''Space Ace'' is a
LaserDisc video game
An interactive film is a video game or other interactive media that has characteristics of a cinematic film. In the video game industry, the term refers to a movie game, a video game that presents its gameplay in a cinematic, scripted manner, o ...
produced by
Bluth Group
Don Bluth Entertainment (formerly Sullivan Bluth Studios) was an Irish-American animation studio established in 1979 by animator Don Bluth. Bluth and several colleagues, all of whom were former Walt Disney Animation Studios, Disney animators, lef ...
,
Cinematronics
Cinematronics Incorporated was an arcade game video game developer, developer that primarily released vector graphics games in the late 1970s and early 1980s. While other companies released games based on raster graphics, raster displays, early ...
and Advanced Microcomputer Systems (later renamed
RDI Video Systems
RDI Video Systems (Rick Dyer Industries) was a video game company founded by Rick Dyer (video game designer), Rick Dyer originally as Advanced Microcomputer Systems, and was well known for its Laserdisc video games, beginning with the immensely p ...
). It was unveiled in October 1983, just four months after the ''
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 ...
'' game, followed by a limited release in December 1983 and then a wide release in Spring 1984. Like its predecessor, it featured film-quality
animation
Animation is a filmmaking technique whereby still images are manipulated to create moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Animati ...
played back from a
LaserDisc
LaserDisc (LD) is a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium. It was developed by Philips, Pioneer Corporation, Pioneer, and the movie studio MCA Inc., MCA. The format was initially marketed in the United State ...
.
The gameplay is similar to ''Dragon's Lair'', requiring the player to move the joystick or press the fire button at key moments in the animated sequences to govern the hero's actions. There is also the occasional option to either temporarily have the character transform into his adult form or remain as a boy with different styles of challenge.
The arcade game was a commercial success in North America, but was unable to achieve the same level of success as ''Dragon's Lair''.
It was later ported to a number of home systems.
Gameplay
Like ''
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 ...
'', ''Space Ace'' is composed of numerous individual scenes, which require the player to move the joystick in the right direction or press the fire button at the right moment to overcome the various hazards Dexter/Ace faces. ''Space Ace'' introduced a few gameplay enhancements, most notably selectable skill levels and multiple paths through several of the scenes. At the start of the game, the player could select one of three skill levels: "Cadet", "Captain" or "Space Ace" for easy, medium and hard respectively; only by choosing the toughest skill level could the player see all the sequences in the game (only around half the scenes are played on the easiest setting). A number of the scenes had "multiple choice" moments when the player could select how to act, sometimes by deciding which way to turn in a passageway, or by choosing whether or not to react to the on-screen "ENERGIZE" message and transform back into his Ace form. Most scenes also have separate, horizontally flipped versions. Dexter usually progresses through scenes by avoiding obstacles and enemies, but Ace goes on the offensive, attacking enemies rather than running away; although Dexter does occasionally have to use his pistol on enemies when it is necessary to advance. An example can be seen in the first scene of the game, when Dexter is escaping from Borf's robot drones. If the player presses the fire button at the right moment, Dexter transforms temporarily into Ace and can fight them, whereas if the player chooses to stay as Dexter, the robots' drill attacks must be dodged instead.
Plot
''Space Ace'' follows the adventures of the dashing hero Dexter, better known as "Ace". Ace is on a mission to stop the villainous Commander Borf, who is seeking to attack
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...
with his "Infanto Ray" to render Earthlings helpless by reverting them into infants. At the start of the game, Ace is partially hit by the Infanto Ray, which reverts him into an adolescent, and Borf kidnaps his female sidekick Kimberly, who thus becomes the game's
damsel in distress
The damsel in distress is a narrative device in which one or more men must rescue a woman who has been kidnapped or placed in other peril. The "damsel" is often portrayed as beautiful, popular, and of high social status; she is usually depicted ...
. It is up to the player to guide Ace, in his adolescent form of Dexter, through a series of obstacles in pursuit of Borf, in order to rescue Kimberly and prevent Borf from using the Infanto Ray to conquer Earth. However, Dexter has a wristwatch gadget which optionally allows him to "ENERGIZE" and temporarily reverse the effects of the Infanto-Ray, to turn him back into Ace for a short time and overcome more difficult obstacles in a heroic manner. The game's
attract mode
Since the origin of video games in the early 1970s, the video game industry, the players, and surrounding culture have spawned a wide range of technical and slang terms.
0–9
A
...
introduces the player to the story via narration and dialogue.
Voices
*
Will Finn
Will Finn is an American animator, voice actor, storyboard artist, and director.
