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Dragon's Lair
Dragon's Lair Promotional Poster
Developer(s)	Advanced Microcomputer Systems
Publisher(s)	Cinematronics, Taito
Platform(s)	Arcade
Release date(s)	June 1983
Genre(s)	Action Interactive Movie
Mode(s)	Up to 2 players, alternating turns
Input methods	Joystick, 1 button
Cabinet	Upright

This is about the video game. For the book, see the article on Sharon Kay Penman. For the television series, see the article on Dragon's Lair (TV series).

Dragon's Lair is a laserdisc video game published by Cinematronics in 1983. It featured animation created by former Disney animator Don Bluth. Most other games of the era represented the character as a sprite, which consisted of a series of bitmaps displayed in succession. However, due to hardware limitations of the era, artists were greatly restricted in the detail they could achieve using that technique; the resolution, framerate and number of frames were severely constrained. Dragon's Lair overcame those limitations by tapping into the vast storage potential of the laserdisc, but imposed other limitations on the actual gameplay.

The game's enormous contrast with other arcade games of the time created a sensation when it appeared, and was played so heavily that many machines often broke due to the strain of overuse. It was also arguably the most successful game on this medium and is aggressively sought after by collectors.

In the 21st century it has been repackaged in a number of formats (such as for the iPhone) as a "retro" or historic game.

Overview

Dragon's Lair features the hero, Dirk the Daring, attempting to rescue Princess Daphne from the evil dragon Singe, who has locked Daphne in a wizard's castle. The screen shows animated scenes, and the player executes an action by selecting a direction or pressing the sword button with correct timing. The comedy of the game stemmed from not only the bizarre looking creatures and death scenes, but the fact that while Dirk was a skilled knight, he was somewhat clumsy in his efforts and was a reluctant hero, prone to shrieking and reacting in horror to the various dangers he encounters.

The attract mode of the game displays various short vignettes of gameplay with the accompanying narration:

"Dragon's Lair: The fantasy adventure where you become a valiant knight, on a quest to rescue the fair princess from the clutches of an evil dragon. You control the actions of a daring adventurer, finding his way through the castle of a dark wizard, who has enchanted it with treacherous monsters and obstacles. In the mysterious caverns below the castle, your odyssey continues against the awesome forces that oppose your efforts to reach the Dragon's Lair. Lead on, adventurer. Your quest awaits!"

Instead of controlling the character's actions directly, players control his reflexes, with different full motion video (FMV) segments playing for correct or incorrect choices.

A quote from a Newsweek article (August 8, 1983) captures the level of excitement displayed over the game during that time:

Dragon's Lair is this summer's hottest new toy: the first arcade game in the United States with a movie-quality image to go along with the action... The game has been devouring kids' coins at top speed since it appeared early in July. Said Robert Romano, 10, who waited all day in the crush at Castle Park without getting to play, "It's the most awesome game I've ever seen in my life."

Dragon's Lair was also one of the first arcade games to cost USD$0.50 (or two "credits") for a single play, twice as much as games traditionally cost up until that time.

Background

Rick Dyer was inspired by the text game Adventure. This game gave rise to an invention he dubbed "The Fantasy Machine." This device went through many incarnations from a rudimentary computer using paper tape (with illustrations and text) to a system that manipulated a videodisc containing mostly still images and narration. The game it played was a graphic adventure called The Secrets of the Lost Woods.^[1]

Attempts to market The Fantasy Machine had repeatedly failed. Allegedly, an Ideal Toy Company representative walked out in the middle of one presentation.

His inspiration allegedly came during his viewing of The Secret of NIMH, whereby he realized he needed quality animation and an action script to bring excitement to his game.

He elected to take a reserved but as of yet unscripted location from The Secrets of the Lost Woods known as The Dragon's Lair.

Development

Dragon's Lair began as a concept by Rick Dyer, president of Advanced Microcomputer Systems (which later became RDI Video Systems). A team of game designers created the characters and locations, then choreographed Dirk's movements as he encountered the monsters and obstacles in the castle. The art department at AMS created storyboards for each episode as a guide for the final animation.

Because of the involvement of veteran Disney animator Don Bluth, the artwork in Dragon's Lair, such as this frame of Princess Daphne, was the highest quality ever seen in an arcade game when it was released.

