Complete Guide for Daphne in HyperSpin and HL3

[rfancella]

Hello All,

There are a few notable threads about Daphne out there already. Please see:

http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/forum/showthread.php?18209-A-Sort-Of-Guide-to-Daphne

http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/topic/1612-whats-the-easiest-way-to-run-daphne-with-hyperspin-roms-or-iso

http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/forum/showthread.php?28561-Daphne-games-missing-yet-there&highlight=daphne

http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/topic/2121-daphne-help

NOTICE: Daphne and Daphne Singe are two different emulators.

Daphne is for the following games: Astron Belt, Badlands, Bega's Battle, Cliff Hanger, Cobra Command, Dragon's Lair, Dragon's Lair 2, 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 and Us vs Them.

Daphne Singe is for the following games:

American Laser Games: Crime Patrol, Crime Patrol 2, Who Shot Johnny Rock, The Last Bounty Hunter, Mad Dog McCree, Mad Dog McCree 2, Space Pirates and Time Traveler.

WoW Action Max Games: .38 Ambush Alley, Blue Thunder, Hydrosub: 2021, Pops Ghostly and Sonic Fury.

Other Games: Ninja Hayate and Time Gal.

For help setting up these games, please check this: http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/topic/2139-complete-guide-for-american-laser-gameswow-actionmax-in-hypespin-and-RL

About the company (Cinematronics):

Taken from the Cinematronics Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinematronics

 

Cinematronics Inc. was founded in 1975 by Jim Pearce, Dennis Parte and Gary Garrison in El Cajon, California, although early on Parte and Garrison sold their shares to Tom "Papa" Stroud. Cinematronics' first games, a Pong clone, a Flipper Ball copy and their first original game design, Embargo, were released in 1975, 1976, and 1977, were not particularly notable. The company really began to prosper after the Space Wars game came into production about a year later.

...

In 1983 Cinematronics released Dragon's Lair, one of the first laserdisc-based arcade games. In order to finish the project they partnered with Advanced Microcomputer Systems (later renamed RDI Video Systems), who later tried to sell a home version of the laser-disc machine. While RDI's home console, the Halcyon, was a failure, the Dragon's Lair arcade was a huge success. Cinematronics followed it up with the similar sci-fi-themed laserdisc game, Space Ace. In about 1983 some prototype animation material for a Dragon's Lair sequel was produced, but due to the lack of an agreement between Cinematronics and the animator, Don Bluth, this material sat unused for years, eventually becoming part of the Dragon's Lair II: Time Warp game in the 1990s.

Games produced by Cinematronics:

Alley Master (1988)

Armor Attack (1980)

Baseball The Season II (1987)

Boxing Bugs (1981)

Brix (1983)

Cerberus (1985)

Cosmic Chasm (1983)

Danger Zone (1986)

Double Play: Super Baseball Home Run Derby (1987)

Dragon's Lair (1983)

Embargo (1977)

Express Delivery (1984)

Flipper Ball (1976)

Freeze (1982)

Hovercraft (1983)

Jack the Giantkiller (1982)

Mayhem 2002 (1985)

Naughty Boy (1982)

Power Play (1985)

Redline Racer (1986)

Rip Off (1980) A cocktail version was also manufactured under license by Centuri

Solar Quest (video game) (1981)

Space Ace (1984)

Space Wars (1977)

Star Castle (1980)

Starhawk (1977)

Sundance (1979)

Tail Gunner (1979)

Tailgunner II 1980 This was a cockpit version was otherwise the same as the original Tailgunner. It was made under license by Exidy.

Warrior

War of the Worlds (1982)

World Series - The Season (1985)

World Series Baseball (1984)

Zzyzzyxx (1982)

About the company (RDI Video Systems):

Taken from the RDI WiKi: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RDI_Video_Systems

RDI Video Systems was a video game company founded by Rick Dyer originally as "Advanced Microcomputer Systems", and was well known for its Laserdisc video games, beginning with the immensely popular Dragon's Lair. The company went bankrupt shortly after releasing the Halcyon home video game system, which they claimed would be entirely voice-activated, and have an AI on par with HAL 9000 from the film 2001: A Space Odyssey. Some of theses games have been remastered by Digital Leisure.

Games produced by RDI:

Dragon's Lair

Space Ace

Thayer's Quest (Released first for the Halcyon, and later in arcades)

Raiders vs. Chargers (Released first for the Halcyon, and later in arcades as "NFL Football")

Dragon's Lair II: Time Warp

Orpheus, not released

The Spirits of Whittier Mansion, not released

The Shadow of the Stars, not released

Voyage to the New World, not released

The Emulator:

Taken from the Daphne Emulator WiKi: https://www.daphne-emu.com:9443/mediawiki/index.php/Main_Page

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!