Career
His work in animation includes characters from Disney, Warner Bros., DreamWorks, and Don Bluth films such as ''The Secret of NIMH'', '' Oliver & Company'', ...
as Dexter/Baby Borf
* Jeff Etter as Ace
* Lorna Cook as Kimberly
*
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 ...
as Borf/Aliens/Dark Side Dexter/Dark Side Ace
*
Michael Rye
Michael Rye (born John Michael Riorden Billsbury; March 2, 1918 – September 20, 2012) was an American actor. His decades-long career spanned radio, television, animated cartoons and video games. Aside from his voice over work, Rye also acted in ...
as Narrator
Development
The animation for ''Space Ace'' was produced by the same team that tackled the earlier ''
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 ...
'', headed by ex-
Disney
The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...
animator
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 ...
. To keep the production costs down, the studio again chose to use its staff to provide voices for the characters rather than hire actors (one exception is
Michael Rye
Michael Rye (born John Michael Riorden Billsbury; March 2, 1918 – September 20, 2012) was an American actor. His decades-long career spanned radio, television, animated cartoons and video games. Aside from his voice over work, Rye also acted in ...
, who reprises his role as the narrator of the
attract sequence in ''Dragon's Lair''). Bluth himself provides the (electronically altered) voice of Commander Borf. In an interview about the game, Bluth stated that had the studio been able to afford more professional actors, he thought
Paul Shenar would have been more suitable for the role of Borf than himself. The game's animation features some
rotoscoping
Rotoscoping is an animation technique that animators use to trace over motion picture footage, frame by frame, to produce realistic action. Originally, live-action film images were projected onto a glass panel and traced onto paper. This pr ...
, wherein models were built of Ace's spaceship "Star Pac", his motorcycle, and the tunnel in the game's dogfight sequence, then filmed and traced over to render moving animated images with very realistic depth and perspective.
The game's budget was $2.5 million.
Format
''Space Ace'' was made available to distributors in two different formats: a dedicated cabinet, and a conversion kit that could be used to turn an existing copy of ''Dragon's Lair'' into a ''Space Ace'' game. Early version #1 production units of the dedicated ''Space Ace'' game were actually issued in ''Dragon's Lair'' style cabinets. The latter version #2 dedicated ''Space Ace'' units came in a different, inverted style cabinet. The conversion kit included the ''Space Ace'' laserdisc, new
EPROM
An EPROM (rarely EROM), or erasable programmable read-only memory, is a type of programmable read-only memory (PROM) integrated circuit, chip that retains its data when its power supply is switched off. Computer memory that can retrieve stored d ...
s containing the game program, an additional circuit board to add the skill level buttons, and replacement artwork for the cabinet. The game originally used the
Pioneer LD-V1000 or PR-7820 laserdisc players, but an adaptor kit now exists to allow
Sony
is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at Sony City in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The Sony Group encompasses various businesses, including Sony Corporation (electronics), Sony Semiconductor Solutions (i ...
LDP series players to be used as replacements if the original player is no longer functional.
Ports
Numerous versions of ''Space Ace'' were created for home computers and game systems, most of which attempted to mimic the arcade version's lushly animated hand-drawn footage, with varying degrees of success. Along with the floppy disk-based versions for Amiga, Apple IIGS, Atari ST, MS-DOS and Macintosh, ReadySoft issued a CD-ROM version featuring downsampled video for MS-DOS and Macintosh which preserved almost all of the original laserdisc content. A sequel, ''Space Ace II: Borf's Revenge'', was created and shipped on floppy disk for the aforementioned computer platforms mixing new animation with scenes from the original game that were left out of the previous version due to large file sizes.
In 1991,
Leland Corporation
The Leland Corporation was an American video game company formed on June 5, 1987, from the assets of Cinematronics. It was a subsidiary of arcade and home game producer Tradewest, which acquired those assets out of the former company’s bankrup ...
released a slightly updated version of ''Space Ace'' in the form of a conversion kit for the then recently released ''
Dragon's Lair II: Time Warp''. The updated version added more complicated moves (including diagonal moves), and dropped the easier skill levels, meaning only the "Ace" (difficult) level could be played.
In 1993, ''Space Ace'' was released for the
Philips CD-i
The Compact Disc-Interactive (CD-I, later CD-i) is a digital optical disc data storage format as well as a hardware platform, co-developed and marketed by Dutch company Philips and Japanese company Sony. It was created as an extension of CDDA ...
(Compact Disc Interactive). It was later released on the
Sega CD
The Sega CD, known as in most regions outside North America and Brazil, is a CD-ROM accessory and format for the Sega Genesis produced by Sega as part of the fourth generation of video game consoles. Originally released in November 1991, it ca ...
in 1994.
