Retro Let’s Play!! April 24. *** Dragon’s Lair ***

Dragon's Lair is an interactive laser disc arcade video game developed by Advanced Microcomputer Systems and published by Cinematronics in 1983, you play as Dirk the Daring, a knight attempting to rescue Princess Daphne from the evil dragon Singe who has locked the princess in the foul wizard Mordroc's castle. Animation is by legendary ex-Disney animator Don Bluth.

As the valiant knight on a quest to rescue the fair princess from the clutches of an evil dragon, originally released in the summer of 1983, Dragon's Lair has solidified itself as a cultural icon in gaming.

Control the actions of the daring adventurer, finding your way through the castle of a dark wizard, who has enchanted it with treacherous monsters and obstacles. In the mysterious caverns below the castle, your odyssey continues against the awesome forces that oppose your efforts to reach the dragon’s lair.



Dragon’s Lair is a fully animated classic arcade game from legendary animator Don Bluth. You’ll make your way through the castle and caverns below and wield your sword against some strange creatures. Beware of your foes, as they are numerous!

Lead On Adventurer. Your Quest Awaits!

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When Dragon’s Lair was released, and I first got a glimpse of it around 1985, at the George st cinemas in Sydney, I was literary blown away.. holy crap!!! See those graphics, amazing.. I had no idea what a rail shooter was in those days, and to the kid me (I was 13124 at the time) I thought it was the best thing since sliced bread. Later on, my local fish n hamburger shop down the road from me in narrabeen got it too, and I can only imagine how much cash I punched through that machine.. prob around the same as dubble dragon and slap fight.

(Original stand up cab)​

man it was hard, and you got punished badly every time you stuffed it up.. I still can’t do the marble sequence, and I’ve played a lot.the electric knight sequence is also beyond me.



I am sure this game needs no introduction, everyone has played this in the past, and if you haven’t, your in for a treat.

because of the advances in emulation, you can now play this ever Uber awesome game in the comfort of your own home on your pc. Though if possible, before you do, spill some beer on the floor, play a tape that you recorded in a 90’s arcade and get your next door neighbor to look over your shoulder and shove you every now and then, (just to try and re-create the whole 90’s arcade feeling) while you as Dirk, attempt to rescue the ever gorgeous Daphne.




How can we play?

easy, the Daphne emulator is available here, though you’ll need to source your own video files.
http://www.daphne-emu.com/site3/index_low.php

it’s also gloriously remastered in 720p, available on Steam, and it’s on sale atm too.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/227380/Dragons_Lair/

there are various other complete images available, but I’ll let you source those yourself.

here's one such option...

Dragon's Lair & Daphne Emulator : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
(thx to Pwlm1975 for the linky) cheers mate.
unzip the directory, then unzip the pal version and then run the Dragons lair start file. easy. but its Mono.. at least the intro is mono..


The original laser disc is rather difficult to source and as such fetches rather high prices. Let me know if you’ve got one. There’s also a re-released dvd floating around.





The drawn environments are first class. Don did an absolutely super job at this, and you might want to check out some of his other feature length movies. One of my faves, Titan A.E. Check some of the other ones here.

https://www.google.com/search?q=don+bluth+movies

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No doubt however, you’ll see this screen a lot. Absolute gem of a game. I love it a lot, though it’s hard, you’ll be rewarded for your perseverance.

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Below are the original side art and control panel overlay.

There’s a lot of history behind this game, it’s a lot of fun to play and it’s also a lot of fun to watch other people play this. Let me know your thoughts, if you need a hand getting it up and running, drop me a line.
I’ve never gotten to the Dragon stage, iam going to try and do this month in April.
Wish me luck and lead on adventurer, your quest awaits!
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awesome game.
I think I was 15ish when I first laid eyes on this cab in timezone (Albert St Brissy)
it was soooo expensive, $1 per game but those graphics were amazing...
I distinctly remembering I didn't make it past the first jump and did my dough in under a minute

back to outrun it was

will definitely try to get further this time
great choice Vanne

 

"Dragon's Lair - the 80's first QuickTime sequence sending kids broke."

I have a love/hate relationship with this game. An ice cream shop in Hervey Bay had this machine in the mid-late 80's (if memory serves) and I ignored the ice cream just to watch the attract sequence over, and over, and over. I never saw anyone play it.

Bought the Amiga version on release (having never had the moolah for the arcade as a pre-teen), and played it for about 2 weeks straight, destroyed 2 joysticks, and back in the box it went and I never played it again - it got me so wound up... brutal is the most understated understatement made to describe this game. This game, Escape From Singes Castle and Space Ace were the holy trinity of the siren's song - beautiful but they wrecked you if the call was too strong.

