Darius Multi-Screen Setup at Home

[tz101]

For anyone who remembers the space shooter called Darius at the arcades in the late 80s, it was the most amazing thing ever. It was displayed on three screens arranged in a horizontal manner and the space ships seamlessly crossed from monitor to monitor with no margins or borders in between. While this is probably next to impossible to duplicate on a console setup, it is probable on a PC with dual-monitor output, played on a MAME emulator. Anyone with any knowledge of this being done. Does MAME support spreading games across multiple monitors?

 

If someone were to pull this off, it would be truly awesome.

[Video]

I don't know if it has been done, but I"m sure it can be. That's some pretty custom computer stuff for te 80's though.

 

That would be pretty cool though, maybe you could use some of those USB screens or something?

[Austin]

MAME emulates all three screens but slaps them together as one large playfield. I bet it would be possible (maybe even fairly easy) to do it. Is it possible though for PCs to utilize more than two monitors for a single computer (Such as stretching the desktop to three screens)?

 

For the record, the six-player version of X-Men also used multiple screens in the arcade.. It would be cool to see that emulated properly as well (If it hasn't been done, anyway).

Edited June 13, 2010 by Austin

[onmode-ky]

For anyone who remembers the space shooter called Darius at the arcades in the late 80s, it was the most amazing thing ever. It was displayed on three screens arranged in a horizontal manner and the space ships seamlessly crossed from monitor to monitor with no margins or borders in between. While this is probably next to impossible to duplicate on a console setup, it is probable on a PC with dual-monitor output, played on a MAME emulator. Anyone with any knowledge of this being done. Does MAME support spreading games across multiple monitors?If someone were to pull this off, it would be truly awesome.

 

A few months ago, probably when I was fired up by the then new announcement of DariusBurst, I found this impressive clip:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-77wzXOKtZ0

 

Well, the setup is impressive, not the player.

 

Incidentally, DariusBurst, which I ended up importing on UMD after giving up hope of its localization, is a lot of fun. Not as impressive as G-Darius, but a worthy addition to the series in its own right. I'll definitely repurchase it when it does arrive in the US (ESRB has rated it already). The music got another import out of me, too. Speaking of which, in the game's Mission Mode, for missions where you're piloting the original Silver Hawk, it switches to music from the first Darius game.

 

As for the original Darius, I never saw it in the arcades myself, nor have I ever seen any of the home ports of the time first-hand. It's been ported to cell phones multiple times, apparently, and I once watched some guy on YouTube play through the entire game on the Darius Wide cell phone variant (for widescreen phones). He was helped by the game's difficulty being eased a bit in the port job, but it was still quite something to see.

 

Is it possible though for PCs to utilize more than two monitors for a single computer (Such as stretching the desktop to three screens)?

 

I used to work at a place where every workstation had four monitors, so sure. The video driver allowed them to be arranged however you wanted (i.e., not necessarily reflecting the actual physical arrangement of the monitors, so that you could end up with the mouse cursor warping from the rightmost monitor to the leftmost, if you wanted).

 

onmode-ky

 

P.S. I noted this in another post a while back, but it was off-topic at the time: most people may not be aware that the correct pronunciation of "Darius" as the arcade game title is actually "da-rai-as," with the middle syllable rhyming with "eye." The title's katakana representation is different from that given to the Persian name, even though the English spellings are the same. So, "grah-dii-us" and "da-rai-as" don't have the same vowel sounds.

[carmel_andrews]

it's a shame that the darius games that followed darius were mostly single screen

 

it's a shame that the various console versions of darius aren't as good as the coin op version they were fashioned from, prefering instead fullscreen playfield instead of the widescreen effect of the coin op version

[DickNixonArisen]

My friend has his home PC display spread across two monitors. Does a ROM of this darius exist and work in MAME already? and if so, does it just cram the display into one long panoramic box? If so, you're in pretty good shape. Should be doable.

[Austin]

My friend has his home PC display spread across two monitors. Does a ROM of this darius exist and work in MAME already? and if so, does it just cram the display into one long panoramic box? If so, you're in pretty good shape. Should be doable.

 

Yep, it exists alright. If you have one monitor, it displays exactly as you described above. It's actually quite difficult to play like that because in order to fit three screens worth of action on to one monitor, the playfield has to be shrunk to the point where it's hard to see what's happening.

 

Did a quick search on Google, and guess what? It looks like it's been done!

 

Thread here.. I don't think there's an explanation on exactly *how* he did it, though (Options within MAME is what I'm wondering about most, not so much the three screen hardware setup itself): http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=22529&start=5

Edited June 13, 2010 by Austin

[tz101]

A few months ago, probably when I was fired up by the then new announcement of DariusBurst, I found this impressive clip:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-77wzXOKtZ0

 

Well, the setup is impressive, not the player.

 

That is sweet. Exactly what I am talking about. Would be just like the arcade if you could do away with the side margins on the LCD monitors. Where do you get video cards that allow for triple monitor hookup?

[Austin]

That is sweet. Exactly what I am talking about. Would be just like the arcade if you could do away with the side margins on the LCD monitors.

 

Haha, that's exactly what I was thinking..

 

Where do you get video cards that allow for triple monitor hookup?

 

The only thing I can think of is maybe SLI/Xfiring two video cards? I don't know.. I'm not too experienced in that realm (just using one monitor here myself.. I could use a second, for sure, but I don't have the room). Maybe someone else can explain how it's done? I'm curious.

Edited June 13, 2010 by Austin

[Video]

Well, most video cards will support two monitors (even cheap ones) and lots of computers will support multiple video cards. I know you can run at least four monitors on one computer, I've done that. But....I've never done it with a single program running on all screens at once. I see no reason it can't be done though.

[DickNixonArisen]

How about SMB3 on a monstrous wall of TV's? And then Jenny Lewis would come and hold my hand, and her band would play while I won the championship.

[onmode-ky]

I read about this recently, and even though it's not for the home, it is multi-screen, and it is a Darius game:

 

http://www.siliconera.com/2010/07/30/dariusburst-another-chronicle-brings-super-wide-screen-cabinets-back-to-arcades/

 

That's the widest video game screen in quite a few years, I think. It's made up of twin 32-inch widescreen monitors, a 32:9 aspect ratio, which is not quite the 4:1 aspect ratio from the original Darius' 3-screen setup. I believe the border between the monitors is removed via mirroring. Accompanied by "body sonic" seating for 4 players, red cockpit lights that flash when bosses arrive, as well as headphone jacks to pump Zuntata sound straight into your head, this is one arcade cabinet that doesn't just demand your attention; it tears it out of your soul. And, um, feeds it to the giant mechanical marine life.

 

This link has lots of screen caps (as well as a lot of Japanese text describing the game and its many significant differences from the PSP title on which it is based):

 

http://game.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/news/20100807_386297.html

 

Location testing was done on August 7th and 8th. Around 200 people reportedly lined up in anticipation of the event. Here is some footage of a guy playing:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzLsmL5G9DY

 

onmode-ky

[Seob]

Check this http://daggle.com/my-multimonitor-setup-three-screens-for-one-computer-76

To use a three setup u have a few options. First fit 2 videocards with dual display connectors in a pc, buy a Matrox TripleHead2Go, or use a single ati card that supports Eyefinity even up to 6 screens.

http://www.amd.com/uk/products/technologies/eyefinity/Pages/eyefinity.aspx

Edited August 20, 2010 by Seob