Video games and its ties to childhood obesity has been a hot and serious topic for some time now. In fact, video game historian Patrick Scott Patterson notes the worst examples can be traced all the way to the '80s.
The following video, which Kotaku recently brought to light, is more than eight minutes long and filled with commercials from the golden age of gaming, mostly revolving around fast food contests and sugary breakfast cereals:
These days, most fast food tie-ins come in the form of kids meals' toys; back then, the emphasis was on scratch off cards. It could be argued the old ways were more insidious, since you know what you're getting with just a toy. Aside from not getting the exact toy you wanted, there's no blind luck, no gamble.
Pac-Man dominated the highlight reel. He was gaming's first legitimate superstar, and it shows; not only did he have his own breakfast cereal, but his own pasta, soda, and fast food chain tie-in, along with an aid for upset stomachs (just in case you tried eating all the delicacies he peddles in one sitting).
But it is Pac-Man's cereal, along with others associated with Nintendo's cast of characters, which are the true vestiges of a by-gone era. Breakfasts that come in fluorescent shades are no longer in vogue with parents these days. That's a shame, since many children of the '80s (like me) would kill to have a fresh box of the Nintendo Cereal System.
Matthew Hawkins is an NYC-based game journalist who has also written for EGM, GameSetWatch, Gamasutra, Giant Robot and numerous others. He also self-publishes his own game culture zine, is part of Attract Mode , and co-hosts The Fangamer Podcast . You can keep tabs on him via Twitter , or his personal home-base, FORT90.com .
