Laserdisc video game
Encyclopedia
A laserdisc video game is an arcade game
that uses pre-recorded video (either live-action or animation
) played from a laserdisc
, either as the entirety of the graphics, or as part of the graphics.
's Astron Belt
, an early third-person
space combat
rail shooter featuring live-action full-motion video footage (largely borrowed from a Japanese science fiction film) over which the player/enemy ships and laser fire are superimposed. Developed in 1982, the game's unveiling at the 1982 AMOA show in Chicago marked the beginning of laserdisc fever in the videogame industry, and its release in Japan the following year marked the first commercial release of a laserdisc game. However, its release in the United States was delayed due to several hardware and software bugs, by which time Dragon's Lair had beaten it to public release there.
The first laserdisc game to gain popularity in the United States was Dragon's Lair
in 1983. It contained animated scenes, much like a cartoon
. The scenes would be played back and at certain points during playback the player would have to press a specific direction on the joystick
or the button to advance the game to the next scene, like a quick time event
. For instance, a scene begins with the hero falling through a hole in a drawbridge and being attacked by tentacles. If the player presses the button at this point, the hero fends off the tentacles with his sword, and pulls himself back up out of the hole. If the player fails to press the sword button at the right time, or instead presses a direction on the joystick, the hero is attacked by the tentacles and crushed. Each move of the joystick, however, would produce a few moments of black screen, when the laserdisks switched between either a successful outcome or the death of the character, which interrupted the continuous flow of gameplay found in other videogame graphic systems of the time; this was a common criticism of some players and critics.
Despite the high cost of the animation, a deluge of similar laserdisc video games followed Dragon's Lair because of its immense popularity. To cut costs, several companies simply hacked together scenes from several Japanese anime
movies that were obscure in America at the time, creating games like Cliff Hanger
(from Hayao Miyazaki
's Lupin III: Castle of Cagliostro and Lupin III: Mystery of Mamo
) and Bega's Battle (from Harmagedon), both of which were released roughly around the same time as Dragon's Lair. Later arcade laserdisc games include Freedom Fighter, Badlands
and Space Ace
.
Other laserdisc video games followed the lead of Astron Belt by integrating more and more computer graphics with the pre-recorded video. For example, Funai
's Inter Stellar in 1983 was a forward-scrolling third-person
rail shooter that used computer graphics for the ships and full-motion video for the backgrounds. Similarly, M.A.C.H. 3
and Cube Quest
were vertical scrolling shooters that used the laserdisc video for the background and computer graphics for the ships. The Firefox
arcade game included a Philips Laserdisc player to combine live action video and sound from the Firefox
film with computer generated graphics and sound. The game used a special CAV
Laserdisc containing multiple storylines stored in very short, interleaved segments on the disc. The player would seek the short distance to the next segment of a storyline during the vertical retrace interval by adjusting the tracking mirror, allowing perfectly continuous video even as the player switched storylines under control of the game's computer. This method of seeking was noted for being extremely strenuous on the player and frequently led to the machines breaking, slightly hindering the appeal of laserdisc arcade games. In the 1990s, American Laser Games
produced a wide variety of live-action light gun
laserdisc video games, which played much like the early laserdisc games, but used a light gun
instead of a joystick to affect the action.
Bega's Battle, released by Data East
in 1983, took a different approach and introduced a new form of video game storytelling: using brief full-motion video cut scenes to develop a story between the game's shooting stages. Years later, this would become the standard approach to video game storytelling. Bega's Battle also featured a branching storyline.
Arcade game
An arcade game is a coin-operated entertainment machine, usually installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars, and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, and merchandisers...
that uses pre-recorded video (either live-action or animation
Animation
Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...
) played from a laserdisc
Laserdisc
LaserDisc was a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium. Initially licensed, sold, and marketed as MCA DiscoVision in North America in 1978, the technology was previously referred to interally as Optical Videodisc System, Reflective Optical Videodisc, Laser Optical...
, either as the entirety of the graphics, or as part of the graphics.
History
The first arcade laserdisc game was SegaSega
, usually styled as SEGA, is a multinational video game software developer and an arcade software and hardware development company headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo, Japan, with various offices around the world...
's Astron Belt
Astron Belt
Astron Belt is an early laserdisc video game and third-person space combat rail shooter, released in 1983 by Sega in Japan and licensed to Bally Midway for release in the United States. Developed in 1982, it is commonly cited as the first laserdisc game...
