Dexter laserdisc replacement

Today I want to mention a very exciting web site. In fact, I stop by every day to take a look!

I am talking about.. laserdisc-replacement.com!

Continue reading »

Dragon's Lair laser disc players

I may have talked about the Dragon's Lair laser disc players before, I'm not sure. I purchased a Philips VP835 on German eBay a couple of years ago, with the intention of using it for my European DL cabinet. According to this article, it's very similar to the laser disc player originally used in Dragon's Lair, called Philips 22VP932. In fact, both the VP835 and 831 can be used in a DL cab with just a small interface board, described in the same article.

It's quite a beast! It may be difficult to see the size from these pictures, but I would say it's like a quite large desktop PC cabinet.

Anyway.. I was able to track down an original VP932 from an operator not far away, and he finally sent it to me a couple of months ago, after having asked him to sell it for years.
However, it turned out that both the power supply and the laser was removed, thus the player can't be used in its current condition. There's a bunch of loose wires in there, after the parts have evidently just been cut out.
That's why I was wondering if I somehow can combine the two laser disc players, utilizing parts from the 835 in the 932 or vice versa. However, when I opened them up, they were quite different. Maybe it's because the 835 was a consumer model, but it had an extra board, which I presume was used for RF out.









Also, there is a ribbon cable coming out from the 932, which I wouldn't know where to attach on the 835. So, does any of my 2-3 loyal followers (are there that many??) have any experience with laser disc players? I am thinking... No.
I may post this question over at the DL Forums and hope for the best.





I fear that I will end up being forced to scrap the 932 and use the 835 with an EuroDL interface board after all.
The absolute worst case would be gutting the 932 and putting a PC inside, and letting the DL mainboard communicate with the PC, retreiving the requested frames from a video file.
That would require some moderate programming skills, which I am definitely not comfortable with, but it would at least look original inside the cabinet, and it would be quite robust compared to a laser disc.

Philips 22VP932

After two and a half years of hunting, I finally have an original Philips 22VP932 laser disc player for my Atari Dragon's Lair cabinet. And I got it locally! Thank you very much to the seller, if you are reading this!

He said it's probably missing the power supply. I have a VP835 with a working PSU which I hope can be used as a replacement. The VP932 was originally made to use 110V. My power supply is for 220V, but I believe they have the same outputs, as the two players are 99% identical. That may also come in handy if I need spare parts.

This laser disc player has definitely seen better days, and I don't even know if it's working, but I don't worry about that yet.

I will hopefully start testing it soon, along with the other Dragon's Lair parts.

Dragon's Lair cpo and sideart

Namfreak from the DragonsLairFans forum was selling a Dragon's Lair cpo and a sideart set on eBay, and I was thrilled to see that the cpo evidently wasn't pierced. The problem with owning an European Dragon's Lair cab (besides the obvious lack of spare parts) is that the US control panels were a bit different, so the holes don't line up. I had been looking at QuarterArcade's reproduction, but they sadly don't sell them without the holes pre-cut. 

Namfreak mentioned in the auction listing that the cpo "was produced by Arcade Renovations / QuarterArcade". RotheBlog's extensive list of reproduction artwork shows that Arcade Renovations ran a batch of these in 2001, and I was hoping that these were without the holes. I'll be honest and say that I was willing to pay almost anything for the cpo as the auction came to an end. Luckily I ended up with a price quite close to QuarterArcade's.

eBay picture

Alas my hope was shattered after the auction when I got the info from Namfreak. "However, this CPO still has the little circles intact where it has been cut out for the buttons, so keep them safe!". Why didn't I ask him before bidding? I guess this means I have to custom create a US control panel. It doesn't matter much, though. The original control panel is completely ruined and drilled anyway.

The sideart auction mentioned that "I have kept these stored flat all these years and I would ship them similarly", but Namfreak wanted to ship them rolled. I was a bit sceptical, but I figured it would be ok.

eBay picture

I received the sideart some days later, and I was not very happy to see the result. When laying them flat after removing them from the tube, they curled up and the decal lifted from the backing paper. I feared that this would weaken the adhesive, especially as I don't plan to apply them before sometime next year, so I asked the seller for a partial refund. He would be happy to issue a full refund if I returned the sideart, but assured me that everything would be ok once I stick them to the cab.

I choose to trust him, as a fellow Dragon's Lair fan, and I'm crossing my fingers that they will still be good next year.

The sideart decals laying on my table

eBay picture

But where was the cpo? He assured me that they were shipped at the same time, but I hadn't received it even one week after the sidearts arrived.

I got the answer the same day I was going to holiday, when I got a notice from the Norwegian Post saying that I would need to declare a value for the parcel for customs purposes. It turned out Namfreak had forgotten that we agreed to add a value to the parcels and mark them as gifts.

I quickly notified the Post that the cpo was indeed a gift, and just a sticker with low value, hoping for the best.

One week later, it was waiting for me in the mail as I returned home. Namfreak did a great job of packing it, sandwitched between layers of sturdy cardboard. It looks great!

eBay picture

We had some bad luck and misunderstandings with these, but all in all it turned out ok. I am looking forward to restoring the Dragon's Lair, but I need to get it working first.

Dragon's Lair signed poster

The signed Dragon's Lair poster I ordered has arrived! It will look great next to my DL cab (which is still undergoing work to become playable).

I'll be selling the unsigned poster I already had, especially now that my wife accidentially discovered the receipt for the signed one. It wasn't cheap, I'll admit that much.

Dirk is even featured on the packing tube!

Certificate of authenticity

And there it is, in all its glory. It will look even better framed!