In the realm of arcade restorations, tackling a Space Ace or Dragon's Lair cabinet is akin to refurbishing the crown jewels—albeit with more 80's tech and far fewer security guards. These cabinets are not just arcade games; they're time capsules from an era when hair was big, pants were tight, and gameplay was unforgiving. The challenge of restoring these pieces to their former glory lies not just in the craftsmanship but in doing justice to the legendary artwork of Don Bluth and ensuring the game's aesthetic elements are pixel-perfect….
The Body Work: A Comedy of Errors and Woodworking
First and foremost, the physical cabinet of these games often presents a tragicomic tableau of wear and tear. Imagine decades of enthusiastic gamers, each leaving their mark (literally and figuratively) on the cabinet. The restoration process starts with a detective's eye for detail and a carpenter's touch. Repairing and sometimes reconstructing these cabinets is like putting together a 3D puzzle, where the picture on the box is your only guide, and half the pieces are from another puzzle. We welcome it, but it isn’t without its challenges. We want the machines to look period perfect, just as they were upon original release. As custodians of gaming history, its a job we take very seriously. That being said, we also want to leave some of the scars of history right where they are, these cabs have lived a life, we want people to know that.
The Artwork: Channeling Don Bluth’s Genius
The artwork restoration is where things get serious—after all, we're dealing with the work of Don Bluth, an animation legend whose art elevated these games from mere entertainment to interactive masterpieces. Given the cinematic quality of Space Ace and Dragon's Lair, ensuring the aesthetic elements of the cabinets were just right became a quest not unlike the heroic journeys within the games themselves. This process often involves digital restoration that feels more like digital archaeology, painstakingly piecing together fragments of the original art.
The Control Panel: The Quest for Authenticity
Restoring the control panel is a mix of art, science, and a slight obsession with authenticity. It's a tribute to the tactile legacy of the games, ensuring that each button press feels just as satisfying (or frustrating) as in the original gameplay. Our task isn’t gutting the machines and replacing them with new machinery, its to repair the original components (where possible) and to keep as much of the machine as possible exactly how it was originally.
The Games Themselves: A Pixelated Phenomenon
It's impossible to talk about restoring these cabinets without tipping our hats to the games themselves. Upon their release, Space Ace and Dragon's Lair were nothing short of revolutionary, mesmerising players with their animated movie-quality graphics and storytelling. They were games that didn't just eat coins; they devoured them with the voracious appetite of a dragon hoarding treasure. The reception was a mix of awe at the technological wizardry, frustration at the challenging gameplay, and sheer determination to see "what happens next." Restoring these cabinets is not just about preserving a piece of gaming history; it's about reigniting the magic that made these games stand out in a sea of pixelated peers.
A Restoration Epic
Restoring Space Ace and Dragon's Lair a was a journey filled with challenges aplenty, but the process underscores our continued commitment to these games and their preservation. Not to mention giving our visitors the chance to once again hit start and journey to different worlds.
