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Dragon's Lair / Space Ace / Starcom's prototype from Aracde Operators Expo 1983
« on: October 04, 2023, 10:28:28 PM »
... been a long time I don't write here.
From the information we have available since almost 40 years we know that Dragon's Lair was presented in March 1983 at the "Amusement Operator Expo" in Chicago, where Starcom exhibited a few prototype cabinets in a non-final version. The picture sot at these cabinets went around the world, being published in numerous magazines of the sector, including our italian "Video Giochi, Jackson" which had the opportunity to show it integrated in an article specifically created to describe, in broad terms, the world of Laser Disc Games at that time (VGJ nr.16, June 1984? more than a year after the US presentation !).
Seen from the perspective of a "first-time" enthusiast, THAT Dragon's Lair presents notable differences with the version they later put into production and distributed throughout the World. In general, it can be seen that Cinematronics had thought of re-using his "Cosmic Chasm" cabinet slightly modified in order to accommodate the electronics of Dragon's Lair.
With the news that can be found on the web starting from 1997 (the year of creation of the excellent Dragon's Lair Project site) we know that cab, electronics, disc content and external graphics have undergone several changes before the final version went into production .
Several prototype cabinet games were created and released in the USA, some of which were positioned in certain places defined as "strategic" to allow the public to play, and so receive some feedback. These cabinets had the same "flat" control panel as Cosmic Chasm, but all black and with the game instructions printed on the panel; the monitor had a near-to-horizontal inclination; the LED display located immediately above the screen showed the 4-digit score referring to a single player and with the lives in the center; the ?marquee? panel had a translucent blue Dragon's Lair writing on a black background.
Subsequently, the control panel was adapted to the different inclination of the monitor and modified so as to "hook" to the plexiglass above it, the scoreboard was "expanded" for 2-players and the game instructions were later removed and recorded directly onto the disc to be displayed on the screen during the "attract mode".
As regards electronics, it is important to know that the first LaserDisc player used was a gigantic Pioneer PR-7820 (the only player I have ever seen that has fixed optic while it was the motor-spindle-disk system which had to move itself... !!!) . On the "software-side", the disc which was supposed to play + the related program were quite different from the definitive ones: different organization of the animated sequences and location of the decision points in which to make the moves. Nonetheless, for each "room" there were several possible paths to take in order to complete them successfully.
In practice, a little more interactivity which for various reasons was, however, judged "unsuitable" for the definitive version which was shortly to "go out".
Since at least one of these discs still exists and is in the possession of a lucky (US) collector, we know that in its first prototype stage the game had a very short duration, with few playable scenes. Duration which was subsequently extended, with animated sequences programmed to be moved in order to make the gameplay more "immediate", less complicated but also more limited and devoid/cut of a lot of material which was considered "lost".
Fortunately, as most of you here at DLF know, at the beginning of the millennium a group of enthusiasts managed to restore the contents of a video tape (!!!) in which were recorded 8 minutes of prototype sequences ! As an epilogue to this work, a ?Limited Edition? LaserDisc was put into production in 2002, in which the aforementioned ?unpublished? scenes also appeared at the end of the known original sequences.
Everything was then made playable on properly hardware equipped with "standard" electronics and through the use of special EPROMs to replace the original ones on the mainboard.
... BUT HERE I AM AT THIS POINT !
I confess that I've already had the idea of getting my hands on a Dragon's Lair prototype for a few decades... and I'd say that this wish has finally been realized !
I'm going to show you a Dragon's Lair completely similar, let's say 99%, to the AOE'83 proto.
It's the result of several years of research into existing furniture components, specially made pieces and others restored/reconstructed.
My Cinematronics DL also "participated" in that project, donating some of its parts like the coindoor (but another one, Cinematronics "1st press", is already on the way, to be restored and "fill the hole").
