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Dragon's Lair on X-box
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."
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
Old game with shitty "interactive movie" gameplay becomes new 3d game with shitty gameplay. Film at 11.
Send lawyers, guns, and money!
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
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.
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...
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!
"I'd rather have a full bottle in front of me than a full frontal lobotomy"
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...
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
lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
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. :) It was a fun game.
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
political_news.c: warning: comparison is always true due to limited range of data type
Very nice sound design job on the navbars at the top of the dragonslair3d.com web site.
Link at the bottom of this 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.
political_news.c: warning: comparison is always true due to limited range of data type
Wow - did not all the metal dropped in your C64 have an unwanted effect :))) Here's some screenshots from the C64/128 version. Which imho, was stated of the art in some sense when it first appeared.
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.
Even Jesus hates listening to Creed.
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 ;-)
g ures.asp
http://www.dragonslair3d.com/games/game_action_fi
A little planning goes a long way...
That's all good, G. Princess Daphne is an LA 10, and has all kinds of time for the listless, friendless loser who really knows how to use his joy stick.
--Jimmy has fancy plans; and pants to match.
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!
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...
Lesbian Nazi Hookers Abducted by UFOs and Forced Into Weight Loss Programs - -all next week on Town Talk.
Media Page
Stranger things have happened.
The only one I really got into was Cobra Command (not the other non-laser version).
;P
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)
"Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence." - Charles de Gaulle
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 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.
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.
The latest Slashdot meme.
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.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
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.
- I am made of meat.
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?
Actually, I'm writing Pacman New Generation for my ComSci OpenGL coursework along with the 150 other people doing the module.
There was even talk of putting all of the finished projects on the Net in a kind of Phong shaded ghost chasing Pacman orgy . . .
"If being a geek means being passionate about something, then I pity those who aren't geeks." - Pike65
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.
/.ers found DL interesting.
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
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.
So again.. Why XBox? Microsoft putting cash in peoples pockets again? Lame!
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!"
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
The game that I was referring to was actual anime. It was made out of Dr. Caligari.
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.
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.
Boobies never hurt anyone. - Sherry Glaser.
I haven't seen anyone pointing out you can play the original Dragons Lair on Linux using . Works on Windows too. You just need to buy the DVD from Dragons Lair Project....or if you are lucky enough, plug in an original Laserdisk :)
unfinished: (adj.)
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.
You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
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.
You can't take the sky from me...
The PS2 only supports 480p in HDTV. The 1280x1024 resolution is only got the RGB output. It is kind of odd that the title is "Dragon's Lair on X-box", though. I can see adding the 1080i stuff where it was, but the title is pretty X-box centric.
Also, don't all games support 1080i (similarily don't they all support 16:9) since they are all rendered?
-no broken link
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...
Right. That's what I meant. What was that game called?
How about, "My Honest Reaction"?
Terribly sorry it offends. Now be off with you. You AC's are like damned fruit flies; harmless, weightless, but somehow indicitive of something rotten.
Hm. Perhaps that's why they always seem to show up whenever my mood happens to spoil. .
-Fantastic Lad --Don't you dare lay those on me!
THANK YOU! Cliff Hanger was it. And I played Star Rider, too, and it was my favorite game for a while there.
Dragon's Lair (and also Space Ace) were both available for Atari Jaguar as CDROMs. Not exactly the highest quality, but it's the same game as was in the arcade. :^)