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Dungeons & Dragons: The 80s Cartoon

MrRING

MrRING

Android Futureman
Joined
Aug 7, 2002
Messages
6,053
Anybody else remember enjoying this Saturday morning cartoon based (really loosely) on the role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons? Where lil' poot Dungeon Master gave the mortal humans the power of acrobat, thief, cavalier, barbarian, ranger, and magician?

The animation was better than most of the other shows of it's time, and it saddled the burdon of imparting lessons. Uni was annoying, but not that bad, really, and cetainly more bearible that Scrappy Doo. My fave episode it probably the one where they pretty much get home, but have to return to the realm to keep Venger from following them through the portal and destroying their world.

This is my favorite page about the show:

http://www.zaksrealm.net/The_Realm.html

And this site has one of the writer's scripts, what would have been the last episode (springboarding into a different concept) if bickering with TSR hadn't killed the next season:

http://www.mindspring.com/~michaelreaves/D&Dpreface.html

And there is even a live-action fan film being made based on the cartoon!

http://www.zaksrealm.net/Fanfilm/TT.html
 
Alas, this is one that doesn't IMO stand up to subsequent, mature, watching.

Loved it at the time. Watched it recently and it truly is a bit dull and the plot of every episode has a very similar structure. Frankly the only thing that kept me watching was a possible arrival by Tiamat (the multi-headed dragon which scared even Venger [he of asymetrical horn fame]).

Shame :(
 
Agree with Yith on that one - used to watch it when I was a student, even though I was never into RPGs themselves - then it was on Cartoon Network recently, and didn't seem nearly as sassy as it seemed then.

The old adage is right - you can look back, but you really can't go back :(.
 
I enjoyed it at the time. I haven't seen it recently but then I suppose even G Force would seem a bit naff now. Sad but true.
 
That said, my friend (with clearly oo much diposable income) bought the entire run of Ulysses 2031 and the episode i watched was preety watchable and the music was still funky.


Err, HERE
 
As a gamer I loathed the cartoon! It was so unutterably unconnected with any RPG, let alone D&D! How many times, when talking to non-gamers, did I have to explain I was a referee or moderator and wasn't a little gnome-like figure who'd turn up at the beginning or end of a scenario! I've just about got over it now but at one time I'd have paid good money to get a chance to kick seven barrels of s**t out of the nerk who came up with the cartoon!

Ulysses 2031 annoyed me a little. Why set the cartoon in the future and completely butcher Greek mythology? Done with a little creativity, the original Odessy would make for a great kid's cartoon - and get them interested in history, literature and the classics.
 
Stormkhan said:
How many times, when talking to non-gamers, did I have to explain I was a referee or moderator and wasn't a little gnome-like figure who'd turn up at the beginning or end of a scenario!
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All true. However, i always loathed AD&D and only played it briefly.

Dungeons and Dragons may have started the ball rolling and all, but in the gaming circles i moved in it was a byword for socially inadequate wish-fullfilment and Conan-wank-fests. All depends how it's run s'pose...

The series was a bit of a millstone. It's difficult enough to make Roleplaying sound sane/cool without a dimiutive freak appearing on the nation's screens proclaiming under the D&D banner that he is your "Giiiiiiiiiide, in the realm of Dungeons, ......and dragons!"

Die in pain freak-thing. I preferred Orco from He-man and he sucked horse's bits... :hmm:
 
The Yithian said:
I preferred Orco from He-man and he sucked horse's bits... :hmm:
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I presume this was an "adult" production to satisfy the older, less social fans of He-Man. Those who refused to admit that "The Prince" was a gay icon.
 
Stormkhan said:
The Yithian said:
I preferred Orco from He-man and he sucked horse's bits... :hmm:
Click to expand...
I presume this was an "adult" production to satisfy the older, less social fans of He-Man. Those who refused to admit that "The Prince" was a gay icon.
Click to expand...

There's no way - He-Man was the ultimate tough guy...

oh wait, there was He-Man on Ice, after all....

http://www.x-entertainment.com/articles/0760/
 
I enjoyed it at the time. I haven't seen it recently but then I suppose even G Force would seem a bit naff now. Sad but true.
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It is.

Gatchaman is being released for the first time as a Dub by ADV this summer.

(Why do you think she calls herself Homo Aves??)
 
I only played D&D once and nearly cried with laughter, it was absolutely hilarious. I used to like the cartoon though, epsecially the opening titles, but Ulysses 31 was better. I don't recall ever playing Ulysses 31.
 
I can still sing the complete song of Ulysses 31.

Maybe I shouldn't admit that, especially considering my age at the time it was aired... :oops:
 
Red_Dalek said:
Spooky angel said:
I can still sing the complete song of Ulysses 31.
Click to expand...
GO on then, give us a quick chorus.
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I can do better than that:

It is the 31st century, Ulysses killed the giant Cyclops when he rescued the children and his son Telemachus. But the ancient gods of Olympus are angry and threaten a terrible revenge:

Zeus: Mortals, you defy the Gods? I sentence you to travel among unknown stars. Until you find the Kingdom of Hades, your bodies will stay as lifeless as stone.

Sherka: Ulysses, the way back to earth has been wiped from my memory.
Telemachus: Father, oh, father!
Ulysses: You are alive my son.

Ulysses, Ulysses, soaring through all the galaxies, in search of Earth, flying in to the night.
Ulysses, Ulysses, fighting evil and tyranny, with all his power, and with all of his might.

Ulysses, no-one else can do the things you do. Ulysses, like a bolt of thunder from the blue.
Ulysses, always fighting all the evil forces bringing peace and justice to all.
It's me Nono small robot you know, friend of Ulysses.
It's me Nono small robot you know, friend of Ulysses.

