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Television Media Entertainment Games

The History of Gaming Cartoons 71

Posted by Zonk from the i-owned-captain-n-comics dept.
1up.com has a feature up delving into the History of Video Game Cartoons, from the quirky Q-Bert to the much maligned Captain N. From the article: "Memories, however, can be problematic. Even when they're good, they can still suck pretty bad. Take, for example, your first ride on a two-wheeler bike. You experienced a short thrill of speed and independence, and then took a nasty spill, tore the seat of your pants to reveal your underwear to your childhood crush, and then likely started crying like a little girl." So true, so true.
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The History of Gaming Cartoons More

The History of Gaming Cartoons

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  • Nuff Said...
    • The article does leave quite a bit lacking. Maybe there should be a followup article about

      A) Cartoons that go into the digital world, like the new Johnny Quest, and maybe Teen Titans.

      B) Cartoons based off of games... not just video games. Yu-Gi-Oh should at least have an honerable mention there.

      C) Live shows based off of games. I was looking for the live-person Super Mario Bros in there.. and it actually took me a while to realize it wasnt' a cartoon. It always felt like one.

      Anything else someone w

  • Just one letter (Score:4, Funny)

    by NEOtaku17 ( 679902 ) on Tuesday April 12, 2005 @12:43AM (#12209262) Homepage
    "You experienced a short thrill of speed and independence, and then took a nasty pill, tore the seat of your pants to reveal your underwear to your childhood crush, and then likely started crying like a little girl."

    It's amazing how much one letter can make a difference.

  • Saturday "Starcade" bah. (Score:3, Informative)

    by GTarrant ( 726871 ) on Tuesday April 12, 2005 @12:48AM (#12209288)
    Perhaps it shows my age, but if I recall, it was the Saturday Supercade. I even have the theme music somewhere. (Yes it's supercade time, let's have some supercade fun fun fun!)

    Starcade was a completely different show, which if I recall was more a game-show type.

    T.

    • Yep, Starcade for a time was hosted by Geoff Edwards, who was at least twice the age of every contestant on the show. The contestants played a variety of arcade games for a ridiculously short amount of time in an effort to get the highest score possible. The format worked well enough for games like Galaga, but having only 30 seconds of gameplay made the oft-featured Dragon's Lair seem pointless.

    • That was the first thing that came to mind when I got to that page: "It's Supercade, idiots!" How can you do enough research to get screenshots but not get the title right?

  • 1983? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by vistic ( 556838 ) on Tuesday April 12, 2005 @12:51AM (#12209306)
    I think the Pac-Man cartoon is my first memory ever I can recall of watching *any* TV program.
    • Out of the list, the only one that I can remember watching is Pac-Man (perhaps because many of those listed are from the 90s) and I only watched that one sparingly.

      Overall, not a very impressive list. Almost as impessive as movies made from video games :)

      (BTW, the parent is far from offtopic, Mods)

  • Not me!!!! (Score:5, Funny)

    by EnronHaliburton2004 ( 815366 ) on Tuesday April 12, 2005 @12:55AM (#12209331) Homepage Journal
    then likely started crying like a little girl

    Bah, when I was 6 I fell off my bike and immediately started crying like a grown man.

  • A short-lived recent one (Score:4, Interesting)

    by cgenman ( 325138 ) on Tuesday April 12, 2005 @01:11AM (#12209403) Homepage
    Game over [gameover.tv]. Far above par for a show about videogames.

    The reviewer failed to point out the best part of Captain N: he could pause time. Yes, by pressing start on that controller of his, Captain N could pause the world around him. He could run to the bus on time, he could pause (though not rewind) live TV, and he could take the super mega weapon of death from the bad guy's hand. Thus the controller was Captain N's Voltron Sword, rendering entire episodes (and arguably, the series) pointless.

    • Game over. Far above par for a show about videogames.

      That's like being, to blatantly steal a line from John Flansburgh, being the tallest midget.

      The best show about video games so far, unfortunately, is Starcade, the old arcade game show they used to air, long ago, on TBS.

    • Thus the controller was Captain N's Voltron Sword, rendering entire episodes (and arguably, the series) pointless.

      Perhaps he only got one Pause per t seconds, and he had to save it for those moments when he really needed it.

  • tonight's Futurama (Score:2, Insightful)

    by eamonman ( 567383 )
    One of my favorite episodes! The 80's cartoon parody what if episode. Watch it right now.

