Page 23 - Old School Gamer Magazine Issue #21 Free Edition

If you've never played or seen Dragon's Lair before, the game can best be described as a "prompt and play" style of interaction. As Dirk the Daring, players attempt to rescue Princess Daphne by adventuring room to room through a castle. Everything in the castle is out to kill Dirk, and players can only survive by hitting the joystick in the correct direction or pressing the sword button to defend or strike with it when prompted. The game is truly one of those titles that can only be beaten by memorizing the scenes and split-second timing. As such, the controls for Dragon's Lair need to be respon- sive, and the Dragon's Lair Replicade achieves this even with the buttons and joystick being reduced to fit with the 1/6 scale reduction.
New Wave Toys has gone the extra mile on the Dragon's Lair cabinet, even paying homage to the original equipment that helped bring a spark back to the declining arcades: the laserdisc player. Sitting in a pull-out drawer on the Replicade cabinet's back is a non-working plastic replica of the original arcade cabinet's laserdisc player. It even includes a replica remote and laserdisc that you can pop into a laserdisc player to complete the experience. While some might find this an unnecessary addition, I thought it was a very thoughtful extra that highlights just how unique Dragon's Lair was. I work with someone who happened to service the original Dragon's Lair arcade cabinets, and he was completely blown away by the Replicade when he saw it. The cherry on the top, though, was when he said, "I remember the Laserdisc player used to be such a dust magnet." to which I responded: "You mean this laserdisc player?" His jaw just about hit the floor when I presented the replica laserdisc player to him. He was utterly impressed with the unit.
The backside of the Dragon's Lair Replicade contains more than just a place to store a replica Laserdisc player. Spinning the unit around, you'll find a micro USB port to charge the battery, along with two regular USB ports to plug in external con- trollers. If, for some reason, you are not a fan of using the Replicade's onboard joystick and button, you can easily plug in a USB gamepad. I tested the external gamepad function with both a PS4 control- ler and the mini Street Fighter 2 joystick made by New Wave Toys, and they both worked very well.
As I mentioned, New Wave Toys keeps stepping up their game with the release of each subsequent Replicade cabinet, and this time they have done so by including an HDMI out port on the cabinet. Being able to plug the Replicade cabinet into any HDMI
capable TV instantly increases the game's accessibility. Utilizing the HDMI port will produce a 720P signal to whatever display device you plug it into, and I had no issues capturing screenshots on my capture card with it. While the HDMI signal output signal is very clean, it's important to note that one should not expect a crys- tal-clear high definition representation of the game. Instead, the game's footage more accurately resembles the original 4:3 video aspect laserdisc's quality, which genuinely honors the original cabinet.
As someone who wasn't a devout fan of the original Dragon's Lair, this New Wave Toys release has allowed me to give the game a second look and truly under- stand why it has such a loyal fan base. After years of briefly playing the game on consoles, I'm proud to say that I finally completed the game on this 1/6th scale cabinet. If you haven't given the Replicade arcade game lineup a try yet, this is undoubtedly the one with which to start.
MARCH 2021 • WWW.OLDSCHOOLGAMER.COM 23