Dragon's Lair II: Time Warp

This article is about the 1991 game. For other meanings, see Dragon's Lair II.

"Do it for the children! "

—Narrator

Dragon's Lair II: Time Warp is a laserdisc video game developed shortly after the completion of Dragon's Lair and alongside Space Ace as the franchise's true sequel to the original Dragon's Lair arcade game, but animation production was suspended several years due to financial risk and finally published by The Leland Corporation in 1991 as a dedicated arcade cabinet. A scaled-down version of the game was released by ReadySoft in 1990 for personal computers, several months prior to its full arcade debut. The game follows up from the events from the first game and also marks the debut of series antagonist Mordroc.

Story[]

Years have passed since Dirk the Daring rescued Princess Daphne from the clutches of Singe. The two would marry and have many children, living in a large cottage with Daphne's mother. One day, Dirk learns that Daphne had once again been kidnapped, this time by the evil wizard Mordroc, who has put her under a spell with plans to marry Daphne himself once he is able to seal her fate with the Death Ring.

When Dirk brings the news to his children, Daphne's mother overhears and furiously chases Dirk away causing him to flee into Mordroc’s Castle from the previous adventure. In the castle, Dirk finds himself in the treasure room where he meets a sentient old metal Time Machine who claims to be Mordroc's brother. With the Time Machine's help, Dirk ventures through time and reality to once again save Princess Daphne from Mordroc before time runs out.

Attract mode narration by Michael Rye:

Dragon's Lair: Time Warp. Spirited away to a wrinkle in time by the evil wizard Mordroc, Daphne will be forced to marry the wicked Mordroc unless Dirk can save her. Transported by a bumbling old time machine, Dirk begins the rescue mission. Do it for the children! Once the Casket of Doom has opened, Mordroc will place the Death Ring upon Daphne's finger in marriage, and she will be lost forever... in the Time Warp!

Stages[]

Stage 1: Singe's Castle- Dirk is afraid of his angered mother-in-law trying to hit him with a rolling pin. He must flee from her while getting past several creatures and obstacles in the deceased Singe's old castle, including a ravenous snake wearing a tam o' shanter, in order to reach the Time Machine that will allow him to pursue Mordroc.
Stage 2: Land Before Time - In prehistoric times, Mordroc takes a moment to taunt Dirk as he battles pterodactyls, a T-rex, and two bat-winged centaurs that carry Daphne away. As this happens, the tiny island they are on gradually crumbles into the sea.
Stage 3: Dirk in Wonderland - In 1865, Dirk is materialized in Alice Liddell's house and goes through the looking-glass that hangs over the fireplace. While being dressed as Alice by enemy characters, he tumbles into Wonderland where he faces Tweedledum and Tweedledee, the Queen of Hearts, her army of playing card soldiers, the Mad Hatter and the March Hare, the Jabberwocky, and the Cheshire Cat.
Stage 4: Garden of Eden - In the Garden of Eden, Dirk has to escape from guardian angels, the advances of a fat Eve, a smooth-talking serpent conjoined with his brother, and finally, the ruin of Eden itself when Eve accidentally eats the forbidden apple.
Stage 5: Beethoven's Creative Gust - In 1808, 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 constant playing the piano with his hands, his hungry cat, and the sheer chaos of his creative gust.
Stage 6: Ancient Egypt - 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, corrosive acid, scarabs, and a giant mummy.
Stage 7: The Ring - At his castle, Mordroc finally puts the Death Ring on Daphne's finger. In the original arcade sequence, Daphne transforms into the monstrous Banshee. Dirk must avoid the monstrous Daphne's mindless attempts to devour him. He must get the ring off her finger to restore her to normal, and throw it at Mordroc while avoiding his attempts to interfere. Dirk then strikes a fatal blow to the rapidly-deteriorating Mordroc. In the alternate sequence, Daphne disappears after Mordroc places the ring on her finger (likely due to the magical protection provided by the full set of collected Treasures), and Dirk must battle Mordroc to retrieve the ring, finally tossing it onto the wizard's finger, resulting in his final demise.
Final Stage: Daphne Awakens - Although Mordroc is defeated, Dirk kisses the sleeping Daphne and must fight off Mordoc's last surviving minions, who are trying to get their revenge on him for defeating their master. After Daphne awakens, Dirk embraces her and they escape together from the crumbling castle on the Time Machine.
- This final sequence-sometimes referred to as “Stage 8”-was staged in order to unify the narrative after the conclusion of the alternative Stage 7 sequences.^[1]