The game was animated by veteran Disney animator Don Bluth and his studio. Development was done on a shoestring budget, cost US$1 million and took seven months to complete. Since the studio couldn't afford to hire any models, the animators used photos from Playboy magazines for inspiration for the character Princess Daphne.^[2] The animators also used their own voices for all the characters instead of hiring actors in order to keep costs down, although it does feature one professional voice actor: Michael Rye as the narrator in the attract sequence (he is also the narrator for Space Ace and Dragon's Lair II). The voice of Princess Daphne was portrayed by Vera Lanpher^[3] who was head of the Clean-up Department at the time.^[4]

Dirk the Daring's voice belongs to film editor Dan Molina, who later went on to perform the bubbling sound effects for another animated character, Fish Out of Water, from 2005's Disney film Chicken Little, which he also edited. Dirk shrieks or makes other noises on numerous occasions but speaks words only twice. First, he mutters "Uh, oh" when the platform begins to recede during the fire-swinging sequence, then he exclaims "Wow!" when first entering the Dragon's Lair and laying eyes on the slumbering Princess Daphne.

The music and many sound effects were scored and performed by Chris Stone at EFX Systems in Burbank. Bryan Rusenko and Glen Berkovitz were the recording engineers. The 43 second "Attract Loop" was recorded in a straight 18 hour session. Featured instruments, all keyboards, were the E-mu Emulator and Memory MOOG.

Technical

The original laserdisc players shipped with the game (Pioneer LD-V1000 or PR-7820) often failed. Although the players were of good quality, the game imposed unusually high strain: Laserdisc players were designed primarily for playing movies, in which the laser assembly would gradually move across the disc as the data was read linearly. However Dragon's Lair required seeking different animation sequences on the disc every few seconds as dictated by gameplay. The high amount of seeking, coupled with the length of time the unit was required to operate, could result in failure of the laserdisc player after a relatively short time. This was compounded by the game's popularity. As a result, the laserdisc player often had to be repaired or replaced.

The life of the original player's gas laser was about 650 hours; although later models had solid state lasers with an estimated life of 50,000 hours, the spindle motor typically failed long before that. It is rare to find a Dragon's Lair game intact with the original player, and conversion kits have been developed so the units can use more modern players.

The original USA 1983 game used a single side NTSC laserdisc player manufactured by Pioneer; the other side of the disc was metal backed to prevent bending. The European versions of the game were manufactured by Atari under license and used single side PAL discs manufactured by Philips (not metal backed). Philips was also the supplier of the laserdisc players for the European games.

The European arcade version of Dragon's Lair was licensed to Atari Ireland (as was Space Ace later). The cabinet design was therefore different from the Cinematronics version. The main differences were that the LED digital scoring panel was replaced with an on screen scoring display appearing after each level. The Atari branding was present in various places on the machine (marquee, coin slots, control panel and speaker grill area), and the machines featured the cone LED player start button used extensively on Atari machines. Although licensing for this region was exclusive to Atari, a number of Cinematronics machines were also available from suppliers mostly via a gray import.

Legacy

The original Fantasy Machine was later released as a prototype video game console known as Halcyon.

Various home computer adaptations of Dragon's Lair were released during the 1980s and 1990s but because of (at the time) high memory consumption due to the detailed animation of the games, not all the scenes from the original game were included. This led to Escape from Singe's Castle, a pseudo-sequel where Daphne is kidnapped at the moment of Dirk's victory by a shapeshifter, forcing him to venture even further into the castle to save her again. The game was made up of unused scenes from the laserdisc version, though some portions (such as the lizard king and mud men) were shortened. The 8-bit versions were created by Software Projects, while Readysoft handled the 16-bit versions. These used video compression and new storage techniques, but came on multiple 3.5" floppy disks.

The game also led to the creation of a short-lived television cartoon series, see the Dragon's Lair (TV series) by Ruby-Spears Productions in which the originally nameless Dragon was given the name Singe, and Princess Daphne (portrayed by Ellen Gerstell^[5] and Lucille Bliss^{[citation needed]}) now wore a long pink dress. Thirteen half-hour episodes were produced and aired on the ABC network from September 8, 1984, to April 27, 1985. It was last aired on the USA Cartoon Express between the late '80s and the early '90s, with a commercial bumper showing Dirk inside the train entertaining children with magic tricks while Singe the Dragon ran by his back while Dirk pulled out his sword and chased Singe. The show was generally run of the mill, but boasted an unusual feature: to keep the show in the spirit of the game, before each commercial break a narrator would ask what the viewer would do to solve the problem facing Dirk. After the commercial break, the outcomes of the various choices were shown before Dirk acts on the correct idea (with the occasional exception) to save the day.

