15 shocking video ads from the 80s and 90s

The video game industry isn't exactly known for subtelty. These days, the biggest companies have ballooned to the point where they have outside marketers and HR folks to keep the most malicious nonsense in check. In the 1980s and '90s, though, console makers Nintendo and Sega were fighting a war for dominance of the American and Japanese markets. Sony, used to selling electronics overseas, often came across as the adult in the playroom. But even Sony produced some zany marketing.

Tech-corp camp, goofiness, and the constant subtext that all video game players are immature teenage boys overflowed from the strange ad spots of the era. The result was a sometimes amazing, sometimes sad, and sometimes downright weird melange of the collective game developer id.