(REQUEST) Add Daphne Singe emulator?

DirtBagXon

@pjft said in (REQUEST) Add Daphne Singe emulator?:

@shift Actually I have, and an 8GB will do nothing about it. It's because the videos included in most games are 1080p, and the rendering is not hardware accelerated. I believe you can play the ActionMax games/older games, as their native resolution is 480p there, but I can't say for sure.

Download Handbrake and convert all the videos to 480p. 576p might work as well, but still stutter a bit. Or try to find 480p versions of the videos that I believe are available for some of the games, but I converted mine myself and it worked just fine. Just be sure to keep the same frame rate in the converted video, as Singe depends on the framerate to know when to expect the inputs.

You might then need to resize the files in the Overlay on some of the games if they render too big for your liking, but that's a second step. I think I only resized them for Cliff Hanger, as I can live with the "level selection screen" not being quite aligned in the other games.

My understanding of Singe v2 was to allow custom game designers to utilise sprites and mouse coordinates above the 356x240 range which was forced in v1.

Out of interest, with decreasing the size of the videos and overlays, are you actually seeing any benefit on these older games?

In the new games coming out over at http://www.emuline.org I see the requirement for v2.

Not trying to push v1 here, just interested in the gaming communities response to v2.....

pjft

@dirtbagxon Well, I don't have a preference between v1 and v2 - it's just what games I can play there. I use v1 for TimeGal and I'm not going to change. Same for Ninja Hayate.

V2 has a lot of other fan-made games (Samurai Jack, Daitarn, etc) which I can't find for v1, so that's why I'm using it.

DirtBagXon

@pjft said in (REQUEST) Add Daphne Singe emulator?:

V2 has a lot of other fan-made games

And I believe the new fan-made games use the larger resolutions in sprite and mouse handling, so totally get that.

The Time Gal overlays on v2 look totally different to v1, nice but different.

I am a traditionalist here, and want retro games to look, well 'retro', like the arcades.

Interesting...

pjft

@dirtbagxon Agree about Time ~~Crisis~~ Gal (sorry, had my mind elsewhere) and the older games in general.

There are, however, people still developing fan-made games that make for interesting experiences in this space. I personally am dabbling in re-creating Road Blaster based on higher quality footage. I'll see if that ever gets done :)

shift

@dirtbagxon said in (REQUEST) Add Daphne Singe emulator?:

Out of interest, with decreasing the size of the videos and overlays, are you actually seeing any benefit on these older games?

I've only tried v2 with new games, and, decreasing the resolution (thanks to @pjft for the tip), they are now playable (previously it was impossible on an Rpi4).
As for the old games, on the other hand, I use v1 because I like it. I haven't tried v2 on old games, I only installed it to be able to launch new ones.

Darksavior

@dirtbagxon I was already using your timegal.singe and using the file command didn't change anything.

DirtBagXon

@darksavior said in (REQUEST) Add Daphne Singe emulator?:

@dirtbagxon I was already using your timegal.singe and using the file command didn't change anything.

Ok, so two different things to address here:

You don't need to use my timegal.singe (or hayate.singe for that matter) any longer with the latest commit in my repo. You can revert and use the original .singe file. There is no difference in gameplay in my version, it just added a work-a-round for an arithmetic issue. So you can continue to use it, or swap it out with the original - up to you, it won't change the game.

The arithmetic issue has now been fixed in the libsinge.so library rather than the .singe game file in the latest commit of the codebase.

The 'file' command doesn't change anything, it's just an informational utility. Most .singe files will show you that the content is:

file maddog.singe 
maddog.singe: ASCII text, with CRLF line terminators

i.e. ASCII text - open it in your favourite text editor - you can change game variables and functions etc, even rewrite the game.

Then try:

file timegal.singe
timegal.singe: Lua bytecode, version 5.1

This shows that this is not text, but in fact a compiled (32bit) binary bytecode. As stated above, I am not sure why, but at a guess in an attempt to obfuscate code.

You won't be able to edit this as above, but you can try.... ;)

I was trying to convey that the two v1 games, Time Gal and Ninja Hayate, were released in a different format to all other v1 games. And thus had to have fixes specific to them in my repos for both the standalone Singe and the Daphne plugin. From the error you were seeing, it appears that Singe v2 didn't address these.

Most of the changes I made were due to a move from 32bit linux to 64bit, which is now the norm. But also exposed issues (C int/long) and other library updates that have been made in the years since v1 was released. As far as the bytecode issues were concerned, this was my first clue to addressing:

http://lua-users.org/lists/lua-l/2016-02/msg00176.html

Windows doesn't really care so much about running 32bit binaries on the 64bit variants of Windows. It has a 32bit subsystem already built in. So even old versions of the windows Singe will still run on 64bit Windows 10 and these old games just work there.

