DragonStrike . . . the manual!

I was talking to my friend over at Starstruck Games on Twittter a couple days ago, and they mentioned reading my blog post about Dragonride VR and how that reminded them of an old computer game called DragonStrike. I hadn't heard of it before, so I did a few searches, and lo and behold there it was on Steam for 3 bucks. DONE!

Guys, I'm playing the first-ever dragon combat simulator!

After playing it I was instantly transported back to the days in the early early 90's when I would play a turn-based D&D game on my old Commodore 64. (I can't even remember what the game was.) While this isn't turn-based, the graphics and music are spot on.

A recipe for awesomeness: dragon jousting, goo-covered battlefields, and my enemies dead before me!

To be honest, the best thing about this game is not the game . . . it's the manual! 

Whoa . . . this is an AD&D Computer Product?

I mean, yes, you can fly around, home in on a dragon, and either joust its rider or blast it with a breath weapon in several different polygonal pixelated environments, but let's talk about this MANUAL! Look at this beautiful gem of information . . . a schematic on how a dragon lance is put together and attaches to a dragon saddle? What?!

So that's how it all works . . . huh . . . it's all right there . . . in the manual . . .

I mean, there's a 3-page story, the jousting schematic, controls, orders and ranks for dragon jousters, a description of each area of the map, stat sheets for each type of dragon, and a printable keyboard command layout. Could you imagine being the writer for this manual? That's a pretty sweet gig.

"Argent is small for his 723 years of age."

The game itself is a hard-to-play piece of ancient trash, BUT THIS MANUAL IS GOLD! I say it's 3 bucks well spent!

If you ever wondered how the progression of Dragon Jousters work, there you go.

That's more lore and goodness than you can shake a D20 at! The funny thing is, if you ever lost the manual to this game, you were screwed because to play the game, it actually asks you to type words from the manual to verify you bought the game. The manual and the game are tied together by a virtual serial cable that could never be severed! As the execs at Westwood surely once said, "Ain't no kid gonna just copy this game to a floppy and share it with his friends! He's gotta go through Kinkos as well!"

Closing in on my next dragon jousting target!

I was only ever able to get to the 4th mission in the game. I'm sure if I was 14 and had a full day to kill I could get a little higher in the ranks of  The Knights of the Rose, but I hear BG3 calling to me. 

DragonStrike is a great blast from the past, and if anyone wants to build me that dragon-jousting VR game of my dreams, there's a manual for that!

Happy Dueling!