Laserdisc video game

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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.

One of the earliest laserdisc video games was Dragon's Lair. 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.

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 (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 Harmagedon). Other arcade laserdisc games include Time Traveler, Badlands and Space Ace.

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 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.

Although laserdiscs have become an obsolete technology, the term "laserdisc 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.