Arcade Files · 🕹️ Mid-'80s classics

G33Z3R Arcade Files · 19831986

Why did Dragon's Lair cost 50 cents?

Dragon's Lair

Released
1983
Made by
Cinematronics; animation by Don Bluth's studio
How it played
A laserdisc plays a cartoon; you press the right direction or sword at the right moment or Dirk dies
Price then
50 cents, double the going rate; it still earned over $30 million in months

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The file

A cartoon you could barely control. Dragon's Lair played a Don Bluth animated film off a laserdisc and killed Dirk the Daring in a dozen elaborate ways every time your timing was off. Crowds stood three deep to watch.

It was the first game that looked like the future and the last that anyone thought was fun for more than a week. The laserdisc players broke constantly. It's in the Smithsonian now.

Sources: Wikipedia — Dragon's Lair (1983 video game)

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