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Games Entertainment

Dragon's Lair on X-box 262

Posted by michael from the follow-the-flashing-tiles dept.
aka pseudonym writes "Remember the game Dragon's Lair, the laserdisc based game from the 80's? Well, it is now out for the X-box and other game systems. You can check it out at www.dragonslair3d.com. This looks like the first game that supports the HDTV 1080i resoloution the X-box is capable of. There is a review of the game here. A related slashdot link is here. Aaahhh memories, at least now I don't have to drop a full dollar into the machine every time I want to play this addictive game."
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Dragon's Lair on X-box More

Dragon's Lair on X-box

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  • dragons layer 3d? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by bigmammoth ( 526309 ) on Wednesday November 13, 2002 @05:09AM (#4657709) Homepage
    I am probably not the only one who does not see the big deal with this, "so what" dragons layer is in 3d now, not exactly as revolutionary as it was when it first came out. . considering most games that come out for console now a days are 3d action/adventure .. its just using an old license but which has little relevance to the arcade laser disk game
    • "I am probably not the only one who does not see the big deal with this, "so what" dragons layer is in 3d now, not exactly as revolutionary as it was when it first came out. ."

      Perhaps. Like Linux, though, this game's been on every piece of hardware imaginable.
      • Like Linux, though, this game's been on every piece of hardware imaginable.

        even, apparently a dvd. aparently the dvd menuing system is powerful enough to play dragons lair on and someone did port it.

        funnily enough I've never played the game but I remember reading reviews for the amiga waaay back when

        dave
        • well as someone who's played he original, C=64, Amiga and MacOS ports I can assure you that the REAL Dragon's Lair was one of the most pointless, uninvolving and overhyped games in history. If you've ever played one of those late '80's CDi games (Alone in the Dark?) you've already been there and done that 1000x better. Tis new 3D version looks like a run of the mill 3D platformer - so think inferior Jack & Daxter and that probably covers it.

    • Re:dragons layer 3d? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by bsartist ( 550317 ) on Wednesday November 13, 2002 @06:55AM (#4657908) Homepage
      its just using an old license but which has little relevance to the arcade laser disk game

      The new Dragon's Lair 3D is very, very relevant to the original. Each scene is based on one from the old game, and the progression from one scene to the next is nearly identical. Also, the 3d models were built with Don Bluth's help, and the texture maps taken mostly from his original artwork.

      You're right that it's not exactly revolutionary, but it's not just an old name applied to a new game. It's the real thing.

      • Re:dragons layer 3d? (Score:3, Insightful)

        by WowTIP ( 112922 )
        It sounds as if it is still using the old "push-the-right-button-at-the-right-moment" controls? The thing that made these games succsessful back in the days were the jaw-dropping graphics and sounds (at the time). The gameplay was too simple imho. I can't really see the point of a remake of these games, when most games that are released today has as good, or better graphics and sound.

        I's much rather have a modern remake of, for example, Ron Gilberts old adventures (Maniac mansion, Indy, Monkey Island I & II, etc.), where storytelling, humour and thinking were the main gaming elements.
      • It would be interesting to see how it turned out. However, I would be more likely to buy the original, which was beautiful and amazing.

        If Disney repainted the movie Peter Pan using 3D models, would people think it had been cured of its obselescence? It would be hard to improve on the original.
        • If the EFF ever manages to "free the mouse," maybe some fan will give it a try. It would be intriguing as a "fan film".
        • Then buy the original. They've been selling it on DVD for years.
        • Well, if Peter Pan was originally a gimmicky idea wrapped in a weak story and minimal audience involvement, then yes, a remake that replaced the gimmicks with modern FX, fleshed out the story, and increased audience involvement and interaction with the characters--a remake like that would certainly be a cure. Not a cure for obsolescence (which usually isn't a real concern in movies), but a cure for a bad movie.

          Since the original (Disney) version of the movie was not gimmicky, had a solid story, and engaged the audience, such a remake would be a waste of time, and Disney will wisely stick to re-releasing the original on each new media type to hit the market.

          Dragon's Lair, on the other hand, was very gimmicky, &c. The idea of the game appealed to me very much, but the space-chimp gameplay prevented me from spending more than 50 cents on it in 30 years. If they re-release it using modern game design principles instead of that stupid laser-disc twitch bullshit, I might just have to get me a new coffee table--er, XBox.
      • hmm so what IS the point then, if it's identical to the original? Sounds more like a case of old name applied to old game, with laser disc removed.

