Ninja Gaiden & Ninja Gaiden II (1990)

Original ad published in the September 1990 issue 

of Electronic Gaming Monthly (no. 14).

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No frills advertisement for hard-as-nails series

A game this good needs no supplementary material to extol its virtues. Word-of-mouth built the notoriety of its legendary level of difficulty before gamers repeating "git gud" were even born. Oh, and both NES games were actually fun.

TurboGrafx-16 System (1990)

Original ad published in the June 1990 issue 

of VideoGames & Computer Entertainment (VG&CE).

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An ad only a hardcore gamer would love

NEC's ill-fated TurboGrafx-16 received a lot of publicity during the late 80's and the beginning of the 90s. It was a drastic sales flop for the Japanese electronics giant, but not for the lack of trying.

Heiankyo Alien for Nintendo Game Boy (1990)

Original ad published in the June 1990 issue 

of VideoGames & Computer Entertainment (VG&CE).

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Awesome art, terrible writing

Another puzzle game that comes from a long line of classic PC and arcade versions. The printed material shown here is probably the best I've come across for Nintendo's Game Boy.

Hyper Lode Runner for Nintendo Game Boy (1990)

Original ad published in the September 1990 issue 

of Electronic Gaming Monthly (no. 14).

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Strange artwork for an all-time classic

Released at least on 28 different consoles, the original Lode Runner was a 1983 game developed firstly for Apple, Atari, Commodore, VIC-20 and PC systems. It then spread absolutely everywhere. The artwork for the Game Boy version remains curious, to say the least.

Bill Lambeer's Combat Basketball for Super NES (1992)

Original ad published in the April 1992 edition of Electronic Gaming Monthly (no. 31)
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Crap game, pragmatic advertising

Released around the same time as Base Wars (NES, 1990), Jerry Glanville's Pigskin Footbrawl (Genesis, 1992) and Mutant Football League (Genesis, 1993),  Bill Lambeer's Combat Basketball for Super NES was shoved for Nintendo's 16-bit juggernaut in late 1991. It was the first b-ball game for the SNES, but other than that, it retains no other distinction. Some have called it one of the worst game released for that great console, while others routinely place it the list of most violent video games. Before hitting North America, it was called Future Basketball (Amiga and Atari ST, 1990).

Retro Atari Classics for Nintendo DS (2005)

Original ad featured in the April 2005 issue of EGM (no. 190).

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Great artwork, terrible performance

It took me 13 years to pay attention to this advertisement, prominently featured in the inner part of the back-cover. It's incredibly gaudy, but someone at Atari thought it would be cool to display this type of artwork to the masses. The end result was unique but falls way short of the intended objetive.

Virtua Cop 2 for Sega Saturn (1997)

Original add featured in the January 1997 issue of Ultra Game Players magazine (no. 93).
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Arcade quality action right in your living room

If you ever visited an arcade hall during the 90's you remember Virtua Cop fondly. It was one of Sega's most well-known brands and an absolute quarter-muncher. Graphics were very impressive for the time, thanks to the brightly colored polygons that gave the shooter a very futuristic feel. The same could be said about the sound and the overall feel of the game. It just encompassed Sega arcade quality and made for a memorable visit right next to other arcade classics like Daytona USA and Sega Virtua Racing.