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Thayer's Quest Thayer's Quest - Japanese Logo - Katakana / Kanji

Thayer's Quest - Cabinet - Video Game Marquee

Description

Thayer Alconred, last of the bloodline of the Elder Kings, searches five kingdoms in search of five relics which combine to form the Hand of Quoid. Thayer's adversary, Sorsabal The Twisted assisted by his henchman, The Black Magician, seeks to use the Hand's power to take control of the land.

Thayer's Quest was produced by RDI Video Systems in 1984.

RDI Video Systems released 2 machines in our database under this trade name, starting in 1984. RDI Video Systems was based in United States.

Other machines made by RDI Video Systems during the time period Thayer's Quest was produced include: Do You Believe In Magic

Thayer's Quest - Cabinet - Machine
Cabinet

Specs

Name Thayer's Quest
Developer RDI Video Systems (United States)
Year 1984
Type Videogame
KLOV/MOG # 10085
Class Wide Release
Genre Adventure
Monitor
Conversion Class unique
External Device LDP - Pioneer PR-7820 or Pioneer LD-V1000
# Simultaneous Players 1
# Maximum Players 1
Gameplay Single
Control Panel Layout Single Player
Controls
  • Membrane Keyboard
Sound Amplified Stereo (two channel)
Cabinet Styles
  • Upright/Standard

Game Introduction

One of the drawbacks of the game is that it costs credits for time and lives. If you lose a life, you lose a credit, but even remaining alive costs credits. You start with a DIP switch-optional five credits and as time passes, the game will speak, informing you that your game credits are low.

Game Play

The player watches short animated story segments and makes gameplay decisions with keypad after each one. The computer uses synthesized speech to address players by name during the game.

Thayer's Quest KLOV/IAM 5 Point User Score: 2.74 (1 vote)

Fun Factor: 2.50

Overall Like 2.00
Fun (Social) -1.00
Fun (Solo) 2.00
Collector Desire 5.00

Technical Rating: 3.00

Gameplay 2.00
Graphics 4.00
Originality 4.00
Sound/Music -1.00

Personal Impressions and Technical Impressions each account for half of the total score. Within the Personal Impressions category, Like carries a little more weight than the other factors.

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Cheats, Tricks, Bugs, and Easter Eggs

When prompted to type in your name, do nothing. After intervals of one minute or so, the game speaks out saying things like Do not be shy, enter your name, Have you gone to the toilet, Do not be a stranger now, enter your name, Look lively now and a whole host of other funny comments.

More pictures

Trivia

This game was never finished. The game includes only three kingdoms. It was simultaneously produced for the Halcyon home system in 1984. The Halcyon's Thayers Quest laser disc is double sided and it contains a great deal of material not found on the coinop version disc. Sadly, this game will probably forever remain unfinished.

In 1995, Thayers Quest was adapted and released for several common gaming platforms and CDROM under the title Kingdom: The Far Reaches. Thayers name was changed to Lathan and all the game sounds and dialogue were redone. In late 1996, Shadoan, a newly animated sequel to Kingdom, was released. In 1997 Digital leisure released Thayers Quest again under the title Reaches.

Cabinet Information

The keyboard had four standard option keys, a full keyboard, plus keys for inventory and options. The full QWERTY keyboard was used to enter your name which was spoken back to you for high scores and ingame commentary. Each one of the keys had an object labelled on it and by pressing the corresponding key at the right time during the game, you could cast spells and pickup objects. The game was only available as a kit and it went straight into a Dragons Lair or Space Ace cabinet, but did not fully utilize the LED score board. The keyboard had a flourescent tube under it, making it glow in the dark, so you could see what you were typing in the darkest of arcades. The control panel also had a headphone jack and a volume control so you could use headphones to hear the important commentary in a busy arcade.

In one of the industrial gaming magazine in the mid 80's there was a picture of Thayer's Quest in a "proto-type" sit down version. In an interview with Rick Dyer in the late 80's, he had forgotten about it and vaguely remembered it.

Conversion

This game was part of RDI Video Systems Halcyon technology. However, no other games were officially released as kits for the coinop version of Thayers Quest. New games would have required one new EPROM cartridge and a new disc to function.

Miscellaneous

This games wiring harness was designed for immediate installation into a Dragons Lair or Space Ace machine.

SOUND: Different dialogue was recorded on each stereo channel of the laser disc. Depending on the players situation, the CPU appropriately chose which dialogue channel to play. Therefore, game sounds were heard in mono.

LASER DISC: Thayers Quest includes switch settings to select LDV1000 or PR7820 Discovision disc players.

VAPS Arcade/Coin-Op Thayer's Quest Census

There are 14,717 members of the Video Arcade Preservation Society / Vintage Arcade Preservation Society, 9,456 whom participate in our arcade census project of games owned, wanted, or for sale. Census data currently includes 164,294 machines (6,886 unique titles).

Common - There are 22 known instances of this machine owned by Thayer's Quest collectors who are active members. Of these, 12 of them are original dedicated machines. 6 of them are conversions in which game circuit boards (and possibly cabinet graphics) have been placed in (and on) another game cabinet. 4 of them are only circuit boards which a collector could put into a generic case if desired.

For Sale - There is one active VAPS member with a Thayer's Quest machine for sale.

Wanted - There are 3 active VAPS members currently looking for Thayer's Quest.

This game ranks a 4 on a scale out of 100 (100 = most often seen, 1=least common) in popularity based on census ownership records.

This game ranks a 5 on a scale out of 100 (100 = most often seen, 1=least common) in popularity based on census want list records.

Rarity and Popularity independently are not necessarily indications of value. [More Information]

Flyers

Fixes

The keyboard is a flimsy membrane type, like those found in rubber-key 48k Spectrums or other early 1980s home computers. There were prone to failure and a pain to fix. A common problem is the keyboard data cables are folded over and crack over time, rendering whole rows of keys inoperable. Scratch back the thin track to expose the copper and solder them back up - clamping them back up to ensure a decent connection.

Manuals

Foto-Finder® (Books)

  1. The Encyclopedia of Arcade Video Games Kurtz (ISBN 0764319256) Page: 177; Color photo Price guide: No
  2. Encyclopedia of Arcade Video Games Kurtz (ISBN 0764319256) Page: 177; Color photo

Additional References (logged in members often see more)

  1. 3D Model (External): Conversion

eBay Listings

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