        • It's not identical - it's a new game. It's a full, free-moving 3d environment rendered in real time, unlike the original, which was basically just a series of canned cartoons.

          My point was that it's a true update to the original, not just some Joe Schmoe using the name to make a quick buck. Most of the original voice recordings were used, Bluth was involved with the 3d modeling, the original cels were scanned and used as texture maps, etc.
    • So Dragon's Lair is old? Is it fun? That's the only thing that matters. So it doesn't use all of the eye candy special effects that the XBox can produce? Special effects won't make a bad game better and lack of special effects won't make a good game bad (badly done effects are a different matter but I digress).

      Personally, I am glad that they are making oilder games available for consoles. One of the most played games in my house is the Atari Archive Pack (Asteroids, Tempest, etc...) on my Dreamcast. None of these games use any 3D (hell, most of them barely use color!) but they are all fun and that is all that matters.

  • Hmmm... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by G-funk ( 22712 ) <josh@gfunk007.com> on Wednesday November 13, 2002 @05:11AM (#4657714) Homepage Journal
    Old game with shitty "interactive movie" gameplay becomes new 3d game with shitty gameplay. Film at 11.
    • I agree. Addicting? No, I hated this game. Only played it a few times. It was cool for its time- cartoony and all, but damn it, I always died- always died- within about 20 seconds of starting.

      I once watched some kid drop something like $10 on this game and I don't remember him getting very far in the game.

      Anyone ever 'beat' this game? Man, I always chose Cyberball Tournament over this game- as they were usually pretty close together.
      • Anyone ever 'beat' this game?

        Yup. All it takes is one "free gaming" night and a friend to write down the joystick/keypresses for each scene. Of course, the scenes flipped on the horizontal axis periodically, so you had to keep that in mind, but even still...once you knew the sequence of keypresses, you the timing was all you had to work on, and it wouldn't be too long before you could drop in your $0.50 and beat the game, to the amazement of onlookers.

  • Laserdiscs were a losing branch of videogames (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Graspee_Leemoor ( 302316 ) on Wednesday November 13, 2002 @05:11AM (#4657715) Homepage Journal
    Dragon's Lair sucked. It was at the forefront of the "Let's turn videogames into total eye-candy with extremely limited interactivity" movement, which thankfully didn't take off.

    I like Don Bluth's work on the big screen, but the way to get cinematic graphics in a game is not by just pre-rendering/drawing them like all those laserdisc games did, then allowing a branching path through the story, but by improving 3d computer graphics to the point where they look as good as real-life/traditional animation.

    More interesting to me is the (fairly) recent innovation where traditional 3d graphics are used, but they are shaded and textured to look like cartoons/anime, e.g. Fear Effect, various Simpsons and Disney games.

    graspee

    • More interesting to me is the (fairly) recent innovation where traditional 3d graphics are used, but they are shaded and textured to look like cartoons/anime, e.g. Fear Effect, various Simpsons and Disney games.

      It's called Cel-Shading.. and that's what this is. This is a redone Dragon's Lair, done in real 3d with cel-shaded graphics.

      I'll be checking it out, and possibly (depends on if it's still as annoying as the old "hit UP *now*!" version).

      By the way, it's not just for the xbox, it'll be available for the GameCube, the PS2, and the PC as well.
    • Yeah, but you should have seen the crowds around that cabinet when it first came out.
    • It was at the forefront of the "Let's turn videogames into total eye-candy with extremely limited interactivity" movement, which thankfully didn't take off.

      Hahaha... that's what Final Fantasy and other PS2 games are about (except without the branching path)... loads of games these days are basically movies with a broken pause button...

      </cynic>

    • Hardly. First of all, Dragon's Lair was the shiz-nit when it came out. Second only to the more obscure, but better anime-type laserdisc cabinet game that seemed to be based on Dr. Caligari. (Anyone remember the name? -- 'Time Travellers' or something.) Plus, there was the even-better follow up, Space Ace, which also ruled.

      Your point about cel shading being better is just absurd, esp. since there was about fifteen years between the introduction of DL and the first good cel-shaded games (e.g., Jet Set Radio). Yeah, we all hated the lag in DL and the other laserdisc games, (and we hated the insane price point), but that game had the biggest crowds at my arcade for about a year straight, which is saying a lot. Most of the time, we'd just be watching some hot shot who could finish the game on a dollar, so it was more like a movie anyway!!

