23 Retro Video Game Ads That Were More Exciting Than the Actual Game

Let's not sugarcoat it - the graphics in the early days of gaming were, um… minimal. If you were playing on an Atari, ColecoVision, or Magnavox Odyssey, your character was basically five pixels and two colors, and that was on a good day. You'd be told, "See that blinking line? That's you. You're a brave intergalactic explorer." And you'd nod and go, "Yeah. Totally."

So what do you do when your game looks like abstract cave art? You get marketing to do the heavy lifting. And oh boy, did they.

Back then, video game ads were entire epics. They had models in leather armor, dramatic taglines like "Enter the Void!" and more neon than a roller rink. Half of them just slapped a hot woman on the cover and called it a day - because let's face it, they knew exactly who they were marketing to. Others went all-in with costumes, props, and wild sets that made the game look like a blockbuster movie.

And then you brought it home… and got a blinking square. But it didn't matter. Your brain filled in the gaps. The ads were the dream. The game was just the spark.