Dragon's Lair Fans - Arcade Lifestyle
General Chat => Dragon's Lair / Space Ace => Topic started by: DarthNuno on February 02, 2006, 08:10:58 PM
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Luca from Rome ( Italy) send me pictures of his Dragon's Lair Cab' replica :idea:
The cab is still on the making, but what a beautifull job already done on it :shock: :P
Have a look by yourself :
(https://www.dragonslairfans.com/forforum/Cab1.jpg)
(https://www.dragonslairfans.com/forforum/Cab2.jpg)
(https://www.dragonslairfans.com/forforum/Cab3.jpg)
(https://www.dragonslairfans.com/forforum/Cab4.jpg)
Luca : "In the beginning I was searching for an original Atari cab, but as you well know, it's near impossible to find one. So, about four years ago I started to design a replica cab using a CAD application, as an alternative solution. I don't see an original DL cab since 1989, so I had to work without any phisical reference point. Igor Maggiorelli helped me providing some measurement and some very useful pics of his Atari cab. For the rest I downloaded and studied deeply a bunch of pics from the Internet. It wasn't easy to finalize the project. I printed the final sheets and gave it to a woodsman next to my house. You saw the result in the pics. Before building it, I bought the monitor (Hantarex Polo 20" 15KHz, brand new), the white leaf-switch pushbuttons, the Atari red lighted start buttons, the Wico joystick, two USA grilles for the speakers (don't think Atari ones has ever been reproduced), the CP overlay from Arcade Renovations, the monitor brackets (from USA) and the electronics. The coin-door (Happ Controls over/under, not the original one), the bezel and the t-molding should arrive soon. I'm going to print myself the marquee overlay, because I want the Atari logos/colors on it (a lot of Photoshop work.. :-\), as like as I'll do for the ATARI and the sideart stickers (I cannot hole the Arcade Renovations ones :_( ). One big trouble is to find two full-range speakers which match the grill holes. Anyway, once I installed the coin-door (still have to cut the hole for it), and the t-molding, I'll have to find someone which can build the metal parts (control panel, marquee and plexi brackets) for me. It will be a Daphne/MAME cab. I've got some laserdiscs and a Sony player, but I would like to have the chance to play some more games in the cab, not only laserdisc ones. This time, the only parts mounted are the monitor brackets, the monitor and the speaker grilles."
Thanks for your pictures Luca... I can't wait to see it fully running :D
Forza !!! 8) 8) 8)
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Wow. Thank you Bruno for posting these first pics of my DL replica cabinet. I am sure it's not 100% authentic to the original, but actually it's enough for me. I'm not making it for collection purposes, I only would like to play my favourite games standing, with a red ball joystick under my hand, a loud sound, a lot of coins to insert, and a big yellow Atari logo right in front of my face.. :D Just as I used to do in the arcades when I was a child.
The work goes on so slowly, but the making of the cab is being a really funny and challanging experience to me. I'm sure I'll be happy with my cab as I should be with an original one. Well, at least no Philips laserdisc players at all! :D
Luca (poIng)
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A little update: the cab now has the coin door, black smooth T-molding applied on both sidewalls and a plastic monitor bezel from Happ. It looks really better now, don't you think?
(http://digilander.libero.it/poing77/cab_160206_2.jpg) (http://digilander.libero.it/poing77/cab_160206_3.jpg) (http://digilander.libero.it/poing77/coindoor.jpg)
The coin door is not an original Atari one. I preferred to buy a new one from Happ.
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First "in-cab" system test:
Here is the core of the cab:
(http://digilander.libero.it/poing77/boards_small.jpg) (http://digilander.libero.it/poing77/dvd_coindoor_small.jpg)
The mainboard is an ASUS A7N8X-VM/400, and the two smaller boards on the bottom are the UVC and the audio amplifier by Ultracade.
As you see, I choose a comfortable position to place the DVD-ROM drive.
(http://digilander.libero.it/poing77/hw_test_190206.jpg)
Well, no issues at all for now. The cab isn't still wired, and a lot of parts are still missing, so I don't want to turn on the main monitor yet. And of course the power supply shouldn't be placed on a pasteboard box.. :)
Any suggestion about the model of the speakers to buy? They have to fit the US grilles.
