History Main / PacmanFever

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' [[LampshadeHanging hangs a lampshade]] on this, with characters playing a dead ringer for the original Game Boy with ArcadeSounds... in the year 3000.

* Subverted and played straight at the same time: In the issue of a Ultimate Marvel title, ''ComicBooks/{{Wolverine}}'' is seen playing a full 3D game in a handheld system that looks exactly like a Game Boy. While the graphics look on par with those of a modern game, the idea of a 3d console having the same number of buttons as a Game Boy is simply laughable. Add to that the fact that the story was set some time after the Game Boy design had been abandoned.

* Subverted and played straight at the same time: In the issue of a Ultimate Marvel title, Wolverine is seen playing a full 3D game in a handheld system that looks exactly like a Game Boy. While the graphics look on par with those of a modern game, the idea of a 3d console having the same number of buttons as a Game Boy is simply laughable. Add to that the fact that the story was set some time after the Game Boy design had been abandoned.

** One episode has the NCIS team question a Japanese kid who just saw the criminal they were chasing. When the kid says that the criminal escaped in a karuma, Dinozzo assumes he just meant car (Karuma is Japanese for car) until [=McGee=] not only identified that the karuma is a specific car in the ''Grand Theft Auto'' games, but also identified what real life car it's based on so they could put out an APB.

** If that wasn't enough, at the beginning of the episode a group of kids rob a bank with Uzis, and one of them was shot by Delko after he tried to rape a woman for "extra points". It was later revealed they specifically picked a bank with a cop present (again, for extra points), the PR guy (yes, there was only one) encouraged them (and provided the Uzis) to do it for advertising purposes, one of the suspects was found to have "gamed himself to death", and the token [[GamerChick Girl Gamer]] apparently did it to get in with the highly elitist gamers.

* Similarly, in SimonPegg's ''Film/ShaunOfTheDead'', playing ''VideoGame/TimeSplitters'' (appropriately a UK-developed shooter game) on a [=PS2=] is depicted accurately, aside from a "Player 2 has entered the game" voiceover narration added for the audience's benefit.

* Disney's ''Disney/WreckItRalph'' plays with this. The main character is from a faux Donkey Kong-era game, and a lot of the sound effects are classic arcade bleep bloops, but the crux of the plot involves visiting a variety of different Video Game worlds, at least one of which is basically ''VideoGame/{{Halo}}'' as a light-gun rail shooter. Ralph is even horrifically amazed at how much games have evolved since his own day, and of course it's played for laughs.

* {{Inverted|Trope}} in UltimateNightmare: [[Comicbook/UltimateXMen Bobby]] is shown playing what looks like a current gen game on a regular old Gameboy.

** Another episode had the team treating a video game designer and even trying out his virtual reality emersion equipment for the game. It had some very good graphics and {{F|irstPersonShooter}}PS views. This specific example was an aversion, but a later episode showed Foreman and Taub bonding over playing XBox together (mashing buttons and analog sticks) while the exact same game footage plays on the tv.

** The sound effects are right for ''Donkey Kong'', and Spike's comments make sense in the contexts of the sound effects.

* ''Series/TheMiddle'' got close in "One Kid At A Time", where the family is seen playing ''VideoGame/DanceDanceRevolution Extreme'' on beginner mode on a real cabinet (with dubbed over music and actual in-game footage)... which has a marquee for ''DDR X2'' on it unknown reasons (X2 was never released in the U.S. for "old" cabinets)

** On the other end of the scale, in another episode they plan to play ''VideoGame/{{Zork}}''.
** Apparently Sheldon sucks at ''Mario Kart Wii''.
*** If he plays the game like a traditional sitcom character usually does (flailing the wheel left and right regardless of how the track is actually built) then [[FridgeBrilliance it makes sense that he'd constantly crash out.]]

*** And in a points race, the warp flute would actually be counter productive. It gets you to higher levels that have harder enemies and fewer opportunities for points. In that competition, this troper would never had left level 1-2 and its [[RespawningEnemies infinite goomba pipes.]]

* The makers of ''Fruit by the Foot'' once struck a promotional deal with Nintendo to print gameplay tips for {{Nintendo 64}} games on the snack's cellophane wrappers. The commercial showed two teenagers grown old, with one who's been waiting 62 years for his friend to finish playing. He's supposedly been using the snack's hints to keep from losing for all these years... but he's [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-C-z2J9Qp_Y playing]] ''VideoGame/BanjoKazooie''. If the tips are so useful, [[FridgeLogic why hasn't he ''beaten'' it by now?]] Answer: nobody involved with this commercial got the memo that video games aren't about playing until you lose for a high score anymore, and actually have endings. It's even worse for the next commercial, where he's playing ''VideoGame/MarioParty 2'', which not only has an ending, but is specifically designed to be ''[[PartyGame a multiplayer game.]]'' 62 years and he never thought to go to the store and buy a second controller?!

