Forty years ago, we had to be sold on game consoles and video games, and ad agencies went all out to court the teens and tweens of Generation X. The console wars pitted NES against the Sega Master System, Game Boy, and Atari. Games like Pitfall, Donkey Kong, Jr. and Centipede were introduced to kids who weren't allowed in arcades. And the ads were all loud, colorful, and in your face. Remember when Phil Hartman tried to get you to play Ice Hockey on the Atari 2600? When Mike Tyson battled himself on multiple screens? And that kid playing Pitfall grew up to be Jack Black? And Mario Bros. wasn't even super?
Den of Geek unearthed 15 video game TV commercials from the '80s for you to wallow in nostalgia over. They even ranked them, by what parameters it's hard to say. If you are too young to recall these TV ads, they can give you a little insight into the insane world your parents knew.