Digital Leisure, Inc. is a Canadian publisher of software. The company formed in 1997 with the aim to acquire, remaster and publish numerous classic video-based

arcade games An arcade game or coin-op game is a coin-operated entertainment machine typically installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are presented as primarily games of skill and include arcade ...

such as the

Don Bluth Donald Virgil Bluth ( ; born September 13, 1937) is an American filmmaker, animator, video game designer and author. He came to prominence working for Walt Disney Animation Studios, Walt Disney Productions before creating his own film studio in ...

-animated titles ''

Dragon's Lair ''Dragon's Lair'' is a video game franchise created by Rick Dyer. The series is notable for its film-quality animation by ex-Disney animator Don Bluth, and complex decades-long history of being ported to many platforms. It has also been adapte ...

'', '' Dragon's Lair II: Time Warp'' and ''

Space Ace ''Space Ace'' is a LaserDisc video game produced by Bluth Group, Cinematronics and Advanced Microcomputer Systems (later renamed RDI Video Systems). It was unveiled in October 1983, just four months after the ''Dragon's Lair'' game, followed by ...

''. Over time, they have acquired the publishing rights to various

full motion video Full-motion video (FMV) is a video game narration technique that relies upon pre-recorded video files (rather than Sprite (computer graphics), sprites, vector graphics, vectors, or 3D models) to display action in the game. While many games featur ...

games, which they have re-released on a variety of modern formats. In more recent years, they have produced original games as well.

History

Digital Leisure was formed by former employees of

Readysoft ReadySoft was a Canadian video game developer and publisher and distributor founded in 1987 by David Foster, based in Ontario, Canada. Products include various emulators as well as home computer ports of Sullivan Bluth's Laser disc game series ' ...

. In its initial years of existence, Digital Leisure acquired the publishing rights to many full motion video games. In addition to the Don Bluth titles, the company acquired the North American rights to publish '' Tender Loving Care'', an interactive movie on DVD-ROM and CD-ROM featuring

Academy Award The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence ...

nominee

John Hurt Sir John Vincent Hurt (22 January 1940 – 28 January 2017) was an English actor. Regarded as one of the finest actors of his time and known for the "most distinctive voice in Cinema of the United Kingdom, Britain", he was described by David Ly ...

in early 1999. In early 2000, the company added the development and publishing rights of ''Dragon's Lair'' creator Rick Dyer's arcade game '' Hologram Time Traveler'' which was released in the fall of 2000 on multiple formats. The game was the first arcade game to simulate 3D holographic images. Later that year, the company acquired the worldwide publishing rights to Dyer's ''Kingdom II: Shadoan'' for DVD-ROM, DVD-Video and CD-ROM. In 2001, the company acquired the development and worldwide publishing rights to the entire

American Laser Games American Laser Games was a company based in Albuquerque, New Mexico that created numerous light gun laserdisc video games featuring live action full motion video. The company was founded in the late 1980s by Robert Grebe, who had originally cre ...

catalog of nine full motion video arcade titles including ''

Mad Dog McCree ''Mad Dog McCree'' is the first live-action laserdisc video game released by American Laser Games. It originally appeared as an arcade game in 1990. The game gained considerable attention for its live-action video style, bearing similarities t ...

'', '' Crime Patrol'' and ''

Who Shot Johnny Rock? ''Who Shot Johnny Rock?'' is a live-action full-motion video laserdisc video game produced by American Laser Games and released for the arcades in 1991, and then for the DOS, Sega CD, 3DO and CD-i platforms around 1994. As part of a series o ...

'' These titles have been released on CD-ROM and DVD-Video with ''

Space Pirates Space pirates are a type of stock character from space opera and soft science fiction. The archetype evolved from the air pirate trope popular from the turn of the century until the 1920s. By the 1930s, space pirates were recurring villains in t ...

'' and '' Fast Draw Showdown'' released in late 2005. Digital Leisure signed a distribution agreement with

Empire Interactive Empire Interactive was a British video game developer and Video game publisher, publisher based in London. Founded in 1987 by Ian Higgins and Simon Jeffrey, it was acquired by Silverstar Holdings in 2006 and collapsed in 2009. History Empire ...

in 2003 to release the "Virtual Music Studio" brand

eJay ''eJay'' is a series of musical arrangement software, and video games, primarily for Microsoft Windows. The first edition, ''Dance eJay'', was released in 1997. It supports eight tracks of audio and, as with its successors, permits the arrange ...

to the North American market. In 2008, Empire Interactive was purchased by Silver Star Holdings and Digital Leisure ceased all distribution of the

product line. In 2007, Digital Leisure in partnership with Bluth Group Ltd, restored and remastered some of its more popular titles to

high definition High definition or HD may refer to: Visual technologies *Blu-ray Disc, the universal optical High Definition disc format *HD Photo, former name for the JPEG XR image file format *HDV, format for recording high-definition video onto magnetic tap ...

to be played in

Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...

and

HD DVD HD DVD (short for High Density Digital Versatile Disc) is an obsolete high-density optical disc format for storing data and playback of high-definition video.

players. The company began development on a line of

Wii The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America, and in December 2006 for most other regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major home game console, f ...