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Wooow impressive :!: :!: :!:
It starts to look very good, very good job :shock: :!:
You're using the best place possible for your DVD Player ( I use the same location for my Gauntlet Legends mame cab) :)
Ok so you'll go with a 100% software setup... good choice if you wanna play Space Ace, Dragon's Lair or other LD games without swaping laser disc 8)
But please, do not put a multi-usage mame control panel... :? ... you should keep the esthetic look as close as possible as the original cab :roll:
Which processor do you will use ? Don't go under 800mhz if you want to have good perfs on Daphne.
Are you already find an issue for a metal control panel?
Thanks for the update of your project 8)
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For the speakers, I suggest you to buy a couple of PC speakers, open it, remove the little in-build cheap speakers, and buy car speakers with the same Ohm value ( 4 or 8 Ohm ).
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But please, do not put a multi-usage mame control panel... ... you should keep the esthetic look as close as possible as the original cab
Eheh, don't worry Bruno.. My first goal is to have a DL/SA cab, so the panel will be authentic. For games which need more than one button to be played, I designed an alternate panel. I'll just have to switch:
(http://digilander.libero.it/poing77/cp_main.jpg)(http://digilander.libero.it/poing77/cp_alt.jpg)
I'm now looking for someone who's able to build metal components.
The hardware in the cab is brand new. The CPU is a Sempron 2400+, 512 MB DDR400 RAM, ASUS 16x DVD-ROM reader, and an I-PAC keyboard interface (still not installed). The mainboard has a built-in Geforce4-MX graphic adapter. Enough to play any emulated bidimensional game, I suppose.
As for the speakers, thanks for your suggestion. Unfortunately, it's hard to find car speakers with a diameter bigger than 16 cm in Italy. I found two 20 cm speakers, but were still too small. I think I'll need two 20,5 cm diameter speakers. Maybe something like Monacor SP-205/8?
Well, we'll see.. :)
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Hey po|ng,
What is the status about your 'beauty' :P :wink:
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Hey Bruno, sorry for the delay.
Unfortunately there was no progress at all. I just did some software tests and discovered that DL, SA and Cliff Hanger are perfectly playable. Esh's Aurunmilla is not, I wonder why.
On the hardware side, I ordered all the metal parts and the speakers months ago, but for some reason I still didn't receive them. Without those components, I can't go on working.. :(
I hope I'll be able to post good news soon..
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After a long wait, I finally got the metal parts:
(http://digilander.libero.it/poing77/pan_dl_1.jpg) (http://digilander.libero.it/poing77/pan_dl_2.jpg)
Here is the main panel. As you see, both the controls and the overlay fit perfectly. Those guys did a very fine work.
(http://digilander.libero.it/poing77/pan_alt_1.jpg) (http://digilander.libero.it/poing77/pan_alt_2.jpg)
The alternate panel.
(http://digilander.libero.it/poing77/brackets.jpg)
The plexies brackets. I know, the two brackets should be a bit different. But why? The thrid bracket is the one for the monitor plexi (not present in the Cinematronics DL).
Now, I'm going to solder the hinges and latches on the panels to fix them on the cab, then I'll apply the overlay in the way Bruno did.. :)
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Hey po|ng, thanks for the update :P
The metal control panel looks great, but I hope you'll get the first one, I mean the replication of the original one : 1 joystick, 2 start player buttons & 2 sword :roll: :wink: :wink: :wink: S
The CPO looks great :o Be very carefull with it. I've used this method to apply it :
http://members.aol.com/severlander/dragons_lair_control_panel.html
... follow that procedure, you can't go wrong 8)
The end is very near... you'll soon enjoy the pleasure to play Dragon's Lair... on a Dragon's Lair Cab' :)
Keep your good work :)
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Hi all!
Great day today: the main control panel is completed! Look..
(http://digilander.libero.it/poing77/cp_2.jpg)
(http://digilander.libero.it/poing77/cp_3.jpg)
(http://digilander.libero.it/poing77/cp_4.jpg)
Cool, eh? 8)
Now let's fix the panel on the cab..
(http://digilander.libero.it/poing77/cp_6.jpg)
(http://digilander.libero.it/poing77/cp_7.jpg)
And here it is: the cab with his main control panel installed..
(http://digilander.libero.it/poing77/cp_1.jpg)
(http://digilander.libero.it/poing77/cp_5.jpg)
Well, my friends. Most of the work is done. The next step is to do all the wiring and then I'll wake up the beast. Will it work at the first attemp? I don't think so.. :roll:. We'll see..
See ya!