      Your opinion only makes sense if you were born yesterday. For the rest of us, who actually lived in the 1980's, we thought DL was insanely cool.
      • Your opinion only makes sense if you were born yesterday. For the rest of us, who actually lived in the 1980's, we thought DL was insanely cool.

        That's funny...I lived in the '80s, but thought that while Dragon's Lair looked neat, it absolutely and thoroughly sucked as a game. It was an almost certain waste of $1.00 (at a time when most games cost 25 cents) in that I would invariably get "killed" maybe 10-20 seconds after feeding the machine my money.

      • "we thought DL was insanely cool. "

        Yes is was cool.....to watch.

        The gameplay completely sucked. You were extremely limited to what you could do and playing a game completely based on timing was boring.

        Dragons Lair='s fun to look at, crappy gameplay.
        • I find it interesting that Shenmue (and Shenmue II), IMO two of the most revolutionary games ever, employ a similar scheme to the timing-based scheme in DL. The Shenmue series is a lot more than just this, but it's actually one of the best parts of the game, again IMO.
    • While I do remember pumping tons of quarters in a Dragon's Lair game, I will agree that the gameplay is limited to say the least. Press the stick in a certain direction at a certain time, and then do it mirror image later in the game.

      Not that I don't like the game, but any game that you can play with your DVD remote has got to be a bit limited in it's gameplay!

      Now, Firefox and Mach3 were a better type of laserdisc game - basically a normal game with backgrounds of the LD.

  • "Reinvention" (Score:5, Informative)

    by Yakman ( 22964 ) on Wednesday November 13, 2002 @05:11AM (#4657716) Homepage Journal
    According to the site it's a "reinvention" of the original. Which is good, because as far as I remember the original was basically a Laserdisc movie where you moved the joystick in a certain direction at the right time and either died or went on to the next screen - hardly the kind of game you'd want to shell out $90-$100 (Australian) on for your console :) Looks like some very pretty cel shaded graphics from the screenshots (incase they're slashdotted) - one of those adventure 3D platformer games like Zelda, Mario Sunshine or Starfox Adventures.

    Also, it's not just for xbox as the article title states but for PS2 and GameCube too. In fact the site shows pictures of the PS2 and GC boxes but not the xbox one.

  • I just want to know if... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Suicide ( 45320 ) on Wednesday November 13, 2002 @05:12AM (#4657718) Homepage
    its just as bad as the old ones where you knew you needed to do a specific thing, such as move right, but had to keep banging on the joystick to the right in the hopes of doing it in the .5 second window the game was actually looking for input...
    • I honestly would be shocked if that were the case and they made a game based only on timing again.

      Actually I just posted how the gameplay actually completely sucked. Dragon's lair was fun for spectators to watch but horribly limited in terms of actual gameplay.

      Give me the old arcade versions of Tron or Tie Fighter anyday though. Now those games were awesome. :-) Oh yea, remember Rampage too? God that was fun.

  • How about gameplay? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Zayin ( 91850 ) on Wednesday November 13, 2002 @05:13AM (#4657720)
    So, is the gameplay anything like the previous Dragon's Lair games? IIRC it goes something like this:

    space - up - right - left - DOH!
    space - up - right - right - up - DOH!
    space - up - right - right - space - left - DOH!
    space - up - right - right - space - right - down etc...

    Pretty exciting stuff!

    • Re:How about gameplay? (Score:2, Insightful)

      by mirko ( 198274 )
      <space> ?
      did you mean "action-button" ?

      BTW, in these times, <DOH!> only meant "please insert a DOH-LAR" while with this game this'll rather mean "why the Hell did I spent all these DOH-LAR on this game ? if I resign before getting through, it will have costed me more than the Arcade version, around twenty years ago" ;)
  • That "review link" is just a preview that tells you some of the features and little more... As far as I can tell there are not reviews up on any gaming sites as of yet...

  • PREVIEW, not a review (Score:4, Informative)

    by steveha ( 103154 ) on Wednesday November 13, 2002 @05:13AM (#4657723) Homepage
    The linked article describes the game very generally, because they don't have a copy yet to test. They do have some screenshots.

