BILLW@SRI-AI.ARPA@sri-unix.UUCP (08/05/83)
From: William "Chops" Westfield <BILLW@SRI-AI.ARPA>
Dragon's lair does not use computer generated images. Instead,it has
a video disk with real animation on it, tat is computer controlled.
The animation was done by Don Bluth of Disney and Nihm fame...
Here is a relavant news article:
a020 2-Aug-83 08:30
BC-VIDEO 1stadd
NYT HOLLYWOOD: its ending.
''Astron Belt'' uses 25 minutes of special-effects film footage of
planets and space cities on a laser disk as background while the
sequence changes from game to game. The spaceship piloted by the
player is not a part of the film and the game play is similar to many
current shoot-'em-up arcade games, though more realistic.
Until now, movie studios have licensed their movie titles to game
companies, as Walt Disney Studios did with ''Tron,'' or they have
created games using a movie's title and some plot point, as 20th
Century-Fox Games has done with ''9 to 5.'' Sega's ''Star Trek'' game
and Atari's ''Star Wars'' also use synthesized voices repeating
dialogue from the movies. The laser-disk technology, however, will
require movie-making skills.
Sega, which is owned by Paramount Pictures, is already searching
through the Paramount film library for action stock footage for
future laser-disk games. ''But we'll never find exactly what we want,
so we'll also have to go out and shoot a stock car race for a race
game,'' said David Rosen, Sega's chairman.
'' 'Dragon's Lair' is a crack in the door,'' said Don Bluth, its
animator and co-creator. ''We used a musical score written especially
for the game, animators, photographers and script writers.''
Bluth, a former Disney animator, turned to creating ''Dragon's
Lair'' after his $6.2 million full-length animated feature, ''The
Secret of NIMH,'' was a commercial failure last year. He not only
anticipates making considerably more money on ''Dragon's Lair,'' but
he also hopes to help resuscitate an ailing animation industry by
creating five 25-minute laser-disk animated movie games a year.
''We've had 7,300 purchase orders from arcades and distributors on
'Dragon's Lair' since July 1,' '' Bluth said. ''At $4,000 a game,
that's more than $29 million already. We also used 14 animators and
36 artists. Laser-disk games will be an enormous shot in the arm for
the animation industry.''
''The visuals in arcade games will have to take a leap forward,'' he
added. ''No more computer-generated dots and sticks. All the current
machines will be obsolete.''
Rosen of Sega disagrees. ''Laser-disk technology offers the ability
to go into realistic mini-movie adventure-type games, but it won't
make obsolete nonlaser-disk games,'' he said. ''The real problem with
the arcades is economic. Novelty and freshness are very important to
the entertainment industry. Arcades must constantly have innovative
games. But, at $4,000 each, the arcade owners can't afford to buy the
new games they should. The key to survival of the arcades is
convertibility.''
Laser-disk games have convertibility since the games are inscribed
on replaceable disks. The phonograph-recordlike innards can be taken
out and a new game put in without the arcade owner having to buy a
new cabinet. Replacing the game disk and cabinet decals will cost
approximately $1,000. Rosen said Sega will also introduce a new
system next January that will give convertibility to nonlaser-disk
games.
''Dragon's Lair'' has already returned the approximately $3 million
it cost to create and manufacture. Bluth raised $1.2 million. Rich
Dyer, who created the original technology, and Cinematronics, the
machine's manufacturer and distributor, raised the rest.
To convert ''Dragon's Lair'' to home use, Coleco will have to create
some kind of video-disk adapter for its Colecovision game machine.
It is too early to tell whether ''Dragon's Lair'' has what the movie
industry calls ''legs,'' the ability to entice customers month after
month. Although the game has 22 minutes of adventure choices at
approximately one every one and a half seconds, the right choices can
eventually be learned. And the screen disconcertingly blanks out for
a few seconds every time Dirk leaves a room or fights a battle.
Even so, the industry believes that laser-disk video games are
definitely here to stay.
nyt-08-02-83 1123edt
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