* The makers of ''Fruit by the Foot'' once struck a promotional deal with Nintendo to print gameplay tips for {{Nintendo 64}} games on the snack's cellophane wrappers. The commercial showed two teenagers grown old, with one who's been waiting 62 years for his friend to finish playing. He's supposedly been using the snack's hints to keep from losing for all these years... but he's [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-C-z2J9Qp_Y playing]] ''VideoGame/BanjoKazooie!'' [[FridgeLogic If the tips are so useful, why hasn't he]] ''[[FridgeLogic beaten]]'' [[FridgeLogic it by now?]] Answer: nobody involved with this commercial got the memo that video games aren't about playing until you lose for a high score anymore, and actually have endings. It's even worse for the next commercial, where he's playing ''VideoGame/MarioParty 2'', which not only has an ending, but is specifically designed to be ''[[PartyGame a multiplayer game.]]'' 62 years and he never thought to go to the store and buy a second controller?!

* In ''{{Californication}}'', Hank Moody, his daughter and her boyfriend are often seen playing ''VideoGame/GuitarHero'', playing with actual controllers on actual songs with actual gameplay footage on the TV -- although the actors' movements might not match what's going on on screen.

----

* While you wait for ''VideoGame/{{Tekken}} 5'' to load up in your PlayStation2, you can play a low-polygon and low-texture first-person space shooter for kicks. In short, it looks kind of like a souped-up Super NES ''Videogame/StarFox'' (with higher resolution and running at constant 60fps).
** That would be ''Star Blade'', an arcade space shooter Namco released in the mid-90s. The full game is available as a bonus game along with the arcade versions of ''VideoGame/{{Tekken}} 1'', ''2'', and ''3''.
*** This sort of thing is quite typical of Namco. They are quite fond of placing {{Easter Egg}}s in their games which contain [[ShoutOut references to their past titles]].

* Also parodied by ThirdRateGamer, where he's frequently using the wrong controller to button-mash his way through the game, and sometimes it's not even a controller, like when he starts playing ChipNDaleRescueRangers with a pair of headphones.

* There's a video poker machine in multiple episodes of ''Series/{{Sliders}}'' that produces ''VideoGame/{{Pitfall}}'' sound effects.

* Disney's ''Disney/WreckItRalph'' plays with this. The main character is from a faux Donkey Kong-era game, and a lot of the sound effects are classic arcade bleep bloops, but the crux of the plot involves visiting a variety of different Video Game worlds, at least one of which is basically ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty'' as a sci-fi light-gun rail shooter. Ralph is even horrifically amazed at how much games have evolved since his own day, and of course it's played for laughs.

* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Doug}}'' features Judy talking in an online avatar-based chatroom similar to IMVU, accurately predicting technology that ''would not exist until many years later.''

* JonTron parodies this in almost every review, frequently using the wrong controller to play the game, putting the cartridge in wrong (like putting the cartridge in sideways throwing the cartridge at the console, or standing the cartridge up and trying to plug the ''console'' into it, etc) and whenever the console is shown, it's frequently a bizarre mish-mash of incompatible parts. The last part reaches its zenith in his {{Minecraft}} review, where he apparently plays the game on an SNES with a the box for MetalGearSolid3 in the cartridge slot, and a Gamecube controller taped to the controller port.

* The makers of ''Fruit by the Foot'' once struck a promotional deal with Nintendo to print gameplay tips for {{Nintendo 64}} games on the snack's cellophane wrappers. The commercial showed two teenagers grown old, with one who's been waiting 62 years for his friend to finish playing. He's supposedly been using the snack's hints to keep from losing for all these years... but he's [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-C-z2J9Qp_Y playing]] ''VideoGame/{{Banjo-Kazooie}}!'' [[FridgeLogic If the tips are so useful, why hasn't he]] ''[[FridgeLogic beaten]]'' [[FridgeLogic it by now?]] Answer: nobody involved with this commercial got the memo that video games aren't about playing until you lose for a high score anymore, and actually have endings. It's even worse for the next commercial, where he's playing ''VideoGame/MarioParty 2'', which not only has an ending, but is specifically designed to be ''[[PartyGame a multiplayer game.]]'' 62 years and he never thought to go to the store and buy a second controller?!

