ChinnyVision - Ep 522 - Masters Of The Universe: The Movie - Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, C64, Atari ST 

Always loved the episodes when Heman slaughtered his enemy's with a laser gun.

Another great video! Frank Langella was great as Skeletor in the film - the only saving grace. The only villains from the cartoon that appeared in the film were Skeletor, Evil-Lyn and Beastman. The voice on the ST version was not authentic film samples.

The reason why the ST game was two disk is that earlier STF/FM models with built-in disk drives were, in classic Tramiel cost-cutting style, single-sided. This was changed pretty bloody quickly (anybody with any sense that had an earlier ST model without a built in drive had a double-sided drives, because, who bloody wouldn't?) - The problem meant that, in the early years, ST games would often come on single sided disks, for fear that the one in about five hundred ST owners would come back into Boots and complain his game wasn't loading... which as you can guess gave hacked and cracked disks a massive advantage over retail.

Never understood why nobody recognised Prince Adam,he looked exactly the same. If I walked into a room containing friends or family , but wearing bizarre bondage gear nobody would think i was someone else

An early film role for Courtney "Friends " Cox, as well as Robert Duncan McNeill, who went on to play Tom Paris on Star Trek Voyager. They played the human heroes who helped Heman (sic) search for the Cosmic Key. I seem to recall that Skeletor got Heman's sword at the start of the movie when he took over Grayskull.

I heard they didn't have Orko in the film because they couldn't afford the effects to make a character fly through out the movie. So they had that weird Gnome character.

As far as I know the movie characters look different from the cartoon because of legal reasons, as Filmation, which had made the cartoon series and held the right to the characters likeness, had nothing to do with the movie. The film production company (B movie legend Cannon Films no less) went to Mattel (the actual creators of the toy line) for licensing , but their output had to look somewhat original. To be honest, I don't like the MOTU cartoons in the slightest, I only watched the movie for the first time a few months ago and for what it is I like it. It must be because I don't care for the fantasy genre but small american towns of the 80s are always nice to revisit.

As you were struggling to identify some of the baddies I thought I'd help by pointing out the one at 07:25 is either Rob Halford from Judas Priest or Jean-luc Picard in fetish gear. Hope that helps!

The film is mental! I low key love it, they ran out of money by the end but its worth a watch with your mates and a few drinks

Your fighting 6:29 - Saurod 7:25 - Blade and on the communication screen its Teela.

How could they get He-Man and Skeletor so wrong? Six words: Yoram Globus, Menahem Golan, Canon Pictures

In the film Orco was renamed Gwildor probably due to copyright issues. The lady that He-Man talks to is called Teella Man at Arms's Daughter.

10/10 for your intro, the game and the movie really were soul destroying back in the 80's..

I had this on the C64, where it was beyond tedious, it really felt out of place on the ST.

I didn't know this was on the ST and I don't feel any better knowing it was. I guess it was on 2 disks as for some considerable time games came out on single-sided disks, probably to cater for the 15 people who still had an ST with a single-sided drive and actually bought games rather those that just got a double-sided disk by some cracking crew that would have 4 other games on, each with a trainer option.

Bit of a guilty pleasure this film is for me.😮

I had this on the Speccy as a kid. I never knew there were other gameplay sections other than wandering around the overworld because until this video I never realised it swaps the compass directions! hahahaha What a game 😂

As a poor sucker that picked this up on its budget re-release for the CPC I’d just like to point out that they didn’t even bother to print the map in the Kixx inlay…

US Gold went after the licence for this, as at the time, it was to be the big Xmas film and they wanted to avoid competing with US GOLD for Coin-Op licences, they acquired the licence before seeing the film. After seeing a private screening of it, they described it as f*cking shit. By the time the movie was released, the programming team had moved onto other projects.

That ST disk swapping is bad! I had it on the MSX originally. Loved the music which was a decent version of the Ben Daglish track on c64. Never got to see any of the fight, shooting bits as was always completely lost in game!

