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A laserdisc video game is an arcade 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.

History

The first arcade laserdisc game was Sega's Astron Belt, an early third-person space combat rail shooter featuring live-action full-motion video footage (largely borrowed from a Japanese science fiction film) over which the player/enemy ships and laser fire are superimposed.^[1]^[2] Developed in 1982,^[3] the game's unveiling at the 1982 AMOA show in Chicago marked the beginning of laserdisc fever in the videogame industry, and its release in Japan the following year marked the first commercial release of a laserdisc game. However, its release in the United States was delayed due to several hardware and software bugs, by which time Dragon's Lair had beaten it to public release there.^[2]

The first laserdisc game to be commercially released in the United States was Dragon's Lair in 1983.^[2] It contained animated scenes, much like a cartoon. The scenes would be played back and at certain points during playback the player would have to press a specific direction on the joystick or the button to advance the game to the next scene, like a quick time event. For instance, a scene begins with 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.

Despite the high cost of the animation, a deluge of similar laserdisc video games followed Dragon's Lair because of its immense popularity. To cut costs, several companies simply hacked together scenes from obscure Japanese anime, creating games like Cliff Hanger (from Lupin III: Castle of Cagliostro and Lupin III: Mystery of Mamo) and Bega's Battle (from Harmagedon). Other arcade laserdisc games include Time Traveler, Badlands and Space Ace.

Other laserdisc video games followed the lead of Astron Belt by integrating more and more computer graphics with the pre-recorded video. For example, Funai's Interstellar in 1983 was a forward-scrolling third-person rail shooter that used computer graphics for the ships and full-motion video for the backgrounds.^[4] Similarly, M.A.C.H. 3 and Cube Quest were vertical scrolling shooters that used the laserdisc video for the background and computer graphics for the ships. The Firefox arcade game included a Philips Laserdisc player to combine live action video and sound from the Firefox film with computer generated graphics and sound. The game used a special CAV Laserdisc containing multiple storylines stored in very short, interleaved segments on the disc. The player would seek the short distance to the next segment of a storyline during the vertical retrace interval by adjusting the tracking mirror, allowing perfectly continuous video even as the player switched storylines under control of the game's computer. This method of seeking was noted for being extremely strenuous on the player and frequently led to the machines breaking, slightly hindering the appeal of laserdisc arcade games. In the 1990s, American Laser Games produced a wide variety of live-action light gun laserdisc video games, which played much like the early laserdisc games, but used a light gun instead of a joystick to affect the action.

Bega's Battle, released by Data East in 1983, took a different approach and introduced a new form of video game storytelling: using brief full-motion video cut scenes to develop a story between the game's shooting stages. Years later, this would become the standard approach to video game storytelling.^[5] Bega's Battle also featured a branching storyline.^[6]

References

^ Template:Allgame
^ ^a ^b ^c "ASTRON BELT". Atari HQ. Retrieved 2011-03-25.
^ Mark Isaacson (2002). "The History of Sega: From Service Games to Master Systems". Retrieved 2011-03-25.
^ Interstellar at the Killer List of Videogames
^ Travis Fahs (March 3, 2008). "The Lives and Deaths of the Interactive Movie". IGN. Retrieved 2011-03-11.
^ Mark J. P. Wolf (2008), The video game explosion: a history from PONG to Playstation and beyond, ABC-CLIO, p. 100, ISBN 031333868X, retrieved 2011-04-10

External links

The Dragon's Lair Project: A repository of information about laserdisc video games
"Laser Daze", from The Dot Eaters: Videogame History 101

[allgame-1] Template:Allgame

[AtariHQ-2] "ASTRON BELT". Atari HQ. Retrieved 2011-03-25.

[3] Mark Isaacson (2002). "The History of Sega: From Service Games to Master Systems". Retrieved 2011-03-25.

[4] Interstellar at the Killer List of Videogames

[5] Travis Fahs (March 3, 2008). "The Lives and Deaths of the Interactive Movie". IGN. Retrieved 2011-03-11.

[6] Mark J. P. Wolf (2008), The video game explosion: a history from PONG to Playstation and beyond, ABC-CLIO, p. 100, ISBN 031333868X, retrieved 2011-04-10

