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Arcade History -- Dragon's Lair #00001

Posted by michael on from the "drink-me" dept.

Noah Zoschke writes: "For the 'Buy it now' price of only $25,000, you can purchase the first Dragon's Lair arcade machine, serial #00001, ever made. The bidder states that the machine is in excellent condition considering it has resided in Don Bluth's office, and never been in an arcade. The bid at the time of posting is $4,150."

8 of 57 comments (clear)

  1. Man and I thought I had troubles by baptiste · · Score: 4
    Its stories like these that make you realize others have bigger troubles than you. Here I was depressed because I might lose my house after being dot bombed for months, but that pales in comparison to having to part with the first ever Dragon's Lair arcade game. He has my condolances. Maybe if we all donate some cash to him he can hang on to this priceless treasure!

    :) Seriously - now I can tell my wife I finally found an antique I actually want for the house! And at $25K its a steal!

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  2. Re:I wonder how he got it? by ackthpt · · Score: 4
    Probably bought it on the old Mail In/Punch Card version of eBay back in the 80's

    I never could get the hang of these "Follow the Story" games, I was too much into free will, short playing times and low scores.

    Anecdote: A friend and I knew patterns to Pacman and used to go up to a bar with a table version. We'd start with a beer and 300K range scores, then dip down as we got progressively drunk (also spilling popcorn all over the screen area at opportune moments, since loser had to buy next pitcher.) Scores floored at about 1,542. By the time we could get back above 250K we figured it was safe to drive back home.

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  3. Eliminate the other bidders by JiveDonut · · Score: 5

    If you bid "right, left, up, left, right, left, right, sword, sword" you slay the bidder and move on to the next bid.

  4. $25K for an arcade game? by Zeinfeld · · Score: 4
    I have never heard of arcade game collectors being big into serial numbers. The amount of space they take up means most people have two or three at most. If you have to sell one machine to buy a new one, serial numbers are probably not your priority.

    Of course some idiot with a fat wallet may read about the auction on Slahdot and bid the box up, but given the vintage the machine is already way over bid. If the instant buy is $25K the guy probablky thinks he will get $10K at least.

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  5. Interactive? by mike260 · · Score: 5

    From the auction description:
    Created by Cinematronics, it broke new ground in arcade animation and interactivity.

    Yep, it certainly broke new ground in interactivity - it was possibly the least interactive video game ever, roughly on a par with The Matrix DVD.

  6. In fact, you can buy Dragon's Lair on DVD by raygundan · · Score: 4

    You are quite right of course-- it is *exactly* as interactive as a DVD. The original was just a laserdisc player that skipped to the right part of the video when you did something. Which made the game more than a little boring. (to me, anyway)

    But you can actually get it on DVD:

    http://www.digitalleisure.com/pr981106.html

  7. According to RGVAC... by AtariDatacenter · · Score: 5

    According to postings in rec.games.video.arcade.collecting, he's been trying to sell this unit for quite some time now. He's been asking $5k for it. It seems that demand just isn't high enough... but of course, a Slashdot posting never hurts!

    To agree with a fellow poster, yes, serial numbers have almost no impact on the value of an arcade game. But in this particular case, this is supposedly *the first* laserdisc arcade game. Gotta be worth something to a laserhead (laserdisc arcade game collector). But not $25k.

  8. Dragon's Lair and Warner killed videogame by michaelmalak · · Score: 4
    It's always been my opinion that the mid-80's downturn in videogames (the time between Atari and NES) had two causes:
    • Dragon's Lair
    • Warner's mismanagement of Atari
    The populace loved the eye candy of Dragon's Lair, but of course quickly tired of its limited gameplay. The games with good gameplay couldn't at the time come up with graphics good enough to lure in the general public. Thus, there was a sugar high, and then withdrawal.

    The few people that were still interested in gameplay over eye candy were denied their supply. Demand was there, but supply ran out because the dominant player in the industry, Atari (console, home computer, and coin-op), was driven into the ground by Warner mismanagement.

    It's like a nuclear missle killed the classic videogame era, and Dragon's Lair was one of the two launch keys. Yup, I want Dragon's Lair #0001.