Laserdisc shmup "Cube Quest" you never played...

PC Engine Fan X! · Post by **PC Engine Fan X!** » Wed Nov 30, 2005 11:50 pm

If you attended the 2004 California Extreme show, you were in for unexpected Laserdisc arcade shmup game treat...someone had brought in a 100% pristine ultra-rare arcade upright Laserdisc-based game by the name of Cube Quest. (For you die-hard arcade gamers out there, Cube Quest was one of the very last arcade Laserdisc games to be released before the arcade Laserdisc era came to an end in 1984. That specialized arcade game technology only lasted for a mere two years from 1982 to 1984...too short of an era if you ask me.) ^_~

Cube Quest uses a trackball controller and a fire button on either side of it. CQ features cool pre-rendered "Rez or Internal Section" type of polygonal-based backgrounds with superimposed sprite-based animation on top of that background FMV.

Very cool ultra-rare shmup arcade title that few arcade gamers have ever played in their lifetime. Sure, a Vectrex version of Cube Quest was offered in limited numbers at the 2002 Classic Gaming Expo...but that version isn't the same as playing the "real" Cube Quest" Laserdisc arcade game experience.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

Brian · Post by **Brian** » Thu Dec 01, 2005 1:52 am

I love Laserdisc games. I know they get beat on for their lack of depth. But, I have a Laseractive and still play it a lot. Great system in my opinion.

Fighter17 · Post by **Fighter17** » Thu Dec 01, 2005 1:58 am

Brian wrote:I love Laserdisc games. I know they get beat on for their lack of depth. But, I have a Laseractive and still play it a lot. Great system in my opinion.

Sorry but I disagree. Laseractive games are full of S***! Dragon Lair and the rest of those FMV games killed off the 3DO, the Sega CD, and the CD-i systems! Never forgive the FMV games, and thank god they are gone! The only reason why the Laseractive systems were good (in my opinion) was the modules (to play the Sega Genesis, and the Sega CD games and the Turbo Duo games as well).

Ganelon · Post by **Ganelon** » Thu Dec 01, 2005 5:01 am

I feel that if more laserdisc games were cartoonish rather than live action (often very amateurish), the genre would've done a lot better.

CIT · Post by **CIT** » Thu Dec 01, 2005 8:10 am

Time Girl is a pretty enjoyable Laserdisc game. Most of them are crap tho, I agree.

Brian · Post by **Brian** » Thu Dec 01, 2005 12:26 pm

I am usually scorned by my appreciation for the Laseractive. That is fine. The fact remains, some of those games were damn good.

Road Prosecutor was as fun and frantic as anything else ever put on the market. I mean, the game was far from deep, but it was indeed fun.

Another favorite of mine is Pyramid Patrol. The game looked as good as anything ever done in the arcade, and certainly Taito knew all about the arcades. The game is just a fun diversion and a very frantic 3d pseudo shmup.

I don't know, I have about 10 or 12 laserdiscs for the system and, granted, not all are astounding quality, but a lot are better than decent. Plus, the system also had really high quality 3d goggles. I mean, come on man, 3d goggles!

Turrican · Post by **Turrican** » Thu Dec 01, 2005 2:29 pm

Seven Force wrote:Time Girl is a pretty enjoyable Laserdisc game. Most of them are crap tho, I agree.

You mean Time Gal

Very nice yes, I got a Psx port of that one.

Leeram · Post by **Leeram** » Thu Dec 01, 2005 4:28 pm

[quote="Fighter17

Sorry but I disagree. Laseractive games are full of S***! Dragon Lair and the rest of those FMV games killed off the 3DO, the Sega CD, and the CD-i systems! Never forgive the FMV games, and thank god they are gone! The only reason why the Laseractive systems were good (in my opinion) was the modules (to play the Sega Genesis, and the Sega CD games and the Turbo Duo games as well).[/quote]

Laseractive games rock, if you buy the right ones. Laserdisc games are brilliant too, some of them. Just like any other format, some games are good, some are bad. The CD-I, 3DO and Sega Cd systems died because the vast majority of the games that came out on them were shit. I cannot name a single good game I have played on CDI except for the Dragon's Lair series and possibly Micro Machines. Even if you accept that the FMV games were bad, you can't possibly blame the death of a system on a few FMV games, it's the totallity that needs to be looked at.

