Line #53 Main/ArcadeSounds


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5	%% This list of examples has been alphabetized. Please add your example in the proper place. Thanks!
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11	Whenever someone walks into an [[VideoArcade amusement arcade]] or turns on a console, the same sound:
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13	"Doop-do-whoo-whoo-whoo-whoo"
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15	is often heard.
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17	This trope can occur for a [[TropesAreTools variety of reasons]].
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19	In some times and places, it's just TruthInTelevision; it was just a fact for arcades in the 1980s, and there are still plenty of arcades with vintage classics in their repertoire.
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21	Another reason it's still used today is that high-quality sound effects and music coming from a game system could distract or confuse viewers - most real-world videogames made today are intended to sound realistic and to hold the viewer's attention; but a director doesn't necessarily ''want'' a videogame to compete with what's happening in the foreground like that or to define their soundtrack for the scene with its music, so they use older sounds that are recognizably "videogame-y" while remaining clearly distinct from the main audio track.
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23	And while this is becoming less common, it can also occur as a result of writers who don't realize video games have changed since 1983; they are TwoDecadesBehind (though it's more like three decades now) and their reference pools for games come from that era.
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25	Lastly, sounds from more recent and advanced games tend to have copyrights that require film and TV producers to pay royalties for their use; the older "bleeps and bloops" from the earliest arcade games, on the other had, are often in the public domain, or at least generic-sounding enough that they can't be easily traced to any specific game.
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27	A variation occurs with {{Pinball}} games, where a pinball table will be depicted audibly with a combination of simple chimes and bumper thumps. In reality, pinball tables with such limited sounds ended with the advent of solid-state games, which supported programmable sound generators, voice clips, and background music.
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29	Several recent series have averted this trope by scoring product-placement deals with current generation console manufacturers (cf. the debut of ''Heavenly Sword'' on ''Series/{{Heroes}}''). The deterioration of the arcade market in the West also makes the arcade version of this trope something of an irrelevant trope there, as fewer and fewer modern-day scenes are written set in arcades at all, let alone with 8-bit sound effects.
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32	See also MediaNotes/GamingAudio and PacManFever, which is the more general trope for the persistence of 8-bit games in TV and movies.
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34	If you're too young to remember what ''VideoGame/PacMan'' was like on the 2600, check [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HL2p2ANFlQ4 this]] out. And [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juH2qHYX9aI this]] for good measure. And, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzI1RBdK2_g this]] is ''VideoGame/DonkeyKong'' on the same system. These two games probably account for the vast, vast majority of Arcade Sounds used on TV.
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36	----
37	!!'''Examples:'''
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39	[[foldercontrol]]
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41	[[folder:Advertising]]
42	* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtVs7J_wq28 This]] "Credit Fairy" ad features two guys on a couch playing video games with what appear to be modern controllers. However, full gameplay sounds from the [[PortingDisaster infamous]] Atari 2600 version of ''Videogame/PacMan'' can be heard.[[note]]Although it is technically possible to use Sega Genesis controllers on a 2600, which is what could be going on here--though the Pac-Man port certainly wouldn't warrant THAT much button mashing...[[/note]]
43	* A Listerine Mouthwash commercial aired in the UK features two young children playing a games console with what look like Xbox or Platform/PlayStation controllers, but sounds like a Galaga rip-off--admittedly, there have been emulations of old games for the Platform/PlayStation2, et al., but it's unlikely children of that age (looking between 8 and 11) would be playing such old games. It doesn't even seem to have a pause function.
44	* A rather well-known example, albeit ''slightly'' more high-tech, is in a rather infamous Westwood College commercial, where, instead of 1983 PacManFever, we instead have generic laser ''ptcheeeew'' from roughly circa 1987 Galaga knockoffs. And this is supposed to be a commercial for ''game design courses.''
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47	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
48	* In the manga version of ''Manga/DeathNote'', in one of Matt's earlier appearances, he is playing a game on what appears to be a Nintendo DS (or something along those lines), and the sound effects coming from it are this. In the anime, he still has the device and plays on it, but it doesn't make any noise. (It could be argued that he may have turned it on silent so as not to irritate Mello.)
