Transformers are back!

asking for advice on my transformers game that you may remember i posted a few screen shots of months ago, would you like it to be based on the first season of the tv show or the movie (1987) ? ive been working on levels and ive done abit of both at the moment. i will prob make it into two games which would you like to see most.

yep... Transformers Are Back...

http://www.video.ugo.com/player.aspx?articleID=19197


advice #1 - get a piece of the action... they're probably looking for a good game, if they don't already have one, to go with the movie... approach them with your game idea and visuals...

advice#2 - failing the above, change the name of your game, and make sure none of your bots look like Optimus Prime... or any of the other 'cons...

:)


--Mike

I wanted to see the movie until I heard that they would make some transformers morph into Xbox 360's and other big brands.

*puke*

Where did you hear that?

By the way, I've always thought that Transformers was a weird brand. Everyone remembers the cartoons and toys from their childhood, but unlike other toy brands not that many people are big fans of them. Transformers were just there, if you know what I mean; people remember them, they don't hate them but neither do they particularly like them either. Due to this, I reckon that the movie will bomb because so many people overestimate how well-liked Transformers are.

But to get back on topic, I agree that you should ditch any references/likeness to Transformers robots. Design your own transforming robots - it won't infinge copywrites and it'll be more artistically satisfying and fun.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6152589.html

Oh, ok. *shudder*

> I wanted to see the movie until I heard that they would make some transformers morph into Xbox 360's and other big brands.

Since the original show was nothing more then a half hour advertisement for the toys I don't really see much of a problem.

> they don't hate them

I hate them.

the number of transformers fan sites is huge i dont know how you can say there not that popular? anyway i wasnt talking about making a game of the new film, i was talking about the 1987 cartoon movie.

im not making the game for money its for my portfolio i will give a copy to anyone that would like it when its done but i wont be showing it off on the net.

my work log and some old shots
http://www.blitzbasic.com/logs/userlog.php?user=645&log=614

the new film will be rubbish i dont like bay and they are changing the characters and no soundwave or jazz. they should have just set it in the 80s it would have been quite a funny idea.

At least Peter Cullen is doing the voice of Prime in the new movie...he IS prime after all :P

That is the nature of da internetz. There are a huge number of fan sites dedicted to almost any old 80s nonsense. Whoever invented nostalgia should be shot.

Of course, He-Man toys and the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon rocked, but that goes without saying.

Aymes : true, i know i still go and see it anyway

JustLuke: if its not popular how come the dvds sale so well. anyway just because you and your mates dont like something doesnt mean you can speak for the rest of the world :OP

he-man was pants if you watch it again now, really poor animation. its even more of a toy add than transformers. for some reason thundercats is really popular never liked it myself.

Pete

anyway anyone want to answer my original question?

I thought the original movie and G1 transformers were the same really?

I suppose you had a bunch of new ones in there and some of the original characters were called off, but its not like the difference between G1 and beastwars or anything :P

I would vote for G1 in anycase ;)

Btw! Great that you're making this, I was worried that it would never carry on, glad to see you've been able to pick it up again! :D

everything gets remade... sooner or later...

--Mike

Glad to see this is still alive ! Keep up the good work Pete - looking forwards to seeing your game. Transformers rock and are great subject matter for a game ! He-man is a wimp !

Are you kidding me??? Every kid from the 80s loved the original Transformers - not the newer ones (like beastwars, etc...) ! I recall every kid on the block had a Transformer toy and watch every episodes. Aside from Robotech or GI Joe, Transformer has gotta be one of most popular cartoon in the 80s. And i recall people talking about how cool it would for them to make an actual Transformer motion picture......



Well theres already rumors that characters in the film will be changed from thier cartoon counterparts, and this will definately screw things up. The kids who grew up watching it in the 80s are all in their 20s and 30s now, and they would expect the film to stay true to its characters and storyline from the original cartoon. But of course this is never the case.

Hmm. Well, maybe it was more popular in the US than here in the UK.

Transformers sucked. So did Gobots (a poor man's Transformers, basically). And Thundercats. And Teenage Mutant Ninja/Hero Turtles.