I particularly like Triad Stone on my Laseractive.

Dragon's Lair is the greatest game in the history of the world ever, nothing is better. Space Ace isn't far behind. I don't care what anyopne says or argues. They are wrong.

For the greatest gaming room in the world go here http://www.dragonslairfans.com/collecto ... ectors.htm and look at Jason Finn's museum, not a shmup room, but I don't think you'll ever see anything like this again.

Oh and the laserdisc games lasted longer than '84, but admittedly that was the peak.

Have fun,

Cheers

Lee

SPACE HARRIER · Post by **SPACE HARRIER** » Thu Dec 01, 2005 6:48 pm

Leeram wrote:Dragon's Lair is the greatest game in the history of the world ever, nothing is better. Space Ace isn't far behind. I don't care what anyopne says or argues. They are wrong.

Haha..at least I am not the ONLY person who likes Dragon's lair

I used to play it a lot at the arcade and still love my homeversion of the game!!

Laserdisk games are not good for shmups..you have to control it with a joystick to get the best results....

TNT,

LSU · Post by **LSU** » Fri Dec 02, 2005 1:53 am

I used to enjoy playing the Firefox LD game once in a while, it played a little bit like a cross between Afterburner and Star Wars (if I remember correctly you could even shoot the incoming enemy fire in the same way as Star Wars. (?)). At the time it seemed cool to have those filmed backgrounds with the superimposed sprite scaling graphics.
But unlike in the movie, you didn't even have to 'think in Russian.'

CIT · Post by **CIT** » Fri Dec 02, 2005 7:53 am

Turrican wrote:
Seven Force wrote:Time Girl is a pretty enjoyable Laserdisc game. Most of them are crap tho, I agree.
You mean Time Gal

Very nice yes, I got a Psx port of that one.

It got a PSX port!?

Crazy!

Actually, I think this is one of those games that actually has a huge cult following, but people usually don't openly admit that they like it.

And yeah, I forgot it's "gal", haha...

Thunder Force · Post by **Thunder Force** » Fri Dec 02, 2005 8:13 am

LSU wrote:a cross between Afterburner and Star Wars

I liked another laserdisc game that fits that description called Galaxy Ranger, which was like a low budget live-action laserdisc version of Sega's Galaxy Force. In hindsight the look and feel of the Galaxy Ranger game reminds me a lot of the interactive TV show Captain Power...

dave4shmups · Post by **dave4shmups** » Fri Dec 02, 2005 6:13 pm

Wow, Cube Quest looks pretty cool!

Didn't know Time Gal got a PSX port either! Cobra Command (under it's JP name, Thunder Storm LX-3) also got a PSX release in a double pack with Road Blaster: http://www.playstation.jp/products/title/slps00094.html

There's a great laser disc website at: www.dragons-lair-project.com . You can watch video footage of a lot of laser disc games on there, and there's a great forum as well.

dave4shmups · Post by **dave4shmups** » Fri Dec 02, 2005 6:23 pm

Does anyone know if either of these laser-disc game double packs for the PS1 work on the PS2? I'd be very interested in knowing!

gameoverDude · Post by **gameoverDude** » Sat Dec 03, 2005 5:36 am

Inter Stellar is one of my favorites and deserves a PS2 version.

In Astron Belt, the enemy ships are laser disc generated- looking rather great but having one major weakness. If you shoot one enemy ship out of a squadron, you take them all down in one blow.

Inter Stellar plays more like a regular shooter with the enemy ships being MACH-3 style sprites superimposed over the amazing surreal backgrounds. At least one of the stage BGs has a melty Darius Gaiden effect.

Twisting the joystick lets you turn the ship at an angle to shoot diagonally. When ground targets appear, you get a targeting sight and use the bomb button for them. Backgrounds are not interactive in any way (the energy pillars in scene 2 won't wreck you), but they do enhance the experience.

IS's soundtrack tops it off with some great ambient BGM reminiscent of earlier Tangerine Dream stuff.