I managed to get the Daphne emulator running Dragon's Lair using the HD DVD game re-encoded video and it looks incredible on a big screen TV. I set up a button in my media library menu that opens it directly using a script.

#!/bin/bash
# Dragon's Lair HD script for daphne
$HOME/daphne/daphne lair vldp -framefile $HOME/daphne /dlhd/lair_HD.txt -fullscreen -opengl -noserversend


Now I want to try and use the remote to make it even more fun. Daphne doesn't have remote support so I need to use irexec for the remote control through lirc. So far however I haven't been able to get it working. If I start my script as
irexec lair.sh
it runs but I get no response from the remote.
I'm using this configuration in .lircrc

##
# Dragon's Lair
# Running under ircexec
# Using Daphne Emulator
##

# UP
begin
prog = irexec
button = UP
config = xmacroplay-keys :0 UP
end

# DOWN
begin
prog = irexec
button = DOWN
config = xmacroplay-keys :0 DOWN
end

# LEFT
begin
prog = irexec
button = LEFT
config = xmacroplay-keys :0 LEFT
end

# RIGHT
begin
prog = irexec
button = RIGHT
config = xmacroplay-keys :0 RIGHT
end

# Sword (Spacebar)
begin
prog = irexec
button = OK
config = xmacroplay-keys :0 SPACE
end

# Insert Coin (6)
begin
prog = irexec
button = Six
config = xmacroplay-keys :0 6
end

# 1 Player Start (1)
begin
prog = irexec
button = One
config = xmacroplay-keys :0 1
end

# 2 Player Start (2)
begin
prog = irexec
button = Two
config = xmacroplay-keys :0 2
end

# Exit Game (ESC)
begin
prog = irexec
button = back
config = xmacroplay-keys :0 Escape

##
# End of Dragon's Lair
##

I did get it to work. Finally figured out you have to start irexec first, then run daphne, then kill irexec. I was running
irexec lair.sh
but that was actually killing irexec when it checked lair.sh and didn't find it a valid config file. so my script turned out to be
#!/bin/bash
# lair.sh - start irexec and run dragon's lair using Daphne
irexec /home/mythtv/.lircrc &
$HOME/daphne/daphne lair vldp -framefile $HOME/daphne/dlhd/lair_HD.txt -fullscreen -opengl -noserversend \
-blank_searches -homedir $HOME/.daphne -bank 0 11001000 -bank 1 00100111 -latency 300 -sound_buffer 2048
killall irexec


The key presses are read on the remote and sent to Daphne, but not reliably. I frequently have to press repeatedly or hold the key down and more often than not I just die because the move is never registered. The key press shows up instantaneously on the console screen, just doesn't seem to translate to Daphne quick enough.