Great write up Vanne and thanks for a cracking recommendation.

 

sorry for the OT

remember berries flooding back.
what were the two arcades in albert st ?
playtime, timezone, Las Vegas, orbit .... all these names but I think only two places.
well, there was upstairs in Myer too, but their games sucked

the one that went 20c for all games.... and the pinball machines had the flipper strength turned right down.... scumbags

 

"Tops" was the arcade at the top of the Myer Centre. That also had that dragon roller coaster that ran over the top of the whole shebang.

PlayTime was on Albert St (which turned into Time Zone at some stage) and the machine I remember playing there was Virtua Racer by Sega. Always in cockpit view.

Those are the two I remember from my university days. Grand Orbit was a nightclub back in the day. I recall Mary Street (the bar) had a 3D skiing arcade game upstairs near the bar area. Games are hilarious when you're drunk

 

I see it as on sale on GOG for the next 2d but not Steam: https://www.gog.com/en/game/dragons_lair_trilogy

I bought the GOG version for teh moral high ground but I'm planning to set up the emulated original because one of the reviews talks about cropping of the remaster. Never played it before so happy to go in with a bag full of virtual $1 coins.

 

def, if you have the skillz and the video files, run it on Daphne, its the proper way to do it.

Use this link to Download the Daphne Emu and the video files

Dragon's Lair & Daphne Emulator : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

If you wanna do it a bit nicer, download the DVD itself from here and use it together with the Daphne Emulator. This way you get the best video quality.

(note, i cant link the DVD itself as its still for sale elsewhere, so ive removed the link.)


I also see your issue, i just returned home from Kalkuta, it was on sale in India, also not here in DXB, but there is 30% off the Don Bluth bundle. (no i am not saying you should go out and grab it) better off getting Daphne and the above video files instead.

thanks for the GoG link Grant, thats probably the best easy way to go about it.

 

Update: I'm out of my bag of virtual $1 coins already. Took me a while to even understand the game had started and I wasn't in an attract mode, but I got the hang of a few of the puzzles after dying a lot.

Definitely one that needed to be figured out across a group of people.

 

I have Dragon's Lair 2, never got through the whole game but used to try all the same, haha

It was amazingly impressive how much animation and speech were on a bunch of Amiga floppies, the load times from memory were good and it supported by DF01 and 1 which was handy.

 

Sweet, just grabbed the GOG triple pack, aud10.25
Thanks Grant

 

Yep. Still suck at it.

https://archive.org/details/dragons.lair.and.daphne.emulator

Neat the bottom there's a link to a AIO Daphne/Dragon's Lair set which works perfectly, thu proving I am still really, really bad at it.

 

I

ive been playing with that for a few hours, the PAL version is Mono, and i cant for the life of me figure out why?
The ntsc version has that trademark tearing graphics, but DOES have STEREO sound..

Ive spent the last 2 hours trying to find the best DVD-ROM for this so it can be as good as it was intended.

Pls bear with me.. Nope, still mono in Pal, maybe its supposed to be that way?

Again, thx to Grant, heres the GoG Linky again..

-60% Dragon's Lair Trilogy on GOG.com

And yep, ive now made it through the marbles room

 

The audio in the PAL version worked OK for me, the stereo separation was very apparent (music from the right speaker, voices from the left). I haven't tried NTSC.

 

give it a shot, its in the same download, just unzip the NTSC version and run it

 

If memory serves, the arcade across the street from Hoyts (George Street, Syd) had a bigger cabinet than the OP pic. Cost more as well. I only played it a few times due to the queue and cost. Back in thoses days (1985+) there were a truckload of arcades around the area, plus more in Chinatown/Haymarket. The days of moving cabinets even at a higher cost was worth it. That game was hard.

 

Spot on mate, that cab at the movies had another full size telly on top, so the crowds could watch on. I dumped prob Worth back then at least the beginnings of a uni degree into that cab..

 

the GOG version of this is completely unplayable.
I'm usually happy to pay for a copy and then just source it the way i always have (you know, retro styles)

but this blows chunks and doesnt deserve rewarding. stick to daphne and archive.org is my thoughts ...

 

what's the issue?

 

For those going down the emulation route, MAME's latest update just added a perfect digital reproduction of the laser disc - not the analog capture of the original I'm pretty sure Daphne uses.

From the 0.263 release notes:

 

it's literally unplayable. I can't describe it much further.
from what I've read it's ported from an android version. it uses touch, consumption of CPU cycles like it's 1999, and the lag is yeah, unplayable.

all the extras are cool though.