Dragon's Lair Machine: Laserdisc won't connect with gameboard....

[dirkthedaring]

Hello,
I just picked up an original Dragon's Lair machine.
It powers up fine (one speaker is out), but it will not take a credit.
It just plays the intro movie & then just keeping showing every level.
The LD player is not original, but as far as I know the rest all is.

The person I bought it from said he had the previous owner set it up so you don't have to put quarters in.
The score board reads "2 credits" at start up & that stays on.

Is there some sort of hard reset I could do?

Anyone have any clues to what the problem is?  Cry

Thanks in advance!
Robb

[Kevin Mullins]

Have you looked in the manual for any dipswitch settings or software settings ?
Sounds like they set it to FREEPLAY which is while it always shows credits.

With the two credits showing like it is ...... can you start a game ?

[dirkthedaring]

That's the problem...no button will work.

-Robb

[SirPeale]

Check the wiring, perhaps there's a loose ground.

[dirkthedaring]

Nothing seems to be loose, but there is one group of wires that has a plastic end clip that is not attached to anything.
I was guessing it was maybe an old wire that was replaced, because there is no place for it to plug into.

I can take pics if that would help.

Thanks for the suggestions so far.

-Robb

[Neverending Project]

This page may help. It is a collection of manuals, schematics, pinouts and information about Dragon's Lair.
http://www.dragons-lair-project.com/tech/pages/dl.asp

Do you have the means to test the Start button with a multimeter (continuity test)?

[dirkthedaring]

I just had an arcade repair man leave my house with no luck.  He checked everything out & said it all seems to be fine, but the disc player will not, for some reason connect to the mother board.  I feel like I am running out of ideas on how to get this fixed.  If anyone has any info I would greatly appreciate.

Thank you,
Robb

[RayB]

Kinda sounds like you might have been scammed. They hooked up a regular laser disc player to make it look like it works.

[CheffoJeffo]

I think that pics of all of the connections are in order before we go much further. Also pics of what comes up on the screen.

[Kevin Mullins]

And model of the laser disc player. (?)

I haven't looked through any manuals and such, but is there a TEST option for testing all the button inputs ?
(if the buttons show as working, then dig deeper from there)

[MonMotha]

Dragon's Lair supports two different LD players (don't remember the exact models).  The player hooks up via the serial port to the game board.  If you don't have one of those players, there are converter boards to translate the protocols spoken by newer models into what Dragon's Lair speaks so that you can use a new player since the old ones are usually dead or dying.  There is a DIP switch to select which model player is hooked up.

I don't remember there being a switch test mode.  DL doesn't support any real video output: the laserdisc video just fed straight to the monitor.  There are some test modes that bring up test cards for monitor setting and will display certain errors such as RAM issues.

When you power on the machine, you should get one of the "ding" prompts that you normally get when you're supposed to make a move.  This means the mainboard is up.  You should then, a short while later, get another "ding" prompt.  This one means that it sees the LD player and is talking.  This usually happens right as it cycles through all the test cards, and right after the second "ding" prompt the attract sequence begins, and the game is playable.

[WCBoudreaux]

Freeplay, and most all of the other options in a DL cab were done via dipswitches... This, I do know to be a fact... This is most likely your problem with the credits staying on 2 all the time...

I also know, that MonMotha is right about the LD players... They have to be a certain one, or else you'll need the conversion card in order to make it work properly... This, could very well be the problem with the video not working right...

Best bet is to go to http://www.dragons-lair-project.com/ and grab the manual, and double check your dipswitch settings, with those in the manual...

Or, there's also a forum you can post on and explain your problem... Those guys over there, Jeff Kinder, along with quite a few others, are VERY good with these games...

Hope that you get it sorted...