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62-654: The first game in the series, Dragon's Lair , was originally released for arcades in 1983 by Cinematronics . It leveraged LaserDisc technology, offering greatly superior graphics compared to other contemporary video games . While many home ports were released in the following years, developers often had to make severe compromises to make the game work on the target platforms of the era, such as splitting it into two halves . A sequel, Dragon's Lair II: Time Warp , had started development as early as 1984, but would only see release in arcades in 1991. While its graphics were once again praised, its limited interactivity compared to

124-522: A Blu-ray version of Dragon's Lair was released. This uses the same HD transfer as the aforementioned PC release but went through a 6-month process to clean and remaster the image. Dragon's Lair Blu-ray is the first title to fully utilize BD-J technology. In 2013, Dragon's Lair was released on Steam via Steam Greenlight . This iteration of Dragon's Lair features 720p remastered video, remastered game footage, and bonus content. The home conversions received mixed reviews. The Commodore 64/128 version of

186-464: A blow-up doll bimbo. Nothing more than salacious and cynical bait for your hard-earned quarters (and Dragon's Lair swallowed a LOT of quarters)". Glamour model Tara Babcock ranked the "beyond beautiful" Daphne as the 16th "hottest video game" and wrote that "her half-naked, yet regal appearance, flowing blonde hair, big eyes with batting lashes and cute, ditzy appearance ... has been the subject of much controversy over 'sexism' in gaming!" Daphne's voice

248-405: A clumsy, easily scared and reluctant hero. Dragon's Lair began as a concept by Rick Dyer, president of Advanced Microcomputer Systems (which later became RDI Video Systems). A team of game designers created the characters and locations, then choreographed Dirk's movements as he encountered the monsters and obstacles in the castle. The art department at AMS created storyboards for each episode as

310-704: A comic-book miniseries released in 2003. Plans for a feature-length film have existed since the 1980s and resurfaced in 2015, when Bluth launched two crowd-funding campaigns. While the Kickstarter campaign was unsuccessful, the Indiegogo campaign reached its target in early 2016. Most games in the Dragon's Lair series are interactive films where the player controls Dirk the Daring, in a quest to save Princess Daphne. The game presents predetermined animated scenes, and

372-405: A dozen births, Bluth said "he thought it would be interesting if Daphne looked just as beautiful as ever; there's absolutely no sign she's been through anything". Professional voice actress Ellen Gerstell voiced the character in the cartoon, wherein her attire is a less-revealing dress. Princess Daphne was met with mostly positive reception and greatly contributed to the success of the game, which

434-418: A guide for the final animation. Dyer was inspired by the text game Adventure . This game gave rise to an invention he dubbed "The Fantasy Machine". This device went through many incarnations from a rudimentary computer using paper tape (with illustrations and text) to a system that manipulated a videodisc containing mostly still images and narration. The game it played was a graphic adventure , The Secrets of

496-597: A long pink dress, and includes some exclusive characters like Princess Daphne's father King Ethelred (voiced by Fred Travalena ), Dirk the Daring's horse Bertram (vocal effects provided by Peter Cullen ), Dirk the Daring's squire Timothy (voiced by Michael Mish), and Dirk the Daring's rival Sir Hubert Blunt (voiced by Peter Cullen ). Enemies include the Lizard King, the Phantom Knight, the Giddy Goons, and

558-563: A new difficulty selection to make it more challenging. Digital Leisure worked with a small independent game developer, Derek Sweet, to release a CD-ROM 4-disc box set for Windows-based PCs. In late 2006, Digital Leisure released Dragon's Lair HD , which features an all-new high-definition transfer from the original negatives (as opposed to just sourcing the LaserDisc). The original mono soundtrack has also been remastered into Dolby Digital 5.1 sound (on PCs that can support it). On April 9, 2007,

620-456: A relatively short time. This was compounded by the game's popularity. As a result, the LaserDisc player often had to be repaired or replaced. The life of the original player's gas laser was about 650 hours; although later models had solid state lasers with an estimated life of 50,000 hours, the spindle motor typically failed long before that. It is rare to find a Dragon's Lair game intact with

