Dragon's Lair Fans - Arcade Lifestyle
General Chat => Dragon's Lair / Space Ace => Topic started by: amadama on April 23, 2007, 03:23:36 AM
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Last week I won the auctions for the complete Bluth trilogy of games (DL, DL2 and SA) from ebay.
The machines were 450 miles away in Rochester, NY.
Not too bad I thought, I can rent a trailer and pick them up myself and save a lot of money on shipping costs. It would be like getting one of the games for free.
Well, I had never used a trailer before and my truck did not have the wiring harness for this.
Again, no problem, I ordered it online and installed it myself (it took me a while and some cuts and bruises but I did it!)
I ask for friday as a day off from work and plan my trip for that day.
I get the trailer on thursday afternoon:
(https://www.dragonslairfans.com/forforum/alex/Trailer.jpg)
I want to leave my house at 5am on friday morning but I oversleep and end up leaving at 6am. I may get hit by bad traffic. Like Bruno does, here's a photo of my odometer at start (in miles):
(https://www.dragonslairfans.com/forforum/alex/odometer_start.jpg)
Here I am driving on the New York Thruway (still some snow on the ground):
(https://www.dragonslairfans.com/forforum/alex/on_road_1.jpg)
Got to take a break:
(https://www.dragonslairfans.com/forforum/alex/break1.jpg)
At 3pm I am almost there (9 hours on the road!):
(https://www.dragonslairfans.com/forforum/alex/almost_there.jpg)
At 3:40pm I arrive at the seller's house and see my new babies!
(https://www.dragonslairfans.com/forforum/alex/dl.jpg)
(https://www.dragonslairfans.com/forforum/alex/dl2.jpg)
(https://www.dragonslairfans.com/forforum/alex/sa.jpg)
Vance, the seller, is a collector and a player of games. I play a few games of Star Wars in his game room. (that's Vance next to the pinball machines).
(https://www.dragonslairfans.com/forforum/alex/gameroom1.jpg)
(https://www.dragonslairfans.com/forforum/alex/gameroom2.jpg)
By 5:30pm I have paid Vance for his games and he wraps up the games and helps me load them into the trailer (he is a big guy, so he does most of heavy lifting! Thanks Vance!)
(https://www.dragonslairfans.com/forforum/alex/loaded.jpg)
Once I get on the New York Thruway I see this sign (keep in mind, I have another 65 miles to go past New York City!)
(https://www.dragonslairfans.com/forforum/alex/going_home.jpg)
I am driving a bit slower because I am very nervous about the machines falling over or getting banged up badly. It gets dark and I have to take one of many breaks for food, coffee and to check the straps on the trailer:
(https://www.dragonslairfans.com/forforum/alex/getting_dark.jpg)
Parts of the road are empty and very dark. It reminds me of the game Night Driver!
(https://www.dragonslairfans.com/forforum/alex/night_driver.jpg)
I got home at 4am. I was really tired and decided to take a nap and unload the trailer later.
(https://www.dragonslairfans.com/forforum/alex/odometer_end.jpg)
At 7:30am I get a call from the rental place telling me that someone else needs to pick up the trailer and if it's not back to them by 8am they will charge me $500 and $250 per half hour I am late after that!
I unload the machines really quick (no fun to do by myself):
(https://www.dragonslairfans.com/forforum/alex/home.jpg)
I start to bring the machines inside, except the DL2, it doesn't fit through the door!!
I have the DL2 in my garage while I figure out how I am going to get it inside.
Saturday I spend an hour playing the games!!
(https://www.dragonslairfans.com/forforum/alex/setting.jpg)
I learned a lot during this trip.
Here's the bad:
1) New York State is a really big state, 450 miles is a lot more than it appears on a map.
2) Going through New York City with a trailer full of arcade games stinks! There are potholes bigger than a tire waiting to swallow up your entire car, trailer and games!
3) Going by yourself on a 22 hour trip stinks. Bring a friend or spouse to keep you company.
Here's the good:
1) I really love arcade games. I will have to get more!
2) I got used to driving with a trailer so I can now get more games.
3) My daughter likes games too so I will have to get even more games!
Thanks to Bruno and all you guys on this forum for getting me excited once again about collecting arcade games.
Extra special thanks again to Bruno and Mr. Jason Finn. Hopefully one day I can achieve such a great collection as you guys.
Talk to you all soon.
Alex
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Alex,
Congratulation on getting the three best Arcade Games ever!!
The Road trip looked great, I bet Bruno is itching to do another one after seeing yours. Enjoy them.
Keep up the great work Mate
-Jas
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Thanks for posting the pics. I would not use the place you rented that trailer from again. I cannot believe they wanted that much money from you for being late with a trailer. Those late fees were insane.
Have you decided what to do with DL2? I know a standard door size is 30" and DL2 width is around 29.75" so that would be a tight fit. I am buying a house next month and will have a finished den to move my games into. I plan on getting a DL2 at some point and may have the same problem you are having.
Congrats again for this great find.! Remember to check the
http://www.d-l-p.com for Dave Hallock's Space Ace enhanced roms. If you get bored playing the original way the roms change a few moves up and the scenes are changed to make the scene sequences fit together better.
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Hi Jason,
Thanks for the kind words! Your collection was really an inspiration to me to get these games.
I recall being in an arcade and for the first time seeing Dragon's Lair! Wow, there was a huge crowd of people around the machine, so many that they had to set up a TV on top for everyone to watch.
