Editing Space Ace (section)

== Development ==
The animation for ''Space Ace'' was produced by the same team that tackled the earlier ''[[Dragon's Lair (1983 video game)|Dragon's Lair]]'', headed by ex-[[The Walt Disney Company|Disney]] animator [[Don Bluth]]. To keep the production costs down, the studio again chose to use its staff to provide voices for the characters rather than hire actors (one exception is [[Michael Rye]], who reprises his role as the narrator of the [[attract sequence]] in ''Dragon's Lair''). Bluth himself provides the (electronically altered) voice of Commander Borf. In an interview about the game, Bluth stated that had the studio been able to afford more professional actors, he thought [[Paul Shenar]] would have been more suitable for the role of Borf than himself. The game's animation features some [[rotoscoping]], wherein models were built of Ace's spaceship "Star Pac", his motorcycle, and the tunnel in the game's dogfight sequence, then filmed and traced over to render moving animated images with very realistic depth and perspective.

The game's budget was $2.5 million.<ref>{{cite web|first=George|last=Albert|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/97159867/the-palm-beach-post/|title=Heroic rescues make game fun|newspaper=[[The Palm Beach Post]]|page=113|date=March 2, 1984|accessdate=March 8, 2022|via=[[Newspapers.com]]}}</ref>

=== Format ===
''Space Ace'' was made available to distributors in two different formats: a dedicated cabinet, and a conversion kit that could be used to turn an existing copy of ''Dragon's Lair'' into a ''Space Ace'' game. Early version #1 production units of the dedicated ''Space Ace'' game were actually issued in ''Dragon's Lair'' style cabinets. The latter version #2 dedicated ''Space Ace'' units came in a different, inverted style cabinet. The conversion kit included the ''Space Ace'' laserdisc, new [[EPROM]]s containing the game program, an additional circuit board to add the skill level buttons, and replacement artwork for the cabinet. The game originally used the [[Pioneer (company)|Pioneer]] LD-V1000 or PR-7820 laserdisc players, but an adaptor kit now exists to allow [[Sony]] LDP series players to be used as replacements if the original player is no longer functional.