The amount of work Digital Leisure put into this title is commendable but the appeal of this title will be limited...
Thayer's Quest is a Laser Disc Game from the maker of Dragon's Lair. It was originally sold as the pack-in game to the ill-fated and ill-conceived console dubbed "Halcyon". The Console was to be a sophisticated home computer with voice recognition and artificial intelligence. Unfortunately the console cost $2500 and only a few units were released in test markets before the company that designed the machine (RDI Micro Systems) went bankrupt. Rick Dyer (the president of RDI) later went on to say: "Only very recently have we acquired not only the technology but a big enough base of consumers to justify producing something like this. Up until then, I was fighting an uphill battle, trying to create a technology that wasn't there. We were trying to create the hardware as well as the software to make it happen." and titles like this really prove his point. What would have taken a $2500 machine to play in 1984 can now be played on nothing more than a standard DVD Player (costing less than $20 last time I checked).
Gameplay:
Thayer's Quest plays like any other adventure game. The player needs to talk to the locals for hints, pick up items to store in their inventory using them to get past obstacles and progress the story by solving puzzles. The game will be extremely easy to those Sierra adventure game veterans out there like me but today's gamers may take a while to adjust to the gameplay. Unlike Dragon's Lair or games of today that require quick reflexes this game takes alot of thinking. Depending on your experience with Adventure games this one could take you anywhere between 5-10 hours to complete. The game was never completed back in 1984. You see, the game is divided into five kingdoms and the player must go to each kingdom to find the five pieces of a magic amulet that can end the evil wizard Sorsabal's reign of terror. It's very standard adventure game faire and it sounds like the plot to a Zelda title if anything. Well that's all well and good but RDI only completed the first 3 kingdoms leaving the game incomplete, so this can only be recommended to adventure game or Laser Disc game enthusiasts who want to experience a game that they have always wanted to play but were unable to. The gameplay is solid, but this game has one of the worst endings in the world. When you complete the third kingdom the game simply states "Congratulations, more adventure awaits you in the next kingdom" and cuts your experience short there. The game's traps and pitfalls are also very obvious and you will find yourself dying only a few times across the entire game. Plus the DVD programing could have used a little more work on Digital Leisure's part. I encountered a few times where the game freezed up or exited back to the menu when I would (out of curiosity) make an obviously wrong inventory choice to overcome an obstacle. But these were only a handful of times and didn't annoy me too much.
Graphics:
One advantage FMV games have against all others is in the Graphics department. But unlike Dragon's Lair it seems that they had most of the animation done overseas in Japan. It seems to have a similar quality to cartoons like ThunderCats or The New Adventures of He-Man. This is only a hunch on my part but either way this game lacks a certain American quality that Dragon's Lair had. But the DVD certainly does the game justice and makes the best of the Laser Disc transfer.
Extras:
The game also includes old News footage that introduced the Halcyon console to the public. It goes into good detail about what the console/computer was really meant to be as well as the making of this game. There is also a written history of the console and Thayer's Quest's development that goes into further detail. A picture slide show for both the original Halcyon advertisement flyer and Thayer's Quest manual. Of even more interest are trailers to incomplete games that were in development at RDI for play on the Halcyon. Some of these have very interesting concepts and would be interesting to play if any amount of gameplay was ever finished. These Extras are certainly great and help to make Thayer's Quest a more balanced package that will definitely appeal to retro gamers.
I think of Thayer's Quest as a very interesting and unique experience. It gives me the ability to play a game that hasn't really seen the light of day in years. The amount of work Digital Leisure put into this title is commendable but the appeal of this title will be limited to gamers who are interested in the Halcyon, Adventure Games or Laser Disc games. I would definatly recommend Thayer's Quest for purchase, just be aware of what you are getting into.