[zach]

Ken Nordine also lent his unique narrative stylings to a game from the LaserDisc era of arcade video games, in 1983.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKyWNEGh_yk&t=30s

It's hard to describe exactly, but the technological "rules" about what experiences a video game could provide were not at all clear at that time, and there was still a mystique about the potential of every new video game.

Cube Quest had cutting-edge computer-generated animation (on video) and vector graphics, but to have Ken Nordine's amazing narration specifically recorded for the game was a new level in game production.

Ultimately, the spatial world inside the game (a tube shooter) was disappointing after all of the very cool presentation it was wrapped in. But before you went to wait in line for Atari's Star Wars, you would want to stick around again for the introduction.

NB: The on-screen instructions for Cube Quest may be the first documented use of the phrase "game play" for a video game.