Comments on: Retrogasmic 1.5 – Might As Well Jump

By: Pete Davison

Pete Davison — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 15:49:20 +0000

I loved Dragon’s Lair, even though I was well aware it was crap. I had a copy of “Escape from Singe’s Castle” for my Atari ST, which was essentially “Dragon’s Lair: The Deleted Scenes”. And I remember playing it through time after time, swapping disks every ten seconds (literally) and loving every minute. Also, Princess Daphne was HAWT.

This was an interesting article. You’re absolutely right about platformers and the like requiring “set” combinations of movements to be successful. It’s interesting that you compare them to QTEs—I’ve never seen anyone make that connection before, but it’s absolutely true. There’s more of an “illusion” of control, though.

I personally like QTEs. As you describe, they allow a sense of the “cinematic” to enter key scenes in a game, and let players do things they wouldn’t be able to normally given the normal “rules” of a video game. Shenmue handled them well, I thought; the fight scenes that were handled as QTEs looked much cooler than the Virtua Fighter-style battle system.

By: Player Freedom vs. Narrative Cohesion | First Time Flowing

Player Freedom vs. Narrative Cohesion | First Time Flowing — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 23:44:19 +0000

[...] been thinking about linearity in video games and the impact on game play and narrative. As I have already written a piece on the subject, this is more of [...]

By: drey

drey — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 23:53:50 +0000

I just tried out the Blu-ray version of Dragon’s Lair. Even more infuriating than I remember. I thought there were a lot more of those flashing cues that told you which way to go, but most of the time is trial and error. And you don’t get to immediately retry the scene until you get it right; you die and move on to some other room.

I liked Indigo Prophecy too. Once I accepted that “okay, this game is about quick time events,” I was fine with it.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 23:40:43 +0000

Great article, Drey. Dragon’s Lair was a little before my time, but I have a very foggy memory of seeing it in an arcade long, long ago.

I really enjoyed Indigo Prophecy, though there were many times I wanted to break my XBox controller in half due to frustration. And how I was able to complete all of those rapid left-right trigger pull events without serious injury to my index fingers, I have no idea.

Another classic and nearly “pure” quick-time game I played was Shenmue II, which I actually rather enjoyed (though it tended to stretch out some parts a bit too long).

By: will

will — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 23:36:52 +0000

But did YOU dodge the bullet or was it the universal puppet master being tricked by a quick time event THINKING he was in control of you! Hmmmmmmmm. . .

By: drey

drey — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 23:22:43 +0000

Cinematronics followed up with Space Ace and eventually Dragon’s Lair 2. One of my favorite laserdisc games of that era was Cliff Hanger, which repurposed animation from the anime Lupin the Third.

American Lasergames continued to make these types of games until the 90s. Their games used a light gun, but it was the same principle: shoot the guy or you die. They had a western called Mad Dog McCree and a sci-fi one, which I think was called Space Pirates. I actually interviewed for a job there shortly before they went out of business (dodged a bullet there!).

By: will

will — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 23:11:07 +0000

Oh, I just watched the video (somehow it made it through the work firewall) and yeah. . .he did die pretty horrifically.

By: will

will — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 23:08:09 +0000

Another brilliant article and finally one I can relate to. I think it’s funny that the Dragon’s Lair ‘type’ of gameplay is still used but so hidden because the Chuck E Cheese that was near my house when I was a young lad (so you were, Drey, at that time, at least 28) had a Dragon’s Lair game and it was treated like the plague since more ‘advanced’ games had come out.

I was the only one playing Dragon’s Lair because I liked the look, feel and magic of it. I was always amazed how brutally bad the knight would die though. . .unless I’m thinking of the ‘Finish Him’ moves from Mortal Kombat. Hmmmmm. . .

Anyways, were there any follow-ups to the Dragon’s Lair concept before the masking of that type of gameplay?

Oh and The Force Unleashed used the quicktime effect to overkill and I never felt so useless killing something. It was kind of lame.

By: drey

drey — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 14:51:06 +0000

Yes, I think that most fighting games depend on reflexes and a knowledge of each character’s combos. There is some memorization involved, but the deployment of the combos is still open to the player’s judgment.

By: jenny

jenny — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 09:59:23 +0000

wouldn’t games like soul calibur be considered actual hand-eye co-ordination and quick reflex? it feels like you are actually affecting each movement.