37 Retro Video Game Ads from the 80s and 90s

John Summers • Contributor

Sep 23, 2025 1:00 PM EDT

Ah, the glory days when gaming news traveled slower than dial-up, and your only window into the future of video games was a magazine ad that may or may not make sense. These ads from the 80s and 90s are wild to revisit—not just because of the neon fonts and questionable fashion choices, but because they reveal just how hilariously confused advertisers were about who gamers even were.

Half the time, you'd get ads drenched in tech-corp seriousness, trying to make a joystick look like a piece of military hardware. The other half? Pure goofy chaos that assumed every gamer was a zit-covered teen boy who wanted explosions, babes, and taglines that sounded like rejected action movie scripts. The result is a mix of cringe and charm that only this era could pull off.

It's also a time capsule of the industry itself: from Atari's arcade boom, to the market crash that nearly ended it all, to Nintendo swooping in with the NES and the Game Boy, saving consoles and sparking the eternal console wars with Sega. Looking back, these ads aren't just ridiculous—they're history. Glorious, pixelated history.