Some thoughts about Asteroids Sound Emulation - 09/28/05 09:57 AM
I was a huge Asteroids fan when I was a kid. (Well, I was a normal-sized kid but I REALLY loved Asteroids.
) Anyway, it's been interesting to see how sound in MAME's Asteroids has evolved. When they did away with the samples, and started emulating the sound, it was pretty rough for a while. Now, it's pretty darn good.... with one glaring exception: the pitch of the "thumps" is incorrect. (The thumps are the low notes that alternate faster and faster as asteroids become fewer.)
I'll put this musically, since it's the only way I know how.... Currently, MAME has the interval between the two thumps as a major third. They should actually be a minor second.
I obtained the following samples from Vectorama, a lovely OS9 vector game emulator many of you no doubt remember. These are the thumps in their proper pitch as recorded from an actual Asteroids cabinet.
http://www.chris.com/asteroids/thumphi.wav
http://www.chris.com/asteroids/thumplo.wav
The Asteroid samples in this emulator were the best I've heard, so I pulled them out with ResEdit and hung on to them. The rest of them can be browsed here:
http://www.chris.com/asteroids/
I just wanted to share my thoughts with all of you and ask for your recommendation. Who on the MAME development team would A) be interested in hearing such a comment and B) have the programming skills necessary to do something about it?
-Chris

I'll put this musically, since it's the only way I know how.... Currently, MAME has the interval between the two thumps as a major third. They should actually be a minor second.
I obtained the following samples from Vectorama, a lovely OS9 vector game emulator many of you no doubt remember. These are the thumps in their proper pitch as recorded from an actual Asteroids cabinet.
http://www.chris.com/asteroids/thumphi.wav
http://www.chris.com/asteroids/thumplo.wav
The Asteroid samples in this emulator were the best I've heard, so I pulled them out with ResEdit and hung on to them. The rest of them can be browsed here:
http://www.chris.com/asteroids/
I just wanted to share my thoughts with all of you and ask for your recommendation. Who on the MAME development team would A) be interested in hearing such a comment and B) have the programming skills necessary to do something about it?
-Chris