Dragon's Lair (NES)/Game Mechanics(ntscu)

Dragon's Lair (NES)

Items

• D - daggers, deal 1 HP of damage, 3 can be on screen at the same time
• A - Axes, deal 2 HP of damage, 2 can be on screen at the same time
• F - Fireballs, deal 3 HP of damage, 1 can be on screen at the same time
• E - restore 16 energy
• C - restore candle
• G - Add one gold to the inventory
• L - Extra life
• P - Points

Hidden item locations

The list below comes from searching with save states, but hasn't been verified by address watching, so it's possible that there are still hidden items to be found.
Level 1 (in order of appearance)
A - right before the first two gateways
P - right after the first two gateways
F - after the third prisoner
A - before the second set of two gateways
F - after the last prisoner

Level 2 (in order of appearance)
C - in the opening in the roof between the first two moving blocks
P - two blocks to the right of the hidden C
P - after the first set of two moving blocks
A - before the first pit
L - after Singe's Dragon's Breath

Level 3 (in order of appearance)
P - under the second arc from the start
A - under the third arc from the start
G - before jumping on the ledge of the first pendulum
E - after the first set of two pendulums
L - after the axes
F - before the second ghost
E - after a hard passage with two big skulls
P - before the visible daggers
A - over the first floor support after the visible daggers
E - after the hidden axes
P - under the second arc after the big skull guarding a big pit
P - under the same archway as the above P

Level 4 (in order of appearance)
There doesn't appear to be any hidden items in this level.

Movement and animations

This section looks at the cost of performing various actions. If nothing else is stated, it's compared to walking in a straight line.

• First shot - 35 frames
• Subsequent shots - 20 frames/shot
• Small jump - 30 frames
• Big jump - 35 frames
• Duck and rise - 70 frames
• Go straight into ducking position after a jump - saves 15 frames compared to performing jumping and ducking separately
• End-of-level gold countdown screen (1 gold) - 2.5 seconds
• Countdown for each additional gold - 24 frames

Energy

The player energy is tracked in memory addresses 332 (big energy) and 6A5 (small energy). When the small energy loops, the big energy is reduced by 1. A life is lost when the big energy hits 0. Below are some observations about the energy.

• E block - +16 big energy
• Getting hit by a bat, skull, the Lizard King or a bubble - -4 big energy
• Shoot - -16 small energy
• Start energy - 39 big energy
• If 1 BE < player energy < 4 BE, getting hit by an enemy brings you down to 1 BE and whatever you had left of small energy, instead of killing you if it had inflicted the normal 4 damage.
• If an E is collected when player energy > 23, you'll end up with 38 BE and whatever you had left of small energy.

Enemies

• Serpent - 3 HP
• Red bat - 3 HP
• Baby dragon - 4 HP
• All other regular enemies have 1 HP
• Dragon under the drawbridge - 10 HP
• Mine cart troll - 10 HP (each)
• Grim Reaper - 16 HP
• Singe - 40 HP

The Lizard King

At the time of writing, there doesn't appear to be a description of the mechanics behind the appearance of the Lizard King. However, RAM-addreess 718 is activated and starts to count down when the King approaches.