Many LD players can be moded to work with LD based games, but its a pretty large project and it tends to require changes based on the game you want to play. On top of that, finding the game on LD tends to be difficult and pricey. While CD and LD rot are blown way out of proportion, disc's that were under heavy heat loads for long periods of time seem to suffer the most from this condition. Since arcade games could run for 14+ hours a day, 7 days a week, and for several years, they tend to be the disc's that fail the most from disc rot. I kept two of my old Pioneer LD players for a home arcade project and have an amiga 500 to drive the system, but I really dont feel like dealing with the mods needed to get it up and going. Having dealt with many of the later versions of the LD arcade games, I remember the effort in keeping them going back then and I really dont feel like putting up with it at this point in my life. It can be a chore.
If you really want to play with an LD player and you dont want to deal with heavy modding to make a home DAPHNE project, or you dont want to deal with moves, then consider strictly sticking with concerts or music videos on LD. Or pay the price and get an Pioneer LaserActive with the right modules and build up a PC Engine and Megadrive collection as well as the LD's to go with it. That costs a fairly hefty chunk of dough. Look at spending no less than $5k (maybe as much as $7k) on a full setup with lots of games. Its very easy to find a LaserActive for sale, its just not cheap.
I'd skip the idea of karaoke LD's as they often seemed to cause issues based on the model player they were on. I never had (or wanted) any of those but I remember back in the day, seeing lots of complaints about them not working on many models of players.
Another neat format is the RCA VideoDisc system. I bought one in my teens right after the stopped making them and they were pretty cheap. Right off the bat, mine had all sorts of issues and I never really liked it. After about two years, I tossed it up in my families attic and there it sits to this day. One day I may go back and get it, but I dont like tit that much, 🤣. They really kinda suck, but they are fun to play with and have a neat history. Dont expect any thing you buy now days to work on them as they seem to suffer badly from age. Even new unused disc's still unopened seem to offer up lots of problems and the belts in the players just seem to perish over time and need replacing. Techmoan did a great video about it a few weeks ago. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LrPe0rwXOU So thats another neat disc format to consider.
