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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:

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!

  1. Run DaphneLoader (running Daphne directly will not work)
  2. 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.
  3. You will see a list of games. Click on Dragon's Lair so that Dragon's Lair is now highlighted.
  4. Click the Start button.
  5. 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.
  6. You will be prompted that DaphneLoader needs to download some files. Click OK to begin the download.
  7. 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.
  8. Once the download finishes, you will be prompted to insert your DVD. Insert the DVD and click OK.
  9. DaphneLoader will attempt to authenticate the DVD. If authentication succeeds, go to the next step. If authentication fails, go here.
  10. Once the authentication is complete, you will be prompted that the game is ready to begin. Click OK and Dragon's Lair will start.
  11. 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.
  12. 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.
  13. 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.
  14. 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

Video, Audio, and Frame Files

ROM Image Files

ROM Image Files

Download Details

Download Details

Real Laserdisc Players

Laserdisc Players

Keyboard and Joystick

Keyboard and Joystick

Keyboard for Thayer's Quest

See Keyboard and Joystick

Keyboard for Space Ace

See Keyboard and Joystick

Keyboard for Cliff Hanger

See Keyboard and Joystick

Command Line Options

Command Line Options

Using a Real Scoreboard

Scoreboard

Developer Information

Subversion (SVN) Information

SVN

GP2X Hacking

GP2x

DAT Files

DAT Files

OpenGL

OpenGL

OpenMAX

OpenMAX

Developer Notes

Things we've learned while developing Daphne that may be useful later. DevNotes

Badlands Notes

Badlands Notes

Bega's Battle Notes

Bega's Battle Notes

Cliff Hanger 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 Notes

Dragon's Lair Euro Notes

Dragon's Lair Euro Notes

Electronics notes

Electronics Notes

Star Rider Notes

Documentation about Star Rider, obtained via reverse engineering, schematics, etc.

  1. Star Rider PIF board
  2. Star Rider Main CPU and VGG boards
  3. Star Rider Steering PCB

Esh's Aurunmilla Notes

Eshs

Firefox Notes

Notes about Firefox hardware. Firefox notes

Freedom Fighter Notes

Freedom Fighter notes

Halcyon notes

Halcyon notes

Time Traveler

Time Traveler

Laserdisc Image Info

Info about VBI parsing and storing: VBI Information

Info about laserdisc image file format: Laserdisc Image Format

libjpeg tweaks

libjpeg

LD-V1000 Info

ldv1000

Compiling

Compilation instructions for Windows

Dragon's Lair 2 Hacking

Dragon's Lair 2 Hacking

Apple 2 Stuff

apple2

AVR Stuff

avr

Cross compiling for ARM (raspberry pi, beagleboard, etc)

Cross Compiling

Building MAME in Visual Studio

mame

Daphne engine documentation

engine

Dexter

FAQ

Dexter FAQ

What is Dexter and how will it make my dreams come true?

What Is Dexter?

Replacing Dexter's SD card

Replacing Dexter's SD card

Improving Dexter audio quality

Improving Dexter audio quality

Dexter bundles

Dexter Bundles

Commercial support

Commercial Support