2024-08-17
The Dream Emulator in OpenBSD
LSD Dream Emulator is a japanese video game released in 1998 for the first Playstation console. In it the player explores their dreams for 365 days. Interacting with objects (and walls) in the dreams influences the dreamscape and creates a unique experience for every playthrough. This is a brief guide how to get the game running in OpenBSD using mednafen, the multi-platform emulator.
For the purpose of this guide, I will be using publicly available version of the game and PS1 BIOS on archive.org. The following commands install mednafen, p7zip (to unzip the game files) and download the necessary PS1 BIOS into ~/.mednafen/firmware. And finally running the game by supplying a path to the .cue file to mednafen.
# pkg_add mednafen p7zip $ mkdir -p ~/.mednafen/firmware $ cd ~/.mednafen/firmware $ ftp https://archive.org/download/PlayStationBIOSFilesNAEUJP/scph5500.bin $ cd $ ftp https://archive.org/download/lsd-dream-emulator/LSD%20-%20Dream%20Emulator%20%28English%20v1%29.7z $ 7z x LSD%20-%20Dream%20Emulator%20%28English%20v1%29.7z $ cd LSD\ -\ Dream\ Emulator\ \(English\ v1\)/ $ mednafen LSD\ -\ Dream\ Emulator\ \(English\ v1\).cue
mednafen can emulate a plethora of consoles and devices, but this is specifically using the PS1 emulator. [mednafen.github.io] PS1 emulation documentation
These are the default controls. If you do not have a keyboard with a keypad, you can rebind the controls by pressing ALT+SHIFT+1 to interactively change them (persistent). For most keys you will be prompted twice, just press the desired key again. If you have a gamepad, it might work out of the box, but I have not tested it. Other mednafen options can be viewed with F1.
Key: | Emulated Button: W | Up S | Down A | Left D | Right Tab | SELECT Enter | START Keypad 8 | TRIANGLE Keypad 2 | X Keypad 4 | SQUARE Keypad 6 | O Keypad 1 | L1 Keypad 7 | L2 Keypad 3 | R1 Keypad 9 | R2
Up, Down, Left, Right to walk and turn. TRIANGLE to look up, X to run, SQUARE to look down, O to interact. The shoulder buttons are used for looking behind and strafing.
Just walk around and touch things. You can save the game after waking up. Keep in mind the menu options are selected with the `O' button.