If you are between 35 and 45 years old and played video games when you were a kid, then you will probably hear actor Michael Rye's voice in your head as you read these words: "Dragon's Lair: The fantasy adventure where you become a valiant knight, on a quest to rescue the fair princess from the clutches of an evil dragon. You control the actions of a daring adventurer finding his way through the castle of a dark wizard, who has enchanted it with treacherous monsters and obstacles. In the mysterious caverns below the castle, your odyssey continues against the awesome forces that oppose your efforts to reach the Dragon's Lair. Lead on, adventurer. Your quest awaits!"
Dragon's Lair was a breakthrough video game when it came out in 1983, and not just because it was the first game that I remember that cost 50¢. The game was unique because it did not rely on the modest computer graphics of the early 1980s but instead used a laserdisc with a real cartoon beautifully drawn by former Disney animator Don Bluth. Last week, the game came out for the iPhone, and given all of my fond memories of playing it as a teenager, I couldn't resist buying it. I normally don't review games on iPhone J.D., but I decided to mention this one for those of you out there who, like me, spent quite a few quarters enjoying this game during your youth.
In fact, my iTunes App Store receipt is sort of funny from last week because it is all dragons, all the time:
The game play is simple. There are on-screen buttons for your sword (on the left) and a four-way directional pad (on the right). At frequent points during the animation, the button that you need to press flashes momentarily, and you need to press it at the right time to go forward in the game.
Make a mistake — and trust me, you will make plenty — and you will lose a life and see this familiar screen:
Fortunately, the default setting in the game is to give you infinite lives. Boy, what I would have given to have that back when I was a teenager! You can change that if you want to torture yourself and make the game more challenging. The game also saves your place so you can quit the app and pick up where you left off. Make all the right moves, and you can rescue Princess Daphne from the clutches of the evil dragon.
It occurred to me when I reached the end of the game this past weekend that I first started trying to finish Dragon's Lair in the summer of 1983. 26 years later, thanks to the iPhone and the infinite lives feature, I was finally able to finish. Nice to know that I can check that one off of my bucket list.
The game has two different playing modes, one which resembles the original arcade version and a "home mode" that actually makes more sense because you go through scenes in sequence. (In the original arcade game, when you died, you did not replay the scene but instead were sent to a different scene. This made the game more challenging but less linear.) One nice feature is a Watch Game mode in which you can just watch the game being played perfectly. This mode reminds me of being a kid watching someone better play the game, and this mode allows you to appreciate the wonderful animation and the funny grunts and asides of Dirk the Daring even more than is possible when you are playing the game and concentrating on what button to press next. And by the way, the animation looks beautiful on the iPhone. It is a very nice transfer.
After you finish the game, you can of course play it again as much as you want, but frankly it has somewhat limited replay value. Nevertheless, if you share my nostalgia for the original game of the early 1980s, you'll consider this one worth the twenty quarters. Ahem, I mean worth the $4.99 price tag. I had a lot of fun with this one.
UPDATED LINK THAT WORKS AS OF 5/27/2019:
Click here to get Dragon's Lair 30th Anniversary ($4.99): 
