This is probably going to seem wildly low-effort compared to my usual posts here, but I’ve found a bit of a treasure trove of print media gaming ads from magazines and sites. And they’re amazing. I found it so fun to see what companies used to do to promote their games.

Things have clearly changed a lot over time, some of them are insensitive or even outright sexist, but if you just look at it through a lens of being a time capsule, it’s fun.

This one’s going to be very image-heavy. If you’re using Boost on iOS then you might struggle to scroll through this (or maybe not? It’s happened with all my other posts though, so you’ve been warned), if that happens just visit using your browser :)

Game Boy Advance/SP:

The ‘feet’ collection were from an ad company in Stockholm, in 2005. I think it is to mean you’re using hands to play the GBA, and only have feet left to use for real life:

PS2:

Nintendo Game Cube:

And that’s that! Just interesting to see a time when gaming was a little more experimental and edgy.

  • Pika@rekabu.ruEnglish
    12·
    2 小时前

    This is probably going to seem wildly low-effort compared to my usual posts here

    My man, you just compiled tons of obscure posters from the corners of the Internet. I admire your dedication, and this does take an effort.

  • MyNameIsAtticus@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    49 分钟前

    It’s wild how crazy ads. The Mouse one for the GBA Micro still pops up into my head every once and a while. And my friend group still debates whether Mario is hiding a Tribal Tattoo somewhere

  • Valmond@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    1 小时前

    The nineties was the best decade.

    Not low effort posting IMO, this is a part of our culture & has historical value.

  • Aielman15@lemmy.worldEnglish
    51·
    4 小时前

    The over-the-top edgy/“how do you do, fellow kids?” vibes of the early y2k years is definitely something that I don’t miss from that era.

    I can somehow hear Linking Park in the distance while scrolling this post.

    • PerfectDark@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      1·
      2 小时前

      Ironic!

      This is the purple shade of the GCN, and its one of the ‘hero’ size images available to use, on SteamGridDB. I just liked to grab one image in that size to separate each ‘section’ in this post.

      But…I know, it looks like an error -___-

  • chunes@lemmy.worldEnglish
    5·
    6 小时前

    It strikes me that I have no point of reference because I haven’t seen any ads for 20 years. If they stopped doing y2k edgy-style ads, what are they like now?

      • catalyst@lemmy.worldEnglish
        5·
        5 小时前

        My thoughts exactly. Some of these ads are just plain weird in a way that they would never dare today.

      • WhiskyTangoFoxtrot@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        5 小时前

        They were always conservative. A few years before these ads Nintendo participated in Senate hearings where they advocated for censoring the entire medium. They just had a “fellow kids” period in the early 2000s. Luckily, judging by the sales of the GameCube, most people weren’t fooled.

  • 🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 🇮 @pawb.socialEnglish
    36·
    9 小时前

    There is only one magazine video game advertisement I really remember from seeing in the wild in an actual magazine, and that was the Quake 3 Arena one of a computer in a crusty-as-fuck basement bathroom in front of a toilet with just a super dirty setup.

    • PerfectDark@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      26·
      7 小时前

      I just wanted to have actual, official ones shared!

      This one is not official, it was done by a girl who goes by shy smith three years or so ago, she just tried her best to make a photo in the ‘style’ of the old Y2K era, and the days of PS2 ads and…everyone ended up believing it was real. She did such an amazing job of it, this one often gets shared as if it were done for Sony.

      And…to be fair, the actual official ones got way worse than those I included: