Dragon's Lair is widely described as the first arcade game to use a laserdisc for animated gameplay scenes.
Cinematronics released Dragon's Lair in 1983, using animation produced by Don Bluth's studio. Instead of drawing conventional sprites for every scene, the cabinet played stored cartoon footage from a laserdisc. Players pressed controls at decision points, and the correct timing sent the hero Dirk the Daring into the next successful sequence.
The game was marketed as an interactive cartoon and became famous for its unusually polished visuals. Its animation was far more detailed than that of most contemporary arcade games, but the limited branching and strict timing made the experience different from a traditional action game. Space Ace, another Don Bluth laserdisc title, followed in 1984, so it is a related game rather than the first one.