Box Art Wednesday.

Just something a bit different this Box Art Wednesday. Thanks to Boardgame Geek for the pics above of the box art for very popular video games back in my youth...and still popular to this day of course.

Of all of the boxes shown above I have to say that the Pitfall one is my favorite, with maybe Berzerk coming in a close second.

Freedom of Choice - Devo

Saturday Supercade!

It's an 8-bit art show for this Saturday Supercade!

1.) You have to be careful when exploring this crazy thing we call life because around every corner there might just be a lurking Pitfall tile created scorpion waiting for you.

2.) I guess when your water pipes begin to pour out 8-bit pixelated water your only choice is to call on the Mario Bros. plumber company.

3.) Wonderful Tron representation from the I am 8-bit art exhibit. End of Line.

4.) Why use spray paint when you can create an entire Donkey Kong out of post-it notes?

5.) A nicely crafted laptop tote bag featuring Pitfall Harry doing his thing.

The Spirit Of Adventure - Michael Giacchino

Saturday Supercade!

Click the pic to make Scholastic sized!

Found this charming sticker set online this morning, a gentle reminder when arcade games ruled everything. Ah, what a glorious time it was.

I particularly enjoy the Zork, Miner 2049er, and Pitfall stickers. Who am I kidding...I like them all.

Get your dice throwing hands warmed up today, dear readers, for the next batch of posts I put up will be on video game boardgames.

Sure you were good at games...

...but were you good enough to get a sew on patch for your efforts?

These patches, which were offered on quite a few of the classic Activision games, were one of the things that really set Activision apart from the rest of the game developers. In your manual you would have a set or sets of scores to achieve and then with your Polaroid camera you took a picture of the television screen and submitted it...then in a few weeks you would get back an awesome bragging right to sew onto your silver Atari jackets!

The only one that I seemed to have a knack for was Robot Tank, kind of a swiped version of Atari's own Battlezone...though Activision improved upon it. You had four parts of your tank that could be damaged, your treads, speed, radar, and of course the view screen. It also had varying weather patterns to cause all manner of havoc on you, especially in fog when your view screen is rolling and sparking out.

How good did you have to be in Robot Tank? 4 Squadrons/48 tanks for the Medal of Merit. 5 Squadrons/60 tanks for the Cross of Excellence. 6 Squadrons/72 tanks for the Star of Honor.

These were not easy things to achieve and to this day I long to be able to buy someone's collection of Activision patches...as well as one of those silver Atari jackets.

Oh, to get the Explorer's Club patch? You needed to get 20,000 points in Pitfall. Yet again, no easy task back in the day. There were a total of 32 treasures and to achieve this score you needed to not die, not get 'hurt' like landing on fire or touching the rolling logs, falling into a pit, etc.