This week, I’ve disentombed my 1981 pocket-sized Dungeons & Dragons Computer Fantasy Game by Mattel Electronics from the depths of my childhood collection. But with the tiny watch batteries having disappeared long, long ago into oblivion, will I be able to get it to light up once again? Let’s find out.
First arriving in Fall of 1981, this little marvel immediately sold out. The ground had already been paved by all sorts of other electronic devices and consoles that were flooding our collective childhoods.
“Adventure Gaming Page” from the 1982 Sears Christmas Wish Book
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Handheld electronic sports games were pretty popular back then. Anyone remember kids bringing these to school (and getting them confiscated)?
Mattel Electronic Handheld Sports Games from the 70s. (Don't let your teachers see them!)
“Sophisticated”, “Exciting”, and “Thrilling”!
The D&D handheld game was part of the exclusive licensing deal that TSR made with Mattel in 1980. Here’s a page from the book, Dungeons & Dragons Art & Arcana: A Visual History that talks about it:
The Dawn (of D&D) Digital
Want to see THE OTHER amazing Mattel Dungeons & Dragons electronic game?
Strangest design - once you put the batteries in, the manual suggests you put it in demo mode to conserve the batteries (which it says can last for YEARS). No on/off switch!
After taking a short trip to the local Walgreens, I was on my way back with several fresh A76 watch batteries.
No sound. Uh-oh. Could it mean what I think it means?
I flip it over,
and . . .
TSR merchandise ad from Polyhedron Magazine, 1983 - still showing the handheld game after a couple of years!
and . . .
I see the warrior moving across the small LCD screen.
Amazing! After all these years.
I go about playing it without referencing the directions - it’ll come back to me.
And it did. Isometric dungeon-walled crossroads, electronic arcade sounds, abducting bats, pits (oh so many pits), an itinerant magic rope, a one-time-use magic arrow, and . . . the dragon!
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(Featuring artwork from Clyde Caldwell & Luke Eidenschink!)
Your objective: Move through the randomized 10x10 dungeon grid while avoiding pits and bats to find the magic arrow and slay the dragon from afar, guessing/interpolating where it might be without actually entering its lair.
Sound simple? It is.
Sound easy? It is not!
Addictive? You bet.
Interestingly, this game was designed by Peter Oliphant, child actor from several episodes of The Dick Van Dyke Show and The Donna Reed Show in the 60s. Peter became a programmer/game designer as an adult. He just passed away this year.
I found an excellent article & video by Brian Crecente about this handheld D&D game and he actually interviewed Peter Oliphant! A couple interesting excerpts:
“I mentioned that one of the first D&D themed games ever done was called Hunt the Wumpus and that the design for this game was very simple, so they had me do a prototype of this game which they approved, and thus the toy was born.” - Peter Oliphant
“I had just gotten a top-secret security clearance to work at CIA headquarters, but I didn’t like this kind of work, so out of the blue, I sent a letter to Mattel telling them my qualifications and asking if they would like to hire me. I did not know this, but that same week they put an ad in the newspaper asking for people with my qualifications since they needed more people for Mattel Electronics. So I got the job; it was sort of a serendipitous moment.” - Peter Oliphant
After getting flight-for-death lifted by the bats a dozen or so times, losing my magic rope pit-after-pit, and yes, once in a while finding the arrow AND slaying the dragon, I feel my week is now complete, and I may rest.
I’m so happy I didn’t store the batteries within my game all these years. Now I get to bring it to work to play with my friends. I’ll just have to make sure the new boss doesn’t see us and take it away.
“But for many kids of the ‘80s, like myself, the diminutive TSR Hobbies licensed toy was a sort of handheld holy grail, mashing together the joys of gaming with the fantasy of Dungeons & Dragons, all in a bit of plastic that could be easily slipped out of a pocket when your teacher wasn’t looking.” - Brian Crecente
My new High(est) Score (ever) - the lower the better. Feels great after 40 years of haunting memories of falling into all those pits and the countless free bat rides (which sometimes dropped you directly . . . into those pits!)
Other News from The Realms:
Linda Curtin, owner of DEI Games published an interesting article about Len Lakofka, the fantasy writer who did a lot of work for early TSR in Dragon Magazine, RPG modules, and even edited some of the original AD&D volumes!
Christopher Bünte is in the final 15 days of his Kickstarter campaign for the 3rd gamebook in his heroic fantasy series, called, The Secrets of Candarlin. Check out the 3 different covers he’s worked up! We interviewed Christopher here about his 1st gamebook, The Temple of Shadows, on Rediscovered Realms back in March.
The Secrets of Candarlin - will you find the answers?
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Cool little nugget. I never knew about this one.