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  Directed by
  Starring
  Specs
  • Full Frame
  Languages
  • English: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
  Subtitles
  • None
  Extras
  • Featurette - interviews with the creator and a WATCH to feature to view the entire movie all the way through
  • Digitally remastered - specifically for dvd.

Dragons Lair (Interactive Video)

DVD Australia/DVD Australia . R4 . COLOR . 50 mins . PG . NTSC

  Feature
Contract

Back in 1990 when I bought my first computer, an Amiga 500, I came across a game called Dragon's Lair. It wasn't your ordinary game in that you controlled a sprite and either killed or doged other onscreen sprites, you basically controlled an animated character and decided his next path for him.

The aim of the game was to lead him through the maze of obstacles within an evil wizards castle, into the dragons lair to save the princess. Is there any other better romantic story to be told? No, not really, its just a matter of how it is told.

In 1983, ex-disney animator Don Bluth and computer programmer Rick Dyer both came up with Dragons Lair. A game based on classical animated imagery and a choose-the-right path style of gaming to produce the cult classic, Dragons Lair.

And now, for the first time in its 15 year history, it comes to a format that can do it proper justice. The original incarnation was on the now bulky, but then leading edge, laserdisc format that would reside within your standard coin-op box, controlled by a simple joystick and push button control.

The dvd takes it a step further with its ability to easily skip to different title tracks on the fly and to different chapters with ease. So how does the 15 year old animated game hold up?

  Video
Contract

For a 15 year old laserdisc master to be transferred to dvd, the best quality you are going to get is laserdisc quality in itself. What goes in is what comes out, but you'd be surprised at the quality. It must have been a damn good master or someone took the extra attention in porting this ageing game to the 500+ lines of resolution found on dvd.

The quality has held up well and does give a good guide that animation indeed will not suffer from mpeg artifacting as many skeptics have come to believe is the cause for Disneys delay in releasing their a-list of titles.

The only bad video you will see is the original source material Don Bluth studios used for their promotional material back in 1983-84. This stuff is scary and shows how good dvd can reproduce BAD video. :)

  Audio
Contract

On the dvd cover, it states "crisp, powerful AC-3 sound" which is correct but it may mislead people to believe it is 5.1 surround when in fact it is more likely to be mono or simple 2 channel stereo.

To be fair, there was no need to do a 5.1 remaster of any sort which would keep the original sountrack intact. The sound is clear enough for a game but its not your earth shattering bass or surround enveloping musical score.

  Extras
Contract

You get heaps of footage from the promotional archives containg video from degrees of acceptable to deteriorated. That's fair enough, I'd prefer them to give us this kind of footage, of peoples initial reactions back in 84 (and their hair styles) rather than not show us for fear of bad quality. That's what extras are for.

You also get previews to 2 other animated games (Dragon's Lair II and Space Ace) aswell as one live action game (Fork in the Tale).

But the main feature is the game itself. You use the remote to control Dirk the Daring throughout his journey by helping him chose the correct path with your menu keys, being 'left', 'right', 'up', 'down' and 'enter' for using your sword. This I believe is the first disc to utilise such interaction and it works well indeed.

There is only a slight pause between decision making and skipping to the next scene which is excusable considering that the original laserdisc version would produce a screen flash as the scene changed.

I found the going hard and in the end selected the "Watch" feature whereby you can watch the entire game play through to the end which lasted just over 18 minutes. Playing the game itself had me in front of the TV with sweaty palms for over an hour, in which I had only travelled about 3 minutes of movie time all up.

  Overall  
Contract

If you've played the game before and ejoyed it, this dvd is the best way to own it so do yourself a favor and grab a copy.


  • LINK: http://www.dvd.net.au/review.cgi?review_id=21
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      And I quote...
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    - Steve Koukoulas
      Review Equipment
    • DVD Player:
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    • Receiver:
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    • Speakers:
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    • Surrounds:
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    • Audio Cables:
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    • Video Cables:
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