RDI Halcyon
gshowguy
Video captures courtesy of
William Hunter
Background
The Halcyon was an ill-fated LaserDisc game system created by RDI Video Systems (founded by Rick Dyer, creator of Dragon's Lair). They advertised it as revolutionary, being entirely voice-controlled and having an AI similar to that of HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey (hence the name Halcyon). The system, due to its ambitions and the cost of manufacturing it, retailed for around $1800 to $2500, thus making it too expensive for most customers, and retailers had little faith in the console. What happened with the console has never been made clear (it either had a extremely limited retail release, or failed to get on the market), but ultimately, two games were completed for the console, and only 10-13 prototype units were ever produced and sent to investors. RDI declared bankruptcy soon after the attempted introduction.
Logo (1985)
Visuals: In space, there are two orange planets, one big and the other small. A spaceship with what looks like a big shield flies to the left, then a sapphire-coated octagon flies to the left as well, covering the screen, and zooming in a bit. A laser carves in "HALCYON" in a futuristic font, colored gold, and it shines all over. Then, the background turns black, and the logo now turns into a blue outline, zooming in slightly, with a flare trail. Then the RDI logo, which is "RDI" in a typewritten font, in a box, flips up into place, and "Video Systems" writes out in an orange cursive font. The logo shines all over.
Technique: A mix of cel animation and CGI.
Audio: An ominous synthesizer tune (the first note in this logo sounds like the first note in the long version of the WXXI logo), with a synth zap sound when the laser carves "HALCYON" into the octagon, as well as a jet-like sound when "HALCYON" zooms in, with a voice whispering "Halcyon" close to the end.
Availability: This was only seen at the start of the two laserdisc games released for the system, Thayer's Quest and NFL Football LA Raiders vs SD Chargers, both of which are extremely hard to find due to the rarity of the system. This can be seen on the DVD release of Thayer's Quest, on the trailers for the other Halcyon games that were never completed.
