June 2022 - Apple IIgs version by Antoine Vignau & Olivier Zardini.

Dragon's Lair III : The Curse of Mordread
© 1983, Sullivan Bluth

A year has passed since Mordroc's demise at the hands of Dirk the Daring. Having pursued the evil wizard through the depths of time, Dirk confronted Mordroc in the chamber where Daphne lay in a deep, magical slumber. Using the wizard's own magic against him, Dirk managed to get the Ring of Death onto Mordroc's finger. Expanding like a balloon, Mordroc floated into the air where Dirk was able to pop the bloated wizard with one mighty swing of his sword. True love's kiss brought Daphne out of her trance, and together Dirk and the princess returned to their home in the enchanted forest, prepared to live out the rest of their lives in peace and happiness. Or so they thought.

Billows of smoke began to rise from the enormous, copper cauldron occupying the center of the castle tower room. Waving her hands purposely through the air, Mordroc's sister, the witch Mordread, caused the thickening cloud to spin wildly, flashes of multicolored light producing eerie, flickering shadows along the walls. Reaching into her black dress, Mordread tossed a blue powder into the boiling liquid in the cauldron. Smoke stopped pouring out of the cauldron, and a strong, unnatural wind whistled through the room, blowing Mordread's dress and stark white hair streaming behind her. The spinning cloud began to thin, leaving a glowing haze to linger in the air, slowly pulsing red, blue and green, suspended above the cauldron despite the fierce wind.

The witch yelled out over the continuing gale, "Bing, bang, boom!" Electric charges exploded through the thin fog, claw like flashes trying desperately to grab whatever might be within reach.

"Zing, zang, zoom!" Mordread's hoarse voice boomed, causing the floor and walls to shake. From within the cauldron another burst of energy snaked its way up into the air, colliding with the magical electricity still grasping through the haze. Where the two mystic forces met, a glowing orb appeared, spinning as wildly as the wind blew, and within the golden orb an image began to take shape.

Green trees and yellow flowers appeared under a bright, midday sun, swaying slowly in a warm, summer breeze. A thatched roof, white house sitting in the center of a grassy clearing, the smoke of a cooking fire rising from the small chimney. At the side of the house a smiling hero swings an axe, chopping a fallen tree into fire wood. The front door to the house opens and a beautiful princess steps out, calling to the hero that supper is almost ready. Dirk the Daring walks to Princess Daphne and they embrace in a passionate kiss.

Mordread sneered, blue and red light reflecting off the witch's glistening, grey skin, "The two lovers, hero and princess. The two evil ones who destroyed my brother!" The witch tilted her head back and began to chant in a low, barely audible voice. The cauldron's contents once again began to churn, spitting forth another blast of energy, causing the haze to thicken and the two faces inside the orb began to waver. As the fog grew darker, a different image materialized inside the orb, a strange golden land, filled with spinning arms on hundreds of clocks. At the center of the image stood a tall, shining, gold castle, clock topped towers stretching high into the sky.

"The Vortex of Eternity will be the reward for your despicable deed. An eternal curse from which there is no escape. Never growing older, never dying, trapped forever!" Mordread took from a nearby table her magic wand, a large glass bubble atop a long, iron rod. First waving the wand several times overhead as she chanted, the witch plunged the glass end into the cauldron. Abruptly the wind ceased, instantly sucked back into the cauldron, and as Mordread raised her magic wand the dark fog leapt into the glowing glass bubble, sparks shooting off in all directions.

"And with this enchanted wand I will imprison you, house and all, to be transported to the Vortex." Arms held high, the witch Mordread began to cackle a wicked laughter as the wind and smoke returned, emanating from the magic wand. Spinning around the room, centered where the witch stood, the smoke circled closer and closer until Mordread was obscured from view. With a loud clap of thunder, witch, wand, smoke and wind disappeared, leaving only the sound of Mordread's sinister laughter to echo throughout the shaking tower.

LOADING THE GAME
After booting your Apple IIgs with a system disk, or autobooting from a hard drive, insert Dragon's Lair 3 disk #1 and double click the DragonsLair3 icon to begin the game.