I was with you until you mentioned Thundercats.

"Thunder! Thunder!! THUNDER!!! Thundercats Hoooooooo!"

Transformers where the most popular boys toy for about 5 years in the UK they only started to slide after the film came out and the following toy line went very cheap and nasty. there is a yearly transformers convention in the uk and the toys sale for very good money on ebay. Gi joe was the only cartoon bigger in the states athough in the uk it was known as Action force to start with. hasbro really did have the toy market to them selves, its not bad considering they got al the original toys from a japanesse company called takara and a few from from bandi (jetfire and shockwave) i was surprised when i found out that the megatron toy was released in japan in 1974 with a range that included soundwave, perseptor, reflector and 2 other gun based robots as part of the microman range of toys.

sorry im a bit of a sad git when it comes to transformers :O)

Pete

I was too old for Transformers even when they first came out! :/

the comics were where it was at with transformers (the stories written in the uk at any rate, the us ones were a bit cack)

http://tfarchive.com/comics/

Sadly I am with Big10p... We really didn't have much on saturdays when I was a kid... HR Puffinstuff... A few silly shows about people in a large van driving around in the future (ARK II???) Superfriends... Electrowoman and Dynagirl... Nothing of lasting value

i was born in 1991, so i never got the chance to see the original transformers, i have seen a bit of the newer crap but it is well crap

i hate it when people use two different types of animation in one show and the voice overs sucked

the first 2 seasons of the original g1 transformers show are great the other 2 where after the film and had poor animation and the stories where a bit hit and miss. but the movie is still great with its pure cheese 80's soundtrack.




not really as by about halfway though the film most of the original tv show characters had been killed off. it had lots of new characters the only original characters to feature all the way through the movie where jazz, perceptor, soundwave, bubble bee and the dinobots. new toy range so lots of new characters.

I would be equally happy to see a bit of both. I`m a huge Transformers fan and I live in the UK. Everyone I went to school with loved the Tranformers so I can`t see how people can say that they were just there.

Jason.

Looks like budget is a bit low.
http://www.pluh.com/images/picofdaystuff/Optimus%20Prime!.jpg

lol. when i said i was a bit sad when it comes to transformers im still nowhere near that guy! i bet that pic is closer to the original prime that the new film will be!

Why is it that westerners who dress up in costumes are almost always fat and sweaty looking? Weird that.

actualy, looks like a lot of the budget went to commisary supplies...

--Mike

They are modernizing it (which is the easiest way to get sponsors). Cassette tapes that turn into robots aren't nearly as hip as an iPod and 360 turning into a robot.




I always laughed at that argument on the fan-boy movie sites.

Peter Cullin is Optimus Prime only because he's an affordable voice over actor who specializes in televised and the occasional theatrical animation. Frank Welker, (Megatron, "Fred" from Scooby Doo, "Aboo" from Disney's Aladdin) is in the same category.

It's silly to think that if there were more famous AFFORDABLE actors at the time that were willing to lend their voices, Cullin and Welker would have still been first choice.

they got Welker because he is able to do a huge number of different voices, so he can do lots off characters on the same show saving money. famous acters normally sound like themselves, Although the film had some great famous people to pad out the original voice actors and add some names to sell the film.

Pete

The thing with all these shows is that in the 80s, almost all the animation on TV was absolute mindrotting crap..... Transformers (which I didn't watch, mind you) and other action shows, retained some level of respectability... It wasn't that they were good... far from it... they were terrible. They are remembered cause the alternative to these shows were things like... The Smurfs..

It wasn't until the 90s with shows like Tiny Toons, and Batman the Animated Series... and the Simpsons... That animation started to not suck so much...

I'm a little too far on the young side to have watched these shows when they first aired... I was born in 83.

I watched most of the older shows I got to see, on Cartoon Network, when I was 13+

I'm putting in my vote as a dislike for Transformers... I'd much rather see more Batman the animated series, or a re-invisioned Pirates of Dark Water... or even a live action Swat Cats, than a live action tranformers movie...

