MAMEWorld Forums - EmuChat - Sinistar cockpit version *edit*

Good to see some progress underway.

midway/williams.cpp: Added support for Sinistar cockpit sound.

New working clones
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Sinistar (revision 2, cockpit) [SynaMax]
Sinistar (revision 3, cockpit) [SynaMax]

https://github.com/mamedev/mame/commit/1c09558bcb5c0621f4fc7838f13e5d08d609186e

A bit more refinement to be done for later according to the contributor.

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https://github.com/mamedev/mame/pull/11459

That's also why I originally wrote "stereo separation" and not "reverberation" in the comments for the code, because that's what the second sound rom does; it introduces a delay to produce a stereo widening effect. There is absolutely no reverberation or any post-processing effect done to the audio. My reverse engineered source code of the sound rom breaks down how this works in further detail:
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I hope the pcb and rom label sticker colors and revision number get documented as well like what has already been done with some of the currently supported rom sets.

https://github.com/mamedev/mame/blob/master/src/mame/midway/williams.cpp

The reason why this would be awesome to get supported besides it being a rare cockpit support set is because of my long ago arcade memorable anecdotes. There was a Sinistar cockpit cab that was placed in games area section of a long closed, torn down Rossmoor Bowl bowling center that stood from late 1950s until shopping center renovation in which all the buildings were replaced.

Anyway….it was back in spring 1983 that I had first seen a Sinistar cockpit cab in person for the first time at the bowling alley. I didn’t play the game since I was more of a fan of Williams Bubbles and also Robotron. The memorable thing about that particular Sinistar cockpit cab was all of the speaker sound outputs seemed to be cranked way up to extra extremely loud full volume. The cockpit cab would practically bounce up and down like a custom low rider car that would drive down the streets bouncing up and down.

The ROAR sound could be heard throughout the busy bowling alley. One couldn’t miss it.

It was around the spring 1983 time frame that I recalled seeing an adult (a father or a relative) place a boy around age of 3 or 4 into the Sinistar cockpit cab so the toddler could try out the game. It appeared the toddler was spooked by the loud sounds of the game with the cockpit cab bouncing up and down. The ultimate finale was when the ROAR sound finally played, it looked like the toddler was ejected from the cockpit cab into the adult’s arms like a basketball. The toddler was bawling for a few minutes likely from the terrifying trauma that was experienced while inside the cockpit cab trying to play the game.

Somehow I can picture the youngster as a future client at a therapist office reliving that trauma of that gaming adventure of the game haunting him with those loud sounds being forever etched into memory. I am envisioning some screen scene like late actor Don Knotts did when doing some spooked out look when a scary moment occurs. Assuming kid is an adult by now, if rehearing the ROAR sound effect, the person probably freaks out,

The new look shopping center is crap compared to what it used to be. It was far better back then.

btw segment:

I recently came across a former coworker who I worked with about two decades earlier and he and I attended same high school, but he graduated in different class year. His thing was also coinop games and emulation along with visiting a few sites that I was familiar myself. Way back then at same company, he mentioned his favorite coinop games and me with my favorite coinop games. Sinistar was one of his top 10 games and he played that at Rossmoor Bowl when the cockpit unit was there and an upright Sinistar cab was also added and placed next to the cockpit cab in late 1983. I never went to Rossmoor Bowl since spring 1983 since I graduated that year and moved on to going to other places that year such as working in Fountain Valley later in fall 1983.

The former coworker knew the differences between the upright Sinistar and cockpit version since that was his game. He mentioned both cabs were removed the following year and he was bummed out.

I showed him the recent updates regarding Sinistar with my iPhone while he and I were standing out in parking lot talking about past stuff.

He is glad that a fellow Sinistar enthusiast is making the game in process of being more enjoyable with audio improvements.

Former co worker’s opinion about this: “ It takes us Sinistar fans to have to bail out you Williams Bubbles fans so you can say Williams Sinistar is accurate in MAME with a straight face. Williams Bubbles? And please don’t rehash goodness of the Gremlin games that you liked. We went through those arguments before at our work back then and you had to mention you preferred Bubbles. That was a terrible game IMO.”

I miss working at the business with the coworker / fellow HS alumni, but my status then was a temporary employee hired for a few months. He did mention that he will update to a newer version of MAME to see how exactly Sinistar has improved. His sarcastic parting comment as we went in separate ways: “If MAME can drop support of Williams Bubbles, that will be a major improvement all by itself.”

If entertainer Don Rickles were still around, I can see Don Rickles saying the same thing.

Edited by gregf (08/18/23 09:45 PM)