The Coleco Adam was a very short-lived computer system based largely on the ColecoVision video game system. Because of its short-lived nature and ability to play ColecoVision games, there were really very few games made specifically for it. One of the few was a port of the arcade game Dragon’s Lair. Released in 1984, the port for the Coleco Adam was the first home port of Dragon’s Lair but others would follow in a couple years. A ColecoVision port was apparently in progress but was never completed.
The arcade game used a Laser Disc for full motion video. As the player controlling the protagonist Dirk, you had to time all your moves perfectly to avoid death. The Adam port obviously didn’t have a laser disc and was really only loosely based on the arcade game. You still controlled dirk and still had to time things just right but no full motion video and the levels were somewhat different. There were a total of nine levels in this version with the last being the confrontation with the dragon, Singe.
All things considered it wasn’t a bad port or a terrible game. It just isn’t my favorite type of game. Even the arcade based laser disc version wasn’t really my cup of tea. I find the whole memorizing the timings of specific moves for specific levels to be annoying and frustrating. However, there is no doubt that Dragon’s Lair was revolutionary for its time. Given the fact that there are officially endorsed emulated versions of the arcade game, there probably really isn’t much of a reason to seek out the Adam version unless you are a collector and just love the Adam.
Screen shots above are all from the Coleco version of the game.
