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Frequently Asked Questions
If you are having a problem with Daphne, chances are that other people have had the same problem. Do yourself a favor and read the list of Frequently Asked Questions before you do anything else.
Daphne Overview
What is Daphne?
Were you enchanted by laserdisc arcade games back when they were new? Have you ever wished that you could play the original arcade version of Dragon's Lair again? Well, now you can, using Daphne! Daphne lets you play Dragon's Lair and other laserdisc arcade games, just like you remember them from the arcade!
Goals of Daphne
Click DaphneGoals
History
The history of Daphne is terribly fascinating. Perhaps one day I will include it here :)
Games that you can play using Daphne
Daphne (as of v1.0) can play the following games:
- Astron Belt
- Badlands
- Bega's Battle
- Cliff Hanger
- Cobra Command
- Dragon's Lair
- Dragon's Lair II : Timewarp
- Esh's Aurunmilla
- Galaxy Ranger
- GP World
- Interstellar
- M.A.C.H. 3
- Road Blaster
- Space Ace
- Star Blazer
- Super Don Quix-ote
- Thayer's Quest
- Us vs Them
Getting Started
Requirements
To play Daphne, you will need:
- At least a Pentium III 500 MHz machine or equivalent (These days, most people have something much better.)
- Windows, Mac OSX, or x86/Linux (this covers almost everyone)
- One of the following:
- (Strongly Recommended) One or more Digital Leisure DVDs to make Daphne easier to use. Click here to get the scoop on these DVDs.
- (Not Recommended, Expert only) ROM Image files and one of the following:
- (Not Recommended, Expert only) Video, Audio, and Frame Files
- (Not Recommended, Expert only) A real laserdisc and a real laserdisc player
Where To Get Daphne
Get the latest version of Daphne from the Download Section.
Installing on Windows
We distribute Daphne as a "Zip" file. Before you can use Daphne, you must "extract" Daphne's "Zip" file using something like WinZip or WinRar. When extracting, you will be asked to which folder you wish to extract. You can extract the Daphne's "Zip" file to any folder on your computer that you would like. If you don't know where to extract to, "c:\daphne" is a place that will work.
Installing on Mac OSX
For OSX, we distribute Daphne as a compressed .DMG file. After downloading the file, just double-click on it to mount it, then drag the Daphne icon to your Applications folder.
Installing on Linux
For x86/linux, we Daphne distribute as a .TAR.GZ file. To "extract" the file, use a command like this:
tar xvfz daphne.tar.gz
The actual command will depend on the exact name of the file, which is the name of the file that you download.
Step By Step: Playing your first game
Here are easy instructions for playing Dragon's Lair in Daphne. This isn't the only way to play Dragon's Lair, but it is the easiest way, and the only way that we recommend. If you want to try other ways to play Dragon's Lair, make sure you have successfully gotten this method working first!
- Run DaphneLoader (running Daphne directly will not work)
- You may be prompted that a new version of DaphneLoader exists. If so, click OK to automatically update to the latest version. If not, continue to the next step.
- You will see a list of games. Click on Dragon's Lair so that Dragon's Lair is now highlighted.
- Click the Start button.
- You will be warned that a Dragon's Lair DVD will be required. If you don't have a Dragon's Lair DVD, or aren't sure if you have one or not, go read about it here. Otherwise, click OK.
- You will be prompted that DaphneLoader needs to download some files. Click OK to begin the download.
- The download will take hours or days depending on how fast your internet connection is. Be patient and allow the download to finish. You will be glad you did.
- Once the download finishes, you will be prompted to insert your DVD. Insert the DVD and click OK.
- DaphneLoader will attempt to authenticate the DVD. If authentication succeeds, go to the next step. If authentication fails, go here.
- Once the authentication is complete, you will be prompted that the game is ready to begin. Click OK and Dragon's Lair will start.
- You may be prompted that Daphne needs to parse video files. If so, press any key to continue. If not, proceed to the next step.
- You will hear two beeps and may see some video playing. Wait for a third beep which sounds different than the first two beeps, then go to the next step.
- You should see the Dragon's Lair introduction begin to play where the announcer says "Dragon's Lair, a fantasy adventure...". Insert two virtual coins by pressing the '5' key twice. Then press the '1' key to start the game.
- Use the arrow keys and the space bar to control Dirk's movements and use his sword.
Daphne Reference
Daphne Loader
DaphneLoader is the program that we recommend that you run in order to play games on Daphne. To get detailed information about DaphneLoader, click here
Daphne
Daphne is the program that does the actual work to emulate laserdisc games, but it is difficult to run directly. We recommend that you run DaphneLoader instead. If you want to get detailed information about Daphne, then click here.
Getting Help
So you've read the Frequently Asked Questions and haven't found your answer. Perhaps you've decided that you need to ask a human being for help. The type of question you ask will greatly affect your chances of getting the answer you want.
How to ask a good question
First, realize that the people who know the answers to your questions have started to see patterns with the questions that people ask. As a result, they have learned to put the answers to these questions in a common place so that the most people can benefit from these answers.
Make sure the answer to your question will benefit many people
Follow official recommendations from this wiki and other places on how to use Daphne! People want their help to benefit everyone, not just one person. A good example is if you follow the 'Step by Step' guide in this wiki on how to play Dragon's Lair and something goes wrong, then you have a good reason to ask for help. A good example of when not to ask for help is if you are trying to do something tricky, advanced, or unconventional and run into problems. An example of something advanced is to try to run Daphne without using DaphneLoader.
Do all that you can to solve your own problem first
If you've got a specific problem that you could solve yourself, then solve it yourself; don't try to get other people to provide a workaround for you. An example is, if you don't have enough hard drive space, then get a bigger hard drive (don't try to get the developers to accommodate your needs, they aren't working for you and if you're too cheap to buy a new hard drive, then you surely are too cheap to hire them to fix your problem).
Advanced Information
You do not need to understand any of this advanced material in order to use Daphne!
Video, Audio, and Frame Files
ROM Image Files
Download Details
Real Laserdisc Players
Keyboard and Joystick
Keyboard for Thayer's Quest
Keyboard for Space Ace
Keyboard for Cliff Hanger
Command Line Options
Using a Real Scoreboard
Developer Information
Subversion (SVN) Information
GP2X Hacking
DAT Files
OpenGL
OpenMAX
Developer Notes
Things we've learned while developing Daphne that may be useful later. DevNotes
Badlands Notes
Bega's Battle Notes
Cliff Hanger Notes
Cube Quest Notes
Things we've learned about the way Cube Quest works. CubeQuestNotes
Dragon's Lair Notes
Dragon's Lair Euro Notes
Electronics notes
Star Rider Notes
Documentation about Star Rider, obtained via reverse engineering, schematics, etc.
Esh's Aurunmilla Notes
Firefox Notes
Notes about Firefox hardware. Firefox notes
Freedom Fighter Notes
Halcyon notes
Time Traveler
Laserdisc Image Info
Info about VBI parsing and storing: VBI Information
Info about laserdisc image file format: Laserdisc Image Format
libjpeg tweaks
LD-V1000 Info
Compiling
Compilation instructions for Windows
Dragon's Lair 2 Hacking
Apple 2 Stuff
AVR Stuff
Cross compiling for ARM (raspberry pi, beagleboard, etc)
Building MAME in Visual Studio
Daphne engine documentation
Dexter
FAQ
What is Dexter and how will it make my dreams come true?
Replacing Dexter's SD card
Improving Dexter audio quality
Improving Dexter audio quality