I hope that clarifies some things...

Darksavior

@dirtbagxon I guess I won't be using singe 2.0 then..

DirtBagXon

@darksavior said in (REQUEST) Add Daphne Singe emulator?:

@dirtbagxon I guess I won't be using singe 2.0 then..

It's the new fangled big-brother, but for the retro scene I think you have to make your choice.

I'm sure new games coming to v2 will make it a go to app, but then 'new' isn't 'retro'...

tusabez

@dirtbagxon @pjft

Hello, I noticed that you guys are able to get Badlands working. I've been reading the replies on this thread about several other games but Badlands is the one I want to play on Retropie. I have the game files loaded and as everyone else, I get a black screen. I would love some advice on getting it to run it if you don't mind. Thanks!

pjft

@tusabez Install Daphne from source.

tusabez

@pjft Thanks! I ran the update and it worked! The only problem that I'm encountering now is that I ran a fix to map to my joystick https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/21063/is-there-a-simple-way-to-make-dragonrise-controllers-work-with-daphne/7?_=1610256544543 according to these instructions and while I get joystick functionality with Dragon's Lair, Badlands goes back to a black screen. Any other suggestions or am I stuck in between choosing to play Badlands or using a joystick for Dragon's Lair?

tusabez

@pjft It seems rerunning the update seemed to fix the controller issue except now it's recognizing my Xbox controller instead of my joystick but I can probably figure that out. The game seems to run fine for one game but afterwards it just black out leaving the game scores on screen. I guess I can live with this for now haha.

kg1961

Hello everyone
I'm very sorry
How do I contact a member
I'm trying to purchase a score board and a retropie to run Dragons lair and space ace in my oem cabinet.
I live in Canada so I'm not sure if the same items are available here
Need a score board
Retro pie
What ever else. My buddy is a computer tech so I'm sure with the right parts and info I can get this going.
I'm a arcade guy so I know I can get it working with all the parts
Thanks

DirtBagXon

@kg1961 said in (REQUEST) Add Daphne Singe emulator?:

I'm trying to purchase a score board and a retropie to run Dragons lair and space ace in my oem cabinet.

Hiya,

I have no knowledge of cabinet hardware, but there do appear to be forums specific to this:

http://www.dragonslairfans.com/emulatethelair/emulate.htm

http://www.dragonslairfans.com/smfor/index.php

https://forums.arcade-museum.com/threads/starting-dragons-lair-build.452723/

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=136708.0

SaturnX

@DirtBagXon and @pjft wanted to pop in and say thanks!

Thanks for all your hard work and effort on Daphne and Singe.

I’ve now got Daphne (with DragonRise/joystick issues fixed) along with compatibility for Badlands, Road Blaster, and Bega’s Battle along with Singe (Time Gal and Ninja Hayate) running like a dream on my Pi4 arcade cab.

I integrated the Singe titles into the “Daphne” system in EmulationStation for a seamless user experience.

Thanks again!!!

TreasureFingers

@shift Any chance you could write out your steps for installing singe on pi 4 ? im dying to have it? there are bits and pieces everywhere and i cant follow.

SaturnX

@treasurefingers I can put together a quick how-to for how I got singe (v1.18) up and running my pi4 / 4GB.

I haven't bothered with Singe v2 as I'm only using it for Time Gal / Ninja Hayate.

Let me know and I can whip something up.

SaturnX

@treasurefingers

Here's a quick how-to guide for Singe that I've pieced together from various posts and people - this worked smoothly on my Pi4 setup, but I don't any reason it wouldn't work on a Pi3.

Overview of the Steps:

Download/Install Dependencies
Download/Compile/Install Singe
Create Symbolic Links (symlinks) for easier game/controls management
Copy Game Data
Modify EmulationStation to show Singe launch entries under Daphne

Prerequisites:

Daphne installed (and functioning correctly) on your RetroPie installation
Comfort with terminal / command-line interfaces

Step 1: SSH Into your Pi OR exit to terminal from Emulation Station (F4)

Step 2: Dependencies

Dependencies are listed in the ReadMe on @DirtBagXon's Repo: https://github.com/DirtBagXon/singe/blob/master/README.md

On a clean install of RetroPie 4.7.1, I found only two additional dependencies needed to be installed, libsdl-image1.2-dev and libsdl-ttf2.0-dev

