It was enough to make your toes curl and clutch your quarters tightly in your pocket. In a sea of arcade games featuring bitmap characters and crude backgrounds, Dragon's Lair looked like a full-fledged animated movie. Cinematronics traded some interactive elements of gameplay for the glorious colors and graphics of Laserdisc technology. The company even recruited former Disney animator/director Don Bluth (he of The Secret of NIMH, An American Tail and Land Before Time) to design Dragon's Lair.

Due to Laserdisc limitations, many different scenarios were animated and the player set them in motion by making the correct choices. The action would then play out in front of your bedazzled eyes. Wrong choices earned you a grizzly death, as in most video games.

The hero of the game was Dirk the Daring who set off to rescue the buxom Princess Daphne from Singe the Dragon. The adventure started in Singe's lair where a variety of dangers awaited Dirk. Even though there was a finite number of scenes contained in the game, different player choices and the random sequence of events made everyone's experience unique. Cleverly, some of the rooms in the lair were often reversed to allow for even more game permutations.

Dirk tested his bravery against spiders, vampire bats, giant spinning batons, electrified fences, magic potions, the enchanted Smithee, the Lizard King, Mud Men, the Black Knight and Singe the Dragon. The valiant knight often misplaced his valor and reacted by shrieking and jumping away from dangers, which only added to the comedic aspect of the game.

Dragon's Lair was an absolute sensation when first introduced. Kids lined up for hours to get to play it and didn't even mind shelling out 50 cents (double the price of other games) for one turn on the new pony. They played Dragon's Lair to death--literally. Many cabinets and Laserdisc mechanisms had to be replaced more than once because they couldn't withstand the continuous and ardent use. Laserdisc technology became the darling of the arcade world but it was short-lived. Players wanted progressively harder levels to beat and once Laserdisc games were over, they were over. The fad subsided very quickly but Dragon's Lair lived on as a legend.