Digital Leisure has carefully remastered each of 4 classic Lasr Disc arcade games: Dragon's Lair, Dragon's Lair II: Time Warp, Space Ace and Hologram Time Traveler. Each of these games on their own redefined arcade gaming in the 1980's. Dragon's Lair was the first to hit the arcades in 1983. Those old enough will remember the hoards of people that surrounded this game to check out it's then revolutionary graphics and gameplay. As the weeks passed gamers started to realize the control of the game was miserable and frustrating at best. Untimely deaths abounded throughout the game. At 50 cents a pop, the money was flowing in large quantities to the game's creators ex-Disney animator Don Bluth and inventor Rick Dyer. About one year later Dragon's Lair 2 appeared on scene. Improving upon the gameplay by setting up more quick timer type events moved the genre forward but the lag in the laserdisc still caused a number of problems. Bluth and company moved on and created a third animation arcade game in Space Ace. This time around the story was set to take advantage of the huge interest in science fiction which had resulted from great box office hits as Star Wars. While the story was different, the gameplay remained the same. You would take control of the main character and try to time events in the correct sequence to avoid demise. The control continued to be unforgiving.

Rick Dyer apparently had had enough of the animation arcade scene and went in another direction with the financial support of Sega. Dyer and his engineers pioneered a unit that could project a hologram. It was no ordinary hologram as you could put your hand through it. To this day the technology behind the unit has remained a secret. As for the game itself, Time Traveler, you took control of Marshal Gram who went around the Universe trying to save the beautiful princess Kyi-La from the clutches of the evil Vulcor. The gameplay elements remained mostly the same from the Dragon's Lair games whereby an event would be triggered and you would have to react appropriately to go further into the game. The main difference with Time Traveler is Dyer and company used real life actors to role play all the carious scenarios. Everything was recorded onto laser disc for the final product. Same control issues were present, it just didn't seem to fit together as nicely as the developers had hoped.

Fast forward to 2000 and Digital Leisure has remastered the games from the original arcade laser discs. I was hoping for some major changes to update the speed of reaction in the games but unfortunately the games still play the way they did almost 20 years ago. Of course the bonus playing it at home is being able to continue a number of times for free. What ensues is a game of remembering where to push this way and when to push that way. For some gamers this may be enjoyable but for most it will prove frustrating. I only wish there could have been some way for Digital Leisure to improve the reaction times and load times in between reaction and outcome.

On the positive side of things, each DVD is packed with extras from original story boards to news items recorded during the launch of each game. To give the illusion of a hologram, Time Traveler cam packaged with 3-D glasses. You can either play it in 3-D or 2-D without the glasses. Digital Leisure was able to use footage straight from Bluth and Dyer's personal archives. Each documentary is informing to watch and really gives the impression of what was to come in the interactive industry. It is also interesting to watch early pioneers struggle in the politics of the industry during that time. It is true history lesson for those gamers under 20 years old.

While each of these games is not groundbreaking in terms of Playstation 2 capability, they have a place in gaming history. If unsure, seek these titles out at your local rental shop. Regardless they are worth a spin if just for the history lessons alone.