Dragon's Lair II Enhancement Web Page Pop-up Text If your browser is not compatible with the pop-up text function of the DL2E web page, you can find all of the pop-up text below. This text file is not a readme file for DL2E. There is no readme.txt file for DL2E. The DL2E web page as a whole serves as its readme file. http://www.dragons-lair-project.com/tech/enhancements/dl2e.asp DL2E is here! What exactly is DL2E? --------------------- DL2E is software that allows the game Dragon's Lair II: Time Warp to be played on the hardware of an original Dragon's Lair or Space Ace coin-operated arcade game, with a user-supplied video source and a Merlin MultiROM board. DL2E is not for the 1991 Dragon's Lair II arcade game by the Leland Corporation, nor is it a copy/port/emulation of the Leland software. DL2E is created by Dave Hallock. Dave also created DLE and SAE. What is Merlin? --------------- The Merlin LDP Conversion & MultiROM board is a hardware product that can be added to Dragon's Lair and Space Ace arcade games. It serves two major functions. 1. It is a MultiROM board that holds the software to play all three games, Dragon's Lair, Space Ace, and Dragon's Lair II: Time Warp. It is the same size as the original Dragon's Lair ROM card and can be mounted in its place. Using the joystick and button, Merlin quickly switches the ROM to play a different game, eliminating the need to install multiple EPROM chips when you want to change games. (Laserdisc users must still change the disc.) (Dexter users have an instantly switchable multigame system.) 2. Merlin is also (optionally) a laserdisc player conversion card. It allows you to replace the game's original 1983 laserdisc player with a selection of more reliable models that offer new features such as on-screen text overlay, which DL2E makes use of. Merlin is created and sold by Shaun Wood. Shaun worked at Cinematronics in 1984. Shaun has adapted DL2E for use with Merlin and offered programming insights during DL2E's development. What is Dexter? --------------- Dexter is a laserdisc replacement product about the size of three credit cards that serves as a direct substitute for many different games' original laserdisc players (LDP). With Dexter, the LDP and the laserdisc are no longer needed and are replaced with a solid state device that plays the video for your game from a custom video file format while receiving the normal LDP control commands directly from the main PCB through the original interface cable. Dexter does not contain any game software. Dexter is created and sold by Matt Ownby. Matt also created the Daphne emulator. What is required to use DL2E? ----------------------------- A Dragon's Lair (or Space Ace) arcade game, a Merlin board, and a Time Warp video source are required. DL2E can only work with the original main logic board of the 1983 Cinematronics arcade game for North American use. Merlin is the exclusive distribution method of DL2E. Previous Merlin owners can have their boards upgraded to include DL2E, and to optionally work with Dexter. There are two options for a Time Warp video source... either the Leland Corporation's 1991 DL2 arcade laserdisc (the 2nd pressing, part # C-910-00002-00), or the Dexter laserdisc replacement. The only way to experience the addition of the alternate scene, and the restoration of the original game design, is with Dexter. CHOOSING BETWEEN MERLIN-1000, MERLIN-8000 & MERLIN-DX ----------------------------------------------------- Merlin-1000 ----------- The MultiROM function of Merlin-1000 works with the original 1983 laserdisc players used in Dragon's Lair games (the Pioneer PR-7820 and LD-V1000). It also works with any other LDP conversion product that might already be installed in your game. For example, if your game has already been converted to a Sony LDP, or any other LDP that Merlin-8000 does not support, and if you wish to continue using that LDP, then you can use Merlin-1000. Merlin-8000 ----------- Merlin-8000 upgrades your game to Pioneer's LD-V8000, and various 4x00 and 2x00 series LDPs. The LD-V8000 is the best choice of these because of its speed and also its digital frame buffer to prevent black-outs. If your game has already been converted to use a Pioneer LDP that is compatible with Merlin-8000, then you may want to replace your existing conversion card with Merlin in order to take advantage of the text functions described below. Merlin-Dx --------- Merlin-Dx is customized for exclusive use with the Dexter laserdisc replacement. When you use the joystick and button to switch to a different game ROM, Merlin-Dx also automatically changes Dexter's active laserdisc image, meaning that a complete, instant change to a different game can be initiated directly from the control panel! It's a true multigame system. ENHANCEMENTS OVER THE LELAND GAME --------------------------------- Level progress is saved ----------------------- Time Warp has very long levels. Way too long to be starting over again when you lose a life. I believe that this is the primary reason why the Leland game failed in the arcades. You can't expect people to put up with losing their progress and starting over again after completing 49 moves in a row, as can happen with the Leland game. When you lose a life in DL2E, the game will resume at the failed move, and you will try it again. (Exception: The first couple moves of the game will push you forward to the next move if you fail.) Seamless magic items -------------------- Leland called them 'treasures', but research identifies them as 'magic items' at the time of their creation. The sequences of Dirk collecting the items were animated to provide seamless video transitions, both at their starting and ending points. Dirk always returns to his starting position after picking up an item. The concept was for the normal game events to freeze in time, then play the animation of the item collection, and then resume the game at the same instant where it was frozen. The above video demonstrates how smoothly DL2E allows this to happen. In contrast, Leland somehow thought it would be better if, after the item was collected, the game backed up to an earlier point instead, (causing the item to appear again