View Full Version : NES proto spotted in Seinfeld episode?
norkusa
04-01-2009, 01:34 AM
I'm a Seinfeld fan and noticed a long time ago that he had some boxed NES games in his apartment. If you look hard enough on the shelf where he keeps his stereo and VHS tapes, you can see Tetris and Super Spike V'ball boxes wedged in there.
Tonight I saw that episode where the entire thing is shown backwards and you see the ending first and the beginning last. About midway thru when Kramer pops in for a few seconds eating his giant lollipop, you get a good view of the games. It's still kind of blurry, but you can see what looks like a black Sim City box in the background next to the Tetris box. The 'Sim' part is hard to make out but you can definitely see 'City' there. Even has the white Nintendo logo at the bottom too.
Could be another game but I'm 99.9% positive it's Sim City. Only reason I can think of that it's there is that they had a deal with Nintendo to do some product placement. Obviously it was before the game was axed though and released on the SNES instead. Still strange to see box to a proto game show up in a sitcom though.
Sonicwolf
04-01-2009, 01:36 AM
I'm a Seinfeld fan and noticed a long time ago that he had some boxed NES games in his apartment. If you look hard enough on the shelf where he keeps his stereo and VHS tapes, you can see Tetris and Super Spike V'ball boxes wedged in there.
Tonight I saw that episode where the entire thing is shown backwards and you see the ending first and the beginning last. About midway thru when Kramer pops in for a few seconds eating his giant lollipop, you get a good view of the games. It's still kind of blurry, but you can see what looks like a black Sim City box on the background. The 'Sim' part is hard to make out but you can definitely see 'City' there. Even has the white Nintendo logo at the bottom too.
Could be another game but I'm 99.9% positive it's Sim City. Only reason I can think of that it's there is that they had a deal with Nintendo to do some product placement. Obviously it was before the game was axed though and released on the SNES instead.
If you figure out what episode it was, someone could screencap it off of a DVD for you.
makaar
04-01-2009, 01:46 AM
I don't have it available for capturing at the moment, but the episode is called "The Betrayal (1997)" and plays backwards and retells their trip to India. I never noticed that it was a Nintendo game, but I've seen the Sim City box before, just not in this episode...guess I'll have to look again. I'm actually watching it at the moment from DVR.
norkusa
04-01-2009, 01:48 AM
If you figure out what episode it was, someone could screencap it off of a DVD for you.
I think it was called 'The Betrayal'. Pretty sure it was from the final season but I'm not positive.
Sonicwolf
04-01-2009, 01:54 AM
Reverse chronology? I think thats it then http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Betrayal
ProgrammingAce
04-01-2009, 04:30 AM
I've never watched an episode of Seinfeld in my life, but i'm pretty sure that episode is called "The Betrayal". Can anyone confirm?
alexkidd2000
04-01-2009, 05:08 AM
I've never watched an episode of Seinfeld in my life, but i'm pretty sure that episode is called "The Betrayal". Can anyone confirm?
I am not positive but that sounds like it might be correct. Yes I am 90% sure it was called "The Betrayal".
heybtbm
04-01-2009, 06:55 AM
Regardless of NES proto, that episode is one of the best. Easily in the top 5 ever.
Atarileaf
04-01-2009, 07:51 AM
"You can stuff your sorry's in a sack, mister!" :D
I might end up completely wrong on this....but an NES proto on the shelves of an old 90's sitcom.....sounds like it's beginning to look a lot like April.
scooterb23
04-01-2009, 09:25 AM
Ro-J...are you suggesting a "Betrayal" of the DP community? Pure poppycock I say!
BeaglePuss
04-01-2009, 09:33 AM
Taken from a thread made two months ago at NA:
http://www.nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=7&threadid=15774
Still shots can be found in the thread. It is believed to be SIM City for SNES.
JohnnyA
04-01-2009, 10:05 AM
Yeah, I've seen that, and it looks to me to be for the SNES.
carlcarlson
04-01-2009, 10:11 AM
http://i.ebayimg.com/23/!BO-rE!gCGk~$(KGrHgoOKjoEjlLm(,tvBJ),)guUb!~~_1.JPG
looks the same to me.
Mason P.
04-01-2009, 10:33 AM
the question is was this episode aired before that sim city game for the SNES came out?
jack612
04-01-2009, 11:13 AM
It was aired 6-7 years after Sim City was released for SNES.
jb143
04-01-2009, 01:25 PM
No Superman game?
lazyhoboguy
04-01-2009, 01:51 PM
Wow that is awesome that there were nes games in seinfeld. I like the show even more now.
backguard
04-01-2009, 02:32 PM
"You can stuff your sorry's in a sack, mister!" :D
What does that mean? :)
norkusa
04-01-2009, 02:33 PM
Ugh, guess it is the SNES version then. On TV, it looked exactly like same height and width as the NES boxes next to it.
MrSparkle
04-01-2009, 03:03 PM
If you look at it in the picture 1003254qs1.jpg you can see that the box is slightly crushed but if you measure the top of the box at the slight angle caused by the crushing you can tell that its slightly wider than the nes boxes which would fit with it being a snes game. strange that they would throw those games in as props as i never remember anyone in the show playing them. Maybe it was come kind of nintendo promotional idea just stuff their products into random shots in shows and movies.
Superman
04-01-2009, 04:09 PM
strange that they would throw those games in as props as i never remember anyone in the show playing them. Maybe it was come kind of nintendo promotional idea just stuff their products into random shots in shows and movies.
That's generally how product placement in entertainment works. It is there to be seen as it might be in a real world environment, not necessarily used. If you have characters saying "Mmm, this is the best (insert product here) I have ever had" it becomes obvious what they are doing, which again isn't the point.