* A Russian ad for Choco-Boy snacks tells there is a contest to win a PSP Go and shows a kid playing it, but what we see on the screen is Choco-Boy running with a background taken right from the ''Super Mario All-Stars'' version of ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros''

* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yh0V68c1ybw This]] commercial for Sonic the Hedgehog pasta by Franco-American has a boy playing ''Main/SonicAndKnuckles'' on a Sega Genesis (specifically the Mushroom Hill stage). Ordinarily, this example would avert this trope, except the music playing in the background is from the Chemical Plant stage from ''Main/SonicTheHedgehog2''.

* ''{{Shorts}}'' features a particularly bad example of this. Various characters in the film are often shown playing ''VideoGame/{{Spore}}''. Normally this wouldn't be all that bad, but said characters are shown playing it multiplayer (''Spore'' is a single player game), on a {{P|layStation3}}S3 (''Spore'' is PC exclusive), and while randomly mashing buttons all while showing the Creature Creator on screen. To top it all off, nothing was even happening on the screen while said button mashing was happening (the creature clearly in its idle animation), and several bleeps reminiscent of some kind of weapons fire are heard.

* ''{{Jarhead}}'' has a few lines of dialogue referring to levels in ''VideoGame/{{Metroid}}'', and that if you reach the tenth level, nothing happens, you just start at the beginning again. Erm, no. Unlike games broken into levels, MetroidVania games are the poster child for SequenceBreaking. Not to mention that even the first Metroid game for the NES had a legitimate, if short, ending.

* ''MeetDave'' has an extremely stupid example. The eponymous alien plays against a kid in what appears to be ''Kinetica'', an ''VideoGame/{{F-Zero}}''/''Wipeout''-like racing game for a {{P|layStation2}}S2. The kid seems to be playing correctly, but Dave just taps his fingers over the controller like a mad man, and kicks the kid's ass in the game. Granted, he's an alien unfamiliar with human video games, but there is no way that ButtonMashing on crack could help you in any racing game at all, as they don't require combos. If it were a fighting game, this might've been funny, but in a racing game it looks stupid.

* In ''Film/BringItOn'', KirstenDunst's character's brother is seen playing ''Twisted Metal III'', and he actually looks like he's playing it and not randomly smashing buttons, and the sound effects are typical of what you'd hear from that game. All goes well until he makes a smartass comment about her boyfriend, causing her to get mad and rip the controller out of the system so hard it pops open the console, revealing no game inside of it.

** Not to mention, after the dad (Beau Bridges) gets hooked on ''{{VideoGame/Zelda II|TheAdventureOfLink}}'', the older son (ChristianSlater) snaps him out of it by unplugging the controller -- which somehow shuts off not only the NES, but the TV he's playing on.

* Mild case: In ''Film/TheAvengers'', Tony Stark points out that one of the Helicarrier's crewmen is playing ''{{Galaga}}''. When he leaves, the crewman looks around and then goes back to his game. When he does, the sound of a tractor beam can be heard, but there aren't any on the screen.

* At one point in ''{{Series/Heroes}}'', Claire's brother Lyle plays something on Playstation Portable, but the sounds are from the arcade game ''{{VideoGame/Defender}}''.
* In episode 2 of ''Series/InTheFlesh'' Dean is seen playing Franchise/ResidentEvil: Deadly Silence on a Nintendo DS... with Atari 2600-like sounds.

* Complete ''[[VideoGame/KatamariDamacy Me And My Katamari]]'', and [[spoiler: you'll be taken to an 8-bit minigame with a blooping version of "Katamari on the Rock", with the King commenting entertainingly on the graphics]].

*** This sort of thing is quite typical of Namco. They are quite fond of placing [[EasterEgg Easter Eggs]] in their games which contain [[ShoutOut references to their past titles]].

** Sluggy normally averts this. Older strips made reference to real games and systems. Later on, he switched to using obvious {{Bland Name Product}}s of current systems (The Playstashun and the [=SuWii=]). The game that comes up the most often is Fashion Rancher and various spinoffs, most likely a reference to the ''VideoGame/MonsterRancher'' series, and possibly a TakeThat at the ''VideoGame/DeadOrAlive'' volleyball games.

