History Main / ArcadeSounds

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 ArcadeSounds used on TV.

* 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}}) is playing on the PA system as well.

It would, of course, be extremely stupid to say this isn't TruthInTelevision ''at all''. It was just a fact for many arcades in the 1980s, and there are still plenty of arcades with vintage classics in their repertoire. However, for many TV shows, it's a symptom of their [[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 [[Franchise/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, à la ''VideoGame/PacMan'' and ''VideoGame/SpaceInvaders''.

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 [[Franchise/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, à la ''VideoGame/PacMan'' and ''VideoGame/SpaceInvaders''.

Now, it would be extremely stupid to say this isn't TruthInTelevision at all, there are still plenty of arcades that host multiple classics in their repertoire. And, of course, this is truth in television for 1980s media.

* ''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 ''VideoGame/{{Xevious}}''.
** Which fits, since Earthbound is a {{parody}} of sorts of the 80's.
*** 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''

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* 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 WackySoundEffects.

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Now, now. It would be extremely stupid to say this isn't TruthInTelevision at all, there are still plenty of arcades that host multiple classics in their repertoire. And, of course, this is truth in television for 1980s media.

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, à la ''VideoGame/PacMan'' and ''VideoGame/SpaceInvaders''.

This may be a DiscreditedTrope, as several recent series have scored 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 it something of an irrelevant trope there, as fewer and fewer scenes are written set in arcades at all, let alone with 8-bit sound effects. 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.

This may be a DiscreditedTrope, as several recent series have scored 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 it something of an irrelevant trope there, as fewer and fewer scenes are written set in arcades. 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.

* Thoroughly justified in Litwak's Arcade in ''Disney/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.)

* The ''Film/CharliesAngels'' [[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 UsefulNotes/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.

* A ''skee-ball game'' at a carnival in ''VideoGame/SpongeBobSquarepantsBattleForBikiniBottom'' makes noises taken from ''Donkey Kong'' on the Atari 2600. And then so does a ''shuffleboard deck''. Fits in with the series' proclivity towards goofy, exaggerated sound effects.

* A ''skee-ball game'' at a carnival in ''VideoGame/SpongeBobSquarepantsBattleForBikiniBottom'' -- physical games, mind you, skee-ball -- makes noises taken from ''Donkey Kong'' on the Atari 2600. And then so does a ''shuffleboard deck''. Fits in with the series' proclivity towards goofy, exaggerated sound effects.

* A Listerine Mouthwash commercial aired in the UK features two young children playing a games console with what look like Xbox or PlayStation controllers, but sounds like a Galaga rip-off--admittedly, there have been emulations of old games for the PlayStation 2, 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.

* 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 ''VideoGame/SpaceInvaders''.

* 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 Playstation 2/Xbox 360 graphics. It also looks like they were either using the Playstation Eyetoy, the Wii Balance Board, or the UsefulNotes/Xbox360 Kinect to play the game.

* 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''.

* A Listerine Mouthwash commercial aired in the UK features two young children playing a games console with what look like Xbox or playstation controllers, but sounds like a Galaga rip-off- admittedly, there have been emulations of old games for the playstation 2 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.

* [[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 those games did not have nearly as many available colors as the more powerful (and probably more importantly, non-real-time) Pixar computers.

* Avoided in 'Series/TheBigBangTheory'', where game soundtracks are often heard where applicable.

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 UsefulNotes/{{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.

* 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 Playstation 2/Xbox 360 graphics. It also looks like they were either using the Playstation Eyetoy, the Wii Balance Board, or the Xbox360 Kinect to play the game.
* A critical element in the ''Series/{{Daredevil 2015}}'' 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.
* 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 ''VideoGame/TheStanleyParable''.

*** The arcade's music in ''VideoGame/{{MOTHER 3}}'', 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''

*** The arcade's music in ''VideoGame/{{MOTHER 3}}'', the Japanese only sequel to Earthbound, has several beeps, and if you listen closely, you can hear the 'doo, doo, woop' sound from SpaceInvaders

* In an episode of ''Series/SeventhHeaven'' Simon challenged two bullies to a game of ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry 2'' and the sounds from the Game Boy sound nothing like the actual game play.

* 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 ''Space Invaders''.

* In the episode "Everybody Loves a Clown," from the second season of ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'', a child is shown playing a NintendoDS, but the sound effects emanating from the device are sounds from the original Atari 2600 release of ''Donkey Kong''.
* In an episode of ''SeventhHeaven'' Simon challenged two bullies to a game of ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry 2'' and the sounds from the Game Boy sound nothing like the actual game play.

* Simon Pegg, Jessica Hynes, and Edgar Wright made a point to avoid this in ''{{Spaced}}'', after being tired of all the generic video games in other TV shows made by people who don't play games.

* In Australian soap, ''{{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...

* Avoided in ''TheBigBangTheory'', where game soundtracks are often heard where applicable.

* The ''Film/CharliesAngels'' [[TheFilmOfTheSeries movie]] has a sequence in which 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 at least the sound effects are neither particularly old-sounding nor from Pac-Man.