Sound Issues in Cave / Atlus Games

[Tarma]

I'm a huge fan of the SHMUPS by Cave / Atlus but in MAME I'm finding that on any of them after 2000 the sound is really way off, like it's stuttering or echoing. The video looks good, maybe a little slowdown but not bad. Any idea what's causing this? Do I need a hardware upgrade to play these? Thanks!

[barrymossel]

It sounds like the RPi (right?) isn't up to that. You could try overclocking (but make sure you use a heatsink + fan).

[BadMouth]

Your processor isn't powerful enough.  If HLSL is enabled, disable it on those games.
You can also use an older version of MAME, but those games were removed from MAME for a while.
I know they're missing from the v.140's.  Probably added back in the v.150s-v.160s

[Tarma]

BadMouth - What is HLSL and where would I go to enable or disable it? Sorry, I'm an old dude and not the most computer savvy. Thanks!

The processor is a AMD A6-3500 APU 2.10 GHz (whatever that means)

I'm running MAME .161 on a PC just for the record. Haven't tried them on the Pi yet (I'm mostly using that for old console games) but will give that a shot over the weekend to see what happens. I had figured if the PC wouldn't do it the Pi wouldn't either but who knows.

[Haze]

BadMouth - What is HLSL and where would I go to enable or disable it? Sorry, I'm an old dude and not the most computer savvy. Thanks!

The processor is a AMD A6-3500 APU 2.10 GHz (whatever that means)

I'm running MAME .161 on a PC just for the record. Haven't tried them on the Pi yet (I'm mostly using that for old console games) but will give that a shot over the weekend to see what happens. I had figured if the PC wouldn't do it the Pi wouldn't either but who knows.

your PC is too slow for them, the Pi is about 20x too slow for them.

[BadMouth]

BadMouth - What is HLSL and where would I go to enable or disable it? Sorry, I'm an old dude and not the most computer savvy. Thanks!

The processor is a AMD A6-3500 APU 2.10 GHz (whatever that means)

I'm running MAME .161 on a PC just for the record. Haven't tried them on the Pi yet (I'm mostly using that for old console games) but will give that a shot over the weekend to see what happens. I had figured if the PC wouldn't do it the Pi wouldn't either but who knows.

For the benefit of other people, HLSL options are in mame.ini in your MAME folder.

As Haze said though, that processor isn't going to cut it.
Buying a high end processor for MAME is a case of diminishing returns though.
An outdated junk PC will run 95% or more of the games, but it takes a bleeding edge flagship processor to get another 1-2% playable. 
(completely unscientific and made up numbers guestimated by myself, but that is the gist of it).
No processor will run "everything" at full speed. 
It's always a case of spending more to get a few more games playable, then realizing the goalposts have moved and now you have other games that have become almost playable. 

Only you can decide where to draw the line.

[Tarma]

Thanks so much for the info guys - you rock! And you're right BadMouth, my old PC here runs everything else I want to play just fine (mainly the SNK / Capcom titles) so I'm not going to go crazy trying to upgrade to a super-machine just for the sake of a few games.