JC Penney Santa Commercial with Yars Revenge Sound Effects

[dsullo]

Did anyone notice JC Penney is running a commercial with Santa playing a GBA , but the sound effects are from Yars Revenge.

I am 99% sure its Yars Revenge.
Last year circuit city ran one with the Atari 2600 pac man sound effects

Why is it that commercials involving video games use the old Atari 2600 sound effects?

It actually does my heart good to hear them use them ;)

[Lady Jaye]

Yars' Revenge and Pac-Man? Sure beats the traditional Donkey Kong sound files.

[Anonymous]

To be honest, that bugs me almost as much as the kids who play game boys or game gears with no games in them (see Rumble In the Bronx) or kids who play their gameboys upside down, or kids who, when called away from their game drop the controllers without so much as even pretending to try and pause the game.

[CrazyImpmon]

That GBA probably have a Yars Revenge after all, as one do exists for GBC by Telegames. Though I wouldn't be surprised if that GBA Santa has didn't have a game cart in it.

Just wondering if anyone ever bought a lawsuit against such TV commercials with game SFX? The suit would claim the game sound doesn't match the "as advertised" SFX.

[ROBOTRON]

There is a Target commercial out now w/some classic game sounds.

[cerex]

To be honest, that bugs me almost as much as the kids who play game boys or game gears with no games in them (see Rumble In the Bronx) or kids who play their gameboys upside down, or kids who, when called away from their game drop the controllers without so much as even pretending to try and pause the game.

hahaha definetly agree,also hate seeing kids with gba and the only games they play is pokemon or dbz :(

[ManekiNeko]

The ancient sound effects bother me, too. Don't the people who make these commercials realize that video games have made huge leaps forward in the twenty years since Yar's Revenge was released? Perhaps they're just worried that people will think that sounds from a REAL video game will be more entertaining than the commercials themselves.
ABC's TGIF line-up did a pretty good job of insulting video games as well... remember the game Space Donkeys in Family Matters, or the game in Full House everyone became so addicted to that they (gasp!) stopped paying attention to Michelle? Naturally, the stupid little orangutan girl unplugged the game and everyone learned a valuable lesson about how some things are more important than video games. Of course, NOTHING was more important in Full House than that spoiled brat Michelle. The little cash cow of a primate should have just kept her mouth shut for once and let them enjoy their game, rather than dominating every last second of their lives.
The more I think about it, the more it burns me up. I've got one thing to say about ABC's old Friday line-up... Thank Goodness It's FINISHED.

JR

[GENESISNES]

I KNOW!! they could have chipped in 50 cents to get a GBC game! And stop with the old sound effects!

[Queen Of The Felines]

I'm not sure where I read this, bu the "classic" sounds are used because they sound like they belong in a video game, believe it or not. Today's games sound more realistic and not as "computer gamey" as the boops and beeps of old. Sure, WE know that the sounds are coming from Pac-Man, but to the average non-gamer they just sound like any old video game.

Hope that made sense. :P

Kristine

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

That's exactly why they do it.

Me? I've been using classic game sounds (and occasional splashes of footage) in my production work for YEARS, though my work is strictly local and not national. But that's just because I like it. :P

[Anonymous]

the "classic" sounds are used because they sound like they belong in a video game...
Well yeah, but it still bugs me ;) Say, did anybody ever see that one movie, Can't remember which, it's either Ninja's vs. Hitler, or Surf Ninja's or Surf Nazi's must die or something like that. Anyways, in the movie there's a kid who has a game gear and in the game he plays it's scenes from the movie (like he plays a level where a karate guy beats up bad guys in a diner, while in a real diner his brother is beating up nazis/ninjas/whatever in a diner). I can't remember the movie, but I think they made a game specifically for it. Can't remember if it was CG or an actual game. I do remember that it wasn't released. That would be a neat proto to get ahold of if it was an actual game...

[punkoffgirl]

that's definitely NOT Surf Nazi's then, Fluke! :)

[Masco73]

I like the fact that on most T.V. shows if you die in a video game, 95% of the time, it is always the pac-man death sound. It doesn't matter the system or the game they are playing.