bradwall
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I remember playing Dragon's Lair in the arcade many times.
It was one of my favorite arcade games of all time. Of course, once you beat the game and know the moves, it becomes quite simple.
They do have it for PC, but it just doesn't feel the same as standing at the arcade hours on end going through all the money that I had as a kid.

http://www.cdaccess.com/html/pc/dragpack.htm

EDIT: Added link to screenshots

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[Last edited by bradwall at 03-31-2006 03:21 PM]

Ezlo
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I played the original Dragon's Lair once. I stunk horribly at it. But I kept playing it long enough, (I didn't have to put more coins in for some reason.) and eventually got transported by some unknown reason right to the end. Right as I entered the castle, I got to the dragon. I was sorta surprised.

lakibuk
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Never played the arcade original, only the Amiga version.
Must be one of the worst game concepts.
Guessing what joystick movement the game wants me to do next and executing it at the right moment.

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Oneiromancer
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I played Dragon's Lair, Space Ace, and Dragon's Lair 2. In the arcade, I was best at Dragon's Lair 2, and I could consistently get to the Garden of Eden (it was the time-travel game) with most of the secrets.

In the home versions, I beat Dragon's Lair (twice I think), but I couldn't beat Space Ace.

Game on,

____________________________
"He who is certain he knows the ending of things when he is only beginning them is either extremely wise or extremely foolish; no matter which is true, he is certainly an unhappy man, for he has put a knife in the heart of wonder." -- Tad Williams

lakibuk
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@Oneiromancer: How did you do that?
a) You were rich and invested thousands of dollars.
b) You stayed in the arcade all day long watching other players and learning the moves.

____________________________
Karl
Blueskied Games (main site) - Gratis Spiele (german site)

mrimer
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I'm with Neil. I managed to slog my way through Dragon's Lair 2 in a Golf 'n' Stuff, and the experience was quite a fun one for someone with my personality. It took over a hundred tries, no doubt. I've bought the DL/DL2/SA trilogy for the PC last year so I could play through the other two games. I did like the experience better playing in an arcade. It's a rush to have lots of people watching you play through a hard game. I bought a used copy of Dragon's Lair 3D but haven't gotten around to trying it out yet.

Other arcade favorites of mine:
Tempest
Q-bert
Gauntlet
Space Harrier


____________________________
Gandalf? Yes... That's what they used to call me.
Gandalf the Grey. That was my name.
I am Gandalf the White.
And I come back to you now at the turn of the tide.

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[Last edited by mrimer at 03-31-2006 10:09 PM]

Oneiromancer
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lakibuk: I didn't spend too much money, I think. The Garden of Eden level was the 4th or 5th one, I think, so it was about halfway through. And Dragon's Lair 2 was much more forgiving than the first one. You had a lot more time to react, everything flashed where you needed to go (or use your sword), and the direction you needed to move was, in the beginning at least, very obvious. The biggest reason I didn't get very far was that the Golf n' Stuff that actually had the game was so far away from me that I only was ever able to play it a few times a year.

And yes, I watched a lot of people play that game in-between my own tries, so I learned the hardest parts and the secrets for myself.

Game on,

____________________________
"He who is certain he knows the ending of things when he is only beginning them is either extremely wise or extremely foolish; no matter which is true, he is certainly an unhappy man, for he has put a knife in the heart of wonder." -- Tad Williams

chowyunbrent
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I never played it in the arcade but I had the SNES game. It was like a castlevania rip off with cartoony graphics. Got pretty far though but don't remember finishing it.

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bradwall
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chowyunbrent wrote:
I never played it in the arcade but I had the SNES game. It was like a castlevania rip off with cartoony graphics. Got pretty far though but don't remember finishing it.

The regular arcade game was a million times better (in my opinion). Totally different game play.

mrimer
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I rented that SNES version for a couple of days way back when. It was somewhat interesting, but I wasn't impressed with it either.

