Dragon's Lair Fans - Arcade Lifestyle

General Chat => Technical Area => Topic started by: Shaun Wood on December 06, 2009, 09:29:10 PM

Title: LaserCon Announcement
Post by: Shaun Wood on December 06, 2009, 09:29:10 PM
Hi Guys.
I'd like to announce that LaserCon now supports the European versions of Dragon's Lair and Space Ace (Atari & Sidam).
You can replace the original Philips player with a Pioneer LD-V4300D, LD-V4100P or CLD-2300D.

Also for Space Ace, LaserCon now supports the use of NTSC laserdiscs in the European Space Ace machine.
Both the 1983 and 1991 Space Ace discs are supported.
For NTSC Space Ace, you will need a Pioneer LD-V8000, LD-V4400 or LD-V4300D.

You will also need to add an NTSC -> PAL converter, but these are easy to find.

Thanks goes out to Matteo Marioni for his time, help and testing.
Thanks also to erwing for the encouragement. :)

Visit my website for more info or to download the latest firmware (V5.2)...
http://www.wood1st.com/LaserCon/
-Shaun
Title: Re: LaserCon Announcement
Post by: Maverick on December 06, 2009, 10:11:31 PM
which offer you make for us DLfans users?

The cost (including shipping and insurance ) is quite high

Most of us already have built the matteo's card and Sony players are not supported with your interface..

Let us know

Mav
Title: Re: LaserCon Announcement
Post by: Shaun Wood on December 06, 2009, 10:37:08 PM
I really can't make them any cheaper.
There is no robot assembly line here, each one is done by hand and it takes a lot of time.

The cost is $140 plus $10 for 3-4 week shipping to Europe.

I may add Sony support sometime in the future, but it will require a hardware change, so it can't happen until my next circuit board order.
-Shaun
Title: Re: LaserCon Announcement
Post by: Maverick on December 07, 2009, 02:25:57 AM
I really can't make them any cheaper.
There is no robot assembly line here, each one is done by hand and it takes a lot of time.

The cost is $140 plus $10 for 3-4 week shipping to Europe.

I may add Sony support sometime in the future, but it will require a hardware change, so it can't happen until my next circuit board order.
-Shaun

150$ is not much,

the main problem is not be the interface itself,

but as bruno said posted before,

is that most of the people in Europe has Sony players

I bought pioneers (3x 8000) as spare parts in 2004 on ebay.com

but I did it about 5 years ago when the "surface shipping" option from Usa was still available for Europe

Since 2007 it is no more,

so import a pioneer player right now means :

9$ of player on ebay

280$ of shipping with Ups (most give only this service for paypal tracking request and refund issues)

150$ of interface

around 100 euro ( 20% of VAT + 5% custom duties)

Quite expensive

if seen from this point of view..


An advice:

Give discount on multiple orders

ex: 2 interfaces order 10%
3 interfaces 15%
5 interfaces 20%
10 interface 30%


In this way people will change their minds

and make the purchase for a stock in a life time

.. An advice after all

Marco
Title: Re: LaserCon Announcement
Post by: italiandoh on December 07, 2009, 12:23:24 PM
Well, you should check UK and German auction sites, you can find Pioneer players there quite often and a more reasonable prices.
I've shipped heavy items from UK to Italy and if you don't use Royal Mail but a courier you can get nice prices. Usually it's better to ship the item locally to a friend and then have him sending it to you in a cheaper way.
Personally I would not ask for a discount on LaserCon since part of its cost goes as a donation to keep fans sites like DLP and Daphne alive.

Matteo

EDIT: some examples  :arrow: eBay items 270496414324, 150395244382, 260516973819  8)
Title: Re: LaserCon Announcement
Post by: Maverick on December 07, 2009, 04:16:44 PM
Look,


As said:

mine was just an advice,

everybody do what they like,


as explained: I think most will of not yet motivated to change,

and doubt they will for the reason explained (+ to buy a ntsc/pal converter that I missed to calculate before)

Check Bruno's demand for Sony Players support


Quite for sure Shaun must be rewarded, as you, for the job done,

But my explanation is more related to the real customers needs than to the community developers support (that I agree must be rewarded)


Hope it is all clear

Mav
Title: Re: LaserCon Announcement
Post by: level42 on December 08, 2009, 07:21:05 AM
I'd say I'd be very glad that a product like that is available at all. When I look at the parts on the boards, the development time that it requires to make a product like that, and the limited number of DL/SA cabs in the world (they're not going to sell 1000's of them), it's a steal.

Especially with current dollar-Euro rate there is very little to complain about. 140 dollars means about 95 Euro's.

About "demanding" Sony player support...I guess you mean "requesting" it...?  Must be a tiny translation mistake I'm sure.
Title: Re: LaserCon Announcement
Post by: Maverick on December 08, 2009, 07:34:14 AM
Sure,

the point as explained before is that many who already have the atari machines (that i know quite well) apart from words of appreciation will not buy it

the main cost is not the interface itself,

it is the whole set

when everybody already have made the matteo's card+ bought dedicated Ld player+pc to restore it

See for example bruno:

https://www.dragonslairfans.com/smfor/index.php?topic=43.0


Mav