I'm still amazed at how the designers were able to almost seamlessly combine animation with a videogame in 1983 the same year as Moon Patrol and Mario Bros.
Dude I have no idea what is going on it seems like a cartoon but I gather it's actually a game and it just seems crazy even in 2021 I can't work out if it's edited or just really slick play
@@ClunkisMunk They're saying that we take it for granted nowadays how primitive the game's mechanics are compared to modern day games. In 1983 it was a new hot thing that captured people's imaginations. Like most arcade games in that time, it was always more powerful than a home console because the cabinet was made just for one game. I'm not from the 80s or anything but I know that back in the day these were the most advanced games you could play compared to Atari and NES.
@@AlcoholicBoredom..... Which was revolutionary at the time. What are you attempting to argue here? At any rate, revolutionary or not, it was a quarter eating memorization slog. Those "quick time events" were set and never changed.
This game was really hard for me. Then one day I go into the arcade and see this guy beat the whole game without dying once. I was in awe. That guy was superhuman.
@@Trainwheel_Time You are correct. I practiced for an entire summer and got close to the end. Then, I watched a kid beat he game and carefully watched what he did on the one screen I couldn't get past which was the moving floor tiles. Once in the dragon's chamber, slaying the dragon was actually easy to do. The first time I did it was on the boardwalk in Ocean City. When I turned around to leave, there were so many people around watching me I couldn't even get out of arcade. Those were the days!
Ah, yes... back in the days when you had two options - spend tons of quarters learning through trial and error, or stand there watching someone ELSE spend tons of quarters learning through trial and error. No walkthroughs, no internet, no phones... just people livin' in the moment and desperately trying to survive the next room.
I like how each required action has a visual cue. Even the electrified floor with the knight has clues by showing the openings on the floor. All you have are your reflexes with assessment. Shame a lot of the imitators forgot this part of the game design through the 80s and 90s.
When the game debuted in 1983, I first saw it at my local county fair - every arcade tent had at least 5 consoles of it and the unit at the center of the tent had a video screen above it so a whole crowd could see what was happening.
I used to try and play this as a six year old back in the 80s, and even then I knew it wasn't much of a game. The animation is great and they did come up with a novel idea, not to mention the tech that went into it was pretty far out there when it debuted, but as a game? It just barely qualifies as such. Even when compared to the rather simplistic, often single screen affairs of it's contemporaries it's a step below those. I mean aren't QuickTime events pretty much the worst part of any game containing them? Video games are about controlling whatever on screen avatar the creators choose and interacting with the environment they created. The more control over your character and the more ways to interact with the game world generally makes for better, more interesting gameplay. The more choices the better (some exceptions exist). This is just about as limited as it gets in regards to character control and environment interaction. Again, the visuals are fantastic. I was huge fan of Bluth as a kid. Had The Secret of Nimh on VHS and I must have watched it literally hundreds of times. The technology was pretty much cutting edge (it was actually Laserdisc instead of DVD). I only recall ever seeing one Laserdisc player outside of an electronics store (those discs were massive). I give the credit where it's due but I personally can't give it many points based purely on the "game" part of the game.
I couldn't get passed the draw bridge, but I was really young. This was basically one of those Holy Grail games I would just watch in awe as others play.
Same, and the arcade co-op was also way too expensive. I wasted my money quickly on other games instead (Operation Wolf/Afterburner/Outrun). 😅 Minimum requirements for Dragon's Lair were deep pockets, god-like memory + timing + reflexes, nerves of steel to deal with the game and the crowd of kids surrounding you, and 100% commitment and dedication. None of any those things I could afford. 😂 This game was only for the "best of the best".
Good to see I dropped a bunch of quarters to make it 1/4 of the way through. Basically memory game...I would count...1, 2, 3 go and learn learn learn. Good to see it all the way through.
I remember people doing this as late as the early 90's. There was that one kid that we thought was so cool because he was always playing this game. It was always busy... and the one time I was able to get to the controls it was a dollar... which by that time in the day I no longer had. Still... great memories.
I beat this game after pumping tons of quarters into it, but hit was a magnificent day. The game was hooked up to a tv in the game room window in the mall and a crowd gathered. Everyone cheered when I finally finished it. What a day.
Lol. 1st off, it was .50, 2ndly, it was thee animation that was too distracting for me to pay attention actually playing, and 3, it was WAAAAY to hard.
@@jorgetomas380 The arcade that I went to had this and it was .25 Can you imagine the amount of money the arcades must have made off of these arcade games?! It would take a lot of experimentation to master this.