>>> Thanks to Alessandro Bolgia and Matteo "Teo/Italiandoh" Marioni who actively contributed to this project <<<
https://youtu.be/snOMtnmmmSA?si=qtHxCio4D_yj0WOW
From the information we have available since almost 40 years we know that Dragon's Lair was presented in March 1983 at the "Amusement Operator Expo" in Chicago, where Starcom exhibited a few prototype cabinets in a non-final version. The picture sot at these cabinets went around the world, being published in numerous magazines of the sector, including our italian "Video Giochi, Jackson" which had the opportunity to show it integrated in an article specifically created to describe, in broad terms, the world of Laser Disc Games at that time (VGJ nr.16, June 1984? more than a year after the US presentation !).
Seen from the perspective of a "first-time" enthusiast, THAT Dragon's Lair presents notable differences with the version they later put into production and distributed throughout the World. In general, it can be seen that Cinematronics had thought of re-using his "Cosmic Chasm" cabinet slightly modified in order to accommodate the electronics of Dragon's Lair.
With the news that can be found on the web starting from 1997 (the year of creation of the excellent Dragon's Lair Project site) we know that cab, electronics, disc content and external graphics have undergone several changes before the final version went into production .
Several prototype cabinet games were created and released in the USA, some of which were positioned in certain places defined as "strategic" to allow the public to play, and so receive some feedback. These cabinets had the same "flat" control panel as Cosmic Chasm, but all black and with the game instructions printed on the panel; the monitor had a near-to-horizontal inclination; the LED display located immediately above the screen showed the 4-digit score referring to a single player and with the lives in the center; the ?marquee? panel had a translucent blue Dragon's Lair writing on a black background.
Subsequently, the control panel was adapted to the different inclination of the monitor and modified so as to "hook" to the plexiglass above it, the scoreboard was "expanded" for 2-players and the game instructions were later removed and recorded directly onto the disc to be displayed on the screen during the "attract mode".
As regards electronics, it is important to know that the first LaserDisc player used was a gigantic Pioneer PR-7820 (the only player I have ever seen that has fixed optic while it was the motor-spindle-disk system which had to move itself... !!!) . On the "software-side", the disc which was supposed to play + the related program were quite different from the definitive ones: different organization of the animated sequences and location of the decision points in which to make the moves. Nonetheless, for each "room" there were several possible paths to take in order to complete them successfully.
In practice, a little more interactivity which for various reasons was, however, judged "unsuitable" for the definitive version which was shortly to "go out".
Since at least one of these discs still exists and is in the possession of a lucky (US) collector, we know that in its first prototype stage the game had a very short duration, with few playable scenes. Duration which was subsequently extended, with animated sequences programmed to be moved in order to make the gameplay more "immediate", less complicated but also more limited and devoid/cut of a lot of material which was considered "lost".
Fortunately, as most of you here at DLF know, at the beginning of the millennium a group of enthusiasts managed to restore the contents of a video tape (!!!) in which were recorded 8 minutes of prototype sequences ! As an epilogue to this work, a ?Limited Edition? LaserDisc was put into production in 2002, in which the aforementioned ?unpublished? scenes also appeared at the end of the known original sequences.
Everything was then made playable on properly hardware equipped with "standard" electronics and through the use of special EPROMs to replace the original ones on the mainboard.
... BUT HERE I AM AT THIS POINT !
I confess that I've already had the idea of getting my hands on a Dragon's Lair prototype for a few decades... and I'd say that this wish has finally been realized !
I'm going to show you a Dragon's Lair completely similar, let's say 99%, to the AOE'83 proto.
It's the result of several years of research into existing furniture components, specially made pieces and others restored/reconstructed.
My Cinematronics DL also "participated" in that project, donating some of its parts like the coindoor (but another one, Cinematronics "1st press", is already on the way, to be restored and "fill the hole").
>>> Thanks to Alessandro Bolgia and Matteo "Teo/Italiandoh" Marioni who actively contributed to this project <<<
https://youtu.be/snOMtnmmmSA?si=qtHxCio4D_yj0WOW
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! She's almost nine years and she's a fan of Pac-Man 
"C5" !
!
