Dragon's Lair (1983) | Full playthrough

Haven't heard of Dragon's Lair?! Well, you play the heroic Dirk the Daring, a valiant knight on a quest to rescue the fair princess from the clutches of an evil dragon! Originally released in the summer of 1983, Dragon's Lair has solidified itself as a cultural icon in gaming. Get it on Steam ► store.steampow...
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Dragon's Lair Description:
Dragon's Lair is a laser-disc video game published by Cinematronics in 1983 as the first game in the Dragon's Lair series. In the game, the protagonist Dirk the Daring is a knight attempting to rescue Princess Daphne from the evil dragon Singe who has locked the princess in the foul wizard Mordroc's castle. It featured animation by ex-Disney animator Don Bluth.
Developer: Advanced Microcomputer Systems
Publisher: Cinematronics
Engine: Unity (Re-release)
Platform: MS-DOS, Arcade, Amiga, Apple IIGS, 3DO, CD-i, Jaguar CD
Release: 9 Jun, 1983
Mode: Single-player

[@dankoftinoff8119]

for all the young kids out there, you cannot believe how amazing this game was at the time!

[@michaelexman5474]

alazingly difficult you could put 500$ in quarters threw this thing and not reach the end!!! the old geazer that ran the arcade was good at it though!!!

[@charcharb.2833]

Honestly this game is still amazing. Must have been a blast back then☺️

[@kayodephillips5435]

Yeah this was awesome back in our time

[@dankoftinoff8119]

@@kayodephillips5435 we lived in a small town but was lucky to have an arcade that brought Dragon's Lair in (along with Cliff Hanger another great Laser disc game). I was awful at it until a lady came in who knew how to play and could defeat it. Well 12 year old me would take notes watching her do all the moves and eventually was able to finally complete the game after mega $$ spent :)

[@ineveraskedtosee9659]

True story

[@davidhenry8137]

I loved this game! Watched Larry Nashinski, played this game every day in the 1980s, and would go home and dream about Dragons Lair. Believe it took me 5 dollars to finally beat the dragon. Back then, 5 dollars was a lot of money. Cut grass, recycled papers, collected beer cans, and sold them. Had a journal route, had rummage sales worked at Van Becks tree farm. Life was good lived 2 miles from lake Michigan in a small city named Cudahy in Wisconsin 15 minutes from Milwaukee and 2 hours away from Chicago. The 80's. First concert was Kizz, 2nd Rush, 3rd Reo Speedwagon.

[@katiejoy4730]

In 1983-84 I was 13, and this game was the most amazing & advanced game out there!! The only other things I played at the time were Zork (which was amazing), Ms.PAC Man, Burger Time, Qbert, Centipede & Asteroids!

[@stevensnyder7149]

Did you ever play Joust !

[@stanamilanovich3956]

​@@stevensnyder7149 Joust was the best.

[@confucius12012]

Remember Space Ace? Same type of game that came out about a year later. If I remember correctly these were the first video games that would cost you 2 quarters to play. I was 11 years old, what a time to be young.

[@JayJay-iv4xq]

I must have spent a small fortune on this game. I watched the veterans over and over, asked them questions, and finally could make it all the way through. You literally had to memorize every move and react fast. One slip, one moment of hesitation, and you were done. Still hate those mudmen or whatever they are. Even knowing the moves, I would have problems. Nice memories but probably should have invested in apple computer with my quarters. The first mac came out about the same time.

[@natlegend]

It's literally a 10 minute quicktime event, fiendishly difficult.

[@gfernandez9285]

U wouldnt be able to play this on a mac from back then, maybe 1 frame a second

[@apaskevi]

@@gfernandez9285 he meant investing in Apple stocks

[@RealLifeFinance]

Bwahahaha I dumped at least $200 in that game. Invested in Apple it would be over $500,000

[@beetleboy7216]

Showed my dad this and it brought a tear to his eye. He remembered every level

[@ineveraskedtosee9659]

I'm guessing he was a teenager too when this game came out?

[@aaroncoberg68]

The absolute most expensive game in the arcade in it's day. Love it.