682-486: A reserved but unscripted location from The Secrets of the Lost Woods known as The Dragon's Lair . The game was animated by veteran Disney animator and The Secret of NIMH director Don Bluth and his studio. The game had a development budget of US$ 3 million and took seven months to complete. Since the studio could not afford to hire any models, the animators used photos from Playboy magazines for inspiration for

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744-509: Is a dragon who kidnaps Daphne. The game led to the creation of a short-lived television cartoon series, Dragon's Lair by Ruby-Spears Productions , where Dirk the Daring is voiced by Bob Sarlatte and the unseen storyteller that narrates each episode is voiced by Clive Revill . Changes in the TV series include the originally nameless Dragon being given the name Singe (voiced by Arthur Burghardt ), Princess Daphne (voiced by Ellen Gerstell ) wears

806-507: Is an interactive film LaserDisc video game developed by Advanced Microcomputer Systems and published by Cinematronics in 1983, as the first game in the Dragon's Lair series. In the game, the protagonist Dirk the Daring is a knight attempting to rescue Princess Daphne from the evil dragon Singe who has locked the princess in the foul wizard Mordroc's castle. It featured animation by ex- Disney animator Don Bluth . Most other games of

868-561: Is kidnapped at the moment of Dirk's victory by a shapeshifter, forcing him to venture even further into the castle to save her again. The game was made up of unused scenes from the LaserDisc version, though some portions (such as the lizard king and mud men) were shortened. The 8-bit versions were created by Software Projects , while ReadySoft handled the 16-bit versions. These used video compression and new storage techniques but came on multiple 5 + 1 ⁄ 4 -inch and 3 + 1 ⁄ 2 -inch floppy disks . In late 2002, to commemorate

930-521: The LaserDisc but imposed other limitations on the actual gameplay. The success of the game sparked numerous home ports , sequels and related games. In the 21st century it has been repackaged in a number of formats as a retro or historic game. The game is " on rails ", meaning the narrative is predetermined and the player has very limited influence on its progression. The game consists almost entirely of animated cutscenes. The player does not control

992-451: The 'save the princess' motif, which makes me extremely suspicious about Daphne's princess credentials. There is a far greater chance that she is just a stripper with the stage name Princess than an actual princess, because if actual princesses dressed like she did the royal weddings wouldn't be so boring to watch". Jon M. Gibson of GameSpy called Daphne "the epitome of a damsel in distress ". Rob Mead of ST Format wrote "Daphne has to be

1054-620: The 14th place on a similar list in 2012, Larry Hester of Complex opined Daphne "might be the finest damsel in distress ever. Sorry, Peach , Disney-style cel animation wins again". Back in 1983, JoyStik' s Joe Mendsky wrote "Daphne may look like the closest thing to a porn star in the annals of the video game, but she's not dumb. She's seen the line of quarters across the floor at the Denver arcade". Nearly three decades later, Complex said of her that there has "only ever really been one reason to play Dragon's Lair ", and stated: "Never mind that

1116-470: The 20th anniversary of the original arcade release, Digital Leisure produced a special edition DVD box set containing Dragon's Lair , Space Ace and Dragon's Lair II: Time Warp . All the scenes from the original arcade releases were included and optionally the player could select new scenes that were animated in 1983, but not included in any previous Dragon's Lair release. The games were also updated to include higher quality video, authentic scene order and

1178-463: The Daring is the main protagonist of the first game and subsequent franchise. As a knight of the kingdom, Dirk was entrusted with the rescue of Princess Daphne from Mordroc and Singe because all other knights were killed. He becomes heir to the throne upon saving Princess Daphne; following her rescue, Dirk and Daphne are married. In both games, Dirk is voiced by sound editor Dan Molina. Retro Gamer included Dirk on their list of top 50 game characters in

1240-518: The Lost Woods . The game's concept as an interactive movie LaserDisc game was inspired by Sega 's Astron Belt , which Dyer saw at the 1982 AMOA show. Attempts to market The Fantasy Machine had repeatedly failed. Allegedly, an Ideal Toy Company representative walked out in the middle of one presentation. Dyer's inspiration allegedly came during his viewing of The Secret of NIMH , whereby he realized he needed quality animation and an action script to bring excitement to his game. He elected to take

