MAMEWorld Forums - EmuChat - The current status of Laserdisc games in MAME *DELETED*

Threads like these pretty much destroy the motivation that I have to continue to look into it. None of you seem to have any appreciation for the concept of "too many cooks in the kitchen", and for such long-time fans of MAME, you seem to have utterly lost sight of the decades-long quote: "Just sit back and wait for cool things to happen."

At least as far as people dumping discs in the USA, I'm in contact with nearly all of them and am coordinating what needs to be coordinated. Outside of that circle, there's the occasional trustworthy person who has reached out for additional information before going on a dumping run, because they're responsible and can do their homework. But I can't emphasize enough just how completely not turn-key the LDF capturing process is.

You need to be able to calibrate a player - meaning you'll usually need to source a calibration disc.

That player needs to be of a type amenable to hooking up a Domesday Duplicator.

You need the ability to tap the appropriate takeoff points for the Domesday Duplicator.

You need to babysit the player as it's capturing: If you start getting "disc skip detected" messages, the capture is instantly unusable. The disc might either need to be polished so that it can run through without skips, or it might be too far gone already.

If you need to polish the disc, you'll need to follow the information available on the Domesday86 website, because most information out there stands a better chance of damaging the disc than doing anything useful. Simon, over on Domesday86, did actual trial runs of various methods, verifying results under a microscope, rather than just guessing as so many people do.

The process of going from one LDF (or a stack of them) to an AVI that MAME can use is relatively straightforward, but has some improvements that can be made - and will need to be made for discs with EFM tracks - so I've specifically gone out of my way to only hand instructions to people who I trust know what they're doing, because the process isn't 100% ready yet outside the hands of skilled and experienced people.

It wasn't like this a couple years ago, but it seems like the uptick in Laserdisc games being added to MAME has caused everyone to lose their minds, and I'm tired of it. I have more than enough to do when it comes to MAME without being borderline harassed for more info.

You act like having a comprehensive list of what discs are captured and what discs aren't is going to be a good thing, but it would be the opposite of that. If you're capable of dumping discs, then that means you're just as capable as I was, and am, of going and finding the info myself, and finding the relevant groups to be part of in order to contribute, and find out what to contribute. All a public list would do is motivate even more people to harangue me about what LD titles to do next.

Calm down, leave me alone, and resume waiting for cool things to happen, because you're not getting anything done any faster.