[@Bhavyo]

First saw it on holidays with my parents in the early 80's in italy. I was so fascinated from the graphics, which was absolutely off the charts for 1983. Ok, it was all scripted, but anyway, it was special back then. The graphic style still has some charme 2019!

[@LudwigSC93]

Brings back some great memories. I remember back in 83 playing it so much (quarter after quarter) I was able to play the end scene with my hands behind my back :)

[@isitmondayet]

$0.50 per play in my neighborhood. Worth it!

[@menonunya2984]

I remember this game at the arcade and think I tried to play it once, but it cost a fortune, so I just stuck to my Asteroids and Missile Command. It was WAY ahead of its time, with the cartoon characters, in a time long before video games had any real graphics. Most characters were barely advanced beyond pixel versions of stick men. Always remembered the name "Dirk the Daring" because I remember always walking past it thinking how, if i were rich, I'd play it. Unfortunately, the game cost a buck, when all the other games were still just a quarter.

[@RealLifeFinance]

Yup 50c a play and when you died you died

[@stevensnyder7149]

It cost either 50 cents or $1.00? Other games were half that or 1/4?

[@LM-lb6tl]

Lost a bag full of quarters and still had a blast playing this game - I remember that whenever you messed up and died it was usually a funny cut scene.

[@travisksouthpaw4671]

First game that my dad showed me when I was 2 -3 years old. I was playing this shit in 1992 lol.... RIP dad...

[@shammer427]

Skipping school to play this, wound up in the Navy because of it. Retired 20 years later.

[@davidc4233]

1983 was Army Infantry at Ft. Stewart, GA.....loved this game and took a lot of $$$ but finally figured all the moves out. Probably spent $500 playing this while there. Last time I played it was probably 1985-86 in Ft. Wayne, IN. I'm watching this now for the first time, memories. Thanks for putting this up on you tube!

[@walkercopeland842]

Fort Wayne represent!

[@ineveraskedtosee9659]

For everyone born after the 80's have no idea how magical the 80's where! To me it was the last great decade in this country!

[@FLYBOY-eh5th]

Graphics are spot on with the movie Heavy Metal.

[@robertholtz]

Thins brings back some great memories of youth. Thank you for posting. The other thing this video confirms is how significant the sound design was to the success of the game. Bravo.

[@WarpingAround]

Dropped a fortune but when i finally beat this game a small crowd cheered! it was a big deal on its day, and pretty tough. loved seeing it again!

[@travist7777]

I remember staying up all night trying to get a perfect score. I think you had to get to the very end and die, then start over from the beginning (?), or the start of the last level, then get to the end and die again. I did it, finally, and a few dudes were around watching the whole thing and congratulated me. I learned by watching those post-high school "losers" playing it at the local 7-Eleven. It was a fun, yet totally meaningless accomplishment. Great memories! Thanks for posting!

[@isitmondayet]

No... play all the way thru to win. At some point the game started over (don't recall if ALL the way back to the very beginning - outside the castle) but at that point everything was a mirror image from the beginning (left was right, etc.)

[@garrymejia6402]

Thanks for sharing! I had a friend who’s mother owned a mini market where they had DigDug, Gauntlet & Dragons Lair. We spent so much time on these games that we were able to pass Dragons Lair with one credit. Great game!

[@Cormac_1337]

I remember the TV commercials for this when it came out...looked amazing. When my local arcade got one, I was one of the first to play. It cost 50 cents and I played it a total of 2 times. It was the most disappointing gaming experiences of my childhood. It was more like watching a slightly interactive cartoon than playing an actual video game. It never got popular in my town and the game quietly disappeared from my arcade a few months later.

[@davidheck9542]

Wow. Seeing this after 35 years

[@christopherplummer7766]

I remember as a kid, we had our birthday parties at the arcade. Back when the only way you could play games with awesome graphics was in the arcade. Now no one has to leave their bedroom to play games with amazing graphics and play with your friends anywhere on the planet. Convenient, but not the same as feeling the thrill and excitement of walking into the arcade.

[@chingompiew1]

Arcades were magical. They were literally another world.