1302-584: The Mudmen. Thirteen half-hour episodes were produced and aired on the ABC network from September 8, 1984, to April 27, 1985. It was last aired on the USA Cartoon Express between the late '80s and the early '90s. To keep the show in the spirit of the game, before each commercial break the storyteller asks what the viewer would do to solve the problem facing Dirk. After the commercial break, the outcomes of

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1364-465: 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. Lead on, adventurer. Your quest awaits!" Comedic aspects of the game include bizarre-looking creatures and humorous death scenes, and the portrayal of the player character as

1426-525: The category "Top Ten Forces of Good" and called him "without a doubt, the epitome of the heroic knight". In the games, Princess Daphne is the beautiful daughter of King Aethelred and an unnamed queen. She serves as the series' damsel in distress . A beautiful maiden coveted by many princes and knights, her heart belongs to the kingdom's champion, Dirk the Daring. Princess Daphne was originally created by Rick Dyer's Advanced Microcomputer Systems (AMS, later RDI Video Systems ) team, then completely redesigned by

1488-413: The character Princess Daphne . The animators also used their own voices for all the characters instead of hiring voice actors in order to keep costs down, although it does feature one professional voice actor, Michael Rye , as the narrator in the attract sequence (he is also the narrator for Space Ace and Dragon's Lair II: Time Warp ). The voice of Princess Daphne was portrayed by Vera Lanpher, who

1550-422: The character's actions directly, but controls his reflexes, with actions determined by selecting a direction or pressing a button in order to clear each quick time event , with different full motion video segments showing the outcomes. The game consists of a sequence of challenges played in a random order. Some scenes are played more than once before reaching the end, some of which are flipped or mirrored such that

1612-1038: The company in the state of Delaware in April, 1997. That same year, InterWorld spun off the company "in order to permit UGO Networks to build a separate management team...and to position UGO Networks to seek private parts equity financing." In 1998, UGO—then described as "the largest independent gaming community on the Internet" —created the prestigious UGO E3 Awards, now the Game Critics Awards , to recognize high quality video game entertainment. In 1999, UGO changed its name to UnderGround Online as part of its efforts to expand its target audience. The company streamed various forms of media entertainment on its website as well as offering articles on topics of interest to its target audience. Topics included comics, television, music and film. Its main competitors included CNET Networks , IGN , and Yahoo! . On July 24, 2007 it

1674-404: The creation of numerous video game ports for home systems. Since some original sequences did not fit in the ports for those systems, they were re-released only in a virtual sequel called Escape from Singe's Castle : Various home computer adaptations of Dragon's Lair were released during the 1980s and 1990s, but because of (at the time) high memory consumption due to the detailed animation of

1736-429: The dippiest woman on the planet. She's gone and got herself kidnapped again. Can you believe it? The woman is a victim. She might as well walk around with the words 'Kidnap me' tattooed on her forehead". Charlie Barratt of GamesRadar included her among the seven "damsels you DON'T want to save", arguing that "underneath the skimpy leotard and fluttering eyelashes, Daphne's no deeper than a cardboard cutout. No smarter than

1798-511: The entire comic book series in 2006, as there are three issues that were previously unpublished. In the 1980s, a film version of Dragon's Lair was planned, with Alan Dean Foster involved in shaping the story. The project fell apart due to low interest from other studios. In 2015 and 2016, Bluth and Goldman crowdfunded US$ 731,172 for a 10-minute teaser for an animated feature-length Dragon's Lair prequel film, their first feature film since Titan A.E. Bluth and Goldman have announced that

1860-401: The era represented the character as a sprite , which consisted of a series of pixels displayed in succession. Due to hardware limitations of the era, artists were greatly restricted in the detail they could achieve using that technique; the resolution, framerate and number of frames were severely constrained. Dragon's Lair overcame those limitations by tapping into the vast storage potential of

