mattel – Set Side B https://setsideb.com The Flipside of Gaming Thu, 27 Jun 2024 10:39:09 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9 https://setsideb.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/cropped-mascot512-32x32.png mattel – Set Side B https://setsideb.com 32 32 Mattel’s Handheld Dungeons & Dragons LCD Game https://setsideb.com/mattels-handheld-dungeons-dragons-lcd-game/ Fri, 28 Jun 2024 14:00:00 +0000 https://setsideb.com/?p=7715 Continue reading "Mattel’s Handheld Dungeons & Dragons LCD Game"]]> This little pocket-sized unit was released in 1981, three years after the VCS/2600, but as the Gameboy proved years after, pocket-sized gaming can get away with less complex hardware than consoles. They called this their D&D “Computer Fantasy Game.”

Mattel made pretty good use of the D&D license. They also released the “Computer Labyrinth Game,” which was a mixture of physical and electronic components. This version is wholly electronic, and has the same kind of feel as a Game & Watch title. It has the old-style of LCD components, black shapes that are faintly visible at all times, but can be made much darker to “display” images.

This 13-minute unboxing and demonstration video is by Youtuber Nerd Mimic. If their gameplay description sounds a bit familiar, it seems that this game is mostly a handheld port of the older (yes, even from that time) computer game Hunt The Wumpus, which is played on what the math people call a graph of nodes. The idea is to use clues given by the game to deduce the location of a monster and to kill it by firing an arrow at it from an adjacent space. Stumbling into the space of the monster or a bottomless pit is lethal, and there are bats wandering around that can drop you into a random space. It’s a classic of early gaming, and a pretty good choice for a pocket-sized version.

Mattel made two console D&D games for the Intellivision, both of them interesting and thought of well today: Cloudy Mountain and Treasure of Tarmin. None of these games made use of the true AD&D ruleset, as it would have been called at the time. They’re original game designs with a vague sort of fantasy theme, but they’re still interesting to play.

]]> The Website of the Blue Sky Rangers https://setsideb.com/the-website-of-the-blue-sky-rangers/ Mon, 11 Sep 2023 14:00:00 +0000 https://setsideb.com/?p=5514 Continue reading "The Website of the Blue Sky Rangers"]]>

I’m surprised these folks are still around! The Intellivision was an ancient property even by the time the Blue Sky Rangers were founded, and their site is still up, even now in this blasted dystopian year of 2023.

They’ve been making collections and remakes of, and retro consoles containing, the old Intellivision games since 1997, and once in a while they make a new package to keep the memory of the old games alive. My own shelf has the Gamecube version of Intellivision Lives on it.

You might find it edifying to visit their site. That is my hope. My dream? Look and see.

The Website of the Blue Sky Rangers and Blue Sky Rangers History

]]>