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. Sensing that expert game players found the original game too slow, Don Bluth wanted to speed up the pacing of the sequel in order to challenge the more skilled players.^[2] According to Gary Goldman, it was probably the most expensive of the studio’s first three arcade games, with a budget of $2.3 million in 1983-1984 in order to achieve feature-level production values.^[3]

Preliminary concepts for the game's storyline included various levels, enemies, and scenarios not seen in the final release. An early idea for the game was that Dirk and the Time Machine would track Mordroc through the halls of time by prioritizing the most infamous events of recorded history, and would have to face the wizard's evil allies during those epochs. As Bluth noted in an early 1984 interview with Computer Games:

Now this is what the Wizard does. He gets Daphne and doesn't just move her around in space, he moves her around in time, so she goes through history and the future. Dirk goes back to the castle, where he finds a time machine. And it says "I know where they'll be because the Wizard was my brother when I was alive. When there's trouble in history, that's where you'll find the Wizard." So they begin to travel the halls of time, encountering the Wizard. And the Wizard has all these allies, the evil men in time. We'll see Blackbeard the Pirate, King Henry the Eighth, and Black Bart out West. A lot of different textures will be in here as Dirk travels around, trying to get Daphne back. I have a surprise in the game that I'm not even going to reveal right now. It's not a technique, exactly, but I think it's going to be fun for everybody.^[4]

Initial animation production on the game was suspended in late March of 1984, which also resulted in the abrupt termination of most of the studio's employees. Meanwhile, Cinematronics was forced to liquidate their remaining arcade units of Dragon's Lair and Space Ace. Without an arcade distributor, the Bluth Studio considered finishing the game toward the goal of an official release for home computers or as a videocassette for collectors.^[5]

During the Bluth Studio's early attempts to adapt the Dragon's Lair franchise into a theatrical feature film, various elements from Dragon's Lair II: Time Warp were presented to investors, most notably, the character of Mordroc and his attempts to rule the kingdom and make Daphne into his queen. At least one studio executive was more impressed with the unfinished animation demos of Time Warp and recommended releasing the game instead of developing the original presentation pitch.^[6]

The Leland Corporation was formed when Tradewest purchased the legal remains of Cinematronics in 1987, and it approached the Bluth Studio to negotiate an agreement to fund the completion of Dragon's Lair II: Time Warp in order to prepare another arcade release. A major concern of the studio animators was that the degraded or faded color quality of the completed cels would be difficult to match against the newly completed artwork. In the finished sequence, subtle color palette variations can be observed between some sequences. An early animation reel of the film in its unfinished state spliced together with pencil test footage was also included as a "Bonus Video" on the Time Warp disc in the Dragon's Lair 20th Anniversary Special Edition DVD Box Set.

Several physical models were constructed and used by the animators for illustration purposes such as the Time Machine, the Casket of Doom, and Beethoven’s musical instruments including the piano and violin. The largest construct was the pirate ship model created from a boat with a mast measuring approximately 4-foot-long and 5-foot-tall built in Los Angeles with intent to shoot it in live-action for photo-animation reference. The complete model weighed around 100 pounds and covered up the workspaces of various studio employees.^[7] The stage's song was to be called “I Am a Pirate” and was apparently recorded by voice actor Hal Smith. After the studio’s relocation to Ireland, the ship model—previously stored in Bluth’s garage—went missing and made finishing that sequence impractical.^[8]