* At the beginning of the Website/ThatGuyWithTheGlasses One Year Anniversary Brawl, when WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic notices WebVideo/TheAngryVideoGameNerd, the Nerd is playing on a Nintendo DS, with background music from ''[[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario]]'', and sound effects from ''Pac-Man'' and ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog''.
** Of course. [[FridgeBrilliance He's the Angry Nintendo Nerd.]] [[ThemeTune He's the Angry Atari/Sega Nerd.]]
* Invoked in a episode of ENN, where Jeremy Petter interviews a representative of Atari. When the rep shows him a commercial for ''TheWitcher 2'', it shows Paul holding a keyboard like he's playing ''VideoGame/FretsOnFire'' while playing a RPG.

* In the "If You're So Smart, Why Aren't You Rich?" episode of ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries,'' Edward Nygma has created a video game so popular that a ''multi-billion dollar theme park attraction'' is built based on it. When we see the actual game the graphics are only at {{Intellivision}} level. The gameplay is more akin to InteractiveFiction than a video game, and old school interactive fiction to boot. And this version of Gotham City is, if anything, TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture ...
** May have been intentional, since this would go with the [[AnachronismStew anachronistic style]] of the show's take on Gotham City, where it's clearly the present day and modern tech abounds, but people dress like it's 1930 and TV is broadcast in black and white.

* ZigzaggingTrope on ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans''. The male characters would frequently play video games in their downtime, which sported the same look as the animation in the show. In one episode, they were clearly playing ''VideoGame/{{F-Zero}}''. On the other hand, one episode had Robin playing a ''VideoGame/{{Galaga}}''-style shooter and totally flipping out because he beat Cyborg's high score.[[note]]Although this isn't out of character for Robin at least, since he ''is'' dangerously super-competitive.[[/note]]

* Episode 28 of ''Manga/KeroroGunsou'' shows Natsumi playing a game that's obviously supposed to be the first ''Dobutsu no Mori'', better known in the states as ''VideoGame/AnimalCrossing''. A much later episode shows kid Keroro playing what is clearly ''SuperMarioBros'', and few episodes after that, we get one about the characters entering a RPG that is very clearly a ''VideoGame/DragonQuest'' parody.

* [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] in UltimateNightmare: [[UltimateXMen Bobby]] is shown playing what looks like a current gen game on a regular old Gameboy.

* ''ReignOverMe'' features ''VideoGame/ShadowOfTheColossus'' extensively. The original plan was to go with this trope, but the film's editor insisted on the aforementioned game, for character reasons.

* ''TheKingOfKong'' is a documentary about ''VideoGame/DonkeyKong'' world records. There were embellishments and inaccuracies with the overall story, but the game itself was described well.

* Averted in ''Film/{{Hitman}}''. When Agent 47 runs through the hotel, he enters the room where two kids play a modern console game. One of the games the movie is based upon, to be precise.
** Although played straight in that two kids are playing a single-player game.

* There is a '''porn''' video where a girl is distracted by her boyfriend while playing ''Warcraft 3'' (with the proper sounds). Of course, this is a RealLife style video.
** Well, [[TheRuleOfFirstAdopters Porn always liked technology]]...

* ''Series/{{CSINY}}'' had an episode, "Down the Rabbit Hole", using ''SecondLife''. [[spoiler:Where an assassin uses the program to get to her targets.]] However, just like ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'', some of the things shown on the show are misleading to what is possible to do in-game.

* Nicely averted in an episode of ''Series/{{Psych}}''. In order to get on the good side of another police officer, a detective heads to her house on Thanksgiving with the gift of a {{Wii}} that he got as seized property during a recent drug bust. He proceeds to play Boxing in ''VideoGame/WiiSports'' accurately with the woman's young cousins, using the punching motion controls and even getting too into it and having the kids complain about how good he was.
** It does however fall into cousin trope HollywoodLaw. Unless he got it at a police auction for a completed case, taking seized property anywhere is a ''big'' no-no, especially with him being a ByTheBookCop.

* An episode of ''NewTricks'' had Jack Halford speaking to some college guys about the murder of an old flatmate of theirs. Throughout the discussion, they're playing a generic ''VideoGame/PointBlank'' clone on a Wii using the Wii Zapper. All the sounds, movements, etc matched up, although oddly enough the pub at the end of the episode just happens to have an arcade cabinet with the exact same game on it.

* In ''Da KathAndKim Code'', a Vatican City version of ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto'' is shown. It's surprisingly accurate, featuring a similar HUD and box-art, and appropriate sound effects. The graphics are also quite close, while obviously being fairly low-quality compared to the real games, they're nevertheless in the same style and about as good as you'd expect from a 10-second clip specially made for the show.