Ulysses, no-one else can do the things you do. Ulysses, like a bolt of thunder from the blue.
Ulysses, always fighting all the evil forces bringing peace and justice to all.
It's me Nono small robot you know, friend of Ulysses. (repeat 4 times)
Click to expand...
 
It's only a matter of time before we have a Girls Aloud cover version of Ulysses 31.

Anyone remember Battle Of The Planets? I picked up a video of the show in Morrisons ages ago and I've only just remembered it now.
 
He got it off the Net....(sniggers gently)

Battle of the Planets is old hat. Gatchaman is the in thing in 70s Anime at the moment.

Do you want the link? I think I can find it underneath the Wayfarer dingy specifications and Latin dictionary....
 
He got it off the Net....(sniggers gently)
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I wish! For that I'd need Broadband and a vaguely decent pooter, neither of which I have, alas.

The reason I forgot about it was that I boxed up all the VHS's and stored half of them in a box in the loft, and the other half at the local Banardo's.

And you know what, I'll be up there tonight digging them out :D :shock:

I think I've got a copy of Hardware in there too, which was mentioned in another thread.
 
Wasn't that Mazes and Monsters in which it was conclusively proven that crap RPGs like D&D led to satanism?
 
They dont.

Just hand all your money over to TSR...

Or GW....

(HA has gone down that slippery slope)
 
Homo Aves said:
They dont.

Just hand all your money over to TSR...

Or GW....

(HA has gone down that slippery slope)
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Talking about GW, does anyone else find GamesWorkshop shops vaguely creepy, I don't know why, despite owning a mint copy of the first edition of Warhammer and Warhammer 40K (though now gathering dust as I discovered girls shortly afterwards) I just feel as though I'm somehow an outsider. :?
 
Heckler said:
Homo Aves said:
They dont.

Just hand all your money over to TSR...

Or GW....

(HA has gone down that slippery slope)
Click to expand...

Talking about GW, does anyone else find GamesWorkshop shops vaguely creepy, I don't know why, despite owning a mint copy of the first edition of Warhammer and Warhammer 40K (though now gathering dust as I discovered girls shortly afterwards) I just feel as though I'm somehow an outsider. :?
Click to expand...

I have been told in one of those FOAF stories but also borne out by experiance that the GW is trying to get rid of it's older customers, besides wizard of the coast, Gurps, Chaosium, White Wolf etc produce games that are a lot better.


oops now i have admitted to being a gamer :?
 
That's been the case for a long time, certainly from my GW wargaming days. 11yrs plus ago...

Trust me, i know, i briefly worked for them.
 
Felt v. old yesterday when I was in the newsagent and saw the lastest issue of White Dwarf proclaiming a celebration of 30 years of GW.

Would it date me among ex-wargames geeks to say that I owned issues of White Dwarf pre issue 100, and had Citadel miniatures from pre-slotta base era?

Oh, and D and D the cartoon bears up to retrospective adult viewing a damn sight better than BOTP, but still features far too much schmaltz. Tiamat was pretty bad-ass, mind.
 
I loved the cartoon immensely, but did anyone else fancy Hank the Ranger?


Thought not.......mines the one pink one with the fluffy hood.......
 
Homo Aves said:
They dont.

Just hand all your money over to TSR...
Click to expand...

I think you'll find D&D has been the property of Wizards of the Coast for quite a few years now, actually ;)
 
the_discordian said:
Homo Aves said:
They dont.

Just hand all your money over to TSR...
Click to expand...

I think you'll find D&D has been the property of Wizards of the Coast for quite a few years now, actually ;)
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Technically, I think you'll find TSR has been property of Wizards of the Coast. I believe they still use the TSR imprint for publishing their RPGs.

Then again, TSR at one stage owned large slices of both Marvel and DC.

And they also went around buying up pretty much any other game company they could. So it seems fitting that they should have been bought out by another game company that owes its success to the amazing popularity of a rapidly fading fad.
 
anome said:
the_discordian said:
Homo Aves said:
They dont.

Just hand all your money over to TSR...
Click to expand...

I think you'll find D&D has been the property of Wizards of the Coast for quite a few years now, actually ;)
Click to expand...
Technically, I think you'll find TSR has been property of Wizards of the Coast. I believe they still use the TSR imprint for publishing their RPGs.

Then again, TSR at one stage owned large slices of both Marvel and DC.

And they also went around buying up pretty much any other game company they could. So it seems fitting that they should have been bought out by another game company that owes its success to the amazing popularity of a rapidly fading fad.
Click to expand...

so theyre the bill gates of the gaming world then :D
 
Games Jerkshop did the hobby one favour - it took role-playing games out of specialist military modelling shops and put the hobby onto the High Street. I collected (and contributed) to White Dwarf up to issue 100. Up to about issue 80 it was reasonably balanced, with reviews of non-GW games and so on. After that, it went down the path of "There are NO other games existing apart from WH40K!", and refused to entertain the notion that there could be a good RPG without chainsaws, spikes and unfeasibly large firearms.

Now you go into a Lame Quirkshop outlet and you are bombarded by images of ... chainsaws, spikes, unfeaibly large firearms, dark elfs ... er ... Eldars, Chaos stars etc.etc. It's actually quite difficult to spot a role playing game.

I gave WH a go but the lack of reasonable character development put me off. I'm afraid I sneer at WH40K as table-top wargaming for the immature and hard of thinking. The last really good game to come from the GW stable was a boardgame - Fury of Dracula!

RuneQuest has gone downhill, Call of Cthulhu is suffering from the slings and arrows of outrageous misfortune, everything is turning to the D20 system. It's all so disheartening. Bring back Paranoia and Space 1889, I say!

*Breaks down into pitiful sobs of mourning for a once great hobby*
 
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