Ads from the 16-bit Revolution

On 07/11/2013 at 04:18 AM by KnightDriver

This week I picked up a bunch of Doctor Fate comics on the cheap after a friend said Doctor Fate was like DC's version of Marvel's Doctor Strange - a favorite comic character of mine. I found out later that Doctor Fate preceeded Doctor Strange by about twenty years (DF started in the 40's and DS in the 60's). Anyway, I noticed DC tends to not have as many ads in their comics as Marvel, most of them being ads for other DC comics - like the way indie comics do. But they do have video game ads here and there and I got six of them out of issues 32 to 41 of Doctor Fate all released from Sept 1991 to June 1992.

The first one is this ad for the Atari Lynx. It's the second version of the Atari Lynx relaunched in '91 with some improvements such as better battery life and a stereo headphone jack as well as the reduced price of $99 down from $179.99. Then, as now, it just couldn't compare to the Game Boy or Sega Game Gear which both had bigger game libraries. Bonus points if anyone can tell me what game is shown there on the Lynx in the ad.

This next one is Ultima: Runes of Virtue for the Game Boy. The wiki says this is Richard Garriott's (aka Lord British's) favorite console Ultima game. I wonder if that's still true. The game is apparently a simplified take on the Ultima games in the spirit of Legend of Zelda. This gets me very interested in this game, making me want to hunt it down. There was also a sequel for Game Boy and SNES, Ultima: Runes of Virtue II.

Streets of Rage for Genesis was a classic and I have it now on Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection for Xbox 360. It was an exclusive for Genesis and I have to say, if had been into video games in '91 and looking for a console, I might have chosen Genesis just for this series.

Batman: Return of the Joker was a Sunsoft developed game for the NES. It seems Sunsoft did a bunch of really good liscenced games for NES, SNES, and Genesis in the early 90's. They also did original game Blaster Master which was blogged about here on Pixlbit recently. Batman: Return of the Joker is definitely one I gotta track down. It seems mentioning 16 bits in a lot of these ads from the early 90's was a thing. I see it in almost every ad.

Kid Chameleon for the Genesis is also on the Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection for Xbox 360 and on Virtual Console. The game has you transform into different characters by picking up masks. I know I've tried this on that Xbox 360 collection, but I don't think I got too into it. Maybe it's time to give it another try because reading the ad that describs what some of the masks do has me very interested.

I never had a TurboGrafx-16 but it looks cool. At the time I didn't know anything about it because Sega Genesis and SNES dominated here in America. I like how the ad compares prices with the $179.99 SNES and $149.99 Sega Genesis. Obviously they were focusing on its cheaper $99 price in this ad. I find it amazing that the system didn't have multiple controller ports and you had to buy an accessory to add more ports for multiplayer action. That seems like a serious oversight by Hudson Soft/NEC.

So that's it today folks. A little trip back to 1991/2 with some of the games being advertised in your favorite DC comics like Doctor Fate.

Vice's Assistant

07/11/2013 at 05:51 AM

That Batman ad...wow! I want to just blow that ad up and hang it on a wall. That looks really cool.

Chris Yarger Community Manager

07/11/2013 at 11:06 AM

I agree, I was actually going to say that in a comment but you beat me to it!

KnightDriver

07/11/2013 at 03:42 PM

It makes me think of The Batman Animated Series that aired in Sept of '92. What a great show that was.

Cary Woodham

07/11/2013 at 06:00 AM

I didn't even know there was a Rygar game o the Lynx!

07/11/2013 at 03:45 PM

Nice! This is a close port of the arcade game which is now available on Virtual Console and on Tecmo Classic Arcade for Xbox, a collection I should have but don't. I've got to go find it now.

07/11/2013 at 07:02 PM

I have it.

07/12/2013 at 02:06 AM

Sweeeeeeet.

Matt Snee Staff Writer

07/11/2013 at 08:42 AM

that looks like Rygar alright. Like Cary, I didn't know there was such a game on the Lynx. I actually had one when I was a kid. It had great graphics, but few good games. It had California Games though that I played endlessly.

