General Information

- What is DAPHNE?
- How can I play laserdisc games on my PC?
- What is the purpose of DAPHNE?
- I asked a question and received a rude response. Why?
- Ok. I don't want to get flamed but I really need to get my question answered! What should I do?
- Does DAPHNE support such-and-such a game?
- Where can I get the ROM images for these games?
- I found some ROM images but they are way too small to possibly be what I'm looking for. Where are the real ROM images?
- What's the slowest computer that DAPHNE will run on?
- Does DAPHNE work with any LaserActive games?
- Does DAPHNE support the European version of Dragon's Lair?
- MPEG vs real laserdisc. Which one should I choose?
- Has anyone thought about building a DAPHNE cabinet?

General Problems

- DAPHNE can't control the parallel port for use with my real Dragon's Lair scoreboard. What's wrong?
- When I try to click "Configure" in the DaphneLoader, I get some error about comdlg32.ocx . How do I fix it?
- I can't get the keyboard LED's to work with Space Ace.
- Why doesn't DAPHNE play the drawbridge scene in Dragon's Lair? And why does it play random scenes? DAPHNE does not behave like my PC version of Dragon's Lair.
- Can I remap the keys that DAPHNE uses?

MPEG2/MPEG1 Questions/Problems

- Does DAPHNE support mpeg2, mpeg1, etc?
- I am getting a VLDP.DLL invalid instruction error! What is causing this?
- My ATI card gives me a screen full of diagonal garbage when I try to use DAPHNE with hardware acceleration.
- MPEG playback in DAPHNE is very jerky. I've read your 'improving performance' document and done everything except upgraded my Win9x install. What could the problem possibly be?
- I hear clicks in the audio. What can I do?
- I am unsatisfied with mpeg performance in DAPHNE. How can I improve performance?
- I am getting messages about my audio being too far behind. How can I stop this?
- The laserdisc video looks okay, but the video overlay on top of it looks garbled.
- Can I use an mpeg2 decoder card (such as a Realmagic Hollywood Plus) with DAPHNE?

Laserdisc Questions/Problems

- Which laserdisc players are supported by DAPHNE?
- Help! I am trying to play a game with video overlay. The video from the ROM is on my PC monitor but the video from the laserdisc is on my TV. How do I fix this?
- Can I use a PAL Dragon's Lair or a PAL Space Ace disc with DAPHNE instead of the NTSC discs?
- Can I use a Space Ace '91 disc with DAPHNE?
- Can I use a Software Corner Dragon's Lair or Space Ace disc with DAPHNE?
- Can I use an LD-V1000 or PR-7820 player with DAPHNE?

The Future

- Are you going to emulate any other laserdisc games?
- I really want to help with DAPHNE but I can't program at all. What can I do?
- I've got an awesome idea for something to add to DAPHNE. Why don't you add it?

Q: What is DAPHNE?

A: DAPHNE is a program which lets one play the arcade versions of many laserdisc games on one's PC.

Q: How can I play laserdisc games on my PC?

A: You use DAPHNE.

Q: What is the purpose of DAPHNE?

A: The purpose of DAPHNE is a) to allow the DAPHNE developers to enjoy the laserdisc games from their childhood and b) to preserve those laserdisc games that the developers feel are worth preserving. In other words, it's for the developers. The fact that the general public also enjoys DAPHNE is a nice side effect.

Q: I asked a question and received a rude response. Why?

A: You probably asked a question that has been asked many times in the past. People will only answer the same question politely for a finite period of time, after which they will become rude and impatient. The best thing to do is make sure you don't ask a Frequently Asked Question :).

Q: Ok. I don't want to get flamed but I really need to get my question answered! What should I do?

A: First of all, if you ask a question without making effort to find the answer, people WILL know and if they are having a bad day, you will probably get flamed. The DAPHNE discussion board has a search feature which is quite handy. I recommend you make use of it to try to find answers to your questions (assuming they are not already answered here in this FAQ!). If you still can't find the answer to your question, post your question to the DAPHNE discussion or email DAPHNE tech support. You are not guaranteed a response in either case, especially if your question is a FAQ.

Q: Does DAPHNE support such-and-such a game?

A: Read the DAPHNE documentation for a complete list.

Q: Where can I get the ROM images for these games?

A: Go to DLP to get your ROM images. And unlike most emulators, DAPHNE requires ROM images _and_ laserdisc content. Most emulators (such as MAME) only require ROM images.

Q: I found some ROM images but they are way too small to possibly be what I'm looking for. Where are the real ROM images?

A: You probably have the real ROM images! Most of the ROM images for laserdisc arcade games are very small (32k for example). The video and audio was stored on a laserdisc. To use DAPHNE, you need both the ROM images _and_ the laserdisc content (video and audio). You can use either a real laserdisc or an mpeg2 to meet this requirement.

Q: What's the slowest computer that DAPHNE will run on?

A: Read the documentation under the system requirements section.

