In the mid-eighties, Nintendo decided to get some use out of their popular NES and Famicon titles by adapting them for arcade use. The machines were built with an extra set of controls and in some cases, a second screen so that the two players could actually play at the same time. The list of "Vs" titles that were put out by Nintendo is rather lengthy and includes such hits as Super Mario Bros., Xevious and Castlevania.

The Goonies was a Japan only platformer made for the Famicon and based on Steven Spielberg's wildly popular (and now cult classic) film, The Goonies. The game puts you in the role of Mikey, traversing your way through underground caves and dungeons, avoiding rats and other enemies including the dreaded Frattellis! Certain enemies will drop bombs which you can then pick up and use to blow up doors that hide keys. You then collect the three keys and use them to open the doors at the end of each level. One of your Goonie cohorts is also hidden on each level and can be found with the same bomb/door method, but this was more of a sidequest and wasn't required to finish the game. You can also pick up such treasures as jumping shoes, earmuffs and a slingshot and catapult to take care of those far away enemies.

In 1986, the Goonies got the Vs. treatment by Nintendo and Konami and started appearing in North American arcades. Players were treated to an endless loop of Cyndi Lauper's " Goonies 'R' Good Enough" and the appearance of a digitized Anne Ramsey, one of the greatest actresses this side of Linda Hunt. Placement of these machines was sparse and as a result, relatively few people have actually played it.

The artwork on this flyer is actually pretty generic and features nothing overtly "Goonies" apart from the logo. It's also done in that bizzare sort of airbrush style that was so popular in the eighties. It certainly does make the game look terrifying though, with its giant purple rats, crawling skeleton, flaming pipes and perhaps most disturbing of all, a guy firing a gun at Mikey's head. Somehow, I don't think that would fly if this ad was made today.

Make the jump to check out the back of the flyer featuring some screenshots from the game as well as a great drawing of Mikey kicking the giant purple rat in the nads. Too bad that part wasn't in the movie... Flynn De Marco

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