I was browsing through some old video game commercials on Youtube and came across this strange SNES commercial that was apparently run by Sears back in 1992 or so.
What’s odd is that when they show Super Mario World playing, the title screen has the subtitle Super Mario Bros. 4 (it shows up around the 8 second mark). I wonder if they recorded the Japanese version of the game or what. But this is definitely an American commercial.
It could have been a preview copy of the game. Either way, this is a cool commercial. It’s a Sear poem! Now, if a hardcore gamer happens to be reading this, he might be wondering, “Durrrr, it is Sears. Who cares about Sears?” Sears has a very special place in gaming history. Without Sears, we would not have a video game console.
It was Sears Sporting Department that bought and advertised PONG as a home console. Retailers stayed away because of the Odyssey flop. The reason why the Odyssey flopped is because everyone confused it with Atari’s PONG. They bought it, took it home, and found out that it was not PONG. Retailers didn’t want to touch another game console after that. While Ralph Baer parades himself as the father of video games, he actually almost destroyed video games before The Revolution even began with that Odyssey flop.
In the 80s and early 90s, anyone remember the Sears Holiday Catalog? It would arrive in mail and would be like a phone book (though I guess kids these days don’t even know what a phone book is). It was mailed out so families could make Christmas purchases. Ever since PONG, Sears prominently featured their video games. I remember them even having the Nintendo Store ‘in a store’ on their second stories.
“But what about the bird at the end, Malstrom?” It’s the Nintendo bird! Be afraid. Be very afraid!
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