[@georgeshelton6281]

This was definitely the award winning laser disk game. In the video games news magazine, the reporter showed a map of the castle for the player to guide Dirk the daring through. Dragons Lair 2 the Time Warp is even harder. 🐉

[@mariepaul2756]

I remember this back in 1983 I was 9 years old !!!!

[@John.Angell]

Same.

[@harveyvlach6752]

It's amazing that this game is from 1983. If you search for "1983 video games", nothing come close as far as the graphics. I remember trying to play this game a few times when I was a kid and it kicked my ass each time and I don't think that I was able to get past the first screen. I didn't bother to feed the machines with quarters because it seemed like it was broken!

[@iamayzil8105]

2019 and Daphne is still hot.

[@imcarlosjr4898]

Ok

[@arthurok327]

Agreed my Friend, Peace

[@bengier8889]

Ryan Reynolds in talks to play the main character in a live action movie adaptation 😳

[@GAZArts]

That’s super interesting but also so random lol

[@luisthekingjaime94]

Why not a live action Anastasia

[@luisthekingjaime94]

@@imcarlosjr4898 that's what they said

[@imcarlosjr4898]

Okay

[@luisthekingjaime94]

@@imcarlosjr4898 even the creator of the game Don bluth came to Netflix and then they bought the rights to his game to make until live action movie

[@rogerhendrickson6348]

I remember wasting so many quarters on this game. I never got that far but I watched others get a ways but never saw the end. Kinda felt great to see the end and how it works.

[@valestiaaa]

Bro I don't understand how I lost at this so many times as a child, this game was so simple😂

[@nakas999]

it's the timing, not just knowing the moves

[@curbcreature666]

Such great teen memories..i remember mortal kobat "sub zero" was a similar "perspective" type game on playstation..played both these for hours..what a trip.

[@cider3593]

HS memories, playing early in the morning. Best days.

[@jackjones298]

3:03 The Black Knight is my favorite because of his subtle evil laugh. "heh eh eh" And he's progressive and runs on 100% renewable energy.

[@BB-2383]

You had to press those damn buttons so fast or else it was game over - and another quarter.

[@GeneJordan]

Thanks for posting this. I was just telling an intern at work about it. He didn't understand the significance of it on "Stranger Things". My local hackerspace, Arch Reactor in St. Louis, Missouri just added the game to our MAME Arcade Cabinet.

[@davetriplett8109]

I didnt have a small fortune to try to beat this game, all that precise timed moves..... how did people do it???

[@govetter]

After Atari 2600 Training. It was all about persistence AND LOTS of QUARTERS! LOL

[@in-cell1567]

what a amazing game considering it has been made in 80's

[@nachois]

Shut up, this videogame is from 1983??!! Damm! I always thought it was from the mid 90s! I'm in shock, how did they manage to do this when every other videogame out there had so basic 8bit graphics!

[@hiapom9590]

Real blast from the past. Thanks for sharing this. Never made it far past the elevator thing as this game was such a quarter eater. Being on a limited game budget didn't help.

[@nofusscioppino]

OK, this blew my mind when I first saw it. I think it was 50 or 75 cents when everything else was 25 cents. It is *still* an amazing game. The death scenes alone are significant because you can die on every screen. Joust, Defender, Centipede, Ms. PacMan were all great, but this game ruled them all in terms of graphics. I still like the sound of Williams games like Joust and Defender. There is something about the sound of an arcade game vibrating the floor that is difficult to replicate on my kid's iPad.

[@Jiffschwazz]

The machine was always broken or bent easily. That’s why as a kid you could never beat it. You usually couldn’t even get past the first level

[@austinwalkers214]

This game was light years ahead of the competition.

[@natlegend]

This game is literally one big quicktime event...

[@GAZArts]

I think this was the first quicktime event

[@arthurok327]

Very Cool memories of going to the arcade, in fact the only arcade we had in town, my favorite games were " GORF, PACMAN, ASTRIODS, JOIST " and so many others I can't remember the names of, growing up on a farm, 12 miles from town, I didn't get to many opportunities to stop by the arcade, but when " Dragons Lair " came to town, I saved up my loonies to play it, my #1 most all time favorite game, I still play it today, there was another Cool cartoon game " Space Boy " if I remember correctly, another really Cool, Cartoon game !! Thank you for the trip down memory lane my Friend, Peace ✌⚡❤ Edit: could be " Space ace " the other cartoon game I'm thinking of...??