    Screenshots look nice. Dirk still looks the same, i.e. like a 2D animated character. He really was animated last time; now the game is being generated on the fly.

    steveha
    • I dont know about you - but i have no interest in the way dirk looks. Sure, it may be a nostalgia thing for some, but i am loking forward to seeing things that i ahvent seen, I am waiting for a new revolution in gameplay and graphics - I have *no* interest in a 2d character runnign around a 3D environment....

      Like the other poster said - maybe for a dollar - maybe not even that much.

  • No way!!! (Score:3, Interesting)

    by tulare ( 244053 ) on Wednesday November 13, 2002 @05:15AM (#4657727) Journal
    I was just thinking about Dragon's Lair last week. I once watched some kid burn a pile of Chuck E. Cheese tokens in the game and actually solve it. Dragon's Lair was the only motivation I had for going to Chuck E. Cheese - it certainly wasn't for the quality of the pizza, and sure as hell wasn't to be tormented by those godawful cartoon dancing robotic stereotyped Italians above the dining room - even as a kid I found those offensive.
    So what did you get when you wasted hours of your life in front of an interactive laser disk player? A friggin valentine. That was probably the last time I went to Chuckies place. But I still remember the "boink" when you were given the hints, the music swell after you made your choice, and the "die" music :) It was a fun game.
    • My theory on Dragon's Lair (and Space Ace) was that the games were much more fun to watch other people play than they were to play yourself. I was pretty young when DL came out, and it usually cost too much for me to play (and for a long time, there was always someone playing it). But I watched other people play it for hours and hours.

      When I did play it myself years later, I remember thinking..."wow, this isn't as much fun as it looked." When you watch someone play it, you don't realize how little control they have over what's going on on-screen.
  • Very nice sound design job on the navbars at the top of the dragonslair3d.com web site.

  • There's a movie (Score:3, Interesting)

    by tulare ( 244053 ) on Wednesday November 13, 2002 @05:23AM (#4657743) Journal
    Link at the bottom of this [dragonslair3d.com] page. Looks like the 3d version will be a dissappointment. What made the original so interesting was that the animators had the freedom to script each scene more or less as they wanted. As a result, you had lots of time to reflect on your character's goofy looks as he got into and out of trouble, died, lived, and fought. In the new version, it looks like you mostly watch the back of your goofy character as he runs around a modified doom world. I'm sure they have added a couple of special bits to make us remember the original, but for the most part, feh. I'll stick to UT.
  • at least now I don't have to drop a full dollar into the machine every time I want to play this addictive game

    Wow - did not all the metal dropped in your C64 have an unwanted effect :))) Here's some screenshots from the C64/128 [pixelpower.on.ca] version. Which imho, was stated of the art in some sense when it first appeared.

  • Not to be a stickler for details.... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by fahrvergnugen ( 228539 ) <{moc.liamtoh} {ta} {vrhaf}> on Wednesday November 13, 2002 @05:37AM (#4657773) Homepage
    1) That's not a review, it's preview, and it's pretty much copy & pasted directly from the ad copy. Much better previews are available from IGN and Gamespot. Frankly, the lack of advance press on this game has me a bit worried, since it's due in stores in under a week and nobody's even reviewed an advance copy yet.

    2) The XBox has 64 megs of memory, shared with video, if I understand it correctly. That means that for the resolution to climb to the 19xx x 1080 resolution the game will run at, texture quality, an extra texture pass o' bumpmaps, or some other graphical goodie had to give. Take this tradeoff as you will. I'll be glad to have something that shows off my HDTV, personally (don't even have a digital tuner yet, and while THPS4's 720p support is nice, this will smoke it), but I can see wanting another coat o' shine on the texture work as well.

    Also, what will the effect on framerate be?

    I suggest we all reserve judgement until it has enough review scores to appear on gamerankings.
    • Depends on how much stuff you need. You have to remember that the X-box impliments texture compression that on average cuts textures by 1/4 (same as the GeForce 4s, since it's the same basic hardware). You can get a whole lot into even 16MB of memory if you are compressing it 4x, that's 64MB of textures which isn't bad. Also, form the look of it, this game is done in the same cel-shading stule as teh orignal. That means lots of solid colours and not a whole lto of complex textures.

      You don't have to have tons of memory necessiarly, you just have to design your graphics a little differently. On the PC we have become accustomed to huge, complex texutres since we get cards with lots of dedicated RAM. That's nice and certianly the best if you are shooting for realism, but that doesn't mean all games have to do it that way.