''Space Ace'' was also released for the
Super NES
The Super Nintendo Entertainment System, commonly shortened to Super Nintendo, Super NES or SNES, is a 16-bit home video game console developed by Nintendo that was released in 1990 in Japan, 1991 in North America, 1992 in Europe and Oceania a ...
by
Absolute Entertainment
Absolute Entertainment was an American Video game publisher, video game publishing company. Through its video game developer, development house, Imagineering (company), Imagineering, Absolute Entertainment produced titles for the Atari 2600, Ata ...
in 1994
under the same name. However, since a Super NES cartridge has limited storage, it ended up being a
top-down perspective
A variety of computer graphic techniques have been used to display video game content throughout the history of video games. The predominance of individual techniques have evolved over time, primarily due to hardware advances and restrictions ...
action game with levels based on the scenes from the original. In order to see the credits, the player must get an "Ace" rank on every level, meaning that they must have near-perfect accuracy and collect all the disks found throughout the game.
''The Dragon's Lair Deluxe Pack'' released by
Digital Leisure in 1997 featured ''Space Ace'' along with both arcade ''Dragon's Lair'' games. They also released a version of ''Space Ace'' on DVD that could be played on most DVD players, although it lacked the skill level select of the arcade version, and also played somewhat differently (if the player made a mistake on the arcade version they simply picked up again roughly where they left off, whereas the DVD version made the player replay the entire scene from the beginning).
DAPHNE
Daphne (; ; , , ), a figure in Greek mythology, is a naiad, a variety of female nymph associated with fountains, wells, springs, streams, brooks and other bodies of freshwater.
There are several versions of the myth in which she appears, but t ...
, an emulator for laserdisc based games, can emulate both the original and 1991 versions. It requires the ROM files plus the original laserdisc to run. Alternatively, an MPEG-2 video stream and Ogg Vorbis audio stream can be substituted for the laserdisc. These streams can be generated from the original laserdisc or from Digital Leisure's DVD.
As with ''Dragon's Lair'', a comic book miniseries incorporating elements from both the game and its ''
Saturday Supercade'' version (such as Ace randomly changing into Dexter and back, instead of "energizing" back into Ace) was released in 2003 by Crossgen Publishing.
In the December 2003 issues of ''PSW'' (''PlayStation World'') and ''XBW'' (''Xbox World''), a free disk was given away with the magazine featuring ''Space Ace'' on one side (accompanied by trailers for similar games), and trailers for upcoming games on the other.
In May 2009, the game was made available on
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 ...
.
In October 2010, ''Space Ace'' appeared on
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 ...
as part of the ''Dragon's Lair Trilogy'', which also features ''
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 ...
'' and ''Dragon's Lair II: Time Warp''. It was later released as
DSiWare
This is a list of games and applications, collectively known as DSiWare, for the Nintendo DSi handheld game console, available for download via the DSi Shop and unplayable on earlier DS models. An update released for the Nintendo 3DS in June 20 ...
in North America on December 6 and in the PAL region on December 31.
The PlayStation 3 port by Digital Leisure was released through the
PlayStation Network
PlayStation Network (PSN) is a digital media entertainment service provided by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Launched in November 2006, PSN was originally conceived for the PlayStation video game consoles, but soon extended to encompass smartp ...
on February 22, 2011.
An
Android port of the game was released on December 28, 2012, via
Google Play
Google Play, also known as the Google Play Store, Play Store, or sometimes the Android Store (and was formerly Android Market), is a digital distribution service operated and developed by Google. It serves as the official app store for certifie ...
.
In August 2013, the game was made available through
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 ...
.
In July 2015,
Rebecca Heineman released the source code from a
reverse engineer
Reverse engineering (also known as backwards engineering or back engineering) is a process or method through which one attempts to understand through deductive reasoning how a previously made device, process, system, or piece of software accompl ...
ed
Apple IIGS
The Apple IIGS (styled as II) is a 16-bit personal computer produced by Apple Inc., Apple Computer beginning in September 1986. It is the fifth and most powerful model of the Apple II family. The "GS" in the name stands for "Graphics and Sound" ...
version (dating back from 1990) on
GitHub
GitHub () is a Proprietary software, proprietary developer platform that allows developers to create, store, manage, and share their code. It uses Git to provide distributed version control and GitHub itself provides access control, bug trackin ...
.
There is a compilation sold on the PlayStation Store also called ''Dragon's Lair Trilogy'', which contains the original ''Dragon's Lair'', ''Space Ace'', and ''Dragon's Lair II: Time Warp'' as a set.
''Space Ace'' appeared on
Nintendo Switch
The is a video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. Released in the middle of the Eighth generation of video game consoles, eighth generation of home consoles, the Switch succeeded the ...
as part of the ''Dragon's Lair Trilogy'' (a possible port of the Wii release), which also features ''Dragon's Lair'' and ''Dragon's Lair II: Time Warp'' in January 2019.
