Dragon's Lair cabinet from scratch?

[amadama]

Hi guys,
One of the things that first brought me to this website was to build my own Dragon's Lair cabinet.
I see that Luca and Mike Ryan have both built one.
I was going to base the construction on diagrams posted at Jakobud's website: (http://www.jakobud.com/)
I have several questions. (please pardon my ignorance in these matters)
Where did you get the plans for the cabinet?
What material was used in the construction (plywood, MDF, particleboard, etc..)?
Where do you obtain the vinyl sheets to cover the cabinet?
Where can you find the Marquee parts (curved plexi, marquee holders)?

(This is a great website!)
Thanks,
Alex

[DarthNuno]

Where did you get the plans for the cabinet?
What material was used in the construction (plywood, MDF, particleboard, etc..)?
Where do you obtain the vinyl sheets to cover the cabinet?
Where can you find the Marquee parts (curved plexi, marquee holders)?

(This is a great website!)
Thanks,
Alex

Hi Alex,

I never built a DL cab from scratch, but I have something very interesting    Few years ago I bought a set of full size cutout Dragon's lair templates on this website : http://arcadeplans.0catch.com/index.htm





I'll publish all the quotes  here of course , but it's not a easy task and would require times to do it right  

Maybe it's still possible to buy the templates on that website... but it costs $49.99 + shipping  

A good place for the vinyl is this website :

http://www.quarterarcade.com/Game.aspx/4479

Black "Morocco" style vinyl with adhesive backing ideal for game restoration projects. This vinyl makes an excellent replacement for the sides of cabinets such as Dragon's Lair (it is a very close match to the original) as well as a very nice replacement for the front of cabinets that were originally black (such as Robotron, Joust, Stargate and Q*bert to name a few). Can also be used to refinish a generic cabinet and give it a clean look.



Regarding the curved plexi... you mean the curved plexi marquee ? It's very common to found it  on ebay.com, and for the marquee holders, there is a guy in US who is selling great repro ( he sells also bezel repro and plexi for the monitor )... I'll contact him or give you the email  

Good luck for your project  

[amadama]

Hi Bruno,
Thanks for the info. The cutout template is fantastic, too bad the website you got it from no longer exists. I will try to see if I can find any drawings online of this so I can printout myself on a wide format printer/plotter.
The vinyl is perfect, just what is needed.
If you don't mind, can you pass along my email address to your friend who sells the repro stuff?
Thanks again,
Alex

(I would like to document my build on your site too if you don't mind, maybe it can help with anyone else interested in doing the same thing (and help me too with other people's suggestions)).

[amadama]

Well,
I started the Dragon's Lair from scratch project.
I have decided to do a 2/3 scale model of one for my daughter. It is going to be 4ft tall (1.2m). I have gotten all the wood (3/4" MDF) and have started the cutting. The dimensions are based from cabinet diagrams on the http://www.jakobud.com website. I have printed out the artwork (marquee, side art and CPO) myself on a large HP inkjet printer (for the side art) and on a Xerox color laser (for the marquee and CPO) on heavy stock paper. I will coat this with acrylic before applying. I will order the vinyl and t-molding today. Tough parts I expect will be to curve the plexiglass for the marquee myself (have to study how to do that) and making a control panel out of metal (I have never worked with metal before).
Bruno,
The photos you show of the templates are good. Do you have a photo that shows the smaller pieces on the left?
Thanks,
Alex

[DarthNuno]

The photos you show of the templates are good. Do you have a photo that shows the smaller pieces on the left?
Thanks,
Alex

This website is still alive : http://arcadeplans.0catch.com/index.htm ... just under a ton of popups & Ads    ...but still there  

You'll see more pictures of the pieces  

[amadama]

Thanks Bruno!
I must be blind. I will contact them to try to get the plans. Although with those photos and the measurements from jakobud's wbesite I may be able to wing it myself.
Alex

[DarthNuno]

OK Alex, check you mailbox  

[amadama]

Thanks!

[DarthNuno]

Hi Alex,

Do you made any progress on that great project ?
 
Wanna see the famous '2/3 scale model'    

[amadama]

Hi Bruno,
Sure, but I am still working on it.
Here's a link to BYOAC where I have some pics too.
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=67361.0
Hopefully I can finish it up soon. I am anxious to start work on my next project!
Talk to you soon,
Alex

[amadama]

Hi Bruno,
Can I email you some pics? I want to post the rest of the build story here.
Also, I need some help in setting up Daphne. What kind of front end can use that can be controlled with a joystick?
Thanks,
Alex

[jomm]

Hi Amadama,

I guess you're using windows as the OS for your cab, if you are indeed, I would sujest to use the MAMeWAH frontend (it hides completly the windos-os) for run'n Daphne, I use it myself on my cab and it works great. The only problem at this time is: it seems that the Mamewah-sit is down so you got to google to find it, sure hope you will.

[amadama]

Hi Jomm,
Thanks for the suggestion. I think I will use Mamewah!!
Alex
I am now building a metal control panel for the little cab. I can see the finish line now! almost done with it.

Now I started work on a Pac-man cabinet (home built completely)
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=67464.0

[slowcade]

A good place for the vinyl is this website :

http://www.quarterarcade.com/Game.aspx/4479

Black "Morocco" style vinyl with adhesive backing ideal for game restoration projects. This vinyl makes an excellent replacement for the sides of cabinets such as Dragon's Lair (it is a very close match to the original) as well as a very nice replacement for the front of cabinets that were originally black (such as Robotron, Joust, Stargate and Q*bert to name a few). Can also be used to refinish a generic cabinet and give it a clean look.

Sorry for posting in an old thread. 
Is Morocco style vinyl also suitable for the European Atari cabinet? I think it looks quite different. My Atari cabinet's surface seems less textured, but the cabinet needs wood work and I must replace the vinyl.
Has anyone found an alternative product in Europe? It looks like it will be very expensive to ship it from quarterarcade.

[MacDLSA]

I recently built my 2nd Cinematronics-repro dedicated Dragon's Lair and I found on Amazon a vynil very similar to the "morocco", at a 1/2 of its price and withOUT any exaggerated shipping costs &/or US import taxes/feed to pay.

90cm width, for cabinet sides: https://www.amazon.it/gp/product/B06Y29Y775/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
60cm width, for all the other panels: https://www.amazon.it/gp/product/B06Y28M38S/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
[ fortunately both are abundant in size so the "60cm" is 61... pretty enough for 598mm panels  ]

But the Atari/Euro cabinet has a kind of "grainy" cover for all panels and it's identical to the mold that was used to cover the chipboard to make it become "rough black melamine".
Unfortunately here in Italy I have not seen this product in the various "brico shops" for years and it seems that even the companies that cut the panels for the joinery/home furniture manufacturers have supplanted its production.
It may be that there remains the opportunity to find those thin and rigid melamine panels to be glued on the surfaces of the cab panels but even in this case I cannot pronounce myself, having never seen any more around.