Daphne will allow you to 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

Your hardware requirements:

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.

(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

Ok, Let's get started!

I will assume that you already have all of the appropriate media in which to install the emulator and the games onto your computer. The Daphne emulator consists of two programs, DaphneLoader and Daphne. Daphne is the actual emulator and DaphneLoader is a front end that uses Daphne and give you a nice GUI to make changes to the config. As just about every thread out there says, "Do not try to launch DaphneLoader through your HyperSpin or HyperLaunch setup." Daphne.exe is the actual emulator. That said, you do need DaphneLoader to get things setup and to configure game specific settings.

I would highly recommend you get the supported CD/DVD media for the supported games. If you have the media for these games, DaphneLoader will download and keep up-to-date the audio/video files directly from Digital Leisure.

Daphne dowload and setup:

Navigate to the Daphne home page: http://www.daphne-emu.com and download the latest version of Daphne (daphne-1.0v-win32.zip). Once it's downloaded create a new directory in your emulators directory. Mine is located at "C:\Emulation\Emulators|Daphne". Many other people use "C:\HyperSpin\Emulators\Daphne". Open the Zip file and extract all the contents into your ...Daphne directory.

The first time you run DaphneLoader it will update itself. Please click "OK".

Once the update is finished you will see this:

For this example I will install Dragon's Lair from the DVD-Video Version using DaphneLoader. Click on Dragon's Lair and click the "Start!" button. You will see the Warning dialog box explaining what disc's you need to play the game.

Insert the appropriate disk in your drive (or mount the disk image) and click the "OK" button. You will see the Video/Audio Files Needed dialog box. Click "OK".

DaphneLoader will now download the most up to date audio/video files and install them into your ...Daphne\vldp_dl\lair directory. This process will take a while (depending on your internet speeds), so go grab a cup of coffee... beer... or what ever your poison is and wait.

Once that process is complete, you will be asked to validate your media. Click "OK" and let the process run.

DaphneLoader will then start converting your files. Go refill your coffee... beer...

Once converted and validated, you will get another update screen. Click "OK"... again....

"Game is ready to begin." Click "OK" and hit a key to parse the video files:

Finally! The game will launch and you can play!!! Close out the game and continue on with installing the other games you want.

The download process will give you a framefile that is needed to play the game. I recommend copying the framefile to the ...Daphne\framefile directory. In this example it's called ...Daphne\vldp_dl\lair\lair.txt

Again, copy the framefile into the framefile directory for each game and name them like this (so they match the database in HyperList):

As everyone will first ask when replying to Daphne problems, "Make sure all the games are working in DaphneLoader first!".

If you have downloaded the games, make sure all the audio/video files, framefiles and rom files are included. The framefiles must match up to the audio/video files and you must have the matching roms also. The directory structure should be like this:

Framefiles: ...Daphne\framefile

Roms: ...Daphne\roms

Audio/Video in their own directories: ...Daphne\vldp_dl

My example:

Framefile: C:\Emulation\Emulators\Daphne\framefile\lair.txt

Roms: C:\Emulation\Emulators\Daphne\roms\dl_revf2.zip

Audio/Video: C:\Emulation\Emulators\Daphne\vldp_dl\lair

Now, to make changes in your per-game config:

Most people will not need to do this, but some may want some default changes to the way a game plays. With DaphneLoader open, select the game you want to make changes to. Click the "Configure" button. Make any appropriate changes you would like in any of the tabs except the Input tab. Make sure and Enable the Display command line option in the Advanced tab before you hit "OK".

Now, click the "Start!" button and the command like window will appear first:

Pay close attention to the two bank settings. Mine shows "-bank 0 11111001 -bank 1 00100111". Write these down or save them somewhere for use in HyperLaunchHQ. Click the "Cancel" button and make any changes to the other games you have installed. Record those bank settings for each game as well.

The last thing we need to do before we start the HyperSpin setup, is to make a minor change to the framefiles.

Open each framefile in your favorite text editor and put the full path to the audio/video directory. Example:

Original:

.

151 lair.m2v

Modified:

C:\Emulation\emulators\Daphne\vldp_dl\lair\


151 lair.m2v

Save the modified file and test it again. Go back to DaphneLoader and Start the game again. Make double sure it still runs.

