Dragon's Lair

Dragon's Lair is, IMO, Don Bluth's greatest work. The forefather of all interactive cinematic games, Dragon's Lair was, in it's day, astounding. The animation is beautiful, and for the first time, the player was able to "control" a cartoon. Most people either love or hate the gameplay. Rote memorisation was the key to finishing this game and in effect, seeing the entire movie. Even I'll admit that the gameplay isn't all that exciting on it's own. But, it's the animation that made you want to keep playing, and made the game extremely addicting. The "save the princess from the Dragon" plot is pretty cliche, but as a game, it doesn't try to fill in the missing details. Everything else is left to the players' imaginations, and that is the key to the fascination many fans continue to have with Dragon's Lair. If you really want to experience the game, track down an original arcade machine or use an emulator. The home versions don't give it justice.

I see that Don Bluth is credited with directing Dragon's Lair, but the person who actually came up with the idea for the game gets no credit here. The man who was really behind Dragon's Lair was Rick Dyer. In the 70s he created a prototype for a game which used hand drawn artwork and text on an adding machine ribbon (rather than animation and sound on a laser disk.) The user would hit certain keys to make choices, and the machine would automatically roll the ribbon to the next appropriate scene. It was Dyer who pitched the idea for Dragon's Lair to several animation companies, and it happened to be Don Bluth's company who agreed to animate the game. While Don Bluth's animation in Dragon's Lair is excellent, he doesn't deserve the credit for creating the game itself.

I can see how the "hardcore modern gamers" would hate this game. What they fail to realize is that this was more than a game, it was innovation in the field of animation. Sure you couldn't directly control Dirk the Daring's moves, but you're decisions instead at key moments were the difference between Dirk being one step closer to Daphne (the Princess) and the decaying skeletal remains of failure.

Don Bluth was certainly a genius for coming up with something so simple and addicting, even though Laserdisc games in general never went to far in the industry. Dragon's Lair's animation was top notch and kept quarters rolling in simply to view the beautiful animation on screens once reserved for simple computer pixels. It's no wonder this game is one of only three arcade games in the Smithsonian (Pong and Pac-Man are the other two).

Thankfully, after 17 years, we finally have a 'perfect' home version thanks to DVD technology and Digital Leisure. You can buy it for a standard DVD player (along with getting interviews with Bluth and a 'watch' mode so you can enjoy the animation without entering moves) or the DVD-ROM version (which is more faithful to the arcade by not replaying the 'resurrection' scene before each new scene and randomising the scenes but lacks the extras of the regular DVD).

Don't let the simplistic gameplay stop you from enjoying what is a piece of history in animation.

I am guessing I could never wrap my mind around the fact you simply guide Dirk the same way every time. You just hit the controller at the right time. Instead, I would usually get killed again and again, occasionally making it through a room. I was always able to get through that room with the wall that was closing up! Still, I enjoyed watching it and playing it. Going through the various rooms of the castle where they mention an evil wizard along with the dragon, but you never really see him. You have to find and rescue the princess in this castle and make it to the dreaded dragon's lair. I would later own the game on the Sega CD and it was so easy to win and it did not look nearly as good as the arcade game. If you ever have seen a Sega CD you know the look of the game, as any movie sequence looks as if it has a film over it. That game was also disappointing as it did not include two of the rooms featured in the arcade game. The rope swinging level with the fire ropes and the level with the circular disc that shoots downward. I am guessing the disc can only hold so much, or perhaps these two levels moved to fast or something? Not sure, but they were a couple of my favorites in the arcade so their omission made me sad. This game is a fond memory of my childhood so it still holds a special place for me. Want to get the WII version of the game as it not only has this one, but also has the sequel and Space Ace.

I have a three pack on DVD including Dragon's Lair, Dragon's Lair 2, and Space Ace. They play using your remote control. Same patterns and video as the originals - It was a great novelty to play through these again. Plus it was pretty hard too because I forgot all the patterns in the 20yrs since i beat the games originally. OK i need 10 lines of text apparently so. It is an interesting storyline Dirk the daring must rescue princess whatever from the evil dragon...um, in the 2nd iteration of the game Dirk the daring must rescue the princess again i think. Space ace must rescue someone from the evil Bork i think, oh well is this 10 lines?