-based titles in the summer of 2008, and released their first title, '' The Incredible Maze'' on Nintendo's

WiiWare WiiWare was a digital media entertainment service operated by Nintendo that allowed the download of games and applications developed for the Wii video game console. These games and applications could only be purchased and downloaded from the W ...

service on October 24, 2008. Digital Leisure followed up this release in November 2008 with '' Sudoku Challenge!''. On March 27, 2009, Digital Leisure released '' Texas Hold'em Tournament'' on the

service. In 2010, Digital Leisure began creating content for

PlayStation Home PlayStation Home was a virtual 3D social networking, social gaming platform developed by Sony Computer Entertainment's London Studio for the PlayStation 3 (PS3) on the PlayStation Network (PSN). It was accessible from the PS3's XrossMediaBar (XM ...

. Over the course of the next four years they released Dragon's Lair and Space Ace branded content for the platform as well as their own original avatar clothing, private spaces and public gaming spaces including the Western Frontier and Paradise Springs Casino spaces. The Casino became one of Home's most popular spaces, with chip sales in the top 10 items sold for several months running. Due to the success of both this space and Texas Hold'em Tournament on the Wii, Digital Leisure began working on a new standalone social casino game. On Feb 18, 2015, after the announcement of Home's closure, Digital Leisure released the Early Access version of '' The Four Kings Casino and Slots'' on

Steam Steam is water vapor, often mixed with air or an aerosol of liquid water droplets. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization. Saturated or superheated steam is inv ...

Games

DVD, Blu-ray and HD DVD

* ''

'' * '' Dragon's Lair II: Time Warp'' * ''

'' * ''

Thayer's Quest ''Thayer's Quest'' is a LaserDisc video game initially developed by RDI Video Systems in 1984 in video gaming, 1984 for their unreleased Halcyon (console), Halcyon console, and later released in arcades as a conversion kit for ''Dragon's Lair (1 ...

'' (also known as ''Kingdom: The Far Reaches'') * '' Time Traveler'' * '' Kingdom II: Shadoan'' * '' Tender Loving Care'' * ''

'' * '' Mad Dog II: The Lost Gold'' * ''

The Last Bounty Hunter ''The Last Bounty Hunter'' is a live-action laserdisc video game released by American Laser Games in 1994. Like almost all of the games produced by the now-defunct company, it is a rail shooter and, like the two installments in the ''Mad Dog McCre ...

'' * '' Crime Patrol'' * '' Crime Patrol 2: Drug Wars'' (also known simply as ''Drug Wars'') * ''

'' * ''

WiiWare

* '' The Incredible Maze'' * '' Sudoku Challenge!'' * '' Texas Hold'em Tournament'' * '' Word Searcher'' * '' Copter Crisis'' * '' Fast Draw Showdown'' * '' 5 in 1 Solitaire'' * '' Chess Challenge!'' * '' Mix Superstar'' * '' Word Searcher Deluxe'' * '' Overflow''

Wii

* '' Mad Dog McCree Gunslinger Pack'' * '' Dragon's Lair Trilogy''

Nintendo DSi/DSiWare

* ''

'' * ''

'' * '' Dragon's Lair II: Time Warp'' * '' Sudoku Challenge!'' * '' Word Searcher'' * '' Word Searcher 2'' * ''

Word Searcher 3 A word is a basic element of language that carries meaning, can be used on its own, and is uninterruptible. Despite the fact that language speakers often have an intuitive grasp of what a word is, there is no consensus among linguists on its d ...

'' * '' Word Searcher 4'' * '' Chess Challenge!'' * '' 5 in 1 Solitaire'' * '' 21 Blackjack'' * '' Mega Words'' * '' Match Up!''

PlayStation Network

* ''

'' (PS3 & PSP) * ''

'' (PS3) * '' Dragon's Lair II: Time Warp'' (PS3) * '' Fast Draw Showdown'' (PS3) * '' 5 in 1 Solitaire'' (PSP) * ''The Casino'' (also known as ''The Paradise Springs Casino'' for the

) * ''Dragon's Lair items'' (PlayStation Home) * ''Space Ace items'' (PlayStation Home) * ''Get Off My Lawn!'' (PS Vita) * ''Dragon's Lair II: Time Warp items'' (PlayStation Home) * '' The Four Kings Casino and Slots'' (PS4) * ''Mix Superstar'' (PS3)

Mobile devices

* ''

'' (

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

Android Android most commonly refers to: *Android (robot), a humanoid robot or synthetic organism designed to imitate a human * Android (operating system), a mobile operating system primarily developed by Google * Android TV, a operating system developed ...

) (iOS versions were published by EA) * ''

'' (iOS & Android) * '' Dragon's Lair II: Time Warp'' (iOS & Android) * ''

Brain Dead 13 ''Brain Dead 13'' is an interactive movie video game developed and originally published in North America by ReadySoft on 15 December 1995 and in Europe by Empire Interactive in the same year for MS-DOS. Unlike ''Dragon's Lair'' and '' Space A ...

'' (iOS) * ''

'' (iOS) * '' Sudoku 100,000,000'' (iOS) * '' Get Off My Lawn!'' (

)

Steam

* '' Get Off My Lawn!'' * '' The Four Kings Casino and Slots''

Nintendo Switch

* '' Dragon's Lair Trilogy'' *'' The Four Kings Casino and Slots''

References

External links

* * * {{Authority control 1997 establishments in Ontario Video game companies of Canada Canadian companies established in 1997 Video game companies established in 1997 Video game development companies Video game publishers Companies based in Richmond Hill, Ontario