All the other games, or if you have the A/V files and framefiles:

For the games that do not require CD/DVD media, or if you have downloaded all the Audio/Video files and framefiles from a different source, here is how to set them up in DaphneLoader.

For this example I will use GP World. Select GP World in the list and click the "Configure" button on the right. In the Game/Laserdisc tab, click on "Configure Laserdisc":

Under the Virtual Laserdisc Player Options, change it from "Yes..." to "No, I will install...". This will give you an additional option to browse to your framefile. Click the "Browse" button and navigate to your ...Daphne\framefile\gpworld.txt framefile and click "Open":

Hit the "OK" button and hit "OK" again on the Configuration window. Click on "Start!" to test the game. Let it parse the video and that game should be done.

Do this for the rest of the games you have available.

We are ready to bring up HyperHq!

Daphne and HyperHQ config.

Launch HyperHQ and add your Daphne wheel. Once the wheel is added, click on Wheel Settings and choose Daphne in the wheel drop down. Make your changes like this:

Now close out HyperHQ and open up HyperLaunchHQ. You will have to setup your Global emulator for Daphne. Select GLOBAL on the left. Make sure the Emulators tab is selected and scroll down to Daphne (not Daphne Singe, see the top of this post for a Singe link) and double click on it. Set your Path to the daphne.exe as seen below:

Close that window and click on the emulator Daphne on the left. Make sure the Emulators tab is selected and set your Rom Paths to your ...Daphne\framefile directory. Set your Default Emulator to Daphne as seen below:

Now, click on the Games tab and hit the blue "Audit All the games..." button and your installed games should show up in green. Go ahead and select lair and click the "Launch..." button to test:

All your games that run in Daphne should now be setup in HyperSpin and HyperLaunchHQ!!!

There are two game names that do not match between the RL Daphne.ini settings file and the HyperList xml file.

Cobra Command and Road Blaster. If your Audit list shows cobra and rb in red, the easiest way is to fix the game names (hopefully this will be updated sometime) in your ...HyperLaunch\Modules\Daphne\Daphne.ini file.

Find the file in your HyperLaunch instillation and edit it in your favorite editor. Scroll down and find the game setting tag called [cobra]. In the HyperList xml file it's called cobraab. I copied the entire [cobra] section and pasted it below. Changed [cobra] to [cobraab] and did the same for [rb] to [roadblaster]:

Save the file and I then re-ran the audit and all the games show green! "Super Green!"

One last thing. Your per game settings!

While you still have HyperLaunchHQ open, click on the Emulators tab. Click on the "Edit Global Module Settings":

Click on the "Rom Settings" tab. Scroll down and select lair. At the bottom of this screen you will see two boxes: bank0 and bank1. Look back at your command line notes for lair and make them match:

Close that window. Close out HyperLaunchHQ and bring up HyperSpin.

Enjoy!!!

<EDIT>

Djvj has edited the Daphne.ahk module for RL to allow for per game control changes. Please see this thread:

http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/topic/1447-daphne-module

</EDIT>

Any comments and corrections will be greatly appreciated!

Thank you,

Ron Fancella

[Ayrun]

Ok wow that was fast, I fixed it. I had to remove the "-useoverlaysb" from the parameter field and leave it blank, and the bar at the top is now removed!

[Ayrun]

First just wanted to say thanks for this tutorial! I got everything up and running first try! EXCEPT one minor problem.

 

When I run a game through Rocket Launcher (Dragon's Lair or Space Ace for example), I get this ugly info bar at the top.. (pictures attached)

 

However this doesn't show up when running straight from the daphne command line.

 

I'd like to remove this. Any idea?

 

screen1.bmp

screen3.bmp

[wallmachine]

Just wondering if anyone could hit me up with a link or where to get the Daphne v1.0.12 emulator I can only find v1.0.

 

many thanks.

[Metalzoic]

Hey Ron got a question for you.

I'm running Dragons Lair Enhanced 2.1 (actually have it set to 2.1 prototype in RL) with the Dragons Lair HD files.

Everything runs perfectly (although it took me quite a while to realize that the bank numbers went right to left and not left to right).

My question is that setting the dip to play the prototype version doesn't work. After the game boots it shows Dirk die and then just goes black.

I'm guessing that's because the Dragons Lair HD video files don't contain all the extra scenes needed to be played in prototype mode.

Do the normal vldp files include the proto scenes since the HD files don't? Are the prototype scenes even available through Daphne?

[mrbarkis]

After many hours of research and testing I resolved my issue so no response is required. ill post the details in a separate thread because a) I didn't get the answer from this site and it was unrelated to Daphne.