, an early third-person
Third-person shooter
Third-person shooter is a genre of 3D action games in which the player character is visible on-screen, and the gameplay consists primarily of shooting.-Definition:...
space combat
Space flight simulator game
A space flight simulator game is a genre of simulation video games that lets players experience space flight. Highly realistic examples lacking any sort of combat include Orbiter and Microsoft Space Simulator...
rail shooter featuring live-action full-motion video footage (largely borrowed from a Japanese science fiction film) over which the player/enemy ships and laser fire are superimposed. Developed in 1982, the game's unveiling at the 1982 AMOA show in Chicago marked the beginning of laserdisc fever in the videogame industry, and its release in Japan the following year marked the first commercial release of a laserdisc game. However, its release in the United States was delayed due to several hardware and software bugs, by which time Dragon's Lair had beaten it to public release there.
The first laserdisc game to gain popularity in the United States was Dragon's Lair
Dragon's Lair
Dragon's Lair is a laserdisc video game published by Cinematronics in 1983. It featured animation created by ex-Disney animator Don Bluth....
in 1983. It contained animated scenes, much like a cartoon
Cartoon
A cartoon is a form of two-dimensional illustrated visual art. While the specific definition has changed over time, modern usage refers to a typically non-realistic or semi-realistic drawing or painting intended for satire, caricature, or humor, or to the artistic style of such works...
. The scenes would be played back and at certain points during playback the player would have to press a specific direction on the joystick
Joystick
A joystick is an input device consisting of a stick that pivots on a base and reports its angle or direction to the device it is controlling. Joysticks, also known as 'control columns', are the principal control in the cockpit of many civilian and military aircraft, either as a center stick or...
or the button to advance the game to the next scene, like a quick time event
Quick Time Event
In video games, a Quick Time Event is a method of context-sensitive gameplay in which the player performs actions on the control device shortly after the appearance of an on-screen prompt. It allows for limited control of the game character during cut scenes or cinematic sequences in the game...
. For instance, a scene begins with the hero falling through a hole in a drawbridge and being attacked by tentacles. If the player presses the button at this point, the hero fends off the tentacles with his sword, and pulls himself back up out of the hole. If the player fails to press the sword button at the right time, or instead presses a direction on the joystick, the hero is attacked by the tentacles and crushed. Each move of the joystick, however, would produce a few moments of black screen, when the laserdisks switched between either a successful outcome or the death of the character, which interrupted the continuous flow of gameplay found in other videogame graphic systems of the time; this was a common criticism of some players and critics.
Despite the high cost of the animation, a deluge of similar laserdisc video games followed Dragon's Lair because of its immense popularity. To cut costs, several companies simply hacked together scenes from several Japanese anime
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
movies that were obscure in America at the time, creating games like Cliff Hanger
Cliff Hanger (game)
Cliff Hanger was a laserdisc video game released by Stern Electronics in 1983. It used animation from the anime series Lupin III, mostly from The Castle of Cagliostro and scenes from Mystery of Mamo...
(from Hayao Miyazaki
Hayao Miyazaki
is a Japanese manga artist and prominent film director and animator of many popular anime feature films. Through a career that has spanned nearly fifty years, Miyazaki has attained international acclaim as a maker of animated feature films and, along with Isao Takahata, co-founded Studio Ghibli,...
's Lupin III: Castle of Cagliostro and Lupin III: Mystery of Mamo
Mystery of Mamo
The Secret of Mamo, or The Mystery of Mamo, is the most common English name for the 1978 first animated feature film based on the Lupin III character created by Monkey Punch, originally released in Japan as simply and now known there as in order to differentiate it from the four others that...
) and Bega's Battle (from Harmagedon), both of which were released roughly around the same time as Dragon's Lair. Later arcade laserdisc games include Freedom Fighter, Badlands
Badlands (laserdisc video game)
is a 1984 laserdisc video game developed and published for the arcades by a Japanese company, Konami. In the vein of Dragon's Lair, the game lets its players navigate through various animated sequences by pressing a single button at a precise moment...
and Space Ace
Space Ace
Space Ace is a laserdisc video game produced by Don Bluth Studios, Cinematronics, and Advanced Microcomputer Systems...
.
