Yes My Gatekeeper!

Delving into my obsession with all thing scary is well, pretty scary.

One area I have yet to post about is my love of horror related board games.

Horror board games?

Yup, there are plenty of horror themed games out there and as you have probably guessed I’ve acquired quite a few over the years.

The first one up for discussion is “Nightmare: The Video Board Game,” which debuted in 1991.

“Nightmare” is a FMV or Full Motion Video board game, a novel concept designed to plunge players into 60 minutes of terrifying playtime.

Here the description from the box:

“Turn the volume up, the lights down, press PLAY and your video cassette recorder and you are in for a night of frightening fun as Nightmare brings a thrilling new dimension to home entertainment; INTERACTIVE TELEVISION!

No game ever plays the same way twice, and there is no need to FAST FORWARD, REWIND or PAUSE the tape. All you need is ONE HOUR and a video cassette recorder.

Once you press PLAY, you only have 60 minutes to win or the game’s host THE GATEKEEPER wins! Only you can stop him!

To beat THE GATEKEEPER, you must collect 6 keys and make your way to the center of the board where you will face your Nightmare; the thing you fear most!

But your number just came up and THE GATEKEEPER wants to speak to you! If you fail to answer him or fail his tests, you are banished to the BLACK HOLE!”

That’s a lot of exclamation points and capitalization…regardless of the play value I love the concept and the idea of bringing an interactive horror experience to the mainstream.

We played this game once or twice and while it was unique it really wasn’t what you would call a lot of fun.

Whatever….”Nightmare” deserves a place in horror history gaming and if you ever see it at a thrift store or garage sale pick it up strictly for the nostalgia aspect.

3-6 Players aged 12 to Adult.

Contents…

60 Minute HI-FI VHS Cassette. Gameboard. 256 Cards (TIME, FATE AND CHANCE). 36 Keys (six sets). 8 Nightmare Cards. 6 Plastic tombstone Playing Pieces. 6 Numbered discs. Plastic Coin. Nightmare Cloth Bag. Marking Pencils. Die. The Rules.

P.S. Love the bat!

Morning Friends

I would guess that 99 percent of you recognize the images on the boxes above.

These three guys are unsung American heroes, working everyday to provide a tasty breakfast for children as well as fostering an ongoing love of monster icons.

I present you with General Mill’s monster-themed cereals; Count Chocula, Franken Berry and Boo Berry.

Did you know there were two other fruit flavored cereals in the lineup that are no longer available?

Yup.

Fruit Brute and Yummy Mummy used to be part of the gang but have been retired.

Growing up we weren’t privileged to much sweetened cereal so it wasn’t until several years ago I first tasted the sugary goodness of The Count and his friends. I won’t comment on the taste but I do so love the artwork and the characters.

Here’s some more info from the folks at Wikopedia:

“In 1971, the first two cereals in the line were introduced, the still-available Count Chocula and (strawberry flavored) Franken Berry. Boo Berry was released two years later, in 1973, and Fruit Brute appeared a year after that, in 1974. Fruit Brute was discontinued by 1983 and replaced in 1987 by Fruity Yummy Mummy, which also had a short life and was discontinued in 1993[citation needed]. Boo Berry and Franken Berry are sometimes mistakenly thought to be discontinued as well. In reality, their distribution is just much lower and more sporadic than that of the flagship cereal Count Chocula. The best time of the year to find Boo Berry and Franken Berry is around Halloween[citation needed].

Target and Wal-Mart are among the stores that have been known to carry these more scarce cereals during October in time for Halloween. They can be found year-round in the Midwest at Wal-Mart Supercenters and on Amazon.com, and in the Southeast in many stores.

In addition, they have been spotted year-round in some Wal-Mart Supercenters in the East[citation needed].

Somewhat unusual for retired advertising characters, Fruity Yummy Mummy and Fruit Brute continue to be seen on the occasional piece of official merchandise: in recent years, both a resin model kit, and a bobblehead doll have been sold in their images[citation needed].

The commercials for the cereals were memorable as it was usually a battle of the monsters when they would tout their own cereals, but would jump in sheer fright when anything interrupted their attempted one-upmanship of one another.”

Much more information regarding these cereals can be found via google but for now I thought it would be nice to give a shout out to these morning friends because when you consider everything going on in the world today, what could be better than starting your day with some Halloween themed friends?