The Dragon's Lair 2 Mame Project
Last Updated On 9/3/2006
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History Lesson
So as of recently, my pinball fanaticism was reignited. I wanted to spend some free time working on pinball machines or get a new one. (Those of you who suffer from the Pin Addiction know how swiftly the bug can come and bite you). The problem is that the Pins I want cost too dang much. (I.e., Medieval Madness, , Lord of the Rings, Revenge From Mars...).
So while looking across my wish list, I came across two non-pinball titles that I had always wanted to add to my collection. Dragon's Lair and Dragon's Lair II Time Warp. The problem is that they too are too expensive for my taste right now. ($2,000 +)
While drooling over listings in Ebay, something kept nagging in the back of my brain. It occurred to me that I have owned both games for years now. Sorta. It dawned on me that I have both on CD-Rom in my big box o' CD-Rom's that haven't been touched for years. From here, my brain synapses jumped over to friends from work that I recall playing Nintendo games on their work PC's somehow (don't tell our boss!). Then the logical questions occurred.
Is it possible for me to build my own Dragon's Lair game?
To quote They Might Be Giants (props to anyone who knows them) "That's where all my troubles began."
A quick Google search turned up a little website call Arcade Controls with the title "Build Your Own Arcade Controls". Eureka!! From there I learned that, heck yeah, you can make your own video game cabinet. Plus there were tons of psychos out there who already did so. And even a smaller subset with O.C.D. who documented the process in fine detail. A little more reading revealed exactly what I was looking for -- Daphne!
So for those of you still reading, allow me to define what I've been babbling about. It seems that there are oodles of programmers out there with way too much free time. They have reverse engineered all kinds of stuff. Basically, they get the Rom's or chips from various games and systems and reverse engineer them so they will run on your PC (emulate them). Here's some of the common emulators:
Mame - Allows you to play various Arcade game rom's on your PC such as Pac-Man, Donkey Kong and bizzare Japanese mahjong games with naked girls (don't ask)
Daphne- Allows you to play the laser disk arcade games from the 1980's and 1990's on your PC such as Dragon's Lair, Dragon's Lair II Time Warp, Space Ace and a handful other ones you never heard of (but are still cool)
Visual PinMame- Allows you to play pinball games on your PC with a reasonable semblance to the originals (such as Twilight Zone, The Addams Family, Medieval Madness...)
There are tons of other ones (basically one per home video game system such as Nintendo, Sega, Atari 2600...) but they are not pertinent to my ramblings here.
So I started to do lots of research to see if I could build a Dragon's Lair cabinet for a reasonable sum of money (i.e., a fraction of what an original would cost).
Which brings me to the intent of this site. This site will not document ever last step I went through, how I made my angle cuts on the marquee, how to heal soldering burns on your hands... But rather I will describe the process from a high level and provide links to other sites I used that describe the process ten times better than I could.
As of 9/3/06, the cabinet is probably 75% done. I have a working PC and a built cabinet that just needs:
a game screen
a
front panel and coin door
a paint job on a few components
PC installed
button's reinstalled after Control Panel is painted.
What it does
OK - here's the features:
Features the Original Dragon's Lair 2 Time Warp art and cabinet design. I thought that between DL1 and DL2, DL2 had the cooler art (although the angled marquee in DL1 was cool). This includes the Marquee, Control Panel and the HUGE side panels (DL1 only had dinky side art)
Has illuminated marquee with easy to access panel for replacing bulbs
Features a 27" Sony Trinitron TV (The original cabinet had a 25" monitor, but I like the extra two inches - plus, I didn't have to modify the cabinet width to accommodate it).
Features an operational coin door (or you can just push the coin return button for credits for games) complete with sarcastic custom wording on coin slots (who me? sarcastic? Hmm what?)
Features modular control panels! This one is huge and I will devote more time to describing it. I really wanted the original DL2 look and feel, but I also want to beat my buddies up playing Mortal Kombat. How am I to do this with one joystick and two giant, illuminated sword buttons? Make the control panel modular! Open the coin door, undo a latch and slide out control panel. Disconnect the wires from the network port. Insert the other two player, 6 button (each) control panel and reverse. FINISH HIM!
Features caster wheels for ease of transportation
Fully operational PC is the brain. I run one program (Maximus Arcade) which windows auto launches at boot up. It easily allows you to switch between games and emulators. I also like the favorites list features since I have 1,500+ roms on there.
Features a set of "hidden" buttons on the underside of (both) control panel(s) to control weird interface needs without the use of a keyboard (such as pulling up Mame's configuration menu).
Fully upgradeable for future Rom updates via USB or network cable. (Can also have CD or DVD drive added in a pinch if need be)
Has a removable back panel for accessing the cabinet innards
Has a large front panel (one of the multiple authentic DL2 cabinet designs). But I added a unique touch by hinging it so you don't have to go through the coin door or the back panel to access the PC for upgrades.
Has shielded speakers so there would be no TV interference
Has a single push button for power to whole cabinet, plus a traditional on/off switch on top which boots/shuts down the PC.
More details and pictures to come - I promise!