Kid Chameleon was a great game.

07/11/2013 at 03:51 PM

I was surprised, when I started collecting, to learn that Atari did a handheld. My friend got the one shown in the ad, but I never played it myself.

Chris Iozzi Staff Alumnus

07/11/2013 at 08:54 AM

I remember all these ads, I also remember wanting a Lynx for just how good Rygar looked compared to the NES version. It also had a good port of S.T.U.N. Runner. I bout a Lynx used a couple years ago with a few games. Too bad it didn't succeed, if the price was right at launch it would have wiped the floor clean of all this GameBoy and GameGear stuff. Also, the TG:16 was a fun system, the games had their own feel to them, like super charged NES games with lots of color.

07/11/2013 at 03:55 PM

Too bad for the Lynx that it was released at $179 alongside the Game Boy at $90. The Lynx might have had better graphics, but the Game Boy fit in your pocket and came with Tetris.

daftman

07/11/2013 at 09:13 AM

Cool beans. These old adds are great. The Lynx has a very interesting history. Retronauts covered it once in one of their podcasts.

What?! Really! I'll have to go find that episode.

goaztecs

07/11/2013 at 10:56 AM

Oh hello flashbacks. Man I miss looking at those ads with my brother trying to figure out which game we should buy. I remember the Turbo Grafx because my friend out of the blue got one. The Lynx was an interesting handheld because you could flip it around if you were right or left handed (I still went with the Game Gear because it came with Sonic 2). Good stuff!

07/11/2013 at 04:02 PM

The TurboGrafx-16 has a cool and efficient design. I like the small size of the game cards. It's a system I still need to get and try out. Even my buddy who's collected things like the ColecoVision keyboard, doesn't have one.

I forgot you could flip the Lynx around. My buddy showed me that once when he got it. He's left handed and really appreciated that feature.

BrokenH

07/11/2013 at 11:16 AM

I remember wanting a Lynx but I got an snes instead. Streets of rage was "decent" but SOR 2 blew me away!

Kid chameleon was aight. It was fun turning into a samurai or even a Jason Vorhees look alike. There were so many 80's and 90's tropes crammed into that game it was lulz-tastic!

07/11/2013 at 04:07 PM

What's cool about Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection is that it has SOR1-3 on it as well as Kid Chameleon.

Julian Titus Senior Editor

07/11/2013 at 04:20 PM

KnightDriver, I think you're going to get a kick out of a feature I'm working on. It's a look at the different marketing strategies of Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony over the years.

Love seeing these classic magazine ads. I've been slowly building up a collection of the original EGM, and one of the best things is the ads. Everything from the '90s was so full of 'tude and the back and forth between Sega and Nintendo was hilarious.

07/11/2013 at 04:47 PM

Your article idea certainly peaks my interest right away. Looking forward to it.

I'd love to pick up a bunch of old magazines for the ads and such. I know of only one place near me that has old magazines but they want silly money for them. I'm keeping my eyes open for a stash of them for cheap because it's going to be scanning heaven for me when I do.

Aboboisdaman

07/11/2013 at 06:16 PM

Nice ads man. I didn't realize that the SNES once costed $179. I always wanted to play on a Turbo Grafx-16, but never got the chance. Nobody had one. Although I did play Bonk's Adventure on other platforms. Those things still go for about $100 used online nowadays.

07/12/2013 at 02:02 AM

I knew nothing about TurboGrafx-16 until I started collecting sometime around 2001. I'm still not sure why I didn't see it at Funcoland. It must've been there.

smartcelt

07/11/2013 at 11:38 PM

Streets Of Rage is one I know I will get in cartridge form. Though on the 360 i bet it's pretty awesome. The Turbo Grafx is a system I've never even seen before. Never even knew anyone who owned one. That would be cool to find. And the Joker ad is amazing. Such great art in some ads you found in those comics.

07/12/2013 at 02:05 AM

There's nothing like playing a game on the original system but Backbone Entertainment did a great job porting those games to 360 in Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection.

PixlBit