  • Fav VG Cartoon (Score:2, Interesting)

    by FalleStar ( 847778 )
    I'd have to say hands down my favorite video game cartoon series was the Super Mario ones. I used to watch those all the time as a kid, luckly I snagged the DVD that had something like 6-9 episodes on it. Ahh... good times.

    • Re:Fav VG Cartoon (Score:1, Interesting)

      by fishmasta ( 827305 )
      Is it the full show or just the cartoon part?
      • It's just a DVD I bought from Babbages, it's not the Super Mario Brothers Super Show (the one that actually had the parts with real people acting) the episodes are from the Super Mario Brothers series. Which is sort of unfortunate since I do prefer the Super Show, but oh well any kind of memorabilia like this deserves a spot on my DVD rack. If you're interested in it here's the link [amazon.com]

        There's another DVD, but I haven't seen that around yet, I'll have to keep a watch out for it I guess.

  • pssh (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    what about gaming cartoons not released in america? mahoujin guru guru is the most hilarious EVAR
  • What was that Nickelodeon game show, where you had to play video games? There were a few good games on that show... and that Mikey on the sidewalk game!
  • Let me tell you something, you need to balance, just not hit the accelerator.

    But its good to have a 22 year old memory.

    Oh reminds me of my other dirt bike story. I saw starwars, and thought you didn't need a trail to go through the woods. In fact I thought you could go full speed through the woods since I saw my friends disappear into them(they found a trail). So I'm plowing through full tilt, about 20 feet into the forest, a monkey vine snags my neck, and the bike falls on my leg. The not so fun pa
    • Similar, not so Star-Wars related experience. I flipped over the handlebars and landed with my right calf on the exhaust. I had heard that the best remedy for 1st/2nd degree burns (after a potato) is alcohol. So I got back on the bike, drove to a nearby farm and proceeded to compress alcohol-soaked gauze on the two wounds. That hurt like heck but the wounds scarred real nice.

  • ReBoot (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Tirlas ( 872505 ) on Tuesday April 12, 2005 @01:59AM (#12209600)
    ReBoot has always taken a place in my heart. It motivated me to become a CS major, and gave me an interest in graphics. MainFrame came out with two-movies continuing from season 3 which were later released as epis 1-8 of season 4. I wish they would at least finish that season. Further there was an Imax movie where Herr Doktor explored Hexidecimal's mind... at least from what I've read.
    • I loved this when they showed it on ITV when I was a kid. I always wondered what happened to it after the second series...
      • > I loved this when they showed it on ITV when I was a kid. I always wondered what happened to it
        > after the second series...

        The third season will blow you away. If you like Reboot, you owe it to yourself to watch it. It is the only season to have been released on DVD, so you can get easily from Amazon or elsewhere.

        Chris Mattern
        • Noooo why did you have to let me know about this. I was quite happy in my ignorance. Now I'm gonna have to spend money. And I see a 4th season too. AAAAAaaaaaaaahhhh!!!
    • As I recall.. ReBoot's story played out to a close on Cartoon Network, some years later. They pressed (what I thought were) the edges of the world that ReBoot had made. Acknowledgment, and actual travel through the internet. to a kid, this was great stuff.

  • I wonder what the game creators ever saw thoose (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Ailure ( 853833 ) on Tuesday April 12, 2005 @02:11AM (#12209644) Homepage
    Becuse after all, there is so many errors in thoose old TV series compared to the Video games. Cavemen in SMW? Real world in SMB3? And when did Link live together with Zelda?

    Of course, I loved this shows as kid. Becuse it had my favorite charachter, thought you realise how bad they are when youre older... and now you're used with having Charles Martinet as the offical Mario voice.

    Do the Mario song is still a classic, becuse it's bad in a funny way.

    • and now you're used with having Charles Martinet as the offical Mario voice.

      That really bugged me when Super Mario 64 came out. I was so used to the voice of Mario from The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World series (which incidentally wasn't Capt. Lou Albano, who played Mario in both the live-action and cel-animated segments in SMB Super Show) that I had a brief petit mal after hearing "It's-a-me, Mario! ... Hello!" in a voice that clearly wasn't what I thought of as Mario's.

  • I really like Bomberman Jetters. I wish they'd find a way to bring it over here. There can never be enough Bomberman.
  • " tore the seat of your pants to reveal your underwear to your childhood crush, and then likely started crying like a little girl."

