Dragon's Lair -- what to get

[Wackychimp1]

Ok so as I start down the path to build a MAME cabinet I think that I want to include Daphne too.  What's the best source for the movies required?  

I'm over at Digital Leisure right now looking at: Dragon's Lair Deluxe Pack or Dragon's Lair PC DVD-ROM but don't know which is best for Daphne.  Any thoughts?

(oh BTW I'm headed toward an 1.5Mhz machine running Win2K in case that matters)  

Thanks!

[Malenko]

if by the deluxe pack the 3 CD roms verions they dont work with Daphne (I know i have them) but the DVDs are what you need (I have DLII and plan to get the rest later).

[Frostillicus]

You could go with an actual laserdisc , which is what I did -  I got the new reproduction disc since it has 'lost' footage.  check this out - http://www.hi-techmechanical.com/DLRepro.htm

I know it's unecessary these days, but I prefer to use a laserdisc player hooked up to daphne to run DL.  It's gonna rock in my cabinet, which will use a TV for easy input switching.  Plus I found some cheap LD players at the local university surplus($30 bucks for 2 working pioneer LD-v8000's!)

Anyway, if you go with digital leisure, get the PC DVD ROM, not the Xbox and console DVD ones.  Apparently the DVD ROMS are more compatible with mpeg ripping or something.  

[wackychimp]

So will ANY LD player work or do I need a specific one?  I'm wanting to keep this as simple as possible so I may just stick with a PC driven version using MPEGs.  I'd rather not have to worry about a lot of switching inputs, etc.

[Howard_Casto]

Unless your going to be collecting the orignal pcbs a laser disc player is definately NOT the way to go.  Only dragon's lair and space ace will display properly when using daphne and a laserdisc player.  All the other emulated laser disc games only run right with mpeg rips.  Now if all you want to play is dragon's lair (lamer ) then a laserdisc would work fine.  And yes indeed only certain one's work... go to the daphne homepage or the dragon's liar project for more info.  

[Dave Dribin]

Anyway, if you go with digital leisure, get the PC DVD ROM, not the Xbox and console DVD ones.  Apparently the DVD ROMS are more compatible with mpeg ripping or something.  

Yes, go with the DVD-ROMs.  I think the regular DVDs are missing some video clips that Daphne needs or they're necrypted.

-Dave

[Jakobud]

I am running Daphne on my cabinet.  You need the DVD ROMS.  THe DVD Video discs or the PS2 DVD's or XBOX DVD versions will NOT work.  Your best bet is to buy the triple DVD pack from DIg Leis.  (DL, DL2 and SA).  Daphne currently doesn't support DL2 yet, but there is some someone has some sort of driver written roughly for it so it should support it soon.  Then just find a program called DVD2Daphne.  Download it and run it with DL or SA in your DVD Drive.  It will do a whole bunch of stuff and within about 15 minutes you will have all your mpegs and ogg files on your harddrive ready for Daphne.  This is what I did and it works VERY well.  I personally wouldn't go through all the trouble to find a DL or SA laserdisc and a laserdisc player and stuff and try to manually capture the video feed and stuff.  That would be a huge pain.  DVD2Daphne was a one click operation for the whole thing.  As for all the other Laserdisc video games that Daphne supports, well...there are not any DVD's of them.  Only laserdiscs.. ..You 'can' find the MPEGS if you look in the right place(s).....

jakobud

[Keith O]

The problem with the mpeg rips I've seen is that they are horribly bad. They are usually poorly captured and have major compression artifacts. The DVD's of DL and SA however, are pretty decent captures - you probably won't be able to tell the difference on a TV or arcade monitor.

[Howard_Casto]

You must be getting your rips from the wrong place.  Also realize that rips of the other games are NEVER going to be as good a quality as sa or dl as these two can be ripped digitally from the dvd and the others must be captured via a capture card from a most likely very aged laser disc player.  

Not to mention the fact that these laserdiscs are next to impossible to find now.

[Keith O]

They're the same rips everyone else is getting. However, rips from the laserdiscs can be better than the DVD. DVD, as good as it is, is still a compressed format. I have both the laserdiscs (DL and SA) and DVD's, and I can say for certainty that the laserdiscs are better quality. Regardless of the age of the laserdisc player (they're still made), many are s-video and a very clean signal can be captured with great quality. An exception to this may be Cliff Hanger, where the quality of the laserdisc footage is pretty bad to begin with.

[Frostillicus]

Unless your going to be collecting the orignal pcbs a laser disc player is definately NOT the way to go.  Only dragon's lair and space ace will display properly when using daphne and a laserdisc player.  All the other emulated laser disc games only run right with mpeg rips.  

Why wouldn't you want a real LD player in your cab? Daphne uses LD players - I think it's a good idea if you want to run those few games without overlays.  You need the original discs anyways to make rips(legally), so why not use the player for those few games, too? Not only does it cut down on HDD space but the computer doesn't have to be very fast, too.

Now if all you want to play is dragon's lair (lamer ) then a laserdisc would work fine.  And yes indeed only certain one's work... go to the daphne homepage or the dragon's liar project for more info.  

What's wrong with just playing Dragon's Lair? If that's all you like, then that's all you like.  I don't think it's lame.

[Jakobud]

Frosti

I why would you want to have a Laser Disc player in your cabinet when you can just do it all off of MPEGs from your hard drive ? No switching big laserdiscs or anything like that....

And legally, you dont need the Laser Disc.  You just need some purchasable form of the media, like DVD (for those that are available on DVD).  I bought Dragon's Lair I and II and Space Ace DVD's from Digital Leisure and ripped the MPEGs and have them in my cabinet.  That sounds perfectly legal to me.  I don't even use the DVD's. I just store them.

Jakobud

[Frostillicus]

And legally, you dont need the Laser Disc.  You just need some purchasable form of the media, like DVD (for those that are available on DVD).  I bought Dragon's Lair I and II and Space Ace DVD's from Digital Leisure and ripped the MPEGs and have them in my cabinet.  That sounds perfectly legal to me.  I don't even use the DVD's. I just store them.

You're absolutely right.  But I was talking about the other games that daphne plays, like Thayer's Quest and Cobra Command which don't have a DVD equivalent, just the original LD.  I myself bought the Digital Leisure 3-pack, too, and those will end up sitting on my shelf after I use the MPEGS off of them.