December 5, 2011Old School Game Blog

He-Man and the Masters of the Universe

He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (taken from http://www.mannythemovieguy.com/index.php?m=01&y=09&entry=entry090130-023752)
He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (taken from http://www.mannythemovieguy.com/index.php?m=01&y=09&entry=entry090130-023752)

Hi folks,

The time has come to make a post about one of my childhood heroes. We’re talking about He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. My parents were so kind to give me several He-Man toys when I was a kid and I played with them all the time. Characters like Stinkor (yes, that was actually his name..), Moss Man and Evil-Lyn are true legends.. each with their own speciality. Stinkor had magical control of his own stench, which could prove dangerous to his opponents nostrils. Evil-Lyn was a sorceress only matched in skill by Skeletor himself, while a guy called Moss Man could manipulate plant matter. Cool stuff. 🙂 Playing with He-Man figures were popular back then, but they did receive competition from Transformers and GI-Joe after a while.

Stinkor - The Stench of Evil! (taken from http://old.he-man.org/cartoon/cmotu-pop/whystinkor.shtml)
Stinkor - The Stench of Evil! This is the small comic book accompanying the action figure (taken from http://old.he-man.org/cartoon/cmotu-pop/whystinkor.shtml).

IMDB defined the series in one sentence: “The most powerful man in the universe, He-Man, goes against the evil forces of Skeletor to save the planet Eternia and to protect the secrets of Castle Grayskull.”

On the TV

This legendary cartoon made its TV-debut in the year of 1983 and it ran until 1985. A total of 130 episodes were broadcasted, which is quite impressive in my opinion. I found the complete intro from the TV-show on YouTube. It was really fun to watch it again, so I decided to embed it below. Please have a look – it’s pure nostalgia! The music rocks by the way..

After a few years of silence, He-Man made a comeback with The New Adventures of He-Man in 1990. It was considered to be a continuation of the original series and 65 brand new episodes were created. Once again He-Man disappeared from the spotlight, but returned with new strength in 2002 with 39 new episodes.

Courteney Cox as Julie Winston in the He-Man movie (photo from http://old.he-man.org/primary_sects/movie/html/cast/julie_cox.shtml)
Courteney Cox as Julie Winston in the He-Man movie from 1987 (photo from http://old.he-man.org/primary_sects/movie/html/cast/julie_cox.shtml).

Apart from the cartoon series, a movie about He-Man was released in 1987. It starred Dolph Lundgren as He-Man and Frank Langella (this guy played Count Dracula in the 1979 movie!) as Skeletor. It’s worth mentioning that Courteney Cox, whose now a very famous actor, played the role of Julie Winston in the film. This movie received a bit of criticism from both fans and reviewers, but I think it looks a bit cool. 😉 It’s definitely the 80’s through and through, no doubt about that.

The original He-Man series did also get a spin-off called She-Ra: Princess of Power. I’ve never seen this cartoon before, but from what I’ve seen on the Internet, it looks similar to He-Man. It was first aired in 1985 and ran until 1987. An amazing 93 episodes were made.

If you’re interested in checking out the cartoons, you might be able to pick up a DVD or two at e-Bay or you can search various Online stores. Shouldn’t be too hard to obtain. It’s much worse to get hold of an SX32 expansion for the Amiga CD32, that’s for sure. 😉

The cast of She-Ra: Princess of Power (taken from http://www.badreputation.org.uk/2011/07/28/inspirational-fictional-feminists-she-ra/)
The cast of She-Ra: Princess of Power (taken from http://www.badreputation.org.uk/2011/07/28/inspirational-fictional-feminists-she-ra/)

Video Games

This means trouble for Beast Man.. (taken from http://www.cartoonscrapbook.com/l-p/001/he-man_L19.htm)
This means trouble for Beast Man.. (taken from http://www.cartoonscrapbook.com/l-p/001/he-man_L19.htm)

The most powerful man in the Universe appeared in video games as well. Several different titles were created for a wide variety of platforms.

Unfortunately, I haven’t found a version for the Amiga. It doesn’t seem to exist. I’m a bit surprised by this, since the Amiga was *the* machine for gaming in the beginning of the 90’s. Several games were made for the Commodore 64 though, so Commodore is represented, even though the Amiga isn’t. 😉

Sadly, He-Man didn’t do as well in video games as he did on the TV. Several games received quite bad reviews, which includes the newest ones for the Playstation 2 and the Gameboy Advance. This doesn’t mean that all the games sucks though. You might enjoy one or more of them even if a reviewer tells you otherwise. 😉 I’m going to try out a few of them myself and I’ll let you know how they play.