      For example, the GameCube only has 1MB of texture cache on it's graphics chip, and the PSX had only 1MB of total video memory. IT just means your games tend to have more solid colours than texutres.

      Also, I doubt the framerate will be a problem. The GeForce 4 4600 can easily handle 1600x1200 at a deceant clip on games that don't use all the advanced pixel shader stuff, I don't imaging the X-box, which is of similar power, will have trouble with 1960x1080, espically since it only have to render at an effective rate of 30fps.
      • It's hard to say that the Xbox is of "similar power" to the GeForce 4 4600. The video hardware in the Xbox is a modified version of the original GeForce 3. It has performance advantages to being on a dedicated bus instead of AGP, but I doubt it's capable of keeping pace with a 4600, personally.

        That having been said, the games look excellent on the Xbox, because it's that "one platform only" game writing thing that consoles get and PCs don't. There's still very few games that even begin to scratch the GeForce 3's capabilities. We need to get away from big textures and T&L, and into shader country.
  • I remember playing this game at software etc when I was young. (before that sofware etc was turned into the software section of a barnes and noble)

    It started in front of a bridge, and everytime I tried to cross the bridge, a tentacle came up and killed my character. I never got farther than that, no matter what I did, the tentacle killed me.

    I had a friend who could play through the whole game.

    But I always got killed on the damn bridge.

    Stupid game.
  • Damn! Those action figures are kinda cool - especially Princess Daphne ;-)

    http://www.dragonslair3d.com/games/game_action_fig ures.asp [dragonslair3d.com]

  • Shameless X-box plug. (Score:5, Informative)

    by jonr ( 1130 ) on Wednesday November 13, 2002 @06:02AM (#4657829) Homepage Journal
    Has Slashdot no integrity? Dragons Lair is going to be released on all major platforms, Playstation, Playstation 2, Nintendo Gamecube, XBox and PC.
    Give me a break!
    • ...and the Mac :) The PC version is GM while the x-box and other versions should have some more news coming next week...
      There's more info on the PC and Mac versions of the game (although most details will obviously apply to the console ports) at the developers website [bluebyte.net].
    • out for the X-box and other game systems. ... first game that supports the HDTV 1080i resoloution the X-box is capable of

      The reason the X-Box is specificially mentioned is that it's the only system supporting the HDTV 1080i signal.
      • The reason the X-Box is specificially mentioned is that it's the only system supporting the HDTV 1080i signal.

        Bullshit, the reason XBox is mentioned in cause Michael, the slashdot editor, is a shameless XBox fan who is simply making his monthly XBox post.


    • I agree. F*ck Slashdot. Or at least f*ck the Slashdot editor Michael. He has been posting at least 1 XBox article every two to three weeks.

      The XBox is an economic anamoly. It wouldn't exist except for Microsoft's ability to leverage its desktop monopoly. The XBox has already lost 1 billion dollars. Its projected to lose another 1 billion dollars next year.

      Boycott Microsoft, and purchase a GameCube or PS2.

    • Hell, it was released on the Amiga. I still remember countless hours of swapping disks, waiting for a scene to load as it read off the floppy into my 512K of RAM.

  • How about Space Ace? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by 10Ghz ( 453478 ) on Wednesday November 13, 2002 @06:11AM (#4657848)
    That game was a close relative to Dragons Lair. except it was sci-fi, not fantasy. And there was spaceships, not horses and dragons. And they had lasers instead of swords...

    • Space Ace was another of Don Bluth's creations - that's why it was so similar to Dragon's Lair. IIRC, they used the same cabinet; arcade owners could convert a DL machine to SA by dropping in the SA laserdisk, applying new decals to the outside, and rebooting.

      If DL3D sells well enough, it'd be foolish not to follow it up with SA3D.

  • More Videos, Screenshots, etc. (Score:3, Informative)

    by toopc ( 32927 ) on Wednesday November 13, 2002 @06:45AM (#4657892)
    Dragon's Lair 3D Preview [ign.com]

    Media Page [ign.com]

  • The only one I really got into was Cobra Command (not the other non-laser version).

    I really got hooked at it in an arcade in a really run-down section of town when I was young. I got pretty good at it though, got the highscore on the console which was a good highpoint for me.

