Dragon's Dragon's Lair
For domestic players, it may not leave a deep impression.
However, if it were in the US, gamers who experienced the wave of the 80s would probably find it hard not to recognize this Legend work.
A black frame, ornate painted patterns, and a CRT television set angled and embedded in the frame.
This was standard equipment for arcade games back then.
It's quite similar to the " Marble Madness " game that Lin Lixin saw a while ago.
In an era when game graphics were generally pixelated, the developers of Dragon's Lair had a brilliant idea.
What if we used cutscenes to present the game content?
Thus, thanks to the increased capacity brought by laser discs, " Dragon's Lair " was born.
It's important to know that the year it was born coincided with the Atari Shock that swept across the United States, when the gaming market was on the verge of collapse.
However, " Dragon's Lair " managed to generate over 30 million US dollars in revenue within a month and a half of its release at this time.
Thirty million US dollars!
A single arcade machine can generate a daily revenue of approximately $500.
Before the advent of Gamenova, Dragon's Lair was undoubtedly one of the most powerful money-making machines.
The reason is----
It's impossible to imagine that this wouldn't be possible without its visuals, which were far ahead of their time.
To exaggerate a bit, even without relying on cutscenes, GAMENOVA today cannot match the visual quality of " Dragon's Lair " from 1983.
In an era when everyone was still used to 8-bit pixels, its image looked like this:
Strong vs. Strong?!
Even if the price doubled to 50 cents per game, there would still be plenty of players willing to pay more.
The machine in front of Lin Lixin now is a version that was found somewhere and has been fitted with a coin-operated machine that costs $1 per use.
After making some simple modifications, such as removing the coin-operated detection, Lin Lixin then powered it on.
The product is a bit old, but that's one of the good things about electronic products these days.
Durable and robust.
Even if it's been stored for five years, or even twenty years, it will still be usable with a little care.
The purple sky was overcast, with only a pale crescent moon hanging high in the sky.
Under the moonlight, a similarly eerie and terrifying ancient castle stood in the thorny wilderness.
The spires, with their fantastical design, represent a further step beyond the Gothic style.
And our protagonist will begin his Adventure from here.
The scene shifts to the protagonist, who is carrying a sword and a Backpack, walking across the wooden drawbridge in front of the castle.
Whether it's the stone walls made of bricks or the somewhat dilapidated iron chains and wooden planks, they all testify that this place has been around for quite some time.
"As expected of an animator from Disney, their skills are undeniable."
The Disney- style visuals are quite recognizable.
The artist behind this work is Dorn Bruce, who was indeed an animator working at Disney before joining the Dragon's Lair project.
The movements are fluid and elegant, and very graceful.
Although it has a completely different style from Japan animation, it is unique and very interesting.
"Snap!"
The suspension bridge, due to years of neglect and decay, suddenly collapsed, and the protagonist, who was walking on it, lost his footing and fell to the ground.
Several tentacles suddenly emerged from the water beneath the bridge and bound the protagonist without hesitation.
Then----
"Click"
The protagonist was strangled to death just like that.
Lin Lixin was still watching the opening animation with his arms crossed and great interest, was taken aback.
Seeing the pop-up message on the screen asking him to recharge, he was momentarily confused.
"Wait a minute? What happened? It's dead already?"
Isn't the opening animation still playing?
How did I seem to have fallen away in the Kung-Fu Master of an eye?
This thing----
It's fortunate that he was gathering material, rather than actually playing in an arcade.
Otherwise, in those few seconds, 50 cents would have vanished.
It's hard to imagine the inhuman torture that arcade players endured when it was first released.
"Huh? You've never played ' Dragon's Lair '? That's really surprising."
Sam was surprised to see Lin Lixin suffer a rare setback.
When it comes to trying out games, this heavily addicted internet user naturally had to participate.
Of course, besides the two of them, there was also Hideo Kojima was specifically called in to learn game performance techniques.
"I've heard of its great reputation, but I've never actually played it. Otherwise—why don't you show me?"
From Sam's words, it's clear he's implying he's very professional.
What else is there to say? Let him give it a try.
"Silly, it seems there are things you're not good at too."
Sam chuckled, shoved Lin Lixin aside, snatched the controller, and said, "Just you wait, back in the day, I was a Subor in the arcade."
He said he chose to start over and then focus on the game.
Same opening animation.
Ancient castle, crescent moon, thorns—and broken bridge.
However, unlike Lin Lixin, Sam did not sit idly by and wait for his death. Instead, he quickly pressed a large button on the arcade machine that read "Sword".
