Author Topic: Leisure and Allied Space Ace  (Read 6597 times)

Ianski

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Leisure and Allied Space Ace
« on: February 13, 2020, 07:21:13 PM »
I haven't posted in ages and it seems laserdisc cabs / interest is a bit thin on the ground so thought I'd post this up. This cab will probably be familiar with some of you  ;)

Towards the end of last year I saw this cab on ebay UK. Any mention of DL or SA cabs gets my interest - they rarely come up for sale, are overpriced and usually not working so when I saw this I was intrigued.
At first I didn't know what the cab was and I thought it was a bit weird. Defintely not cheap either, but, it was a working original Space Ace cabinet!

After much time looking at the pictures, finding out as much information as I could about this cab (including on this very forum of course!) it really started to grow on me... yes its not a classic style DL cabinet, but is a proper dedicated machine and very rare too. It has the scoreboard, the cool marquee shape (although totaly different art and upside down!) and really looks like a laserdisc "style" cab - colourful and cartoony. Not all LD cabs are in this style of course but I do like the ones that are.

I had to import the machine from the Isle of Man in the UK. I'm not sure how it ended up there but I knew this was imported from Australia by Finny here on the forum and was part of his amazing Don Bluth collection. I had no idea the collection was split up but I am glad to be this cab's current custodian.

Thankfully the machine still worked when it arrived, it does have some swelling and sadly the side art has been trimmed but actually the machine is in pretty good condition. Unfortunately the LD player seems to be on its last legs - it works but is slow and doesn't like to eject. It had a hitech card installed but I was keen on getting Dexter and Merlin running in it so I could play DL, SA and DL2 on the same machine. I still intend on having a go at cleaning up the player's internals though (along with my 4 non-working LDV players too).

Fast forward to now and I've just recently got the Dexter/Merlin combo working. It's so nice to be able to play the other games and switch them from the control panel. Here's a (pretty bad) photo of it in my lineup sharing centre stage with Astron Belt/Galaxy Ranger and others.

I think i'm now definitely a "laser" guy 
:spaceace:


Superully

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Re: Leisure and Allied Space Ace
« Reply #1 on: February 14, 2020, 06:58:11 AM »
that IS great indeed - still looking for a dragon's lair after all those years ...
all i need is ... PONG - and a select few others: TOUCH ME, DRAGON'S LAIR, JOUST, ROBOTRON, MR DO, SAN FRANCISCO RUSH THE ROCK!!!

Andreas_AUT

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Re: Leisure and Allied Space Ace
« Reply #2 on: February 14, 2020, 07:09:12 AM »
Nice one.

Yeah dragons lair, I have a lot of childhood memories to that game... :D

Ianski

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Re: Leisure and Allied Space Ace
« Reply #3 on: February 14, 2020, 09:06:47 AM »
that IS great indeed - still looking for a dragon's lair after all those years ...

Thanks, yes I was always on the lookout for a DL or SA cab but as I said they seem so rare nowadays, and this is a dedicated laserdisc cab so I thought go for it - I don't know when another will come up for sale in the meantime.

I did see a DL cab in the wild back in the day but wasn't aware of Space Ace at all. I bought the Digital Leisure DL trilogy years ago and particularly liked DL2. It's great being able to play near perfect versions of them on an original cab.

K1ngarth3r

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Re: Leisure and Allied Space Ace
« Reply #4 on: February 14, 2020, 11:27:37 PM »
Looking good, how are you getting on with completing Space Ace? Have you mastered it yet  :spaceace:

Ianski

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Re: Leisure and Allied Space Ace
« Reply #5 on: February 16, 2020, 10:43:13 AM »
Hah, no... embarrasingly I am still stuck at the space station part.
At 2.50 on this video Dexter energizes, I don't seem to be able to when I press the button  ???
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FYKzlKZzGZc
I thought it was a bug but its the same with Dexter as with the original roms

Digimon

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Re: Leisure and Allied Space Ace
« Reply #6 on: February 16, 2020, 11:32:43 AM »
great story, great cab.

congrats.
Searching Zaccaria Stuff: Zaxxon CPO, JumpBug CPO or CPO Repro
next project: assemble Zaccaria Vanguard.