49	[[/folder]]
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51	[[folder:Film -- Animated]]
52	* [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] at the beginning of ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory2'', when Rex is playing a Buzz Lightyear game with graphics just as good as the rest of the computer-animated movie - ''on a Platform/SuperNES.'' The Super NES was host to games with DigitizedSprites like ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry1'' and the first ''VideoGame/ToyStory'' game, but even those games did not have nearly as many available colors as the more powerful (and probably more importantly, non-real-time) Pixar computers.
53	* Thoroughly justified in Litwak's Arcade in ''WesternAnimation/WreckItRalph''. It has a mixture of old and new video game sounds because Mr. Litwak keeps old machines for as long as he can. By 2012, when the movie is set, there are games from nearly every era of arcade video gaming to that point. (There are no pinball machines visible though, and thus there is a total absence of any pinball sounds, stereotypical or otherwise.)
54	[[/folder]]
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56	[[folder:Film -- Live-Action]]
57	* In the Irish movie ''Film/{{Accelerator}}'', a character early on is seen playing ''VideoGame/VirtuaCop'' in an arcade, though it's dubbed with some of the sound effects from ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}''.
58	* At one point in the kids' movie ''Film/BigFatLiar'', Jason plays a ''Pinball/PinBot'' pinball table. Although the table came out in 1986, it makes electro-mechanical sounds and chimes.
59	* The ''Film/CharliesAngels2000'' [[TheFilmOfTheSeries movie]] has a sequence in which Creator/DrewBarrymore's character Dylan stumbles upon two kids playing ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'' (a one-player game) with two 3rd party Platform/PlayStation controllers, buttonmashing unrealistically while out-of-place sound-effects play -- though at least the sound effects are neither particularly old-sounding nor from Pac-Man.
60	* In the horror movie ''Film/ChildrenOfTheCorn1984'', Malachai plays a solid state ''Medusa'' pinball with electro-mechanical sounds dubbed over it.
61	* Justified in ''Film/{{Tron}}''. Being 1982, Flynn's arcade would stock games that make PacManFever noises. It should also be noted that music ("Only Solutions" by Music/{{Journey\|Band}}) is playing on the PA system as well.
62	** Likewise with ''Film/TronLegacy'', because Flynn's Arcade apparently hasn't been touched since 1982 aside from the advanced supercomputer hidden in the back.
63	%%* Played for horror in ''Film/TwilightZoneTheMovie''. (ZCE- how is it played for horror?)
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66	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
67	* In an episode of ''Series/SeventhHeaven'' Simon challenged two bullies to a game of ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry2DiddysKongQuest'' and the sounds from the Game Boy sound nothing like the actual game play.
68	* An episode of the soap opera ''Series/AllMyChildren'' features a character playing a game entitled "Dark Star" on the TV. He is, of course, mashing the controller (which appears to have come from a Platform/PlayStation), and we hear, in order, the "death music" from ''Pac-Man'', the "begin level" music from ''VideoGame/DonkeyKong'', and the BGM from ''VideoGame/SpaceInvaders''.
69	* Avoided in ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'', where game soundtracks are often heard where applicable.
70	* A critical element in the ''Series/Daredevil2015'' episode "Rabbit in a Snowstorm" is a 2014 ''Pinball/MustangStern'' pinball game. When characters play it, however, it plays electro-mechanical chimes from fifty years ago.
71	* ''Series/{{House}}''. In one episode, he is seeing if a mobster is in a coma. First he tries poking him with a needle, and then holds up a Nintendo DS to his ear while a game is playing. The game is ''VideoGame/MetroidPrimeHunters'', but generic arcade sounds are heard instead of ones from the game.
72	* Averted in ''Series/{{House Of Cards\|US}}'' on multiple occasions. Frank Underwood is shown playing ''VideoGame/{{Killzone}}'' in earlier seasons, and in season 3 he is shown playing ''VideoGame/TheStanleyParable''.
73	* An episode of ''Series/{{NCIS}}'', averts this trope nicely. A co-worker of the kidnapped father of a young boy gives him a Nintendo DS to take his mind off things. The first thing we hear from it? The sound of user info being entered into a brand new DS.
