Arcade LaserDisc emulators

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Revision as of 15:15, 3 June 2020 by 172.68.24.183 (talk) (Undo revision 33914 by 172.68.24.67 (talk))
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Arcade LaserDisc
Dragons-lair-classic-arcade.jpg
Developer Misc
Type Arcade systems
Release date 1982
Discontinued 1995
Emulated

A LaserDisc video game is an arcade game that uses pre-recorded video (either live-action or animation) played from a LaserDisc. The first LaserDisc video game was Sega's Astron Belt released in 1983. The genre was popularized by Dragon's Lair released shortly after in the same year. The usage of LaserDiscs provided graphics close to an animated or live-action film which was vastly ahead of other arcade games at the time. However, with the drawback of limited interactivity compared to regular arcade games.

Emulators

Name Operating System(s) Latest Version Active Libretro Core Recommended
PC
DAPHNE Windows, Linux, macOS 1.0.12 ~ (WIP)
MAME Multi-platform 0.264

Comparisons

  • DAPHNE is the primary emulator for LaserDisc arcade games. Supports more games than MAME. Use DaphneLoader to update DAPHNE and auto download games. The libretro core currently only works for Android.
  • MAME has support for six LaserDisc games and two that DAPHNE doesn't support; Cube Quest and Firefox. The reason MAME doesn't emulate many LaserDisc-based systems, is largely due to indecisions regarding the disc preservation method and format. This will hopefull be fixed in the future thanks to the Domesday Project 86 which employs a combination of specialized hardware and open-source software to preserve the discs in a far more faithful manner than ever before.

Games

Game DAPHNE MAME Ports*
Astron Belt
Badlands
Bega's Battle
Chantze's Stone
Cliff Hanger
Cobra Command / Thunder Storm
Cosmos Circuit
Crime Patrol
Crime Patrol 2: Drug Wars
Cube Quest
Dragon's Lair
Dragon's Lair II: TimeWarp
Esh's Aurunmilla
Fast Draw Showdown
Firefox
Freedom Fighter
Galaxian 3
Galaxian 3: Attack of the Zolgear
Galaxy Ranger / Star Blazer
GP World
Interstellar Laser Fantasy
The Last Bounty Hunter
M.A.C.H. 3
Mad Dog McCree
Mad Dog II: The Lost Gold
NFL Football
Ninja Hayate
Road Blaster
Space Ace
Space Pirates
Star Rider
Super Don Quix·ote
Thayer's Quest
Time Gal
Time Traveler
Us vs. Them
Who Shot Johnny Rock?
Zorton Brothers

This list is updated as of MAME 0.197 and DAPHNE 1.0.12.

* Ports: for a list of what systems the games have been ported to check this link.