Rick Dyer (video game designer)

Rick Dyer is an American video game designer and writer best known for creating Dragon's Lair.[1][2][3] He founded RDI Video Systems, the developer of Dragon's Lair, Space Ace, and also Thayer's Quest, which was a conversion kit for Dragon's Lair.[4]

Rick Dyer
Born
United States
OccupationVideo game designer, writer, realtor
Years active1982–present
Known forDragon's Lair

Dyer next designed the video games Kingdom: The Far Reaches and Kingdom II: Shadoan,[5] the former being a remake of Thayer's Quest and the latter a new game based on it.

Dyer is also known for being the person responsible for RDI Video System's Halcyon gaming console, named after the 2001: A Space Odyssey AI 'HAL 9000'.[6] He also appeared on multiple news networks for the technological advances the LaserDisc system offered between 1983 and 1985 as the figurehead for RDI systems.[7] Despite the TV appearances and being branded as 'David' among videogame companies in a David and Goliath comparison, Rick Dyer Industries (RDI) Systems went out of business in 1985 and the console was never released.[8] In the late 1980s, he designed a line of fitness equipment called Powercise. One of his last major successes in the gaming industry was the development of Time Traveler in 1991.

Rick Dyer became a realtor for Apple Tree Realty based in Julian, California.[9][10]

Works
Year Name
Director Writer Producer
1983 Dragon's Lair No Concept Yes
1984 Space Ace No No Yes
Thayer's Quest a.k.a. Kingdom: The Far Reaches Yes Creator Yes
1991 Time Traveler No Creator No
1996 Kingdom II: Shadoan Yes Creator Yes

References
  1. "Review: 'Dragon's Lair' returns on Blu-ray Disc - CNN.com". www.cnn.com.
  2. Fox, Matt (December 1, 2012). "The Video Games Guide: 1,000+ Arcade, Console and Computer Games, 1962-2012, 2d ed". McFarland – via Google Books.
  3. "Rick Dyer, Shadoan and the Frontier of Animated CD Entertainment". www.awn.com. Archived from the original on August 4, 2009.
  4. "Thayer's Quest". Dragon's Lair Project.
  5. "The Giant List of Classic Game Programmers". dadgum.com.
  6. "RDI Halcyon" – via www.youtube.com.
  7. "Rick Dyer and Halcyon - from 1983 1984 - RDI" – via www.youtube.com.
  8. Rochefort, Simone de (October 27, 2017). "Something out of science-fiction: A short history of Dragon's Lair". Polygon.
  9. "Apple Tree Realty - Rick Dyer". web.archive.org. April 21, 2017.
  10. "Rick Dyer - , Real Estate Agent - realtor.com®". www.realtor.com.


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