Immediately, the protagonist drew his sword from his waist and drove away the tentacles that were approaching again.
With a strong push of both hands, he climbed back onto the bridge.
"Wow, I'd heard this game was based on QTE gameplay, but I didn't expect it to be this extreme."
Lin Lixin pursed his lips speechlessly.
That was already part of the QTE (Quick Time Event) section.
All the visuals in this game are presented using hand-drawn animation; there's no distinction between opening animations and cutscenes.
The game had already begun the moment the very first shot appeared.
The game controls are not complicated; there are only four actions in total.
Up, down, left, right, and the sword.
This corresponds to the four directions of the joystick and this large button.
Just as the protagonist finally managed to break into the castle, before the atmosphere could even ease, the ground suddenly cracked open once again.
Everything was collapsing at a visible speed, and it looked like it was about to spread to the feet of the protagonist.
Sam, however, remained unhurried and casually rubbed the joystick to the right.
That was the only road that hadn't collapsed yet.
The protagonist immediately took off and rushed over at full speed.
Boom
Following closely behind him, the room behind him was buried under rubble.
It's fair to say that if the protagonist had been even slightly slower, he would have died again.
Rowing boats, riding winged horses, dodging dragon breath, and battling skeletons and other fantastical creatures—
This is a magnificent fantasy animation.
Each level consists of animated shots, but they are connected almost seamlessly by continuous frame-by-frame animation.
Lin Lixin could imagine what such a work meant to players in an era when video games were declining.
That's so cool.
Cool in every sense of the word.
Although the difficulty is disgustingly high, requiring a high level of concentration or memorization of the layout to complete, the overall experience of playing the game is absolutely top-notch.
However, the high level of difficulty is not actually the fault of " Dragon's Lair ".
At least not entirely.
Before it, the concept of QTE had not even been born.
As the creator of this mechanism, achieving this level of accomplishment is already quite remarkable.
Watching Sam complete the game in over ten minutes, Lin Lixin stroked his chin, pondering for a long time.
"No wonder it sold for so much money back then; it truly is an amazing work."
This gameplay is somewhat similar to the interactive movie games popular in a certain mysterious Eastern superpower in later generations.
Essentially, it's still about selling animation.
But its packaging is very clever.
Unfortunately, due to the capacity limitations of the laser disc medium, it was impossible to go any further and do better.
LaserDiscs are not the same as the CDs used by Gamenova.
Its size is much larger, and its capacity is very limited.
Its niche disappeared rapidly after the advent of VCD and DVD.
Regardless, having reached this point, Lin Lixin already had a plan in mind.
"We can take a look at this model, um—but we can do it even better—"
Lin Lixin licked his lips, trying to find a suitable adjective, "Faster?"
"Ah?"
Sam was taken aback.
He had considered that Lin Lixin was definitely planning to do something new on top of this.
But making this thing even faster is not a good direction.
He was a longtime fan of Dragon's Lair and knew this very well.
"The QTEs in Dragon's Lair are now so bad they're practically unbearable. If it weren't for the amazing animation, nobody would play it."
Continuing to increase the speed will only make things more difficult and unacceptable, without any benefit.
Sam thought for a moment and suddenly remembered GAINAX, the animation company he had recently acquired.
Could it be that Lin Lixin is planning to develop his own interactive movie game?
Thinking about it carefully, it makes sense.
After all, GAMENOVA has a vast amount of film and television resources at its disposal, and it would be a real waste not to make good use of them.
"I'm not doing a QTE—well, in a way it is a QTE, but not quite the same."
Realizing he had been a bit cryptic, Lin Lixin continued, "Simply put, what I want is this fast-paced fighting style, which is one of the essential requirements for arcade games."
Looking at the score and number of lives displayed on the screen, Lin Lixin continued, "At the same time, I also want this extremely low-forgiveness design where the slightest mistake can lead to instant death—and a gameplay style that makes players unable to resist frantically continuing to refill their coins even after losing."
At first glance, this description seems somewhat like the Old Thief's soul.
But in reality, Lin Lixin wanted a different kind of work.
A patriotic masterpiece perfectly suited for the United States market.
Pure and extreme violence and gore, a strong style of violent aesthetics.
And extremely hallucinatory Synthwave synthesizer music.
Its worldview and background are also quite fitting at this juncture of the Cold War.
" Sam, contact Lucas and ask him to help me find someone—yes, Hollywood actor, someone who's just started out."
What's your name?
"Jiang—I mean Keanu Reeves."