Dragon's Lair - Daphne Emulator

caver01

@battlecat I did see a tutorial on YouTube a few weeks ago. You can probably search for that too. The most important part of getting it working in RetroPie is setting up the folders to hold your files as described in the wiki. Daphne is unique in that it has ROM files (small, game code), media files (huge video and audio files) and a framefile which is a small text file that lists the media files and their starting frame numbers.

Basically, you need to install the emulator on RetroPie, then move your ROM and media+framefile files over to the Pi that you have them working in Daphne on a PC or Mac. If you have your Daphne rom folder setup like the wiki, and all of your files moved to the right locations, you should see your ROM listed in Emulation Station.

You don't need to copy the .DAT files over. They will be re-created the first time Daphne runs.

Also, be sure to search this forum for help. A lot of questions have been asked and answered already.

battlecat

Hi:

Yes I have seen that page. Unfortunately there are things on that page that are not generated by Daphne when it is run from the Daphne emulator.

Files such as

dle21.daphne
dle21.commands (Optional extra command-line params!)
dle21.txt (Framefile)
dapinput.ini

are not created in the sub folders of Dahpne for the desktop.

Any ideas why not? Like I said it runs fine in the actual Daphne emulator.

Thanks,

mediamogul

@battlecat

dle21.daphne is what you should name your folder that the game files go into, assuming that the listed name of your PC game is 'dle21'. Using the game 'Us vs Them' for example, where the game files are shortened to 'uvt', I would create the folder /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/daphne/uvt.daphne/ where the game files uvt.m2v, uvt.oggand uvt.txt will reside and then be found and launched from Emulation Station.

You can safely ignore a .commands file if one doesn't exist. However, if you have a working game on the PC side of Daphne, then you should have a .txt frame file to match your .m2v and .ogg files. Those again will go into the .daphne folder you created, as described above.

As far as the dapinput.ini file is concerned, this is where you will set your controller mappings as described on the wiki link above. That file can be found and edited at /opt/retropie/configs/daphne/dapinput.ini. The instructions on how to map the controls are also to be found in the contents of that very file as well.

Edit: The mapping process can be a tad confusing itself, so if you have issues, just give a shout.

battlecat

It appears that the dle21.txt framefile is not in any folder shown or hidden that I can see. I am unsure why I am missing this and yet the game plays through the emulator just fine.

caver01

@battlecat You aren't really missing stuff. DLE21 is a special version of the Dragon's Lair ROM. In fact, there are many different ROMs for Drangon's Lair (version F is quite popular). The thing is, they can ALL use the same media files.

If you dive into the configuration of Daphne running on a PC, you can specify which version of the game (which ROM) you want to run, while still using the same media files. That is to say, you are playing different game code, but that game code uses the same Laserdisc animation sequences.

In RetroPie, we don't have a way to "select" the version of the ROM you want to play. So, to play different versions of the same game, you need to setup each ROM and each sub folder (dle21.daphne, etc.) and copy the media files and framefile to match.

It can be complicated at first to get one of these games running, so I would first focus on just lair.zip. Setup lair.zip, add the lair.daphne folder and so on the way it is described above and in the wiki. Move the media files over, and don't worry about the .command file.

Once you have a working setup of lair, you can start adding other ROMs if you have them on your PC (ace, cliff, etc.) and of course, you can start playing with other versions of Dragon's Lair (DLE21 for example) which will be a lot easier now that you have a working example of a Daphne game.

mediamogul

@battlecat

Daphne on the PC allows you to choose the frame file location separately if desired. Try opening up the preferences for the game in the PC Daphne launcher. You should be able to find the exact location of the frame file there.

caver01

@battlecat said in Dragon's Lair - Daphne Emulator:

It appears that the dle21.txt framefile is not in any folder shown or hidden that I can see. I am unsure why I am missing this and yet the game plays through the emulator just fine.

FYI, dle21.txt will just be a copy of lair.txt. Daphne on a PC doesn't need a copy because the Daphne Loader front-end is smart enough to launch the combinations for you--dle21.zip rom can launch using a lair.txt framefile. On RetroPie, we aren't criss-crossing that way (although there are ways to re-use the same media files to save space--we can get to that later).

For example, in RetroPie, if you get lair working, you could replace the lair.zip file with dle21.zip file, then rename the lair.daphne folder to dle21.daphne, and rename the lair.txt file to dle21.txt. If you did all of that renaming, you can select and launch other ROM (dle21.zip) and it will find corresponding media files (that match the rom's filename).

theroamer

I got mine working by following the instructions here: https://gameroomsolutions.com/setup-daphne-raspberry-pi-3-retropie/

battlecat

Thanks for all the suggestions to this. I appreciate it.

I will have time over the weekend to try it all out and document what I do for future reference.

Thanks again!
BC

battlecat

@theroamer When I try to follow the install instructions for Daphne in the experimental listings Daphne is missing. Have the menus changed that much?
Thanks,
BC

caver01

@battlecat said in Dragon's Lair - Daphne Emulator:

@theroamer When I try to follow the install instructions for Daphne in the experimental listings Daphne is missing. Have the menus changed that much?
Thanks,
BC

Is Daphne still in the Experimental list? I know it has been a little while since it was added. Perhaps it's no longer in the Experimental list, but rather the list of core systems.

I don't think folks are going back to their original posts and updating instructions they may have written, so yeah, the menus probably did change. Exciting, isn't it?!

Spyderturbo007

Can someone point me in the direction of what DVD / Download I need to purchase to get the files I need to play Dragon's Lair? I searched around Amazon for the DVD-ROM non PC version, but can't seem to find the right thing.

I see I can buy stuff directly from Digital Leisure, but I'm not sure if that's what I need or not.

There is a download linked to on their website for $9.99, but I don't want to buy it until I'm sure it's the right thing.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/227380/

caver01

@Spyderturbo007 The Steam link and subsequent downloads will not let you play Dragon's Lair via Daphne on a Raspberry Pi.

You need a DVD-Video disc, (note, this is NOT DVD-ROM). You can read this Daphne Emulator wiki page, and read it carefully, as it explains exactly what DVD you should buy.

The important thing to remember is that the Daphne Loader which runs on PC and Mac is really what you need to get running first, then, and only then, can you transfer the working media files over to the Raspberry Pi. It's just not an easy emulator to get working because it requires these steps via PC/Mac.