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Created by Rick Dyer and Don Bluth, Dragon's Lair was released to arcades in 1983. At the time, it was a cutting edge laser
disc technology game and was highly successful. Since that time, the franchise has seen many different incarnations on a
large number of home systems, some more authentic than others. In 1995, over a decade after the original hit arcades, ReadySoft
took it's shot at Dragon's Lair by porting it the Atari Jaguar for the Jaguar's newly released CD-Rom unit. The result is
a good port of a classic arcade game, but nothing new or innovative.
Those that grew up in the golden age of the arcade are probably very familiar with the story of Dragon's Lair already.
For those that do not have those memories of joyous days of simple arcade pleasures to fall back on, the story goes something
like this: Singe the Dragon has captured the lovely Princess Daphne, and it is up to Dirk the Daring (kind of the clown prince
of knights) to rescue her. Even in 1995, it was clear to see, from the story presented, that this game was of an earlier
time, and by today's standards, it is simply threadbare. It is, however, effective for the type of game that Dragon's Lair
is.
And what type of game is that? Well, Dragon's Lair is one of the finest examples of a short-lived genre, the full motion
video animated laser disk arcade game. Dragon's Lair is a single player game in which the player takes control of Dirk the
Daring in his quest to save the Princess. Overall, the controls of the Jaguar version of the game are very good for the type
of game that it is. Control is probably being generous in describing how the player interacts with Dragon's Lair, though.
The player interacts with the game by pressing in a direction or hitting the action button in response to clues presented
during the FMV sequences that play out. In practice, this means trial and error most of the time. This is good and bad.
There are many times that the player will wish that actual control over Dirk was possible and curse the control scheme as
Dirk dies again and again. After the player becomes proficient, however, it will become obvious why trial and error was selected
as the method of game play for Dragon's Lair. It's short. Really short. There are around twenty minutes or so of FMV animated
footage in Dragon's Lair, but a good player will probably not get that much play time out of the game on a play through, and
once completed, there really isn't any reason to go back for another play through.
One of the few problems that presents itself in the Jaguar version of Dragon's Lair is in the audio department. Some
of the audio seems muffled and even a little distorted at times. It isn't all the time, but there are times. It seems a
shame to have these types of audio issues on a CD based game, and certainly the Jaguar is capable of better. It isn't enough
to kill a player's enjoyment of the game, but it is noticeable enough, at times, to disrupt the immersive ness of the game.
In truth, no discussion of Dragon's Lair is complete without mentioning the graphics. When Dragon's Lair hit the arcades
in 1983, it was light years ahead of anything else around, and even after all these years, the animation is still impressive.
On the Jaguar, the animation looks good, not quite as crisp as the arcade, but still very good. Certainly the Jaguar version
of Dragon's Lair is better than the versions found on other consoles of the day. The best reason for playing this game is
to see the great animation.
When the final tally is taken, Dragon's Lair is a fine port of the arcade classic, and while it won't appeal to everyone,
it certainly has its place in the Jaguar library. This is an easy game to recommend to those looking for a bit of nostalgia,
fans of animation, or just the player looking for something a little different. Give it a shot, it won't disappoint.
4 out of 5
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