A comic book mini series based on the game, but incorporating elements from the cartoon series as well, like Dirk's horse Bertram, was released in 2003 by Crossgen Publishing, concurrent with a mini series based on Space Ace. Arcana Studio is currently publishing the entire comic book series in 2006 as there were three issues that were never before published.

The game inspired a sequel (disregarding the Escape from Singe's Castle as one), Dragon's Lair II: Time Warp, created shortly after the original, but released in 1991. It also led to the creation of 1984's Space Ace, another game animated by Don Bluth and his crew. Space Ace was also a ROM and disc upgrade kit for the Dragon's Lair cabinets, complete with new control panel overlay, side art and header.

Dragon's Lair III: The Curse of Mordread was made for Amiga and DOS in 1992, mixing original footage with scenes from Time Warp that were not included in the original PC release due to memory constraints. The game also included a newly produced "Blackbeard the Pirate" stage that was originally intended to be in the arcade game but was never completed.[1]

In late 2002, to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the original arcade release of the smash hit, Digital Leisure Inc. produced a special edition DVD box set of the three arcade classics that defined laser disc arcade games: Dragon’s Lair, Space Ace and Dragon’s Lair II: Time Warp. All the scenes from the original arcade releases were included and optionally the player could select new scenes that were animated in 1983, but not included in any previous Dragon’s Lair release. The games were also updated to include higher quality video, authentic scene order and a new difficulty selection to make it more challenging for Dragon’s Lair pros. Digital Leisure worked with a small independent game developer, Derek Sweet, to release a CD-ROM 4-Disc Box Set for Windows based PCs.

Dragon's Lair 3D: Return to the Lair was developed in 2002, as a 3D interpretation of the game for Microsoft Windows, Xbox, GameCube and the PS2.

In 2005, Digital Leisure created a new Dragon's Lair III which utilized 3D footage from Dragon's Lair 3D, but controlled via a system like the original arcade games.

In Late 2006, Digital Leisure released "Dragon's Lair HD", which features an all-new High-Definition transfer from the original negatives (as opposed to just sourcing the laserdisc). The original mono soundtrack has also been remastered into Dolby Digital 5.1 sound (on PCs that can support it).

According to Don Bluth and Gary Goldman a Dragon's Lair movie has been scripted and is ready to go into production once financing for the project is in place. The film will be in the classic, traditional 2D animation style. Currently, however, the project is in development hell.

On April 9, 2007, a Blu-Ray version of Dragon's Lair was released. This uses the same HD transfer as the aforementioned PC release, but went through a 6 month process to clean and remaster the image. Dragon's Lair Blu-Ray is the first title to fully utilize BD-J technology.^[6]

Reception

Princess Daphne has received mixed reception. She is often cited as one of the most attractive characters in video games,^{[7][8][9][10]} as well as being one of the key damsels in distress in video games.^[11] When asked who he preferred, Pauline or Daphne, "Donkey Kong Champ, Tim Sczerby, picked Daphne because she was more animated."^[12] However, she also received mixed reactions for her ditsy voice and her half-naked appearance.^{[13][14][15][16][17]}

Platform ports

Dragon's Lair led to the creation of numerous video game ports for home systems. Since some original sequences did not fit in the ports for those systems, they were re-released only in a virtual sequel called Escape from Singe's Castle. A non-linear arcade interpretation of Dragon's Lair and Escape from Singe's castle with elements of platform and puzzle was made by Software Projects for 8-bit machines in 1986.

The sequence with the drawbridge and eyestalks seen in the attract mode was excised from the original arcade version of the game, but still remains on the laserdisc, playable in fan-made modifications of the program, or in the version of the game released in Europe as well as the Sega CD, PC, DVD, and HD versions.

A platformer adaptation of the game was also made for the Nintendo Entertainment System and Super NES called Dragon's Lair.

The Game Boy version (entitled Dragon's Lair: The Legend) in particular has almost nothing to do with the source game aside from Dirk as the protagonist, Mordroc as the villain, and saving Princess Daphne as the objective. In fact, the game is a port of a five-year-old ZX Spectrum game, Roller Coaster, the result being a platform game where Dirk has to negotiate a series of thinly-disguised fairground rides. The later Game Boy Color version, however, is a relatively faithful rendition of the original game.

The Dragon's Lair Deluxe Pack was released for home computers containing all the FMV for all three games. Though it contains all the video including some scenes cut from the North American version of the game, the gameplay was reported as lackluster.

