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By Al Giovetti
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Release:November 2, 1999 8:30 AM
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Public Relations:Elizabeth (Liz) Foster, Digital Leisure Inc. *
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Publisher: Digital Liesure, Inc.
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Website: www.digitalleisure.com
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Space Ace for DVD

History

I spoke with Don Bluth at the 1999 E3 in Los Angeles. The interview concerned his involvement with Blue Byte. Don is producing new games with Blue Byte.

My history with Don Bluth and animation goes back many years. I knew Don's mentor Wolly Reitherman. I took an American Film Institute course on animation from Reitherman, Frank Thomas and Milt Kahl in the 1970's about 5 years before Reitherman who was a directing animator and mentor of Don Bluth died in that tragic automobile accident.

Reitherman was trained by Walt Disney as one of his original "nine old men" and was the heir apparent to Walt Disney's spot as directing animator after Walt's death from Cancer in December of 1966, just before the release of "Junglebook." I also attended the premier of the Disney animated film "The Rescuers" that Bluth and Reitherman worked on together.

Space Ace was produced for laser disk by Don Bluth and Rick Dyer.

Digital Leisure is a leading publisher of interactive DVD-ROM and DVD-Video titles. The company acquires and remasters existing video-intensive titles that would benefit from the superior video and audio quality of DVD.

Company Line

The much awaited followup to Dragon's Lair is now shipping on DVD-ROM! We've added some goodies like deinterlaced video (makes for a sharper picture) and interviews with Don Bluth/Rick Dyer (creators) and a Watch feature to view the entire game.

Digital Leisure Releases Space Ace for DVD-ROM: Follow-up to Dragon's Lair Now Available on DVD-ROM

GORMLEY, Ontario, Canada -- November 2, 1999 -- Digital Leisure today began shipping Space Ace DVD-ROM, the much awaited follow-up to Dragon's Lair. With it's release of Space Ace, DVD-ROM owners can now bring the full arcade experience to their home computers as Ace battles the evil Commander Borf.

As one of the first animated video games in history, Space Ace features non-stop video entertainment. The evil Commander Borf has kidnapped Ace's girlfriend, the beautiful Kimberly, and is plotting to enslave the Earth using his dreaded "Infanto Ray", a weapon that changes everyone it blasts into a helpless baby. Game enthusiasts can choose to guide Ace, or his weak alter-ego Dexter, through Borf's strongholds to find and destroy the Infanto Ray, rescue Kimberly and save the Earth.

Space Ace, the classic laser-disc based arcade game, features spectacular quality animation created by Don Bluth, a former Disney animator famous for his work on An American Tail, The Land Before Time and he also co-directed the more recent blockbuster Anastasia. In addition to the fully playable game, the Space Ace DVD-ROM release contains exclusive interviews with Bluth and Rick Dyer, co-creators and designers of the game. A special "Watch" option allows players to view the entire game without requiring moves to be made.

"Space Ace is even more interactive and fast-paced than Dragon's Lair, allowing the player the choose to play either Ace or Dexter on the fly," Elizabeth Foster, president of Digital Leisure said. "And we've spent a great deal of time "deinterlacing" the video for the entire game to eliminate the motion flicker that you sometimes see when DVD video is viewed on computer monitors."

Following the release of Space Ace DVD-ROM, Digital Leisure plans to release Dragon's Lair II: Time Warp for DVD-Video and DVD-ROM later in November. Dragon's Lair and Space Ace are now available for DVD-Video, DVD-ROM and CD-ROM formats.

Game Play

The game plays much like the game played. You need to push the directional buttons to the right left or forward and back at the right time or Ace is fried. The game will also play on the DVD player using the remote to control the action. We were unable to test DVD play since we do not have a television based DVD game only a computer based one.

The game can also be watched as a movie from beginning to end with out any of the knee jerk joystick moves. The story and action is somewhat less entertaining than your average full length animated film, but other than that the "movie" version of the game is quite entertaining in its own right. Many game reviewers would appreciate it much more if games had a video mode to watch the game from beginning to end without using the controller.

Plot

Simple Borf has used his infanto ray to turn ace back into a pre adolencent wimp. Ace has a watch that can temporarily reverse these effects for a few seconds but basically he is stuck back in the most confusing and frustrating development phase of human beings. On top of this devastating turn of events Ace must rescue Kimberly from Borf who has kidnapped her.

Graphics

You can download box shots, screen shots and logos from our web site at www.digitalleasure.com/press.html

Animation

Voice Actors

Music Score

Sound Effects

Utilities

Multi-player Features

Cheats, Hints, Walkthrough

Journalists

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References