Dragon's Lair scratch build

Accumulated more parts:

Monitor rails to suit the frame and new speaker grilles. Both are Dragon's Lair new reproduction parts.

More leather type T-moulding to match the original. Tmolding.com

I found the correct switch and IEC part. I still had to laser cut the plate, though in the end I bought this as it popped up on ebay and kept the others as spares. It was to be wired up later.

Another laser disc player was found. This one PAL/NTSC. As a back up or maybe a 2nd cab.

Next (before monitor install), was to put the laser disc player drawer in.

I avoided the cheap and nasty roller type rails and went for something more heavy duty.

Bunnings had these. Length was either 40 or 50cm.

Once the height was set inside without the drawer the rails were screwed into place.

Then the drawer placement was set to have perfect gaps.

Another awkward job was done.

L-shaped brackets were installed at the top of each side of the laser disc player drawer.

Filter for laser disc player drawer was put in.

A fan that was in these cabs was purchased

And the fan cover put on.

Next, decasing and installing the TV and chassis.

Just curious to what speakers and wattage you're using? the reason being is you might have issues with colour distortion on your monitor/TV if the magnets are too big.

Regards,

Johns-Arcade.

I had a different set in first, new, same ohm and watts before putting in another set when I found some originals pulled from a Dragon’s Lair cab.

This is what’s in it now.

20TFW-10

8 ohm 8 watt as pictured.

I had a different set in first, new, same ohm and watts before putting in another set when I found some originals pulled from a Dragon’s Lair cab.

This is what’s in it now.

 

20TFW-10

8 ohm 8 watt as pictured.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]136494[/ATTACH]

Well that was handy. If you do want/need to replace them, or plan a second cab, these are a perfect fit.

https://www.altronics.com.au/p/c2000a-redback-200mm-8-inch-8-ohm-10w-dual-cone-pa-speaker/

Another question, 4 wire to your speaker? :017:

Thanks John. I originally got some similar from the US.

The move beep comes from the PC. Wired to left/right. They’re the extra ones there. Speakers had the extra connections so I utilised them instead of joining them up.

Plans are to use an original harness and board (which I have now) for further upgrades. So I made it easy to rip apart later.

The rest of course comes from the laser disc player left/right channel for the audio commentary and game sounds.

Time to decase the TV and fit to the monitor frame.

Removed back of TV casing, anode (safely) from tube and removed chassis.

Then bolt to frame

Then added the monitor brackets which were a perfect match.

Next I had to work out the location of the monitor bolts.

So out came the 1:1 scale mock up used to mount the control panel holes correctly and I used it to make another jig to easily drill the holes in the real cab.

Only had one shot at it to drill correctly so best to get it right.

In it went. Then made a jig for the real cab.

Meanwhile, found this sitting in an ex operators shed, not used since 1982.

Yes, it was a just a new fuse swap and she fired right up.

I made 2 jigs. One above and one below for the bolts.

If both of these matched the real cab it would be correct.

Easiest job was drilling the holes.

Now ready for the 19 inch TV

Worked out great.

Another harder job was done. Fitting the chassis would be later.

Next it was back to some fun stuff now that the monitor drill holes were done.

Morocco'ing the sides and putting the awesome Dragon's Lair decals on.

Nice work! It’s coming along really well

Sent from my iPhone using Aussie Arcade

Time to apply the Morocco vinyl to the outside of the cab and apply the Dragon's Lair decals.

So out came the TV/monitor.

Before this when the TV was in it I bolted it right up as to make sure the decal would not be pinched when the bolts went back in after the vinyl and decal were applied. It worked out.

Dry method for the vinyl. Pretty easy to do even yourself. Unravel backing with one arm and keeping it up while applying with the vinyl application tool with the other as you move along from top to bottom, making sure to have some overhang on all sides.

One side done! Control panel holes and monitor holes trimmed out

Other side

All vinyl'ing done. Cab has outer left and right, inner left and right, front, floor and under the marquee. Cost a small fortune but well worth it. About 40ft.

Decal time. I did more taping than this side shows. Other side pics show how I fully masked it up and got the placement perfect for myself.

It was important to not have one of the monitor bolts go through Dirk's face.

I like the placement. Not to low or high and made sure the gaps on the left and right side of the decal were similar.

