The folks at the non-profit Video Game History Foundation continue to research and archive the history of the video game industry, most recently by publishing a neat blog post about the very first arcade video game ads.
It's a really interesting look at how coin-op video games like Computer Space were advertised nearly 50 years ago, when most people had no idea what a video game was or why they should care.
Notably, writer Kate Willaert recaps how game industry entrepreneur Nolan Bushnell worked with collaborators to adapt the two-player game Spacewar! into Computer Space, the first arcade video game -- and then struggled to sort out how to sell it to people who knew "arcade games" only as electro-mechanical games like Duck Hunt and Periscope, which didn't have actual TV displays.
Willaert draws together ads for arcade games (we've taken the liberty of excerpting one below, for the electro-mechanical game Computer Quiz) around this time and showcases how they evolved to become more like car ads, promoting the machines as sleek status symbols accompanied by an attractive model.
Her report make for fascinating reading, and you can do so in full over on the VGHF website.
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