Scenes and Cycles (1983)

Term

On the Dragon’s Lair Project’s (DLP) website created by Kinder and Hallock (1997), there is a breakdown of scenes from Dragon’s Lair (1983) as well as some notes about when they appear. This includes an introduction of some terms used by Kinder and Hallock (1997) to discuss Dragon’s Lair (1983): scenes, cycles, and the conditions in which scenes become part of cycles.

"There are three cycles in a full game," starts the breakdown. A scene is chosen at random from a set, and then each progressive scene is chosen from the next set in order at random. However, Kinder and Hallock (1997) also note something else:

The scenes that a player dies on are queued, (an unlimited lives game queues a maximum of 8 scenes for each player), and these scenes are replayed later, immediately after the third cycle, before entering the dragon’s lair (29).

- Kinder and Hallock (1997)

Based on these descriptions, there are several major concepts:

  • Scene: interactive content
  • Set: collection of three scenes.
  • Cycle: progression of scenes chosen at random from those remaining from each set.
  • Conditions: If a death occurs during a scene, it is queued for play after the last cycle.

The first cycle of Dragon’s Lair (1983) always includes 12 scenes and ends with scene 7A (Kinder and Hallock, 1997). The second cycle then starts and a scene is selected from those remaining from each set, ending with scene 7B. In the final, third cycle, the remaining scene from each set is used. As explained by Kinder and Hallock (1997), a fourth cycle is created from any scenes where character death occurred after the third cycle.

References

Kinder, J. & Hallock, D. (1997). Dragon's lair scene sequencing. Dragon's Lair Project. Retrieved from http://www.dragons-lair-project.com/games/related/sequence.asp.

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