Space Ace
Video gameWikipedia
20
MENTIONS
10
EPISODES
10
PODCASTS
Search complete. 20 mentions across 10 episodes found for "Space Ace".
Sep 24, 2026
David KassonHOST
When the second season arrived in 1984, CBS reshuffled the lineup.
David KassonHOST
They basically Frogger, Donkey Kong Jr. and Pitfall Harry were dropped, replaced by Kangaroo based on the 1982 arcade Atari game and Space Ace.
David KassonHOST
That's a spinoff of the LaserDisc arcade sensation that was built by Dragon's lair creator, Don Bluth.
David KassonHOST
So only Donkey Kong and Qbert kind of survived the transition all the way through.
ThrakHOST
Well, you have to play the game in order to basically... kill everybody in the castle, including Neurosis, and then you win.
ThrakHOST
The game is very reminiscent of Dragon's Lair and Space Ace.
ThrakHOST
Definitely going for that kind of like laser disc arcade style game, heavy on quick time events and nice hand-drawn 2D animation.
ThrakHOST
But it was not made by the companies that did Dragon's Lair and Space Age.
ThrakHOST
And you still have the same, like, you know, your directions where you move, and then you have your one action button.
ThrakHOST
And it's all, but it's all timing based, right? Which, you know, again, it's like, or even like, you know, Road Avenger or Time Gal or something like that.
ThrakHOST
But yes, it's 10 times harder because Dragon's Lair and Space Ace were kind enough to give you cues, right? Like little flashing, like not necessarily like hit this button or do that thing, but more giving you a little hint of there's this thing over here.
ThrakHOST
Try to find the button that corresponds to that.
RobHOST
According to the packaging, it was supposed to be released for the Halcyon LaserDisc console, which you all might remember as the Doom video game system made by RDI Video Systems in 1984.
RobHOST
The Halcyon was supposed to be a console just for full motion video games, riding high on the success of games like Dragon's Lair and Space Ace, but it never really got off the ground.
RobHOST
They only made a couple of games with the console before the whole company went bankrupt.
RobHOST
A fantasy adventure called Thayer's Quest and an NFL game.
BenHOST
Chester Cheeto.
TomHOST
Space Ace, but like Dexter turning into Space Ace.
TomHOST
You know, that did not even occur to me.
TomHOST
So the picture would be Kimberly.
Jeff GrubbHOST
So I promise to see that game through.
Mike MinottiHOST
Boy, I am like, what would your ripcord be? Because I don't know if I have another ripcord in me as good as Space Ace.
Mike MinottiHOST
That was the ripcord.
Mike MinottiHOST
Like, I never wanted to pull it even.
Mike MinottiHOST
I kind of can't believe that's all in the past now, honestly.
Mike MinottiHOST
It was intense.
Mike MinottiHOST
The whole Space Ace situation, this whole situation, I am just, I know you're joking about escalating.
Mike MinottiHOST
I think we
Rob C. ThompsonHOST
Donkey Kong served as the anchor show in the Saturday Supercade anthology series in 1983 and 1984.
Rob C. ThompsonHOST
Saturday Supercade, developed by Jack Ruby and Ken Spears, most famously the creators of Scooby-Doo, featured adaptations of Frogger, Pitfall, Kangaroo, Q-Bert, Space Ace, and Donkey Kong Jr.
Rob C. ThompsonHOST
In 1982 and 1983, Coleco manufactured Donkey Kong figures, and Topps created two sets of trading cards, one specifically for Donkey Kong in a Video City set featuring the games Frogger Zaxxon Turbo and Donkey Kong Jr., Also in 1983, CinemaScope's Dragon's Lair, one of the only successful Laserdisc games, debuted and was very popular with gamers.
Rob C. ThompsonHOST
Dragon's Lair featured animations by former Disney animator Don Bluth, who would go on to great success with movies including The Secret of NIMH and American Tail, The Land Before Time, and All Dogs Go to Heaven.
TrevorGUEST
You can tell the developers were just laughing all the way to the bank when they were making some of these.
TrevorGUEST
Some games that Matt will know, I don't know about you guys, but Dragon's Lair and Space Ace, the Don Bluth Laserdisc arcade games.
TrevorGUEST
Have you guys ever heard of or played those guys? I've
DaveHOST
heard of Dragon's Lair.
TrevorGUEST
It's a classic.
TrevorGUEST
Dragon's Lair and Space Ace were both animated by Don Bluth, who made some amazing animated films from all of our childhoods.
TrevorGUEST
But basically, it's just like a Simon Says kind of game where a region of the screen flashes and then you have to press the corresponding directional arrow or the action button.
TrevorGUEST
And if your timing sucks, you die.
Peter GraphicGUEST
Yeah.
Peter GraphicGUEST
Oddly enough, I played some Space Ace at Long Island Retro and there was a kid in front of it and his dad was like, all right, let's go.
Peter GraphicGUEST
And he's like, I don't even know what this is.
Peter GraphicGUEST
And he like walked away frustrated.
Peter GraphicGUEST
Only
Kyle Von KubikHOST
he didn't have to dump $2 into it to play it like we did.
Peter GraphicGUEST
Keep it up, Space Ace.
Peter GraphicGUEST
You still got it.
J RyanHOST
Yeah.
Ryan DoellGUEST
And he's also did Dragon's Lair and Space Ace for those gamers out there.
Brandon MindelHOST
Yeah.
Brandon MindelHOST
So he like he is well established as his own animator and he leaves Disney because he doesn't like the way things are done as a as a creative.
BobHOST
And I certainly use this to try out some cores and it was an easier way to do it.
BobHOST
A work-in-progress core for Dragon's Lair and Space Ace are now available to download via Update All.
BobHOST
And those are Laserdisc-based games, so that'll be kind of cool to see how accurate those are implemented.
BobHOST
A core for Namco System 11 hardware is available for free on Patreon, and all 11 games for the hardware are playable.