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Impressive PONG :shock:
You're really close to the end now :o
Nice that you're using your OWN CPO, in order to avoid pre-cutted US version from quaterarcade (ex : arcaderennovation)
I have a question regarding this picture :
(http://digilander.libero.it/poing77/coindoor.jpg)
Do the front is black painted ? Or did you applied vinyl ?
Thanks for sharing this wonderfull WIP on this forum :)
At the end, we wanna see a picture of you... playing on your baby ( I mean your cab' of course :D :wink: )
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Hi Bruno..
Nice that you're using your OWN CPO, in order to avoid pre-cutted US version from quaterarcade (ex : arcaderennovation)
Well.. It actually is an Arcade Renovations official repro.
Do the front is black painted ? Or did you applied vinyl ?
I choose not to use vinyl. It's expensive and it's quite a heavy and prone to error work to apply it correctly. The guy who built the cab for me, covered the external parts with a black rough plastic laminate. Something similar to the method used by arcadegames4u, and very close to the way the original cab was in my memories.
At the end, we wanna see a picture of you... playing on your baby ( I mean your cab' of course)
Ahahaha!! :D :D :D Once the cab is 100% finished, I could post a pic of my baby and me playing with the cab. A kind of threesome! :lol:
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My friends, it lives.
(http://digilander.libero.it/poing77/alive01.jpg)(http://digilander.libero.it/poing77/alive02.jpg)
(http://digilander.libero.it/poing77/alive03.jpg)
Still having some problems with powering up/booting the system and with AV synchronization (the whole system runs via DVD, no HD at all), and it's not playable yet because I still have to wire the control panel.
Anyway now I can see and hear DL running in a real cab, and it is amazing!
By the way, I encoded the attract mode video directly from the HD anamorphic version, at 4000 kb/s only, and the quality is simply stunning. It really seems to be a true laserdisc.
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IMPRESSIVE !!! Dragon's Lair in HD inside a cab' ... you're probably the first to do that :shock: :P OK, it's just the trailer 'attract mode', but it looks great :P
I know that kind of feeling -> See your fav' game "Dragon's Lair" running inside a full size Dragon's Lair Cab :D
Now, hurry up to wire joystick, buttons... and ENJOY the true arcade experience :)
Good job my friend :)
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Thank you, Bruno..
I solved the problem of AV synch by splitting the whole DL video in smaller segments, one per scene, the powering up issue by changing the CMOS battery and I wired the panel.
Dragon's Lair is now working perfectly, and Space Ace is on the way, waiting for Euro versions to be fully emulated.
The arcade experience is terrific, I just can't stop playing now! :twisted: I'm going to post a small videoclip of the game running as soon as possible..
Looking forward now for the marquee, the sidearts and the Atari sticker
(it could be nice to have a scan of the instructions sticker too, english version. Anyone can take it?)..
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wowwwwwwww GREAT JOB !!!!
:shock: VERY VERY VERY IMPRESSIVE 8)
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Hey po|ng :o
What is the status now :roll: :wink:
Where's the marquee ? Does the system is complete now (power up / OS boot ?)
8)
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Hey Bruno!
The system works nicely. I can play DL, SA, and a bunch of MAME games (at least the one that don't need more than one button). The marquee and the stickers will come next. After a year of work on the cab, now I'm taking my summer holiday. I'll think about tha cab again when I'll be back in Rome, in september. For now only sun, sea, food, good wine and.. ;-)
See ya!
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Hey Pong,
I see that your current avatar...
(http://digilander.libero.it/poing77/atarilogo_tn.gif)
... is exactly the picture I need to reproduce the Atari logo sticker for my Space Ace :o
Do you have a full size / high scan of that picture ? and/or maybe a way to get one ?
Thx Thx :wink:
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Hi Bruno, how are you?
What an amazing job you're doing on your SA cab! I always read the updates.
My project instead is currently frozen due to finacial problems, I hope I can go on working on it as soon as possible.
My avatar is a thumbnail of the picture I'm going to print and put between the speakers of my repro cab. It's not a scan of the original one, it's a reproduction I made using Photoshop, trying to make it as close as possible to the original sticker (which unfortunatelyI don't own). So, I suppose it could be very similar, but surely not identical to the real one. Of course, I'm ready to send you the file, if you think it can be useful to you.
Bye!
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Great :P
If you plan to print the repro, I would be happy to get one :roll: :wink:
Hope to read some updates on your projet soon :o
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Hope to read some updates on your projet soon Shocked
Well, I'm a bit embarrassed.. More than 5 years passed from the last post, but I was VERY busy. Anyway, I want to end the story.