[@urb4nviking219]

Should have bought stock in this company.....Pretty sure I spent $10,000 dollars in quarters trying to get to the end.

[@IAmValenwind]

...you would've lost it all. don bluth was an artistic genius, but a crappy businessman.

[@mauricesanchez6804]

I remember when I got my first computer with Intel Pentium processor and MMX technology. I always wanted this game but my parents couldn't afford to buy me games at the time.

[@gunnarbiker]

Hardest game ever made! I wasted a LOT of quarters back in the day!

[@bridypow1947]

i cant believe i found this-- merrit square mall fl where I first played it-- wow-

[@huntersthompson4075]

Whoa. Flashbacks!

[@tsarrite]

Played this on my Amiga 500 after spending too much in the arcade.

[@valuedhumanoid6574]

This was the center piece of the arcade. 3 tries for $1. I had a stack of graph paper that I would chart the sequence while watching players. Up, up, right, sword, down, left…until I had the sequence figured out. And even then I had trouble with the timing. The original arcade game gave you 1.5 second window for the proper command. Too early or late and you failed. I can’t tell you how many Dirks death scenes I watched…

[@christopherhakim7568]

BEST GAME EVER!!!!!! 😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮

[@christianmagoon5968]

DRAGON'S LAIR 2: TIME WARP (1983) | Full playthrough / Full Game / 1 Life Clear / All Items / Original, and Director's Cut

[@anthony_jon.2250]

Year 2022 and this is outstanding!

[@John.Angell]

Must have watched 100 people play this game and one person won it once. Thought it was a lot longer than this!

[@saintarchangel9547]

I don't understand...I was born in 83 so kinda missed this lol. It literally looked like an animated cartoon like this? How'd they do that with so few bits back then? Lol guess it was different tech or something idk??

[@ishmaelbyrd6237]

Love this game and CLIFF HANGER

[@From-North-Jersey]

Between Princess Daphne and the Bride of Pinbot the arcade was a rather sultry place.

[@TheBigb1973]

I have the other HD version. I converted it for Daphne emulator. Looks brand new!!

[@michaelbooher612]

Yeah At like .50 cents a play.. Ha ha ha ha ha ha I never got past the first couple scenes.. That was totally awesome Thank you

[@billherbert4961]

This game was so amazing in its efficiency for sucking all of ones quarters completely. It was impossible to play. But because it had the absolute state of the art graphics it had our quarters anyway. Actually, I think this game was 50 cents to play. For my money Joust and Pole Position were the better games by far.

[@hectorlamar806]

I made it through this game after many coins. Now Space Ace was a different matter.

[@shubhsjbp]

Whaaat !! these are graphics in 1983 ... amazing, wondering what hardware would be requried to play this

[@RandySasquatch]

its just a laserdisc and it loads various scenes based on if you hit the button in time. It's basically a remote control

[@shubhsjbp]

@@RandySasquatch yeah that explains a lot, wondering the super-fast seek times of those LD devices 4 decades back

[@davidczajkowski5956]

I remember trying to play this when I was like 8-9 years old and was like WTF…dead in two minutes. Love to try and play it again. But there was definitely nothing even close to this level at the time…maybe original punch-out was the next step at real graphics.

[@sindobrandnew]

6:43 I thought all those levels are randomized every gameplay, maybe I was wrong.🤣

[@Glitch1718]

Ain't no way, this gotta be and animated series or smthn

[@grilledflatbread4692]

How many quarters did it take to get to this point?

[@GAZArts]

This was recorded from the PC version so none, if it had been the arcade version... enough to make me declare myself bankrupt.

[@JoeConlin]

God knows how much I spent to reach the end of this game.

