Uploaded July 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Watch what this commercial is actually doing, because it is smarter than it looks. Virgin Games shot the whole thing as a live television news report, complete with a helicopter angle looking straight down at a squad car and a reporter asking the public to help track down the missing Spots. In 1993 breaking news police coverage was everywhere, and the ad just borrowed the format wholesale.
Cool Spot arrived on the Sega Genesis in April 1993, developed and published by Virgin Games USA and programmed by David Perry. Here is the part people forget. Spot was not created for this game. He had been 7 Up's mascot since 1987, the red dot from the logo handed arms, legs and a pair of sunglasses, which makes this cartridge a soda commercial people happily paid full price for.
Perry has said it came together quickly. Roughly a month of analysis, three months writing the code, then two more months sitting in Sega's quality control. About half a year from start to store shelf. Tommy Tallarico handled the music, and on the Genesis version Spot bounces around inside the SEGA logo the second you switch the console on.
Two details still catch people out. The game never tells you who locked all those Spots in cages. The manual does, naming one Wild Wicked Wily Will who had spent years trying to prove Spots were real, and the game itself never breathes a word about him. There were also six hidden letters spelling UNCOLA, straight off the old 7 Up slogan, and finishing on Hard with all six still in hand gave you an ending screen showing a Spot with a camera, telling you to photograph your television and mail the picture to Virgin Games for a prize. Fall short and you got two Spots crying at you instead. That contest shut down on December 31, 1993.
Here is where it really pays off though. This was one stop on a serious hot streak. Perry did Global Gladiators for McDonald's in 1992, Cool Spot in 1993, and Aladdin the same year, then walked out to start Shiny Entertainment and took Cool Spot artists Mike Dietz and Ed Schofield with him. About eighteen months later that same crew put out Earthworm Jim. Do you still fire this one up, or has it been a while?
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#coolspot #segagenesis #segamegadrive #virgingames #7up #davidperry #tommytallarico #platformgames #retrogaming #retrogames #90sgaming #16bit #classicgames #videogamecommercial #gameforestgf #youtubeshorts #gaming
Watch what this commercial is actually doing, because it is smarter than it looks. Virgin Games shot the whole thing as a live television news report, complete with a helicopter angle looking straight down at a squad car and a reporter asking the public to help track down the missing Spots. In 1993 breaking news police coverage was everywhere, and the ad just borrowed the format wholesale.
Cool Spot arrived on the Sega Genesis in April 1993, developed and published by Virgin Games USA and programmed by David Perry. Here is the part people forget. Spot was not created for this game. He had been 7 Up's mascot since 1987, the red dot from the logo handed arms, legs and a pair of sunglasses, which makes this cartridge a soda commercial people happily paid full price for.
Perry has said it came together quickly. Roughly a month of analysis, three months writing the code, then two more months sitting in Sega's quality control. About half a year from start to store shelf. Tommy Tallarico handled the music, and on the Genesis version Spot bounces around inside the SEGA logo the second you switch the console on.
Two details still catch people out. The game never tells you who locked all those Spots in cages. The manual does, naming one Wild Wicked Wily Will who had spent years trying to prove Spots were real, and the game itself never breathes a word about him. There were also six hidden letters spelling UNCOLA, straight off the old 7 Up slogan, and finishing on Hard with all six still in hand gave you an ending screen showing a Spot with a camera, telling you to photograph your television and mail the picture to Virgin Games for a prize. Fall short and you got two Spots crying at you instead. That contest shut down on December 31, 1993.
Here is where it really pays off though. This was one stop on a serious hot streak. Perry did Global Gladiators for McDonald's in 1992, Cool Spot in 1993, and Aladdin the same year, then walked out to start Shiny Entertainment and took Cool Spot artists Mike Dietz and Ed Schofield with him. About eighteen months later that same crew put out Earthworm Jim. Do you still fire this one up, or has it been a while?
Subscribe to Game Forest GF for retro gaming content every single day.
#coolspot #segagenesis #segamegadrive #virgingames #7up #davidperry #tommytallarico #platformgames #retrogaming #retrogames #90sgaming #16bit #classicgames #videogamecommercial #gameforestgf #youtubeshorts #gaming