and flash again, even though Dirk had just picked it up), so that the player could be forced to complete the alternate joystick move that was also flashing at the same time as the item. This made a waste of the effort that went into making the segments capable of flowing seamlessly. Item collection not mandatory ----------------------------- In DL2E, collecting the magic items is important for scoring and earning extra lives, but it is not required to finish the game. In the Leland game, if you miss any, you are denied entry to 'level 7', and you are sent back to replay the levels where you missed them. If you miss them all, you must basically replay the whole game. Ridiculous! More death scene variety ------------------------ For any particular move of the Leland game, only one death scene can possibly be shown for any of the incorrect joystick/button inputs. In other words, if you make a wrong move, then you will always see the same death scene no matter what your input was. DL2E will usually queue up multiple potential death scenes during the same move and allow different incorrect inputs to have different results. For example, move left towards a dinosaur and get eaten, or move right towards a ledge and fall off. The Leland game never does this, and it assigns the same death scene to all of the incorrect joystick/button inputs. When appropriate, DL2E will even show different death scenes for the same joystick direction depending on the timing of it, to make sure that Dirk will never get killed by something that has not appeared on the screen yet, (nor by something that has already left the screen), as can happen with the Leland game. No reversed resurrections ------------------------- It's a general consensus that the horizontally flipped resurrection scenes on the Leland laserdisc look bad. DL2E will never show you these clips. The original Time Warp film includes reversed footage of only two scenes (Wonderland & Eden), and per the animators' usual practice, just like they did with the reversed scenes in Dragon's Lair, the resurrections for those two scenes were not reversed on the film and were left intact. (This is why they are not reversed on the laserdisc.) None of Time Warp's other scenes were reversed on film. This time around, the animators realized that the footage could be digitally flipped when the laserdiscs were pressed, and they could fill the film reels with more varied content instead. But when Leland was ultimately charged with digitally reversing the remaining scenes, they allowed the resurrections to get reversed along with them. They 'didn't get the memo' that resurrections are never supposed to be reversed! DL2E will always search to the closest proper-looking resurrection. Limited use of text overlay --------------------------- DL2E prints text on the screen with Merlin-8000 and a late-model LDP, but this will only happen on a still frame, and not while any video is playing. Leland obscured the video with text during the game and also during the attract demo. Alternate climax scene ---------------------- Using Dexter, DL2E offers the lost alternate scene, which was designed to be triggered upon collecting all the magic items during the game. (details below) ENHANCEMENTS OVER THE CINEMATRONICS GAMES ----------------------------------------- Extra lives awarded for score ----------------------------- DL2E does not offer a 'continue' feature when the game is over. For an arcade game, a continue feature is not too much different than an unlimited lives setting. Some arcade games are designed to be virtually impossible to complete without adding coins to continue, but the Don Bluth games are not very long games, and they should not be 'churned' through with unlimited lives. (As demonstrated by people who churned through the DVD versions and then put them on ebay the same day they bought them.) These games deserve better, and they should remain a challenge. In fact, I didn't even include an unlimited lives DIP switch option in DL2E! (So there!) But I also know that Time Warp is a much harder game than Dragon's Lair or Space Ace, and that limiting players to only 3 or 5 lives may not be reasonable. So, the ideal compromise was to award extra lives for score, at intervals that can be selected with the DIP switches. The available settings are very flexible, and the feature can also be turned off completely. The 'pay-as-you-go' setting of Dragon's Lair offered the option to award an extra life with a mid-game coin drop, but other than that, DL2E is the first time that I've ever seen extra lives being awarded for score in any version of a Don Bluth game... and it actually works out really great! The feature breathes a refreshing new interest and purpose into the entire scoring concept. New feedback sounds ------------------- DL2E uses the same three original sounds from the on-board sound chip, (the coin chime, the joystick dink, and the joystick buzz), and two new sounds have also been added! There is a new dink that plays when an incorrect joystick/button input has been accepted. You can hear it in the first video at the top of the page at time 0:12. DL2E will only play the traditional dink sound when a correct joystick/button input has been accepted, and the buzz sound will only be played when an input is not accepted. This means that, for the first time ever with this arcade hardware, each of the joystick feedback sounds will always have only one clear and distinct purpose. There is also one other new sound. A bonus chime will play when an extra life is awarded for score. You can hear it in the video at time 0:34. Variable scoring tiers ---------------------- The DL2E scoring system (fully explained in its own section below) may seem simple at first, but it's actually very dynamic. Every move of the game is worth a base 500 points, but you can increase that value by collecting magic items. This makes collecting items a key component towards earning extra lives. If you never collect an item, then you will perpetually earn 500 points for every move, and the difference really adds up! The scoring of Dragon's Lair and Space Ace is completely static. It always awards the same scores in the same