Dragon's Lair

Oh the memories

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3XNQja0H7I

Prompted by

http://www.macrumors.com/2012/11/08/classic-video-game-dragons-lair-comes-to-the-mac/

I had a version on PC that came on a few 3.5" floppies i'm pretty sure. It was CGA or EGA? Anyways yes this is a game completely reliant on the (amazing) animation, and it's sort of sad that aside from this and Space Ace there really weren't any interactive animation-based games on this level.

when i was young it had a kind of mythical status for me because i'd seen footage and screenshots, but didn't know anything about the game mechanics, so it looked a-million-levels-above-everything-else amazing.

i've still never played it, was it complex and difficult enough to feel like a real game or could you conceivably get through it first time in ten minutes with a total of fifty button presses and be done with it? the only game of that format i've ever played was road avenger: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGMaSC0F8fU which, while enjoyable, also was only barely a game.

I don't know, I've always sucked at videogames but I played Dragon's Lair when it came out and it was hard as hell and not really fun. It looked amazing but didn't feel like you were really playing a game. I've never seen that whole animation though so that was cool to watch. Pretty funny how the boss at the end is Pete's Dragon. But I can't imagine how much money you would have to spend at the arcade to finish the game.

I also remember being super excited when I first saw Sega's Time Traveller game but then realizing that it was just more Dragon's Lair-style bullshit that was flashy and expensive but not really fun.

this is pretty funny
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9958AbBMG9w

I guess this is more or less responsible for the entire FMV boom that took place 10 years later on home systems like Sega-CD and 3D0. The main reason Dragon's Lair works is the animation is just beautiful and the character design is perfect and the feel of it all is just so cinematic. I probably watched the attract mode far more than I ever played the game and it was still a mesmerizing experience.

But the game mechanics alone are laughably weak and you combine that with low budget 90s z-grade video productions and no wonder the Interactive Movie craze crashed and burned.

Though 90s z-grade FMV is MASSIVELY fascinating to me. It's the single biggest realm of potent kitsch that has yet to be plundered by retro fetishists.

There was always a long line for Dragon's Lair, it cost 50¢ to play, no one could really play it since all the cut-scenes were so herky jerky...

but after that one dude made it to the Princess Daphne level, suddenly it became more interesting.

I remember seeing this once in the mid 80s, and then never seeing it again. For years I thought I must have imagined it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T56LsYd-7ZY

Wow, now that was a crap game. It did remind me of the raytraced Star Trek game, and how much I loved that, especially when you had the sitdown cabinet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZj9WLFe6cY

God, the sound design is still great