by 
Alongside Capcom, Sega, Taito and Namco, Konami was one of the prime movers and shakers of the '80s and '90s arcade scene.
The company's catalogue of coin-op hits includes Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Contra, Gradius, Parodius and more – but what sticks in the memory alongside the quality of these coin-ops is the delightfully zany and often quite saucy promotional flyers that accompanied some of these titles in the West.
Clearly, someone in Konami's marketing department had reasoned that nothing sells a violent arcade game better than scantily clad women, and, as a result, many of Konami's arcade hits from this period have flyers that are almost as memorable as the games themselves.
The question is, can you match each flyer to its respective game?
Comments 28
The LordBBH stream had made me familiar with Aerobics-chan and her friends. But how familiar is the question to remain...
Now I want 80s TV shows of all of these flyers!
Yeah... thatbwas skmething.
Never heard of "kits" before, what is that about? And what do they mean with "earnings"?
Some of these remind me of dirty magazines my innocent eyes sometimes caught at newsstands in the early 90s. Must be coincidental, ahem...
Argh! I only got 3 right. Shame on me.😞
Moving on, boy do I miss these kind of flyers or what.😊
I got a perfect 15/15. The TMNT and Simpsons crowd barely went to any arcade back in the 90s. Those are the only Konami arcade games that exist to them. Normies.
@Daniel36 These are arcade games and these advertisements were directed at arcade operators which explains why they mentioned earnings. Operators wanted games that would collect the most quarters. As for kits, they mean conversion kits. Instead of buying a whole new cabinet, they could buy a conversion kit that would allow them to use an existing cabinet.
I'm pleased with my 11/15, totally legit. I didn't look anything up. I'm surprised I did so well since my Konami arcade knowledge is spotty and these flyers aren't the most common things to come across.
I missed Le Mans, Dark Adventure, MIA, and Martial Champion.
That was actually quite tough but you have to love this type of advertising it belongs to an era takes me back they look like movie posters we used to get from the local video shop.
Those flyers were glorious!
Most of these i already knew about some of the others I just kinda guessed and got either right or wrong lol 😆. Still i miss this 80's and 90's style of video game advertising because even if the game isn't that great or memorable the ads for it will probably linger on in people's minds for years to come tbh.
@Deuteros
Me too. That Haunted Castle promotional art is an easy 10.
Video game adds, commercials, console & controller designs(etc) were abizzion times better back in the late 80's & early to mid 90's than they are now. We've gone backwards. Can't get enough of that 80's fashion(Big hair, Neon colours, big earings, and no blown out lip injected hot dog lips that you see often with the zombified Smart phone weilding chicks of today.
For someone who was born after the death of the arcade, I'm pleasantly surprised at my 8/15. Granted, the only ones I truly knew were Haunted Castle and Contra, but at least I know enough about Konami arcade games to have been able to vibe out to half.
@WaveBoy
Everything was better in the 80s and 90s, world has gone backwards or become flat and genuinely uninteresting IMO.
00s blended to 10s with no distinct fashion styles, technology plateaued, becoming less experimental and innovative, pop culture landmarks ceased to exist, music became non existent and fewer films and tv shows defined eras then shared culture events and experiences evaporated.
Personally I blame it all on Steve Jobs and the smartphone plus social media as things were okay up until 2008 and the noughties does have its own flavour!
Plus more experimentation and genuine fun with adverts, marketing, boxart, manuals and industry was new and young, plus unafraid to offend...
Dead End Drive the board game as an avatar always wanted to play that along with Mysteries of Old Peking!
Oh disaster their is a leaderboard, second fastest to complete but last at 20 with 6/15, the humiliation!
Think someone should release a collector's booklet of all the Konami arcade promos
What a scam! Are you telling me that the covers of games in the 80s were totally misleading!? Unacceptable! /s
@sdelfin Oh, the exact ones I missed? 🤪
I really enjoyed that. I didn't do too well, getting 8 out of 15 right. Half of these games I had never heard of. I'm going to have a look to see how many of them have been released by Hamster.
I didn't know there was a leaderboard at the end. I would have taken it more seriously if I did. I look forward to playing more quizzes like this.
@sdelfin Aha, these ads were not for consumers. That makes sense. Thanks!!
@OorWullie Yes more obscure retro quizes please Time Extension!
Lucked out in the 3 I wasn't sure about. I need to go and wash off all this eighties hairstyles out of my eyeballs.
How fun! I knew that was JACKAL arcade but didn’t know it had a different title in the west.
The marketing back then was truly something!
Now I have an urge to play Rollergames pinball…
I see someone getting 15/15 in the leaderboards but it took them 23 minutes. Hmmm...
All, except nr 12.
@PKDuckman
Compared to 66 secs for others! 🤣
This person must have been employed by Konami in the 80s, or owned their own arcade back then!
I don't know if those flyers moved many machines, but I bet they got operators to take a second look at them.
well I scored a pathetic 3/15 but I was distracted by the pictures
The same crop top used in Contra, Devastators and Top Gunner
I got 9/15. No way the women would look this good if they attempted those posters today.
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