> > OK, let me pose this question in relation to the above: does this mean that MAME > > should also emulate the laserdisc players in their entirety for the games that used > > them? Digitised disc data could be fed to a virtual laser pickup, the VBI decoded > > within the LD player virtual machine, and the appropriate frame data fed from the > > virtual player's video output to MAME's framebuffer for display. > > Yes it should. And it should output the composite video so we can decode it in a > programmable shader and provide a set of dynamic picture controls like you'd get with > a real system.
In my mind, the final "laserdisc dump" format should contain enough information that if someone had the ability to master a new laserdisc, that it would contain all the information required to do just that and result in a reasonable duplicate without significant data loss, understanding that with the number of analog-digital and digital-analog transitions we've been discussing here, wouldn't be exactly the same.
Also, because we also have console systems to worry about, that whatever format we develop would also work fine for all the various usages of laserdisc in console videogame and computer systems, both in entertainment, edutainment and productivity.
And eventually have enough bells and whistles that if, say, someone from various laserdisc movie collecting societies wanted to use our format and the dumping hardware and software solution created to preserve their rare discs, that it could do that.
It may take us several iterations to get there, but it's pointless to limit it to just what arcade needs simply because that's what concerns us right now.
And yes, virtual laserdisc players - in all their various models - is generally the end goal. We already load several player ROMs in MAME, eventually we'll model their video and audio processing as well.