The prototype laserdisc credited Nintendo as the game's exclusive licensor in the attract mode, evidencing that Bluth's studio was in talks with Nintendo for the company to distribute it for arcade release. The original title screen credit read: "© 1988 BLUTH GROUP LTD. Licensed exclusively to Nintendo."^[9] Nintendo reportedly paid to finish the game's animation, then abandoned the project, allowing for the Leland Corporation to enter the picture and complete the game.^[10] Ultimately, the Nintendo credit was covered up with Leland's own copyright for the 1991 release. Following the later high-definition film transfer done by Digital Leisure, the original Nintendo text can once again be seen on Digital Leisure's home releases.^[11]

Gameplay & Alternative Endings[]

The familiar quick-time-event mechanics of the original Dragon's Lair are also present in this video game, however, the sequel has drastic changes compared to its predecessor. Gameplay differs from the original in two important ways. First, it is linear, as opposed to the randomized sequences of rooms from the first game; "dying" in the sequel also forces the player to resume from a checkpoint or start of the current level rather than resuming from a randomly-generated different level like in the original. Additionally, unlike in the original game, almost all actions that the player must perform are prompted by a brief flash of what Dirk should use or where he should go next.

The original arcade release displays optional command prompt overlays throughout the first level to acclimate new players in addition to two stage checkpoints, but players must complete all remaining stages without the explicit text aids or level check points. Beyond the fifth stage, exhaustion of credits results in a Game Over without option to insert coins to continue--displaying the message "You Failed to Save Daphne. Game Over"--immediately followed by the option to input initials for qualifying high scores.^[12] The Philips CD-i version of the game displays a "Game Over" screen adapted from screencaps of the various Death Scenes. The version of the game featured in Dragon's Lair Trilogy and earlier DVD releases allows for infinite continues throughout the entire game, in addition to the option to display graphic input commands throughout the entire game. The Arcade1Up cabinet re-release retains the gameplay options of the original arcade version in addition to a high scores table.^[13]

The original conception for the game would have tied the scoring system to another game mechanic: the magical items (ultimately called Treasures) scattered throughout the game. Retrieving the Treasures requires an extra move, but the player would be awarded extra points for their merit and then seamlessly transition the animation into the next movement. In the arcade release, even if the the item is collected, the game reverts to an earlier frame, causing the item to appear again and forcing the player to complete the alternate command prompt to proceed.

The Bluth Studio originally planned to include alternative battle sequences for the seventh stage, triggered by whether the player had managed to collect all the Treasures. A shorter, simpler sequence would trigger if Dirk collected all the Treasures, and a longer, more challenging sequence would occur if any Treasures were missed.^[14] The longer ending features the transformation of Daphne into The Banshee, a terrifying culmination of the curse Mordroc places upon her with the Death Ring; the shorter ending spares Daphne this fate, perhaps due to the cumulative effect of the magical Treasures. A brief "final stage" sequence that focuses upon Dirk's efforts to revive the unconscious Daphne unifies the game's storyline after the completion of the alternative sequences. Although both sequences were fully animated, the Leland Corporation discarded the branching-path gimmick for their arcade release of the game and made collection of all the Treasures mandatory for completion; if the player misses any prior to the start of the seventh stage, the game loops back to the level of the first Treasure missed, as noted on Instructions screen of original arcade units.^[15]

Although the alternative shorter ending has been added to subsequent home versions of the game, it is accessible exclusively in the "Director's Cut" gameplay mode, while the longer ending remains the default in the "Original" mode. Most home versions also discard a scoring system for the game, in contrast to the arcade release. No official release of the game to date has offered the originally-intended gameplay option in which the player's progress determines Daphne's fate and triggers alternative endings, although the emulated “Dragon's Lair II Enhancement” project offers a version of the experience.^[16]

Shorter Ending[]

Daphne disappears, and Dirk must recover the Death Ring!

Longer Ending[]

Daphne transforms, and Dirk must remove the Ring from The Banshee's finger!

Reception[]

Much like its predecessor, Dragon's Lair II proved successful enough to garner multiple ports and related media, albeit not comparing to the commercial and pop-cultural phenomenon of the original Dragon's Lair. By 1991, the laser disc format was no longer cutting edge technology in the video game and multimedia marketplaces.

Electronic Gaming Monthly spotlighted the Leland arcade release, noting its "totally redesigned" laserdisc technology.^[17] Game Pro highlighted the game in slightly more detail, praising it as a worthy follow-up to its predecessor: “The first Dragon’s Lair injected the idea of interactive video games into the minds of coin-op crusaders everywhere. The great, top-notch cartoon graphics and animation and some beefed-up laserdisc technology enable this version to continue the legacy. . . . The gameplay’s simple: follow the flashing light and jam the Sword button when your sword blinks. But the story, the graphics, and the multitude of gruesome death scenes are the thing. Be prepared to drop a load of tokens into this one.”^[18]

Few publications reviewed the arcade game itself, but the earliest home ports onto the CD-ROM format received more attention from the gaming press. Computer Gaming World called Dragon's Lair II "an exceptional program which suffers from uninteresting game-play". The magazine criticized the game for, like its predecessor, being "a long series of trial and error" instead of testing the player's ability.^[19] The four reviewers of Electronic Gaming Monthly gave the CD-i version an average score of 7.25 out of 10, commenting that it looks and plays just as good as the arcade version, and praising the addition of collectable items. One of the reviewers dissented with the majority opinion, saying that FMV games had lost their novelty and that the game was lacking in interaction.^[20] GamePro gave the CD-i version a rave review calling it "A brilliant sequel to the original." Complimenting its visuals, audio, and controls, the review recommended it as an excellent showpiece of a console's prowess using the CD-format: "The CD-i's circular directional pad gives you quicker, more accurate button presses that help you get past every snake, dragon, and mother-in-law in sight."^[21]

Trivia[]

Dirk has fathered several children with Daphne, as during the opening scene you see boys resembling him and girls resembling their mother in their cottage home. In the BluRay video commentary to Dragon’s Lair II: Time Warp, Don Bluth mused that “a fun game to do” would be “to take some of [Dirk and Daphne’s] kids and see what they turned out to be like.”^[22]
The deleted stage called "The Pirate Ship", later appeared in Dragon's Lair III: The Curse of Mordread.
For the classical music-themed Beethoven stage, Bluth cited the strong personal influence of Walt Disney’s Fantasia, stating “it made music something visual.”^[23]
Bluth’s own favorite sequence in the project was the Beethoven scene for the musical rhythm and the achievement of “the moment of flight.” Gary Goldman’s favorite scene was the Egyptian stage on account of the beautiful background paintings.^[24]
An early plan for the game might have expanded upon the Death Ring's history and resulted in a different type of transformation for Daphne. In a 1984 interview with Computer Games, Bluth revealed: "The Wizard plans on marrying Daphne and making her the Queen of the Underworld. But to marry her, he has that famous ring called the Ring of the Nebelungen [sic] which is the big ring that Wagner wrote about. If you have this ring you have power over anything in the world, but you must forsake all love. So the Wizard has this ring. It's locked tight in a box with a timer and when it opens, he can put it on her finger and she becomes his. He has to keep her out of Dirk's hands until that box can be opened, then he can marry her." ^[25]
Following the same tradition as the original Dragon's Lair arcade cabinet, a conversion kit for Space Ace was made available to retailers, as the Leland Corporation re-issued the laserdisc game in 1991. The conversion kit included the re-issued laserdisc, panel overlay, marquee, two red fire buttons, button labels, and one EPROM containing the Leland ROM image. The animation stored on the 1991 laserdisc is the same as the original 1983 laserdisc, but the discs are not directly compatible with each other, because the video footage is not aligned on the same track/frame numbers.^[26]
In the Nintendo DS release of the game, all the stages were given new titles: "Home Sweet Home", "Ancient Times", "Through the Mirror", "No Visitors", "Piano Solo", "Mummies All Around", "Come and Get Her", and "Awakened with a Kiss".