Cinematronics
Dragon's Lair

Between the first and the second half of the 1980s. Same little town, same life, as children mean.

The usual hierarchy of importance: mayor, priest, pharmacist, and the police marshal. Lately, the barber has been added. Among the toys that fueled our dreams was a gun that shot rubber bands, quite effective I must say, and for the warmongers, there was the "Cobra" plastic dart gun, an unforgiving single-shot that if it hit you, left bruises where the aimless tested it on cats and sharpshooters on lizards. The achievable object of desire was, however, the Super Santos or the Tango for our street championships with movable goals, meaning since these were identified with available parking spots, the goalkeeper was systematically forced to move whenever a car took the spot. Hitting the neighbors' house windows and receiving a quick outburst of curses and invectives was a daily goal unless Fiore, the auxiliary officer, confiscated our ball by puncturing it with his keys (in which case the barrage of offended saints was aimed at him). I had opened a fleet of Hot-Wheels cars that after a short life were systematically destroyed. My father, to solve the longstanding problem, with an opening of: "Chesta se scassa e s'acconcia, accussì machinette nun te n'accatto 'cchiù!" bought an extraordinary remote-controlled beetle whose game's purpose was to crash it into the wall and then rebuild it.

One fine day in the game room of the beloved and much-missed "Marpione" below my house, I noticed a horde of kids nearly fighting over a video game. Something epoch-making in the world and amazing for our eyes had landed in our God-forsaken town: "Dragon's Lair"!! Oooooooooooooooooooooh! We admired it in ecstasy.

Produced by Cinematronics and based on the drawings of former Disney animator Don Bluth, from "The Secret of NIMH", to be precise, it caused a massive stir at the time for its absolutely innovative graphics. In practice, the first animated cartoon video game. With complex gameplay, the winning factors were a quick ability to rotate your eyes, extremely quick reflexes, and a great deal of focus. The extremely brief glimmers suggested movements or illuminated your sword to invite you to strike. A nanosecond was enough to declare the bizarre end of the brave warrior. To be honest, I personally preferred watching others play and enjoying the cartoon, also because, besides not being particularly crafty in mastering it, "Marpione", given the great novelty, didn't hesitate, rightfully so, to set it at 500 lire per game! A fortune!

The protagonist was Dirk, a funny warrior, quirky but very charming, whom we nicknamed "duck feet" for the strange Chaplin-like sprint he took during many of his escapes. As per the script, he had to save the usual princess, Daphne, (a real stunner) from the lethal clutches of a rich dragon. Of course, before reaching the juicy morsel, you had to deal with monsters and various traps that randomly appeared before you. From the horse you had to tame while dodging walls and columns to the rotating "cotton swabs" that could stick you to the wall like a flyer. Then the large serpents, Disneyland-style rapids, the chubby mud monks, and the black knight who could zap you by placing his sword on the floor.

One of the biggest villains to defeat was the lizard king, a mad reptile complete with crown and cloak, ready to chase you with quick jabs to then dazzle you with his scepter. Then I remember a sort of multicolored skate track where instead of potential skateboards, giant spheres rolled unchallenged that could squash you into the floor, or else the haunted room where, from doors and half-dug-up coffins, skeletal hands popped up ready to crush you, ghosts, or a gathered bunch of skulls that attacked and gnawed at you thoroughly. Finally, the dragon, a sleeping but vigilant guardian of the princess locked in a crystal sphere. The beast's sleep was rather light, and it took just a predictable distraction from the clumsy Dirk to tickle its muscle bands for a solemn fury.

For us, it was fun to admire the grimaces on Dirk's face in case of "death". From bulging eyes to falsetto screams, going through dimwitted looks and tongue-outs, which contributed to making him even more lovable, to the point, perhaps, of preferring to see him "die" to crack us up with laughter.

An immense video game that also had fortunate sequels and/or revamps in sci-fi adventures like "Space Ace". Blessed youth!