1922-505: The ex- Disney artist and animator Don Bluth . Bluth took his inspiration from photographs from the producer Gary Goldman 's collection of old issues of Playboy magazine, ultimately putting Daphne "in a very-revealing one piece ' thong ' bathing suit with a sheer veil that partially covered her". Due to the limited budget's constraints, Daphne's in-game vocals were supplied by the head of AMS' Clean-up Department, Vera Lanpher. For Dragon's Lair II , where Daphne has experienced more than

Dragon's Lair - Misplaced Pages Continue

1984-545: The film will provide more backstory for Dirk and Daphne and that Daphne will show that she is not a "blonde airhead". In March 2020, a live action film adaptation was approved by Netflix after one year of negotiations. Ryan Reynolds was in talks for the lead role. Reynolds, Roy Lee , Trevor Engelson , Bluth, Goldman, and former Bluth collaborator John Pomeroy are producers, with Dan and Kevin Hageman as writers. Dragon%27s Lair (1983 video game) Dragon's Lair

2046-516: The game was reviewed in 1988 in Dragon #133 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game 3 out of 5 stars. GameFan reviewed the Sega CD version, scoring it 297 out of 400. GamePro reviewed the Sega CD version in 1994. They commented that the controls require such precise timing that the game can be very frustrating, and criticized

2108-492: The game were manufactured by Atari under license and used single side PAL discs manufactured by Philips (not metal backed). A prototype made its debut at Chicago's Amusement Operators Expo (AOE) in March 1983. The complete laserdisc and ROM sets of this preview demo version have not survived to this day. The European arcade version of Dragon's Lair was licensed to Atari Ireland (as was Space Ace later). The cabinet design

2170-471: The game, making it too frustrating. Electronic Gaming Monthly gave the 3DO version a 7 out of 10, praising the superior graphics and short load times. They gave the CD-i version a 7.5 out of 10, with all four of their reviewers agreeing it to be the best home version of the game to date. Next Generation reviewed the CD-i version of the game, rating it two stars out of five. Though they concurred that it

2232-618: The game: " Dragon's Lair is this summer's hottest new toy: the first arcade game in the United States with a movie-quality image to go along with the action ... The game has been devouring kids' coins at top speed since it appeared early in July." Arcade operators at its release reported long lines, even though the game was the first video arcade game to cost 50 cents. Operators were also concerned, however, that players would figure out its unique predefined game play, leading them to "get

2294-435: The gameplay was nothing more than a quarter-sucking game of trial-and-error and memorization. And, oh, God: Princess Daphne and her little sheer black dress. Jesus Christ. She was way too sexy. Our little brains exploded". Ranking her as the 14th "hottest video game girl of all time" in 2013, Steve Jenkins of CheatCodes.com wrote: "Don Bluth's animated portrayal of Daphne, the princess who just can't seem to keep out of trouble,

2356-417: The games, not all scenes from the original game were included. Reviewers of the home computer versions differed widely in their appraisal of the game, with one Amiga magazine awarding 92% due to the unprecedented audio-visual quality, while another magazine gave the same version a score of only 32%, on account of the "wooden" gameplay. This led to Escape from Singe's Castle , a pseudo-sequel where Daphne

2418-503: The hang of it and stop playing it". By July 1983, 1,000 machines had been distributed, and there were already a backlog of about 7,500. Lifetime sales exceeded 16,000 cabinets. By the end of 1983, Electronic Games and Electronic Fun were rating Dragon's Lair as the number one video arcade game in USA, while the arcade industry gave it recognition for helping turn around its 1983 financial slump . Dragon's Lair received recognition as

2480-405: The lack of replay value and grainy video quality, but were positive in their assessment of the game, asserting that " Time Gal , Road Avenger , and Sewer Shark are all coy imitators of the best LaserDisc arcade game there ever was... Dragon's Lair !" In 1994, Electronic Gaming Monthly gave the Sega CD version a 6.2 out of 10, criticizing that "pinpoint accuracy" was required to complete