To install Dragon's Lair 3 on a hard drive, create a DragonsLair3 folder on your hard drive and copy the content of the 11 disks into it. To run Dragon's Lair 3 from your hard drive, double click on the DragonsLair3 directory icon on your hard drive then double click on the DragonsLair3 Icon.

STARTING THE GAME
After the game has loaded the demo mode will automatically begin. The demo runs through couple of scenes from the first disk and then returns to the title screen and credits. To start playing the game simply press RETURN at any time. You will know the game has started when the choose game difficulty screen appears.

SELECTING DIFFICULTY LEVEL
You will have to choose the level of difficulty that you want to face:
  • None: Simply watch the game running as a movie. No interaction required.
  • Easy: You will receive visual indications on screen about moves and fires.
  • Medium: You will receive visual indication about actions timing.
  • Hard: Arcade version (No visual indications provided).
PLAYING DRAGON'S LAIR 3
You do not directly control all of Dirk's actions, rather you control his reactions to the events that happen around him. As you watch the animation, you must decide in which direction Dirk should move on the screen and when.

To finish a scene successfully you must make a move (UP, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT) or press the FIRE button when Dirk is in danger. Timing is very critical and often you may make the correct move but at the wrong time. Also, many scenes require more than one move. If you are having trouble, watch the animation carefully and move Dirk in the safest direction or if no direction is safe press the fire button to use Dirk's sword.

If you're sure you have the correct move try varying the time when you make the move, a little sooner or a little later. Don't be surprised if Dirk doesn't move immediately after you have made a move. You must wait for the animation to finish and if you made the correct move(s) you will continue on to the next scene.

You have three lives and the game will end if you lose all of your lives or when you have completed all of the scenes.

From time to time it will be necessary to change the disk in the drive. After you have finished all the animations on a disk you will be asked to insert the next disk so that the game can continue. NEVER eject one of the game disks while you are playing, unless you are prompted, or you may damage the disk!

CONTROLS
The way to control Dirk is by using the numeric keypad on the keyboard or the arrow keys. The directions you will need are UP (8), DOWN (5), LEFT (4) and RIGHT (6). To use Dirk's sword you may press the '0' on the keypad or press ENTER or SPACE keys.

ENDING THE GAME
The game will come to end after you have lost three lives or if you press ESC key. To quit the game, simply press OpenApple-Q to go back to the Finder.

SAVING YOUR POSITION
To save your position press the 'S' key during a scene and after you have successfully completed the scene. A disk icon will be displayed on the top left of the screen to let you know that your request has been taken into account. If you are playing from the disk, You will be prompted for Disk #1 and your position will be saved. You will be prompted again for the current game disk.

LOADING A SAVED GAME
To load a saved game press the 'L' key during a scene. If you are playing from the disks, you will be prompted for Disk #1. Remove the game disk from the internal drive and replace it with the Disk #1. The last saved position will be loaded and you will be prompted for the appropriate game disk.

PAUSING THE GAME
You can pause the game at any time by pressing the 'P' key on the keyboard. To continue to play, press any key and the game will resume.

TURNING THE AUDIO OFF/ON
You can toggle the audio off and on by pressing the 'A' key on the keyboard.

PLAYING SCENE ONE
Appearing from nowhere, the evil witch Mordread uses her magic wand to spread a mystic force around Daphne and the house. Waving her wand in the air, Mordread fires a bolt at Dirk as he runs up the stone path leading to his home. Dirk must first avoid the magic energy and then destroy the creatures that appear from the blast.

IN MEMORIAM
The game is dedicated to the memory of our dear friend Tony DIAZ (1967-2021), who passed away while this game was being programmed. We miss him.






System Requirements:Apple IIgs ROM 01/3 with 1.4 MB RAM, one 3.5" disk drive, System 5.0.4
Recommended:Apple IIgs ROM 01/3 with 4 MB RAM, accelerator card, hard drive, System 6.0.1

Download:

.PO/.2MG Hard Drive image (8.2 MB)

.PO/.2MG Floppy Disks (11 x 800 KB)

Source code: