



The Saturday morning TV program Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future, which aired from 1987-88, was a science fiction/action television series that ran for 22 episodes in Canadian/American syndication. A toy line was also produced by Mattel, and during each episode there was a segment that included visual and audio material which interacted with the toys.



The first interactive toy and game for the series was a toy XT-7 jet with a video cassette. There were three tapes in all: "Future Force Training," "Bio-Dread Strike Mission," and "Raid On Volcania." The tapes had openings and closings in live action with the cast of the television show. The actual mission itself was animated and took place in the jet cockpit from the first-person point of view of the pilot/player.



Players would hold the toy jet and face the screen. The toy was actually a sort of light gun that responded to signals from the television playing the tape. The more the player fired at appropriate targets on the screen, the more points the toy jet would rack up. The more times the sensor on the toy jet got "hit," the more points the jet would lose. Upon reaching zero points, the cockpit would eject automatically.



The XT-7 also could interact with the live-action television broadcast in the same manner. Since the "game" was only a VHS tape, the missions played out the same way every time.



Other interactive objects in this series were the "Phantom Stryker" Bio-Dread ship, the "Interlocker Throne" for Lord Dread, which consisted of a stationary tank on a tripod and an optional target viewer that could be taken on and off, and the "Power On" platform in which one could plug the Captain Power figure. Whenever the transformation was triggered on the television screen or the base was fired at by one of the other vehicles, the toy would immediately trigger the "Power On" sequence causing the chest of the figure to glow.



-Wikipedia





Official video releases are listed below.