Space Ace

Space Ace is the second laserdisc game created by Don Bluth, published at the end of 1983, less than 1 year after Dragon's Lair's huge success.

The home computers conversions, for Atari ST, Amiga, MS-DOS, and Apple II, were curated by Readysoft and released in 1989.

The birth of the laserdisc arcades was a real revolution in 1983 due to movie-quality graphics and animations, something that was totally unexpected. Similarly, the release of these games on home computers in 1989 changed the concept of home computer games forever.

Seeing Space Ace running on an Amiga, maybe in a shop, or at a friend's house, was such an incredible experience that convinced many people to buy the new Commodore computer. It seems normal now, but seeing that graphics quality on screen was not a usual thing. For the first time, people were playing a game that looked and sounded like an animation movie. Of course, the porting required some adaptation and reduction, but the quality was comparable to the arcade version. Also, if you think that the game required only 4 floppies, you can see why the developers' work was almost a miracle.

Unfortunately, laserdisc games were pretty, but they had big limitations in terms of gameplay. In fact, the only thing to do was move the joystick in the right direction and at the exact time so that the game (or the movie, if you want) could go ahead. It was not an easy task. Indeed, a very frustrating one for many players.

Dragon's Lair and Space Ace will always divide the audiences. Some consider them masterpieces; some others think they are a waste of time. The decision is yours.