One machine above all turned heads when it first appeared in the local arcades, you would be lucky to even get a glimpse of it, as crowds milled around to get a look in, such was the problem that arcade owners even installed extra monitors on top of the cabinet so that addicts could view the action from further afield.
Intro Screen for Dragon's Lair
What I have just described is almost unimaginable in todays sad apologies for arcades, but back in 1983 this is just what happend when Cinematronics released the incredible Dragon’s Lair starring ‘Dirk the Daring’.
The game caused such a stir because it was the first to feature the brand new untried ‘laser disc’ technology we had all heard so much about. Lasers equaled ‘cool’ back in the 80’s.
Our Hero 'Dirk the Daring'
The game was like appearing in your own cartoon where you controlled the main character and dictated what happened by your lightening responses to situations you found yourself in.
The game was the brainchild of Rick Dyer and the animation was pure eye candy courtesy of Don Bluth FIlms, there were over 25 minutes of animation crammed into this baby allowing nearly 30 different missions to be played out. Even today the graphics are far better than you will find on many a game across the board.
An example of some of the top quality animation
If you became the the ‘King’ on this game arcade immortality was assured, slaying the dragon in front of dozens of peers, and on monitors up high for all to see could hardly be bettered. So credit after credit would be pumped into the game as you strove to complete your mission.
Gameplay actually was very basic and linear but I know I didn’t care a hoot and hundreds of others seemed to agree at the time. The game was actually a series of memory testing screens which consisted of jump this way or that and or hit the sword button. If you could remember the scene as you encountered it and moved in the correct direction then progression was assured, screw it up and the all too familiar crumbling skeleton screen would appear and much ridicule would follow.
Skeleton Screen
On your quest you would encounter beautifully animated enemies such as rabied rodents, massive marbles, black knights, swinging blades and skeleton hands. The climax was an encounter with the evil dragon itself ‘Singe’. But the pain was worth the reward in the delicious figure of ‘Daphne’. She was blonde, wore a tiny figure hugging outfit and wanted to be saved by you, (note to writer, remember this is a cartoon and calm down).
The gorgeous Daphne
Summary
Cinematronics had a massive hit on their hands and rumours abounded in the industry that this technology was the saviour that the arcade industry had been searching for because in 1983 the Video Game industry was on the verge of collapse and Dragon’s Lair was seen as a kind of saviour. But the flip side to the coin out-weighed the positives.
Firstly the cabinet cost an eye popping $4,500 and was continually braking down as a result of laser technology being so delicate and arcade goers being so un-delicate.
The final encounter with 'Singe'
Secondly people lost interest when they had seen ‘Singe’ defeated and ultimately the games that followed on were not as well received, examples being ‘Space Ace’, ‘Cliffhanger’ etc, and revenue tumbled as a result, eventually fuelling the collapse of the industry instead of helping extinguish it.
But I prefer to remember Dragon’s Lair as the beautifully crafted masterpiece that injected so much excitement into the arcades in 1983 and made you wonder what other wonders the future of gaming might hold....! Well we can all dream!
An example of dreaming!
Trivia:
Don Bluth and other animators on the project used to actually work for Disney.
It took 6 years to complete the animation for the game.
To save money the voices used for the characters in the game were actually those of the animation team.
In the end animation costs alone topped the million dollars mark.
Rumour has it that those poor boys on the animation team had to use several Playboy magazines as a reference guide for drawing Daphne.
Technical:
Early in the production run, the PR-7820 laser disc player was used. The game PCB uses a Z-80 processor and will have either 4 or 5 ROMs. (info courtesy of Klov)
Overall Classic Game Rating - 7.5
