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    Dragon's Lair

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    Dragon's Lair is a video game franchise created by former Disney Animator Don Bluth.

    Short summary describing this franchise.

    Dragon's Lair last edited by fiye on 03/21/20 11:06AM View full history

    Overview

    Dragon's Lair is an arcade game that was released in 1983, created by noted animator Don Bluth. The game was unlike most games of the day in that it didn't feature digital sprites or a soundtrack of beeps and bloops, rather it was a full featured animated epic that players could control. In reality the game's control was limited as the game was essentially a laser disc where each scene was animated multiple times, one with a correct outcome and at least one of main character Dirk succumbing to a trap within said scene. The player merely had to move the joystick and hit the action button at the right time to make sure the right scene would play out.

    Despite the limited interactivity Dragon's Lair was a huge success. Even the fact the the game cost a whooping 50 cents a credit couldn't deter it. Don Bluth quickly followed the game up with Space Ace, a similar game that was somewhat less successful, but the Dragon's Lair franchise lived on. An NES port and a SNES port were made although due to technological limitations the base gameplay was radically reinterpreted as a 2D platfomer and a notoriously difficult one at that. Computer ports were far more faithful to the actual gameplay, and once the multimedia consoles such as the 3DO and Sega CD started coming out in the early 90s the game was ported to almost every last one.

    Also the 90s saw the release of a sequel subtitled Time Warp, Although the game followed the premise of the first game it never achieved the popularity that the original had. Far less known is a third entry in the series The Curse of Moredread. In fact it's probably safe to say that beside the original the remake Return to the Lair is perhapse the best known in the series. Like the NES and SNES games before it, Return to The Lair was radically reinterpreted this time as a 3D action game ala Mario. The game was panned by critics but still remains notable as one of the first games to be designed from the ground up for HD-TVs.

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