Here’s a list of video games about He-Man and the Masters of the Universe:

He-Man on the Intellivision (screenshot taken from http://videogamecritic.net/intelmr.htm)
He-Man on the Intellivision (screenshot taken from http://videogamecritic.net/intelmr.htm)

Masters of the Universe: The Power of He-Man (Atari 2600, Intellivision)

The Ilearth Stone on the Commodore 64 (screenshot taken from http://www.c64gg.com/h6.html)
The Ilearth Stone on the Commodore 64 (screenshot taken from http://www.c64gg.com/h6.html)

Masters of the Universe: The Ilearth Stone (Commodore 64)

Masters of the Universe: Terraquake on the Commodore 64 (screenshot taken from The Ilearth Stone on the Commodore 64 (screenshot taken from http://www.c64.com/games/no-frame.php?showid=2253&searchfor=U.S.%20Gold&searchfor_special=5&from=0&range=55)
Masters of the Universe: Terraquake on the Commodore 64 (screenshot taken from http://www.c64.com/games/no-frame.php?showid=2253&searchfor=U.S.%20Gold&searchfor_special=5&from=0&range=55)

Masters of the Universe: Terraquake (Amstrad CPC, BBC Micro, Commodore 64, Spectrum Z80)

Masters of the Universe: The Arcade Game on the Spectrum (screenshot taken from http://www.ysrnry.co.uk/articles/mastersunivarcade.htm)
Masters of the Universe: The Arcade Game on the Spectrum (screenshot taken from http://www.ysrnry.co.uk/articles/mastersunivarcade.htm)

Masters of the Universe: The Arcade Game (Amstrad CPC, BBC Micro, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum)

Experience He-Man in full 3D on the Playstation 2 (cover scan taken from http://wproducoesxtx.blogspot.com/2011/06/he-man-ps2.html)
Experience He-Man in full 3D on the Playstation 2 (cover scan taken from http://wproducoesxtx.blogspot.com/2011/06/he-man-ps2.html)

He-Man: Defender of Grayskull (Playstation 2 – worth noting that an X-Box version was completed, but never released..)

He-Man goes mobile with the GBA version (scan taken from http://forums.ffshrine.org/f72/masters-universe-he-man-gameboy-advance-ost-79657/)
He-Man goes mobile with the GBA version (scan taken from http://forums.ffshrine.org/f72/masters-universe-he-man-gameboy-advance-ost-79657/)

He-Man: Power of Grayskull (Gameboy Advance)

If you’ve got more information on He-Man games, please give me a sign and I’ll update the list. I’m very interested in an Amiga version if it does exist. Please keep in mind that the list above is not complete and may contain errors. 😉 You’ve been warned.

There are plenty of He-Man titles available for gaming, but it is seldom one hear anything about them. Have you played any of these by the way? If yes, what was your experience? Did you enjoy them? Hope to hear from you. 🙂

Now.. I’m suddenly tempted to start watching He-Man cartoons again due to this blog post.. e-Bay next! 😉

Before I leave you for tonight, I’ve included a little bonus for you.. it’s the official trailer for the Master of the Universe. Enjoy!

14 comments

  2. I always watched it. Maybe someone did a PD game of it?

    >Stinkor had magical control of his own stench, which could prove dangerous to his opponents >nostrils.

    That made me spill my beer. 🙂

    Reply

    • Hi mate,

      Nice that you too enjoyed the Masters of the Universe. 🙂

      That’s a good suggestion, Coder. I’ll have a look on Aminet and in old PD archives. Someone must have done a He-Man game of some sort, don’t you think? 🙂

      Hehe.. glad you liked it. 😉

      Reply

  4. Great post! This was my favourite cartoon back in the days, and I still have the little comic books and sticker album.
    BTW, I sent you a PM on Amiga.org, did you see it?

    Reply

  5. I think this blog entry may well have won the internet 😀

    Loved this show when I was a kid, and funnily enough so did my wife, but she was more into She-Ra 🙂

    I remember the A2600 and C64 games as well… funny how you remember these things 🙂 I was watching some footage of old A2600 games recently and someone played some footage of the Superman game on it – I had completely forgotten the game, but that brief 20-second bit of footage brought everything back!

    Reply

    • Hi mate,

      Thanks. 🙂 It was fun writing about He-Man, lot’s of memories came back to me while working on the article. Childhood hero. 😉

      Haven’t watched She-Ra myself, but must do that sometime in the near future to see what I missed. Cool that your wife also watched this stuff. 🙂

      Reply

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