Results 1 to 16 of 16

Thread: Chrono Trigger TV Ad

  1. #1
    ServBot (Level 11) TonyTheTiger's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    New Jersey
    Posts
    3,550
    Thanks Thanks Given 
    0
    Thanks Thanks Received 
    1
    Thanked in
    1 Post

    Default Chrono Trigger TV Ad

    Strange request. Does anyone know where I can view the U.S. Chrono Trigger TV commercial? I have the Japanese one but not the U.S. one.

    http://gameads.gamepressure.com/
    Great site. I swear by it.

  2. #2
    ServBot (Level 11) Lemmy Kilmister's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2004
    Location
    Holliston, MA
    Posts
    3,405
    Thanks Thanks Given 
    0
    Thanks Thanks Received 
    0
    Thanked in
    0 Posts

    Default

    Did Chrono Trigger even have an American commercial? I remember seeing the Final Fantasy III one once when I was younger but never an ad for Chrono Trigger.
    Tradegamesnow and GameTZ feedback.

  3. #3
    ServBot (Level 11) TonyTheTiger's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    New Jersey
    Posts
    3,550
    Thanks Thanks Given 
    0
    Thanks Thanks Received 
    1
    Thanked in
    1 Post

    Default

    There was definitely one. I remember it well enough. It was a pretty by the books commercial with scenes from the game popping up and this announcer with a strange accent yelling at you. CHRONO TREE-GGAAAA!!!!!!

  4. #4
    Cherry (Level 1)
    Join Date
    Oct 2005
    Posts
    218
    Thanks Thanks Given 
    0
    Thanks Thanks Received 
    0
    Thanked in
    0 Posts

    Default

    This is one of the great, lost video game commercials. I remember it well.

    "Lose your luggage". Sure, when I go through time, I expect to lose my samsonite.

    Frickin' awesome.

    I've been scouring the net for this particular piece of videogame nostalgia but have yet to turn up a single pixel. Bah!

  5. #5
    Great Puma (Level 12) jb143's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    St. Louis
    Posts
    4,246
    Thanks Thanks Given 
    5
    Thanks Thanks Received 
    69
    Thanked in
    62 Posts

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by prismra View Post
    I've been scouring the net for this particular piece of videogame nostalgia but have yet to turn up a single pixel. Bah!
    Here ya go... -->


    But seriously though. I'd be interested in finding this as well.

  6. #6
    Cherry (Level 1)
    Join Date
    Jun 2003
    Location
    USA
    Posts
    361
    Thanks Thanks Given 
    0
    Thanks Thanks Received 
    0
    Thanked in
    0 Posts

    Default

    Before the game was released, one of the Square guys posted the commercial air times on some message board (I think it was Dr. Gamewiz - anyone remember that?) IIRC, it only aired a few times on MTV in the early AM. That would explain its rarity.

    And after typing the above, I just searched through Google Groups, it turns up a discussion from 1995 on it. Type "Chrono Trigger" MTV as the search phrase. They confirm this, and mention that it was in Japanese with subtitles, which I somewhat remember as well.

    Hmmm...could the US commercial be the same as the Japanese one just with subtitles?

  7. #7
    ServBot (Level 11) TonyTheTiger's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    New Jersey
    Posts
    3,550
    Thanks Thanks Given 
    0
    Thanks Thanks Received 
    1
    Thanked in
    1 Post

    Default

    Nine year bump and for good reason.

    The mystery is solved and is worth preserving!

    Last edited by TonyTheTiger; 05-31-2017 at 11:15 PM.

  8. #8
    Bell (Level 8)
    Join Date
    Dec 2008
    Posts
    1,672
    Thanks Thanks Given 
    0
    Thanks Thanks Received 
    5
    Thanked in
    5 Posts

    Default

    My extremely limited Japanese makes me think that's a joke/fan-made video. I don't think those are even correct subtitles.
    How is "Dream Project" anything even close to "Dig this."?

    I do not recall ever seeing a Square SNES-era commercial on TV. Although the FF3 commercial people have said aired.
    I do remember Square USA was a pretty small company then (who could only manage to put out a couple games a year) so I can't imagine they spent a whole lot on fairly-expensive TV advertising. Magazine advertising, yes, they did.

  9. #9
    Super Moderator Moderator
    Custom rank graphic
    Aussie2B's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2004
    Location
    USA
    Posts
    9,277
    Thanks Thanks Given 
    35
    Thanks Thanks Received 
    133
    Thanked in
    111 Posts

    Default

    Huh. This is the first I've ever heard of a US SNES Chrono Trigger commercial. I definitely never saw one at the time. If it's real, it's very bizarre that they'd air a Japanese-language commercial on US TV. Even more bizarre because they didn't even translate what was being said. Calling them "subtitles" is giving them too much credit. It's just completely made up text. Most of what's said in Japanese is just them listing off the notable people working on the project. And at that point, you have to wonder why they left the Japanese voice track in at all. Would've made more sense to replace it with someone reading the English text, or heck, just let the music play and let us read.

  10. #10
    Great Puma (Level 12) jb143's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    St. Louis
    Posts
    4,246
    Thanks Thanks Given 
    5
    Thanks Thanks Received 
    69
    Thanked in
    62 Posts

    Default

    I don't remember this existing either, but if you read all the comments from those who do, this weird video seems to be exactly what they all remember.
    "Game programmers are generally lazy individuals. That's right. It's true. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Since the dawn of computer games, game programmers have looked for shortcuts to coolness." Kurt Arnlund - Game programmer for Activision, Accolade...

