Entering the lair- tale five- dirks new adventure… It’s about time.

Hey Arcaders!

1984 was a devastating year for Magicom. Don’s team was almost finished with the project we’re going to talk about today- when he had to let go of most of his staff- and move his studio to Ireland. But- he  was approached by Steven Spielberg- to create An American Tail, which would begin a collaboration between the the two for the next couple of years.

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Rick’s team went on their own to make Thayer’s Quest , the Halcyon laserdisc game system, and another game we will talk about soon- Hologram.

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That brings us to Cinematronics. About 1987, Cinematronics was acquired by Tradewest and renamed the Leland Corporation and continued to make arcade games into the 1990s. They had great success with games like  Ivan ‘Ironman’ Stewart’s Off Road,  John Elway’s Quarterback, World Soccer Finals, Pig Out- Dine Like A Swine (one of my favorites- got this game brand new at Fun N Games!) , Brute Force, and many more.

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… Now, lets go back to 1984.

Don and his team were finishing up on the sequel to Dragon’s Lair- Dragon’s Lair II: Time Warp.

Previews of the game were shown on a show I have fond memories of, and posted a lot about- Starcade!

And it was on Starcade- that I saw Dragon’s Lair II for the first time.

 

Here’s where the story takes a sad turn-  animation production on the game was suspended in March of 1984, which also resulted in the abrupt termination of most of the studio’s employees. Meanwhile, Cinematronics was forced to liquidate their remaining arcade units of Dragon’s Lair and Space Ace. Without an arcade distributor, the Bluth Studio considered finishing the game toward the goal of an official release for home computers or as a videocassette for collectors. 

I had contacts at Cinematronics during this time- we were always getting parts in for our machines at Dream Machine as we needed them. So when I bought Space Ace, I would get rom updates for mine. Well, by late ’85, things were bleak at the company. one of the people in the parts department- Laura, would send me ” care packages” of items that were being thrown in the trash- artwork, motherboards, video converter boards, power supplies, vinyl graphics- you name it- I was getting it!  One day, I asked her- what about Dragon’s Lair II? She told me – animation was about 80% dome, but, they were shelving the project- Indefinitely. That broke my heart. Little did I know, my path would cross again with Dirk- six years later.

In 1991, Leland took what they had- and released the game. And I was hooked the minute I saw it.

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And boy- was it difficult. But- there was a reason. Sensing that expert game players found the original game too slow, Don Bluth wanted to speed up the pacing of the sequel in order to challenge the more skilled players. And what a feast for the eyes this game is! According to Gary Goldman, it was probably the most expensive of the studio’s first three arcade games, with a budget of $2.3 million in 1983-1984 in order to achieve feature-level production values. Dragon’s Lair II came with it’s fair share of tall tails in the years it sat on a shelf and was released . Was Space Ace in the game? What’s with all the stuff you collect? What’s with the pirate ship? lets get to the game rumors.

1. Space Ace makes a cameo. In a word… no. I know back in ’84, I really hoped for this to happen.

I mean- he is traveling through time- why not go to the future and have a level on Borf’s Dead planet- fighting Groots, some Carnicula plants- maybe grabbing a glowing rock from the ground, and putting it in his bag. As he gets toward a dead end on a cliff, a certain clumsy, 13 year old boy runs into him, almost knocking Dirk off the edge to his doom! Dirk stops himself from going over by putting the sword in the edge of the abyss and the young boy helps him up and hides behind Dirk. As the two are cornered- the screen flashes red, the kid looks at his watch, smirks- breaking the fourth wall… and turns into Space Ace! Dirk and Ace fight off all the baddies- when the Shag appears! The two heroes look to each other, shake hands and are ready to take down the 20 foot monster! When the Shag is defeated, Dirk heads over to the time machine, Ace gets in the Star Pac- but before he flies off to continue to find Kimberley, Ace throws a laser blaster to Dirk- thanking him for his help, Dirk catches it, puts it in his backpack, gives him a quick salute, and activates the machine with his sword, and disappears with a flash!

Sadly- this didn’t happen. As Dirk empties he backpack (which by the way must be magical- look at all the stuff on the ground!) there is some future stuff in there- a briefcase, a wad of cash, an Oscar ( I needed a scene on how he got that!), an instrument panel, and a bowling ball! But nothing from Ace’s game.

But- we need to talk about the pirate flag.

 

2. Was there an unfinished scene?

Yes- as I mentioned earlier- most of Don’s staff was let go in ’84- so some things weren’t finished. One of the scenes involved a pirate ship.

Via Dragon’s Lair Wiki-

Several physical models were constructed and used by the animators for illustration purposes such as the Time Machine, the Casket of Doom, and Beethoven’s musical instruments including the piano and violin. The largest construct was the pirate ship model created from a boat with a mast measuring approximately 4-foot-long and 5-foot-tall built in Los Angeles with intent to shoot it in live-action for photo-animation reference. The complete model weighed around 100 pounds and covered up the workspaces of various studio employees. The stage’s song was to be called “I Am a Pirate” and was apparently recorded by voice actor Hal Smith. After the studio’s relocation to Ireland, the ship model—previously stored in Bluth’s garage—went missing and made finishing that sequence impractical.

Here’s a animatic of the pirate scene!

 

3. Were the items you collect supposed to help you defeat Mordroc?

No.

Let’s remember back to the first game- Dirk wasn’t shy about… scoring some quick treasure for the effort.

So- when it came to the sequel- he now has a family to feed. So you better believe he would grab what he could! So- it was done for extra points. You don’t have to get them- but, to get the best possible score, grab it all!

But- it would have been cool if Dirk had grabbed something too help at the end. At first I thought he had. See, he had to fling the ring to Mordroc’s finger. So- when I saw him grab it with a rope- I thought it came from his backpack. But no- it was his belt! But it would have been awesome to see.

So to say I loved Dragon’s Lair II- Time Warp is an understatement. It’s amazing from beginning to end, and really bookends the story nicely until we get the Dragon’s Lair movie. Even if it was a few years late.

Next time- we will talk about the last game from a part of the original team. And it’s about time- again.

What did you think of Dragon’s Lair II ?

Have you ever played it?

Let me know in the comments!