A laserdisc video game is an arcade video game that uses pre-recorded video (either live-action or animation) played from a laserdisc, either as the entirety of the graphics, or as part of the graphics. Centipede by Atari is a typical example of a 1980s era arcade game. ... In film and video, live action refers to works that are acted out by flesh-and-blood actors, as opposed to animation. ... Animation is the technique in which each frame of a film or movie is produced individually, whether generated as a computer graphic, or by photographing a drawn image, or by repeatedly making small changes to a model unit (see claymation and stop motion), and then photographing the result with a... Pioneers LaserDisc Logo The Laserdisc (LD) was the first commercial optical disc storage medium, and was used primarily for the presentation of movies. ...

One of the earliest laserdisc video games was Dragon's Lair: a cartoon played on the screen, and at certain points during the cartoon the player would have to press a specific direction on the joystick or the button to advance the cartoon to the next scene. For instance, in some versions of the game the cartoon begins with a scene of the hero falling through a hole in a drawbridge and being attacked by tentacles. If the player presses the button at this point, the hero fends off the tentacles with his sword, and pulls himself back up out of the hole. If the player fails to press the sword button at the right time, or instead presses a direction on the joystick, the hero is attacked by the tentacles and crushed. Dragons Lair was the first laserdisc video game, released June 1983 by Cinematronics. ... Joystick elements: 1. ...

Subsequent laserdisc video games followed Dragon's Lair's format, with slight variations. Space Ace, made the next year by the same company, added "branching paths" to the formula, in which there were multiple "correct moves" at certain points in the cartoon, and the move the player chose would affect the order of later scenes. Super Don Quix-ote and Esh's Aurunmilla both overlaid crude computer graphics on top of the animation to indicate the correct input to the player. Dragons Lair was the first laserdisc video game, released June 1983 by Cinematronics. ... Space Ace is a Laserdisc arcade game produced by Don Bluth Studios, Cinematronics, and RDI Video Systems. ... Super Don Quix-ote (sp) was a laserdisc video game released by Universal in 1984. ...

Because Dragon's Lair and Space Ace were immensely popular, they spawned a deluge of similar games, despite the astronomical cost of the animation. To cut costs, several companies simply hacked together scenes from obscure (at least to American audiences) Japanese anime, creating games like Cliff Hanger (from Lupin III: Castle of Cagliostro and Lupin III: Mystery of Mamo) and Bega's Battle (from Harmageddon). Dragons Lair was the first laserdisc video game, released June 1983 by Cinematronics. ... Space Ace is a Laserdisc arcade game produced by Don Bluth Studios, Cinematronics, and RDI Video Systems. ... A scene from Cowboy Bebop (1998) Anime (アニメ) is Japanese animation, sometimes billed in the west under the portmanteau Japanimation. ... Cliff Hanger was a comic strip in the UK comic Buster, first appearing in the 25 June 1983 issue. ... Castle of Cagliostro (ルパン三世 カリオストロの城 Rupan sansei: Kariosutoro no shiro 1979) by Japanese anime director and manga artist Hayao Miyazaki is one of the Master thief Lupin III movies. ...

Later laserdisc video games integrated more and more computer graphics with the pre-recorded video; M.A.C.H. 3 and Cube Quest, for instance, were vertical scrolling shooters that used the laserdisc video for the background and computer graphics for the ships.

In the late 1980's, American Laser Games produced a wide variety of live-action light gun laserdisc video games, which played much like the early cartoon games, but used a light gun instead of a joystick to affect the action. American Laser Games was a company based in Albuquerque, New Mexico that created a wide variety of light gun laserdisc video games. ... In film and video, live action refers to works that are acted out by flesh-and-blood actors, as opposed to animation. ... Super Scope, Nintendo´s light gun for the Super Nintendo A light gun is a pointing device for computers and a control device for arcade and video games. ... Super Scope, Nintendo´s light gun for the Super Nintendo A light gun is a pointing device for computers and a control device for arcade and video games. ...

Although laserdiscs have become an obsolete technology, the term "laserdisc video game" is still used to refer to games that feature pre-recorded video as a gameplay element, even if laserdiscs themselves are in no way involved.

External Links

The Dragon's Lair Project: A repository of information about laserdisc video games