This Website Is Amazing: The Arcade Flyer Archive - General Discussion

#1 Edited by BaconGames (2382 posts) - 4 months, 16 days ago

I ran across this site about a month ago and it only just occurred to me now that I haven't done anything to share it on the site. So here it is!

If anyone wants or needs a bit of an introduction as to why you should visit, it's a repository of high quality scans of promotional flyers that game developers and publishers sent to arcade operators and owners. As a window into the past and another place to see art created for and around arcade games, it's absolutely amazing. The website, in addition to thousands of video game arcade flyers also has a whole half dedicated to pinball machine flyers. As someone who loves video games and its history deeper than most things, I got lost in this website and the only reason I'm not there right now is that I haven't had it in me to sink deep into the entire archive. Instead, here are some of my favorites to entice you:

A word of advice, if you want to see the arcade games hit the "video games" tab and then search by letter or whatever along the top. The "arcade game" tab is physical arcade cabinets/stations like the ones where you physically kick a ball or throw something. Also adding images to GB is busted so I'm not going to sit here for another 30 minutes to insert two more images. You should just dig around. One of my favorite things is seeing how different countries had different fliers, Dig Dug being a particularly fascinating example.

#2 Posted by Stimpack (327 posts) - 4 months, 16 days ago

Ooooh, this is quite cool. Thanks for bringing it to my attention!

#3 Posted by InfiniteStateMachine (214 posts) - 4 months, 16 days ago

Fricken awesome. Bookmarked :)

#4 Posted by BaconGames (2382 posts) - 4 months, 15 days ago

In my excitement to post this I didn't realize that putting up in the middle of the night wasn't the best time for exposure. Also, images seem to be working again.

#5 Posted by HarlechQuinn (376 posts) - 4 months, 15 days ago

This site looks pretty interesting. There is something "similar" with tons of scans of old ads, magazines, posters, tech docs etc.

#6 Posted by JeanLuc (3309 posts) - 4 months, 15 days ago

I like things in high quality. This website is pretty alright.

#7 Posted by Branthog (7044 posts) - 4 months, 15 days ago

Nice. I'm always on the lookout for sites that allow me to accumulate and preserve awesome old things. Right now, I'm finding magazines hard to find. I just can't feel bad about getting a PDF version of a magazine that was published 5, 10, or 20 years ago and is no longer available (or the magazine itself isn't even published anymore). Yet, they're often very hard to come across. Especially high quality versions.

I spent a lot of time looking for digitized manuals for all the atari and NES games. Wish I could find a sweet collection somewhere for PC games. It's not like there's any real value to these other than nostalgia and education.