In a stroke of almost pure luck, I managed to locate and purchase a complete and working RDI Halcyon unit with both games and everything needed to play them. I've spent some time with it and wanted to share some pics and observations with everybody here.

The system itself:






The laserdisk player is nothing more than a Pioneer LD-700 with a custom faceplate. The controller module (the unit on top) handles the main part of the work. It controls the laserdisk player through a proprietary bus. All audio and video are carried to the laserdisk player through this bus and out to the tv through the laserdisk player.

The controller module also handles all of the speech synthesis and recognition. The speech synthesis is identical to what you would have gotten from a Commodore 64 speech cart. It's all phonetic based and sounds very computer like. There is even a way to put the controller in a text to speech mode where you can type in anything you want it to say. The speech recognition is primitive at best. Both of the games allow you to play them entirely by using nothing but speech, but it's more frustrating than anything. You have to 'train' the Halcyon to your voice for every command that can be used in the game. I've found that it's easier to just use the keyboard to play!

According to the manual, there were supposed to be 2 different versions of the controller. The one I have that works with the Pioneer LD-700 and another one that would work with the Pioneer VP1000/PR8210, the Magnavox VC8040, or the Sylvania VP7200. This would allow customers to purchase a lower cost unit if they already had a compatible laserdisk player.

The Keyboard:


The keyboard connects to the controller module through a modular cable. It's sort of a membrane keyboard, but has a much sturdier feel. The keyboard can be used as a controller to the games as well as a remote when watching a normal laserdisk. Both of the games have overlays that you can slide into the keyboard to easily know what keys to hit for each function.





The carts:


Each of the games has a dedicated cart that's required to play the game in addition to the appropriate laserdisk. In fact, it's possible to 'play' the games without the proper laserdisk, but the footage displayed wouldn't match what's supposed to be going on.

System bootup:






This is the one place I was very surprised when I finally got to see the system in action. I expected it to boot up with fancy graphics and all kinds of bells and whistles. Instead, I was greeted with a black screen and the voice synthesis module telling me "Welcome to Halcyon" and then asking me to enter my name. None of the above screens pop up until the laserdisk player is started, which is after entering your name and the system asking you if you want to play the game for the installed cart. It will also ask you if you want to continue your last game, if the game supports it. Also, the entire time you are playing, the system calls you by name. A cool touch for sure!

Chargers vs Raiders Football:












It's an extremely simple football game, using actual game footage from four seasons of games. All you do is call plays and don't have any real interaction with the players. Probably the most intersting thing I've noticed while playing it is that periodically on a turnover, the system will say that either the Cowboys or the Redskins have the ball instead of the Chargers or Raiders. I'm assuming this indicates that the game was never fully tested, but no way to know for sure.

Thayer's Quest:












If you've played any of the other versions of Thayer's Quest, you've played this. It's basically the same gameplay as Dragon's Lair, only it's not as reflex based. You have to make the proper decision based on the information presented to you. Not the most exciting game I've ever played, but still kind of cool. This one feels a bit more complete than the football. I haven't noticed any obvious bugs in it yet.

Overall, the system is an amazing piece of history, especially with all of the paperwork intact. In all of my research, I have found no evidence that it was ever really shipped, but the info available on the net is very limited and tends to repeat from site to site. Personally, I don't think it would have really stood a chance at it's retail price ($2500) as the games are very limited in gameplay. Thayer's Quest is extremely linear and the NFL Football has so little footage that I began to see repeats in the very first game I played. Still, having read several vintage articles about it as well seeing as an interview with Rick Dyer (the creater) talking about the system in 1985, you have to appreciate the effort that went into it's design and genuinely feel for the amount of love that Mr. Dyer put into it. It's almost like he tried to make the system do too much instead of focusing on just being a game system, which may have stood a chance. Hopefully I'll have the opportunity to meet him one of these days as I've got a ton of questions I'd like to ask him!

This particular system was purchased from one of the original investors by another collector. The previous owner had it for a number of years before I found him and purchased it from him. It's going to be in my personal collection for a LONG time to come! This is one of my absolute holy grails and was a system that I never believed I would get to play, let alone own!