Dragon's Lair II: Time Warp

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dragon's Lair II: Time Warp is a 1991 laserdisc video game. It is regarded as the first "true" sequel to Dragon's Lair.

As with the original, Dragon's Lair II: Time Warp consists of an animated short film that requires the player to move the joystick or press a fire button at certain times in order to continue. The game follows a traditional damsel in distress storyline where Dirk must find and rescue Daphne with the help of a well-spoken time machine. Strangely, it seems that the time machine is (or has been possessed by) the brother of Mordroc, the foul wizard that has kidnapped Daphne. As the title suggests, Dirk travels through several dimensions and historical eras searching for Daphne, some are inspired by classic stories and fairytales such as Alice In Wonderland and Sleeping Beauty.

[edit] Development

Development on the game began in 1983 after the success of the original Dragon's Lair, and finally reached arcades eight years later, hence Leland Interactive's credit on the title screen. Gameplay differs from the original in two important ways. First, it's linear, as opposed to the randomized sequences of rooms from the first game; "dying" in the sequel also forces you to resume from a checkpoint in the level rather than starting a randomly different level as in the original. Second, golden treasures are scattered throughout the game; getting each treasure is optional and requires an extra move, but the player is awarded extra points. The developers originally planned to include a longer battle sequence at the end if the player managed to collect all the treasures, and a shorter one if they missed any, but this idea was scrapped in the final version and the longer sequence is used regardless. In the final release of the game it was made mandatory to pick up all the treasures; if the player misses any, at the end of the game it loops back to the first treasure missed.

[edit] Blu-ray release

Following the release of Dragon's Lair in HD for Blu-ray, Digital Leisure has said they are working on similar versions of Space Ace and Dragon's Lair II for some time in 2008.

[edit] Stages

• Stage 1; Dirk must flee from his angry mother-in-law while getting past creatures and obstacles in Singe's old castle (including a Scottish snake in a Tam-o-Shanter) in order to reach the time machine that will allow him to pursue Mordroc.
• Stage 2; In prehistoric times, Mordroc takes a moment to taunt Dirk as he battles pterodactyls, a T-rex, and Mordroc's own minions. As this happens, the tiny island they are on gradually crumbles into the sea.
• Stage 3; In 1865, Dirk goes through Lewis Carroll's looking glass, ending up in Wonderland where he faces Tweedledum and Tweedledee, the Queen of Hearts, her army of playing card soldiers, the Mad Hatter, and the Jabberwocky.
• Stage 4; In the Garden of Eden, Dirk has to escape from guardian angels, the advances of an obese Eve, a hungry snake, and finally, the ruin of Eden itself when Eve eats the forbidden apple.
• Stage 5; In 1804, Dirk is shrunk to the size of a mouse in Ludwig van Beethoven's study, where he must avoid the predations of the composer's persistent, hungry cat.
• Stage 6; In Ancient Egypt, Dirk finds what appears to be Daphne (wrapped completely in linen bandages) but is actually Mordroc in disguise, leading Dirk on a wild goose chase as he explores an ancient tomb while narrowly avoiding poison gas, spiders, giant bats, flesh-eating acid, and an undead mummy.
• Stage 7; At Mordroc's castle, Daphne becomes a gigantic, hideous, hostile monster when the evil wizard puts the Death Ring on her finger. Dirk must avoid the monstrous Daphne's mindless attempts to devour him, get the ring off her finger, restore her to normal, AND defeat Mordroc at the same time.
• Final Stage; Although Mordroc is finally defeated, Dirk must fight off the wizard's surviving minions and safely escape the crumbling castle with Daphne.

Stages in Dragon's Quest III: The Curse of Mordread

• Stage 1; When Dirk returns from gathering wood, he witnesses Mordread imprisoning Daphne and their cottage in the crystal that tops the evil wizard's staff. In this version of the game, Dirk gains his time machine through a strange time displacement anomaly with Mordroc's own time machine.
• Stage 2; In 1865, Dirk goes through Lewis Carroll's looking glass, ending up in Wonderland (a shorter version of Stage 3 of the arcade version)
• Stage 3; In 1804, Dirk is shrunk to the size of a mouse in Ludwig van Beethoven's study (a shorter version of Stage 5 of the arcade version)
• Stage 4; In the late 17th century, Dirk appears on a pirate ship located somewhere in the Caribbean Sea. Dirk must fend off attacks from pirates and avoid walking the plank.
• Stage 5; Dirk chases Modroc in a dimension that appears to be the center of all timestreams. The chase takes Dirk past clock-shaped soldiers, giant clock mechanisms, and halls filled with clocks of all shapes and sizes. The story climaxes in a chamber where Baby New Year and Father Time await. Dirk must recover the crystal containing Daphne while avoiding attacks from the personifications of time itself.

[edit] External links

• Dragon's Lair II: Time Warp at the Killer List of Videogames
• Dragon's Lair II: Time Warp at MobyGames
• Detailed Info on Dragon's Lair II: TimeWarp

This arcade game-related article is a stub. You can help by expanding it.