Space Ace
| Space Ace | |
|---|---|
| Space Ace screenshot | |
| Developer(s) | Advanced Microcomputer Systems |
| Publisher(s) | Cinematronics |
| Platform(s) | Arcade, Mac OS,SNES |
| Release | 1984 |
| Genre(s) | Action Interactive Movie |
| Mode(s) | Up to 2 players, alternating turns |
Space Ace is a laserdisc video game produced by Don Bluth Studios, Cinematronics, and RDI Video Systems. It was unveiled in October 1983, just four months after the Dragon's Lair game, then released in Spring 1984, 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.
Gameplay
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. Dexter usually progresses through scenes by avoiding obstacles and enemies, but Ace goes on the offensive, attacking enemies rather than running away. 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.
Story
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 Kimberly. 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 Kimberly 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:
- 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 Kimberly] Who is that creep?
- Kimberly: 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!
- Kimberly: 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, Kimberly, 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!
Development history
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.
Format
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.
In Culture
In Samurai Jack animated movie episode:
Scissorsmith:When you get to the fork in the road take the rocky path. It would take you to the dragons lair.
Jack: Where would the other one take me?
Scissorsmith: Space Ace.
Versions
A short-lived cartoon series based on Space Ace was produced in 1984, 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.
A Japanese cartoon with the same name was produced in the 60's.
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).
DAPHNE, an emulator for laserdisc based games, can emulate both the original version and the 1991 version. DAPHNE requires the ROM files plus the original laserdisc to run. Alternatively, an MPEG-2 video stream and Ogg Vorbis audio stream can be substituted for the laserdisc. These streams can be generated from the original laserdisc or from Digital Leisure's DVD.
Like Dragon's Lair, a comic book mini series incorporating elements from both the game and Saturday Supercade version (such as Ace randomly changing into Dexter and back, instead of "energizing" back into Ace) was printed in 2003 by Crossgen Publishing.
In the December 2003 issue of PSW (Playstation world) a free disk was given away with the magazine featuring Space Ace on one side (accompanied by trailers for similar games), and trailers for upcoming games on the other.
-
Ace and Kimberly
-
Commander Borf
-
Dexter being hit by the Infanto Ray