    Serves you right for trying to show off your mad bicycling skillz to her to begin with. You should have suffered your crush in silence like the rest of us! That way, you'd be starting down the road to becoming a bona fide stalker!

    Really, would you rather have this embarassing memory, or leave recordings on her answering machine of you breathing deeply?
  • My friends and I always looked forward to fridays, cuz we could see The Legend of Zelda episodes that day!

  • Missed Games (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Can anyone think of any games that were missed? I seem to remember cartoons based on Wing Commander and Mortal Kombat that showed on USA.

  • You young whippersnappers (Score:4, Funny)

    by the_skywise ( 189793 ) on Tuesday April 12, 2005 @07:44AM (#12210775)
    Try going back and watching Star Trek: The Animated Series. I had fond memories of seeing that in my jammies on Saturday morning with a bowl of cereal. Life just didn't get any better.

    Then I watched a few episodes recently. Oooh boy. There are actually some decent stories but the production values are just...blech...

    (On a side note, anyone seen the Flash Gordon animation series by Filmation floating around on the net? I've been wanting to see that again, but I can't turn it up anywhere)

    Now Space Academy... THERE was s show...

  • They forgot... (Score:3, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 12, 2005 @07:53AM (#12210831)
    Remember Video Power, the proto-G4 video games show? In their first season they had a cartoon called "Power Team", which was a Captain N knockoff starring Acclaim characters. A cop from NARC, the dude from Wizards & Warriors, Kwirk (a tomato), a basketball player from Arch-Rivals, and Bigfoot (yes, the truck) would team up to fight Mr. Big, also from NARC.

    It was fucked up.

    They also forgot about Dragon Warrior, the briefly translated RPG cartoon that, because of Akira Toriyama, looked a lot like Dragon Ball. I remember seeing it once or twice, and I remember it being pretty freaking cool.
    • wow! i thought i was the only one who remembered that show! i could never remember the name though

      i used to watch it for the "real" game segments (as a kid that's deleriously cool), but man, what a weird-ass cartoon
      • I think it was called The Power Team, and it would be at the beginning and the end of a weird game show segment called Video Power.

        All I remember about it was Mr. Big was trying to blast the characters back to their game worlds using some kind of magic cartridge thingy.
  • That would be much larger than 7+ pageviews.
  • Such an archaic device? What for? Inefficient transportation under unprotected sunlight?
    No way, I'm keeping my car, and my childhood hasn't seen me fall.
  • Just the other day I mentioned the QBert cartoon during a session of WoW, but no one had any idea what I was talking about. Also, I thought Lou did a great job as Mario. What else are you going to do after your fake manager position in wrestling falls flat?
  • If I'm not incorrect they had a cartoon show about one of my favorite games: "Sonic The Hedgehog", I remember the show was pretty..good even though I was probably still 8-10 at the time, I think the way they make cartoon shows off of video games or the other way around is kind of dumb because they dont have the same feel to them because well, you can't play with the character! Although, I like those videos before games! For example, Halo/Halo2 :)
  • People malign Captain N? They must have no childhood sense of wonder left in their poor, shriveled hearts.

    Rob

  • Missing series (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Capcom: MegaMan NT Warrior: Axess, Street Fighter II/II V/Alpha/Alpha 2 (the Japanese versions, not the cheapo DIC hack), Power Stone, Vampire Hunter/Darkstalkers (Geneon version), Viewtiful Joe
    Sega: Sakura Wars, Sakura Wars 2, Panzer Dragoon
    Square Enix: Final Fantasy: Legend of the Crystals, Final Fantasy: Advent Children, Final
    Sony: Parapper the Rapper, PoPoLoCrois, Wild Arms
    Fantasy: Unlimited, Dragon Quest/Warrior, Chrono Trigger
    Namco: Tekken: The Motion Picture, Xenosaga: The Animation
    Others: Pia Carrot

  • Someone else remembers Earthworm Jim?! (Score:4, Interesting)

    by MilenCent ( 219397 ) * <johnwh@@@gmail...com> on Tuesday April 12, 2005 @01:47PM (#12214978) Homepage
    It was *great*! Fully the equal of Freakazoid and sometimes even up to (dare I say it??) Tick quality. In a perfect world these would have been on shelves in DVD format two years ago.

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