He Man could be a Subway Vigilante with those fight moves lol

This game sums up a lot of the 1980s. Nostalgia and history record the best of times, the new inventions and innovations. But of course, the day-to-day reality wasn't always the latest and greatest, it was crap like this. Take an intellectual property, that (while very naff) was popular and well established, and say "yeah... but how can we make a *film* out of this?" Step 1. Lose almost everything from the original property. Then make a cheap game from the film and say "yeah... but how can we make a *game* out of this?" Step 1. Lose almost everything from the original property. Hence "Heman" running around a nonsensical map with a laser gun.

An early example and lesson in life of sheer disappointment - movie wise and game wise - at least it was consistent. But, as others said, Frank Langella threw himself into that role as Skeletor, the only bright spot in that disaster. Unfortunately there was no bright spot in the game.

I had this game on the CPC back in the day .......... and yeah, I hadn't got a bloody clue where to go

I remember the Gremlin (although my memory says it was us gold) stand at the pcw show having a big monitor showing bits of the film and it looked so cool. Innocent and naive young me then excitedly went to the cinema to see said film and discovered the footage they were showing was actually the only decent action bits (skeletor's floaty hover battleship thingy coming out of the wormhole and he man fighting his soldiers on hoverboards) and the rest of the film was bloody awful. Replacing orco with a badly made up dwarf, having pretty much nothing to do with the cartoon and being just a bit dull was such a let down. Dolph looked the part but his rendition of `I have the power` just sounded like he phoned it in, bit like the St`s dreadful voice sample. Tellingly, I don't recall seeing the actual game on the stand which was probably foreshadowing what was to follow.

This feels very much like a completely different game that was hastily reskinned when they got the licence (which indeed the Thundercats game was too - but at least in that case you could see the logic seeing as it was just a generic platformer featuring a guy with a sword). He-Man did use a gun in the film but still, why on Earth would you make a MOTU game where the sword wasn't the primary weapon? The reason for this game underperforming and the two other games going pretty much straight to budget was that the popularity of MOTU absolutely cratered in 1987. It went from selling a billion dollars of product a year to a couple of million almost overnight. Whether it was due to the launch of newer IPs like the Ninja Turtles and Thundercats, or kids just getting tired of it, Mattel killed the line pretty much immediately with a whole bunch of figures that were coming off the production line being dumped out for cheap in European markets to get rid of them. The film was supposed to be the big new relaunch for the brand but it tanked at the box office. They tried relaunching the line for kids in the early 90s, then again in the early 00s and a third time a couple of years ago but none of it worked. There has been a fairly successful stream of new MOTU toys and media in the last 10 years but it's all been aimed at nostalgic adults, it seems like selling the idea of a barbarian with a magic sword fighting a wizard skeleton only worked for kids between the years of 1982 and 1986 and literally at no other time. Which must be irritating for Mattel because kids never, ever seem to get tired of Transformers or Ninja Turtles, those are absolutely evergreen brands now.

1) I had this on my MSX and booted it up once in a while to enjoy the Ben Daglish track, which was awesome. Sounds like the ST version has the same? No clue what to do or where to go in the game. I don't recall ever having seen anything past the graveyard scene. :D 2) BOBS JUNK and then proceeding to kick your enemy in the groin, you can't make this up. 3) even though the game is awful, the C64 wins again in terms of sound, graphics and playability(...), the ST version is especially bad. Can't imagine what shiny new ST owners must've thought seeing it run side by side. 4) The movie was awesome. Fight me. And if DOLPH LUNDGREN is not He Man, then who is?

Th game reminds me a little of Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker. Have a soft spot for the film as I grew up watching it, nearly wore out my VHS copy!

Maybe N stands for Navigation?

how hard is it for left to be west, up to be north? etc How do you get something like that wrong?!

Go west! There are baddies there! Go West! If you even still care!

ChinnyVision i have question can you make video review about indiana jones and the fate of atlantis- the action game for atari st, c64, amiga, zx spectrum, amstrad cpc.

Glad I missed this one back in the day , all versions look shite , as u say graphics hardly look like the characters they meant to be

hi video review about masters of the universe- the movie . i have play masters of the universe on atari st, c64

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Great vid, not great film, poor game!

Bad licensed game as usual.