An NES version of ''Space Ace'' was developed, but never released.
In July/August 2022, Brutal Deluxe developed and released an improved version of the existing Space Ace port, as well a new port of Space Ace II: Borg's Revenge, for the Apple IIGS (the latter reportedly completed in 1991 by ReadySoft, but never released)
Reception
In the United Kingdom, it was the top-selling CD-i game in
April 1994.
The four reviewers of ''
Electronic Gaming Monthly
''Electronic Gaming Monthly'' (''EGM'') is a monthly American video game magazine. It offers video game news, coverage of industry events, interviews with gaming figures, editorial content and product reviews.
History
The magazine was fou ...
'' gave the CD-i version a 7.75 out of 10. They described it as a "pixel perfect" conversion of the arcade game, though they criticized that the game lacks replay value.
In their review of the Sega CD version, ''GamePro'' gave the game an overall score of 3.9 out of 5, remarking that the game 'unfortunately highlights the color bleeding of the Sega CD', but praised the story, voicing, and music, and concluded "''Space Ace'' is great for animation buffs or gamers who enjoyed ''
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 ...
''".
''
Next Generation'' gave the Sega CD version two out of five stars, criticizing the game's story as "juvenile" and the gameplay as 'overly limited': "The only way to beat any of the game's 13 stages is to play through it over and over until your reactions are automatic. You could surely train a monkey to do the same thing".
A reviewer for ''Next Generation'' gave the PC version two out of five stars, commenting that "Don Bluth's LaserDisc classic remains an entertaining cartoon attached to the antithesis of interactivity. ... ''Space Ace'' does manage to come out looking and sounding almost exactly like the original arcade adventure, but in the end, that's not necessarily a good thing".
''
Entertainment Weekly
''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American online magazine, digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, ...
'' gave the game a B− and wrote that "''Space Ace'' is part of a unique genre of CD games, the so-called decision point disc, in which, instead of controlling your character's every movement, you respond to specific threats. But ''Space Ace'' is a mixed blessing at best. It features terrific Don Bluth animation and an amusing plot involving the evil Commander Borf and his Infanto Ray. On the other hand, thanks to very tricky timing, it's such a frustrating experience you may want to turn the disc into a Frisbee".
Power Unlimited
''Power Unlimited'' is a Dutch multi-format video games magazine. It is the biggest gaming magazine in the Benelux. The first issue was released in June 1993.
History
''Power Unlimited'' started in June 1993 in Bjørn Bruinsma's basement as a ...
reviewed the cd-i version and game the game a 91% summarizing: "In this eye-catching interactive cartoon you do not control a character, but the course of events. However, you have to be almost supernaturally fast, because you hardly have time to make a choice. Unique, but only suitable for speed freaks."
Legacy
Sequel
''Space Ace II: Borf's Revenge'' is a continuation of the home computer version of ''Space Ace'', mostly featuring content that could not fit in available storage space on said version. It was released for Amiga, Atari ST, MS-DOS and Macintosh in 1991. An Apple IIGS port was also completed, but never released (detailed IIGS loading instructions appear in the manual for the other ports).
A new Apple IIGS conversion was developed and released by Brutal Deluxe in 2022, based on the DOS version.
Other media
A short-lived cartoon series based on ''Space Ace'' was produced in 1984 as part of the ''
Saturday Supercade'' cartoon block (which was composed of animated shorts based on then-current video games) with Ace voiced by Jim Piper, Dexter voiced by
Sparky Marcus
Sparky Marcus (born Marcus Issoglio; December 6, 1967) is an American former actor.
Early life
Marcus was born in Hollywood, California.
Career
Marcus was well known for playing the role of the precocious child but also worked extensively as a ...
, Kimberly voiced by
Nancy Cartwright
Nancy Jean Cartwright (born October 25, 1957) is an American actress, best known as the long-time voice of Bart Simpson on ''The Simpsons'', for which she won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance and an Annie Award f ...
, and Commander Borf voiced by
Arthur Burghardt. Twelve ''Space Ace'' episodes were produced.
References
External links
*
*
''Space Ace''at Dragon's Lair Project
at cataroo.com
The Dot Eaters articleon ''Space Ace'' and the laser game craze
{{DEFAULTSORT:Space Ace
1983 video games
1984 video games
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Absolute Entertainment games
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Apple IIGS games
Arcade video games
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Atari ST games
Cancelled Nintendo Entertainment System games
CD-i games
Cinematronics games
Commercial video games with freely available source code
Digital Leisure games
DSiWare games
DVD interactive technology
Full motion video based games
Interactive movie video games
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ReadySoft Incorporated games
Ruby-Spears superheroes
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Video games designed by Don Bluth
Video games developed in the United States