D&D! Mattel Electronics Arcade Handheld Dungeons and Dragons Computer Fantasy Game (1981) Unbox/Play
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 29 ก.ย. 2024
- Check out this 4 decades old portable D&D game. Back when portable football units were quite the rage, this broke the mold with its random dungeons and being so much smaller than its earlier D&D Labyrinth related electronic game.
Unboxing - How to Play - Watch me slay the dragon!
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I found one of these in the playground yard when going to high school. It was so cool! I took it home, played it and felt guilty because it wasn’t mine. Took it back to the principal next day and found who lost it and gave it back.
Thanks for sharing that childhood memory!
@@nerdmimic Thank you for the memory refresh! 80's were the best in so many ways.
*Mattel made really good D&D games back then*
No on/off switch and needing a jeweler's screwdriver in order to set the device down consciously every time is absurd.
Good ol' Hunt the Wumpus. So much gold has been mined from that vein.
You know, games still come out that have this exact dungeon design. Stripped of all context, it's your imagination filling in the details. That's what i find most charming about these ancient game devices, it's that they boil a concept down to pure basics, relying on the user alone to attach value to their score counters.
This is why nothing beats the original ASCII roguelikes, Nethack, Angaband etc. You have a display that is both full of information about the dungeon AND reliant on your ability to use imagination to visualize it all. For me that experience will always be superior to any 3D in-game graphics.
Remember folks if you want to experience this but cant buy one you can emulate it online
hey, where? i cant find it.. :(
Yeah but it defeats the portability
You can emulate it on handhelds with madrigal emulator maybe, It not the same but is a portable solution
Emulating it “online” is a cop out lol imo I’d rather have the software to emulate it myself.
@@hellohaveagoodday Hmm, maybe play on a phone?
Surprised Mattel didn't re-release this game along with Hasbro/Wizards of the coast with Nostalgia being big over the last 10+ years.
Considering all the Oregon Trail handhelds, it is weird this one didn’t get a re release
I would buy an "updated" version that also played the original game in a heartbeat.
I got this for Christmas one year. I loved it. Even years later I would play it working overnight at a gas station. I left it in a envelope taped to the wall where we kept our time cards and keys for work. I came in and noticed it was gone. I asked a co worker who said it fell in the trashcan and apparently didn't think to take it back out so it it got tossed. I wanted to strangle her because that thing was ten years old and they didn't make them anymore. She was not a brightest person I ever met but that was just ridiculous. I would almost rather it got stolen than just casually tossed away. I was way too trusting back then I guess. Lesson learned.
I was too afraid to even take mine out of my room (lest my younger sibs get that it). Thanks for sharing your story!
Yeah a kid I graduated HS with, his parents went through a divorce and actually the reason why his dad got sole custody was when it came up in the divorce that she set his comic books on fire in retaliation for wanting to stay with his dad. Including the Action Comics #1 he'd been planning to sell for college.
Old portable games are fascinating. Compaired to later portables like Game Boy they are so simple and usually only one game but they were & are amazing
I get that adding an extra switch or button to toggle the power on/off would have driven the production costs up but I think its interesting they considered having the thing running constantly in demonstration mode acceptable instead of maybe holding two of the buttons down to turn it on or off or something. Either way this is very cool!
40 year old tech does better than 90s Tiger! I would have loved this as a kid though it would still have been old tech. XD
Could this be the most complex LCD Game?
This is awesome! I still have this game. And I got this in 1981. It’s in great condition still but unfortunately I don’t have the box anymore.
I collect Game N Watch. I've never seen one of these or knew they existed. I've also played and enjoyed D&D so I seriously missed the boat here. No wonder they sold out immediately.. thank you.
Interesting enough I never played a Game N Watch as a kid. Thanks for sharing!
OMG!! Wow, I wish I had something like that when I was younger. But no, I had a stupid game of nurse feeding crying babies 😂😂😂
So, it is basically an advanced version of Hunt the Wumpus?
I never played that, but maybe someone else could chime in…
@@nerdmimic Basically the same game premise but you start with the arrow in posession and only get one shot or you are insta-killed by the wumpus. Also, in some versions the bats can move once spotted.
OMG I loved this game. My sister got it for Christmas and I think I played much more than her. Would love to play again !
It’s still a cool little gadget, right? Thanks for sharing!
Wow before Tiger electronic games.
I had one and it was great, and power pigskin football.
I had this as a kid, though I remember not particularly liking it. Too much guesswork. I was more into my tabletop tron machine, which I still have but doesn't work anymore, sadly.
So many cool little gadgets back then. Just the form factor/physicality of them is inspiring. Plus, no pop up ads that plague apps!
I had that in the early 80s, great memories. The cutting edge of handhrld video games at the time.
The design of the product is just perfection
Dam this is ambitious stuff right there ! 👌Also reminds me of the cave challenges in Duck Tales Quest for Gold somehow... 😋
"Primitive" fun from my youth.
Played this all the time.
oh my god this is even more beautiful than the other things.. and it's only the second video of yours i have watched so far.... 😵💫🙂
omg. i had one of these and it was awesome
Still have mine in a drawer.
WOW I had this game as well. I just commented on your D&D Labyrinth game review. I got this game one year then the Labyrinth game the next year. I was all about D&D those years. What a flashback.
