Star Castle sound problem? Or not?

jkoolpe

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Hey folks!

I recently acquired (on indefinite loan) a nice Star Castle.

However, the owner and I have a friendly debate ongoing: I think the background and star sounds seem to "stutter" more than they should, but he believes that what I'm hearing is normal for the game.

I actually plugged in another sound board that another friend loaned me, and I'm hearing the same thing so I am wondering if the owner is correct. But then on the other hand, when I fire up the game on MAME, I don't hear this "stuttering" as far as I can tell.

Here is the video with the sound:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYvhdRmMWQ4

You can especially hear the "stuttering" right after you lose a ship and the game calls up the score/remaining ships screen (right before it goes back to the main active game screen).

So fellow KLOV'ers and/or other Star Castle owners out there...is the "stuttering" that I'm hearing normal? Or is the owner correct?

Let us know :) .

Jon
 
Sounds normal to me at least mine sounds like that

Andrew

Hey folks!

I recently acquired (on indefinite loan) a nice Star Castle.

However, the owner and I have a friendly debate ongoing: I think the background and star sounds seem to "stutter" more than they should, but he believes that what I'm hearing is normal for the game.

I actually plugged in another sound board that another friend loaned me, and I'm hearing the same thing so I am wondering if the owner is correct. But then on the other hand, when I fire up the game on MAME, I don't hear this "stuttering" as far as I can tell.

Here is the video with the sound:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYvhdRmMWQ4

You can especially hear the "stuttering" right after you lose a ship and the game calls up the score/remaining ships screen (right before it goes back to the main active game screen).

So fellow KLOV'ers and/or other Star Castle owners out there...is the "stuttering" that I'm hearing normal? Or is the owner correct?

Let us know :) .

Jon
 
Hmm...so it just might be normal after all..it sure seems to stutter more than I remember.

Anyone else out there with an SC that they can further confirm that this is the way it's supposed to be?

Jon
 
I listened to your video also. My Star Castle machine and the dozens of other audio boards that I've worked on sound like yours. I'm not sure that I'm interpreting your term "stutter" correctly. When I read that, I imagined an obvious sharp clicking, snapping, or cutting out of the sound which would indicate a bad speaker, loose wire, bad volume pot, etc. The rhythmic pulsation of the fundamental tone (sort of a "wah wah wah wah"), if that is what you mean, is normal and it is supposed to be that way. Because the audio is generated by hardware that determines the frequencies mainly by RC component networks, every board sounds slightly different. The largest contributor to the differences comes from the large electrolytic capacitors. As they age, they usually lose some of their value. If you think that something sounds a little off nominal, just recap the board by replacing all of the electrolytics and that will pretty much bring everything back to nominal. I have seen cases where a bad resistor, film cap, logic chip, or a leaky transistor has caused problems but the result is usually much more obvious.

I wouldn't recommend using MAME as a guide for this game or any of the CCPU board based games because MAME uses sound samples. The samples were taken from real hardware and I'm sure that the MAME programmers are very good at what they do, but in my experience games using samples never quite capture the ambiance and subtleties of the original hardware.

Bill B.
 
So I guess the stuttering is just normal after all...no problem there to worry about :) .

So I plugged in the original sound board again that came with the machine and compared with the one that I have on loan from another friend.

On the original SB, the louder explosion sounds (when you blast away a wall or the center ship) is MUCH, MUCH louder than the other sounds. Seriously, it sounds like it will blow the speaker! But meanwhile the other sounds are just at a quiet whisper.

Also, the volume control, when spun, has the sound level sputtering up and down (like the pot is going bad) but the 2nd SB on loan does not do any of this and works fine (no "too loud" sound and the volume pot works just fine).

Any more ideas on this "too loud sound" problem? A failing voltage regulator perhaps?

Jon
 
just recap the board by replacing all of the electrolytics and that will pretty much bring everything back to nominal.

This is pretty much what wy said and this is a great start.

In many forms I have read many sound problems are resolved with replacing the electrolytic caps.
 
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