We'll never find exactly what we want, so we'll also have to go out and shoot a stock car race for a race game,'' said David Rosen, Sega's chairman. Sega, which is owned by Paramount Pictures, is already searching through the Paramount film library for action stock footage for future laser-disk games. The laser-disk technology, however, will require movie-making skills. Movie's title and some plot point, as 20th Century-Fox Games has done with ''9 to 5.'' Sega's '' Star Trek'' game and Atari's '' Star Wars'' also use synthesized voices repeatingĭialogue from the movies. Until now, movie studios have licensed their movie titles to game companies, as Walt Disney Studios did with '' Tron,'' or they have created games using a The spaceship piloted by the player is not a part of the film and the game play is similar to many current shoot-'em-up arcade games, though more realistic. ''Astron Belt'' uses 25 minutes of special-effects film footage of planets and space cities on a laser disk as background while the sequence changes from game to ''Dragon's Lair'' is, in essence, a mini-movie that must be played to determine itsĮnding. Kings and metal thorns, or the collapsing wooden bridges, rarely come up in the same order twice. And the seemingly endless rooms and corridors full of lizard Whether the player ''drinks'' a potion or ''dives'' through a wall determines what happens next to Dirk the Daring. In ''Dragon's Lair,'' the player makes choices that change the course of Player Makes Choices Because of its random-access memory, a laser-disk game does not follow a preset pattern. Second such game, Sega's '' Astron Belt,'' has been introduced in Japan and is now being test-marketed in San Diego. ''Dragon's Lair,'' a sword-and-sorcery adventure in which Dirk the Daring tries to rescue a captive princess, is the first laser-disk game to reach the arcades. Purchased home- video rights to ''Dragon's Lair'' for $2 million, for example. Coleco Industries, a leading maker of electronic games, has The laser-disk arcade games now being introduced will begin to show up in homes a year from now. Much of Atari's loss came about because of steep competition in the still-thriving home-video Last year's stock-market darling, reported a second-quarter loss of more than $310 million last week. The Atari division of Warner Communications, According to industry analysts, arcade income has dropped some 25 percent from last year's $7.3 billion nationwide. However, the Kirby report also sees laser-disk technologyĪs one way of lifting the ''sagging fortunes'' of the arcades. Research company in New York, about 200,000 video-game machines are being shipped this year, less than half the 480,000 shipped in 1982. According to a June report by Christopher Kirby, a video-games specialist with Sanford C. 'Sagging Fortunes' The manufacturers are hurting, too. Of game machines from arcades whose owners have gone broke have increased dramatically. Arcades are currently saturated with games, and auctions If laser-disk games are successful, they will be a shot in the arm for the wilting video-arcade industry. The game - which costs 50 cents to play, double the usual price - isĪveraging more than $1,000 a week per machine around the country. In Boise, Idaho, patrons are taping $5īills instead of quarters to the machine, signifying their intention to play game after game before relinquishing the machine. ''There have literally been 15 people crowded around the machine.'' At Captain Video's in Los Angeles, a television monitor lets customers watch others play the game while they wait their turn. Money as '' Pole Position,'' the game in second place. ''I've never seen a game this crowded,'' said Lance Boyd, assistant manager of Castle Park Arcade in Sherman Oaks, where ''Dragon's Lair'' is earning twice as much Video game with stereophonic sound and real animation, reached arcades two weeks ago and has become an instant sensation. ''Dragon's Lair,'' a coin- operated laser-disk " HOLLYWOOD, July 25- The cozy relationship between Hollywood and video games has moved a step closer to marriage. Review New York Times 1983 HOLLYWOOD PLAYING HARDER AT THE VIDEO GAME By ALJEAN HARMETZ
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