Atari 2600 TV Ads
I stumbled across a Digital Press CD-ROM and on CD 2, I found a fun collection of old-school TV ads. There are ads for a variety of systems, but I though it would be fun to show off the Atari 2600 ads.
These videos were all in an older AVI format that didn’t play nicely on my Mac, at least using QuickTime. They did work with VLC. I’m sure all of these are already on YouTube somewhere, but I decided to convert them to mp4 with ffmpeg and post them here in one place for your enjoyment.
These ads are all pretty cheesy and some even have cringy jingles. I hope you enjoy these low-resolution ads from the past!
Atari 2600 “amazing” Graphics
🎶The fun is back, oh Yessiree, it’s the 2600 from A-tar-e! 🎶
Dear Atari Anonymous
Only Atari
Atlantis from Imagic
Chopper Command by Activision
Demon Attack from Imagic
E.T., the Extra Terrestrial
Ice Hockey by Activision
Mario, where are you?
Megamania by Activision
Woman of the Year: Ms. Pac-Man
Pitfall! by Activision
Billy Martin touts RealSports Baseball
Vanguard
Watch out, Yar
What Atari 2600 ads do you remember?
God, the memories! I remember seeing the Mario commercial when it aired. I recently learned from the Acquired podcast that Nintendo stands by the fact that Mario is the last name, so it's Luigi Mario and Mario Mario...!
Demon Attack was the hardest of those Space Invaders clones, I think it was the jittery side motions of the birds, and that they shot so many whatevers (lasers?). Imagic made some fantastic games, I think maybe it was Moonsweeper that was my favorite.
That ET commercial was a on continuous loop that holiday season... and, for whatever reason, it still hits me right in the feels.