You can confirm what packages you have installed by running the following:

dpkg-query -f '${binary:Package}\n' -W

Then run the following command to install the necessary dependencies:

sudo apt-get install libsdl-image1.2-dev libsdl-ttf2.0-dev

Alternatively, if you want to install or ensure you have all the necessary dependencies, use the following command:

sudo apt-get install  libasound2-dev libcaca-dev libglew-dev libglib2.0-dev libogg-dev libpcre3-dev libpcre32-3 libpng-dev libpng-tools libpulse-dev libsdl-image1.2-dev libsdl-ttf2.0-dev libsdl1.2-dev libslang2-dev libvorbis-dev libxi-dev pkg-config

Step 3: Download Source

NOTE: For consistency with the RetroPie file structure, the instructions will install the Singe emulator binaries into /opt/retropie/emulators/

Download source from @DirtBagXon's repo:

cd /opt/retropie/emulators/
sudo git clone https://github.com/DirtBagXon/singe.git singe

Step 4: Compile and Install

Next steps are to compile and install Singe, assuming you are already in directory /opt/retropie/emulators

cd singe/src/vldp2
sudo ./configure --disable-accel-detect
sudo make -f Makefile.linux
cd ../game/singe
sudo make -f Makefile.linux
cd ../..
sudo make
cd ..

All should have gone smoothly and you’ll now have Singe installed into /opt/retropie/emulators/singe

Step 5: Creating Symlinks

This comes from my personal preference, and I suggest the following so that you can easily manage your games / configs via network shares and keeps the file structure intact.

As designed, Singe expects game data to be located /home/pi/.daphne/singe/ along with resources and your controller configuration singeinput.ini

My preference and the steps outlined below will result in the following:

Game Data Stored in: /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/daphne/singe/[game]
Controller Config located in: /opt/retropie/configs/daphne/singeinput.ini

NOTE: The following assumes you’ve already installed Daphne and therefore already have your controls configured in /opt/retropie/configs/daphne/dapinput.ini

Create required directories and copy control input over from Daphne:

mkdir -p /home/pi/.daphne/
mkdir -p /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/daphne/singe
cp /opt/retropie/configs/daphne/dapinput.ini /opt/retropie/configs/daphne/singeinput.ini

Create Symlinks:

sudo ln -s /opt/retropie/emulators/singe/pics /home/pi/.daphne/pics
sudo ln -s /opt/retropie/emulators/singe/sound /home/pi/.daphne/sound
sudo ln -s /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/daphne/singe /home/pi/.daphne/singe
sudo ln -s /opt/retropie/configs/daphne/singeinput.ini /home/pi/.daphne/singeinput.ini

Step 6: Copy Game Data
Game data should be copied into /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/daphne/singe/ within a sub-directory name matching the game title.

The primary .singe and .txt framefiles should also match this naming convention within the game sub-directory:

/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/daphne/singe/timegal/timegal.singe
/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/daphne/singe/timegal/timegal.txt

Step 7: Modify EmulationStation to launch script files for Daphne/Singe

Since starting a Singe title is done through calling ./run.sh script, a quick modification is required in EmulationStation so you can call script files (.sh) from ES.

sudo nano /etc/emulationstation/es_systems.cfg

Find daphne and add .sh and .SH under the <extension> field.

Save the file and quit nano.

NOTE: Also check for the existence of es_systems.cfg in /opt/retropie/configs/all/emulationstation and update the extensions for Daphne as well as per above.

Step 8: Create Launch Scripts for Singe Games

Now that you’ve got everything set up, you just need to create the launch script for your Singe titles to be launched from ES.

Using Time Gal as an example:

Create a file called +Start Timegal.sh in /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/daphne/
Place the following in that file:

cd /opt/retropie/emulators/singe
./run.sh timegal

Step 9: Restart EmulationStation and Enjoy Singe!

That’s all there is to it!

Just restart EmulationStation / reboot your Pi and now you should have an entry under Daphne for the new Singe title (you can edit the metadata through ES to change the title).

Let me know if you have any issues with the above, I’ve put together most of the above from memory, so I hope I didn’t miss anything, but if anyone comes across any errors, let me know.

Enjoy!

DirtBagXon

@saturnx said in (REQUEST) Add Daphne Singe emulator?:

@treasurefingers

Here's a quick how-to guide for Singe that I've pieced together from various posts and people - this worked smoothly on my Pi4 setup, but I don't any reason it wouldn't work on a Pi3.

Great work there @SaturnX , this post should be pinned if that's possible in this forum...