I found the game extremely difficult but I kept on playing anyway trying to get past one more section.
A couple of months ago I decided to get back into the gaming scene (I had collected a few games about 10 years back). I wanted to build my own DL cabinet to put Daphne in it. I found Bruno's site when I did a search on Google and discovered that Mike Ryan (one of the members here) had built his own cabinet. Since then I have read every post on this site, and did a lot of my own research and then I stumbled on the three machines being sold by the same person on ebay. I got them all!
I am still working on my home-made DL machine, but now I am making a small 4ft tall one for my daughter! The cabinet is built and now I have to figure out some sheet metal work to make a small CP. I've been keeping track along the way and will post my work when it's complete.
Thanks again Jason, and I hope to someday meet you in person.
Alex
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Hi apinion,
The guys at U-haul actually didn't end up charging me anything (thank goodness!).
I still have the DL2 in my garage. I think I found a way to bring it in, but it's not pretty! I'll let you know how it works out. Hopefully I won't have the same problem Mike Ryan did with his DL2!
Thanks again for the tip on the enhanced rom set. I will look into this!
Alex
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AMAZING !!! :P :P :P
It's an huge roadtrip : the complete trilogy in one shoot :shock: :P :P :P
I really like this picture :
(https://www.dragonslairfans.com/forforum/cowboy.jpg)
:lol: :lol: :lol:
The games seem to be in a very good state :D
Thanks once again for sharing this story here :wink:
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That's pretty funny!
So where's your new big news??? I'm dying to hear all about it!!
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wowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww....
i did not see that ROAD TRIP, i can not beleive i am posting so late :?
well great trip :D
very nice collection to start with :shock: 3 laser games .....
what's next ??? :P
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Hi Fred,
I still have backlog of machines I need to restore.
Over 10 years ago I bought a bunch of machines. Due to so many reasons I stopped collecting. I still have those machines to restore. They include:
Mr & Mrs Pacman pinball
Baby Pacman
Popeye
Punchout
Millipede cocktail
Street Fighter 2
Actually if I can figure out where to put them I have my on a dual sit-down Virtual On.
I still have to put together a Mame cab too. (too much to do, too little time).
I have been checking out your site. Love your collection!
Talk to you soon,
Alex
(when do you think you will be getting the 48-in-1 boards? I paypal'ed you already for this)
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Alex,
Wow thats really cool that My Collection inspired you in getting these games, hearing things like that makes collecting worth while.
I agree the impact of seeing the game back in the day was something that couldnt be explained, I spent all my pocket money every week on DL, I think I/we were lucky enough to experience the 80's arcade era.
Yeah Mike Ryan built a great cab, he is one of the nicest guys, well they are all good guys...well the ones I know anyway.
I would love to see the 4ft cab for your daughter, maybe I could do one for my daughter?.
Maybe you could come to the Euromeet in December at my place, all the cabs that i need to ship back from Australia (3 cabs) and My Don Bluth owned Space Ace should be here in a couple of weeks, so everything should be here by then, and the lair will be extended too.
So all you need is a Plain Ticket, and like all the other guys, you can stay at my place.
Take Care Mate.
-Jas
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Hi Jason,
The 4ft cab is coming along. I finished the basic cabinet and am working on the metal pieces now (the marquee holder is done. must build CP now). It actually looks like a little DL at this point!
I am keeping track of my progress and will post pics as I get closer to the end.
I correspond with Mike via email and he is indeed a nice person. I look forward to meeting him as well.
I would love to go your Euromeet (I already told my wife and she says go for it!) Thanks for the invitation! (Now I'm afraid that after seeing your entire collection my pockets will be even emptier whren I return home and look for more Laser games!)
A Don Bluth owned Space Ace! You never cease to amaze sir.
Talk to you soon,
Alex
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>all you need is a plain ticket??? I will retype this.....all you need is a Plane ticket, thats better hehe, My mind was elsewhere, I know there are spelling differences in the US, like Color, we say Colour, we also say tyers, I think you call them tires? I could have got away with spelling it Plain I guess hehe
I am flat out trying to get my house built, its taking up all my time, its nice to have 5 mins to reply to post on this great site!!
Keep us posted with the pics of the little cabinet you are building, and take care.
-Jas
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(when do you think you will be getting the 48-in-1 boards? I paypal'ed you already for this)
by thursday next week ...
i will pm you as soon as i send it ... :D
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Thanks Fred!
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Hi Jason,
Good luck with the house! Quite a project indeed I'm sure.
When the machine is in a more presentable stage I'll put a new topic on the building of my mini DL!
Thanks,
Alex
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Congratulations on your 3 laser games. If I was a resident of the US I'd be on e-bay all day and probably lose myself in some auctions. Not to say that you did, I think it's a great catch you've got there !
Enjoy them a lot !
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Thanks Elpancho. I've wanted these games for a very logn time and to find all three of them together was really lucky for me.
Good luck with your new purchase too!
Alex
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hi Alex.
Happy new year to all.
Did you ever finish the 4ft Dragons Lair Cabinet for your Daughter
-Finny
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Hi Finny,
Happy New Year!
Yes I did finish the mini-DL. I'll post some pics this weekend.
I had a small accident with the plexi on top (the CP fell down on it hard and cracked it as well as the piece of wood behind it that holds the speakers). Luckily the monitor was not damaged and my daughter was no where near it when it broke.
I'll have to get another piece of plexi for it.
Alex
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Alex,
Look forward to seeing them soon.
regards
-Jas