    Interestingly enough, I managed to pick the game up for a PC emulator, complete with MPG-2 video and sound. Pretty cool (but I still can't beat it) ;P

  • Games and storylines (ot?) (Score:3, Insightful)

    by saihung ( 19097 ) on Wednesday November 13, 2002 @07:13AM (#4657935)
    I don't know about the whole engaging characters & complex storylines in games thing. My favorite games have always been completely devoid of any storyline at all. Super Mario Bros had no real story line, but you could spend hours and hours playing it. Gran Turismo, Quake, and a whole bunch of more recent and great games have no real story line. What they DO have is fantastic playability and great graphics. I always found the little vignettes that advance the storyline to be little more than an annoyance, something that I had to wait to finish so I could get back to playing the game. Dragon's Lair sucked because it was nothing BUT movie clips with no game play at all. Give me a guy jumping on turtle shells for no clearly defined reason over that stuff any day.
    • I don't know about the whole engaging characters & complex storylines in games thing. My favorite games have always been completely devoid of any storyline at all.

      Every now and then a game with a storyline has held my interest. King's Quest 6 jumps to mind as do a couple of the other King's Quest games.

      RTS games like Warcraft, Starcraft and Command and Conquer, and turn-based strategy games like Civilization * and S.M. Alpha Centauri have story lines, but I don't think the story line adds any interest for me; for those games the interest is in building towards a goal, whether it be annihilating the enemy, becomming the biggest nation/faction or even self destruction and resurrection. And of course the different strategies for doing the above.

      Quake and Doom types generally have stories in the manuals, but I don't care as long as I get to blow sh*t up and either get to the next level or outscore some network opponents.

      Dragon's Lair was cool when it came out. The gameplay was annoying at times, and after a while it got old for me because I didn't get very far and therefore saw the same scenes over and over again. It was more fun for me to watch a good player play it and see what happens. I'm not going to pay US$50 for it, but I'll try to catch a demo at the store, and maybe I'll buy it when it drops to US$20. (I'm very patient.) It looks like they're keeping the characters true-to-2d animation while immersed in a 3d world.
  • When I was a kid, Dragon's Lair was at pizza joint in a tourist town I visited every year. I got to play it once. One dollar went into that game and I never got past the first screen.

    I wised up - spent all the rest of my (Mom's) money on Choose Your Own Adventure Books. Sure, one dollar and ninety-five cents was more than Dragon's Lair, but I got as many run throughs as I wanted, and Ma didn't have a problem with buying those.

    And the graphics were kick-ass.

    I still have a box full of those books, and they are *still* good for car rides.

    • And the graphics were kick-ass.


      If you take good care of them, your kids will think so, too.
      Not many games you can pass down to them that they will think are "state of the art." And of course, there's extra fun if you teach them how to map the novels out visually, and it's a small step from there to them programming text games on a computer, either with one of the adventure engines that have entered public domain or BASIC or C or Pascal. =)
    • My all-time favorite CYOA series: The lone wolf series is available for download with the authorization of the author here: http://www.lw-oasis.org/aon/ [lw-oasis.org].
    • Speaking of dragons...one of my favorite CYOAs was (IIRC) "Dragon Mountain." The thing I found interesting about it was that if you did one thing, there were no dragons, and you ended up back home. If you did something else, there were real dragons controlled by a mad wizard or whatever. If you did a third thing, the dragons were robotic. The background and world of the story was different depending on what you did. Most of the CYOAs just changed the plot a little.

      Years later, when studying Kurosawa's Rashomon [imdb.com], I was reminded of Dragon Mountain. The comparison is a stretch, but it's the same idea of "multiple versions of the same story with different facts, and no story is more right than another."

  • Not just xbox (Score:5, Informative)

    by Morgahastu ( 522162 ) <{eman sdnab evaf ... EW} {ta} {lehsb}> on Wednesday November 13, 2002 @07:23AM (#4657952) Journal
    Its also coming out for the PS2, Gamecube and PC.
  • Put 50c in slot.
    Move joystick.
    Die.
    Repeat x 3.
    Give up.
    Go play Tron for an hour on one quarter.
    • I think Dragon's Lair was one of the first "quarter dump" video games. Manufacturers quickly realized that they could provide you with just enough interactivity and feedback and a high learning curve and essentially solve the "problem" of a guy being able to get good enough to play for hours on one quarter. The solve the final problem that if someone actually DOES spend the money and get good enough to play for a while, he wins after about 15-20 minutes, freeing up the game for another quarter or four. It was also the first game I ever saw that took more than a single quarter.

