The Video Game Critic

I remember games like MACH 3 for laser disc, but here is one I missed - Astron Belt by Sega from 1983, a contemporary of Dragon's Lair

Check it out at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T56LsYd-7ZY

Notice that you first shoot incoming fighters, then you fly to a small planet or moon at the 1:20 mark.  Shooting fighters battling to a small moon...reminds me of a movie I saw once...can't remember the title though.   

Looks like a fun arcade machine. According to that wiki, it only got ported to the MSX line.  Is this what the Sega CD could have been like? 

Any fun laser disc games you played or heard about?

According to Wikipedia, Astron Belt was the first Laserdisc game, developed in '82. Kinda funny to think that the basis of DVD technology existed (in infant form?) back then.

I have a small handful of DVD-based games (like a Family Feud game and a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles maze game), but found them largely uninteresting. 

That looks like they took some scenes from Star Trek 2.  The ship going to warp during the attract mode, and the ship flying over the "Genesis planet". 

I remember reading about this game in an old Electronic Fun magazine in...1983?  Interesting, or should I say, fascinating?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFods1KSWsQ

That ship has some major firepower - one hit and they all blow up! Cool video!

Yeah it was Star Trek 2, I played this one in the arcades when it first came out.  It was too hard and too expensive to play.  Also a lot of these games had "stay put disc error" and stopped working.

(Note to mods: the links are from klov.com about each game)

I've been meaning to reply to this for a while; I was on vacation when Scotland posted this, and I hate typing on my I-Pad. I've always been fascinated with laser disc games. When I went to Funspot in New Hampshire last year, I checked out the laser disc games first, although several were not in working order. The games below are the ones that I've enjoyed the most:

Dragon's Lair: I first saw this game I believe in the summer of 83 when I was a wee tyke and it blew my socks off. I watched someone get to the dragon before dying, and I just couldn't believe that it was an actual cartoon. Just amazing.

Cliffhanger: Saw this game right around the time of Dragon's Lair, and probably the first time I saw a Japanese Anime type cartoon. Cool game, but couldn't get past the second screen.

Cube Quest: This is a really cool looking shooting game that I saw in 84. Haven't seen it for 30 years (!) I was totally bummed that they didn't have it at Funspot.

Space Ace: The kind of sequel to Dragon's Lair. Although I liked watching good players play this, I could never master the moves. This is where laser disc games had problems. Dragon's Lair was basic in its gameplay, but Space Ace, it seemed, required many many more moves to complete a scene, and it felt like overkill.

MACH 3: A fun game, but one major problem is that the shooting is mostly done in the middle part of the screen, and it feels very confining. I'm not even sure if your cross-hairs even reached the edges of the screen.

Time Traveler: I saw this game in the early 90's, and even though I was no good at it, I was pretty stunned at the "holographics" of it. A really neat game.

Astron Belt: I remember reading about this game in my video game mags back in 83 or 84, but never got a chance to play it until I went to Funspot last year. Good game.

Other games that I'd love to play or haven't played yet: Dragon's Lair II, Badlands, Thayer's Quest, Bega's Battle, and Galaxian 3.

For those who dislike laser disc games, I can certainly understand why. But when they first came out, it seemed like the gaming world and the technology was moving at the speed of light.

[QUOTE=gleebergloben]
For those who dislike laser disc games, I can certainly understand why. But when they first came out, it seemed like the gaming world and the technology was moving at the speed of light.

[/QUOTE]

I second this.  It did seem like the most amazing technology had arrived in 1983.  Until I got tired of .50 per play laser disc games where I didn't last more than 45 seconds.

It was cool to stand back and watch the pros play Dragon's Lair though.

I played it on the 3DO instead of the original (laserdisc) format, but I quite enjoyed Kingdom: The Far Reaches. It's a revamped version of the laserdisc adventure game Thayer's Quest, originally intended for the RDI Halcyon laserdisc console, which was then adapted for the arcade after RDI Video Systems collapsed.

When they ported it to the 3DO, CD-i, et al., they redid the voices, renamed the characters and locations, and changed the name. It's the first half of a story that was completed with Kingdom II: Shadoan, which isn't on the 3DO but was released on the CD-i (though I played the Mac version). Both games definitely deserve a VGC review, as they're quite engrossing and evocative (despite some minor flaws).

Also, while it's not a laserdisc game per se, my wife and I recently got to play (and beat!) the arcade version of The Act, an animated game that's the spiritual successor of Dragon's Lair et al. It's since been released for iOS and other platforms, but the arcade version was canceled just before release, and only a few prototype cabinets are around. It's very much in the spirit of the Bluth games and their relatives, but it's much more accessible/playable.

[QUOTE=gleebergloben] I've been meaning to reply to this for a while; I was on vacation when Scotland posted this, and I hate typing on my I-Pad. I've always been fascinated with laser disc games. When I went to Funspot in New Hampshire last year, I checked out the laser disc games first...
[/QUOTE]

Thanks so much for this post.  You already have me trying to figure out how to do a family vacation to lovely Laconia New Hampshire so I can play video games...mountains, a beach, a boardwalk, water, a drive in theater...oh look honey, the biggest arcade in the world...who knew that was here.

[QUOTE=scotland17][QUOTE=gleebergloben] I've been meaning to reply to this for a while; I was on vacation when Scotland posted this, and I hate typing on my I-Pad. I've always been fascinated with laser disc games. When I went to Funspot in New Hampshire last year, I checked out the laser disc games first...
[/QUOTE]

Thanks so much for this post.  You already have me trying to figure out how to do a family vacation to lovely Laconia New Hampshire so I can play video games...mountains, a beach, a boardwalk, water, a drive in theater...oh look honey, the biggest arcade in the world...who knew that was here.[/QUOTE]

Scotland, it's a great weekend or 3-4 day trip. When I went last year, I was thinking about taking my wife and two kids (now ages 6 and 13), but my wife knew that I'd been wanting to go to Funspot for years, and she said to just go with my good friend (we've been best friends since we were 13 years old). I think with all the other activities in Laconia (paddle boats, bowling, go cart racing, a massive climbing structure, shopping, cheap lobster rolls, etc), even my wife would really enjoy it, and she'd probably like playing some of the classic games too. And the kids would have an absolute blast.

I was kind of bummed because they had several laser disc games when I was there, but most were not working (I was told they had a tech coming in a few days, after we were leaving). Also, they 80's music playing in the background is an awesome touch.

I think the game that my friend and I played the most was Bagman. Boy oh boy is that game hard. I don't think we were ever able to make it past the first board. Frustrating but ultra fun game.