In this 5 years the cab was externally incomplete, but it worked quite well till the UVC board got broken.
I solved the problem by connecting the vga output of the motherboard directly to the screen and rebuilding the system from scratch to lower the video output frequency to 15,7KHz. Now the boot sequence is cleaner and every game can run at its native refresh rate, with no tearing effect at all.
Then the audio amplifier board got broken too.. :( So, the cab now works, but with no audio.
But other than boring technical stuff like this, I was waiting for some "aesthetical" enhancements to come back and post new pics..
During the last two weeks I applied the sidearts, the marquee overlay and the thee Atari logos..
(http://digilander.libero.it/poing77/2012/100_2951.JPG)
(http://digilander.libero.it/poing77/2012/100_2938.JPG)
(http://digilander.libero.it/poing77/2012/100_2966.JPG)
(http://digilander.libero.it/poing77/2012/100_2957.JPG)
(http://digilander.libero.it/poing77/2012/100_2962.JPG)
(http://digilander.libero.it/poing77/2012/100_2960.JPG)
(http://digilander.libero.it/poing77/2012/100_2955.JPG)
I hope late is better than never.. :)
I still got to change the monitor plexi, which is brown and not black.
I'm writing a little python app too, a kind of hidden frontend to change rom version and/or dip switches settings before the game boots.
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Better late than never ;) Thanks for the update and additional pictures.
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Beautiful cab, very impressive work!
Good job!
It seems like the original (american) one.
;D
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It seems like the original (american) one.
Thanks Inuyaksa! To be honest my goal was to replicate an Euro/Atari cab, but some components like euro speaker grilles and marquee overlay were never been reproduced, so I had to mount the USA grilles and to "europeize" a USA marquee, adding the Atari logos myself.. We may say it's a kind of f "hybrid" cab. But it does the job... :)
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AWESOME JOB, Luca/Po|ng !!!
[sorry.. I can't resist: my Sears' Pong (1975) :lol:
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-qCeoY6bumds/S77ZoJ4oAZI/AAAAAAAABj8/L2OphyA5TRM/s640/10%2520Mac%2527sARCADE_SearsPONG.jpg)]
We've never presented... SO, I'm Marco, from Pavia, Italy :).
I am "one of the others" whose built a DL cab with all the measurements you took long ago together with Igorstellar !
I also wanted to fully-reproduce an Atari cab for my Daphne machine (for the same youngness memories matters like yours' :)), but my thought immediately changed... I also want(ed) to play all the U.S. versions, but I ABSOLUTELY did not want to see the on-screen-overlayed score/lives :-X.
That's the reason why I made some "modifies" (2007) to the shape and the "essence" of the cabinet :), matching (or made it very close to) the Cinematronics DL cabinet:
_ the 2 roundings on the upper part of the shoulders, typical of Cinematronics cabs
_ the Cinematronics coin door with repro adhesive sticker (long ago Jeff Kinder sent me a couple of those stickers :))
_ the score counter panel, of course placed in the middle of the audio speakers (ok, ok.. in this way I could not place an Atari adhesive, but believe me it was a necessary but "fruitful" sacrifice ;D !)
(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-Yd-yL6gerCo/TivrNu2-lgI/AAAAAAAACoo/oEp-N5FCQ4k/s720/04%2520DLcab.jpg)
So, I must say that I'll never thank both you and Igor enough for your great work, 'cause without it I could have never built such a beautiful cab !
:oops:
It all runs with a Daphne PC, which I recently "threw" into a (dead)VP932 nude chassis (and not yet well-fixed); no 15khz RGB out because my previous ATI 9250 blew in a black cloud, so I replaced it with another ATI which is connected with a poor (but litterally enough for LaserDiscGame purposes) cvbs out to the 20" Samsung CRT TV tube.
(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-QQptBU7Txz0/TnDqAg179LI/AAAAAAAACsM/TuK10G2ZQLM/s640/22VP932_PC.jpg)
And... incredible but true: seems that the "famous" Philips VP932 curse did not have affected this case, 'cause it works GREAT since months... :D !
:P
Could we think for a DEFINITIVE "curse-free" situation or have I to wait for a complete "guru meditation" ? :shock: :evil:
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Hi Marco, your cab is great!
I love the original LED scoreboard, I'm sorry that SIDAM versions substituited with a genlock pcb.
Very nice your idea to use an empty laserdisc case for computer.
I think curse has defeated!