      I think Dragon's Lair marked the start of the decline in the game industry. Once manufacturers wised up and focussed more on getting the gamer to drop another quarter quickly over good gameplay, that was pretty much it. We still see a creative and original game from time to time, but for the most part the coin-op world is a vast wasteland and, for me, not even worth visiting anymore. I still like to fire up the oldies in an emulator from time to time though.

    • Did nobody else buy gaming magazines at the time? There were many that not only showed the moves for each scene, but showed the paths the plot would follow if you did this, or that, or if the knight scene was mirrored (left on right). For $5 you got all the answers.

  • Read the frickin post (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Jagen ( 30952 ) on Wednesday November 13, 2002 @07:27AM (#4657961) Homepage
    I know people often complain that people comment without reading the linked article. But the number of people going "umm, but its also available on PS2, GC etc" is mind numbing, it *actually says* in the blurb at the top "Xbox and other game systems". The reason the xbox got special focus being that it supports an HDTV res previously unused in games.
  • funny how the headlines and stories here on slashdot are wrong...

    It's for the PS2, gamecube, Pc and the X-box...

    I'm betting the gamecube version is the best though... damn fine graphics on that cute little thing.
  • You can get all three games on DVD and play em on your puter or DVD player or DVD-enabled-aibo-lunchbox. I got em about 2 weeks ago.

    But... I'll probably buy the Gamecube version of 3d as well. :)

  • Retro gaming is "in" (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Kirby-meister ( 574952 ) on Wednesday November 13, 2002 @08:00AM (#4658020)
    Incase you haven't noticed, retro-games seem to be what is "in" at the moment.

    Shinobi is back, bottomless pits and all. Contra has made its triumphant return on both the PS2 and GBA (along with a slightly modified version of the Konami Code - also note that Gunstar Heroes still destroys Contra hands down). Rygar is coming to town. Ninja Gaiden is in development. Toejam & Earl III just came out.

    So what's next? Moon Patrol Xtreme?

    • Rygar huh? Got a link I liked that game, well except for the fact that you couldn't save.
      • Well it has yet to be seen if the game would be anything like we remember. Most of the games we remember are being turned into something like Tombraider. It's similar in that there's something we recognize, but really it's just another game like Devil May Cry. I know that Ninja Gaiden is going that way, the question is will it have the same crazy sort of storyline? That being said, Shinobi looks like it's going to be pretty cool.

        See the frachise building post later in this thread for some more insight.
        • Ugh. Devil May Cry is probably one of the worst offenders of what we call the "movie" game that isnt really a game at all, but just a movie you sit through and controlling and doing YOUR thing is almost an afterthought.

          Yuck. No wonder I dont own a console.

          siri
          • This isn't that surprising. It's a 3D equivelent of the million side scrollers we played as kids.

            I agree with you though, I hate fully linear plot lines. Games like Zelda and GTA (Vice City is awesome) are more my bag because if you get tired of the main quest there are a million side quests you can do for fun and profit.

            Consoles have good games that PCs don't, barring emulation. There is also less headache factor (though with the Xbox, it can get PC like [lordoftherings.com] because of the hard drive). Consoles also tend to be cheaper than a ninja video card. PCs have a lot of good games consoles don't. PCs have more versatility and better input devices or wont work well on a console (I'm a mouse man for FPSs). They each have their place.

    • Incase you haven't noticed, retro-games seem to be what is "in" at the moment.

      It's called franchise-building, and it's not limited to video games (I believe that 2002 was the most sequel-laden year at the box office in history). Why bother to come up with new character designs and backstory when you can pick an arcade classic with name recognition that a generation of quarter-pushers who now have disposable income and yearning nostalgia can enjoy?

      So what's next? Moon Patrol Xtreme?

      Dude, that would be awesome!

    • Metroid Fusion for GBA borrows it's gameplay heavily from Super Metroid, while Metroid Prime incorporates a lot of original powers from the orginal games.

      Oh, and if you get them both connected via that link-thingy, you can even play the original Metroid

    • Shinobi does in fact look rather neat, but I think it too, falls prey to the "3d-ization" of it's popular side scroller parent, take a look at some screenshots [o-works.co.jp]
    • Cool.. then I want "Sinistar" back. It's too damn hard to play with a MAME setup. Crazy ass game..

