Games with one volume pot that should have two

IdahoFarmer

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Zektor = cool game with even cooler voice synth.

Problem is there's one volume pot.

If you turn it up loud enough to hear the vocals, then the rest of the game sounds are CRAZY loud.

What would it take to fix this? Someone going into the code and adjusting the volume levels to be more balanced and then compiling a special rom set? Is this even possible? Other options?

What other games have this problem?
 
with a fuzzy brain, I looked at the zektor schematics.

The speech board and the sound boards are two different sound source.

If you change the resistor value on the out put of the amp on vocal side the vocals should get louder.

It could be a problem with the amps on your game. A leaky cap might cause the an amp not to be as loud as it should. a quick test with an antec blue esr meter will confirm or rule out this issue.

Checking the voltages on the amp is also a good idea.

Using a scope to make sure the sound is being amplified is also a good idea.

good luck.
 
What other games have this problem?

Dragon's Lair II and Space Ace. It would be nice to be able to adjust the speech a little louder and all other sound a little lower, but you can't; it's all in the same mix. Not really a problem if you have dedicated cabs of these.

Dragon's Lair
had two separate volume pots, one for speech and one for all other sound.

If you have all three of these games running on Dexter in a Dragon's Lair cab, you'll have a lot of fun trying to adjust the volume pots so that the speech in DL and DL2 can be heard without SA blowing out your eardrums because its audio was recorded louder.
 
This is the opposite of your post, but Exidy Robot Bowl has about 8 volume controls. One for each sound! Ridiculous.
 
I always thought it was strange how ghosts & goblins has two pots, one for music and one for sfx. Invariably, you'd hear music only at one arcade and only sfx when you played it at another.
 
If you have all three of these games running on Dexter in a Dragon's Lair cab, you'll have a lot of fun trying to adjust the volume pots so that the speech in DL and DL2 can be heard without SA blowing out your eardrums because its audio was recorded louder.

Hey SanTe...
We have another Space Ace laserdisc image for Dexter with slightly softer sound which better matches the audio in DL and DL2.
Email me and I'll get you a copy.
 
Zektor = cool game with even cooler voice synth.

Problem is there's one volume pot.

If you turn it up loud enough to hear the vocals, then the rest of the game sounds are CRAZY loud.

What would it take to fix this? Someone going into the code and adjusting the volume levels to be more balanced and then compiling a special rom set? Is this even possible? Other options?

What other games have this problem?
Sound's like something is wrong with your Zektor. Wile I don't have a dedicated Zektor I do have a Star Trek with Vector Lab's SEGA Multi game installed which has Zektor. My Multi game has all the original sound boards which I just recently found out I was missing 4 sounds from Zektor because my Eliminator sound board did not have the AY-3-8912 sound chip which after I installed the chip I now have all the correct sounds for the game. As you can see in the video the game's sound and speech seem to be at the same volume. Now the only difference between my multi game and a dedicated board set is the Vector Labs multi game does not use the original speech board which is built into the Vector Labs board which installs on the main CPU board. I guess it's possible Mike may have preset the voice output to a level equal to the sound output level. The original speech board has an adjustable 100K 10 turn pot at R-74 which may adjust the input level of the sound board so it would not hurt to try adjusting it and see what effect that has if any on the sound/speech mix. I believe the output from the sound board inputs into the speech board where they are mixed and the output of the speech board goes though the volume pot and into the audio amp in the power supply. You may have a bad op amp or a bad cap on the speech board.
You can check out my video here which shows the sound test and game play of Zektor.
 
Dragon's Lair II and Space Ace. It would be nice to be able to adjust the speech a little louder and all other sound a little lower, but you can't; it's all in the same mix. Not really a problem if you have dedicated cabs of these.

Dragon's Lair
had two separate volume pots, one for speech and one for all other sound.

If you have all three of these games running on Dexter in a Dragon's Lair cab, you'll have a lot of fun trying to adjust the volume pots so that the speech in DL and DL2 can be heard without SA blowing out your eardrums because its audio was recorded louder.
Dedicated DL2 only has 1 volume for sound and beeps, and the beeps are loud. BUT the circuitry is there. All you have to do is install a pot. It's on the schematics. One of my most proud moments of fixing games, after having it for years and being annoyed by it.
 
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