This television spot for Berserk features a character who I'm certain was described in some pitch meeting back in the '80s as a "spunky grandma." When her grandson mentions the word "Berserk," she casts her scarf/quilt aside and races off the porch with alarming alacrity. She moves very quickly for an old person. Quick-moving old people always make me nervous. Anyway, once the grandson informs the grandmother that they do not have to go to an arcade to play Berserk (I'm guessing they were going to take her crappy old-time bicycle that is visible in the background), the action moves indoors, and a wonderful song begins to play.

"You are locked inside an electric maze/Where robots shoot you with electric rays." Then the grandmother says the line (while playing), "TAKE THAT, TURKEY." The gameplay footage seen here doesn't look too bad, until that smiling, flickering tomato-faced thing comes bouncing across the screen. I'd forgotten about the horrible flickering the Atari 2600 was infamous for. In fact, when this commercial was shot, I'm fairly sure that Atari and the entire videogame industry was flickering as well, and on the verge of doing a big fade-out.

Check out more great retro game ads.