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 ==History==
-The first arcade laserdisc game in development was [[Sega]]'s ''[[Astron Belt]]'', an early [[First-person shooter|first-person]] [[Space flight simulator game|space shooter]] featuring live-action [[Full motion video based game|full-motion video]] footage (largely borrowed from a [[Japanese science fiction]] film) over which the player/enemy ships and laser fire are superimposed. However, it was eventually beaten to public release by ''[[Dragon's Lair]]'' in 1983.<ref>{{allgame|id=9550|title=Astron Belt}}</ref> It contained animated scenes, much like a [[cartoon]]. The scenes would be played back and at certain points during playback the player would have to press a specific direction on the [[joystick]] or the button to advance the game to the next scene. For instance, a scene begins with 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.
+The first arcade laserdisc game was [[Sega]]'s ''[[Astron Belt]]'', an early [[Third-person shooter|third-person]] [[Space flight simulator game|space combat]] [[rail shooter]] featuring live-action [[Full motion video based game|full-motion video]] footage (largely borrowed from a [[Japanese science fiction]] film) over which the player/enemy ships and laser fire are superimposed.<ref name="allgame">{{allgame|9550|Astron Belt}}</ref><ref name="AtariHQ">{{cite web|title=ASTRON BELT|publisher=Atari HQ|url=http://www.atarihq.com/coinops/laser/astbelt.html|accessdate=2011-03-25}}</ref> Developed in 1982,<ref>{{cite web|title=The History of Sega: From Service Games to Master Systems|author=Mark Isaacson|year=2002|url=http://www.mobygames.com/featured_article/feature,16/section,93/|accessdate=2011-03-25}}</ref> the game's unveiling at the 1982 AMOA show in Chicago marked the beginning of laserdisc fever in the videogame industry, and its release in Japan the following year marked the first commercial release of a laserdisc game. However, its release in the United States was delayed due to several hardware and software bugs, by which time ''Dragon's Lair'' had beaten it to public release there.<ref name="AtariHQ"/>
+The first laserdisc game to be commercially released in the United States was ''[[Dragon's Lair]]'' in 1983.<ref name="AtariHQ"/> It contained animated scenes, much like a [[cartoon]]. The scenes would be played back and at certain points during playback the player would have to press a specific direction on the [[joystick]] or the button to advance the game to the next scene, like a [[quick time event]]. For instance, a scene begins with 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.
 Despite the high cost of the animation, a deluge of similar laserdisc video games followed ''Dragon's Lair'' because of its immense popularity.  To cut costs, several companies simply hacked together scenes from obscure Japanese [[anime]], creating games like ''[[Cliff Hanger (game)|Cliff Hanger]]'' (from ''[[Lupin III: Castle of Cagliostro]]'' and ''[[Mystery of Mamo|Lupin III: Mystery of Mamo]]'') and ''[[Bega's Battle]]'' (from ''Harmagedon''). Other arcade laserdisc games include ''[[Time Traveler (video game)|Time Traveler]]'', ''[[Badlands (laserdisc video game)|Badlands]]'' and ''[[Space Ace]]''.
-Other laserdisc video games followed the lead of ''Astron Belt'' by integrating more and more computer graphics with the pre-recorded video. For example, [[Funai]]'s ''Interstellar'' in 1983 was a forward-scrolling [[Third-person shooter|third-person]] [[rail shooter]] that used computer graphics for the ships and full-motion video for the backgrounds.<ref>{{KLOV game|8196|Interstellar}}</ref> Similarly, ''[[M.A.C.H. 3]]'' and ''[[Cube Quest]]'' were vertical [[scrolling shooter]]s that used the laserdisc video for the background and computer graphics for the ships. The ''[[Firefox (arcade game)|Firefox]]'' arcade game included a Philips Laserdisc player to combine live action video and sound from the ''[[Firefox (film)|Firefox]]'' film with computer generated graphics and sound. The game used a special [[constant angular velocity|CAV]] Laserdisc containing multiple storylines stored in very short, interleaved segments on the disc. The player would seek the short distance to the next segment of a storyline during the [[vertical retrace interval]] by adjusting the tracking mirror, allowing perfectly continuous video even as the player switched storylines under control of the game's computer. This method of seeking was noted for being extremely strenuous on the player and frequently led to the machines breaking, slightly hindering the appeal of laserdisc arcade games.
+Other laserdisc video games followed the lead of ''Astron Belt'' by integrating more and more computer graphics with the pre-recorded video. For example, [[Funai]]'s ''Interstellar'' in 1983 was a forward-scrolling [[Third-person shooter|third-person]] [[rail shooter]] that used computer graphics for the ships and full-motion video for the backgrounds.<ref>{{KLOV game|8196|Interstellar}}</ref> Similarly, ''[[M.A.C.H. 3]]'' and ''[[Cube Quest]]'' were vertical [[scrolling shooter]]s that used the laserdisc video for the background and computer graphics for the ships. The ''[[Firefox (arcade game)|Firefox]]'' arcade game included a Philips Laserdisc player to combine live action video and sound from the ''[[Firefox (film)|Firefox]]'' film with computer generated graphics and sound. The game used a special [[constant angular velocity|CAV]] Laserdisc containing multiple storylines stored in very short, interleaved segments on the disc. The player would seek the short distance to the next segment of a storyline during the [[vertical retrace interval]] by adjusting the tracking mirror, allowing perfectly continuous video even as the player switched storylines under control of the game's computer. This method of seeking was noted for being extremely strenuous on the player and frequently led to the machines breaking, slightly hindering the appeal of laserdisc arcade games. In the 1990s, [[American Laser Games]] produced a wide variety of [[live-action]] [[light gun]] laserdisc video games, which played much like the early laserdisc games, but used a [[light gun]] instead of a joystick to affect the action.
+''[[Bega's Battle]]'', released by [[Data East]] in 1983, took a different approach and introduced a new form of video game storytelling: using brief full-motion video [[cut scene]]s to develop a story between the game's shooting stages. Years later, this would become the standard approach to video game storytelling.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Lives and Deaths of the Interactive Movie|author=Travis Fahs|publisher=[[IGN]]|date=March 3, 2008|url=http://uk.retro.ign.com/articles/856/856379p2.html|accessdate=2011-03-11}}</ref> ''Bega's Battle'' also featured a [[Nonlinear gameplay|branching storyline]].<ref>{{citation|title=The video game explosion: a history from PONG to Playstation and beyond|author=Mark J. P. Wolf|publisher=[[ABC-CLIO]]|year=2008|isbn=031333868X|page=100|url=http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=XiM0ntMybNwC&pg=PA100|accessdate=2011-04-10}}</ref>
-In the 1990s, [[American Laser Games]] produced a wide variety of [[live-action]] [[light gun]] laserdisc video games, which played much like the early laserdisc games, but used a [[light gun]] instead of a joystick to affect the action.
 ==See also==