Finally finished my Dragon's Lair/MAME cabinet!!!

[AllisterFiend]

Well, after a couple of months of me lurking around here I finally finished my Dragon's Lair/MAME cabinet.

I just wanted to thank everyone who helped me directly or indirectly with this project, without this GREAT website as well as the Dragon's Lair Project website I could not have done this.  Thank You.

I'm still having problems with the scoreboard and as soon as I get the time I will look into the problem.

I'm using Daphne Emulator for emulating Dragon's Lair & Space Ace As well as MAME for the other games.  My front end of choice is Dragon King (thanks howard for a great program, eagerly awaiting the new release, do you need a beta tester  ).

It has a SVGA monitor and a PC along with an IPAC 4 in the inside.  I still need to build an attachment for the machine that will have a new control Panel on it with all the bells and whistles to allow me to play the classics like they are supposed to be played, but that is another project a will start in a few weeks).

Thanks again for everyones help, any questions just let me know.

here are some pics... (I had to modify the url)

http://bellsouthpwp.net/j/d/jdelouis/ArcadeMachine/ArcadeMachine.htm

[Will]

Being a big dragons lair fan I know the original cabinet very well and your cabinet is a beautiful recreation.The marquee looks like a carbon copy of the original cabinet.How did you go about copying the original cabinet so well?Where did you get the marquee and overlay from?How do you hook the scoreboard up to your pc?Really nice work.

[AllisterFiend]

Being a big dragons lair fan I know the original cabinet very well and your cabinet is a beautiful recreation.The marquee looks like a carbon copy of the original cabinet.How did you go about copying the original cabinet so well?Where did you get the marquee and overlay from?How do you hook the scoreboard up to your pc?Really nice work.

There is a really great website devoted to Dragon's Lair called the Dragon's Lair Project at http://www.dragons-lair-project.com/, They have a classified section and you can ask for certain parts or just keep checking and someone will advertise different things that they have for sale.

As for the Marquee overlay and other repro artwork, I purchased them from Arcade Renovations about a year ago, after checking the site just now I did not see any repro marquee overlays, might have to look on ebay for this, the website is http://www.arcaderenovations.com/store/customer/search.php?substring=dragon%27s+lair , this should bring you to the Dragon's Lair section of the website.  The repro artwork on this site is licensed by Don Bluth Ltd. Which explains the carbon copy look.

I forgot who I purchased the Marquee plexi from but he sent me two of them because he took a while to ship it too me after I purchased them from him on ebay.

I am currently auctioning the extra one on ebay but you gotta hurry, about one day left til it ends, here is the url
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=6147240518&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT

while I'm listing auctions here are two more left over items from my project.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=6147240507&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=6147240534&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT


The scoreboard also came from Arcade Renovations, but when I just checked their site it is also not listed anymore, wow, I'm glad I bought the items when I did, it seems like it is getting harder to find everything, oh well, your best bet seems to be ebay, also try the Dragon's Lair Project websites classified section.

The scoreboard that I have (which is a repro) has two possible ways to connect it, one is through the original connections if you are hooking it up to the original electronic boards and the other is simply through your parallel port (LPT1) on your computer if you are using an emulator like DAPHNE. http://www.daphne-emu.com/

Hope this helps.

[Gunstar Hero]

That is an awesome cab, and I know you spent some time and bucks getting it that way! Kudos! 

[Darth Nuno]

Congrats for your Wonderfull cab

[AllisterFiend]

Congrats for your Wonderfull cab 

Im starting to build my 'own' Dragon's Lair / Space Ace cab too...

If you're a Dragon's Lair fan, just have a look at my website : http://www.dragonslair.be 

Thanks everyone.


Darth Nuno,  I've visited your site a few times already, even emailed you once about that dragon's lair space ace picture you have on your website.  A very nice site, keep up the good work.


Allister Fiend

[Gunstar Hero]

That picture is the covers of the first issues of the recent Dragon's Lair and Space Ace comics.

http://www.mvcreations.com/html/comic/dragonslair/index.asp

There's more like it on MVCreations site. 

[koolmoecraig]

Want to sell me a basic kit of your DL cab?

Hard to wood work in an apartment.

thanks,
Craig

[AllisterFiend]

Want to sell me a basic kit of your DL cab?

Hard to wood work in an apartment.

thanks,
Craig

Sorry Craig, no kit available  .


I originally wanted to build this for a couple of years myself (since around the third release of MAME,back when it had all of around 30 games ), but I had to wait until I moved out of my apartment and into a house.


Later,

Allister Fiend

[AllisterFiend]

I've updated my cab a little bit and added a control panel so I can play other games that require more than one button or joystick.

I wanted to add a control panel that is easily removed (3 bolts) and when it is removed you can not notice that it was ever there (in case I wanted to revert back to just a dragon's lair cabinet). I almost got away with the not being able to be noticed after it is removed but there is one 1/4 inch screw hole that is noticeable on the front a few inches about the coin door, that I had to add later on to stabilize the control panel.  (when panel is removed I will just place a black carriage bolt in the hole to fill it in )

also, I finally added my pics into my own webspace, I can barely get my pictures on the web so there is nothing fancy on the webpage except for pictures.

here they are...
http://bellsouthpwp.net/j/d/jdelouis/ArcadeMachine/ArcadeMachine.htm

Later,
Allister Fiend