Elsewhere: Imagic Dragonfire TV Commercial

Imagic spent a lot of money on their TV commercials back in the early days of home videogaming, and this ad for Dragonfire is no exception:



Dragonfire was never as popular as Imagic's flagship title, Demon Attack,  but its release life surpassed the Atari 2600 and Intellivision versions advertised here, appearing on quite a few console and home computer platforms back in the day.  (It was Imagic's only title to appear on the Apple II.)

Imagic's humorous and image-conscious marketing may have had a lot to do with its success.  Note the intricacy of the dragon costume, which is cartoony but easily as detailed as Toho's Godzilla suits.  And the expense put into creating hand-animated but otherwise unembellished versions of the Atari 2600 sprites, which couldn't otherwise be enlarged enough to show detail.  And the on-set live pyrotechnic effects.

Games today look a lot better -- but most game ads just feature in-game footage.

I kind of miss the days when ads had this kind of freedom to fill in the details.