History Main / ArcadeSounds

* Averted in ''[[Series/HouseOfCardsUS House of Cards]]'' on multiple occasions. Frank Underwood is shown playing ''VideoGame/{{Killzone}}'' in earlier seasons, and in season 3 he is shown playing ''TheStanleyParable''.

* 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 arcade games were all the rage.

See also GamingAudio and PacManFever.

If you're too young to remember what ''VideoGame/PacMan'' was like on the 2600, check [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HL2p2ANFlQ4 this]] out. And [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juH2qHYX9aI this]] for good measure. And, [[http://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 ArcadeSounds used on TV.

* In the webseries ''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.

* In a recent ''[[WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime Transformers Prime]]'' 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....

* A critical element in the ''Series/{{Daredevil}}'' 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.

This is a symptom of TV shows' [[PacManFever odd inability to realize that video games have changed since 1983]] -- arcades now include [[VideoGame/DanceDanceRevolution high-fidelity music]], [[FightingGame punching and clanging noises]], and [[StreetFighter hadoukens]]! TV's conception of video games still seem to involve 2D platforms, jerky animation, bleeping synthesized sound, and sometimes even big blobs of color that look virtually nothing like what they're supposed to represent, a la ''VideoGame/{{Pac-Man}}'' and ''SpaceInvaders''.

If you're too young to remember what ''{{Pac-Man}}'' was like on the 2600, check [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HL2p2ANFlQ4 this]] out. And [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juH2qHYX9aI this]] for good measure. And, [[http://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 ArcadeSounds used on TV.

* 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 Playstation), and we hear, in order, the "death music" from {{Pac-Man}}, the "begin level" music from VideoGame/DonkeyKong, and the BGM from SpaceInvaders.

* ''VideoGame/{{Earthbound}}'''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 ''Xevious''.

* The ''Film/CharliesAngels'' [[TheFilmOfTheSeries movie]] has Drew Barrymore's character stumbles upon two kids playing ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'' (a one-player game) with two 3rd party PlayStation controllers, buttonmashing unrealistically while out-of-place sound-effects play -- though the sound effects are not particularly old-sounding and not from Pac-Man.

This is also seen in many TV shows that depict a character playing on a video game console. Though the character is clearly holding a controller appropriate to a current-model console at the time the show was shot, the sound effects are invariably taken from an {{Atari2600}} or early-1980s arcade game. To add insult to injury, the character playing the game is usually mashing the hell out of the buttons and moving the control pad or joystick in totally random directions, and never appears to do anything in time with the sound effects. Occasionally, in the case of older systems, there won't even be a cartridge in the console itself. This can also be a result of writers being TwoDecadesBehind and their reference pool of gaming coming from that era.

* [[http://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 ''{{Pac-Man}}'' 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]]

* In the episode "Everybody Loves a Clown," from the second season of ''Supernatural'', a child is shown playing a Nintendo DS, but the sound effects emanating from the device are sounds from the original Atari 2600 release of ''Donkey Kong''.
** He could have an [[TruthInTelevision R4 Revolution card]] and [[FridgeBrilliance transferred a downloaded ROM of Donkey Kong from his computer.]]

** Donkey Kong ''[[{{SNES}} Country]]'' 2? Sounds like they skimped on research in more ways than one, or maybe they just assumed that the port of ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry'' to GameBoy Color would be followed by ports of its sequels.

* ''{{Weeds}}'' has an odd example: in one episode Nancy and Andy are playing Wii Sports. 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.

* In the webseries ''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 New Super Mario Brothers, which specifically used old Mario sounds.

* [[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 [[SuperNintendoEntertainmentSystem Super NES]].'' The Super NES was host to games with DigitizedSprites like ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry'' and the first ''VideoGame/ToyStory'' game, but even in those games did not have nearly as many available colors as the more powerful(and probably more importantly, non-real-time) Pixar computers.

* For whatever reason, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYkw-Ci0niE Lord Crump's theme]] from samples the death rattle from the Atari 2600 version of ''VideoGame/PacMan''.

* In the horror movie ''ChildrenOfTheCorn'', Malachi plays a solid state ''Medusa'' pinball with electro-mechanical sounds dubbed over it.

* In a recent ''[[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime Transformers Prime]]'' 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....

* In a recent ''[[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime Transformers Prime]]'' episode, the kids staying in the ''secret government base'' of a bunch of ''alien robots from space'' are playing a video G1 Transformers fans aren't the only ones who can't stop living in the 80s....

* In a recent ''[[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime Transformers Prime]]'' 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 wooden console TV...and the sounds effects from the Atari 2600 ''Pac-Man'' game can be clearly heard. Guess the Transformers fans aren't the only ones who can't stop living in the 80s....

* In a recent ''{{Transformers}} Prime'' 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 wooden console TV...and the sounds effects from the Atari 2600 ''Pac-Man'' game can be clearly heard. Guess the Transformers fans aren't the only ones who can't stop living in the 80s....

* In the 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 wooden console TV...and the sounds effects from the Atari 2600 ''Pac-Man'' game can be clearly heard. Guess the Transformers fans aren't the only ones who can't stop living in the 80s....