These are the only two Mattel non-Intellivision D&D games I known of from the 80’s. If anything else pops into your head please let me know!
Still play mine!!
How do you escape a bottomless pit with a rope?
It automatically is used. It’s game over if no rope.
"When you fall in a bottomless pit, you die of starvation." - What's Her Face
Great game ;)
This kept my pocket hot for many a day back in 1983-4-5 ish _ At the time it was a great way to quickly pass time at the DMV, doctors or dentist office _ Lot's of fun, I remember Thanks
Wow I had forgotten all about this, I used to play this all the time when I was a kid.
I had my dad's old one. Got very lucky with the RNG and was able to beat it in like 8 seconds!
RetroFab has all kinds of games like this.
Retroarch also has many on the Handheld Electronic core.
Yep was 10 years old and found it before christmas, pulled out the tab and no off button. So the thing would make noise where it was hidden in my parents closet till they just gave it to me early, they didnt like the beeping.
Thanks for sharing your childhood memories of it!
This reminds me of those “electric football” toys oh goodness
Yeah, my football game is totally worn and destroyed from frantic button mashing.
Wow. I always dreamed of learning the magical arts, but i didn't know whether to go with Zetzner, Albertus Magnus, Simon Dee, The Lesser Key of Solomon, or any if the many other methods \ grimoires.
Now, i find it is as easy as feeding electricity through wafers of plastic infused with liquid crystal matrices.
Boy do i feel dumb. Now excuse me while I do some necromancy for monetary purposes and resurrect an army of zombie slaves to do my bidding.
I had this as a kid...you really needed to read the instructions.
Guys I don’t want to seem technical here but this thing is 43 years old. Did Mattel own exclusive rights to D and D video games in those days? I’m familiar with the two Intellivision games.
I met a guy at a flea market that was selling 41 of these for $2 each. I bought all of them and sold them for $110 each. I bought a car
Amazing, how long ago as that? Good Fortune 🥠!
@@nerdmimic 2011
another dnd electronic game damn man i missed out
I still have my handheld buried somewhere @ my parents place. I should probably find it a preserve it... I'm sure I left the battery in it. 🤔
I started to play a couple years before this came out and was buying pretty much anything I could at that point, lol. If I saw that then I would have snatched it up without question. Very cool.
Amazing how much we missed out on without a prominent ad or friend to show us first.
Mattel really locked down the era with their electronic games.
Yeah, as much as I love D&D, the football game was amazing using just lit dashes only for graphics.
Fun fact is that the electonic division almost put whole Mattel out of buisness
It wasnt a constant beep, but just randomly once in a while the game would make noise. Such a great game to have back then.
Thank you for that blast from the past! I was obsessed with this game as a kid and have a vivid memory of standing in line at KB toy store buying it.
Thanks for sharing your childhood memories!
I'm gonna have to also add this to my ebay list. Thanks for the video. I love old tech and old games.
BTW Do you have a favorite? I probably wasn’t aware of all of the cool ones when I was a kid.
@@nerdmimic I have so many…I love my reel to reel eight track.
My neighbor had this one, while I had the Labyrinth.
What a wonderful blast from the past! I had this and beat it a few times.
I really enjoyed your video. What would have made it amazing is if you mapped out on paper the adventure as you progressed so we could better visualize and become immersed in the game with you. Maybe you could play it again and make a new video? Thank you! 😄👍👍
Maybe I’ll do that for a higher difficulty. Thanks for the suggestion.
I still have mine somewhere... should take it out and see if it still works...
40 years old!
Blows my mind.
This is honestly the coolest thing
Feel free to share the video. Thanks for watching!
I had this game when I was a kid! Loved it so much and was so happy when I finally killed the dragon! wish I still owned it.
Nerd
LOL Absolutely
I have been looking for the Electric Dice Roll for YEARS!
Have you seen it in the wild?
Never heard of it, sorry. It just rolls virtual dice?
@@nerdmimic
It appeared in vintage magazine ads. I believe some comic book ads as well.
Essentially you can say it looks like a wand that digitally gives numbers.
Give it a search. It is a niche piece of D&D history that might make an excellent video.
@@nerdmimic
Ps.
And yes, but giving it was produce in the 1980s, there was nothing that could Roll Dice like that.
Dragonbone electronic dice roller.
Shame that you can't mute the sound like with He-Man. LCD graphics are better here though. The manual claims there is a time limit - 99 points or 8 mins and 25 seconds. 1 point for every 5 seconds of game time.
Thanks for the details. I wasn’t aware of a time limit - guess my all games were shorter - died or won.
I really hope your channel takes off! Good content and definitely super informative
I appreciate that!
That's a neat little game!
this is so cool.
Are the levels randomized?
Definitely!
i had one back in 82,,,,,still have one,,,,,,had the tank and racing versions back then too
Tank version? I’ll have to look into that one. Thanks for sharing!
@@nerdmimic yeah,,,,the tank battle one was cool
@@nerdmimic it's called armor attack,,,from 1982
i remember playing the He-Man version of this game as a kid
Same sounds and gameplay but He-Man themed
Was it a magic arrow to defeat Skeletor too?
Did the game come in blue plastic? Everything you unboxed hit that nostalgia buzz, but I thought mine was blue. 40 years is a long time.
Blue? Maybe you’re referring to the He-Man version that came out later and played the same…
Nice!