* In Season 1 of ''Series/{{Lost}}'', Sayid and his friends play the [[PlayStation2 PS2]] port of ''VideoGame/{{Half-Life|1}}'', possibly even preparing for ''VideoGame/{{Half-Life 2}}'', which would be released later that year (2004).

* ''CoronationStreet'' varies wildly with this trope. Sometimes it features character endlessly button mashing (or even just hitting the same button over and over as fast as possible) while 1985 "missile" sound effects repeat nonstop from the offscreen TV. On a [=PS2=] controller. However, on a different occasion, David Platt was clearly seen playing ''VideoGame/{{Forza|Motorsport}}'' on his Xbox 360, complete with accurate handling of the controller, and showing the game running on the TV. [[DependingOnTheWriter Depends]] on the writer, it seems.

* Because Bill Amend is OneOfUs and a major gaming geek, this is often parodied or averted in {{Foxtrot}} (it once featured a comic parodying webcomics like ''xkcd'').

* The ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' episode "Make Love, Not Warcraft" revolves around the real-life [=MMORPG=] ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'', complete with plenty of gameplay footage (part of it was {{Machinima}}). Blizzard lent a lot of assistance to make the episode (they're apparently big ''South Park'' fans, but then again who isn't?) The episode, however, has many intentional inconsistencies compared to the real game -- although, in a [[{{Defictionalization}} reverse example]], Blizzard actually put [[http://www.wowpedia.org/Slayer_of_the_Lifeless some]] of the content from the episode into the game after the episode aired. Of course the fact that the gameplay footage is considerably more sophisticated than the ''South Park'' animation adds to the fun. Not to mention that their teacher is trying to teach them about computers using a lesson plan from the '80s.

** And then there was an RPGEpisode, with many of the townsfolk playing it. They had plenty of jokes like how silly it is to accept quests from strangers, Bart being a kid IRL but [[ADarkerMe really powerful in the game]], Moe wondering why he is paying $15 a month for this, etc. Granted, there were also departures from realism, but they were not greater then the show's usual departures from realism of [[MundaneFantastic the "real" town]] in comparison to real life.
*** Overall, the depiction was pretty accurate and faithful, even complete with a {{H|eadsUpDisplay}}UD accurate for [=MMORPGs=]. What's strange though, is that people in real life knew who each other's avatar equivalents were, perhaps because their avatars were identical to their real-life selves and even their personalities (Moe being the ButtMonkey in the above example, for example).

* In the "Chicken Ball Z" episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy'', it is easy to recognize the game Billy was playing on his handheld by the sound effects -- it's ''VideoGame/WarioLand II'', probably one of the later levels, based on the music. Billy calls it something different, of course, and no visuals are shown.

* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'', the Mayor is playing what is clearly ''Videogame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'', or a near parody, (albeit so badly that he "accidentally" kills his own fairy), which was a fairly recent release at that point. He's also holding what is obviously the Nintendo 64's iconic controller.
** If he killed [[TheScrappy Navi]], he may not be so bad at the game after all.

* The ''WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory'' episode "Master Computer" has the eponymous character and his sister playing what looks like a ''VideoGame/PrimalRage'' spoof. Later, when Dexter receives the game which the episode is named after, he describes it as "A really old game", and then proceeds to list the reasons why the games sucks to Dee Dee, citing stuff such as "No multiplayer, outdated graphics, etc." [[ComplainingAboutShowsYouDontWatch Despite never having played it]]. When he gets transported into the game, it has several ShoutOut's to ''VideoGame/{{Tetris}}'' and ''VideoGame/{{Pac-Man}}'', with a bit of ''Film/{{Tron}}'' thrown in there for good measure.
** [[FridgeBrilliance Dexter has shown a certain level of nerdiness]] beyond MadScientist in several episodes, so it's [[JustifiedTrope entirely possible he knew about the game's features beforehand]].
** However, the game ''does'' have multiplayer, and therefore, more than "one mode of play", too.

----

** It does however fall into cousin trope HollywoodLaw. Unless he got it at a police auction for a completed case, taking seized property anywhere is a ''big'' no-no.

* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrgVzTr2v1k Neutrogena has an ad in late 2011]] which features a bottle of shampoo playing a game much like VideoGame/SpaceInvaders against reappearing dandruff, complete with early-80's style sound effects. Then the bottle of Neutrogena scores a OneHitKill and triggers the AWinnerIsYou ending against dandruff.