43 years ago Today, Don Bluth's Dragon's Lair was released. Being an interactive film LaserDisc video game, it was the first arcade to feature fully animated characters vs the sprite games of the time.

The best part of the game as a kid was watching the preview in arcade. The actual game was Terrible.

I hated that game. No matter what I did I died within seconds.

The multiple ways to die in that game was awesome 😎

I never got more than 12 seconds in before it was “Game Over.”

Another forgotten classic similar to Dragons Lair was 'Space Ace'. Both were unlike anything in the arcade

I absolutely loved and despised this game. Spent so many quarters at the local arcade playing this game. I would love to have this in my house to finally master it.

Not having Bruce Campbell star in a movie version feels like a miss.

This is my Arcade Gaming Cabinet running Dragons Lair! 😎 ✨💀⚔️🐉⚔️💀✨ #DragonsLair #TwiggyMcStumpWizzle

And it cost $1000 to play!

With absolutely no warnings, icons, hints or other guiding material, playing this arcade game was very difficult. It required the player to click at certain moments in the film as an interaction, but didn't overtly signal those opportunities. Frustrating & costly in quarters.

Space Ace was dope too but just as hard

I paid for his kid's college tuition in quarters because of this game.

I would love to see a studio create a modern-day version, leaving out the clunky quick time event based progression. It is entirely possible to develop a version that captures the same look and feel while adding freedom to the gameplay.

It cost 50 cents instead of a quarter like all the other games and all you did was choose to go left or right. It was lame as hell.

It looked incredible, but the gameplay was super-clunky. Most people ignored it once the initial fascination (over the animation) wore off. The princess was a hottie, tho.

I remember playing it at arcades….i didn’t like it, but nonetheless very cool for the time….

Don Bluth is a legend and animation gigachad.

This game is also fucking impossible

Man, I never got anywhere with this game. Would waste a quarter, then go back to Galaga (sp?)

Looked great but I got killed in about 30 seconds

@LadyGravemaster

I wasn't the first guy in the neighborhood to beat it, but there were only a couple of us. It was fun to have a crowd gather to watch me play it, but I figured out that once you beat it once, you could do it again in your sleep, any time. Still, it was fun for a while.

Didn’t get one quarter from me. It was fun watching other people go broke though.

I got past the first scene once, it cost my granny about £17 tho.

It was one of the weirdest games at the time that caused me to have sticker shock as a kid. I only had so many quarters and that game was too expensive to play and beat. I mostly avoided it because I could get more bang for my quarter playing other video games.

Looked fantastic, but was impossible to play. Swallowed endless amounts of my holiday money.

Many a quarter used to defeat this game…any good memories at the arcade in the 80’s

we would all stand around this game at Alladin's Castle in Springfield, IL, and marvel at the few people who had actually figured out how to play it. There was an extra screen up high just for people to watch the game play - the first Twitchers!!

I still have it on DVD so I can play it on my computer, along with Dragon's Lair II and Space Ace, although I never really got into those too much.

I never saw anyone get more than 15 seconds of play out of one quarter, though.

It was so hard. Unplayable. But also so beautiful. And amazing tech at that time. Worth watching the whole thing on youtube. Space Ace is another one - but there were some more.

1 of my all time favorite games, although I think Dragon's Lair 2 is way BETTER imo. I literally just played these games the other day including Space Ace. These games were BRUTAL back in the day & the most expensive too. It cost 1 dollar to play & you’re dead in 30 seconds🤬😮‍💨😂

I wasted so much money on this game. The play sucked but watching the videos was cool

It took me a lot of quarters (50¢ a round) but I finally conquered that game! Forgot the name of the arcade on Vineland and Victory in N. Hlywd