Dragon's Lair
Dragon's Lair is a video game that was developed in 1983 by the company Cinematronics. The arcade version used as one of the first games laserdisc. For the first time, the player controlled a sprite instead of a character in an interactive animated cartoon, which was drawn by Disney artist Don Bluth. The player had to intervene at the right time in the ongoing action with specific joystick movements. The total length of the film is a total of 28 minutes, unless you play through the game completely.
Game content
Dragon's Lair is a classic knight or fantasy story: The player controls the knight Dirk, who rescues the beautiful Princess Daphne from the clutches of an evil dragon. At the beginning penetrates the protagonist in the castle, in which the dragon's refuge is located. Over the course of 27 levels, Dirk must overcome traps and enemies to finally succumbed to the dragon and rescue Daphne.
Characters
- Dirk the Daring (Dirk the Daring )
- Princess Daphne
- Wizards Mordroc
- Dragon Singe
- Restless roughnecks
- Bat - King
Imitators and successors
Dragon's Lair was commercially very successful because of its then revolutionary graphics quality. The success of the game even led to the production of a 13 -part animated series that aired in the United States.
The game Space Ace Dragon's Lair resembled very much - it was designed by the same team and published in 1984 until 1991 the sequel Dragon's Lair appeared II: Time Warp and 1992 Dragon's Lair III: Curse of Mordread. . Followed in 2002 by Dragon's Lair 3D: Return to the Lair for Microsoft Windows, Xbox and GameCube from Dragonstone. This is a 3D action -adventure game from the third-person perspective similar to Tomb Raider, with over 250 rooms. The end of 2006, the first two Dragon's Lair and Space Ace titles published in improved quality in a DVD box. Included are there, as in Dragon's Lair 3D, unreleased material for the 20th anniversary. Both Dragon's Lair and Space Ace inspired his own comic mini-series, which were published in 2003. In November 2010, then a remake of Dragon 's Lair with the same name was released for the PlayStation 3 as a downloadable title from Sony's ( North American ) Playstation Store. It's another remake, only with HD graphics and unlockable trophies for the PS3 console.
Programming and predecessor
The programmer was Rick Dyer. He founded in 1983 the company Advanced Microcomputer Systems. The Inspiration of Dragon's Lair came to him while watching the game Astron Belt of Bally, which is also seen as the first laser disc game ( prototype 1982). But the very first laserdisc game was Quarter Horse (developed in 1981, published 1982). The Studio of Don Bluth invested $ 1.3 million for the development of the game. Only in 1984 it played a $ 32 million.
Ports
Dragon's Lair was and raster versions, for C64, Amstrad CPC 464/664/6128, Amiga, Nintendo Entertainment System, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Sega Mega - CD, Atari Jaguar, Gameboy Color, CD -i, 3DO, PC Disk CD -ROM, PC 3D CD -ROM (Dragon 's Lair 3D), Nintendo DS and DVD ported. The DVD version can be played directly on DVD players.
Since December 2009, the game is also available for iPhone and iPod Touch. Since November 2012, the game in HD resolution on the Mac through the App Store is available.
Others
- The Italo - disco group Koto used the text of the story in eye-catching mode, and the sounds of the game console in their song Dragon 's Legend, which was released in 1988.