[mrbarkis]

Ron - thanks for taking the time to create the instructions and field questions. I'm a n00b here so apologies in advance if the answer to my question is obvious. I followed your guide and am able to launch daphne games from daphneloader and separately from Rocketlauncher. However, when I attempt to initiate a game (say, Dragon's Lair) from within Hyperspin I receive a "Cannot find Hyperlaunch.exe" message. My MAME wheel works just fine. The settings I use for the MAME wheel have Execution set to Normal and not Hyperlaunch. Any suggestions additional information I can provide to help answer the question?

[Xerobull]

A++++ For this thread! I've -never- been able to get Daphne working via HS before. Thanks!!!

[thesaint]

I finally managed to get daphne working with Hyperspin thanks to this thread.

However I just can't get to change my settings with Daphneloader.

In the end I managed to change the controls in the file dapinput.ini to work with X-Arcade.

 

I still would like to change the number of lives in Space Ace to unlimited. Can someone help to which file I have to change and the new setting in that file?

 

Many thanks.

Nobody??

[Metalzoic]

I'm struggling on. Probably the toughest to get going. Almost there, I'll post my findings when I'm there

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk

Definitely. Without Ron and his tutorial almost none of us would have it working. It's a strange patchwork of madness and everyone seems to have their own weird issues with it.

Good luck.

[Metalzoic]

I finally managed to get daphne working with Hyperspin thanks to this thread.

However I just can't get to change my settings with Daphneloader.

In the end I managed to change the controls in the file dapinput.ini to work with X-Arcade.

 

I still would like to change the number of lives in Space Ace to unlimited. Can someone help to which file I have to change and the new setting in that file?

 

Many thanks.

Does Space Ace actually have an unlimited Lives setting?

[butflash]

I'm struggling on. Probably the toughest to get going. Almost there, I'll post my findings when I'm there

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk

[thesaint]

I finally managed to get daphne working with Hyperspin thanks to this thread.

However I just can't get to change my settings with Daphneloader.

In the end I managed to change the controls in the file dapinput.ini to work with X-Arcade.

 

I still would like to change the number of lives in Space Ace to unlimited. Can someone help to which file I have to change and the new setting in that file?

 

Many thanks.

[rfancella]

Hello and welcome to the forums!

A couple things to check.

 

Open RLU.

Check the module settings for Daphne.

Remove everything in the globalParams box.

Set Fullscreen to true.

Be sure Bezels are set to false.

 

Click the Rom Settings tab.

Are there a ton of games in there?  Or empty?

 

Thanks,

Ron

 

 

I have a problem with Daphne running through hyperspin/HyperLaunch. When I load a Daphne game, it runs in a 640x480 window even though I have full screen selected. I edited
the module file to remove the resolution reference and that got rid of the xy statement in the command line but there is still a command to set 640x480 in the Daphne log file shown below.

Any Ideas?

--DAPHNE version 1.0.12
...snip...

[Lonzotwa]

I have a problem with Daphne running through hyperspin/HyperLaunch. When I load a Daphne game, it runs in a 640x480 window even though I have full screen selected. I edited
the module file to remove the resolution reference and that got rid of the xy statement in the command line but there is still a command to set 640x480 in the Daphne log file shown below.

Any Ideas?

--DAPHNE version 1.0.12
--Command line is: C:\Emulators\daphne\daphne.exe cliff vldp -fullscreen -framefile C:\Emulators\daphne\framefile\cliff.txt
--CPU : GenuineIntel 2500 MHz || Mem : 4096 megs
--OS : Windows XP/.NET || Video : Intel® HD Graphics 3000
--OpenGL: Compiled In
--RGB2YUV Function: MMX
--Line Blending Function: MMX
--Audio Mixing Function: MMX
Set 640x480 at 32 bpp with flags: 80000001
Initializing sound system ...
No joysticks detected
Remapping input ...
Loading compressed ROM image cliff_u1.bin...8192 bytes read.
Loading compressed ROM image cliff_u2.bin...8192 bytes read.
Loading compressed ROM image cliff_u3.bin...8192 bytes read.
Loading compressed ROM image cliff_u4.bin...8192 bytes read.
Loading compressed ROM image cliff_u5.bin...8192 bytes read.
Framefile parse succeeded. Video/Audio directory is: C:/Emulators/daphne/video files/Cliff/
YUV overlay is done in software (ie unaccelerated).
Loaded 2048 bytes from ./ram/cliff.gz
Booting ROM ...
Play
Pause
Search to 6 received
Play
Saved 2048 bytes to cliff.gz
Freeing memory used to store audio stream...
Shutting down sound system...
Shutting down video display...

