Halcyon (console)
| Manufacturer | RDI Video Systems |
|---|---|
| Type | Home video game console |
| Generation | Third Generation |
| Media | Laser Disc |
| CPU | Z80 |
The Halcyon is a home video game console by RDI Video Systems. The system was planned to be released in January 1985 with initial retail price for the system was US$2500. Fewer than a dozen units are known to exist and it is not generally believed that the system ever made it to retail. The design featured a laserdisc player and attached computer, each the size of an early-model VCR. Of the six games planned only two games were completed: Thayer's Quest and NFL Football LA Raiders vs SD Chargers. RDI Video Systems claimed that the system would be entirely voice-activated, and would have an artificial intelligence on par with HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Rick Dyer was one of the many fans of the interactive fiction game Adventure. He envisioned a game that would feature illustrations of every scene in this game, the first prototype being a roll of printing calculator tape that would be wound forward and backward via microprocessor to show illustrations and information drawn on its surface.
Later this was refined to a slightly different technology of a filmstrip projector, which was later synchronized to a tape recording of a narrator reading the text normally shown by the game as the player entered each scene.
With the advent of the videodisc player, Dyer realized he could consolidate onto one medium the audio and visual content, which was called The Fantasy Machine. Presentations of this device to prospective toy manufacturers failed.
Later it was realized that still images with narration were insufficient to capture the toy market, so animation projects began. The first project was titled The Secrets of the Lost Woods, which included a section known as the Dragon's Lair; this latter portion would go on to be developed into its own game.
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