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Dragon's Lair / Space Ace / Re: Dragon's Lair reproduction laser disc
« on: May 16, 2009, 05:21:24 PM »
Hey everyone.
I thought I would step in and just correct some the information on the "lost footage" on the DLE discs since I was the one who made them.
There are a number of different versions of prototype discs that were produced in the early days of Dragon's Lair. All of the discs are accounted for except the first one that was produced for an amusement show which I believe was held in Chicago. The footage on the disc was important as it contained footage and scenes that were later cut or changed when the game was reworked. The original intention was to have multiple choices withing some rooms, but due to slow laserdisc seek times, the game was too choppy to watch and it was revised to only one right path per scene. There was speculation that this disc may be sitting in Rick Dyer's prototype DL game in storage, but not likely (unfortunately).
There was a game show in the 80's called Starcade where kids would compete on video games and the winner would have a chance at winning a brand new arcade game. Dragon's Lair was brand new and to hype the show, a 1" copy of the 1st generation prototype disc was sent to the show's producers for promotional purposes. This footage sat in the archives of the producer's for years. In 2001, someone from one of the gaming magazines or blogs was interviewing the producer of Starcade when he happen, by chance, to show the footage to the interviewer. Having the thought that this may be interesting footage, he requested a VHS copy. This footage made its way to Jeff Kinder who posted the information on his DLP site in 2001.
In 2002 when I was making the DLE discs, I paid the producers of the show for a copy of this footage so it could be added to the end of the standard disc information. Don Bluth and Gary Goldman didn't have any of these discs or footage from them. The footage contained scene boards and color bars as well as the colorful running Dirks which I ended up having edited out due to space constraints (the DLE disc is almost 31mins of info on a 30min disc). In addition, the order of scenes was altered to ensure the "lost scenes" would all fit on the disc. The ropes scene was not changed from the original prototype and I had it edited to the end of the disc in case the players couldn't read that far. I also added the title narative to the audio as it was not on the footage. So the copy I had was a 1" copy of a 1" tape which was likely a copy of a laserdisc which is a copy of the master (so at least 4th generation.)
I sent 6 beta copies to Rick Dyer for review. Rick was watching the video one evening when he realized that the cut scenes were now added to my discs and called me immediately. Rick requested that I send my 1" copy to them for archival purposes which I then did.
I hope this clears up some of your questions regarding the footage.
Mike
I thought I would step in and just correct some the information on the "lost footage" on the DLE discs since I was the one who made them.
There are a number of different versions of prototype discs that were produced in the early days of Dragon's Lair. All of the discs are accounted for except the first one that was produced for an amusement show which I believe was held in Chicago. The footage on the disc was important as it contained footage and scenes that were later cut or changed when the game was reworked. The original intention was to have multiple choices withing some rooms, but due to slow laserdisc seek times, the game was too choppy to watch and it was revised to only one right path per scene. There was speculation that this disc may be sitting in Rick Dyer's prototype DL game in storage, but not likely (unfortunately).
There was a game show in the 80's called Starcade where kids would compete on video games and the winner would have a chance at winning a brand new arcade game. Dragon's Lair was brand new and to hype the show, a 1" copy of the 1st generation prototype disc was sent to the show's producers for promotional purposes. This footage sat in the archives of the producer's for years. In 2001, someone from one of the gaming magazines or blogs was interviewing the producer of Starcade when he happen, by chance, to show the footage to the interviewer. Having the thought that this may be interesting footage, he requested a VHS copy. This footage made its way to Jeff Kinder who posted the information on his DLP site in 2001.
In 2002 when I was making the DLE discs, I paid the producers of the show for a copy of this footage so it could be added to the end of the standard disc information. Don Bluth and Gary Goldman didn't have any of these discs or footage from them. The footage contained scene boards and color bars as well as the colorful running Dirks which I ended up having edited out due to space constraints (the DLE disc is almost 31mins of info on a 30min disc). In addition, the order of scenes was altered to ensure the "lost scenes" would all fit on the disc. The ropes scene was not changed from the original prototype and I had it edited to the end of the disc in case the players couldn't read that far. I also added the title narative to the audio as it was not on the footage. So the copy I had was a 1" copy of a 1" tape which was likely a copy of a laserdisc which is a copy of the master (so at least 4th generation.)
I sent 6 beta copies to Rick Dyer for review. Rick was watching the video one evening when he realized that the cut scenes were now added to my discs and called me immediately. Rick requested that I send my 1" copy to them for archival purposes which I then did.
I hope this clears up some of your questions regarding the footage.
Mike