The nitpickers guide to Dragon's Lair!
begun by Matt Ownby on Sept 14th, 2001
contributions by Dave Hallock
Last modified on June 7th, 2005


Purpose : To document all of the nit-picky imperfections in Dragon's Lair,
after having watched it very many times.

Why : For fun.

Is this document anti-dragon's lair? : No.  If I didn't like Dragon's Lair,
would I have watched the disc very many times?  This is just something to do
that other people may find to be an interesting (and useless) diversion from
other things in life hee hee.

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SECTION 1 - Individual scenes

SMITHEE
-------
Watch the fire at Dirk's feet during this stage.  It shifts around quite a bit.
Sometimes the anvil is inside the fire, sometimes it's outside.
Notice that after the anvil crashes into the wall, it reappears again and
Dirk steps on it to get up to the flaming forge.
Notice that when the Smithee kills Dirk, he breaks Dirk's sword... and then
Dirk's sword clatters to the ground unbroken.
Notice that when the glowing blue mace kills Dirk that Dirk is holding his
sword.  In the next shot, the blue mace strikes (and breaks) Dirk's sword
which has magically teleported to the ground.

SPINNING BATONS/GRIM REAPER
---------------------------
In one of the death scenes, Dirk gets struck by the glowing blue scythe and
disappears (including his sword).  In the next shot, the sword clatters to
the ground.

BLACK KNIGHT ON THE HORSE
-------------------------
When the knight presumably cuts Dirk's head off (in one swing), the next
shot shows the knight twirling Dirk's helmet on the top of his sword.  In
order for this to happen, the knight must have chopped off Dirk's head,
at which point, Dirk's helmet flew up into the air and the knight caught it
on the tip of his sword on the way down.  Highly unlikely.  Ok, so we know
the real reason they did this was to tone down the violence :)

TENTACLES FROM CEILING
----------------------
Watch the tentacles on the floor.  They teleport around all throughout
this scene.

SNAKES
------
Watch the opening in the ceiling.  It disappears then reappears.

GIDDY GOONS
-----------
Watch the trapdoor.  It disappears shortly after Dirk uses it.
In one of the death scenes, you can see the red tripwire which was supposed
to have been removed.

LIZARD KING
-----------
Watch the Lizard King during this stage.  Half the time he is missing his
crown!  The crown re-appears on his head just before he tries to bonk
silly Dirk with his scepter.
When Dirk grabs the coins and stuffs them in his pack, you can see a
blue glitch on the film.

ENCHANTED HORSE ARMOR
---------------------
There appear to be people standing around.  Wax dummies perhaps?  Hehe.

ROBOT KNIGHT AND CHECKERED FLOOR
--------------------------------
In the death scene, the robot knight's sword is glowing yellow.  In the
regular scene, it doesn't appear to be glowing at all.
The dragon pulls Daphne throug the doorway.  But how did he fit through
that doorway?

MUD MEN
-------
On the third move in this stage, it shows Dirk close up jumping over a
geyser.  On the next shot, Dirk has magically teleported back to where he
was before he jumped over the geyser.  This time he runs around it.
When Dirk jumps across the final geyser to freedom, a purple line will
appear across the scene for a moment.

FALLING PLATFORM
----------------
Two-thirds of the successful jumps on this stage will show Dirk jumping
backward from the direction he was facing when the move was made.

DRINK ME
--------
In the game over bones scene, the sign says 'eat me'

CRYPT CREEPS
------------
The dragon pulls Daphne through a door at the end of the room.  But once
you enter that door, you can see that there's no way the dragon could
have escaped that room.
When the crypt creeps first attack Dirk, they are wearing transparent
rags.  When Dirk cracks their skulls with his sword, their rags have changed
to solid black.

THRONE ROOM
-----------
When Dirk successfully completes this stage, you can see a piece of lint
just to the right of the upper section of the doorway.  This lint moves a
little bit when the door slams shut.

WIZARD'S CHAMBER/BUBBLING CAULDRON
----------------------------------
After you kill the ghost that comes out of the cauldron, the cauldron lid
floats up and slams shut on top of the cauldron.  Then a few frames later,
the lid teleports off the cauldron again to appear at its original resting
place.
In the game over bones scene, you can see a ladder to the lower left that
leads down.  This is not present in the normal stage.

DRAGON'S LAIR
-------------
Daphne's ball has a large crown on top of it when she is first seen.  Once
Dirk jumps close to her in order to hear her instructions, the crown has
disappeared.
Dirk prevents a few stacks of jewelry from falling down.  But why are they
stacked so high in the first place?

One of the bags of gold in the lair has a '$' symbol on it.  But this symbol was created in the United States just a couple centuries ago.  Its origin is the letters U and S written overtop each other.  It evolved into an S with 2 vertical lines through it, and today 1 line.

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SECTION 2 - Re-used animation

"Dirk swinging determinedly, then widening his eyes in surprise" :
It's used when Dirk gets attacked the the laughing skulls on the Crypt Creeps
stage.  It's used when Dirk gets hugged by the giant bat.  It's used when
Dirk gets wrapped around by the purple tentacles on the sliding staircase
stage.

"Dirk running away, coming directly into the camera"
This is used when Dirk runs away from the vines on spinning batons, when
Dirk runs away from the black knight (death scene), and when Dirk is running
away from the dragon on the last stage.

"Dirk crouching then leaping forward a seemingly great distance"
- Used after Dirk passes the spinning batons.. he crouches, then leaps
toward the grim reaper
- Used after Dirk slays the dragon.  He crouches, then leaps toward Daphne's
bubble.

"Dirk getting burned by fire"
- Used when Dirk makes a wrong turn on the enchanted horse armor stage
- Used when Dirk gets burned on the tilting floor stage

"Dirk getting burned by fire or engulfed by tar"
- In Crypt Creeps stage, Dirk gets engulfed by tar
- Same animation is used in Smithee stage when Dirk gets burned by fire

"Dirk sheathing his sword and exiting the room"
- In Crypt Creeps, upon completing the stage
- In Smithee, also upon completing the stage

"Dirk crawling out of a stage"
- End of sliding staircase
- End of tilting floor (I think, not verified)
