Saturday Morning Arcade

Video games have been around longer than we realize! Computer Space was created in the early 70’s, with Pong, a more popular game on its heels. It wouldn’t be till 1980 where we got a proper mascot character in video games, which would be Pac-Man. Other characters soon followed, with the need to cash in on them all. These endeavors included board games, stuffed toys, figurines, and eventually, animated cartoons. Now, a lot of these strayed a little far from the source material, because let’s be honest, how do you make a cartoon about a character that runs around in a maze eating dots all day? Let’s take a look at these early attempts to cash in on these properties, though I warn you, some of this is cringe as hell.

Do you remember Donkey Kong? The game where you, as Mario have to scale a construction site to rescue your girlfriend from a gorilla that lobs barrels and anything else he can find? Yes, there was Donkey Kong cartoon, and it was nothing like the game.

The basic plot of the cartoon is that Donkey Kong escaped from the circus with Mario and Pauline in hot pursuit. Along the way, the three encounter all kinds of crazy adventures where Mario has to team up with Donkey Kong to set things right with the people they meet, then the chase goes on.

It seems like in this cartoon, Donkey Kong is the hero, while Mario is almost an antagonist, clearly taking inspiration from the Road Runner cartoons. Where does Pauline fit in? Pauline is Mario’s niece in the cartoon, which would make her Luigi’s daughter(?). Mario is also a total dork, which is sad because he’s voiced by Peter “Optimus Prime” Cullen! There’s no way Nintendo would sign off on this these days, as in the early 80s, they were a different company.

One episode has Mario meeting Stanley, who had his starring role in Donkey Kong 3, marking the only time these heroes would ever be seen together. You can watch it here. https://youtu.be/4eR3rZUWgsw

The Konami produced, Sega published arcade game Frogger, which had a little frog crossing a busy road and a river, got his own cartoon as well. But it’s not an animated version of Frogger crossing the road each episode. Oh no! Frogger is a reporter for the Swamp Gazette!

Frogger is usually tracking down leads for a story, like reporters did back in the day, along with Shellshock the turtle, also known as “Shelly,” and Fanny Frog. The three quite often end up in crazy adventures to chase down a story, and just like in the game, Frogger frequently gets flattened.

If you want to see what this crazy cartoon was like, check it out here. https://youtu.be/eqhwgy2YBw4

Instead of hopping around on a pyramid made of blocks floating in space endlessly, or being homeless due to the game being unplugged like in Wreck-It Ralph, Q*bert in the cartoon was a hip kid in the cartoon. He’s a teenager going to high school and dealing with teenage issues. Think of it like an animated version of Happy Days, except now the Fonz has been replaced by Coily the snake, who is far less cool.

Every once in a while, the Q*bert cartoon reminds you this was once a video game property (American made this time) where on occasion, Q*bert does hop on blocks and use his flying disc, but he does have an ability he never had in the game, which is shooting projectiles from his nose. His enemies in the game are also in the cartoon, though they’re dressed as bikers, and it looks like Slick and Sam are neutral. In the game, they were annoyances, but killable.

If you’d like to see this cringe on display, here is the link. https://youtu.be/E5n2cmGQJ7s

Ahh, Kangaroo! Designed in Japan by Sun Electronics, later known as Sunsoft, distributed by Atari in America because they needed a cute mascot, as their own Bentley Bear from Crystal Castles just wasn’t working out for them. Kangaroo fit the bill as an unofficial mascot. The only home conversions came out on Atari systems, and if there’s a Famicom port, I’m not aware of it. Kangaroo was a Donkey Kong clone where instead of Mario vs a gorilla at a construction site, you’re a mama kangaroo climbing trees to rescue her joey from a group of monkeys armed with apples. How could it not be loved?

It was popular enough to get the Saturday morning cartoon treatment. In the cartoon, the kangaroo has a name, “K.O.” Katy. Katy lives in a zoo with her son, Joey, and a squirrel named Sidney. All three have their hands full with the Monkeybiz Gang, Bingo, Bango, Bongo, and Fred, four monkeys that are always trying to make trouble for the zoo keeper, and sometimes they try to escape with no success thanks to Katy.

The link to see this cartoon is right here. https://youtu.be/qJi3OI-qCMk

Do you remember Donkey Kong Jr? Where Mario was the bad guy? Where you had to rescue the ape who was tossing barrels at you in the first game? Donkey Kong Jr had you playing as Junior, where you’re climbing vines, chains, and ropes, dodging snapjaws, birds, and sparks, in hopes of rescuing his father, the big ape, Donkey Kong. This game gave me a sense of betrayal when I played it at six years old, but I love it these days. It too got the Saturday morning treatment. But if you’re expecting anything game related, you’re out of luck.

The only holdover from the game is Junior himself. Junior is on a never ending quest to find Donkey Kong, who is forever on the run from Mario in his own cartoon. Junior has a sidekick named Bones, who has a motorcycle, which Junior drives most of the time. Junior and Bones find themselves in awkward adventures in their search for Donkey Kong Senior, and Junior was given a catchphrase, “Monkey muscle.” I’m betting Shigeru Miyamoto has never watched any of these cartoons, as he’d surely be feeling the cringe.

