Main > Driving & Racing Cabinets
Mame force feedback support? Hard / Race Drivin
Fursphere:
--- Quote from: Xiaou2 on October 08, 2015, 11:20:41 am ---
--- Quote ---Are there any arcade games (emulated in MAME or otherwise) that actually support multi channel (greater than 2) channel output?? Arcade cabinets aren't really built to support any kind of surround sound for the most part, and it would increase the cost of the cabinets, while adding very little (if any) value to the 'arcade experience'.
--- End quote ---
Again, not so.
There are games going back into the 80s that have more than 2 Channels.
A few:
1981 Sega Turbo - 3 Speakers. two smaller speakers up top.. and 1 large 10" woofer below the control panel. The larger speaker was mostly for the engine noises.
1983 TX1 - 4 Speakers. I believe is: Front (under monitor area), Seat: Left and Right near the ears. Seat: Under seat
The game pans the cars sounds to each different speaker, as you approach and pass them. Its gives a very realistic 3d positional effect.
(TX-1 also used3 monitors. Awesome game, pushing the envelope... in the early 80s)
1983 Discs of Tron Environmental - 4 speakers (as well as additional lighting effects)
1983 Spy Hunter Sit-Down - 4 Speakers
1983 Sinistar Cockpit - I believe the standup was mono.. but with the cockpit, they added another speaker or two in the seat.
(While technically Stereo... with proper surround sound, you can assign speaker output to different physical areas on the cabinet.. for accurate compatibility with pretty much any game)
And many more. Especially in the 90s... when 3d based racing games became very popular and common.
Yes, they Did add a lot to the experience. Especially TX-1.. which you could distinctly tell where the cars were around you.. due to its panning. You could hear their approach from the front.. hear if there were cars on either side of you... and even when there was a car coming up from behind you - or you passing a car.
Turbo was another great one too. The smaller speakers carrying most of the typical game sounds... and the 10 woofer carrying mostly just the engine sound. The separation makes for a more clear audio up top.. and a much lower bass sound on the larger speaker below.
It also creates a different spatial sound effect... due to different speaker positioning.
A lot of those older cockpit games added unique sound effects and panning, when you purchased the Sit-down versions of the games as well. Meaning, it was not simply mono wired into two channel output. Discs of Tron even has light bulbs that flash in sequence in its seat section... that do not exist on the basic model machine.
--- Quote --- Most arcades are so damn noisy you can't hear the games anyway...
--- End quote ---
Not true.
One of the reasons why speakers were built into the seats of many of these games... was also to make them more audible.. as they were closer to the players ears. And in games like TX-1.. you were inside of a cabinet... and the arcade shell shields a lot of the surrounding noises. (as well as providing more sound resonation within the shell)
--- End quote ---
Multiple speakers does not equal multiple channels. Putting two speakers in the back of a sit down cabinet wired to the same channel outputs as the front speakers is not the same thing as having dedicated front and rear channel speakers and the software being written to take use of the separate channels.
In your list above, TX1 seems to be the only title that may have had some sort of surround sound going on.
Sega Turbo sounds like it just had a low pass filter (LPF) on the subwoofer. (basically what every 2.1 speaker system does today)
Howard_Casto:
Well it's quite easy to tell. Go into mame and enter the tilde menu. Separate channels will have their own volume control. That being said it STILL doesn't mean that they were separated at the hardware end... take the NES for example, it has two sound channels that are both pumped through mono out. He's definitely over-estimating the numbers, but it's a valid point.
Xiaou2:
I know that many of the Sit Downs have different sound boards and output differently than the standup games.
I was told this by a collector, whom owned a Disc of Tron Environmental game. Im pretty sure that there are other examples as well.
It wouldnt matter if it were one game, or many. Mame should allow for multiple channels.
Imo, TX-1 is worth it alone. The 3d positional audio really makes the experience far more dynamic.
Furthermore... the ability to assign a channel... means you can assign your sounds to the proper speaker location. Otherwise, you would have to have a sound-board worth of switches to route the sounds around.
Also, in Multi-Player racing games... there currently is no way to separate the multiple channels. Because these were in individual seats.. the sounds were separated, and not easily heard by each other. Without this, its an audio nightmare of a mess.
As for the numbers... find out. Ohh.. wait... nobody is documenting this important stuff...
Xiaou2:
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http://www.gamefaqs.com/arcade/916363-arcade-games/faqs/9464
The Bally Midway engineers did something a bit clever with the trusty old
8910-- they used the extra I/O lines as outputs to control a vibrato/filter
system and a stereo panning system, this results in the SSIO producing
noticeably more interesting effects than a "vanilla" 8910.
The panning system is not present on all boards and is typically found in
MCR III based games like the "environmental" Discs of TRON and sit-down Spy
Hunter.
...
There is a ROM difference between the upright and environmental games.
The main difference between these two were:
1) The upright had no speech, special audio effects, or lighting effects.
Apparently, some of the later versions DID have the speech boards added in.
2) The upright could support two player games
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http://gameroomblog.com/reviews/rare-game-room-gems-environmental-discs-of-tron
Also the game boasted incredible sound, using state of the art surround sound when a disc flies past Tron on the screen you will hear it in the cabinet.
---
Vid of many of DOT's cabinet Pr0n features:
Vid showing a game feature Id never gotten to see:
At 6:55, there are instructions that tell the player to shoot Rings on the Ceiling. Id never seen this level before! Very cool !!!
When you do this... your Discs will bounce off the ceiling and on to one of the three platforms that you are opposite to. If you hit the platforms enough times... they start to De-Rez (Vanish). If you or Sark quickly jumps on them, they return back to normal. Otherwise.. they will completely vanish.
I really think they missed a great opportunity with this game... for a two player verses version of the game.
Id love to see someone hack this in.. at least to be able to over-ride Sark and control his actions.
Some other information on DOTs lighting and effects:
http://www.darkstararcade.com/mars/pages/DoT/
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