places. Bonus score display ------------------- An increasing bonus score is awarded for collecting magic items, but instead of just adding the amount directly to your score total as usual, DL2E uses the score display to show you the bonus you are receiving! Watch the video of Dirk collecting magic items above. When Dirk picks up an item, its value flashes in the display. With the gameplay frozen at this point, it can easily catch the eye, and the player has ample free time to take notice of it. Coins and credits display ------------------------- If start is pressed while the game contains only partial credit, DL2E will display a message to tell the player that more coins are needed, instead of doing nothing like Dragon's Lair and Space Ace. When set to free play, DL2E will not show '02' in the credits display like DL & SA. It will show dashes to indicate that credits are not active. Longer attract mode ------------------- The original Dragon's Lair and Space Ace games provide only about 12 seconds of still images between each attract mode demo. That's not much of a rest from the demo sounds, and the DIP switch setting to play the sound only every 8th time is quiet for too long! DL2E has a much better balance. The DL2E attract mode has 3 pages of text instead of 2, and each page displays for longer, totaling about 30 or 35 seconds (varies with software version & LDP performance). The result is that DL2E is quiet for about 40% of the time during normal attract mode cycles. Additionally, in consideration of this longer delay, the DIP switch setting to reduce the audio now plays the attract sound every 4th time instead of every 8th. The result of this is roughly 4.5 minutes of silence between demos with sound, compared to about 6.7 minutes of silence when Dragon's Lair plays sound every 8th time. THE ALTERNATE SCENE ------------------- The role of the magic items --------------------------- Leland called them 'treasures', but research identifies them as 'magic items' at the time of their creation. For collecting all the items, the concept was for Dirk to receive some type of aid with safeguarding Daphne and defeating Mordroc. Somehow, all the items together in Dirk's backpack are capable of affecting how the game's final events will unfold (even though Dirk never actually uses any of them.) Exactly how are the items able to do this? That's a good question. But with the word 'magic' used to describe them, somehow it's all OK. The length of the alternate scene --------------------------------- The alternate scene is shorter, about half the length of the common scene. The number of moves that Dirk makes is also proportionately less. Comparison with the common version ---------------------------------- In order to be able to describe how the alternate scene differs, the more common ending must also be spoiled. Here is a summary of the common version: When Dirk finally confronts Mordroc, Mordroc places the Death Ring on Daphne's finger, and she transforms into a large banshee (monster) and tries to eat Dirk. While dodging many attacks, Dirk eventually manages to pry the ring off of her finger, and he flings it onto Mordroc's finger using his belt. Mordroc bloats up while the banshee begins to revert to Daphne. Dirk destroys Mordroc with his sword, and Daphne returns to a normal, sleeping state. At this point, some small dacaryii (little pterodactyls) start flying in to serve as Dirk's final annoyance for the remainder of the game. Dirk swipes at one of them as he stands above Daphne. This marks the ending point of the popular climax, and this is also the same ending point for the alternate version. From there, both versions are designed to transition into Dirk kissing Daphne while she sleeps, followed by their return home. A detailed summary ------------------ Spoiler! Full scene details: Like the longer scene, the alternate scene also begins with Mordroc placing the ring on Daphne's finger and Dirk throwing his sword into Mordroc's arm, but then Daphne disappears, and the ring remains on the platform where she was standing. As Dirk jumps over to grab the ring, he accidentally kicks it down to an area beneath the platform. He jumps down to get it, and the structure begins to crumble. Dirk removes his belt and loops it through the ring just as everything crumbles away. Mordroc shouts and takes aim at Dirk with his finger, and he fires down a magical bolt of energy. Dirk jumps away from it and twirls the ring on his belt like a sling. As Mordroc points at Dirk to fire another shot, Dirk flings the ring onto Mordroc's finger, and Mordroc bloats up. Everything begins crumbling, and Dirk jumps away as Mordroc's body explodes. Dirk finds Daphne sleeping, and rocks fall from above, wiping out the remains of Mordroc. Dirk stands above Daphne, and the dacaryii (little pterodactyls) start flying in. Dirk swipes at one of them, and from there, the game continues with Dirk kissing Daphne while she sleeps. Design analysis --------------- Admittedly, the longer scene is more spectacular than the alternate, and with that in mind, someone might be inclined to suggest that playing the longer scene should be the reward for collecting all the items, and that the shorter scene should be played if any items were missed, but this is simply not how it goes, as confirmed to me personally by producer Gary Goldman. The items need to trigger the shorter scene. Dirk's reward for collecting everything simply cannot be that his wife transforms into a monster and attempts to kill him. I realize that in Space Ace, the concept of 'energizing' is to provide a more challenging and spectacular game and to get more score, but that concept (having a longer scene as a reward) doesn't translate to what's going on in Time Warp, and it just doesn't support the story or Daphne's well-being, or otherwise make any sense from Dirk's point of view. Dirk's reward must be the alleviation of hardship and the protection of his wife. And just to let you know, I've painstakingly made certain, through the design of the DL2E scoring system as outlined above, that the highest possible scoring game of DL2E occurs with collecting all the magic items and playing the shorter climax!