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LASERDISC: THE FORGOTTEN GAMING FORMAT

10/10/2018

21 Comments

 
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Created by MCA and Philips, Laserdisc was intended as a new home video format. Though higher quality than VHS or Betamax, it wasn't possible to record on Laserdisc, and its relatively low storage meant that movies often had to be split over two discs.

It's fair to suggest that Laserdisc is now best remembered for its contribution to gaming, a number of well-received arcade games leading to the Full Motion Video interactive movie fad of the early-90s. And  that, boys and girls, is what we shall be discussing today.

Here are the most significant Laserdisc games of all time. So, that's good. 
QUARTER HORSE (1981)
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When I was a child, and my scummy family and I went on holidays to dirty caravan parks, and we went to the filthy clubhouse in the evening, they sometimes showed horse races on a big cinema screen. The awful guests could place bets on the outcome of these pre-recorded races, or something. I never really understood what was going on to be honest. I was too distracted with being so frightfully working-class.

Essentially, Electro Sport's Quarter Horse was the same idea, but holds the distinction of being the first game released on Laserdisc, tantalising arcade owners with the promise of "installing a real racetrack in your amusement area".

​Ha ha; "amusement area".

Electro Sport described itself as "The Rolls Royce of Video Entertainment", which might've been overstating the quality of its products.

​Horse!
ASTRON BELT (1983)
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Sega's Astron Belt was a game about having to purchase something to stop your space trousers falling down... No. Not really - I'm just being whimsical!!!!!

Psyche!

Generally - and mistakenly - regarded as the first Laserdisc arcade game, Astron Belt was nevertheless the first non-gambling laserdisc game. It used original footage from a number of classic sci-fi movies - including Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Roger Corman's Battle Beyond The Stars, and obscure Japanese space opera Message From Space - as a backdrop, atop which a fairly rote shoot 'em up was slathered. 

Though it came out in Japan in 1982, its release in America - via Midway - was delayed due to licensing issues over the movie clips. In the interim, it had been beaten to market by a number of other laserdisc games.
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​Which - ironically - made its trousers fall down! 
BEGA'S BATTLE (1983)
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Not entirely dissimilar to Astron Belt in that it was a relatively standard , Data East's Bega's Battle was based upon the anime IHarmageddon Genma Taisen, whatever that is. It offered clips and backdrops taken from the film. As with the movie, character designs were by Akira creator Katsuhiro Otomo, with a soundtrack from prog rock keyboard legend Keith "The Sheath" Emerson. 
DRAGON'S LAIR (1983)
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The big one. Dragon's Lair is the point at which Laserdisc games became a bona-fide phenomenon. Indeed, it was generally twice the price to play Dragon's Lair as most other games - and most of us were willing to pay it. I even remember the first time I saw it running. It was at local "show", and it had a queue stretching out of the arcade tent.

A few years later, the same show was opened by Bernie Winters and his dog Schnorbitz, and some friends of mine told me that some local toughs had shouted abuse at Bernie and tried to kick Schnorbitz. That has nothing to do with Dragon's Lair, probably.

Created by Rick Dyer, who was inspired by Atari's classic Adventure, it was originally a prototype called The Fantasy Machine. After seeing Sega's Astron Belt, Dyer switched development to more of an interactive movie, with animation from the company founded by ex-Disney animator Don "The Kissin' Booth" Bluth. 

Despite its high cost, and issues with the durability of its hardware, Dragon's Lair almost single-handedly aroused a suffering arcade industry.

​There was a follow-up - escape from Singe's Castle - released on home systems, and an arcade sequel in 1991 which refined the technology. By the point it was released, the market was drowning in Laserdisc games. 
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FIREFOX (1983)
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Based upon the Clint Eastwood movie - which saw him stealing a mind-controlled sausage (fighter jet) - Atari's Firefox was a return to video backdrops, with computer graphics over the top.

Working with the development team, Eastwood re-recorded lines from the movie, and loaned a scale model of the Firefox jet to Atari to be animated into the game. The team sifted through 30-40 hours of footage recorded for the movie's flying sequences, whittling it down into the 30-minutes worth included on the Laserdisc. What lucky punks! 

Though ambitious, it was something of a comedown after playing Dragon's Lair, and thus was Atari's one and only Laserdisc game. 
SPACE ACE (1984)
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The follow-up to Dragon's Lair had a pulp sci-fi plot, but was less well-received - being pretty much more of the same. As with Dragon's Lair, most of the voices featured were provided by members of the animation team, with Don Bluth himself voicing the evil Commander Borf, and animator Jeff "The Wetter" Etter playing the titular Ace. Bluth described the game as being aimed more at "teenagers" than its predecessor. 

Nevertheless, it was popular enough to spawn a short-lived animated TV series. For children. 
MAD DOG MCCREE (1990)
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Created by American Laser Games, the live action Mad Dog McCree succeeded in mixing light gun technology with the pre-recorded video, in a series of quick-draw shoot-outs. The game was filmed in New Mexico, with a local rancher playing various bad guys as well as the title character, and his wife playing one of the saloon drunks.
TIME TRAVELLER (1991)
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Sega's big return to Laserdisc was this weird holographic nonsense, designed by Dragon's Lair creator Rick Dyer. It used a "Pepper's Ghost" effect to make the characters appear as if they were three-dimensional and hovering in space. Unfortunately, while being a head-turner in arcades, the gameplay was limited to Dragon's Lair quick-time-style choices.