Other laserdisc video games followed the lead of Astron Belt by integrating more and more computer graphics with the pre-recorded video. For example, Funai
Funai
Funai Electric is a Japanese consumer electronics company headquartered in Daitō, Osaka. The company was founded in 1961. It owns the subsidiary Funai Corporation, Inc., established in the United States since 1991, to market and maintain Funai-licensed brands such as Sylvania, Emerson Radio,...
's Inter Stellar in 1983 was a forward-scrolling third-person
Third-person shooter
Third-person shooter is a genre of 3D action games in which the player character is visible on-screen, and the gameplay consists primarily of shooting.-Definition:...
rail shooter that used computer graphics for the ships and full-motion video for the backgrounds. Similarly, M.A.C.H. 3
M.A.C.H. 3
M.A.C.H. 3 was a laserdisc video game created by Gottlieb and released in the U.S. in 1983 under their Mylstar brand. The title refers both to the speed of sound, and is an acronym for "Military Air Command Hunter"...
and Cube Quest
Cube Quest
Cube Quest is an arcade game released by Simutrek Inc. in 1983. It combines 3-D polygonal graphics with laserdisc-streamed, animated backgrounds -Gameplay:...
were vertical scrolling shooters that used the laserdisc video for the background and computer graphics for the ships. The Firefox
Firefox (arcade game)
Firefox is a single player arcade laserdisc game based on the 1982 Clint Eastwood movie of the same name. It was produced by Atari in 1984 and was Atari's only laserdisc game...
arcade game included a Philips Laserdisc player to combine live action video and sound from the Firefox
Firefox (film)
Firefox is a 1982 American action film produced, directed by and starring Clint Eastwood. It is based upon the 1977 novel of the same name written by Craig Thomas....
film with computer generated graphics and sound. The game used a special CAV
Constant angular velocity
In optical storage, constant angular velocity is a qualifier for the rated speed of an optical disc drive, and may also be applied to the writing speed of recordable discs...
Laserdisc containing multiple storylines stored in very short, interleaved segments on the disc. The player would seek the short distance to the next segment of a storyline during the vertical retrace interval by adjusting the tracking mirror, allowing perfectly continuous video even as the player switched storylines under control of the game's computer. This method of seeking was noted for being extremely strenuous on the player and frequently led to the machines breaking, slightly hindering the appeal of laserdisc arcade games. In the 1990s, American Laser Games
American Laser Games
American Laser Games was a company based in Albuquerque, New Mexico that created a wide variety of light gun laserdisc video games. The company was founded in the late 1980s by Robert Grebe, who had originally created the system to train police officers under the company name ICAT , and adapted the...
produced a wide variety of live-action light gun
Light gun
A light gun is a pointing device for computers and a control device for arcade and video games.Modern screen-based light guns work by building a sensor into the gun itself, and the on-screen target emit light rather than the gun...
laserdisc video games, which played much like the early laserdisc games, but used a light gun
Light gun
A light gun is a pointing device for computers and a control device for arcade and video games.Modern screen-based light guns work by building a sensor into the gun itself, and the on-screen target emit light rather than the gun...
instead of a joystick to affect the action.
Bega's Battle, released by Data East
Data East
also abbreviated as DECO, was a Japanese video game developer and publisher. The company was in operation from 1976 to 2003, when it declared bankruptcy...
in 1983, took a different approach and introduced a new form of video game storytelling: using brief full-motion video cut scenes to develop a story between the game's shooting stages. Years later, this would become the standard approach to video game storytelling. Bega's Battle also featured a branching storyline.
See also
- Interactive movieInteractive movieAn interactive movie is a video game that features highly cinematic presentation and heavy use of scripting, often through the use of full-motion video of either animated or live-action footage.-Philosophy:...
- LaserActivePioneer LaserActiveThe Pioneer LaserActive was a short-lived Laserdisc-based game console released by Pioneer in 1993. In addition to LaserActive games, separately sold add-on modules expanded the hardware to include compatibility with the Sega Mega Drive/Sega Genesis and PC Engine/TurboGrafx 16 game cartridges and...
- Halcyon Game SystemHalcyon (console)The Halcyon was a home video game console released in January of 1985 by RDI Video Systems. The initial retail price for the system was USD$2500, and it featured a laserdisc player and attached computer, each the size of an early-model VCR. Only two games were released for the system before RDI...
- FMV-based game
External links
- The Dragon's Lair Project: A repository of information about laserdisc video games
- "Laser Daze", from The Dot Eaters: Videogame History 101