MAMEWorld Forums - The Loony Bin - Re: Strange Dragon's Lair 2 Copyright Mystery.....

I've always wondered about this myself , as far as I can tell, it's basically an error in the DVD mastering.

(Disclaimer: this isn't an official statement or anything, this is just based on what I know about the project)

DL2 was started as an animated project with Rick Dyer and the Bluth Group in 1983-4 as a quick sequel, only for Cinematronics to go under in March of 1984, with no more budget to finish it off, or indeed to code it. Apparently work was carried out to finish the animation around other Bluth animation projects with a view to releasing it through another distributor, such as Nintendo. Ultimately, Leland and others picked it up in 1990, along with a rerelease of Space Ace.

Based on that, I presume that Bluth Group prepared a version with a view to getting Nintendo involved, a few years before the proper release(certainly the 'death' scenes are more family friendly than the original Lair). This master tape is clearly the one used to make the DVDs (they all have a yellow tint to the video due to attempts to match the footage from the various stages of the project together), as presumably it would be easier than going back to the original negatives. Certainly the arcade laserdiscs don't have that caption, nor do they have that yellow cast on the video footage. At a guess, the Nintendo version was a complete run through for potential use in making the discs, hence the 1988 copyright, but when Leland came along it was redone (there are two different disc pressings, one that is mastered at the wrong speed with dodgy colours, and the later one, suggesting two mastering processes at least)

The Wii and later versions were made 'after' the Bluray remastering from the original negative, where Digital Leisure finally had a master from the original footage to play with.

Sorry that this appears to be the longest post I've made for some time, but I hope this helps. If anyone knows different, I'd like to hear about it.

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