Q: Does DAPHNE work with any LaserActive games?

A: No.

Q: Does DAPHNE support the European version of Dragon's Lair?

A: No.

Q: MPEG vs real laserdisc. Which one should I choose?

A: If you want to play the game, you definitely need to use MPEG because only games without overlay (Dragon's Lair, Space Ace, and Thayer's Quest) can be played correctly using a real disc. You only should get a real disc for the purpose of making an MPEG.

Q: Has anyone thought about building a DAPHNE cabinet?

A: Yes and several people have done so.

Q: DAPHNE can't control the parallel port for use with my real Dragon's Lair scoreboard. What's wrong?

A: To control the parallel port, you either need to use Win 95/98/ME or else use linux and run DAPHNE as root. My recommendation is to use linux since win95/98/ME is not optimal for mpeg2 playback.

Q: When I try to click "Configure" in the DaphneLoader, I get some error about comdlg32.ocx . How do I fix it?

A: Go to the daphne download section and read what it says near the link to download the windows version of DAPHNE.

Q: I can't get the keyboard LED's to work with Space Ace.

A: To use the keyboard LED's, you either need to use DAPHNE with Win2k/XP or else use linux and run DAPHNE as root.

Q: Why doesn't DAPHNE play the drawbridge scene in Dragon's Lair? And why does it play random scenes? DAPHNE does not behave like my PC version of Dragon's Lair.

A: DAPHNE emulates a real Dragon's Lair arcade game, not a PC version. The two are totally different.

Q: Can I remap the keys that DAPHNE uses?

A: Yes.

Q: Does DAPHNE support mpeg2, mpeg1, etc?

A: Yes. DAPHNE supports DVD-compliant mpeg2 streams and also mpeg1. For audio, DAPHNE uses the Ogg Vorbis codec, which is comparable to MP3.

Q: I am getting a VLDP.DLL invalid instruction error! What is causing this?

A: VLDP stands for Virtual Laser Disc Player. It is the code that handles the mpeg2 support. The problem is that you are most likely using a CPU that doesn't support all the 686 instruction set, such as an AMD K6. VLDP is compiled with 686 optimizations enabled, so any non-686 cpu will crash when trying to use it. You need a Pentium 3 or an Athlon to use VLDP.

Q: My ATI card gives me a screen full of diagonal garbage when I try to use DAPHNE with hardware acceleration.

A: This appears to be a bug in ATI's older DirectX drivers (which is what DAPHNE uses). The problem seems to be that a 720x480 hardware overlay will not work. However, a 640x480 overlay WILL work. There are a few solutions. 1 - Resize your mpeg2 video to 640x480, 2 - Use linux, 3 - get a different (nvidia) video card, 4 - don't use hardware acceleration.

Q: MPEG playback in DAPHNE is very jerky. I've read your 'improving performance' document and done everything except upgraded my Win9x install. What could the problem possibly be?

A: The problem is your Win9x install. Win 95/98/ME have lousy threading support which is what causes the jerkiness.

Q: I hear clicks in the audio. What can I do?

A: This seems to be caused by using multiple mpeg/ogg files. The clicks seem to go away when using just one mpeg/ogg file.

Q: I am unsatisfied with mpeg performance in DAPHNE. How can I improve performance?

A: Go to the documentation section and check out my notes on how to improve performance.

Q: I am getting messages about my audio being too far behind. How can I stop this?

A: Unless you are getting a lot of them, I would ignore it. It's really not a big deal. If it's a big problem, check out my improving performance document.

Q: The laserdisc video looks okay, but the video overlay on top of it looks garbled.

A: Your mpeg video is the wrong resolution.

Q: Can I use an mpeg2 decoder card (such as a Realmagic Hollywood Plus) with DAPHNE?

A: No.

Q: Which laserdisc players are supported by DAPHNE?

A: There is a list here.

Q: Help! I am trying to play a game with video overlay. The video from the ROM is on my PC monitor but the video from the laserdisc is on my TV. How do I fix this?

A: You can't. Using mpeg is the only way to have the video overlay work properly.

Q: Can I use a PAL Dragon's Lair or a PAL Space Ace disc with DAPHNE instead of the NTSC discs?

A: Yes.

Q: Can I use a Space Ace '91 disc with DAPHNE?

A: Yes.

Q: Can I use a Software Corner Dragon's Lair or Space Ace disc with DAPHNE?

A: Yes.

Q: Can I use an LD-V1000 or PR-7820 player with DAPHNE?

A: No.

Q: Are you going to emulate any other laserdisc games?

A: Maybe. It depends on whether anyone feels like doing the work.

Q: I really want to help with DAPHNE but I can't program at all. What can I do?

A: You can help answer questions from newbie DAPHNE users and give feedback on how to improve documentation.

Q: I've got an awesome idea for something to add to DAPHNE. Why don't you add it?

A: A better question is, why don't _you_ add it?