Dragon's Lair (NTSC)

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Details At A Glance

General		Extras
Category	Game	Theatrical Trailer(s)	Yes, 1 - 1.33:1, Dolby Digital 2.0 (mono)
Rating		Other Trailer(s)	Yes, 3 - Dragon's Lair 2, Space Ace, A Fork In The Tale
Year Released	1983	Commentary Tracks	None
Running Time	N/A	Other Extras	Featurette - History
RSDL/Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu	Cast & Crew
Region	1,2,3,4,5,6	Director
Studio Distributor	Digital Leisure	Starring
Case	Transparent Amaray	Starring
RRP	$34.95	Music

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	Full Frame (NTSC)	MPEG	None
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	N/A	Dolby Digital	2.0
16x9 Enhancement	No	Soundtrack Languages	English (Dolby Digital 2.0, 192Kb/s)
Theatrical Aspect Ratio	1.33:1	Miscellaneous
Macrovision	?	Smoking	No
Subtitles	None	Annoying Product Placement	No

Plot Synopsis

In this reissue of the classic arcade laserdisc game, you play Dirk The Daring, a valiant knight who has to fight his way through the Dragon's Lair in order to rescue the Princess Daphne. A simple task? Not on your life. It took me the good part of three hours to make my way through the game, utilizing countless continues, and mighty grateful I was for these, let me tell you.

The game plays on any standalone DVD player except for the Toshiba 2107 and Toshiba 3107, and utilizes the DVD player's remote control to play the game. The only keys used are the directional keys for movement and the Enter key for swordplay. Moves are prompted by a transparent yellow diamond which appears in the bottom right hand corner of the screen periodically.

In terms of playability, it is on a par with the original arcade version, with a definite small lag between key presses and the resultant action. This is reduced to no lag at all on a DVD-ROM player, which I also tried the game with.

Transfer Quality

Video

The back cover of this disc claims that it has been remastered for DVD. It would be more accurate to state that it has been reauthored for DVD, as it appears that the video source elements have been taken either from a laserdisc or from the source video tapes used to create the laserdisc. It certainly has not been remastered in the true sense of the word which would have involved re-telecining the original filmed footage.

The transfer is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1. It is therefore not 16x9 enhanced. It is in NTSC format, so your display device will need to be NTSC-compatible to play this game.

The transfer is quite dated looking, and somewhat blurry compared to current generation transfers. It looks acceptable, however, for a 1983-produced game. Shadow detail is acceptable, but there is significant low level noise present in the shadows, giving away this production's analogue heritage.

The colours were somewhat muted compared with current generation animation. There was also some colour bleed apparent, once again as the result of the analogue mastering process.

There were no MPEG artefacts seen. There were, however, quite a number of significant video glitches and dropouts seen - nothing all that bad, mind you, but certainly noticeable.

Audio

The packaging claims crisp, powerful AC3 sound. Well, it IS AC3 encoded. Crisp and powerful? Nope.

There is only a single audio track on this DVD; English Dolby Digital 2.0. This is predominantly compressed mono-sounding, with one opening logo in 5.1 sound.

Dialogue, what there was of it, was always clear and easy to understand, even if it was compressed and frequency limited.

There were no audio sync problems with this disc.

The score is unremarkable by today's standards, but was certainly a breakthrough at the time this game came out, when gamers were used to computer-generated bleeps and boops.

The surround channels were not used.

The .1 channel was not used.

Extras

There is a good selection of extras on this disc considering that it is a game.

Featurette - History

This is presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 (mono, sometimes splitting the two channels). There are a collection of video excepts in this montage of historical footage, of variable quality. We are warned before watching this material that it is of variable quality, and it certainly is - of course, having this material present on the disc is invaluable, and it is well worth watching despite the poor video and audio quality.

Watch

Frustrated gamers will appreciate this option, which is simply a linear progression through the entire game.

Trailers

The Dragon's Lair promo trailer plays before the main game, and can be skipped. There are also trailers present for Dragon's Lair 2, Space Ace, and A Fork In The Tale.

R4 vs R1

This is a Region 0 NTSC disc, so there is only one version of this disc.

Summary

Make no mistake about it, Dragon's Lair is a remarkable achievement in DVD authoring. At the time it was released, it was also a remarkable achievement in arcade game technology. These days, it is somewhat dated, and the quality is lacking compared with more contemporary releases. But, for anyone who has fond memories of the original, or who wants to own a piece of arcade game history, you cannot go far wrong with this disc.

I think the $59.95 RRP for this disc is a little steep locally, though it can be had much cheaper than this - Video Ezy DVD, the sponsor of this review, have this disc priced at $44.95, which is a much more reasonable price.
[Addendum 2nd December 1999: The RRP for this DVD has been lowered to the much more reasonable $34.95.]

The video quality is dated, but acceptable given the source material.

The audio quality is unremarkable compressed mono.

The extras are interesting, even though the video and audio quality are lacking.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Review Equipment

DVD	Pioneer DV-505, using S-Video output
Display	Loewe Art-95 95cm direct view CRT in 4:3 mode, via the S-Video input. Calibrated with the NTSC DVD version of Video Essentials.
Audio Decoder	Denon AVD-2000 Dolby Digital AddOn Decoder, used as a standalone processor. Calibrated with the NTSC DVD version of Video Essentials.
Amplification	2 x EA Playmaster 100W per channel stereo amplifiers for Left, Right, Left Rear and Right Rear; Philips 360 50W per channel stereo amplifier for Centre and Subwoofer
Speakers	Philips S2000 speakers for Left, Right; Polk Audio CS-100 Centre Speaker; Apex AS-123 speakers for Left Rear and Right Rear; Yamaha B100-115SE subwoofer