Gaming Dragon's Lair Trilogy

[bwillb]

http://g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/706630/D...-This-Fall.html

my inner child is absolutely giddy. Nostalgia overload, used to play the original in the arcade any time I went inside an arcade, anywhere. Super simple controls, basically just a movie with a button quicktime thing every now and then ("PRESS RIGHT OR DIE!!!").... but damn it brings back memories

the Wii release includes a super casual omde where you can just watch it as a movie without worrying about pressing buttons

 

[h0ser81]

Ah you just gave away your age my friend. LoL I can also remember standing at the arcade dumping quarters into Dragon's Lair. I was terrible at this game. Laserdisc arcade games for the win!

Anyone remember Starcade?

 

[Guild McCommunist]

Not to rain on this parade, but Destineer is behind this, so if anything it's gonna feel like a cheap cash-in instead of trying to pay homage to a legendary arcade series. I'll guess with their quality of work in the past it'll be a poorly converted port and some bad add-ons.

I never played the originals nor do I have much interest in them, but seeing their historic value, I just wish a better team had this conversion. Not shovelware masters Destineer.

 

[WildWon]

Not to rain on this parade, but Destineer is behind this, so if anything it's gonna feel like a cheap cash-in instead of trying to pay homage to a legendary arcade series. I'll guess with their quality of work in the past it'll be a poorly converted port and some bad add-ons.

I never played the originals nor do I have much interest in them, but seeing their historic value, I just wish a better team had this conversion. Not shovelware masters Destineer.

In fairness... Dragon's Lair IS shovelware. There's no "game" there. It's a choose-your-own adventure video. ANYONE could be releasing this game (Imagine Dragon's Lair?) and it would still come out the same

 

[xist]

I loathed this series as a kid. Space Ace was awful too...

 

[The_Hulkster]

To each his own.

I for one really like the games. So I understand why bwillb is a bit giddy at the moment.

And WildWon, there certainly is a game there. You need to press the right buttons at the right time.
Isn't that what most games are about?

Although, I do agree on Destineer being a shovelware master. But the games have already been made so there's not a whole lot they can mess up there.

 

[WildWon]

To each his own.

I for one really like the games. So I understand why bwillb is a bit giddy at the moment.

And WildWon, there certainly is a game there. You need to press the right buttons at the right time.
Isn't that what most games are about?

Although, I do agree on Destineer being a shovelware master. But the games have already been made so there's not a whole lot they can mess up there.

It's as much of a "game" as a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure book is a game.
Which is why i followed that with "It's a choose-your-own adventure video." I suppose i should have said "movie" in place of "video," as to not confuse it with a
"video game."

 

[xist]

Much like the trouble i had calling Night Trap a real game...

 

[George Dawes]

A "choose your own adventure book" is a game, hence them being sold under the Gamebook name.

So yeah, it is as much of a game as a gamebook.

 

[BlueStar]

Yeah, I hated this series as a kid as well, was the ultimate example of style over substance - in fact it's a bit of a stretch to call it a game at all. i used to love choose your own adventure books, but come on, this isn't even like that. The button/joystick rpesses were usually arbitary and it was more a case of putting in a load of money (This game was 50p(!!!) a go when it came out in my arcades, new games were usually 30p and games like Bubble Bobble were 10p/20p) use trial and error to find out the combinations and then input them at the right time to watch a cartoon upto a certain point. The only 'choice' was usually to live or to die. Used to be the 'non gamers' who played Dragon's Lair, wowed by the graphics, while the nerds were playing Double Dragon or whatever.

 

[imapterodactyl]

To each his own.

I for one really like the games. So I understand why bwillb is a bit giddy at the moment.

And WildWon, there certainly is a game there. You need to press the right buttons at the right time.
Isn't that what most games are about?

I love Dragon's Lair as well... a classic that reminds me of just how old I'm getting. And of course there's a game there.... the "press the right buttons at the right time" gameplay is pretty much exactly the same as the quicktime events in God of War and several other games. So essentially, the whole game is one big QTE. And a very nicely animated one at that. If that's not gameplay, I can come up with a dozen other games that have no gameplay without even thinking about it.

 

[George Dawes]

50p a game!? I didn't see any game of that price until the early-mid 90s. I never saw a game over ten pence (remember the size of 10p coins back then ) in the early 80s when this was released. I didn't even see a 20p game until the very end of the 80s.

I was never a huge fan of DL, but I liked the bits in GoW, Die Hard Arcade etc where you had to press the button at the right time.

