Proof Of Atari’s Dominance Of The Living Room At The Movies
Over at the official racer trash watering cooler (translation: there’s a Discord), @dcpesses recently passed along a YouTube channel that uploads “35mm HD scans of random and occasionally interesting things from the past when cinemas ran actual film”, according to FT Depot’s about page. Elsewhere you’ll mostly find old movie trailers, as well as movie chain idents and concession stand reminders. Lots of great stuff!
But included in the mix are a pair of commercials from Atari, proof positive that at point this in history, they truly were truly the rulers of the video game landscape. Cuz there’s no stronger flex than a spot for your contraption that provides entertainment on the small screen, plastered clear across the big screen at local cinemas across the country. Though it’s also almost immediately before the big reversal of fortune, right before the infamous adaptation of ET came out.
Here’s another, for one title in particular, Dig Dug…
Hopefully we’ll see more from FT Depot, provided there are other spots to begin with. I need to cross reference with the various video game history books that I own… which are in one of the storage bins strewed about my new apartment (just moved to Brooklyn and am still in the process of unpacking)… but I seem to recall Dig Dug being quite the arcade hit and can easily see Warner Communications (owner of Atari at the time) wanted to damn sure to capitalize on its success. Hence why I’m assuming there’s another spot for the terrible Pac-Man port that preceded ET.
Time for a bonus vid; it’s not a trailer for a video game, but a movie that was about one…
One last thing, and back to the subject of racer trash: literally everything they’ve done up till this point is being shown this upcoming Black Friday. Including alienalienalienalienalien, which recently premiered this past Halloween; like previous racer trash productions, it naturally includes a segment from Grimy Ghost…