@@Dbusdriver71, alot of the arcades I went to justified the .50 because A. it was Disney & B. the animation. Which was obviously a money grab. But, you're right, they made a killing off of our ignorance as kids.😅
My older brother was friends with the arcade owner’s nephew, so after hours they would play the game with one quarter because the uncle would unlock the machine for them. They took notes on a notepad as to which actions to do next, all the way to the end.
I have to admit that I was immediately drawn to this game when it first came out. It was so far ahead of any other arcade game and the graphics were in a league of its own. With that in mind, I had no clue how to actually play the game. I would just keep pumping in quarters and keep dying but would tell all my friends at school how I played the new Dragons Lair game all weekend 😂 Growing up in the late 80s-90s was the best!
@@Meatball2022 Exactly! You’re correct, it was just like playing a cartoon and we had nothing similar at the time. I’m sure kids would laugh at this game nowadays but I’ll never forget how amazing it was back then.
@@chrisjenkins203 I remember a scene with a flask labeled “drink me”, like the old Alice in wonderland thing. The funny thing was you had to move to the side to STOP him from drinking it, as if any random person walking through a castle would automatically drink a flask sitting on a desk. Haha
@@chrisjenkins203 I also remember the final stage had 2 ways to complete it. A quicker one skipped many of the hopping around but required quicker timing. The longer one was longer but the timing was easier...
I remember this game as a kid in the arcade, it was impossible. To this day I think it's the hardest game ever created...plus it cost a dollar for three lives.
I still think there are much harder games out there, but this, alongside Don Bluth’s other arcade creation, Space Ace, are certainly VERY challenging and satisfying to play
Took me back to being a wide-eyed fascinated 10 year old, never got very far , watched the older kids play it but never saw it completed, thought I was impossible! Thank you from 10 year old me!
Same here. Same age. And at 50 cents a whack, I think I could only get past about 3-4 “levels” (and that’s being nice, this played out FAAARRRR longer than I imagined back then) and the volume always seemed to be so loud on that game. For me, this game was in the Safeway grocery store and I would beg my mom for some quarters to play it while she shopped. And she would give me that look when I came trudging back so quickly….she could tell the game was eating quarters like crazy. You had to be lightning fast to make it the next “fight”, and some of the death scenes for ole Dirk were pretty gruesome lol. Seems like he would melt, burn up, fall hard and get stabbed. At least that’s what I remembered, it’s been 40 damn years…..wow.
I’m sure you’re right but I was always gutted and devastated. I never knew how to do ANYthing in this game. Well, the one move I mastered above all others was spontaneous demise.
For those wondering if it was actual game play, not quite The scenes were all rendered on a laser disc (very large in size, much bigger than your DVD's) A video sequence would play and at a certain moment, you used the joystick to determine an action based on what was the moment in the video game (say the floor dropped open), you either jumped one way, jumped up etc Your action determined what video sequence would play next, Choose the wrong action and you could die, or go down a sequence of play that led to nowhere, or make the correct action to continue on the successful path Those who got their names in the high score list, would go all the way through to the last scene and then deliberately loose a life. Do it again until the last life left and then make the correct action to complete the game This is how you maximised the points rather than just complete the game first pass through It was all about getting your name in the top list :-) I was hopeless at this game, I did regularly clock Gyruss though
my pops recently restored a Dragon's Lair arcade cabinet, the dude has it memorized now. definitely worth playing when you don't have to pour money into it
That sounds so amazing to be able to play this game in its proper form of an arcade cabinet but never have to pay any actual money. Honestly, I don’t understand 99% of people’s reasons for owning arcade cabinet machines but this one would fall in the 1%. Congrats! I am super jealous and wish I could own it as well. 🐉🎮⚔️🏰🤴👸
Speaking of going broke, which is what will happen if you get involved too much with a game such as this, one of the worst contenders for a video game EVER!!.
Wow. 12 minutes to play this game in its entirety. TWELVE. I can't tell you how many quarters I saw being chucked into the DL machines back in the day. I never got very far myself. I could never get the hang of the timing. I enjoyed watching others play (and suffer!) through this one, as well as Space Ace, which came a bit later.
I'm convinced the joysticks on most of these games were broken or rigged. There was always one direction that seemed to work 0-10% of the time (like left).
the game was setup to take your quarters... you could inside the system set the window time for the joy stick... also as the laser disk player got older, the sync between controller player would get out of sync... Making the game even more unplayable.
My local candy store had this and it was revolutionary for its day. I couldn’t afford to play Dragon’s Lair but only watched with sadness as other kids played. All other games were one quarter and Dragon’s Lair was probably one dollar.
