MAME 0.78 Sound Samples

[Drakkorcia]

I have been running MAME games in Retropie (MAME 2003) with samples and noticed the sounds are not accurate in games like Donkey Kong. My desktop versions of MAME sound like the arcade. Would anyone be able to confirm that this is an issue with the older MAME version? I don't want to try sorting out an issue that can't be resolved.

[spycat]

If your build of MAME is 0.116 or newer, then the dkong.zip sound samples file is no longer needed.
As of MAME 0.116 Donkey Kong uses discrete sound emulation, and the sound samples if present will be ignored by MAME.
With an older build such as MAME 0.078, Donkey Kong needs a sound samples file. See link.

http://samples.mameworld.info/

When you go to the linked site, select Older Samples.

Edited October 18, 2019 by spycat
corrected link

[Drakkorcia]

Yes, I'm aware the samples are no longer needed. I just can't remember as far back as 0.78 and if the sound samples are supposed to sound off. In my experience the samples are the samples and should sound like the arcade.

[Drakkorcia]

I determined that the Raspberry Pi is underpowered, Retropie/Emulation Station uses antiquated versions of MAME, thus the performance and emulation accuracy are mediocre at best. I put the Pi on a television in my house where it can happily run movies and put a PC in my arcade cabinet where it happily runs a newer version of MAME and any currently working rom or CHD.

[Headrush69]

On 10/19/2019 at 2:47 AM, Drakkorcia said:

Yes, I'm aware the samples are no longer needed. I just can't remember as far back as 0.78 and if the sound samples are supposed to sound off. In my experience the samples are the samples and should sound like the arcade.

It also varied based on the samples you used. There were several improved samples from Twisty I believe that sounded better.

[Drakkorcia]

I used the newest. 

[Headrush69]

53 minutes ago, Drakkorcia said:

I used the newest. 

The current samples will be missing some of the older samples you need for older versions of MAME.

For example, you may have set qbert, but within that zip file, older versions have more files. Best to stick with sets that match your version.

[Drakkorcia]

The issue was never missing samples. It was Mario's run sounds on Donkey Kong being slightly off from the original. 

[Headrush69]

3 hours ago, Drakkorcia said:

The issue was never missing samples. It was Mario's run sounds on Donkey Kong being slightly off from the original. 

All you can do is try a different set or modify the audio yourself if it's something simple like pitch or tempo.