2542-402: The laser assembly would gradually move across the disc as the data was read linearly. However, Dragon's Lair required seeking different animation sequences on the disc every few seconds—indeed, less than a second in some cases—as dictated by gameplay. The high amount of seeking, coupled with the length of time the unit was required to operate, could result in failure of the LaserDisc player after

Dragon's Lair - Misplaced Pages Continue

2604-558: The list of "Top 50 Arcade Games of All-Time". It was one of only three video games (along with Pong and Pac-Man ) put in storage at the Smithsonian Institution . Dragon's Lair appears in the Stranger Things episode " Chapter One: MADMAX " (2017). UGO UGO Entertainment, Inc. was a website that provided coverage of online media in entertainment, targeting males aged 18–34. The company

2666-408: The month. One element of the game that was negatively received was the blackout time in between loading of scenes, which Dyer promised would be eliminated by the forthcoming Space Ace and planned Dragon's Lair sequel. By the middle of 1984, however, after Space Ace and other similar games were released to little success, sentiment on Dragon's Lair's position in the industry had shifted and it

2728-507: The most influential game of 1983, to the point that regular computer graphics looked "rather elementary compared to top-quality animation". The game topped the monthly US RePlay charts for upright arcade cabinets from September 1983 through November 1983, and topped the US Play Meter arcade charts for arcade locations (such as ShowBiz Pizza Place ) from September 1983 through January 1984 and again in March 1984. It

2790-449: The newer generation of arcade games was considered outdated, and kept it from reaching the same popularity of the original. The two first games in the series are considered gaming classics, and are frequently re-released on each new generation of consoles, often bundled alongside the 1984 LaserDisc game Space Ace . The franchise has since expanded into other media, including a short lived animated series that aired on ABC in 1984 and

2852-402: The opposite actions (e.g. left instead of right) are required. The attract mode of the game displays various short vignettes of gameplay accompanied by the following narration: "Dragon's Lair: The fantasy adventure where you become a valiant knight, on a quest to rescue the fair princess from the clutches of an evil dragon. You control the actions of a daring adventurer, finding his way through

2914-421: The original player, and conversion kits have been developed so the units can use more modern players. The original USA 1983 game used a single side NTSC LaserDisc player manufactured by Pioneer; the other side of the disc was metal backed to prevent bending. This made the disc heavier than a typical laser disc, which accelerated the failure of the spindle bearings of the player motor. The European versions of

2976-405: The player must select a direction on the joystick or press the action button in order to clear each quick time event , with different full motion video segments showing the outcome. A perfect run of the 1983 arcade game with no deaths lasts no more than 12 minutes. In total, the game has 22 minutes or 50,000 frames of animated footage, including individual death scenes and game over screens. Dirk

3038-504: The profitable IGN division would be spun off into a new company. In March 2012, UGO ceased to exist as a staffed website and was dormant for a short period. Later in 2012, UGO.com relaunched as a self-described "pop culture comedy site", which focused on producing original videos about movies, comics and videogames with a humorous tone. On February 4, 2013, UGO.com was purchased as part of the IGN network of websites acquired by Ziff Davis , and

3100-494: The recording engineers. The 43 second "Attract Loop" was recorded in a straight 18-hour session. Featured instruments, all keyboards, were the E-mu Emulator and Memorymoog . The original LaserDisc players shipped with the game ( Pioneer LD-V1000 or PR-7820) often failed. Although the players were of good quality, the game imposed unusually high strain: LaserDisc players were designed primarily for playing movies, in which

3162-407: The various choices are shown before Dirk acts on the correct idea (with the occasional exception) to save the day. Don Bluth had no involvement in the TV series. A comic book miniseries based on the game, but incorporating elements from the cartoon series as well, like Dirk's horse Bertram, was released in 2003 by CrossGen , concurrent with a miniseries based on Space Ace . Arcana Studio published

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3224-420: Was an arcade-perfect conversion, they concluded that "People who like the stand-up version or enjoyed any of Don Bluth's other titles [...] will be in heaven, otherwise it's probably best avoided." Dragon's Lair initially represented high hopes for the then-sagging arcade industry, fronting the new wave of immersive LaserDisc video games. A quote from Newsweek captures the level of excitement displayed over

