UPDATE: solution found... Sound pops in Donkey Kong PE/X/F - can it be fixed?

[Tapper]

UPDATE: SOLUTION FOUND: do not use 0.172, use MAME 0.203 in the latest Arpicade if you want to play DK hacks (dkongpe, dkongx, dkongf) with good sound (I made merged roms of them and placed them in the 203 ROMs folder, and left the parent dkong games in 0.172.)

See here to get hiscores to work in dkongpe and dkongx: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1040
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Original post follows:
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Hi Dee2er,

When running Donkey Kong in Advmame, the sound is good. But I want to run the hacks like Pauline Edition (dkongpe), Foundry, (dkongf) and Donkey Kong 2 (dkongx). Unfortunately they are not supported in Advmame, so I am using MAME 0.172.

However, I'm noticing some pops and crackles in dkong sound in MAME 0.172 that I don't hear in Advmame 0.106.

Is there some way to fix the sound in those games? I wish I could use Advmame instead of 0.172, but dkongpe, dkongf and dkongx were not added until later versions. They are really nice variations of Donkey Kong, so I don't want to lose them (and my wife LOVES Pauline Edition!), but those pop/crackle sounds are annoying.

Also, is it possible to add those dkong hacks to the Advmame build? If so, that would be AMAZING to have in the next Arpicade build! Thanks.

[cool_factor]

Try this (or check it) By changing the following options in /home/pi/mame172/mame.ini you should stop the popping
throttle 1
waitvsync 0
syncrefresh 0

[Tapper]

OK, thanks. I will try that later when I get home and report back.

[Tapper]

Unfortunately that doesn't fix the pops/crackles.

EDIT: trying some stuff out...

[Tapper]

OK, very interesting followup info!

So, I tested Donkey Kong (dkong.zip) using 2 versions of MAME on my Windows 10 PC.

0.194 -- there are sound pops, just as I heard using 0.172 on Arpicade
0.204 -- sound is good!

So, basically it seems like the sound issue was a MAME driver issue for some period of time, and at some point between 0.172 and 0.204 it was fixed. I happened to have those 2 versions on hand so I don't know exactly which MAME version fixed that.

SOLUTION FOUND: do not use 0.172, use MAME 0.203 in the latest Arpicade if you want to play these DK hacks with good sound (I made merged roms of them and placed them in the 203 ROMs folder, and left the parent dkong games in 0.172.)

In 0.203 the sound pops are virtually gone (I think a rare little sound crackle is just part of the sound in this game), BUT it has another issue -- the high scores don't get saved. Investigating...

[Tapper]

Well, the sound is good in 0.203, BUT I cannot get hiscore saving to work in 0.203.

I noticed the plugins.ini in the home/pi/mame203 folder, and put a "1" to enable the hiscore plugin. But, the hiscores are still not saving.

Any ideas?

[cool_factor]

Glad you figured it out. You don't by chance have a full .172 romset you could upload do you? Only set that seems to be impossible to find, I have all the others...

[Tapper]

https://archive.org/details/Mame172arcdcmplt

[FrizzleFried]

https://archive.org/details/Mame172arcdcmplt

No torrent available... unfortunately.

[Tapper]

Frizzlefried,

Hmm, there are torrent links if you scroll down a ways. But, doesn't seem like anyone is seeding.