  11. #11
    ServBot (Level 11) TonyTheTiger's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    New Jersey
    Posts
    3,550
    Thanks Thanks Given 
    0
    Thanks Thanks Received 
    1
    Thanked in
    1 Post

    Default

    I guess what's funniest is that what I remember as being a "strange accent" was literally just Japanese.

    And yeah, they're fake subs. What's being said is "Dream Project: Dragon Ball's Akira Toriyama, Dragon Quest's Yuji Horii, Final Fantasy's Hironobu Sakaguchi." They just hacked up a Japanese commercial (if you pause at exactly the right moment you can see the "Dream Project" image being covered up by the snow effect at the beginning and the "C" that would form the Chrono Trigger logo at the end), put some bogus subtitles, and called it a day.

    I can't tell if it's stylistic choice or hilariously cheap. Squaresoft wasn't new to TV spots. They were already in the habit of producing fully animated commercials for American TV. They did it for Secret of Mana, Final Fantasy III, and Secret of Evermore. And if they wanted to make a commercial but didn't want to spend any money they could have used the same video and had some guy narrate the thing in English. The background music is straight from the game so it's not like it would have been hard to make a new audio track. It's like they deliberately left this in Japanese for shits and giggles.

    I guess they downplayed the actual narration because Dragon Ball was still a few years away from taking off and Dragon Warrior wasn't the hot shit it was in Japan. But even the fake subs themselves are weird as hell. "It's like butter." Wut?

    It supposedly aired on USA Network, which if true explains how I saw it. Around 1995 I was watching the cartoons on that channel like Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, and Savage Dragon on Sunday mornings. It would have been a fairly inexpensive but appropriate time slot to air a game commercial.
    Last edited by TonyTheTiger; 06-03-2017 at 03:03 PM.

  12. #12
    Super Moderator Moderator
    Custom rank graphic
    Aussie2B's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2004
    Location
    USA
    Posts
    9,277
    Thanks Thanks Given 
    35
    Thanks Thanks Received 
    133
    Thanked in
    111 Posts

    Default

    I wonder if they got the "It's like butter" line from the SNL Coffee Talk sketches, haha.

  13. #13
    ServBot (Level 11) TonyTheTiger's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    New Jersey
    Posts
    3,550
    Thanks Thanks Given 
    0
    Thanks Thanks Received 
    1
    Thanked in
    1 Post

    Default

    It wouldn't surprise me if it were some weird reference like that. This was during Nintendo's Play It Loud era where their ads took a hard turn toward the bizarre and gross--weird shit like a lineup of painted tongues to sell Game Boys. The lunacy of airing a Japanese commercial with nonsense subtitles sounds more than plausible when placed in that context.

  14. #14
    Cherry (Level 1) WulfeLuer's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2016
    Posts
    284
    Thanks Thanks Given 
    17
    Thanks Thanks Received 
    7
    Thanked in
    7 Posts

    Default

    It's like they just decided that "those dumbass kids won't know or care what the moonspeak is really saying" and went for a combination of pop culture and straight absurdist humor. Now it needs a dramatic reading by William Shatner.
    RPGs: Proof that one you start done the dork path, forever will it dominate your wallet's destiny.

  15. #15
    Cherry (Level 1) Retronick's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2011
    Location
    Washington DC
    Posts
    215
    Thanks Thanks Given 
    2
    Thanks Thanks Received 
    2
    Thanked in
    2 Posts

    Default

    I don't think there was ever a U.S. TV commercial for the game. They may have just relied on print ads for it.
    Dig it old-school?
    Visit http://www.retronick.com
    or follow me on twitter: @Retron8

  16. #16
    ServBot (Level 11) TonyTheTiger's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    New Jersey
    Posts
    3,550
    Thanks Thanks Given 
    0
    Thanks Thanks Received 
    1
    Thanked in
    1 Post

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Retronick View Post
    I don't think there was ever a U.S. TV commercial for the game. They may have just relied on print ads for it.
    I probably only ever saw it air once so it's rarity justifies it's obscurity to people but that video above is definitely the real deal. It fits what I remember seeing and even if my own memory is suspect (I didn't remember the subtitles, for example) there are enough corroborating accounts to confirm it for sure.

    Check it out:
    https://groups.google.com/forum/#!to...do/cLNJfz7yS18

    I'm just glad this is over. It was actually something of a long standing minor mission of mine to find this damn thing and the fact that nobody else knew what I was talking about made it kind of surreal. It was just so weird that such a popular game would have a piece of its history missing like that. If you notice, this was literally one of the first questions I asked after joining this site. Nice to have that monkey off my back.
    Last edited by TonyTheTiger; 06-30-2017 at 02:11 AM.

Similar Threads

  1. Chrono Trigger
    By cheaterdragon1 in forum Buying and Selling
    Replies: 2
    Last Post: 09-26-2011, 10:30 PM
  2. Replies: 26
    Last Post: 08-13-2010, 07:49 PM
  3. FS:chrono trigger
    By GOLeafsGO in forum Buying and Selling
    Replies: 7
    Last Post: 07-01-2006, 03:28 PM
  4. How much does a Chrono Trigger go for?
    By PenPen in forum Collector Guides and Rarity Database
    Replies: 2
    Last Post: 07-05-2005, 10:08 PM
  5. Chrono Trigger on the BAY
    By kai123 in forum Buying and Selling
    Replies: 5
    Last Post: 06-02-2004, 08:28 PM

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •