The Video Game Soda Machine Project
Obsessively Cataloging Video Game "Pop" Culture
🎵 S-U-G-A-R, jump into your racing car. It’s a sugar rush! Sugar rush! 🎵
Along with a bunch of sugary snacks, this vending machine from Disney Heroes: Battle Mode includes a few bottles of soda on the bottom row. Here’s a version of the same machine without the Sugar Rush branding…
While we’re on the subject of soda, Wreck-It Ralph‘s Vanellope von Schweetz glitches into battle with a back-mounted Soda Soaker as a weapon.
Chrome SpecForce, a 2005 first-person shooter for Windows, presents the player with a difficult choice: blue or red SyntCola? Either way, it’s hard to believe this series eventually transitioned into a popular web browser. [Source]
I assume this Ballz vending machine from Postal 2 is a riff on BAWLS Guarana, frequently marketed as the drink of choice for video gamers. Or it could just be a lazy joke that stands (or falls) entirely on its own.
Do androids dream of electric drinks? Detroit: Become Human explores this and other deep philosophical questions through the lens of a combination snack/soda vending machine. Thanks for the screenshot, Gus!
Most management sims would only include one soda machine model, but Mall Tycoon 3 isn’t most management sims.
Treat yourself to a refreshing Ora-Cola — a fine product of the Oracle Corporation — in sci-fi shooter Chrono-Drive. Thanks for the submission, Cornelius!
I’m struggling to decide between between a frosty Kitten Cola and a jug of coolant in Reprise, an “audio-reactive FPS” in which players fight bad guys by creating music. Thanks for another great submission, Cornelius!
This drink machine from NightShift has an image of a wine glass on the front panel, but that seems unlikely considering the game’s office setting. I’m just going to assume it’s a very fancy soda machine. Thanks for the screenshot, Cornelius!
Metro Maniac is a 2D simulation of Singapore’s train system — complete with soda and hot beverage machines. Thanks for the screenshot, Cornelius!
In April 2018, I was part of a team of scholars that presented at the Rutgers-Camden Archive of Digital Ephemera (R-CADE) Symposium. For the presentation, our team acquired, restored, and digitally recreated a 1979 Tri Zone pinball machine. Designer Matt Mundell included this bespoke Generic Soda!!! machine in the background as a nod to my work here at the Video Game Soda Machine Project. Thanks, Matt!
From Dusk Till Dawn, a 2001 video game follow-up to the 1996 film, just goes to prove the old adage: “A garlic soda a day keeps the vampires away.” Or, if you’d prefer a hot beverage, treat yourself to a coffe [sic].
This is an all-points bulletin. Be on the lookout for cola machine, approximately six feet tall, dispenses regular and diet drinks. Repeat: suspect dispenses regular and diet drinks. Thanks for the screenshot, Ernie!