Not that this rule is always followed though. They do it many times in one of my favorite movies: The Wizard. "I love the Power Glove..."
Atarileaf
04-01-2009, 05:51 PM
What does that mean? :)
Just something George keeps repeating in the episode in question.
tubeway
04-01-2009, 05:55 PM
If you look at it in the picture 1003254qs1.jpg you can see that the box is slightly crushed but if you measure the top of the box at the slight angle caused by the crushing you can tell that its slightly wider than the nes boxes which would fit with it being a snes game. strange that they would throw those games in as props as i never remember anyone in the show playing them. Maybe it was come kind of nintendo promotional idea just stuff their products into random shots in shows and movies.
Or maybe the propmaster for the set simply needed crap to fill the shelves and make it look like a lived in apartment. I mean, I've never seen Jerry use his archaic Macintosh that he had sitting on a desk, either. I can't see what value it would have to Nintendo to have their games on a shelf in the background of a room and never have any attention drawn to them, nor have there really be many shots in the episodes that allowed you to even see the titles of the games. Any subsequent sales they received for that had to be outweighed by all the paperwork and attorney fees it would have taken to make the deal happen in the first place.
SegaAges
04-01-2009, 07:55 PM
I've never watched an episode of Seinfeld in my life, but i'm pretty sure that episode is called "The Betrayal". Can anyone confirm?
Nah man, the episode is called The Betrayal.
rbudrick
04-01-2009, 11:41 PM
http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/5126/1003254qs1.jpg
http://i12.ebayimg.com/06/i/001/00/40/340b_1.JPG
Pics courtesy of that AA thread.
Hmmm, I don't see any crushing, but if there were any, look at the amount of black space above and below the words "SimCity." The black spaces are clearly wider on the second pic and the zoomed in pic shows no evidence of crushing. Also, crushed SNES boxes would not make these black spaces disappear. Plus, crushed SNES boxes usually bow out in the middle, not the top and bottom. It does look about 3/8 of an inch shorter than the Tetris box, but I see no crushing there.
Kind of spooky shit.
-Rob
If definitely looks like a SNES box to me. Can anyone make out the names of the other games?
icarwngs55
04-02-2009, 01:04 AM
Definitely not the SNES box...I am more thinking that perhaps the boxes aren't real at all and are just mock ups for the shelf. That is to say they are like those fake books that are hollow you see at furniture stores and such. Most likely photos stuck to cardboard.
Mike
Arcade Antics
04-02-2009, 05:56 PM
It's a Home Fill.
RASK1904
04-03-2009, 02:26 AM
we need a better pic. please.
c2000
04-03-2009, 08:29 AM
Not sure why I bothered getting the DVD out and ffwd through an entire episode for a pile of boxes, but there you go.
Not much better as it's in the background. The boxes are there as well in earlier episodes. Definitely looks
like a SNES box to me.
http://g.imagehost.org/0893/boxes.jpg
There's also a cereal box with a SEGA promotion in Newmans flat (season 4 or 5 or so).
Oobgarm
04-03-2009, 09:44 AM
That's an SNES box filed with the front of the box facing left, towards Tetris.
RASK1904
04-03-2009, 03:45 PM
FUCK! Write it again?
1 VHS TAPE Johhy Nmumonic or Jumping Jack Flash IDK?
2 VHS TAPE Bennie Hills Greatest Hits
3 VHS IDK (I Don't Know)
4 VHS IDK
5 Snes Sim City
6 Nes Tetris
7 Nes Super Spike Valleyball
8 VHS Stay Wired? or Just WIRED?
9 VHS Jumanji in the big Disney box!
Pretty good! No! I have alot of VHS tapes!
MrSparkle
04-03-2009, 05:20 PM
Not that this rule is always followed though. They do it many times in one of my favorite movies: The Wizard. "I love the Power Glove..."
That's because the wizard was a movie made to advertise the power glove and super mario bros. 3 lol.
MrSparkle
04-03-2009, 05:21 PM
Some of those games still look sealed note the sheen of the boxes in the latest screen cap above.
That would imply that they're not even worth taking out of the packaging.
Draven
04-03-2009, 11:29 PM
I vote SNES. Almost positive. Probably thrown up there by a prop guy to fill space, as mentioned before. I can't see any hint of crushing. Besides, it has that strip of red on it. I can't remember seeing anything similar on a NES box.
Sonicwolf
04-03-2009, 11:44 PM
FUCK! Write it again?
1 VHS TAPE Johhy Nmumonic or Jumping Jack Flash IDK?
2 VHS TAPE Bennie Hills Greatest Hits
3 VHS IDK (I Don't Know)
4 VHS IDK
5 Snes Sim City
6 Nes Tetris
7 Nes Super Spike Valleyball
8 VHS Stay Wired? or Just WIRED?
9 VHS Jumanji in the big Disney box!
Pretty good! No! I have alot of VHS tapes!
The purple VHS box (#1) with yellow writing is the hit 1990 movie 'Arachnophobia'. If you look up the movie poster it matches the picture above that shows the front.
rbudrick
04-07-2009, 01:21 PM
Not sure why I bothered getting the DVD out and ffwd through an entire episode for a pile of boxes, but there you go.
Not much better as it's in the background. The boxes are there as well in earlier episodes. Definitely looks
like a SNES box to me.
http://g.imagehost.org/0893/boxes.jpg
There's also a cereal box with a SEGA promotion in Newmans flat (season 4 or 5 or so).
Now THAT is an SNES box. Weird how the red stripe is missing inthe initial pic, but is quite obvious here.
-Rob