Decal applied it looked stunning.

Other side masked off.

Couldn't of asked for better.

Back went in the TV/monitor, control panel and smoked screen plexi.

Next, putting all the brains of the game already working out of the cab into it and A LOT of wiring.

Great thread if anyone is interested in doing the same I have a complete board set and score board for sale

Sent from my iPhone using Aussie Arcade

First thing I did was wire up the original scoreboard and ran 5v through to check it was still ok.

To have an original Dragon's Lair scoreboard working with Daphne you simply need to make a custom cable for it. Plans are on the Dragon's Lair Wiki and cables are parts are at your local electronic shop like Jaycar.

Same goes for the laserdisc CPU cord. Very easy even for unskilled solderers. More info I posted earlier in the thread.

The scoreboard tinted film is next to impossible to find but with some digging I was able to find people in the US who had matched up recent tint films. I simply matched my own.

5v went through the scoreboard and a random number of all 7's lit up on the LED's. I was happy with that and moved on.

Next the Dragon's Lair's wiring for the control panel runs through an i-pac.

The big box was an old 5.1 surround sound amp I had sitting around doing nothing that produced a nice sound back in the day so I decided to use it.

It also had all the connections I needed for the speakers OUT and the laserdisc left/right IN. Also has a built in subwoofer for a bit more punch to the sound.

I couldn't resist an Asteriods I picked up at this time. Needs a full resto but a nice piece of history.

Before and after of the chassis board being fitted in, speaker/scoreboard/fan wiring.

Power switch wired to work when pulled out when on, pushed in - off.

All power cables are all neatly hidden away under the shelf.

Marquee light is 12v scavenged from the PC like the 5v for the LED scoreboard.

The move "ding" noise comes from the PC and is wired into each main original Dragon's Lair speaker.

I kept the music and sound effects like the original. Vocals from left and music/effects from the right.

It was important to have everything feel 'right'. From the original controls, the leather type t-moulding, morocco vinyl, quality decals, tv/monitor had to go in the correct frame, sound from original speakers and using an 80's era laserdisc player with original disc that pulled out with the drawer.

And of course, to finish it off with style, a spectator monitor had to go on top. I used a Sony PVM monitor which produce an outstanding image.

Next, it was time for final shakedown. Some play testing..

I got a mate who is a massive Dragon's Lair fan since 1983 to test the game.

The cab fired up perfectly and testing began.

The machine starts by pulling out the cabs power switch. Laserdisc player, amp, fan, monitor and PC all power on via the one switch. Turn off is the same. Some simple mods kept the computer happy by not scanning drive for errors when shutting down this way and there are no Windows boot up screens or sounds.

It starts straight into Dragon's Lair with no sign of Daphne except when Daphne takes control of the laserdisc player and restarts the intro which without the fast boot up is right at the end of the first play of the intro.

An .ini start up file is put in the computers boot file. The .ini file you can change to others easy whenever you want. So it can play the last standard release in the arcade or version 2.0 with the playable bridge scene, extra scene parts and all the dip switch options like number of men etc

Everything worked. The game looked, played and sounded great.

It was time to add it to the arcade.

Dragon's Lair was finished. :023:

Sorry to necro this thread, but I have that exact same setup as you right now. Currently waiting on my PCB to be repaired. I'm running Daphne, and it's controlling the LD Player. My question is, can you please show me a diagram of how you wired up your switch plate? I have that same one in mine purchased from a fella on KLOV, and with the computer in there now, I'm hoping I can wire in a power strip or something in there until my board returns, which might be a while.

Any thing you can do to help I would appreciate! Pictures, text, homemade diagram whatever is easiest for you. Thank you!

I asked you because we have the same setup, and was hoping it would be easy to mimic!

Thank You!

Hi there. Nowadays my DL no Ionger has Daphne. 
These days it’s running all the original stuff, though now with Dexter and Merlin DX.

I’ll have a look at the switch and see what I did. I know I copied the arcade set up with the pole switch and that turned on the power board to turn on the Daphne set up. 
I’m sure I changed it since the Merlin DX so it’s just dedicated now and powers up the CPU board, original harness, scoreboard etc
The Daphne wiring is still in there though ready to put Daphne in if the worse happens.