Video Game / Space Kids

Deet is the pink one, Zeedle is the blue one.

A Children's computer game for the whole family! SpaceKids is Children's Software about Zeedle and Deet who live on the moon with their grandfather, a famous space explorer. When Grandpa doesn't return from an expedition to Earth, the SpaceKids go looking for him. Their journey takes them to a surreal, dreamlike world of adventure and excitement.

Excerpt from the official game website

SpaceKids is an interactive cartoon for the MS-DOS developed by Evryware Software and published by MicroProse in 1994. It has a relatively simple control scheme: When input is required from the player, an icon will appear in the corner of the screen with arrows surrounding it. What the arrows do and which arrows can be used vary from screen to screen, and more often than not different arrows will take the story in different directions.

The game can be played for free on archive.org.

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This game provides examples of:

• All There in the Manual: Several details of the game's "plot" are only laid out in the game's manual, such as Deedle and Zeet's grandfather being a "great explorer" or the location they travel to being Earth. In-game, they're only vaguely hinted at.
  • It also shows some of the names of the characters, but the official website lists them all.
• Animate Inanimate Object: This game would give Pee-wee's Playhouse a run for its money. There's also a noticeable distinction between characters that just happen to be objects (like the pencil and the knife-pirate) and objects that just happen to have faces (like the flying saucers). Special mention goes to the house the whole game takes place in, which has a giant dog's head but also an anthropomorphized window.
• Deranged Animation: Of the early-CGI variety.
• Distressed Dude: Zeedle and Deet's grandpa, though the cause of his distress varies depending on your choices.
• Doo-Wop Progression: The intro theme.
• Floating Limbs: Every character either has floating disconnected limbs or no limbs at all.
• Flying Saucer: Zeedle and Deet's arrive in one, and in some versions of the story, find the one their grandpa crash-landed in.
• Gravity Is a Harsh Mistress: If you successfully push the knife-pirate off the mast, you'll get treated to an absurdly drawn-out version of the classic cartoon "doesn't fall until he notices" gag.
• Level Ate: One of the locations the kids may venture into is a giant castle filled with ice cream.
• Living Ship: Deedle, Zeet and their grandfather have their own living spacecrafts.
• Mega Neko: One of the many dangers Zeedle and Deet can come across is Spike, a giant black cat whose body is mostly obscured by shadow.
• Multiple Endings: A surprising amount of them, with almost every screen featuring a branching path that can radically alter which ending you get.
• Pardon My Klingon: "Doodle Dip! Scoodles!"
• Replay Value: Depending on your actions in various parts of the game, you'll encounter different scenarios and characters that are completely unique to each playthrough. It makes sense because the game sells itself as an interactive cartoon.
• Story Branching: There are multiple branches based on picking different paths or whenever a gameplay section can end in success or failure. These differing paths can result in major changes to the plot, most notably where the protagonists' grandfather is located and which characters they run into.
• The Man in the Moon: Where Deedle, Zeet and their grandfather live.
• Visual Pun: The house looks like a dog in which Deedle and Zeet go inside? It's a dog-house.
  • One path would lead to Zeedle riding on a shoe that makes sounds like a horse. It's a horseshoe.
• Weird Moon: As seen on the boxart, the moon in this game is crescent-shaped, wears a nightcap, and has a face.