Here's the next installment from The Arcade Flyer Archive (TAFA) - all the flyers here have a Space theme, and just out of habit I've also included the Star Wars flyers separately - enjoy! For more flyers visit http://flyers.arcade-museum.com/?page=home
I'm almost giddy at finding this AMAZING Arcade Flyer Archive http://flyers.arcade-museum.com/?page=home
I've been going through the site for a couple of nights and have only been through a fraction of it's content, phew it's dense...but I can look at this stuff until I drop, and it's a pleasure to drop after a night of these graphics. Here's the first post, which is a mix of retro go-faster game & sports styles, cute and character based styles and then photographic people, robots & typographic flyers. The Space based collection follows in the next post...Retro Games & Sports
Cutesy & Character
People, Robots & Type
"The Arcade Flyer Archive (TAFA) is a digital repository for advertisement flyers that are used by the coin-operated amusement industry to promote the sales of its games. Over time flyers represent much more than a marketing brochure. They capture a unique blend of the industry's history, graphic design trends and advertising campaigns. Most importantly, they bring out the nostalgia of countless people who have grown up with the culture of video games, pinball machines and arcade games. Unique cabinet designs, attractive artwork and real screen shots -- all of which represent the visual language of coin-operated games, make flyers sought after items for collectors and effective tools for restoring games to their original factory specifications." Source: the 'About Us' section of the archive site
A long, long time ago I was inseparable from my Nintendo Game & Watches - all of which I still have and play. This post is a gratuitous homage to my first (& most loved) electronic gaming system. In this post I've found some great Japanese flyers and an early Japanese Game & Watch advert (all too cool for school), plus some original sketches for Donkey Kong, followed by an embedded version of Game & Watch FIRE for you to play...enjoy!
Nintendo 1980's Game & Watch Flyers from Japan, a small collection of scans of Japanese flyers for Nintendo Game & Watches. These flyers were available at stores that sold Nintendo products in the 1980's - Source: 'Aaron's Game & Watch Info Archive' http://www9.ocn.ne.jp/~aaron/
Sketches of the original Game & Watch Donkey Kong characters by Shigeru Miyamoto, "...a young artist with a degree in industrial design, who had just joined Nintendo as a staff artist; he was brought into the company by Nintendo’s CEO Hiroshi Yamauchi, a family friend, and charged with rescuing Nintendo’s nascent coin-op business. Miyamoto spearheaded a small team of five who quickly set to work..." All of the characters were sketched by hand on graphing paper and he composed much of the music himself (additional music and sounds are attributed to Hirokazu Tanaka). Source: 'Donkey Kong: Great Game or Greatest Game?' article http://www.garagecade.com/?p=52
Play FIRE here...
This post wouldn't be complete without the chance to play a Game & Watch game, so click through the 'Skip ad' button & Play 'FIRE' here, use your left and right keyboard arrow keys...
"While making burgers, Peter Pepper must deal with three enemies: Mr. Hot Dog, Mr. Pickle, and Mr. Egg."
And so it begins, one of the most addictive arcade games ever in my opinion...I don't know how many hours I've given over to this game. Each new game starts with the same hope, maybe this time I'll get past level 4, maybe this time I'll accrue so much defensive pepper that those pesky pickles won't get me (oh, and don't get me started on that evil egg!!!). Anyway, I thought I'd share the love with you when I discovered I could embed the Flash game emulator by Robb Briggs into this blog page - oh joy! Also, check out these flyers and screens I've found of a few versions of the game.
| Developer(s) | Data East |
| Publisher(s) | Data East Bally Midway |
| Platform(s) | Arcade, Intellivision, ColecoVision, NES, Atari2600 & 7800 |
| Release date(s) | 1982 |
| Genre(s) | Puzzle |
| Mode(s) | Up to 2 players, alternating turns |
| Cabinet | Upright, cocktail |
| Display | Raster, 19 monitor |
The world record high score on BurgerTime, according to Twin Galaxies is 11,512,500 points, played by Bryan L. Wagner of Turbotville, Pennsylvania on September 19, 2008 at the Funspot Family Fun Center in Weirs Beach, New Hampshire.
A full on love for the game, with flyers and wallpapers: http://www.classicgaming.cc/classics/burgertime/index.php
Info about Burgertime from the Data East publisher site: http://dataeastgames.com/?tag=burgertime-deluxe
Info on all platform versions: http://www.gamesdbase.com/game.aspx?mame=btime
In honor of the 25th anniversary of the release of Super Mario Bros, Nintendo of Japan has produced this video showing the history of everyone's favorite super plumber.
“Super Mario Bros.” Celebrates Its 25th Anniversary including timeline
http://mashable.com/2010/09/13/super-mario-bros-25th-anniversary/
Super Mario Bros is 25 today, so here's a selection of facts and figures on the world's greatest platform hero…
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesblog/2010/sep/13/games-gameculture
Super Mario Bros UK TV Advert http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukHxXkrYph4&feature=pyv&ad=5643513951&...
See more at Nintendo's official 25th Anniversary Celebration site: http://www.nintendo.co.jp/mario25th/index.html and here http://www.nintendo.co.uk/mario
Wow, these posters definitely don't look European, Japanese or American - they have an aesthetic that I can't quite describe - Russia influenced by Atari with a pinch of grubby 'Look around You' & middle of the night 1980's Open University. Seriously cool me thinks. Found from this great article http://adangerousbusiness.com/2010/01/05/the-museum-of-soviet-video-games/
Museum of Soviet Arcade Machines site - http://www.15kop.ru/en/
Museum of Soviet Arcade Machines Flickr Shots http://www.flickr.com/photos/a_dangerous_business/sets/72157622871645087/with...
Wired article http://www.wired.com/gaming/hardware/news/2007/06/soviet_games
From the late '70s to the early '90s, Soviet military factories produced some 70 different video game models. Based largely (and crudely) on early Japanese designs, the games were distributed -- in the words of one military manual -- for the purposes of "entertainment and active leisure, as well as the development of visual-estimation abilities." Production of the games ceased with the collapse of communism, and as Nintendo consoles and PCs flooded the former Soviet states, the old arcade games were either destroyed or disappeared into warehouses and basements. It was mostly out of nostalgia that four friends at Moscow State Technical University began scouring the country to rescue these old games. So far they have located 32 of them and are doing their best to bring them back to life.
This is rather clever by interaction designer David ARENOU - with a wii remote & your consoles camera you set up your room & the elements your going to use for duck 'n' cover (uses AR tags) & you are then in your own FPS game - is a prototype at the moment, read more here http://portfolio.davidarenou.com/video-game/immersive-rail-shooter/
"Immersive Rail Shooter, or IRS reformulates virtual elements of shooter video games and gives to physical objects a tangible interface dimension. Between augmented virtuality and mixed reality, IRS uses the space as playground and engages the player body in an intense rail shooter game."
Some great initial sketches for Parappa and Major Minor's Majestic March...
Rodney Alan Greenblat's site http://www.whimsyload.com/ - "...In the 1990's Rodney's experimentation with the then novel personal computer led him to the production of interactive CD-ROMs and then to the video game industry. He became the artistic force behind the best selling game for Sony Playstation called "Parappa The Rapper." This led to a whole line of popular consumer products distributed in Japan, and a weekly animated television series also in Japan. Rodney has now become known as one of the worlds top character designers, with his original character franchise "Thunder Bunny" still popular in Japan..."
Cool.