3286-406: Was announced that Hearst Corporation would acquire UGO Entertainment to expand its interactive media division. On January 6, 2009, UGO Entertainment acquired 1UP.com and its associated sites from publisher Ziff Davis . In May 2011, IGN Entertainment announced that it would acquire UGO from Hearst in a cash and stock. At the same time, its parent company News Corporation also announced that

3348-527: Was based in New York, New York , United States. The company started in 1997 as Unified Gamers Online , billed in directories as a "hand-picked network of professionally managed gaming sites and services." In 1997, founder Chris Sherman hired Ken Margolis Associates to manage sales and marketing to the Game Industry. Chris sold UGO to Actionworld, Inc., a subsidiary of InterWorld, which incorporated

3410-423: Was being cited as a failure due to its expensive cost for a game that would "lose popularity". Arcade owners were also displeased with the mechanical unreliability of the LaserDisc drive. In 1995, Flux magazine rated the arcade version 47th on its Top 100 Video Games writing: "A somewhat frustrating movement-timing factor, but still fun to play and watch." In 2001, GameSpy ranked Dragon's Lair as number 7 on

3472-660: Was described by Earl Green of Classic Gamer Magazine as "a high pitched voice that could cause harm to small pets". Green also wrote that "those of us who were entering adolescence at the time never quite forgave the TV show for covering Princess Daphne up, even though a vast improvement was made in giving her more personality and more intelligence, rather than the original game's helium-voiced ditzy blonde". Reviewing Dragon's Lair 3D in 2002, GameSpot ' s Ryan Davis wrote Daphne "sounds just as squeaky and ditzy as she did in 1983". Kristan Reed of Eurogamer wrote it "remains as simultaneously amusing and irritating as ever". Singe

3534-477: Was exclusive to Atari, a number of Cinematronics machines were also available from suppliers mostly via a gray import . The original Fantasy Machine was later released as a prototype video game console known as Halcyon . Dirk the Daring also appeared in the 1993 Game Boy puzzle game, Franky, Joe & Dirk: On the Tiles , along with Franky from Dr. Franken and Joe from Joe & Mac . Dragon's Lair led to

3596-484: Was head of the clean-up department at the time. Dirk the Daring's voice was provided by film editor Dan Molina, who later went on to perform the bubbling sound effects for another animated character, Fish Out of Water , from 2005's Disney film Chicken Little , which he also edited. The music and many sound effects were scored and performed by Chris Stone at EFX Systems in Burbank. Bryan Rusenko and Glen Berkovitz were

3658-428: Was listed by Cash Box magazine as America's third highest-grossing arcade game of 1983 , below Ms. Pac-Man and Pole Position . By February 1984, Dragon's Lair was reported to have earned over $ 32 million ( $ 98 million adjusted for inflation) for Cinematronics. In Japan, Game Machine listed Dragon's Lair on their October 1, 1984 issue as being the eleventh most-successful upright/cockpit arcade unit of

3720-407: Was the real attraction in this game… and attractive she was. (...) Princess Daphne's love of shear(sic!) clothing, plunging necklines, and her eternal 'damsel in distress' neediness made 50 cents a bargain to spend some quality time with her". Writing about the reason Dragon's Lair became so popular, Nikola Suprak of Hardcore Gamer stated: "Years of playing video games has made me very familiar with

3782-430: Was then ported to various home platforms and followed by several sequels, remakes and spin-offs. She has been cited by multiple publications as one of the most attractive characters in video game history. UGO included her on their 2010 list of top 50 "video game hotties": "When the game was released, Daphne was the best-looking video game heroine around, so we still have a bit of a soft spot for her today". Including her at

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3844-558: Was therefore different from the Cinematronics version. The main differences were that the LED digital scoring panel was replaced with an on-screen scoring display appearing after each level. The Atari branding was present in various places on the machine (marquee, coin slots, control panel and speaker grill area), and the machines featured the cone LED player start button used extensively on Atari machines. Although licensing for this region

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