RightSprite Retrospective's

Dragon 32/64

In August 1982 The Welsh had a stab at the video game market industry ย with the hit , Dragon 32ย andย Dragon 64 . Theses areย home computersย that were builtย ย byย Dragon Data, Ltd., inย Port Talbot,ย Wales, and for the US market by Tano ofย New Orleans,ย Louisiana.

  • CPU: Motorola MC6809E
  • Memory: 32/64KB RAM
  • Video: MC6847 VDG (Video Display Generator)

The model numbers reflect the ย difference between machines having ย 32 and 64 KB RAM. An advanced 8-bit CPU design, having, among, limited 16-bit capabilitiesย The Dragon was sort lived due to its graphical capabilities, and suffered ย to contemporary machines such as theย Sinclairย ZX Spectrumย andย BBC Micro.

The Dragon Also Had someย peripheralsย that you could get for the machine toย enhanceย interactivity and game play :

ย  ย  ย  ย  ย ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  Light pen interactiveย  ย  ย  ย ย 

5 ”ย Floppyย drive ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย Dragon ย joystick ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  Light penย interactive ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  Dust Cover

 

Reception

The Dragon was reasonably well supported by the major UK software companies with versions of popular games from other systems being ported to the Dragon. Examples of top selling games available for the Dragon include Arcadia (Imagine), Chuckie Egg (A&F), Manic Miner and sequel Jet Set Willy (Software Projects), Hunchback (Ocean) and Football Manager (Addictive). There were also companies that concentrated on the Dragon such as Microdeal. Their character Cuthbert appeared in several games on the Dragon being converted for Atari 8-bit and Commodore 64 systems. However, Microdeal continued supporting the Dragon until January 1988. Giving the console a great life span considering that it out lasted other console life spans by big hit companies IE: Attari , Sega and Nintendo in the 90’s / 20, Making the console a gem in the era when the video game industry was taking bit hit down stream.

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Magazines issues

Magazines was also released ย in the UK and Spain that ended ย as late as 1992.

File:Dragon Software 3 Cover.jpg

File:DragonWorld1.jpg

There were also manyย official books that were made for the British and Spanish Market . Hope you enjoyed my little shout to the Dragon 64 .I was quite buzzed that o found out that we took a shot at the console wars in the 80’s . If you have any further info on this console yourself please comment below thanks .

if you like further info there is a dedicated page by ย ” World of Dragon” link provided .

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