Brings back great memories of my youth, hanging out with my Dad playing video games. My Dad was in the video game /vending business in the 80's-90's so I got to use the keys to click on as many credits as I wanted as long as no customer's were around the store's, good stuff.
My God, this was the hardest game ever. I only made it to the first tile floor fight with the black knight. I could never figure out the pattern on the floor. Too much money. This game was a dollar for three attempts
I remember trying to play this in a arcade and cut my losses early. It wasn’t enough fun to keep paying the price to get through it. Glad this was posted here. So much of this game / QuickTime movie, that I’d never seen
I really enjoyed Dragon’s Lair as a kid. This was a really cool game that me and my friends would play at the local arcade game room. This video brings back a flood of great memories. I loved this game, Defender, Stargate, Tempest, and many more. 👍
This game is a mixed bag. On one hand, it's beautiful, it's amazing how they achieved that in 1983 when games were just a bunch of big pixels, the animation is gorgeous, you can still enjoy this game really well just by watching it, and the gameplay is not as bad as people think. However, this game really is a scam, the original version did not have those arrows, it was pure trial and error, the game was expensive on arcades, costing a whole dollar for 3 lives, and overall, it's another game that was more of a novelty, interactive movies failed to catch on, CDs tried to revive games like this but failed, and even when interactive movies came back, they still use the technology used for regular games instead of pre-recorded footage. Cuphead finally achieved what this game was supposed to be, a playable cartoon.
One the funny things about this game was the screen prompts were so quick before you died you honestly barely could pay attention to the screen if you were playing. This was one of the few games it was more fun to watch some one else play.
I had a crowd around me when I beat it for the first time, It was about the fifth time I had made it the final liar. At age 20 it was the greatest moment of my life cause not had beat it yet. Btw on the final platform drop entering from the left you can drop 9 levels and give everyone a thrill before you jump
I love it. Spent many Sundays mastering this game. WHEN I was 17 I mastered it at the Arcade in Birmingham UK, where everyone knew me as the Dragon Slayer. PRICELESS MEMORIES
I remember watching my friend Joey beat this game in an arcade with a huge group of sadly mostly guys on a Friday night in the 80's. Kick ass times. :)
My dad grew up playing the home PC version and I remember watching him beat the treasure room when I was very little. Now I have a lot more admiration for him as I struggle to beat the switch version.
I tried Dragon's Lair exactly twice. Both times I died three times within seconds and couldn't even figure out how to use the controls before it happened. It put me off permanently.
Spent so many quarters on this game. Loved it. Beat it several times. In the arcade near me they had a tv above the cabinets so people could watch you play. What a great time in life.
I can't believe someone played it through. Every time I put tokens in this game nothing would happen except for me losing my tokens, I thought it was a scam.
Well... Arcades in the 80s rarely had perfectly working controls. If you didn't press a button or move the joystick at the exact moment then your dead. Heh, I knew all the moves and because of bad controls I often died. I fared better at Space Ace for some reason.
Thats exactly my thoughts. It sat there looking all impressive but no one played it cause it didn't seem to work and was expensive. Much rather play gauntlet instead.
I remember this in Aladdin's Castle arcade when it came out. First game to use disks (Laserdiscs) and to use quick select options to choose your movements/actions. Was very innovative at the time.
I remember how cool we thought, because it was on a laser disc. Never could get very far. It was so expensive. To think I had to wait 40 years to see the end. 🎉 Thank you!
That bing noise of every successful joystick stroke brings back memories. Some good times. It was such a flex back in the day to do that whole run on one quarter.
Laser disc games like this were glitchy as hell when they got older. The disc would deteriorate, the player would get laggy, and the controls themselves would get worn and you'd have to replace the microswitches. Of course, the microswitches would wear out in all of the joysticks, so that wasn't unique, but boy when you're trying to get that controller to work and you get killed it really messes with your head! It was ahead of its time to be sure.
Yes, a friend used to work at a video parlor back then He was always having to clean those laser disc's (disc and the player) Joysticks were always getting replaced. They used to put metal plates around the base of the joysticks to stop the wood on the machines getting destroyed. They used to have coins too until the street kids would bring in screwdrivers and all stand around a machine so people couldn't see what was happening and open the machines cash box. Tokens then quickly replaced coins.
Dragon's Lair was a quantum leap in graphics and gameplay. Unfortunately, the expensive laser disc players didn't fare well in cabinets that vented in dust and cigarette smoke, and the gameplay was linear, so once you saw the ending, there was little reason to keep spending quarters.
