SydLexia.com - The Forums :: View topic - Has anyone actually talked about the VHS board games?

Posted: Nov 12 2005 06:59 am

Does anyone remember those D&D board games with the VHS tapes that you play along with? I remember the ads for those things were always littered throughout my Marvel comics as a kid. It would always show some boys (and one hideously ugly girl) with mullets and really bad clothing sitting around a table, acting excited about some plastic figures on a 2 foot slat of cardboard. Then it would show scary claymation scorpions and a face-painted elf that looked like David Bowie.

Posted: Nov 12 2005 07:47 am

No, I didn't. I always wondered if there were Laserdisc versions of any of these games, because it was much easier to skip around on a Laserdisc than a VHS tape.

Posted: Nov 12 2005 02:52 pm

I still have a D&D tape. You didn't play along with it, it was like... a cheesy half-animated gameplay sequence. I haven't watched it in a few years, but I found it recently and want to watch it again.

My friend almost bought the SNL edition of Trivial Pursuit the other day. He said that it had a DVD with it. I've never actually played a board game that interacted with a video, so I'm quite intrigued by it. It seems like it would add another dimension to gameplay, but I guess that depends on the game and what they're adding via video.

Posted: Nov 12 2005 04:23 pm

Rycona wrote:

My friend almost bought the SNL edition of Trivial Pursuit the other day. He said that it had a DVD with it. I've never actually played a board game that interacted with a video, so I'm quite intrigued by it. It seems like it would add another dimension to gameplay, but I guess that depends on the game and what they're adding via video.

The Trivia Pursuit DVD games are pretty fun, except for perhaps the SNL one. If you're not familiar with everyone who's ever been in the cast, including in the 70s and early 80s, you're pretty screwed.

Posted: Nov 13 2005 12:21 am

I only have a Nightmare VHS game. It killed the genre for me, but I do want to play the Star Wars VHS game.

Posted: Nov 13 2005 02:24 am

Fuck SNL Trivial Pursuit. I own it, and it's the hardest thing I've ever played. Unless you know the maiden name of every wife of every obscure writer from the 70's and 80's, there's no fucking way anyone is winning that game.

Posted: Nov 13 2005 07:26 am

S. McCracken wrote:

Fuck SNL Trivial Pursuit. I own it, and it's the hardest thing I've ever played. Unless you know the maiden name of every wife of every obscure writer from the 70's and 80's, there's no fucking way anyone is winning that game.

I know that Charles Rocket killed himself recently. Let's travel back in time and make them add that.

Posted: Nov 14 2005 10:20 am

I played one of the VHS games because I had a spoiled rich friend in middle school, so he had this sorta shit. And Syd, there was no need to skip around ala laserdisk, you just kinda had to make sure your turns didn't take too long or the tape could get ahead of you. Don't remember what it was called though.

But know my favorite part about board games? Until my sister was born (when I was 10), I was always the youngest person playing, and the directions for every game give the youngest person preferencial treatment, even if it's only going first.

Posted: Nov 14 2005 12:49 pm

Dr. Jeebus wrote:

And Syd, there was no need to skip around ala laserdisk, you just kinda had to make sure your turns didn't take too long or the tape could get ahead of you. Don't remember what it was called though.

Well, I am pretty sure at least some of them required you to skip around. Years ago, I remember seeing a Star Trek: The Next Generation VHS mystery game that claimed that it was "never the same game twice". Now, I would presume that this promise could not be fulfilled if the VHS tape always played through the same series of events in the same order. So, it would seem logical that it would require you to skip to certain time marks, not unlike the old Choose Your Own Adventure books.

Posted: Dec 05 2005 08:27 pm

I finally played the SNL edition of Trivial Pursuit the other day. I didn't like it much. I really like SNL (pre-95 or so anyway), but I'm not crazy enough to want to know such things. All it did was piss most of us off and made us want to watch some older SNL. I personally despised the DVD. I kept muting it after we used it because the music got on my nerves. I like jazz, but not the same thing playing over and over and over... etc.

I'm never playing it again. >_<

Though it did give me an idea for a project. What if there was some kind of Video Game based Trivial Pursuit (if there isn't one already)? I thought of this halfway through the game and thought it would be a neat project. I prefer classic gaming, so here's what I was thinking for categories:

Atari
Arcade
NES
SNES
Genesis
Playstation

Just a quick going through for that. I have other things going on, but if anyone is interested in structuring such a thing in tandem, let me know. I wouldn't want to do all the questions on my own.

Posted: Dec 06 2005 12:35 pm

That's a project that sounds both enticing and profitable! I disagree with the topics being different systems, but that's something that could be worked out later.

Joined: Feb 21 2006 Location: California Posts: 31

how about the laser disc and dvd game of dragons lair and those games
they even had one in the arcde that was a holagram

I also palayed that shitty game nightmare where you had to right your nightmare on a card

mine was that, that game would never end

Posted: Feb 24 2006 11:12 am

You guys are thinking Dragon Strike on the D&D one I believe, which I had and found amusing if only for the plastic minitures that came with it. I also had Atmosfear, the write your fears on a card one, that I enjoyed for actually the same reason that I enjoyed Dragon Strike. I'm not sure I even actually played either game more than once, but the pieces found roles among my other toys at time.

Posted: Feb 24 2006 08:27 pm

Black Zarak wrote:

You guys are thinking Dragon Strike on the D&D one I believe, which I had and found amusing if only for the plastic minitures that came with it. I also had Atmosfear, the write your fears on a card one, that I enjoyed for actually the same reason that I enjoyed Dragon Strike. I'm not sure I even actually played either game more than once, but the pieces found roles among my other toys at time.

HOLY SNAP!!!

I just saw the DragonStrike movie at a "Bad Movie Festival". It was hella sweet! I've been trying to buy the damn game off eBay. I did buy the complete set of DragonStrike books though.