Hell... a I'd rather watch the carebears.

I would have to disagree 110%. I think cartoons in the 80s were by far way better than in the 90s....atleast as far as I can remember. The 80s cartoons while not as advanced, took it to a level where you were almost absorbed in it, even if a lot of it was kinda corny by todays standards. The thing about cartoons in the 80s was that they were actually meant for kids - it was silly, fun, and brought forth an idea of a possible future/technology (because the stuff we take for granted now did not exist back then). Nowadays a lot of the cartoons have really odd topics....some are more darker/serious and others have light adult humor.

It wasn't until the 90s that I began noticed stuff like Tiny Toons (god I hated that show)...etc...that turned me off of cartoons completely. Or it was perhaps I began to focus on females and sports instead. However, I never quite stop watching the Simpsons though.....But anyways, Transformers(the old ones) rock!

DampeS8N how can you coment then?

the shows in the 80s were like long toy ads with a plot, but it doesnt mean they were not good. transformers was just such a good idea and had great characters.

i like the batman cartoons but Carebears? maybe thats just your own warped mind. :OP

Pete

> They are remembered cause the alternative to these shows were things like... The Smurfs..

Well SMURF YOU! :)

Everything was not terrible in the eighties, there was Robotech and Star Blazers (OK - I think that was actually the late seventies), plus there were a number of Japanese animation groups springing up with the rise of videotape.

Incase it hasn't been posted yet: There is a new Trailer for the movie!

http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/transformers.html

This time with some actual Transformer footage! :D

Yes, they are different, but the whole style just appeals to me for some reason. Can't wait to see this one!

I made that.

.

I wasn't a fan of Transformers. I never played with cars or Robots, so Robots that transformed into cars was a real turn off for me. He-Man rocked - the toys and the (original) cartoon series; Thundercats was better; The Dungeons and Dragons cartoon was the best.

I've taken 4 months to think about it. Transformers is still lame. Sorry.

80s cartoons were all bad. They were all about selling the toys to the kids, and didn't have a lick of creativity behind them. Transformers, He-man, Thundercats and the like were the cream of the crop. And they were still boring. All had the same 7 plots and were drawn with the same 'save money on animation by making it suck' methods that Hanna Barbera (rest their souls) created to do shows like the flintstones. The things was. They saved money on the animation to make the writing better. To turn the flintstones into a show that was almost better than the honeymooners it was based on. Not to create shows with the same 7 plots and shoddy mishapen animations.

Speaking from the perspective of animators and writers. 80s cartoons were terrible. Then in 87 Ralph Bakshi (who did Fritz the Cat) produced "Mighty Mouse, the New Adventures" which started the changes that would lead to the simpsons, ren and stimpy, tiny toons, animaniacs, batman the animated series and many other shows.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0161170/ This is something about Mighty Mouse


Mighty Mouse: Now I know why they call television a medium: There's nothing on that's either rare or well-done.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mighty_Mouse:_The_New_Adventures

wow! I like these transformers! More mechanic&dangerous!!!!

I watched alot of Transformers. Not because of the plot, the storyline or for the animation. I watched them because it was interesting with all of that mechanical stuff. I began drawing transformers in 3D on paper and then I built them out of cardboard or Lego(they all worked, had joints and some times I put led's, wires and batteries inside, although the lego versions were better suited for wiring).

It was a huge inspiration for my interest in mechanics and electronics. Who cares about the animation quality or the cheese storyline.

Andy

I loved the Bakshi Mighty Mouse run. The best was the parody of Batman. The bat that dressed up like a bat to fight crime (Bat-bat)

Not all of them. I liked Mysterious Cities Of Gold, Ulysses and DogTanian. :)

I liked Ulsses too. Dogtanian was bearable. Mysterious Cities of gold was awful. And yet, strangely, I can sing the theme tunes to all three of them...

Thundercats, Battle of the Planets, Dangermouse, The Centurions, Count Duckula, Defenders of the Earth, Ducktales, He-man ... those were the days.