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D r a g o n ' s L a i r
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(c) 1983
Dragon's Lair was introduced in June 1983. The game was the first of its kind, and many hoped it would be the first of many high-quality laserdisc games in an era where many arcades still had Space Invaders and Pac Man game cabinets. In fact it was - the first of the few at least!
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In the game you play the part of the bold knight Dirk the Daring who has to brave the monsters of a mysterious castle in order to save the Princess Daphne from the fire-breathing dragon, Singe (spelled with an "S" as far as I know).
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The game opens with thorny bushes parting to reveal the sinister-looking castle against the night sky, as an owl hoots in the background. The scene then cuts to Dirk running down the castle entrance as once portcullis after another crashes down behind him, then finally a set of doors slams shut, cutting off Dirk's escape. (hey - how does he get out of the castle at the end?...)
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After Dirk enters the castle the opening scene is either Dirk in a room with a bottle of poison labelled 'Drink Me' or a passageway which is being bricked up before Dirk's eyes. After this scene the game begins its random choice of approximately 30 different scenes to the dragon's lair, randomly chosen by the computer from a selection of many more than this. Occasionally scenes would be repeated but shown as a mirror image, the action necessary to escape then also being reversed. This is particulary tricky for the 'falling table' scene where Dirk steps on an apparently safe wooden circle on the floor, only to have it fall away into a deep cavern. Dirk's only chance of escape is to jump for a small ledge that flashes by as he falls - on the left or right, depending on wether or not it was a mirror image! I nearly always chose the wrong one!... At least when you die you get to see the great death scene where Dirk looks at you with a frown, turns into a skeleton, then the bones fall to the ground!
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In the final scene Dirk finds Daphne in the dragon's lair. Singe is asleep, but on his way over to Daphne the dragon awakes! The key to Daphne's cage is around the Dragon's neck, and Dirk must kill the dragon with a magic sword to get at it. Dirk is chased by the dragon, but - if the player makes the right moves in the correct sequence - Dirk finally manages to throw his sword into the dragon's chest, and kills it. Dirk uses the key on Daphne's cage, causing it to dissolve around her. Dirk picks up Daphne, who says something in his ear or kisses him, making him laugh and go cross-eyed! The game then shows the pair in a heart-shaped cut out - and the game is over!
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The game, a project originally given to Bluth by Cinematronics, was completed in secrecy at a cost of around one million dollars. The voices in the game were those of the production team themselves. The sound engineer Dan Molina provided Dirk's voice - not that he actually said any words, as such, and Vera Lanpher was the voice of Princess Daphne. The games themselves cost arcade owners $4,000 - a lot more than other games of the time, and the mechanical parts inside were sensitive to the sand found at the beach locations where the game would often be installed.
The game sold so many units that Pioneer, the manufacturer of the laserdisc players, couldn't make enough to supply the demand! Queues formed wherever there was a machine to be found - everyone wanted to play!
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In 1984 a cartoon verision of Dragon's Lair, made by Ruby Spears animation was shown by ABC in America. The stories followed the adventures of Dirk, and introduced two extra characters - Bertram the horse, and Timothy the squire. The series featured many of the monsters from the laserdisc game, including, of course "Cinge" (spelled differently), the dragon!
See also - The Dragon's Lair Project site.
This page was created Tuesday 12 May 1998