Sega reused the hardware for a beat 'em up follow-up, Holosseum, featuring four characters; Chen, Garrison, Dompayagen, and... Dave.

Yes: ​Dave. 
I'M YOUR MAN (1992)
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Strictly speaking not an arcade game, I'm Your Man was an ambitious, 20-minute, interactive movie, created by Loews Theatres. Audiences would vote on plot twists using seat-mounted joysticks. Though 43 cinemas installed Loews' interactive system, the prohibitive cost, and criticisms ranging from the gimmicky nature to the dreadful acting seen in I'm Your Man, eventually led to its demise. 

See also Cineworld's 4DX system, which "improves" the classic movie-going experience by making it feel as if the person behind you is constantly shaking your seat, and spraying his spores into your face.
21 Comments
Andrew Gillett
10/10/2018 11:45:33 am

I remember seeing some kind of FMV driving game in arcades around 1996/7. Never played it, but always wondered how an FMV driving game could possibly work.

Reply
AlexFromDroitwich
10/10/2018 12:17:35 pm

Road Blaster I believe. My older brother had it for the Mega CD. It's just a lot of QTEs but I enjoyed it at the time

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Meatballs-me-branch-me-do
10/10/2018 03:24:55 pm

Road Avenger!

Roadblasters was an actual proper game where you drove along trying to pick up orbs of fuel and shooting at other cars.

RG
10/10/2018 11:46:26 am

"Horse!"

Damn it!

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RichardM
10/10/2018 12:13:10 pm

On behalf of all Richards, I feel I need to speak out against the characterisation of Richards made apparent to me by that picture of Richard in ‘I’m Your Man (1992)’. Richards are people too.

Richards UNITE!

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RG
10/10/2018 03:46:17 pm

With you brother!

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Richard R Richardson
10/10/2018 08:19:47 pm

Amen!

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MENTALIST
10/10/2018 12:25:07 pm

My granny had a horse race betting game that involved vinyl records. The trick was that the lps it came with contained not one, but several parallel grooves, starting from different points on the record, so that it was impossible, for any given track, to know which result the race would give.

That always struck me as a brilliantly inventive analogue technology hack.

Of course nowadays, the Belgian gambling commission would have had my granny thrown in jail for exposing me to such a horror.

Reply
Jules
10/10/2018 01:21:06 pm

I remember playing Time Traveller at Gatwick before a family holiday.
Had no idea what was going on. Yet still wasted about 3 quid.
An almost identical experience to Mad dog McCree...

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Fancy Pant
10/10/2018 01:27:53 pm

What about MACH 3? I seem to remember it being the only LD game that contained any actual gameplay. Could be wrong.

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Muff Driver
10/10/2018 02:15:23 pm

I feel the need to bring attention to The Driver, which was an FMV driving from 1979. It used a loop of 16mm film and I have incredibly fond memories of playing it over and over on some childhood holiday to Clacton.

So... FMV arcade games before laserdisc. Who knew? (Obviously, I did... but did you?)

Anyway, here's a link. Can we post links? https://www.giantbomb.com/the-driver/3030-36607/

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Meatballs-me-branch-me-do
10/10/2018 03:26:48 pm

You should submit that Mad Dog McCree screencap to Viz’s Up The Arse Corner and win £5/a pencil/whatever it is they can afford.

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phil
10/10/2018 04:13:57 pm

I remember playing Dragons Lair, Mad Dog and that time traveller game back in the day. All terrible but mind blowing at the time weren't they. In fact I tell a lie I didn't play the time traveller one I'd spent all my money by that point playing dragons lair for 10 seconds, I just stood and gawped.

So I've been thinking about grabbing one of those pioneer laseractives recently funnily enough, the one you can add a mega drive or pc engine to. It can play a bunch of megadrive LD games...im sure they are all rubbish.

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sonicshrimp
10/10/2018 08:24:26 pm

Mad dog mcgruffin is about to beat his drunk wife with chorizo by the looks of it. That's probably racist.

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Andy Leach
10/10/2018 09:52:39 pm

Nobody has mentioned Super Don Quixote yet. I don't know for sure but it looked like another Don Bluth effort.
Not to be confused with the Nik Kershaw song mind you.

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Da5e
11/10/2018 10:44:36 am

My favourite of the whole bunch of LD games is Time Gal which, brilliantly, was ported properly to Amigas recently: http://pixelglass.org/#timegal

The character has that proper eighties Urusei Yatsura look about her.

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Dan
12/10/2018 09:12:06 pm

Ninja Hayate! Where is Nijna Hayate!!!!!!!

Oh and Time Gal, Road Avenger and Cobra Command!!??

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Steve
13/10/2018 12:09:57 am

I really enjoyed the laser disc light gun games in the arcades. So much so that as a fully grown adult, I convinced a friend to help me make a short demo game of a new and original one for Android phones.

I hope I'm not offending Biffo or anyone else by posting this link where you can take a look should you wish:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dayofthemadman

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Sean
13/2/2020 05:39:06 pm

How can, cliffhanger be left off the list.

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Jt
20/1/2021 09:01:40 pm

Where is CLIFFHANGER??

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Sean
20/1/2021 09:38:08 pm

The lupin video game

Reply



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