Yup, You're right. I should have read more instead of opening my big mouth. It looks like the codec is the problem right now. Aaron Giles is doing a great job working on the issue. I think he will solve the problem. Tekken 3 runs terribly in mame as well as the chd games I've tried- California speed as an example. I simply gave up on trying chd games as well as 3d games but I was able to find an emulator that would play Tekken 3. I know it's besides the point but it would be difficult to stick a cluster rack inside a cabinet even if it sounds fun. So I'm still a bit scepticle about the practicality in the near future. I still think you will need some pretty good proccessing power to run the laser games though, but all we can do is wait and see.

So my new prediction is less than a few years but more than a year and I don't mind being wrong on that point as well...

BTW, great post!

...just to add some wood to the fire...

first, if you use the actual hardware (laser disc player) there is no need for frame file, etc.

second, in a recent discussion I had with some of the MAME developers, 'there are no plans in the future to run MAME with laser disc support'. So what does this mean? Basically MAME will not have 'more accurate emulation'. The accuracy will only come from the point when the main program code is capable of accessing the laser disc hardware to play the game not just play a 'ripped' version (not that this is bad either). This to me, is a big advantage of Daphne as it can do both - I am just waiting so I could play all my laser discs (Firefox, etc).

Daphne Developers - keep up the excellent work

Sorry to dredge this topic up again, but as of today MAME have introduced preliminary support for Astron Belt, Cobra Command, Galaxy Ranger and Star Blazer in 117u3:

http://mamedev.org/updates/whatsnew_0117u3.txt

It'll be interesting to see what happens here, and how long it takes them to go from GAME_NOT_WORKING status to fully playable, if ever.

Oh, and don't worry guys - I still love Daphne; I wouldn't play my laserdisc games thru anything else, 'cos I have to agree with the fact that this emulator has been specifically written for them so it'll definitely play them better. MAME seems to be trying to do everything lately, but not everything is working all that well.

Thanks for the update, Krusty. I actually do like to know about new laserdisc game drivers in MAME.

And now Thayer's Quest is included as of MAME 0118.u2:

http://mamedev.org/updates/whatsnew_0118u2.txt

And now Interstellar has been added as of MAME 118u4:

http://mamedev.org/updates/whatsnew_0118u4.txt

Hopefully they will add a Bega's Battle driver and fix the color palette issue.

There is an issue with the color palette in Daphne? I had no idea...

Yep, see bega.cpp ( https://www.daphne-emu.com/daphnesvn/tr ... e/bega.cpp ) in the function void bega::draw_sprites. There's a comment that says "this isn't the correct color... i'm not sure where color comes from right now". At CAX, I noticed that the colors for Road Blaster were slightly different than what we've got on Daphne. I took some video of it.

Oh yeah, forgot about that. Bega hardware uses 56 bytes as entries for 8 bit color values. Since each tile can address up to 8 colors each there needs to be some video ram bits that select which one of the 7 palettes to use (56 colors / 8 colors per tile = 7 palettes). I hardcoded it to use the last one since the Bega colors seemed correct, and if I recall, at least in Bega, the 7 palettes were all the same except the first one was all black. Can I get a copy of that video? It might help track down where those palette bits are supposed to be set from.

Of course, if they are only slightly off then it is possible that it's caused by a monitor that isn't properly adjusted.

The colors on the machine at CAX from the laserdisc seemed to be spot-on compared to watching the disc by itself on a regular TV. Nothing stood out as wrong, and I'm pretty good at noticing that sort of thing by now. I'd say it's pretty likely that the overlay colors were correct as well.

Great to see you around, Mark!

-Warren.

the colors from the laserdisc video matched. The colors from the overlay did not. I didn't notice this, however, until Matt pointed it out to me and showed me how Daphne was displaying it on his laptop soon after i'd played the arcade machine.

Hmmm, they're taking a shot at Firefox as of MAME 0.127u4:


New games added or promoted from NOT_WORKING status
---------------------------------------------------
Fire Fox (still needs proper laserdisc support) [smf]

Great news!

I'm curious what happened with the offering of it to Daphne?

The individual in question came through with the 'offering'.

Fantastic!! I'm Denny Stout ..I'm new here and I Just want to share this quote as my first post here...

"The less you can live on, the more chance your idea will succeed. This is true even after you’ve 'made it...

Make it a Great day people...