____________________________
Gandalf? Yes... That's what they used to call me.
Gandalf the Grey. That was my name.
I am Gandalf the White.
And I come back to you now at the turn of the tide.

chowyunbrent
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it looked good but it was so hard to control. Wish I'd have played the arcade game, it sounds alright.

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Oneiromancer
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You really should read up on the arcade game. It was movie-quality animation, and was played off of a laser disc. Those 3 games probably weren't the only ones played off of laser discs at that stage of arcade development, but they were most likely the best, the most well-known, and generally available. They were also among the first games to charge 50 cents per play instead of just a quarter.

The PC ports didn't come out until CD-ROM drives were more ubiquitous in computers, and even then, they didn't have such good quality. I wonder if they're ever going to re-release them on DVD and in high quality for today's graphics cards...

Game on,

____________________________
"He who is certain he knows the ending of things when he is only beginning them is either extremely wise or extremely foolish; no matter which is true, he is certainly an unhappy man, for he has put a knife in the heart of wonder." -- Tad Williams

mrimer
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Another laser disc arcade game I remember seeing once is Super Don Quix-ote. It looked pretty cool. More laser games can be read about by choosing them from the drop-down list box here.

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Gandalf? Yes... That's what they used to call me.
Gandalf the Grey. That was my name.
I am Gandalf the White.
And I come back to you now at the turn of the tide.

eytanz
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For people curious to see what Dragon's Lair was all about:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0whCxQjJWAI&search=dragon%27s%20lair

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bradwall
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eytanz wrote:
For people curious to see what Dragon's Lair was all about:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0whCxQjJWAI&search=dragon%27s%20lair

Cool video... If you are planning on every playing the game, I wouldn't recommend watching all of it... you can see what moves you need to make to finish the entire game.

Oneiromancer
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Very nice. It was the DVD Windows game, not the original arcade game...pretty sad how they still had better quality in the 80's than they could port to the computer. Well, I guess that version came out in the mid 90's. But still...

Ugh, I still remember how hard that Lizard King fight was. It was good practice for the final fight against the dragon. That was just a marathon fight...and you get so tired of Daphne squealing every other move after the 100th time. But it did feel good to finally win.

The sequel was kind of easier...they telegraphed what you needed to do much more obviously, but you had to do a lot more in-between saves. So it was really only easier to beat the first few levels...the end of the Alice in Wonderland stage was where I usually died when first learning how to play (when jumping around on the Chesire Cat's head). If you search for Dragon's Lair on that website you can see a trailer for the sequel, but not the playthrough (yet, hopefully).

Edit: they have the full Space Ace movie up there too. Man. Just watching it is painful. It was so unfairly hard, and the developers seriously must have been on speed or something...it makes even less sense than Dragon's Lair did. Ah well.

Game on,

____________________________
"He who is certain he knows the ending of things when he is only beginning them is either extremely wise or extremely foolish; no matter which is true, he is certainly an unhappy man, for he has put a knife in the heart of wonder." -- Tad Williams

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[Last edited by Oneiromancer at 04-14-2006 12:47 AM]

vylycyn
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There's actually a flash game called Dungeon Escape thats based on these types of games.

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LordKinbote
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vylycyn wrote:
There's actually a flash game called Dungeon Escape thats based on these types of games.

Wow, that's a nice flash game! It was fun, even if incomplete.

ErikH2000
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vylycyn wrote:
There's actually a flash game called Dungeon Escape thats based on these types of games.

Ha! Now I can have the severely limited gameplay without the nice animated graphics. Perfect!

Sarcasm aside, the game is kinda fun, actually.

-Erik

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Oneiromancer
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Yeah, it's pretty well done, although my mouse reaction time isn't as good as just pressing the arrow keys.

Game on,

____________________________
"He who is certain he knows the ending of things when he is only beginning them is either extremely wise or extremely foolish; no matter which is true, he is certainly an unhappy man, for he has put a knife in the heart of wonder." -- Tad Williams

Krissan
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Wow, Dungeon Escape was pretty cool.

Never played the game you're talking about, but the NES version of Dragon's Lair was... frustrating.

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Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut. - Ernest Hemingway