74	* An episode of ''Series/NCISLosAngeles'' had one of the main characters playing a video game offscreen, complete with arcade bleeps and bloops. However, when you see the blurred screen in the background of another shot, the game has obvious Platform/PlayStation2/Xbox 360 graphics. It also looks like they were either using the Platform/PlayStation Eyetoy, the Wii Balance Board, or the Platform/Xbox360 Kinect to play the game.
75	* In Australian soap, ''Series/{{Neighbours}}'', for most of the '90s, the only video game anyone on the show ever played was ''Magic Carpet'' (most of the time with the camera looking at the player from behind the computer monitor, so you just heard the distinctive sound-track and sound effects). Now, in 2010, when at least one family has a complete set of guitar controllers, one young cast member was sat playing on a DS Lite to the distinctive sound effects of Magic Carpet - unless a more recent game, that actually has a DS version, uses the same sounds...
76	* In an episode of ''Series/TheSopranos'', Bobby Baccalier Jr.'s son Bobby III is playing a computer full of generic laser blasts, beeps, doots, and other such ''game'' noises. He's playing ''VideoGame/MaxPayne''.
77	* Simon Pegg, Jessica Hynes, and Edgar Wright made a point to avoid this in ''Series/{{Spaced}}'', after being tired of all the generic video games in other TV shows made by people who don't play games.
78	* In the episode "Everybody Loves a Clown," from the second season of ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'', a child is shown playing a Platform/NintendoDS, but the sound effects emanating from the device are sounds from the original Atari 2600 release of ''Donkey Kong''.
79	* ''Series/{{Weeds}}'' has an odd example: in one episode Nancy and Andy are playing ''VideoGame/WiiSports''. When the game is on-screen, it uses the correct sounds for the game; when the camera is on the characters (still playing, but the screen isn't shown), the foleys have inserted generic Pac-Man-style sound effects.
80	** Well, if they were [[WatchItStoned high on weeds]], that's what they'd be hearing...
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83	[[folder:Video Games]]
84	* ''VideoGame/{{Mother}}'':
85	** ''VideoGame/Earthbound1994'''s FirstTown has an arcade where you fight members of the local gang. Once inside, you'll hear various bleeps and bloops, including those from old-school shoot-em-up ''VideoGame/{{Xevious}}''. Which fits, since Earthbound is a {{parody}} of sorts of the 80's.
86	** The arcade's music in ''VideoGame/MOTHER3'', the Japanese only sequel to Earthbound, has several beeps, and if you listen closely, you can hear the 'doo, doo, woop' sound from ''VideoGame/SpaceInvaders''
87	* For whatever reason, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYkw-Ci0niE Lord Crump's theme]] from ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor'' samples the death rattle from the Atari 2600 version of ''VideoGame/PacMan''.
88	* The 8-Bit Jam music in ''VideoGame/PlantsVsZombies2ItsAboutTime[='=]s'' Neon Mixtape Tour contains these. Arcade Zombie's arcade machine also makes arcade sounds when it spawns zombies, as well as when 8-bit zombies are defeated. Justified, as the level takes place in TheEighties when early arcade games were all the rage.
89	* A ''skee-ball game'' at a carnival in ''VideoGame/SpongeBobSquarepantsBattleForBikiniBottom'' makes the jumping sound from ''Donkey Kong'' on the Atari 2600 when you score a goal. Fits in with the series' proclivity towards {{Wacky Sound Effect}}s.
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92	[[folder:Web Original]]
93	* In the webseries ''WebVideo/TheGuild'', one of the characters is never seen without her Nintendo DS with her, which is making old style Mario sounds. It's eventually revealed that she is playing ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBros'', which specifically used old Mario sounds.
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96	[[folder:Western Animation]]
97	* Played for laughs in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/AquaTeenHungerForce'' where Atari bleeps and bloops are heard coming from ''a smartphone''.
98	* In a ''WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime'' episode, the kids staying in the ''secret government base'' of a bunch of ''alien robots from space'' are playing a video game on an ancient wood-paneled console TV where the sound effects of the Atari 2600 version of ''Pac-Man'' can be clearly heard. Guess G1 fans aren't the only ones who can't stop living in the 80s....
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Context Main / ArcadeSounds