SOLVED: Mame2003 plus Samples not working?

[pocket]

Hi, pretty new to Launchbox. Just upgraded from retropie. It's quite different in some ways but I'm much happier with the performance.

I'm trying to figure out what's going on with sound samples for Mame 20003 plus core in retroarch. I thought I was just not putting them in the right folder or something, while I was writing this out I thought to try it in stand-alone retroarch and they actually work fine, it's when they're launched via Launch Box I just get "Audio sample not found" warnings.  

FYI I don't use stand alone mame because I like shaders and overlays very much, I don't care for the UI of Mame stand-alone, and I specifically like 2003 plus because it has better sound imo, and some games just won't load in other cores, like Berzerk. 

Edited September 11, 2021 by pocket

[faeran]

Hi @pocket. While I've never used MAME 2003 core, you made me curious to do some research on it. Looks like it requires the 0.78 MAME ROM set. So, I got one and went through the process of importing it all and getting it ready. I didn't run into any "Audio sample not found" warnings though.

Which process did you use to import your ROMs into LaunchBox and which games are you seeing that warning?

[pocket]

I just used the regular >tools >import >rom files process.

The games all run fine mostly. ( one or two will not launch. )  The games that give me the warning specifically are Berzerk, Mario Bros., Donkey Kong, and Donkey Kong Junior.

On a side note, I don't get the warning for Space Invaders, which i'm pretty sure uses samples. I do have a space invaders sample folder in the directory samples usually go in. Also I don't have samples for Berzerk because when I ran the game on retropie, it didn't need them, though those other games did.

[ItchyRobot]

On 8/31/2021 at 3:44 PM, pocket said:

Hi, pretty new to Launchbox. Just upgraded from retropie. It's quite different in some ways but I'm much happier with the performance.

I'm trying to figure out what's going on with sound samples for Mame 20003 plus core in retroarch. I thought I was just not putting them in the right folder or something, while I was writing this out I thought to try it in stand-alone retroarch and they actually work fine, it's when they're launched via Launch Box I just get "Audio sample not found" warnings.  

FYI I don't use stand alone mame because I like shaders and overlays very much, I don't care for the UI of Mame stand-alone, and I specifically like 2003 plus because it has better sound imo, and some games just won't load in other cores, like Berzerk. 

I haven't messed with Samples in a long while, since originally setting up my Mame build in launchbox years ago. I use 0.198 just because I am too lazy to update.
Also, I use the default Mame exe, not retroarch for my PC build, so I am not familiar in how Retroarch handles or creates the Mame.ini file.

Though, I too am setting up my Launchbox/Android build on my phone, using Retroarch and specifically the Mame 20003 plus core since it is most compatible with my 0.198 roms. The most up to date Mame/retoarch core had a lot of issues with dual stick shooters like Back Widow and Robotron not shooting at diagonals - the 2003 plus core fixed that issue,

In my PC build, I do remember (maybe) having to set up a samplepath in the Mame.ini file. I would check to see if that can be set somewhere - I would assume Retroarch is creating a Mame.ini file somewhere ... that is the file that you edit on the PC builds to set your rom paths and such... including sample paths.

Edited September 8, 2021 by ItchyRobot
PUNCTUATION

[pocket]

I found a mame .ini file but it's for mame 2010. No sample issues on that core but it doesn't sound quite right to me, which is why i'm trying so hard to get 2003 plus working, it's the only one that sounds right to me, As I said, no sample problems on mame 2003 plus when I launch it through retroarch without launchbox.  But it won't detect samples if I launch through launch box and i can't for the life of me figure it out.

I wouldn't care about this for most of the games, but some of those early Nintendo games that used samples sound very off on the other cores, and berzerk just won't launch on the other cores.

[neil9000]

4 hours ago, pocket said:

, As I said, no sample problems on mame 2003 plus when I launch it through retroarch without launchbox.  But it won't detect samples if I launch through launch box and i can't for the life of me figure it out.

Sounds more like a issue when launching MAME cores via commandline, which wouldnt surprise me at all as that is a nightmare with Retroarch and MAME cores, as they both have there own UI and control settings that fight with each other. Any reason you are not just using standalone emulators for MAME, you say you like shaders and overlays to much, but standalone MAME supports both of those, and you don't like the UI, well thats fine, thats the point of Launchbox/Bigbox, you don't ever have to see it.

My MAME standalone using a Bezel/Overlay and a shader.

[pocket]

So I solved it.  Ironically I solved it while trying to fix a problem unrelated to this one. PCSX2 was not launching at all for me and I was trying to figure out what I was doing wrong.

Turns out I had set the bios directory to a custom location, which served me fine until a game needed more than just bios. I guess I figured samples and bios weren't the same thing and that was my mistake.  I set the directory to retroarch -> system, and now both PCSX2 and Mame2003 next are working the way they should.