Space Ace
Developer:	Cinematronics
Publisher:	Cinematronics
Release date:	1983
Genre:	Action Interactive Movie
Game modes:	Up to 2 players, alternating turns
Cabinet:	Standard
Controls:	Joystick, 1 button
Monitor
Orientation:	Horizontal
Type:	Raster, standard resolution
Size:	?
Notes
Developed during the Golden Age of Arcade Games

Space Ace is a Laserdisc video game produced by Don Bluth Studios, Cinematronics, and RDI Video Systems. It was released in October 1983, just four months after the Dragon's Lair game, and like its predecessor featured film-quality animation played back from a Laserdisc. The gameplay too is similar, requiring the player to move the joystick or press the fire button at key moments in the animated sequences to govern the hero's actions. Image File history File links Screenshot from the first playable scene of the Space Ace arcade game. ... A video game developer is a software developer (a business or an individual) that creates computer or video games. ... Cinematronics was a pioneering console and arcade game developer that had its heyday in the era of vector display games. ... Video game publishers are companies that publish video games that they have either developed internally or have had developed by a video game developer. ... Cinematronics was a pioneering console and arcade game developer that had its heyday in the era of vector display games. ... 1983 (MCMLXXXIII) is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... This is a listing of computer and video game genres with brief descriptions and examples from each genre. ... This is a listing of computer and video game genres with brief descriptions and examples from each genre. ... For other uses, see Joystick (disambiguation). ... Suppose the smiley face in the top left corner is an RGB bitmap image. ... In Space Invaders, the player controls the firing and horizontal position of the green cannon at the bottom, fending off constant attack by echelons of eponymous enemies. ... 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. ... Donald Virgil Bluth (born September 13, 1937) is a former Disney animator who, along with fellow animators Gary Goldman and John Pomeroy, set out on his own in 1979 to start his own animation studio, Don Bluth Productions. ... Cinematronics was a pioneering console and arcade game developer that had its heyday in the era of vector display games. ... 1983 (MCMLXXXIII) is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Dragons Lair was one of the first laserdisc video games, released June 1983 by Cinematronics. ... 12 frames per second is the typical rate for an animated cartoon. ... Pioneers LaserDisc Logo Laserdisc certification mark The laserdisc (LD) was the first commercial optical disc storage medium, and was used primarily for the presentation of movies. ...

Overview

Space Ace follows the adventures of the musclebound hero Ace. At the start of the game, the villainous Commander Borf attacks Ace with the "Infanto Ray", a weapon that transforms him into an adolescent version of himself, and kidnaps his girlfriend Kimberley. It is up to the player to guide Dexter, as the younger version of Ace is referred to, through a series of obstacles in pursuit of Borf in order to rescue Kimberley and prevent Borf using the Infanto Ray to conquer Earth. The game's attract sequence introduces the player to the story via the following narration and dialogue: Earth is the third-closest planet to the Sun. ...

Narrator: Space Ace: Defender of justice, truth and the planet Earth! Ace is being attacked by the evil Commander Borf.

Ace: Hold your fire! [to Kimberley] Who is that creep?

Kimberley: Borf!

Borf: Earthlings must surrender to me!

Ace: No way, Borf, ol' buddy!

[Borf shoots Ace; Ace turns into a child]

Ace: Aargh! I've been hit!

Kimberley: By the Infanto Ray!

Borf: Earthlings must surrender to me!

Narrator: Struggle with Dexter to regain his manhood. Destroy the Infanto Ray. Defeat the evil Borf.

Ace: Hey, Borf! [laughs] C'mon, Kimberley, let's go!

[Borf shoots Ace]

Ace: I've been hit! [turns into child again] Aargh!

Narrator: Be valiant, space warrior, the fate of Earth is in your hands!

