Dragon's Lair

Overview

Dragon's Lair was a Laserdisc arcade game released in 1983 by Cinematronics, featuring artwork created by former Disney animator Don Bluth. Dragon's Lair was able to tap into the increased storage capacity of the Laserdisc(featuring significantly more storage space than the limited carts and arcade boards of the era, Cinematronics were able to add lush design and animation to every frame of the game. As a graphical expense, Dragon's Lair was totally unparalleled compared to other games of the era. However, since programmers and hardware were not as robust and capable as the CD/DVD hardware of the 90's and today, Dragon's Lair gave the players very limited control of the onscreen action, relegating players to, effectively, choose from a few preselected inputs in very specific situations.

Plot

Dirk the Daring's fluid animation and unparalleled visual detail helped to make Dragon's Lair a ridiculous hit.

Dragon's Lair puts players in the greaves of  Dirk the Daring, a knight trying to rescue the Princess Daphne. Daphne has been kidnapped by Singe the Dragon, and is now being held in the castle. Dirk's adventure will have him battling monsters and the castle alike as he attempts to save the day.

Gameplay

Dragon's Lair for all of its "movie quality animation and sound" didn't actually play very well. In fact, in contrast even with games of the era, one could say that there wasn't much gameplay at all. Dragon's Lair was, effectively, a Movie on a Laserdisc which begins playing when the player deposits their money. As the Laserdisc plays, players watch Dirk through his adventures as he travels though Singe's castle. At very specific intervals during the game, Dirk will be in a situation that will force the player to "move" Dirk in a certain direction, or have Dirk "attack" enemies with his sword. Each of these sequences would trigger a new scene in the movie to start player, similar to the way a DVD can have different "chapters" to select at any time. Choosing the right action in these confrontations would cause Dirk to circumnavigate his obstacle with aplomb, while choosing the wrong action would trigger a sequence in which Dirk is killed. The player's meager range of actions was just chapter selection, a design that is much easier to see in retrospect.

It’s the limited, simple button pressing gameplay set to cinematic action that would later evolve into the Quick Time Event, featured in games like Shenmue, Resident Evil 4, and God of War.

Your mouth is filling up with bees, and YOU ARE DEAD! Dragon's Lair played like an animated Choose Your Own Adventure book.

Development

Dragon’s Lair was the brain child of Rick Dryer, president of Advanced Microcomputer Systems, who, supposedly, realized that video games needed top quality animation during a viewing of the animated film The Secret of NIMH.  He also claims that the Atari 2600 classic, “Adventure” was another inspiration for Dragon’s Lair. The entire game was animated by Disney Animator Don Bluth at his personal studio. The game was made in less than 7 months for a mere Million Dollars(cheap considering the work they were doing with new technology). The animators on the game couldn’t afford to hire real models to provide an appropriate frame for the Princess Daphne, so Cinematronic’s team apparently used Playboy magazines as an inspiration.