RetroArch Daphne HypseusHW Core: Data Layout, Content Types and Controls

Arcade (Daphne HypseusHW) is a RetroArch core for laserdisc arcade games such as Dragon's Lair, Space Ace and Cliff Hanger. It is built on Hypseus Singe, the maintained fork of Matt Ownby's Daphne, and reads the same data as daphne.exe: the game ROMs plus laserdisc video and audio with a framefile. It also runs Singe 1 and Singe 2 games. This guide summarizes the official core documentation; it has not been hands-on tested.

Prerequisites

Three things must be in place before the core will run anything. First, the device must be 64-bit: Windows x64, Linux x64 or Android arm64, because the core itself is 64-bit. Second, the game data must sit in Daphne's folder layout (framefile/, roms/, vldp/). Third, if you plan to play Full-HD Singe 2 video decoded on the CPU — through CPU Fallback, or on Linux — you need a desktop-class CPU; TV boxes instead play it with their hardware decoder.

Game data and file types the core loads

Daphne games need the game ROMs together with the laserdisc video (.m2v) and audio (.ogg) plus a framefile. Singe 2 games use an MP4 video file, which the core plays as it is. Recognizing the right content file is the decision that tells the core which kind of game it is loading.

• The core recognizes three content file types:
• - .txt — a framefile stored as framefile/<game>.txt
• - .zip — a game's ROMs stored as roms/<game>.zip
• - .bat — a RocketLauncher Daphne Batch file that runs daphne.exe or Singe.exe; Singe 1 and Singe 2 games play from these

Directories the core uses

The core keeps runtime data in three folders. daphne/ram/ holds NVRAM for Daphne games (<game>.gz) and the files Singe games write. daphne/cache/ holds frame indexes the core builds for video files without a usable .dat, along with the framefiles it writes for Singe 2 games. daphne/assets/ holds the engine's images and sounds, unpacked on first use. Two optional folders, daphne/pics/ and daphne/sound/, can replace the built-in images and sounds, so custom art and audio are a choice you can make without touching the core itself.

Video and audio characteristics

The core reports 59.94 FPS and a 44100 Hz sample rate. Base resolution is the game's own — 640x480 before a game starts — while maximum resolution is 1920x1080. The aspect ratio follows the game's video aspect, either 4:3 or 16:9, so laserdisc-era 4:3 titles and 16:9 Singe 2 titles each display with the correct framing.

Controls

The core accepts three input devices: RetroPad (joypad), Lightgun and Mouse. The Lightgun and Mouse devices are intended for Singe gun games, which is the main reason to choose between them at setup: a pad suits Dragon's Lair-style action games, while a gun or mouse suits the shooting titles. Controls and remapping are both supported, so either mapping can be adjusted per game.

Supported and unsupported features

Supported: Restart, Saves, Core Options, Controls and Remapping. Not supported: save states, Rewind, Netplay, RetroAchievements, RetroArch and native cheats, Multi-Mouse, Rumble, Sensors, Camera, Location, Subsystem, Softpatching, Disk Control, Username, Language, Crop Overscan and LEDs. In practice this means progress has to be carried by in-game saves and NVRAM rather than save states, and there is no rewind buffer to lean on.

Games the core plays

Among the Daphne games Hypseus Singe supports are Dragon's Lair, Space Ace, Cliff Hanger, Thayer's Quest, Super Don Quix-ote, Astron Belt, Galaxy Ranger, Badlands, Bega's Battle, Cobra Command, Road Blaster, Esh's Aurunmilla, GP World, Interstellar, MACH 3 and Us vs Them. This is not an exhaustive list, and no independent compatibility testing is reported.