Like Dragon's Lair, the gameplay of Space Ace requires the player to move the joystick in the right direction or press the fire button at the right moment in order to avoid the various hazards Ace/Dexter faces. Space Ace introduced a few gameplay enhancements, most notably selectable skill levels and multiple paths through several of the scenes. At the start of the game the player could select one of three skill levels; "Cadet", "Captain" or "Ace" for easy, medium and hard respectively - only by choosing the toughest skill level could the player see all the sequences in the game (only around half the scenes are played on the easiest setting). A number of the scenes had "multiple choice" moments when the player could choose how to act, sometimes by choosing which way to turn in a passageway, or by choosing whether or not to react to the on-screen "Energize!" message and transform back into Ace. For example, in the first scene of the game, Dexter is escaping from Borf's robot drones, and if the player presses the fire button at the right moment, Dexter transforms temporarily back into Ace and can fight them, whereas if the player chooses to stay as Dexter they must dodge the robots' drill attacks instead.

Development

The animation for Space Ace was produced by the same team that tackled the earlier Dragon's Lair, headed by ex-Disney animator Don Bluth. To keep the production costs down, the studio again chose to use its staff to provide voices for the characters rather than hire actors. Don Bluth himself provides the (digitally altered) voice of Commander Borf. The game's animation features some rotoscoping, wherein models were built of Ace's spaceship "Star Pac", his motorcycle, and the tunnel in the game's dogfight sequence, then filmed and traced over to render moving animated images with very realistic depth and perspective. The Walt Disney Company (most commonly known as Disney) (NYSE: DIS) is one of the largest media and entertainment corporations in the world. ... Donald Virgil Bluth (born September 13, 1937) is a former Disney animator who, along with fellow animators Gary Goldman and John Pomeroy, set out on his own in 1979 to start his own animation studio, Don Bluth Productions. ... A rotoscope is a device that enables animators to trace live action movement, frame by frame, for use in animation. ...

Technical

Space Ace was made available to distributors in two different formats; a dedicated cabinet, and a conversion kit that could be used to turn an existing copy of Dragon's Lair into a Space Ace game. The conversion kit included the Space Ace laserdisc, new EPROMs containing the game program, an additional circuit board to add the skill level buttons, and replacement artwork for the cabinet. The game originally used the Pioneer LD-V1000 or PR-7820 laserdisc players, but an adaptor kit now exists to allow Sony LDP series players to be used as replacements if the original player is no longer functional. An EPROM, or erasable programmable read-only memory, is a type of computer memory chip that retains its data when its power supply is switched off. ... Pioneer Corporation is a world leader in digital entertainment products, based in Tokyo, Japan. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

Legacy

A short-lived cartoon series based on Space Ace was produced, and was aired as part of the Saturday Supercade cartoon block, which was composed of cartoon shorts based on current video games. Twelve Space Ace episodes were produced. Saturday Supercade was a Saturday morning television cartoon series produced by Ruby-Spears Productions. ...

Numerous versions of Space Ace were created for home computers and game systems, most of which attempted to mimic the arcade version's lushly animated graphics, with varying degrees of success. A sequel, Space Ace II: Borf's Revenge was created for the PC.

In 1991, Leland Corp. released a slightly updated version of Space Ace in the form of a conversion kit for the then recently-released Dragon's Lair II: Time Warp. The updated version added more complicated moves (including diagonal moves), and dropped the easier skill levels, meaning only the "Ace" (difficult) level could be played.

The Dragon's Lair Deluxe Pack released by Digital Leisure Inc. featured Space Ace along with both arcade Dragon's Lair games. They also released a version of Space Ace on DVD that could be played on most DVD players, although it lacked the skill level select of the arcade version, and also played somewhat differently (if the player made a mistake on the arcade version they simply picked up again roughly where they left off, whereas the DVD version forced the player to replay the entire scene from the beginning).

Like Dragon's Lair, a comic book mini series incorporating elements from both the game and cartoon series (such as Ace randomly changing into Dexter and back, instead of "energizing" back into Ace as in the game), as well as new features (like Borf's brother, Commander Gorf, being the main villain) was printed in 2003 by Crossgen Publishing.

External links

• Dragon's Lair Project entry on Space Ace
• The KLOV entry on Space Ace
• The Dot Eaters entry on Space Ace and the laser game craze