Gaming Steve

December 09, 2005

Nintendo DS Port of Dragon's Lair

Dirk the DaringAs many people who regularly read this site probably know that Dragon’s Lair is one of my favorite games of all time. I would really love to replay this game every so often, but good luck trying to find this game in your local arcade (yeah, right) and a PC or console version of the original has never been released. Of course you can buy the game as a DVD and play it on your DVD player or console system, but using a crappy DVD controller just doesn’t cut it in my opinion. Plus, your average DVD player responses aren’t nearly fast enough to simulate the arcade game.

I was recently thinking/hoping that someone would port Dragon's Lair onto the PSP as the large screen and excellent controls would probably make for a near perfect port. I have yet to find a homebrew version of Dragon's Lair for the PSP but I was moderately stunned to find that someone is working on a Nintendo DS port of Dragon's Lair. I would have never even thought of porting this game onto the DS, but in retrospect there is no reason not to think that the DS could do as good of a job as the PSP.

So far they only have the first four levels complete and you'll need to use Neoflash in order for it to work on your DS, but the concept is fantastic and I'd definitely go to any length to get a portable version of Dragon's Lair. I just hope that they finish the entire game ... now someone get working on Space Ace!

Posted by Gaming Steve at 05:30 PM | Comments (8) | Posted to Classic | Portable | Add this story to del.icio.us
Comments

You might want to dig a little deeper on Digital Leisure's site. I'm not sure how well their DVD-ROM versions play on PC's (it says that they require DVD player software), but I do know that they have CD versions that play very well on PC, although the video quality is reduced somewhat (but still better than the DS version). Other than the quality, they are arcade accurate, and also have options to tweak the gameplay.

There's also an emulator for PC called Daphne, and their site has a link to a program that will convert Digital Leisure's DVDs to a format that Daphne can recognize. It plays all the Don Bluth laserdisc games very well.

Now, if someone would just port Daphne to PocketPC, then I would have a portable Dragon's Lair!

Oh, one more thing. Stay away from Digital Leisures so-called Dragon's Lair 3. Its awful. Its just a lot of footage from Dragon's Lair 3D setup up to play like the classic games, but not very well. DL3D, on the other hand is a highly underrated game and a must for fans.

Posted by Mr. Falcon at December 9, 2005 07:53 PM

There is a Dragon's Lair 2 for the PC, I'm pretty sure I own it.
If you want, I'll check for it. Email me.

Jon

Posted by Jon at December 10, 2005 01:06 AM

I have that pc version of dragons lair from Digital Leisure and it works just perfect:)(I bought the one with extra scenes;))

Posted by Red Fish at December 10, 2005 02:21 AM

Btw, it also works with for example Supercard. Just rename the .nds.gba version to .nds..

This is cool stuff.

Posted by Nero at December 10, 2005 10:27 AM

Well, I wanted to correct you gaming steve. . . as mentioned above, There actually is a PC version of Dragon's lair. I own Dragon's lair, and Space Ace. Both came in a regular shrink-wrapped box with AWESOME artwork from the respective games.

These are official and are exact copies of the arcade game. . . Not to mention they are FLIPPIN' SWEET!


Orangemonkey

Posted by Orangemonkey at December 10, 2005 10:33 AM

Wow, all this time and I wasn't aware of an actual PC version of the game itself. I always saw the DVD versions in the store but I'll pick up the proper PC versions right away.

Of course, the ultimate cool would to have the arcade cabinet! That would be freaking cool. Oh, and the portable version would be great as well.

Posted by Gaming Steve at December 10, 2005 10:52 AM

I always by the port and non-port versions of Dragon's Lair. The Dragon's Lair III DVD port of the Dragon's Lair 3-D video game is kind of comical in reverse-technological advances.

I have DL for Gameboy Color. It's low-res with bad sound effects, but a cool thing to have nonetheless. I've noticed some sort of DL on my cell-phone downloads, but I hate any arcade games on cell phone.

Despite the phenomenon of the 80's, I always felt that the future of "laser-disc" games in the DVD market has yet to be tapped. I still can't believe there aren't DVD applications that allow you to random-access movies in any order and allow you to add branching, either twitch and/or text. I currently don't have the programming skills to start that from ground-up. Such a program would not actually edit the movie, just play it back in the DVD-intended feature of Random Access.

And adventure games like Thayer's Quest (recently re-re-released in some sort of DVD format) never hit their stride. But then again, with amazing real-time rendering these days, maybe not necessary. Still, the concept would lend itself well to reading/vocabulary games for those learning. It certainly would help foreign-language education by skipping the silly and fantastic for more conversational and typical.

Just thinking "aloud," I suppose.

Posted by Robb at December 12, 2005 12:38 PM

Hi All,

I'm new here, but have been a Laser Disc Game Fan for years.

The Creator of DAPHNE (Laser Disc Game Emulator) for the PC, is now working on a way to port DAPHNE to a Handheld.
He is using the GP2X from the UK. It is still a work in progress.

Here is where you can find Info. on the GP2X:

http://www.gbax.com/

Here is where you can find Info. on the status of DAPHNE on the GP2X:

https://www.daphne-emu.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1933

Good Luck to All who are trying to Port Laser Disc Games to a Handheld.


Yours Truly,

Tony M. Victorino

End of line...

Posted by Tony M. Victorino at December 22, 2005 07:43 AM
All contents copyright © 2005-2006 Gaming Steve. All Rights Reserved (unless otherwise specified) | |