Thayer's Quest was a laserdisc adventure game

Laserdisc video game

A laserdisc video game is an arcade game that uses pre-recorded video played from a laserdisc, either as the entirety of the graphics, or as part of the graphics.-History:...

 released by RDI Video Systems

RDI Video Systems

RDI Video Systems was a video game company founded by Rick Dyer originally as "Advanced Microcomputer Systems", and was well known for its Laserdisc video games, beginning with the immensely popular Dragon's Lair...

 in 1984

1984 in video gaming

-Notable releases:* May 10, King's Quest , the first animated adventure game, the first in the King's Quest series, and the first to use the AGI engine.* June 4, Nintendo releases Donkey Kong 3...

 as a game for their Halcyon console

Halcyon (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...

, computer and laserdisc player, but was later released as a conversion kit for 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....

arcade consoles when the Halcyon's high price tag damaged its appeal.

Plot

The player controls Thayer, an apprentice magician on a quest to recover the five magical relics that make up the Hand of Quoid ("kwod") before the evil wizard Sorsabal can find them and cement his rule over the five kingdoms. During the game, Thayer only visits three of the kingdoms and finds their relics.

Gameplay

The game was fully animated like Dragon's Lair but required more than simply choosing when to fight or which way to dodge in accordance with the animation. Instead the player had full control over Thayer's movement to different areas and was required to find and use a variety of magical objects to overcome enemies and obstacles like in most later graphic adventure games.

Sequels and rereleases

A sequel incorporating the rest of Thayer's journey was planned, but the company went bankrupt before it could be completed. In the mid-1990's, Thayer's Quest was released to home computers and CD-based consoles titled Kingdom: The Far Reaches, with the characters' names changed (Thayer became Lathan Kandor, Sorsabal became Torlock, etc., because creator Rick Dyer thought the original character and names were "too 70's") and additional animation and puzzles. In 1998 Kingdom 2: Shadoan was released, including the final two kingdoms and the final battle with Torlock. In 2005 the original Thayer's Quest was released as a DVD

DVD

A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

 video game by Digital Leisure

Digital Leisure

Digital Leisure, Inc. is a Canadian publisher of software. The company formed in 1997 with the vision to acquire, remaster, and publish numerous classic video-based arcade games such as Dragon's Lair, Dragon's Lair II: Time Warp and Space Ace. These three games were among the first to use...

, Inc. (true to the original Halcyon version) and could be played on an ordinary DVD player using the remote control. Thayer's Quest was also released for CD-ROM

CD-ROM

A CD-ROM is a pre-pressed compact disc that contains data accessible to, but not writable by, a computer for data storage and music playback. The 1985 “Yellow Book” standard developed by Sony and Philips adapted the format to hold any form of binary data....

by Digital Leisure, Inc.

External links

• Dragon's Lair Project - Information on various Laserdisc games
• Daphne Emulator web page - Emulator of laser games
• The Dot Eaters article featuring a history of Thayer's Quest and the 1980s laser game craze.