Arcade LaserDisc emulators
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| |
| 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
- Main article: Arcade emulators#Emulators
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.
- Hypseus Singe is an SDL2 update to the DAPHNE emulator engine. It also includes support for SINGE simulation. Hypseus is essentially the Daphne codebase, so will run original ROM sets to give authentic emulation of Daphne supported games. There are features added to Daphne that allow display enhancements, in SDL2, over the original version. These allow it to support enhanced 4k MPEG-2 video in all games and support multiple screens to mimic the original hardware scoreboard for instance. Support for integrated bezels, hot-pluggable GameControllers, better lightgun integration and, with the 32bit upgrade on the VLDP, support for the full range on Singe 2 games (previously Singe 2 video length could cause issues). Hypseus now also runs a full 32bit overlay on all Singe games, this can be reverted (as per original Daphne Singe 1) to an 8-bit overlay via command line arguments. The diversity of overlays allows Hypseus to run Singe games which are far less resource intensive on SBCs, such as the Raspberry Pi and its kin. This also, in certain users eyes, provides a more authentic Retro look to the games over the modern 32bit versions. Singe 2 and Hypseus Singe are aimed at different audiences both in hardware and aesthetics... Gameplay, in both, is identical.
- MAME (as of 0.242) now has support for seven LaserDisc games and three that DAPHNE doesn't support; Cube Quest, Firefox, and Time Traveler (only playable on the Singe version of Daphne). The reason MAME doesn't emulate many LaserDisc-based systems, is largely due to indecisions regarding the disc preservation method and format. This will hopefully be fixed in the future thanks to the Domesday86 project 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 | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Quarterhorse | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| 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 0.242 and DAPHNE 1.0.12.
* Ports: for a list of what systems the games have been ported to check this link.
