Dragons Lair sucks that bad?

[whammoed]

I never played an actual Dragons Lair machine but its one of the games my buddy remembers playing but is not on my cab.  So I tried it in Daphne and was much less than impressed.  Seems like you have to hit the button or joystick at the exact right time to get the character to react or you get no reaction at all.  Is this the way it was in the arcade?  If so, is there any tips to make this game more enjoyable?  If that is as good as it gets there is no way i'm spending the time and effort to put it on my cab.(runs linux)

[subzero23]

ya i hated that game

[Sephroth57]

yeah thats pretty much the game  ::shrug:: its that oldschool appeal to me, i remember being a kid and seeing the fully animated game which had graphics that owned the other games at the time. although not fully controllable still fun

[Jabba]

I pumped many a quarter into this machine when it first came out in 1983. It was way ahead of its time. You have to remember that this was one of the first laser disk games ever to hit the arcades. It was much more "cinematic" than any of the other games on the floor.

You're right, you have to time your movements eactly with the action on the screen. This is especially so in the chess scene. Eventally, after many a credit  , you would learn when to hit the button. He who got the farthest in the game got bragging rights...

Is it a great game to play? I would have to say not compared to the action in Defender and other great games. Was it a classic? I would definately have to say "Yay"

[GGKoul]

Yep.  You have to play the game like it's 1983, not 2004/5.  Because when Dragons Lair came out, it was a head of anything else in the market. 

[Bones]

A freind and I used to both work on Saturday mornings and finish at midday. We then used to catch a train and it would take almost an hour to get into Sydney. From there we would walk to one particular arcade that had Dragons Lair and spend our hard earned cash!

I remember people used to just stand around and look at it amazement. It was truly breathtaking for it's time.

[Gunstar Hero]

Some people love it. Some hate it. But Dragon's Lair is a bona fide classic. 

[Chemixtry]

I seem to remember DL 2 being more forgiving in the arcade but I still had a hard time with it. I never got to see the whole thing until I bought the DVD's which allow you to watch an entire game played through.  Dragons Lair and the holographic game with the cowboy blew me away the first time I saw 'em.

[hulkster]

oh dude, the game sucks big time.  i mean, come on, you use like one movement every few seconds and watch a cartoon!  BUT....i love it! 
mainly for the nostalgia feel.  its just one of those games that you remember in the arcades and how cool and futuristic it was with the graphics and all that.  i mean, the game wasnt ever that good, it was just different, which is why so many people think they have to have it on their cab, but then realize that it was never that good in the first place.  but anyway, i have it on mine 

[rampy]

I never played an actual Dragons Lair machine but its one of the games my buddy remembers playing but is not on my cab.  So I tried it in Daphne and was much less than impressed.  Seems like you have to hit the button or joystick at the exact right time to get the character to react or you get no reaction at all.  Is this the way it was in the arcade?  If so, is there any tips to make this game more enjoyable?  If that is as good as it gets there is no way i'm spending the time and effort to put it on my cab.(runs linux)

Forgive the cheap jab (it's meant as a joke, not an actual troll/flame war post... i use/like linux and FOSS alot!):

Sometimes configuring linux feels like playing dragon's lair in much teh same way... ok if I wiggle this value in the conf file here at this time and run this .pl script after I recompile my kernal with xy and z flag set I'll be able to play tuxracer soon!

(again j/k) FWIW DL looks pretty, plays horrible, but at the time of it's release seemed revolutionary looking, even if the controls/gameplay was akward.  I mean 8bit pixels vs full motion cartoon video... 

I installed DL on my mame machine, because I remember loving it in the arcade but it was 50 cents and I'd die/game over almost instantly... so I'm trying to recoup that a little bit =P

*shrug*

rampy

[RacerX]

I grew up in a small town.  We did have an arcade at the skating rink (ahhh, the glory days of disco), but the rink had pretty much fizzled out by the time Dragon's Lair came out so they weren't getting any new games anymore. 

I only got to play certain games once a year during the Austin County Fair.  The carnival had a big trailer that the sides would flip down on, and in it, they had a mobile arcade.  It had games like Dragon's Lair, Gorf, NFL Football (the Cowboys vs. Redskins version), and even Stunt Cycle, which was actually pretty old by then.

Anyway, I used to save up my quarters for months to play those games at the fair because it was the *only* time I could play them.  So they have a special place in my heart, even if some of them weren't the best from a game-play standpoint.

[ErikRuud]

oh dude, the game sucks big time.  i mean, come on, you use like one movement every few seconds and watch a cartoon!  BUT....i love it! 

Thats exactly it!  You need to think of it as more of an Interactive Cartoon.

[whammoed]

OK thanks!  I was a little worried that I had something set up wrong and the emulation wasn't working properly, but I guess thats just the way the game is.  I guess theres just no liking it unless it sparks nostalgia.

[lucindrea]

in 1983 if you said this little shinny disk would replace cassets you would be laughed out of the record store

so instant ( well close to it ) skipping of one scen to another in any video was way ahead of it's time , the the fact that it was a cool animation that you could acctully control was why it was one of the first game to charge $0.50 and get away with it.