Dragon's Lair rescue in AZ

TK1072

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Norristown, Pennsylvania
Hi Everyone,

This isn't a restore job (I'm not to that level of skill yet), more like a clean-up and repair.

Back in late November I saw this Dragon's Lair literally sitting outside a mom & pop convienence store just a few miles from my house. It was in pretty bad shape, exposed to the elements like it was. Never was a fan of DL but I thought it could be a good project to get working again & help me learn more/get experience about arcade machines in general. I spoke to the owner of the store & got it for pretty much a song and a dance. Guess they just wanted rid of it.

Here is what it looked like when I brought it home:

DL1.jpg


It was almost dead. After cleaning it I installed a new harness (the previous one had been cut, spliced, and had it's plugs smashed?!?! How did this happen?). Changed out the lights, etc. New buttons & cpo. The LDP it came with (LD-V1000) was dead so I got a Pioneer LD-V4400. Then I installed a LaserCon card and now it works!

The sides looked like they were altered before. One side had vinyl on it, the other was painted? So I painted the cabinet black. I know it's not how it came from the manufacture, but it was easier at the time. Later I may read up how to apply the vinyl to the sides, but I'm happy with it.
Still got to add side art and some other little things to address, but the last few attached pics show how it's looking now.

DragonsLair001.jpg

DragonsLair002.jpg

DragonsLair003.jpg

DragonsLair004.jpg


I think this will a project I'll never be quite happy or satisfied with (you guys ever get that feeling when you fix a game up?) but for now at least I'm done. Think I'll go practice playing it some :)

Take care!
-Dave
 

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Any games thats free is a good find.:) Keep up the effort!
 
The dance was passable, but once I started to sing they almost cancelled the whole deal! ;-)

It wasn't quite free, the person wanted $100 for it and said they had been trying to sell it for a month. It might have helped them if they had some kind of sale sign on it or something (which they didn't). After negotiating with them I was able to pick it up for $40. I figured it wasn't a bad price for a machine to practice on.

Thanks for the comments everyone!
 
Just keep reading everyone else's threads on how they restored their machines, some of which were in a LOT worse shape than your DL, take your time and think everything through and eventually you'll be able to make that thing look pretty good. ;)
 
I started reading this thread 15 min ago and then saw you got it for a song and a dance, and I must have blacked out...
 
You've got most of the toughest stuff already done! The rest isn't that tough...just takes time and a little guts...not much know-how. Very nice!
 
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