testing games on mame ruin it for you?

[JamBurglar]

If DK was all analog sound, why is there a DAC on the original hardware?

It's actually not all analog. It's a mix. The background music, hammer sounds, etc are digital. The walking, jumping, and stomping are analog. There's even a dial on the board that adjusts the balance between the analog and digital sounds.

MAME actually has a really tough time with DK because they're emulating the analog circuits and takes a good deal of power. They've done a kick-ass job at emulating the analog in it but the biggest problem is that analog and digital circuitry is fundamentally different. If you play the same sound over and over in digital and look at the wave form the wave will be exactly the same every time. With the analog you'll get a slightly different sound every time. It's just the nature of the beast and those imperfections are part of what makes analog sound "pleasing" (to some.) The best way I can describe it is that the real analog circuits sound kind of wonky.

Q-Bert is another good example. Not only do they have that knocker, but don't they have that crazy analog voice modulator doo-hicky in there (these are all technically proper terms by the way)? Always sounded cooler in the arcade than on MAME.

 

[FrizzleFried]

Don't quote me on this but I do believe Qbert now has support for the knocker... as long as you had one of course...

 

[pookdolie]

It's actually not all analog. It's a mix. The background music, hammer sounds, etc are digital. The walking, jumping, and stomping are analog. There's even a dial on the board that adjusts the balance between the analog and digital sounds.

Aha! Is that what the dial by the audio amp "input" is?

My music is low, but the walking is loud. Is this how I can adjust it?

 

[JamBurglar]

Don't quote me on this but I do believe Qbert now has support for the knocker... as long as you had one of course...

I think I might have seen a video on youtube with it.

 

[JamBurglar]

Aha! Is that what the dial by the audio amp "input" is?

My music is low, but the walking is loud. Is this how I can adjust it?

Yeah that's the one.

 

[MKplayer1start]

For all the guys that chimed in defending their mame setups I want you to know I wasn't putting your mame setups down. You guys go all out with mame on standard resolution monitors and I'm sure that would make it look great, but I was talking about how I experience mame. I simply have it installed on my computer to check out games I don't remember and test out games before i buy. However I feel when I do that it just ruins in for me. Maybe it's because I'm looking at it on a high resolution monitor I don't know.

but it just feels so wrong. Somebody mentioned the games have no soul being emulated on mame and that's exactly how I feel. Theres just something about having the pcb, or even better the dedicated cab lol

 

[TOK]

For all the guys that chimed in defending their mame setups I want you to know I wasn't putting your mame setups down. You guys go all out with mame on standard resolution monitors and I'm sure that would make it look great, but I was talking about how I experience mame. I simply have it installed on my computer to check out games I don't remember and test out games before i buy. However I feel when I do that it just ruins in for me. Maybe it's because I'm looking at it on a high resolution monitor I don't know.

but it just feels so wrong. Somebody mentioned the games have no soul being emulated on mame and that's exactly how I feel. Theres just something about having the pcb, or even better the dedicated cab lol

The old school hardcore say the same things about JAMMA setups and fighting games in general. As a mid-school kinda guy, I'd expect you be sensitive to that.

 

[supadave1]

For all the guys that chimed in defending their mame setups I want you to know I wasn't putting your mame setups down. You guys go all out with mame on standard resolution monitors and I'm sure that would make it look great, but I was talking about how I experience mame. I simply have it installed on my computer to check out games I don't remember and test out games before i buy. However I feel when I do that it just ruins in for me. Maybe it's because I'm looking at it on a high resolution monitor I don't know.

but it just feels so wrong. Somebody mentioned the games have no soul being emulated on mame and that's exactly how I feel. Theres just something about having the pcb, or even better the dedicated cab lol

They have some scanline filters and such that if you apply them they can actually emulate and make the high res monitors like an LCD screen look alot better and closer to original. It's obviously no where near original but it does help kill that high res blocky look alot.