One of the more obscure game systems out there is the traditional DVD player. Yes, the one you play movies on. Not usually a great game machine, sure, but great in aT least one instance.

Back in the mid-80's came a revolutionary, hugely successful flash-in-the-pan known as Dragons Lair, a interactive Don Bluth cartoon that had you making a series of twitch decisions to propel the story along, cut to a humorous death scene if you made the wrong one, but otherwise strung together many scenes to tell a complete tale that you made happen.

The arcade game's main component was a giant laser disc that stored and delivered each scene in slightly-faltering real time. A few years ago, Ontario-based Digital Leisure re-released Dragons Lair (and several laser-disc based games like it) to play on any home DVD player with the remote control acting as the game controller.

Digital Leisure recently re-released it again in digitally re-mastered, stunning high definition (and featuring 5.1 Surround Sound), which will currently only play on a PC DVD-ROM drive to be displayed on your PC's monitor, which is most likely of high-enough resolution to display HD content. Ideally, you'll want to play it on a Media Center PC jacked into a big fat HDTV... though most don't have such a setup.

With so many versions Dragons Lair (and other laser-disc refits), one has to wonder if Digital Leisure hasn't saturated its own little niche. Then again, re-mastering the whole thing in high definition does lend itself to at least one more go, hopefully as an HD-DVD or Blu-ray game. Can't you just smell it? Ya think? Hmmm?! How about it, Digital Leisure...

Meanwhile, there's this one, HD for regular DVD but PC DVD-ROM only. Confused yet?