Author Topic: Mazes and Monsters (Read 1014 times)

jjkolb · « **on:** December 12, 2005, 01:21:00 PM »

So I was browsing through the DVD bargain bin at the local well-known retail store, when what should I find?....Mazes and Monsters! Naturally, I snatched it up and watched it that night.
I remember when this thing aired on TV in 1982. It was about three years after a young college student disappeared from Michigan State University (which I attended 1986-1991). Apparently, this student broke into the steam tunnels under the University and played D&D there. One of the theories was that this student got too wrapped up in D&D and "became" his character. So, at the time, there was this anti-D&D hysteria and thus the book was written and the movie was made.
Our PnP group at the time watched it and laughed our tails off. Twenty-three years later, it's just as funny. Not funny that the kid in the movie lost his mind, but at the misconceptions throughout the movie (as well as the bad dialogue and even worse acting).
And for those unfamiliar with this work of art, Tom Hanks had the lead role.

Red Monkey · « **Reply #1 on:** December 12, 2005, 01:37:00 PM »

Oh brother....I was renting a few movies yesterday and saw it in an obscure corner....flashback time.
Being in a different age group at the time....it made the next few months very interesting for us young gamers.
So I took up a nice violent group sport and everyone felt better. (Gaming all the time anyway)
Go figure.?

miltonyorkcastle · « **Reply #2 on:** December 12, 2005, 01:49:00 PM »

*sighs* I mean, come on. "Mazes and Monsters" ?? The title itself screams 'lame-o'. I'd have thought it was funny if I could get past the incredibly poor production.

Doc-Holiday · « **Reply #3 on:** December 12, 2005, 07:33:00 PM »

You have sufferd naught till you have suffed "MANOS: HANDS OF FATE"

Dorganath · « **Reply #4 on:** December 12, 2005, 07:46:00 PM »

Quote

Doc-Holiday - 12/12/2005 9:33 PM
You have sufferd naught till you have suffed "MANOS: HANDS OF FATE"

*falls out of his chair* So you're the other person who watched it!
That has to be one of the better MST3K episodes ever!

Doc-Holiday · « **Reply #5 on:** December 12, 2005, 07:56:00 PM »

It was painful... even the Evil host was sorry for unleashing it

Zen · « **Reply #6 on:** December 12, 2005, 08:45:00 PM »

You wanna talk bad well this is the worst!

"Bambi meets Godzilla"

Dorganath · « **Reply #7 on:** December 12, 2005, 08:51:00 PM »

Bad yes...but mercifully short...which is not the case in Manos: The Hands of Fate
*screams and runs away*

cappyra · « **Reply #8 on:** December 13, 2005, 04:46:00 AM »

This movie actually had the opposite effect an me and my friends.

It is actually what started me playing D&D...

At school the day after Mazes and Monsters aired on TV my friends and I were talking about it at school. We all agreed that the game didn't cause the lead character to go wacko... there were other things happening in his life that was the underlying reason for his problems.

I remember saying to Freddie. . . "The game they were playing seemed pretty cool. Too bad there isn't anything like that."

So Freddie says, "Actually... there is. It's called Dungeons and Dragons." I was immediately intrigued. So Freddie, Lance and I began scouring our backwater town for the D&D game. No luck.

We finally found the game. We ordered it out of... get this... the Sears catalog. I am not joking. We anxiously awaited its arrival and finally after three weeks (STOP LAUGHING!) LOL We had the game. But then... what to do. None of us had ever played it. So we sit down and opened the box and started flipping through the books. Freddie starts taking about someone called the Dungeon Master. He said that the Dungeon Master had to prepare a game ahead of time and then we could make characters and play.

I think this is a pretty unusual way to get started. I think most people start by playing with a group that is already established.

So the weekend comes and we are ready to play. I rolled up my first character... a fighter named Sparticus.

And... the rest as they say is History.

cappyra · « **Reply #9 on:** December 13, 2005, 05:43:00 AM »

*smacks himself in the forehead

Ha! I had forgotten this.... On a related yet unrelated note. I met Tom Hanks.

miltonyorkcastle · « **Reply #10 on:** December 13, 2005, 06:47:00 AM »

did you thank him for getting you into DnD?

cappyra · « **Reply #11 on:** December 13, 2005, 06:50:00 AM »

I was too busy oogling Rita Wilson. Steven Spielberg was with him. I was oogling Kate Capshaw too =P

This was 8 years ago so...

Vyris · « **Reply #12 on:** December 13, 2005, 11:19:00 AM »

I've never played a game that made me want to go cruise around in the local sewer and kill things, I have however met people who make me want to go log into a game world and kill things.

Vyris

lonnarin · « **Reply #13 on:** December 14, 2005, 03:08:00 AM »

Hey now, there's nothing wrong with hacking apart sewer gators with a machete. It's just when you walk the streets of man and see nothing but gators... then there's a problem.

Force_of_Will_ · « **Reply #14 on:** December 14, 2005, 12:32:00 PM »

Wasnt the Student who lost it played by a very young Tom Hanks?

Zen · « **Reply #15 on:** December 14, 2005, 01:06:00 PM »

Quote

lonnarin - 12/14/2005 5:08 AM
It's just when you walk the streets of man and see nothing but gators... then there's a problem.

No problem there just sounds like south Florida to me hehe

Casimir · « **Reply #16 on:** December 14, 2005, 03:06:00 PM »

Yep... I started playing it just after it originaly came out in the late '70's (I still have my original rulebook too). After the "anti-DnD" hysteria hit, my parents read some article in a church magazine about "the evils of Dungeons and Dragons" and forbade me to play it anymore. They refused to even read the rules to find out what the game was all about, instead relying on these authors of said articles for their "truth"... authors who themselves had never played it (or read the rules) either.

But I played it anyway... and frequently.

Never saw "Mazes and Monsters" though... but I have a good friend who actually owns a copy of "Manos : Hands of Fate" (why, I have no idea) and I was subjected to that absolutely horrible peice of film. I have to admit that it was quite funny after a while... whether it was supposed to be a comedy or not.

Doc-Holiday · « **Reply #17 on:** December 14, 2005, 03:23:00 PM »

I vote Manos: Hands of Fate

The worst piece of film ever made...

lonnarin · « **Reply #18 on:** December 14, 2005, 03:44:00 PM »

True, though Hulk Hogan's "Santa with Muscles" gives it a run for its money.

« **Reply #19 on:** December 14, 2005, 03:58:00 PM »

Remember Dungeon and Dragons the animation on saturday mornings(lame), think it came on just after Thundarr the Barbarian.(post-apocalyptic world, very cool at the time, find it rather lame now)
Then there is the movie Dungeon and Dragons, which I thought was kind of lame with the main characters computer on his forearm.(waste of a rental fee for a movie first released in beta, think I still have it somewhere gathering dust, along with my betamax)
Reign of Fire, think was a great movie. Thumbs up on that one.