Wednesday, July 15, 2020

I'm a Video Kideo!

I have a couple sheets of these awesome video game themed stickers made by Scholastic in 1984, and they really are a perfect pair-up of joystick love and the joy of stickers! Some of the big games of the era get their time to totally power-up and shine: Pac Man, Dragon's Lair, Burgertime, Pitfall, Q-Bert, Tron, Turbo-- and no doubt about, I'm STILL daffy for Daphne of Dragon's Lair! Super fun artwork by B.K. Taylor and Samuel B. Whitehead, and to really go for the high score gold, Jovial Bob Stine, aka R. L. Stine was responsible for the text. Here's all 20 of 'em:













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I've always wondered why that last image of Video Kideo didn't included a joystick on the game control panel. So, with a little photoshop assist I added one myself and... ohhhhh... THAT'S why the illustration didn't include a joystick!



And wait, where do you insert the quarter??!!

7 comments:

  1. And parents back then thought video games in the arcade were addictive. It was a more innocent time back in the 80's and 90's compared to the 24 hour gaming going on today.

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  2. I like the six-armed video game master image. That'd look ideal on the back of a period-appropriate satin bomber. I like to push the sleeves up to my elbows--with just a little pink shirtsleeve poking out--pop the collar, and change the whole fiver into a wax cupload of Putt Putt tokens.

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  3. "Scholastic" is one of those words that was G-U-A-R-A-N-T-E-E-D to make my ears perk up when I was a kid. Lol, "was". As if I'm not a 30+ year old woman with an active sticker collection...

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  4. I like the "daffy about Daphne" too but specifically for the dragon. I love that sly look he has! Reminds me of the Droopy cartoon.

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  5. Oh man these are so awesome. I have vivid memories of losing immediately to Dragon's Lair within seconds of adding my fifty cents (double the amount of other video games at the time!). I sucked so bad at all video games all throughout my childhood but I still wanted to play them. I still suck at them but nowadays I can loose immediately in the privacy of my own home instead of surrounded by leering crowds.

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  6. >compared to the 24 hour gaming going on today.

    And expensive nowadays too, though I remember blowing my $20 allowance in under an hour one time in an early 80's arcade, and it was supposed to last me all week! Never did that again, until of course I did it again. And again. etc

    >change the whole fiver into a wax cupload of Putt Putt tokens.

    That was the smart way to do it, unlike my method of lining them up along the top of the arcade game marquee to show everyone waiting to play behind you that you indeed actually had the next 27 continuous plays secured, haha...

    >As if I'm not a 30+ year old woman with an active sticker collection...

    Haha, well I'm a 50+ year old man who collects all kinds of things that would be considered age inappropriate, but hey, who the heck wants to grow up anyway? Right?

    >I like the "daffy about Daphne" too

    I now realize I meant Dragon's Lair and NOT Space Ace... loved 'em both actually!

    > I have vivid memories of losing immediately to Dragon's Lair within seconds

    haha, you mean you didn't carry around a little notebook to jot down tips and tricks? But yeah, that was one game that definitely took a lot of quarters and memory moves.

    Thanks for the comments everyone, and in honor of it being summertime, we'll be looking into the holidays next!

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  7. I'm digging on the Q*bert Alert! sticker. I got my old mother hooked on that machine many moons ago.

    And i agree with Wendy - Scholastic was a 'brand' that automatically pinged my attention. There were times i wished i could still get their catalog after i was out of school.


    Oh - and the quarter slot is in the rear...

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