Dragon's Lair II: Time Warp (ReadySoft)

This article is about the 1990 game. For other meanings, see Dragon's Lair II.

Dragon's Lair II: Time Warp is an adaptation of the original Dragon's Lair II: Time Warp game for 16-bit home computers such as the Amiga, Atari ST, and IBM PC and compatibles. It was developed by Sullivan Bluth Interactive Media, Inc. and released in 1990 by ReadySoft Incorporated, months prior to the arcade cabinet release by The Leland Corporation.

Story and Levels[]

The concept and gameplay is almost identical to that of the original arcade game, but because of the systems' limitations, the adaptation is very minimalistic compared to the original.

Dirk the Daring is called back into action when his wife Princess Daphne is kidnapped by the evil wizard Mordroc. Encouraged by Daphne's mother (and her rolling pin), Dirk escapes to Singe's old castle, where he finds a time machine, which will take him to different eras and dimensions on the search for Daphne before Mordroc can force her into marriage with the Death Ring.

Synopsis from game manual:

Princess Daphne has been kidnapped by the Evil Wizard Mordroc and whisked away to a wrinkle in time. Mordroc will force Daphne into marriage unless Dirk the Daring can rescue her. You, as Dirk, must travel through time with the help of an aging time machine. During your quest you must face and conquer the unique dangers of several dimensions in time. Follow the Wizard to the dreaded dimension where you must confront and defeat him before he places the ring of death on Daphne's finger and she's lost forever in the Time Warp.^[1]

Dragon's Lair II: Time Warp for home computers adapts parts of stages 1 (escape from Daphne's mother), 2 (prehistoric times), 4 (Garden of Eden), 7 (confrontation with Mordroc) and 8 (final escape) designed for the arcade game. The game omits the third, fifth, and sixth stages of its arcade counterpart, and it heavily abbreviates portions of all stages that were retained. The missing third and fifth stages were later adapted into a sequel Dragon's Lair III: The Curse of Mordread, in addition to portions of the unfinished Pirate Ship stage.

Unlike the arcade game, the ReadySoft versions do not feature the option to collect the Treasures in each stage necessary for completion of the game. For the final stage, it exclusively features the shorter ending in which Daphne temporarily disappears after Mordroc gives her the Death Ring rather than the longer ending in which she transforms into The Banshee.^[2]

Gameplay scenes run automatically and the player has to press the right button at the right time (either moving or using Dirk's sword) or die, albeit without the flashing prompts present in the coin-op. All scenes from the original animated film are completely redrawn to fit the limitations of the 16-bit machines.

Reception[]

Steve Merrett, in reviewing the game for the February 1991 issue of CUAmiga, praised the game's fidelity to the laser-disc arcade format, but acknowledged that the game's price tag might prove an insufficient value (an original retail price of £44.95):

I won't harp on about the lack of control over the action, but fans of the genre will know what to expect, and this episode the series delivers enough thrills and spills to keep even the most ardent Dirk fan busy. Others though, along with people who object to paying nearly fifty quid for a barely interactive cartoon, would be better off leaving it alone.^[3]

With the major critique of the game's "lastability", Merrett also noted Readysoft's added feature of a save game option had the positive effect of reducing repetition of playing the early levels too often, but could ultimately reduce the title's playing time considerably. On a technical commendation of the Amiga release, the review praised the quick pacing and brief loading times of the six-disk set:

Unlike the first game in the series, most of the scenes move directly into the next, ensuring that the gameplay flows (which is essential in a fast-moving game such as this), and each disk holds roughly eight scenes so that swapping is kept to a bare minimum. Likewise, owners of two or more drives will find that the disk swapping is barely noticeable. In fact, ever care has been taken to make the game easy to get into (even though it can be frustrating to play), and there are absolutely no delays or annoying pauses between scenes.^[4]

Trivia[]

An Apple IIGS port (with source code) was released unofficially by Brutal Deluxe Software in May, 2022 from programmers Antoine Vignau and Olivier Zardini. ^[5]

External Links[]

References[]

	Video Games	[view]
Arcade Coin-Op Cinematronics: Dragon's Lair · Space Ace Leland Corporation: Dragon's Lair II: Time Warp
Home Computer COLECO: Dragon's Lair Software Projects: Dragon's Lair · Dragon's Lair Part II: Escape from Singe's Castle ReadySoft: Dragon's Lair · Dragon's Lair: Escape from Singe's Castle · Dragon's Lair II: Time Warp · Dragon's Lair III: The Curse of Mordread · Space Ace · Space Ace II: Borf's Revenge
Home Console & Handheld MotiveTime: Dragon's Lair (NES) · Dragon's Lair: The Legend · Dragon's Lair (SNES) Oxford Digital Enterprises: Space Ace (SNES) Dragonstone Software: Dragon's Lair 3D: Return to the Lair Digital Leisure: Dragon's Lair Trilogy Other: Franky, Joe & Dirk: On the Tiles · Dragon's Lair (GBC)
DVD & PC CD-ROM Digital Leisure: Dragon's Lair III

[1] ReadySoft Game Manual

[2] "Trivia" at "The Dragons Lair Project"

[3] Steve Merrett, "Dragon's Lair II: Time Warp" CUAmgia 12 (February 1991), page 39

[4] Steve Merrett, "Dragon's Lair II: Time Warp" CUAmgia 12 (February 1991), page 38

[5] Brutal Deluxe Software - "May 2022 - Apple IIgs version by Antoine Vignau & Olivier Zardini"

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]