[rfancella]

You are very welcome.  And thank you.

The issue, for matter of record, was the file extension.

Because "Hide extensions for known file types" was enabled in windows, the files actual name was lair24.m2v.m2v.  Once renamed and some additional tweaks in HLHQ, the game launches as expected.

 

Thanks,

Ron

 

 

Thanks again Ron! What a huge help. I can't believe it was a stupid file extension. But Thanks again. Enjoy the Beer.

[rfancella]

Ok Deano,

Looks like there are no bank settings in there.  I looked back through the guide and it looks like I missed a step.  It is common and is a step that needs to be done for most emulators.

 

Navigate to .../RocketLauncher/Modules/Daphne

There you should see a file named "Daphne (Example).ini".  Since you have already made some changes to your Module Settings, there will also be a "Daphne.ini" file.  Delete or rename the Daphne.ini file.  Copy the Daphne (Example).ini file and rename it to Daphne.ini.

 

This will populate some default Module Settings for Daphne and populate the bank settings for some games.

 

From here, you can bring up your module settings.

First thing you want to do is remove everthing in the globalParams box.

Click on the Rom Settings tab.  The games should now be listed with some settings.

Scroll down and click on lair.

The default banks settings should be:

bank0 = 11011001
bank1 = 00100111

 

The settings for the Narrator are the last two digits of bank1.  11 is Always on.  00 is Always off.

 

Try the game now and let me know.

 

Thanks,

Ron

[rfancella]

Wow!  That's a totaly new one by me!

Thanks for the update.

 

Thanks,

Ron

 

Well i have resolved the problem which is a odd fix. My unit uses 2.1 stereo sound which works fine on everything. All the speakers and the base work perfect.
I googled the problem and someone else had same issue with DL game only and he changed his speaker to PC cable and it fixed the problem.
I decided to buy another cable doubtful it would not solve the issue as the unit worked flawlessly with everything else, but to my suprise it has! Not sure why its specific to one game?

[deano71]

Well i have resolved the problem which is a odd fix. My unit uses 2.1 stereo sound which works fine on everything. All the speakers and the base work perfect.

I googled the problem and someone else had same issue with DL game only and he changed his speaker to PC cable and it fixed the problem.

I decided to buy another cable doubtful it would not solve the issue as the unit worked flawlessly with everything else, but to my suprise it has! Not sure why its specific to one game?

[rfancella]

Man!  That should work just fine.

Running out of options.

One more thing.

Check your A/V files.  Is it possible something is missing?

Can you post a directory listing of your lair directory?

Also, post your Daphne_log.txt

 

Thanks,

Ron

 

My resolution is 1280x1024 and no matter what, I get a flash when launching Daphne games. 

 

Is this normal, or is it something I could potentially fix?

 

Using the latest RocketLauncher, but I've had the problem since RL 3.0

[newoski]

My resolution is 1280x1024 and no matter what, I get a flash when launching Daphne games. 

 

Is this normal, or is it something I could potentially fix?

 

Using the latest RocketLauncher, but I've had the problem since RL 3.0

[deano71]

Hi,

 

I had 2 x ini files  Daphne (Example).ini & Daphne (Example copy).ini  file.

​I renamed one to Daphne and removed the other. I removed global paramaters as per pic and I checked the bank settings and they seem ok. I did change the bank 1 setting to 00  to turn the narrator off. When I booted the game it had no narration so I know its reading the ini file ok. Still no background sound though.

 

[rfancella]

See the line there that says "run - ...". Double click on it. It will open in a new window. Take a picture of that. It will show the entire command line.

Thanks,

Ron

[rfancella]

Can you launch lair from RLUI.

Then post the run line here so I can see your bank settings.

 

Thanks,

Ron

 

Hello me again. I have put my PC into my machine and have Daphne up and running nicely with my joysticks. This is the 1st time I have plugged it into sound and I notice Dragon Lair plays no Audio, I can hear beeps when I make joystick movements and I hear the voice intro at the start of the emulator boot, but has no background music. When running the game nothing else but joystick beeps. All other games are running fine with sound. 

[deano71]

Hi Sorry my PC is in the machine so cant do a propper screen grab. Hopefully the attached image will help,  

 

[deano71]

Thanks for all your help Ron. May tackle Amercian Laser next. Really fancy Mad Dog on my set up. Just need to research what light guns will work with the LCD and the emulator.