[@Kurukx]

FFS I finally got around to watching this play through. I dont no how many coins I put into this stupid ass game as a kid :( It was basicly unbeatable without unlimited coins (micro transactions)

[@awkwardarchre509]

Looks like a cool game, they should expand and revamp it, I’d play it. And looks like Thumbelina was modeled after the town prostitu- I mean, princess. Her hair makes me think of that old kid’s movie

[@choppersgirl6236]

I stole money to play this game, it was worth it, :)

[@ineveraskedtosee9659]

I was terrible at this game when I came out, you would put a quarter in and the game would be over in seconds.

[@ghettobat1097]

Lost so many quarters at this game! Think it was actually $.50 to play back then.

[@tdickensheets]

Now on Blu-ray DVD.

[@melissamedinaquiles9396]

incredible

[@CEngelbrecht]

Man, 'tis dangerous in that there cassle!

[@daviderancati9106]

Bellissimo ❤

[@shawno66]

I must have spent $1000 in quarters on this game and still lost horribly.

[@dwaindibbley1965]

Did anyone else find the cheat? I seem to remember that if Player 2 completed the game with two remaining lives, then player 1 had unlimited lives to complete the game.

[@ThomasDickensheets]

I was 22 years old.

[@kennethbibbee9450]

The arcade version I used to play didn't have those directional assist arrows. We had no hints whatsoever. What version is this?

[@GAZArts]

Pc version, steam specifically

[@kennethbibbee9450]

@@GAZArts It lets you cheat with prompts lol

[@vetterburns1048]

I pumped quarters into that game until I finished it!

[@TheBigb1973]

.50 a pop too

[@JorgeVega-ze5cy]

Arcade 1 up got a version releasing soon

[@almendrabazanlecca706]

I saw a post on reddit saying that dark souls copied this game, i know its a joke i just wanna put me in some context and still dont get it. but its seems to be a fun game anyway.

[@zenzeki2662]

I'm studying some older games for my games and culture lecture, and this game is amazing for its time, but also why is princess daphne exaggerated to be that feminine lmao

[@riccardopedini8509]

Thanks 💔💕💓

[@minimatterspodcast]

I don't understand how this is a game? Do u just have to hit the directions or attack?

[@GAZArts]

Every time you hear a "beep" an arrow appears on the screen and you have to press whatever direction the arrow is pointing. It was like the first ever quicktime event video game.

[@MissHoneyBee24]

That's some killer lingerie Princess Daphne is wearing!

[@bermyvlogger]

is everybody forgetting this was 1 maybe the first of only a handfull of arcade games that where loaded off a 12inch laser disk. absolutely th apex of human tech ,,,,for about a year . its on the list of short lived media they thought was gonna be the lte of its time ....hell they even got rid of lte lol long term evolution my ass lolol ..anyhooo . 12inch lazer,betamax,3.5 cd all dead

[@davidrooker1200]

wow

[@rurugby]

You died so fast in this game.

[@bryanrussell6679]

I wasted a lot of quarters on this damn game. I sucked at it.

[@existentialmeatsuit6543]

How tf do u play this? Just choosing options or what

[@mattmurphy4635]

Up down left right...attack when the sword comes up.

[@coresupportservices9065]

I hated this game with a passion. It was a cruel design that only created frustration.

[@kingeling]

3:23 I see this game has predicted the bluezone from PUBG

[@kingeling]

how do you play this???

[@JulioSpiderWeb]

The game shows an arrow or a sword icon and you need to press the direcional pad or the sword button before it's too late. Whoever is playing here must know the game, because they're pressing the button before the input icon appears. But you can see it sometimes through the video.

[@kingeling]

Julio Cesar thanks, now it’s clearer!

[@letgoofmynuggets9665]

My gay awakening

[@PopcornChicken]

I despise this game.

[@wevan7385]

THIS SHIT ON STEAM CAN'T EVEN CONTROL (KEYBOARD) COMPLETELY SHIT

[@GAZArts]

“Git Gud”

[@fn0rd99]

What a quarter stealing piece of shit game.

[@michaeljames1930]

Yep

[@bigsassyster]

I was a little to young to understand how to play this game. Or just not quick enough. I don't quite remember. I just remember it being super hard, and not getting very far, so I stopped playing it.