I wanted this game REALLY BAD when I was a young boy in the early 80's. I do not remember the actual price with any accuracy but my gut tells me that Milton Bradley wanted $39.95 at the time! My gut could be wrong, but the point is that I never had the money to get it. I remember this commercial and I still dig it. Now, I share this nostalgia with the rest of you.
DT Site
ReplyDeleteOnline Flash Version
Enjoy!
AWWW! I was gonna post that link! Beat me to it! That's okay if you know that link your cool by me!
DeleteThat is VERY MUCH appreciated - you ROCK!
ReplyDeleteHappy to help.
ReplyDeleteI was lucky. My father worked for many years as an integrated circuit designer (so he was up on electronic toys) - I got to play with prototypes of the ROM Space Knight doll and the Star Bird spaceship toy. Dark Tower was challenging!
That's cool. Your dad had one of those jobs that most kids wish their dad did. I remember ROM...lol.
DeleteThose early days of electronic games had a magic to them. Before the consoles and computers came and swept them away, there was something about a dedicated game/toy device.
DeleteI completely agree with your thoughts. I absolutely appreciate everything that even my meager netbook will do BUT I would not mind having a dedicated game device like the old hand held Dungeons & Dragons electronic game. I used to play the hell out of that thing. I honestly can not remember if I ever won...lol.
DeleteAll of 'em were very addictive... No internet necessary, no computer requirements. No pieces that could be lost like a boardgame.
DeleteI wonder just how much cash the battery manufacturers made off us kids...
Very true. Even the simple electronic football game with one team represented as Xs and the other team represented by "__"...well, I forgot by now what the other symbol was. Anyway, the point is that we would pass those things around all day.
DeleteI bet the battery manufacturers made a mint!
Related to D&D, it's interesting that TSR produced that electronic game, but didn't pursue an evolution in electronic products that could supplement the tabletop experience.
ReplyDeleteInteresting observation. They could have produced a wide variety of these products. I believe it would have been quite interesting to see what kinds of products they would have produced. There could have been an electronic dice roller (similar to the old Dragon Bone deals) or a DMs assistant that would have been a very crude tablet computer - kind of like a specialized calculator for D&D combat, etc. Who knows?
DeleteSpot on. Strange, given how many 'data charts' were in AD&D that this wasn't at least explored.
DeleteI know back in the day, I probably would've bought a 'combat computer'... all my game buddies back then were obsessed with the paper one in Dragon 74 (a project inspired by it is here)
To quote Mr. Spock, "Fascinating."
DeleteI think MB had better perceived the trends. You have D&D extremely popular (and not viewed as a "geek" game and in some places actually cool.) You had the video games from the 70's entering the home. You had people that still played boardgames. The best thing to do would be to combine them all into one product.
DeleteIf I would make and program the tower, I would probably make my own version of Dark Tower and make it available for sale. But I don't see how I could do that. Maybe a phone/tablet app? Not an ideal solution for a commercial product but it is a start.
Sounds pretty cool, actually. A phone/tablet app may not be a bad idea. They seem to pull people in with their low prices. I would very much like a modern version of the Dark Tower BUT I want the board, figures, etc. like the original. I would get a phone/tablet app but I would really want the full on board game.
DeleteWhat I meant was the board, but instead of a tower, have an app on your phone to serve as the tower. I know people who are set up to print boardgames, I just don't know anyone that can make a tower with a computer in it.
DeleteSo I was thinking make the tower part an app for a phone then just bring the board.
d'oh - I see what you mean now! I actually like that idea a lot. I have heard that several of the Towers were somewhat defective. A phone/tablet app could change all of that. If you needed to update the program, you could just update it and the people that had it installed would get a little notification telling them it was time to update. I just got an HTC Inspire and I have updated a few of the apps on it using that method. I really like the simplicity and convenience. I could see a Dark Tower like game working really well like that.
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