ReadySoft released Dragon’s Lair for the Apple Macintosh on CD-ROM in 1994. A Sega CD version was also released.

DAPHNE, an emulator for laserdisc based games, can emulate the original 1983 version. DAPHNE requires the ROM files plus the original laserdisc to run. Alternatively, an MPEG-2 video stream and Ogg Vorbis audio stream can be substituted for the laserdisc. These streams can be generated from the original laserdisc or from Digital Leisure's 2002 DVD.

In popular culture

• Dragon's Lair is featured in the Video Games Live tour.^[18]
• A Robot Chicken episode, "Celebrity Rocket", shows Dirk battling a mid-life crisis in the segment Dragon's Lair: The Middle Ages.^[19]

• Dragon's Lair was once a featured game on the 1980s video game based game show, Starcade. The entire episode can be seen in Digital Leisure's 20th Anniversary DVD and PC CD ROM editions.^[20]

• The Italo dance group Koto used extensive samples from the game in its song "Dragon's Legend".^[21]

• A portion of the game was parodied in the TV show Family Guy. In Season 7, episode 8, titled "Family Gay", Peter portrayed Dirk the Daring at the beginning of the show.

Reception

The Commodore 64/128 version of the game was reviewed in 1988 in Dragon #133 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game 3 out of 5 stars.^[22]

See also

• Space Ace
• Dragon's Lair II
• Digital Leisure
• Halcyon

References

External links

• Dragon's Lair at the Killer List of Videogames
• Dragon's Lair at the Internet Movie Database
• Dragon's Lair at TV.com
• Dragon's Lair at MobyGames
• Detailed Info on Dragon's Lair from Cataroo
• Syd Bolton's Dragon's Lair Page with detailed information on each version
• Dragon's Lair at World of Spectrum
• Dragon's Lair Blu-Ray Review
• Dragon's Lair HD Preview @ IGN Vault Network
• The Dot Eaters Article featuring a history of Dragon's Lair and the 80's laser game craze

From Wikia Gaming, your source for walkthroughs, games, guides, and more!

Dragon's Lair
Developer(s)	Advanced Microcomputer Systems Sony
Publisher(s)	Cinematronics Elite Capcom Digital Leisure ReadySoft
Designer(s)	Don Bluth
Release date	Arcade: June 1983 (NA) Sega CD: 1994 (NA) CD-i: January 1, 1994 (NA) Nintendo DSi: 2009 (NA)
Genre	Interactive fiction
Mode(s)	Single player
Age rating(s)	N/A: Arcade CD-i Atari Jaguar CD VRC: GA Sega CD ESRB: K-A 3DO
Platform(s)	Arcade Sega CD CD-i Atari Jaguar CD 3DO PC Game Boy Advance DVD Players Nintendo DSi
Media	Laserdisc Arcade Compact disc Sega CD CD-i Atari Jaguar CD 3DO PC MS-DOS PC Windows Cartridge Gameboy Advance DVD-ROM PC Windows PC Windows HD DVD-Video DVD Players Download Nintendo DSi Blu-Ray Blu-Ray Players Playstation 3
Input	Joystick, 4 Buttons (Arcade) Sega Genesis Controller CD-i Controller Atari Jaguar Controller 3DO Controller
Credits | Soundtrack | Codes | Walkthrough

Dragon's Lair was one of the first laser disc video games, released in June 1983 by Cinematronics. It featured polished Disney-like animation created by former Disney animator Don Bluth, and for the first time allowed players to control a fully realized character. Most other games of the era represented the character as a sprite, which consisted of a series of bitmaps animated by playing them in succession. However due to hardware limitations of the era, artists were greatly restricted in the detail they could achieve using that technique; the resolution, frame rate and number of frames were severely constrained. Dragon's Lair overcame those limitations by tapping into the vast storage potential of laser disc, which completely freed the artist, but imposed other limitations on the actual gameplay.

Dragon's Lair was followed by Space Ace and by an actual sequel called Dragon's Lair II: Time Warp. It was also adapted into other gaming genres for other game systems such as the Coleco Adam, the NES, the Gameboy, and the Super NES.

Gameplay

Guide Dirk the Daring, a valiant knight who is out to rescue the beautiful Princess Daphne from the clutches of an evil dragon. Use various cues to make the right move in each of the dungeons you come across. Be careful, because one false move can cost Dirk one of his lives.

Levels

The various levels, or "dungeons", featured in this game include:

The Drawbridge -- Not featured in the arcade original, Dirk falls through the drawbridge and must narrowly escape a bunch of tentacles in the moat waiting to grab him.

