''Cliff Hanger'' is a

laserdisc video game An interactive film is a video game or other interactive media that has characteristics of a cinematic film. In the video game industry, the term refers to a movie game, a video game that presents its gameplay in a cinematic, scripted manner, ...

that was released by Stern Electronics in 1983. It is an interactive movie which requires the player to press a button or move the joystick in a particular direction when prompted by the game to progress the storyline. The game uses animation from two ''

Lupin III , also written as ''Lupin the Third'', ''Lupin the 3rd'', or ''Lupin the IIIrd'', is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Monkey Punch. It follows the endeavors of master thief Arsène Lupin III, the grandson of Arsèn ...

'' films, most prominently

Hayao Miyazaki is a Japanese animator, director, producer, screenwriter, author, and manga artist. A co-founder of Studio Ghibli, he has attained international acclaim as a masterful storyteller and creator of Japanese animated feature films, and is widel ...

's ''

The Castle of Cagliostro is a 1979 Japanese animated action-adventure comedy film co-written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, with animation produced by Tokyo Movie Shinsha (TMS). It is the second feature film featuring Monkey Punch's master thief Arsène Lupin III, ...

'' (1979) as well as ''

The Mystery of Mamo ''The Mystery of Mamo'', also known as ''The Secret of Mamo'', is a 1978 Japanese animated science fiction adventure action comedy film; it is the first animated film of the '' Lupin III'' franchise created by manga author Monkey Punch. The film w ...

'' (1978); both films were in turn animated by Japanese studio

TMS Entertainment , formerly known as the , also known as or , is a Japanese animation studio established on October 22, 1946. TMS is one of the oldest and most famous anime studios in Japan, best known for numerous anime franchises such as '' Lupin the Third' ...

. The segments from ''The Mystery of Mamo'' use the original English dub commissioned by

Toho is a Japanese film, theatre production and distribution company. It has its headquarters in Chiyoda, Tokyo, and is one of the core companies of the Osaka-based Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group. Outside of Japan, it is best known as the producer ...

, while the segments from ''The Castle of Cagliostro'' use a dub created for the game. A scene showing the protagonist being hanged after the player made a mistake was originally included, but an option was added to the game to turn it off.

Plot

The game's plot is based loosely on that of ''The Castle of Cagliostro'', and follows Cliff (

Arsène Lupin III is a fictional character created by Kazuhiko Kato aka Monkey Punch as the protagonist for his manga series ''Lupin III'', which debuted in '' Weekly Manga Action'' on August 10, 1967. According to his creator, Lupin is the grandson of Maurice ...

) as he attempts to rescue Clarissa (Lady Clarisse d'Cagliostro) from the evil Count Draco (in some materials called "Dreyco" and in the instruction manual "Dragoe"), who wants to marry her. Cliff is aided in his quest by Jeff (

Daisuke Jigen is a fictional character created by Monkey Punch for his manga series ''Lupin III'', which debuted in '' Weekly Manga Action'' on August 10, 1967. Jigen is the marksman, aide-de-camp and best friend of Arsène Lupin III. Along with colleague Goe ...

) and Samurai (

Goemon Ishikawa XIII is a fictional character created by Monkey Punch for his manga series ''Lupin III'', which debuted in '' Weekly Manga Action'' on August 10, 1967. Goemon is a thirteenth generation descendant of the renegade samurai Ishikawa Goemon. He is famo ...

Development

The game was originally edited at Associated Audio Visual, Inc., in

Evanston, Illinois Evanston ( ) is a city, suburb of Chicago. Located in Cook County, Illinois, United States, it is situated on the North Shore along Lake Michigan. Evanston is north of Downtown Chicago, bordered by Chicago to the south, Skokie to the west, ...

. Jack Bornoff, was the editor, Paul Rubenstein, was editorial supervisor. ''Cliff Hanger'' uses a feedback loop to read frame details from the game laserdisc. This prevents the laserdisc and gameplay from ever going out of sync (a common occurrence in other laserdisc games as the disc players aged). The original version of ''Cliff Hanger'' shows an animated sequence of Cliff being hanged at the gallows immediately following the "miss" animation sequence. The sequence was taken from the opening sequence of ''The Mystery of Mamo'' (where Lupin was supposedly hanged in

Transylvania Transylvania ( ro, Ardeal or ; hu, Erdély; german: Siebenbürgen) is a historical and cultural region in Central Europe, encompassing central Romania. To the east and south its natural border is the Carpathian Mountains, and to the west the Ap ...

), plus a later scene in the same film. According to the instruction manual, a setting on the game cabinet's logic board would allow the individual owners/operators the option of not playing the sequence if they so chose.

Legacy

The game was considered for inclusion on the American

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of st ...

release of ''The Castle of Cagliostro'' by

Discotek Media Discotek Media is an American entertainment company based in Altamonte Springs, Florida, focused on distribution and licensing Japanese anime, films, and television series. Formed in 2005, Discotek primarily focuses on licensing retro titles fr ...

; however, when it became apparent that the original contracts for the game were lost, it was left off the release. The television show ''

Starcade ''Starcade'' is an American game show where contestants competed against one another by playing arcade video games. The series originally aired on WTBS from 1982 to 1983, followed by a run in syndication for the following season. The series w ...

'' featured a special episode where rather than playing the usual three games, the contestants played three rounds of ''Cliff Hanger''. The winner of the show, Mark Walsh, won a ''Cliff Hanger'' cabinet. In the film '' The Goonies'' (1985), Chunk is playing ''Cliff Hanger'' when he sees the Fratelli Brothers driving past while being chased by the police.Thegoonies.org
''Cliff Hanger'' helped expose many Americans in the 1980s to ''

'',

, and Japanese

anime is hand-drawn and computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japanese, (a term derived from a shortening of ...

in general, as it was released in the United States before any ''Lupin III'' or Miyazaki anime productions had officially been released theatrically or on

home video Home video is prerecorded media sold or rented for home viewing. The term originates from the VHS and Betamax era, when the predominant medium was videotapes, but has carried over to optical disc formats such as DVD, Blu-ray and streaming me ...

References

External links

*
Dragon's Lair Project
*
The Dot Eaters entry
on ''Cliff Hanger'' and the laser game craze {{Lupin III 1983 video games Arcade video games Arcade-only video games Lupin the Third video games Interactive movie video games LaserDisc video games Stern video games Full motion video based games Video games developed in the United States