      I wish there was an arcade in the Bay Area that had that game.

      Retro games are cool, until you play them as an adult and realize "This game sucks!" I can think of 2 good examples: "720" and "Gauntlet." I thought Gauntlet was cool until I grew up and learned it was just a quarter-eater. 720 was cool until I grew up and realized that the game would send those damn bees after you when it wanted to get rid of you. I hate those bees...
  • Ships on the 18th of this month. Great detective work, submitter.

  • I played the original coin-up, and although the graphics and sound were perfect, the gameplay was hell. All action scenes were static and only required good timing when pressing the control buttons. The walkthrough looked something like this "press left, right, right, jump, right, left, straight, left, right and then quickly left again". The feeling only rivaled years later when practicing those fatalities in Mortal Kombat... And we now know how many people were driven insane by that ritual. ;) And then i even forget scenes like this: "Wow, this castle room is beautiful! Giant gold inlaid doors on the left and right! Wow!" *presses left* *dies by falling into pit right after door* "Hmmm, odd, i could have sworn that door looked safe, let's retry...." "Wow, this castle room is beautiful! Giant gold inlaid doors on the left and right! Wow!" *presses left* *dies by falling into pit right after door* "Hmmm, i think i am actually learning something here, let's restart..." "Wow, this castle room is beautiful! Giant gold inlaid doors on the left and right! Wow!" *presses right* *enters room with hostile knights* *fails to press left button within 2 split seconds* *dies* ....
  • .
    Finally a reason to buy the XBOX.
    Hacking the over priced console just wasn't enough for me.
    I mean look if I want a PC there's plenty out there that can run all the stuff I'd want without hacking.

    And hey, if I want Dragon's Lair and Space Ace run on the PC and DVD players... wait a minute, I guess I still don't have a reason to buy the over priced game console.
  • because it made it a little easier to get a turn at the other games at the arcade.

    Sure, I ponied up a few bucks to try it when it came out, but I gave it a quick thumbs down and went back to Asteroids and Defender. I'm really surprised to hear that so many /.ers found DL interesting.

    The gameplay on DL was so primitive it reminded me of my little brother's 2XL 8-track based "robot". Enter move, wait for the drive to seek, enter move, etc. As for the graphics, so what. It's not like they were computer generated, not in realtime anyway.
    • I'm really surprised to hear that so many /.ers found DL interesting.

      But the girl was HOT. (To a 12-year old boy.) She's the only cartoon character I ever had sexual fantasies about. :-)

  • This game is going to come out just in time for the new Zelda game to throw it in a coffin, bury it, and say, "Bye bye!"
  • While I remember the ads in compute magazine when it came out on the platforms at that time (PC, C64, Amiga, ST) and how bad the PC looked in 4 colors compared to the rest, I do remember playing the game in college on a friends Amiga...off of floppies.

    It would take a long time to load a scene, and if you died, it had to reload the scene from disk. The Dragons Lair itself was spread over a couple of disks and dying was a slow painful process.

  • Thats kind of cool, since they just released the 20 year Anniversary edition on DVD with all 3 games based on this, Dragons Lair, Dragons Lair 2 Time Warp, and Space Ace. I picked it up at the local game store for about 30 bucks. Its still the FMV based version, but it still rocks. It actually plays on the PS2 and the X-Box (I havnt tried the GC or my normal DVD player yet). Thats kind of cool that they are going to make a 3D version of it, although since I just picked this one up I dont foresee me buying it.
  • This is a new games with the models made from the original, not an exact copy of the original. If you want the original (or either of the similar games), you can get them on DVD; the menu-nagivation mechanism in DVD players is actually just right for these games.
  • It was pretty, with graphics far beyond the capability of other contemporary games, but the gameplay sucked. You had to press the joystick in a specified pattern with precise timing in order to get the "you didn't die" animation sequence to play. It really wasn't much of a video game, just a crappy way to select which video clips to watch in what order to create a pseudo-interactive narrative.

    Hmm, pretty graphics, shite gameplay. No wonder it's on XBox now. It's a natural fit.
  • Wow!

    Excuse me, but I was supposed to be lead tester for the PC version of that game last year, I saw an alpha, and never heard from it again...I was told by the higer-ups at the company (I'm not naming names) that there were "contract issues" and that they had dropped the game entirely.
    X-box you say? Well...figures...

    Man, the testers were bummed we lost that one.

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