The Crumbling Hallway -- Dirk has seconds to pick the right door to escape falling debris as the hallway crumbles before him.

The Fiery Ropes -- Dirk must swing over a fiery chasm using burning ropes in order to get to the other side. (This level is repeated as a mirror.)

The Closing Wall -- Dirk sees a wall that forms right in front of him. He must jump through the gap or else he will get stuck in the wall. If Dirk doesn't jump before the wall closes up, poisonous gas will fill the room and kill him.

Skull Hallway -- Dirk must jump past chattering skulls and piles of ooze pouring out of doors while using his sword against giant grabbing skeletal hands. At the end of the hallway, he must take out the Crypt Creeps. (This level is repeated as a mirror.)

Haunted Horse Armor -- Dirk must ride haunted horse armor around while avoiding collisions with various pillars, walls of fire and a stone wall. (This level is repeated as a mirror.)

The Drink Me Room -- Dirk must avoid the chemicals in the room that say "Drink Me" by going through the room's exit.

The Rapids And Whirlpools -- Dirk rides a barrel down a river of raging waters to avoid drowning or collision before reaching the chain he must grab and climb up.

The Falling Disk -- Dirk rides a falling disk down a long vertical shaft and must get off at one of the ledges before the disk hits the bottom. (This level is repeated five times: four have three ledges, one has nine.)

The Lizard King -- The Lizard King chases Dirk down a series of hallways while he chases after a pot of gold that has taken his sword. He must avoid getting hit by the Lizard King.

The Rolling Balls -- Dirk must avoid being run over by either the giant ball that's chasing him or any of the six smaller balls rolling back and forth across his path.

The Chessboard Knight -- A knight stands on a chessboard floor, electrifying tiles with his sword. Dirk must avoid getting zapped and reach the knight to knock him out with the sword. (This level is repeated as a mirror.)

The Giddy Goons -- Dirk must fight his way past the Giddy Goons as he ascends up a staircase.

The Grim Reaper / Sock Boppers -- Dirk must slip past a pair of rotating pendulums to get at the Grim Reaper, then must escape growing brier plants to reach the exit. (This level is repeated as a mirror.)

The Weapons Room -- Dirk enters a room where the armaments come to life and attack him, plus a statue when he heats up his sword in the forge. (This level is repeated as a mirror.)

The Tentacles Room -- Dirk must avoid getting smothered to death by a bunch of tentacles that enter into the room to try blocking his escape.

The Electrified Cave -- Dirk must escape a cave that becomes electrified through a chomping door, then time his run across a bridge over a lava geyser.

The Crumbling Pool Room -- Dirk must make it through a room where the floor crumbles under his feet as well as through a pool in the center with deadly creatures in it. (This level is repeated as a mirror.)

The Mud Men -- Dirk is chased by Mud Men and must time his way past erupting lava geysers to escape them.

The Mist Room -- Dirk must deal with snakes emerging from holes in a misty room and then climb up a rope to escape.

The Crumbling Ledge -- Dirk must keep one step ahead of a ledge that's crumbling under his feet.

The Haunted Horseman -- Dirk must escape the charges of a knight on horseback.

The Disappearing Floor -- The tiles of the floor in this room are disappearing, and Dirk must get to the exit.

The Slippery Staircase -- The staircase that leads to a chasm full of tentacles turns into a slippery slope that Dirk must get past to reach the exit.

The Wizard's Cauldron -- Dirk must watch out for strange things coming out of the wizard's cauldron.

The Lightning Room --- Lightning strikes various things in the room and sets them on fire. Dirk must watch his step and find the way out of there.

The Electrified Throne Room -- Dirk must avoid getting electrified as he reaches the throne that activates a moving panel.

The Wind Room -- Dirk gets sucked into a room with a lot of wind blowing around and must find the exit.

The Batty Walkway -- Dirk must fight his way past bats and a walkway that crumbles under his feet.

The Dragon's Lair -- The final level: Dirk must get the magical sword in order to slay the dragon and grab the key that unlocks the crystal cage that Princess Daphne is trapped in.

Notes

Dragon's Lair was one of the first arcade games to cost USD $0.50 (or two "credits") for a single play, twice as much as games traditionally cost up until that time.

To attract players to the game, some arcade operators installed a second monitor above the machine that would allow passersby to watch the game being played without disturbing the player.

Gallery

Sega CD Boxart

Sega CD Japanese Boxart

3DO Boxart

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