it's different versions.

And then there is Mega Man 2. What more can you say then classic...

House ad - The 1990's - Nintendo comics from Valiant

An ad from Valiant Comics before they released their superhero line. Speaking of Valiant, they are set to return in 2012

More Tengen Games

What's the ad for?

Tengen games for the NES
Year
1988

Spotted in

The scoop
More games from Tengen! Gauntlet was a cool game..."Green Elf needs food - badly!"

Sear Catalog featuring NES games and sytem

What's the ad for?
NES games from the Sears Catalog
Year
1989
Spotted in

The scoop

I like this ad as it shows the prices of video games from 22 years ago. By this time the NES had already peaked. In two years time the Super Nintendo would be released in North America (1990 in Japan). The prices don't seem that bad but  then again this ad was later on in the life of the NES.

Double Dragon for the NES

What's the ad for?

Double Dragon for the NES
Year
1988

Spotted in

The scoop

I remember the summer that Double Dragon was released into arcades. Two of the reasons it was so cool was that you could play co-operative and you could pick up random weapons. The opening scene were the bad ass dude walks slowly up to the woman and punched here in the stomach kind of upset me. It was just weird to see violence against a woman in a video game. Now we have Grand Theft Auto.

Metal Gear for the NES

What's the ad for?

Metal Gear for the NES
Year
1989

Spotted in

The scoop

This has got to be the coolest ad for a video game. Who among you in their youth upon seeing this game didn't rush out and rent Metal Gear. This is the game that started a franchise. Look at all those items...

FCI games for the NES

What's the ad for?

FCI games for the NES. Ultima, Dr. Chaos, Lunar Pool and Zanac
Year
1988

Spotted in

The scoop
The tag line of the ad is "Games with memories you won't forget". I don't remember three of these games very well but Ultima sure left some memories with me.

Tengen games for the NES

What's the ad for?

Tengen video games for the NES
Year
1989

Spotted in

The scoop

Tengen was a company formed by Atari to handle the software side of the company. At the time Nintendo had a crazy licensing policy where developers had to sign a contract restricting the software developer to only releasing five games per year and that they would only develop games exclusively for the NES for a two year period. A chip called the 10NES was also mandatory in each licensed cartridge. If the chip wasn't present the game wouldn't play. 

Tengen tried to negotiate a better licensing deal but Nintendo wouldn't budge. Therefore Tengen developed the Rabbit chip which allowed their unlicensed games to be played on the NES. It was also discovered that Tengen obtained the patents used to make the Rabbit chip illegally.I won't get into the lawsuits that followed but the distinctive Tengen black cartridges were not just for looks. 

Anyone who was a kid in the late eighties that had a chance to play Tengen`s Tetris before it was pulled from shelves knows that it was the superior game over the Nintendo version. An interesting part of video game history.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle NES game

What's the ad for?

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle for the NES
Year
1989

Spotted in
Conan the Barbarian #221, Marvel Comics
The scoop

This game was hella hard. I remember my friends and I playing this game and never really making it very far. Now that I think about it the game kind of sucked.You can judge for yourself here.  I love the way you can play java versions of these old NES games. Oh Internet how I love you. The reason I thought about posting this ad was that I read yesterday over at Comic Alliance that IDW will be publishing a new TMNT series as well as reprinting the old Archie title. From the article...

"More than 25 years since the iconic heroes debuted in black-and-white comics by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, the new series will be what IDW calls a "re-imagining" of those original indie comics, as opposed to the more broad-based humor stories that followed the franchise's pop culture explosion in the late 1980s."