I suspect that – at least on some subconscious level – one of the inspirations for the Old Testament adventure game I’m working on was the Hanna-Barbera cartoon series The Greatest Adventure: Stories from the Bible. Produced during the mid-80s, the series chronicles the adventures of two archaeologists, Derek and Margo, and their nomad friend Moki, as they travel back through time to encounter characters from the Bible like Moses and David. When I was a kid we had the episode about Noah, and I used to really enjoy watching it.
The other weekend when I was visiting my parents I decided to watch it again (as research, you understand!) Even as an adult it was still very enjoyable, and I was surprised by how faithful to the spirit of the text it was. Sure, there were some things I probably would have chosen to emphasise that it glossed over, but given that it was made my an essentially secular organisation I would have expected them to have downplayed the theme of God’s judgement rather more than it did.
One thing that the series demonstrates quite well is the kind of sense of humour I’m talking about. Whilst it treats the subject matter itself with due seriousness there are still plenty of laughs, generally at Moki’s expense. It works really well to keep you engaged in what might otherwise be rather heavy material.
I was amazed to discover just how many episodes they’ve made: thirteen, going from the creation in Genesis 1 all the way up to Jesus and the Easter weekend. If you’re stateside then they’re still available on DVD from Amazon – though UK readers will have to settle for VHS versions. If you’ve never come across them then I recommend you check them out – though I can’t vouch for any besides the Noah episode.
My main criticism is that they totally stole what would have been the most awesome title for a series of Bible-based adventure games!
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