If you want to see “monkey muscle” in action, and I’m not sure why you would, here’s the link. https://youtu.be/joOfL4LMNcM

Ahh! Here’s a game that did not originate from the arcade, but on the good old Atari 2600! Pitfall! put you in the shoes of Pitfall Harry on a search for treasure in the jungle, dodging crocodiles, swinging on vines, and running from tar pits that expanded and contracted. The game was a huge hit and spawned a lucrative franchise.

So how does the cartoon differ? Well, Pitfall Harry is still a treasure hunter, and he takes his niece Rhonda and pet lion Quickclaw on these adventures with him. He explores jungles, mountains, and deserts looking for lost treasure. So it’s pretty faithful to the source material. Rhonda and Quickclaw even appear in Pitfall II and Super Pitfall.

To see Pitfall Harry and his Indiana Jones sized cojones in action, follow this link. https://youtu.be/LlWaQjEYQQk

Space Ace was created by the same company that made Dragon’s Lair, which also got a Saturday morning cartoon, but on a different channel. In Space Ace, you play as Ace, who got zapped by Borf’s infanto-ray, turning him into a whiny brat named Dexter. Well, you don’t actually play as Ace. You just control his reactions to events, much like Dirk the Daring.

The prime difference between the game and the cartoon are the fact that they had different animation studios. Don Bluth’s studio handled the game while Ruby Spears worked on the TV show. Also, Dexter’s ability to change into Ace was triggered at certain points in the game with a press of a button. In the cartoon, it’s totally random. Still, Borf is a threat, and Ace still has to fight him.

Here’s an episode of the series. https://youtu.be/4gR8R75h4YA

So now we’ve come to the end of Saturday Supercade. But there were three more games that became cartoons. Let’s take a look.

This doesn’t belong on the list, but I’m putting it in as the show runners needed to get permission from Namco to use the name. Pole Position and Pole Position II are very fun racing games that Namco developed and Atari published in the west. It was simple. Qualify for the race, then race against other cars. It doesn’t get much simpler. So...

The cartoon has absolutely nothing to do with the games, save for nicknames being given to the cars, Wheels and Roadie, which have AI computers in them. The show is about a crime fighting family known as the Darretts, who run the “Pole Position Stunt Show,” which was an undercover organization. It was popular enough to run for three seasons and in reruns on other channels. Plus...how would a show based directly on the Pole Position games fare?

The link to see an episode of this show is right here. https://youtu.be/_lKsC3xolgg

As a child of the 80s, I’m no stranger to Dragon’s Lair. I’ve seen the game in action but I never played it until it was made available on my DSi. I found it intimidating, and thought while the concept of playing a cartoon was cool, you don’t really control it. I reserved my tokens for other games. But I did love the presentation. As a game, it was simple. Get Dirk the Daring to the end by making sure he didn’t fall into traps, or fall for tricks. His death animations were funny to watch, but that costs quarters.

As such, there was a cartoon produced, and just like Space Ace, Ruby Spears handled its production. Dirk actually has a voice, not just the grunts and shrieks from the game. New characters were added, such as a squire and a rival knight for Dirk. The cartoon brings back enemies from the game like the Lizard King, the Giddy Goons, the Mudmen, and Singe, the dragon.

If you’d like to see this cartoon, click this link. https://youtu.be/nVtOZc6F3l4

And now there was one. Can you guess what it is?

You saw this coming a mile away!

Yes indeed! Back in the day, Pac-Man had his own cartoon. In Japan, Pac-Man was just another game, but here in the USA, Pac-Man was huge! Stuffed toys, figurines, lunch boxes, board games, handheld electronic games, unlicensed upgrades and sequels...a cartoon was inevitable! Rather than being animated by Ruby Spears, like most of the entries on this list, Hanna Barberra took on the duties of putting Pac-Man on TVs better than Atari’s first attempt.

In this cartoon, Pac-Man is the chief of security of the power pellet forest, which is a source of food and energy for the citizens of Pac-Land. The evil wizard Mezmeron has his eyes on the power pellets, and wishes to use them to conquer Pac-Land. To this end, he sends out our favorite ghosts, Blinky, Pinky, Inky, Clyde, and Sue. Pac-Man always thwarts these attempts by the ghosts, sending them back to their master. There was one episode where Mezmeron invaded Pac-Land himself, but was fought off by the townspeople. The other characters that appear in this show are Pepper (Ms Pac-Man), Pac-Baby (Baby Pac-Man), Super Pac (Super Pac-Man, though in the cartoon, the characters are different), and P.J. (though I suspect Jr Pac-Man inspired that character). Pac-Man also has a dog named Chomp Chomp and a cat named Sour Puss. The cartoon ran for two seasons on ABC, and inspired CBS to counter with their Saturday Supercade. The show also inspired Namco to make Pac-Land, a side scroller that used the character designs and music from the cartoon.

To see an episode of this cartoon, click this link. https://youtu.be/22MZPWsVs8M

Some of the liberties taken by these animators kinda made the cartoons a little cringy, what with the source material mostly only applying to characters. This wouldn’t be the last time video games would be a source for cartoons, as later on, when the Nintendo Entertainment System became the hot holiday gift for kids, properties around that would be tapped to cash in on Nintendo’s popularity. Would they be any less cringy?

Spoiler alert: No! They won’t!

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