Reviews

A brave attempt to represent the revolutionary laser disc coin-op game on the Speccy.
The arcade game shoe-horned simple game-play into some graphically stunning (for the time) animated set pieces. The Spectrum version retained the substandard playability, and didn't do a great job with the graphics. The graphics are, in fairness, good compared to the average Speccy title, but nowhere near good enough to carry the game.
They could have, at least, had a first level that wasn't such an annoying fiddle to get through. After sitting through the un-skip-able death animation twice, it loses any appeal, after fifty times it starts to become infuriating.
Too difficult, not much fun to play, and no truly great presentation to compensate.

Above average game that reached a lot of popularity back in the day !!

The graphics are like in a movie , and the atmosphere of the game is quite achieved ...

I never fancied this game too much , I must say ... but Dragons Lair brings some nice memories of better days and that´s why I like it , for the memories more than for the game itself !!


Very close to excellence ...

3,5 out of 5 .

One of the most disappointing games in my collection. I really didn't like this game though missing the obvious that it was a conversion of a laserdisc arcade game...and know and behold I witnessed this laserdisc arcade game and was completely blown away with it...so it was then I decided to give Dragon's Lair a second chance...five minutes later than empty feeling came back to me.

It just misses to point completely. They weren't going to recreate the wonders of the original (because Scooby Doo tried and failed miserably) but at least give use a playable alternative, give us something to enjoy, and they haven't delivered.

by Paul Hodgson, Andy Walker, Michael Davies, Nicole Baikaloff

I really wanted to like this game, and feed the delusion of having a laser game running on my Spectrum - and the graphics are quite good - but it's really too hard. You're welcomed by a series of little clouds violently blowing on you while you're desperately clinging to a floating platform, and being the space on rather narrow, your reactions must be very, very fast, in order for you to run against the wind in time to not be pushed off of it. I remember I managed to finish the level a couple of times when I was a kid, after dozens of attempts, because I wanted to reach the levels with the big sprites and wide backgrounds - and, of course, once I arrived there, I lost my couple of lives left in a very brief time: in fact, in the big sprites levels you must discover the preordained moves to be performed in the right sequence in order to progress to the next stage, and this process implies that it's high probable that you're going to die trying to learn each new correct move - which is very little substantial playing. Anyway, it doesn't matter: I'm not even able to pass that windy first level anymore.
2,5/5

This conversion was never going to work. I have seen glimpses of the arcade game but I've never played it so I can't say for sure whether this plays like the arcade version or not, but I know one thing, it doesn't play much like a game that's for sure. I can never get past the first screen with the clouds, you don't seem to have time to react to which way you need to look. What's the point of buying a game where you can't progress? Thank heavens I missed this one back in the day.

1986 Software Projects (UK)
by Paul Hodgson, Andy Walker, Michael Davies & Nicole Baikaloff


As a child I loved this game, even tough I barely passed the first level. This was due to the big animated sprites and the originality of level 1. Every now and then I came back to this game, and always regret it. It's unplayable.
The original Cinematronics laserdisc game was revolutionary and became a phenomenon full credited. But, as would be expected, porting this faithfully into an 8-bit computer was far from a challenge, it was simply impossible. So abridged versions and without the original control mechanics of the laserdisc started appearing.
The problem with the Spectrum port, wasn't just due to the limitations of the machine, but mainly because of weird choices by the authors.
Some levels are reminiscent of Game & Watch devices and even the one's who could work are unplayable, I mean, they play as bad as the Jack and The Beanstalk trilogy of games from 1984. You have to guess most of the times where to land your foot and not where logic says it should go! It's pathetic.
I want to believe Cinematronics demanded the game should resemble more the original version with it's fancy graphics and animation than worry with the gameplay itself, and so they are partially guilty, but again some levels could and should be playable, instead of "pretty" unplayable rubbish.