Page 24 - OSG Presents Classic Gamer Magazine #4

ny look back as the school bul-
at classic lies). The cartoon
video game based on Donkey
A merchandis- Kong paired the ape
ing would be remiss in with rival Mario and
its duties if it didn’t men- Mario’s girlfriend as
tion some of the most a sort of reluctant
highly visible - and yet Odd Couple, while
least memorable - Donkey Kong Jr.
spinoffs: Saturday searched for his
morning cartoons. father with the help
Video games had of a motorcycle-
quickly been picked up riding pal with a
as a theme in cartoons; knack for getting
does anyone remember into trouble.
the awful Super Friends Not all of the
episode where our he- Saturday Su-
roes are miniaturized percade shows sur-
and chased around a vived. “Frogger”
maze by a huge, om- and “Q*Bert” were
nivorous, blue Pac-Man early casualties,
controlled by a diaboli- replaced by car-
cal mad scientist? No? toons based on
Then you’re lucky. “Pitfall!” and the
There was actually such a cartoon, but game, based on a cartoon, based on a Don Bluth animated laserdisc game,
trust me, it’s not the sort of thing you’d game? Don’t even try to keep up with “Space Ace.”
want to remember. it. A later and much more obscure On the subject of “Space Ace,” it’s
But then again, the same applies to game called “Pac-Man and Chomp- worth mentioning that “Dragon’s Lair”
some of the cartoons which were actu- Chomp” also borrowed from the car- also had an animated series, which
ally licensed by various video game toon. vastly watered down the tone and look
makers. CBS was the next network to cash of the characters in the original game.
Naturally, Pac-Man was the first to Those of us who were entering
appear, premiering in 1983 on ABC. adolescence at the time never
The pilot episode actually aired first in quite forgave the TV show for cov-
prime time, during a preview special ering Princess Daphne up, even
with several other kids’ shows, and though a vast improvement was
this pilot episode was the only in- made in giving her more personal-
stance in which Pac-Man ever got ity and more intelligence, rather
chomped on screen. than the original game’s helium-
Perhaps the ABC brass thought voiced ditzy blonde.
this was objectionable or scary for On average, the game-
youngsters. (And some ten years spawned cartoons had little to do
later, they didn’t think the sight of with their quarter-sucking counter-
Dennis Franz’s butt would scare or parts. As embarrassing as it was
offend us as adults?!? But I digress.) to watch at times, Pac-Man actu-
As some expected, the subsequent ally came the closest to retaining
episodes of Pac-Man spiraled down- the elements of the original game.
hill quickly, essentially turning into a Of course, these days, we’ve
clone of Popeye: swap out the sailor Adventures of Pitfall Harry had the aforementioned computer-
man for the round yellow one, Olive Oyl generated Donkey Kong/Diddy Kong
for Ms. Pac, Swee’pea for Baby Pac, in on the arcade action with its Satur- cartoon, and numerous shows are hit-
and spinach for power pellets; add a day morning programming block called ting the air which blur the lines: which
dash of the Three Stooges for the “Saturday Supercade.” Long before was created first - the cartoon, the
ghosts’ camaraderie (or lack thereof), Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong were game, or the toys? Check your local
and you’ve got - in a nutshell - Pac- brought to life in Re-Boot-style CGI, TV listings for Monster Ranchers or
Man the cartoon. Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr. Pokémon for further details.
Perhaps even more surprising than had their own separate cartoons on Super Mario Bros. later made it to
the fact that this thing stayed on the air CBS, along with Q*Bert and Frogger. full-fledged movie status, as did Mortal
for more than one year was the fact The video-game-themed ‘toons offered Kombat (which then morphed into a
that Bally/Midway and Namco turned by CBS did little to improve on the ani- short-lived live action TV series).
around and modeled the “Pac-Land” mated incarnation of Pac-Man. The question remains: were other clas-
arcade Frogger played the role of a news- sics over-
game on paper reporter in a swamp occupied by looked in
the TV fellow amphibians (and was cancelled the an-
show - pretty quickly). Q*Bert went from pro- nals of
complete fanity-spouting to plain-bread in his anima-
with segment, which showed the noser as a tion? The
theme teenager in a 50’s-style high school answer, in
song! A (with Coily the snake and his cohorts my mind,

Classic Gamer Magazine Summer 2000 24