 

[BlueStar]

It's possible I'm thinking of Space Ace or Dragon's Lair II with the 50p price tag, but it was certainly more than most games - and you had to keep piling the money in the find the right buttons and timing through trial and error.

Yeah, it's like quick time events, and QTE are awful enough when they're just part of a game, never mind an entire game.

 

[WildWon]

A "choose your own adventure book" is a game, hence them being sold under the Gamebook name.

So yeah, it is as much of a game as a gamebook.

However, 'gamebook' isn't a game. It's a book rather than a game. If you'd find a child reading a CYOA book, and ask him what he's doing, he's not going to say "playing a game." Nor would i have just said "find a child playing a CYOA game" if he has the book in his hand."

You wouldn't find them in a game store, but rather... a book store.

So, even though the name is a "gamebook," that's for the description of a style of book... not a game.

The above "extended QTE" is a better explanation, and i'll still throw those into an interactive movie, rather than a video game.

 

[VmprHntrD]

The game I loved to hate and hate to love, but still find some way to tolerate it to a point. Dragon's Lair was a 50 cent pain in the ass of kids, and I wouldn't drop for it, but would watch others as I loved Don Bluth's animation. Years later I ended up with a CDi and got it with Space Ace as well, both bastards of games but SA was far worse. The problem is that you're trying to direct a video sequence with the right keyed in response and if you blow it, you're roasted, and after 3-5 tries depending how it was set it was over. Dragon's Lair was all randomly ordered scenes while Space Ace was linear, but DL was in a way a bit more evil than Space Ace as it had no flashy indicator what to do, Ace did...but Ace was a lot more involved in what and when to press precision and total amount wise making it the worst. Due to that I never did more than probably 10min into that game somewhere shortly after the in the ship run in the tight areas and into the port bit. Dragon's Lair due to the CDi and then the stunning as hell GBC game I figured out around 1/2 the scenes in the game.

I think I will buy this, but there's a good reason. There's a beginner mode that supposedly tells you what to press, but you got to figure the timing out (yay for me, my short term is shit.) And the huge seller since it's only $30, 'video mode' because you can watch all 3 games played out as a cartoon a piece for each which takes like 20-30min I'm told, standard length of an afternoon cartoon. Those 2 perks alone make me want the package entirely and nothing else because maybe I can learn to finish Dragon's Lair, never could try the 2nd one, and Space Ace I dunno might get lucky.


For those ripping on this as some 'not a game' type thing, bullshit. It's as much 'not a game' as Heavy Rain on the PS3, it's predecessors by the same team, or any quick time event laden game as well. This game was the dawn of the quick time event genre, seriously.

 

[George Dawes]

However, 'gamebook' isn't a game. It's a book rather than a game.
It is both. It is a mini-rpg in book form.

If you'd find a child reading a CYOA book, and ask him what he's doing, he's not going to say "playing a game."
Except he would say "Playing a game". I played them quite a bit in the 80s/very early 90s and "playing a game" is exactly how we described it.


QUOTE

You wouldn't find them in a game store, but rather... a book store.

I used to buy them from Games Workshop (quite a popular RPG/model store back then - anyone remember their (tabletop) gaming mag "white Dwarf"?). Even now places like Forbidden Planet, Impact Games, Worlds Apart etc still have a small range of gamebooks. You could buy them from gameshops AND bookshops.


By your crazy reasoning, a videogame isn't a game because it isn't a traditional roleplaying or tabletop/board game. And boardgames aren't games because they aren't the physical games played in 10,000 bc.

 

[Am0s]

I hated this series too although I did play it on the C64 or amiga cant remember which, never did like the timed actions for this game, space ace was like wow look at the graphics, then you got to play it with its 7 disc set

 

[Sir-Fritz]

lol at the nes dragons lair.

 

[Bladexdsl]

the Wii release includes a super casual omde where you can just watch it as a movie without worrying about pressing buttons

they might as well just release it on a dvd to watch than and forget the damn game!

QUOTE(George Dawes @ Aug 4 2010, 01:55 AM) A "choose your own adventure book" is a game, hence them being sold under the Gamebook name.

So yeah, it is as much of a game as a gamebook.

cyoa books aren't really classified as a gamebook. a real gamebook has a player sheet, battles, items and pretty much everything a rpg has except you read it. the fighting fantasy books are among the most popular in the gamebook series and their still making them today. you can even get them on the iphone i have the entire collection of books including the new and the ultra rare ones. some books are worth $50-100 on their own!

 

[Veho]

I've never played the game, but I watched the cartoon when I was a kid. I might give this a try one day, but I'll probably give up at some point mid-first-game and watch the playthrough on Youtube.

...yeah, I'm not proud of it either