I bought this game for the gbc as a kid probably back in like 2004 or so. I didn't even know it was an arcade game. I was so confused about the game that when I actually did figure out how to play it, it felt do damn good to beat the dragon and save the princess.
I used to complete this game after a ton of quarters! And would show off whenever someone was watching me. I had the poker face on whenever I played this classic 😀
I never got far into that game, I didn't realize it was that long. More than a few repeated sequences, which surprises me. Was a great game, and fun to just watch
I remember when this game came out in Arcades; which were a big thing at the time. Later, I got a copy to play on my PC for free as a novelty game. Furthest I ever got was the barrel ride on the rapids. It just got too repetitive having to start over from scratch with each death. This is the first time I've seen the game played through to completion. Lots of repeat scenes done in mirror. Glad I never dropped enough coin or wasted months of my life trying to get to the end. I paid off my car and my house instead. lol
Great Caesar's Ghost, do I love this game! The first time I reached Singe, I had only the single current life and had never seen the sequence. I made it through on pure reaction. I've seldom been more gratified in besting a game, or been more clenched up during the process. It was a straight-up rush!!
This was one of my favorite arcade games back in the 80s! Dragon's Lair, Joust, Galaga, Cyberball, Gauntlet, and the Star Wars X-Wing Fighter game were all great!
You make it look easy, it so wasn't! Every time it was randomly generated and those windows of the right button press were so short! This is HOURS of trial and error, memorising the right response. Amazing work getting to the end in one play!
Such a classic game, my friend & I would head into town (Sydney, Australia) after high school in the early 80's about once a month to play the arcade games which were only available in the lobby of a cinema complex on George Street. We'd play TRON, Asteroids, Battle Zone and this Dragon's Lair to name a few. We'd play until the sun set then take the train back to our homes in the suburbs ... good times =o).
If back in the day, I had actually finished this game, I would have been really dissapointed with simply my initials and a high score. I never made it more than a few moves.
I mastered this game back in the day and could beat it with a quarter but it took me quite a few quarters to get to that point. Used to have people all stand around it and watch me play. There was actually a couple other games that I would play too called Thayer's Quest and Space Ace that came out too around the same time but I never quite mastered them.
Ah yes, Thayer's Quest. With that keypad control like choose your own adventure outcomes. I can hear it now: 'Go away! Strangers aren't welcome here!' 😆
I was living in New Orleans when this came out in the 80's. I chucked a lot of quarters in the machine to learn this game. After a couple of months I was able to get through the game unscathed. Then us vs them came out.
I have never EVER seen any person beat this game in the arcade!. I tried playing this when I was a kid and could never get past the beginning of the game with the woman clonking me over the head. Looking at this portion of the playthough, which is not the entire game btw, I would have lost my mind and my money playing this thing!
I got to play this game for the first time at a Showbiz Pizza. It hadn’t even been out for two weeks and there were already several kids there that could beat it on one play through. I say “kids”, but I was only 15 and they were maybe 11 or 12. Little bastards!
The woman clonking Dirk over the head is not from this game, it's from the sequel, Dragon's Lair I I: Time Warp. The woman was Daphne's mom, mother-in-law from hell.
The lights and the sounds of a arcade back in the late 70's to mid 80's here in Chicago was amazing. We got first release here an in Tokyo...a great time to be a gamer
It was very cool and seemed way ahead of its time, I thought. I was about twelve years old when it came out, during the height of the arcade era. The graphics were light years ahead of anything else at the time. I mostly just passed by it and stood there looking at the awesome looking animation. I only got up the nerve to play it a few times. I believe it cost 50 cents, which gave the impression that this was a super advanced game (you had to pay extra for the privilege of playing it).
The pattern used on the checker board is still ingrained in my brain. It's been in there for about 40 years. I was the first of my friends to make it to the dragon, but not to beat it. The feeling of finally making it to that final board was right up there with making out with a girl for the first time only more expensive (2 quarters). Dragon's Liar was at the end of the standup video game craze. It was for me anyways. I never got into the fighting games. It started with Pacman and ended with this one. In my top 5 for sure. Ms. Pacman, Pole Position, Donkey Kong, Galaga, Tempest, Moon Patrol, Mario Brothers all got a huge share of my, my mom's, my sister's, and the crippled children's quarters. Not my finest hour, but boy was it fun.
An incredible bug (infinite lives) allowed me to finish it in the arcade with 1 credit. 12 years later i enjoyed it again in its version for 3DO. There were no arrows!