:spaceace: :spaceace: :spaceace: :spaceace: :spaceace:
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Thanks Inuyaksa :-[ !
I have to repeat that without Luca's measurements I could have never built it !
...SIDAM versions substituited with a genlock pcb
Oh, I love "our" BLUE SCREEN, typical of the Atari (and so, the Sidam's) revisions'.
It owns a wild sort of "something fascinating"... but, as usual, despised by our "overseas cousins" ;) !
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@MacDLSA
Hi Marco.. Nice to finally "meet" you. We've never officially presented, but I often looked at your posts/pics/videos on the web.
Your gameroom is basically as mine would be, if I had one: A Dragon's Lair cab for Dragon's Lair (and other one-button lasergames when wanted), a MAME cab with a lot of buttons for the other arcade games, and various working retro consoles/computers ready to use. It just lacks a Space Ace cab to be absolutely complete (it was terrific to see the "Bluth's brothers" singing side by side in the arcades in the 80's.) :D.
I remember I spent a lot of time between 2002 and 2005, trying to reproduce the perfect DL cab plans. In 2005 I was running out of time, so I had to build mine. In that moment I think the plans "splitted" in two versions: the last one I gave to Igor and the one I used to build my cab. If you look closely, you can notice that the monitor on my cab is mounted a bit more "vertically", and the speakers panel is a bit more forward than on the original cab. I don't remember why I changed this two things before start building, and I'm afraid it was a mistake. Your DL cab instead was probably built using the other version of the plans (I don't know if Igor changed something on it) and it's apparently authentic to the USA one.. Very nice job!
The reason I decided to build an Atari cab was not because I was missing DL as the game itself. It was yet available in a bunch of formats, and even emulable via Daphne/laserdiscs. What I was really missing was DL as the whole thing it used to be.
That big black cab, it's artworks, it's blue score/lives screens, and it's big yellow Atari logo.
When I was 7, that sticker made me think DL was a game by Atari, and so I became sure that an Atari 2600 cartridge of DL not only had to exist, but even that it had the same audio and visuals of the arcade version (!!!).. I looked around in every shop, asking for this phantomatic cartridge for an entire summer.. Then, luckly, I surrender.. :D
This memory is enough for me to always choose the Atari sticker instead of the hardware scoreboard (even if sometimes I have to activate the on-screen scoreboard overlay.. :oops:)
But maybe I was not completely wrong about DL on Atari 2600..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wwzSg92HYo&list=UUhqt2ze5DGeZRn2ruRLhoCw&index=45&feature=plcp (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wwzSg92HYo&list=UUhqt2ze5DGeZRn2ruRLhoCw&index=45&feature=plcp)
:D Seriously, what's this thing?
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Pleased to meet you, Luca !
Thanks for your words about my LITTLE gameroom... it's a very "tiny" thing compared to the "Royal Palaces" you could find around here in DLF... but I am very satisfied !
Yeah, this DL cab does "support" one-button games BUT also some other like CliffHanger (foot buttons are 1p & 2p start, just like in its original arcade cab). There are some limitations due to the overscan video output of PC's VGA... both DL and SA works this way also in their original hardware, and even Cliffy, but, for example, Esh's does not: so if I try to play it then the display cut out overlayed upper/lower counters of visible part of the screen. Of course it doesn't matter to me, as my target was the "Bluth's brothers" (nice!! Never heard before but it sounds great :) !!) and their "little brother" Time Warp, too.
Heh, a Space Ace cab... cannot find the place to set it, but if there were I think I'd took (or even built ;)) a Sega Rally Championship :) !
Oh, never mind there were other "revision(s)" of your measurements... my cab is built almost entirely following Igor's (so also yours) and with some little modifies I made measurings Matteo's (I think you know him) european DL & SA cabinets :). Regarding Teo I want to say that Daphne's euro captures are taken from his laserdiscs... yeah, we made the captures, he helped Mark Broadhead (writer of Daphne drivers) with the emulation, I made some video editing works...
Unfortunately they're not "arcade perfect" but I can say it's kinda' 95% :) !
VCS 2600 Dragon's Lair ?
Take a look at the pic of my avatar...
;)
I had been workin' around it since years... but I stopped, due to several other priorities...
The project is still running, although I've to wait some more time...
This clip is how it would have to be the drawbridge screen, but no more things... (Digital Leisure HQ is, of course, fully informed ;)).
PANT! Writing on this iPhone touchkeys is SO frustrating :D, so we talk again later, dude !
Byee for now!