This arcade game was a very successful pioneer, melding extremely well-done animation with new LaserDisc technology and funneled that into the emerging technology of arcade games. There’s something about those times when you would go to Chuck E. Cheese and play Dragon’s Lair or see the game somewhere. The whole point of arcade games like this one was to learn the machine enough first to congratulate yourself and also justify all the quarters, and then maybe to show-off the game later. In some ways showing off the game was more than ego-boosting but about showing how great the game actually was to others.
If you want to play the game today, the greatest option is Dragon’s Lair Trilogy for consoles and on PC at GOG. You can get all three Bluth arcade games for a relatively low price, and the visuals are gorgeous. If you’re playing on a PC that’s Mac or Linux, you want to buy the Steam versions. Steam sells the three games separately which comes out costing more, but playing a native version of the game is almost a necessity. The Steam versions seem to be just the Dragon’s Lair Trilogy only separated and expertly ported to Linux and Mac as well. Dragon’s Lair Trilogy also has achievements, and only doesn’t when the platform doesn’t support it like Switch and Wii.
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