MiSTer FPGA Forum

Some (not all) arcade games are no longer outputting any audio at all. R-Type 1, 2, Dragonbreed, Air Duel (Irem M72 core) R-Type Leo (Irem M92 core) and Silkworm (Tecmo core) among others.

The audio works fine for other arcade games.

Audio is connected via the 3.5mm audio jack of the Analogue IO board to the 3.5mm audio input of a soundbar.

Beyond resetting all the settings for each game i’m not sure how else to troubleshoot. Other than rebuilding.

I’ve also used update_all regularly.

Is anyone else seeing this for the games mentioned above after an update_all?

Have you checked the core volume in the menu?

dickhardpill wrote: ↑Thu Jun 13, 2024 5:00 pm

Have you checked the core volume in the menu?

How do i do that mate? Can’t see a volume setting for those games in the OSD menu.

Do those games work for you after an update_all?

Open the menu and press left. It should take you to the information screen.

I just verified I have audio in R-Type (World)

dickhardpill wrote: ↑Thu Jun 13, 2024 6:05 pm

Open the menu and press left. It should take you to the information screen.

I just verified I have audio in R-Type (World)

Thanks for checking!

I checked the volume settings and the core and main volume are all the way up. (All the configuring i’ve done on my MiSTer and I don’t think i’ve seen that screen!)

Did you go in game ? Some of the arcade games default to no sound on atract mode, this has to be altered in the dip switches on the arcade game.

FPGA64 wrote: ↑Fri Jun 14, 2024 7:59 am

Did you go in game ? Some of the arcade games default to no sound on atract mode, this has to be altered in the dip switches on the arcade game.

Yep that was in-game menu. Demo sound dip switches are off for all these games. I had already toggled these to test any differences but there is no change.

Not sure what's up but FYI I just updated my cab an hour ago and I have sound on R-Type I, II no issues. Using the optical digital out on the analog output board.

elrubioVS wrote: ↑Fri Jun 14, 2024 9:05 am

FPGA64 wrote: ↑Fri Jun 14, 2024 7:59 am

Did you go in game ? Some of the arcade games default to no sound on atract mode, this has to be altered in the dip switches on the arcade game.

Yep that was in-game menu. Demo sound dip switches are off for all these games. I had already toggled these to test any differences but there is no change.

Is it still silent when you get a credit in and start a game?

dickhardpill wrote: ↑Fri Jun 14, 2024 8:03 pm

Is it still silent when you get a credit in and start a game?

Yep, totally silent at all times with demo sounds on/off, with game volume at maximum and after resetting the game settings.

Thinking i’m going to have to rebuild the MiSTer on a new card and start from there. Then copy across each cores settings individually.

You could try deleting one core and it's files and then update all and see if that brings it back.

Vic20-Ian wrote: ↑Sat Jun 15, 2024 7:52 pm

You could try deleting one core and it's files and then update all and see if that brings it back.

Nice thanks. I’ll give that a try and report back

elrubioVS wrote: ↑Thu Jun 13, 2024 3:37 pm

Some (not all) arcade games are no longer outputting any audio at all. R-Type 1, 2, Dragonbreed, Air Duel (Irem M72 core) R-Type Leo (Irem M92 core) and Silkworm (Tecmo core) among others.

The audio works fine for other arcade games.

Audio is connected via the 3.5mm audio jack of the Analogue IO board to the 3.5mm audio input of a soundbar.

Beyond resetting all the settings for each game i’m not sure how else to troubleshoot. Other than rebuilding.

I’ve also used update_all regularly.

Is anyone else seeing this for the games mentioned above after an update_all?

I think i've narrowed the issue down to the 3.5mm audio output of the Analogue IO board. But it's still core specific.

I've rebuilt the MiSTer project from scratch on the SD card and connected the DE10 to another monitor (which has a built-in speaker) via HDMI. HDMI audio work fine.

When i reconnect the DE10 to my arcade cab (where the monitor does not have a built-in speaker) and use 3.5mm audio output of the Analogue IO board, there is no audio for the Irem core games but there is audio for Marvel VS Capcom.

I'll have a read about audio config but in the meantime does anything obvious leap out to anyone that i'm missing? It all worked fine at one point so there has been a change somewhere to the way audio is managed.

retrodroid wrote: ↑Fri Jun 14, 2024 8:02 pm

Not sure what's up but FYI I just updated my cab an hour ago and I have sound on R-Type I, II no issues. Using the optical digital out on the analog output board.

Do you mind me asking which cable you're using for audio? Which end is connected to the Analogue board and which is connected to the soundbar. I have an optic input for the soundbar so wondering if i can try that.

Originally i was using analogue out for audio connected directly to my soundbar with a standard 3.5mm audio cable. Now i'm using a 3.5mm mini Toslink to Toslink cable connected to a DAC (both linked below) and this has massively improved the sound - no more loud popping sounds when rebooting or loading new cores.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08CDHY6WX
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00KNNSKV0

However the Irem cores still don't output any audio.

Just to recap, i've rebuilt the MiSTer SD card from scratch and switched to using a DAC with toslink connected to the analogue audio output of the analogue IO board.

All i can think now is to buy a Digital IO board and replace my Analogue one. Will report back when i eventually do this.

Sounds like you figured out the Toslink cable. Yes, it is a massive sound quality improvement over the analog headphone jack.

Are you absolutely sure you didn't somehow set the per-core volume to zero or really low on these cores? Doesn't make sense that they wouldn't output for you when they do for everyone else. The sound is generated by the FPGA, same as any other core.

retrodroid wrote: ↑Tue Jul 09, 2024 10:32 pm

Are you absolutely sure you didn't somehow set the per-core volume to zero or really low on these cores? Doesn't make sense that they wouldn't output for you when they do for everyone else. The sound is generated by the FPGA, same as any other core.

Yeah absolutely 100% sure. It’s weird how it only seems to affect Irem M72, M92 games. There must be something to do with how they output their audio and/or perhaps a fault with either my IO board or even my main DE10.

I’ll pick up a digital IO board. If that doesn’t fix it i don’t know what to do…

UPDATE: I've not yet got the Digital IO board but i have noticed more oddities (remember that this is a fresh build of MiSTer).

• All games on the Irem cores & Tecmo cores produce no sound through the Analogue IO 3.5mm audio jack (HDMI audio works fine)

• Shadow Dancer does not receive an INSERT COIN input even after it allows me to define the INSERT COIN button in the config

Obviously i've not been able to check all games but sound works absolutely fine for most other games as does the INSERT COIN button and functionality.

I'm starting to think that i may have a faulty ram module... Does anyone else agree with that assessment?

Do you have the most recent jtbeta.zip?

dickhardpill wrote: ↑Mon Jul 15, 2024 9:07 pm

Do you have the most recent jtbeta.zip?

This is a new build so the latest would have been pulled down. They’re not JT cores either. Do you still think it’s worth checking? What does jtbeta.zip do?

Shadow Dancer is a jtcore.

Maybe I’m just understanding.

Shadow Dancer does not receive an INSERT COIN input even after it allows me to define the INSERT COIN button in the config

dickhardpill wrote: ↑Tue Jul 16, 2024 11:09 am

Shadow Dancer is a jtcore.

Maybe I’m just understanding.

Shadow Dancer does not receive an INSERT COIN input even after it allows me to define the INSERT COIN button in the config

Ah Shadow Dancer, sorry yeah. Ok will try thanks

The jtbeta zip is not pulled down, you need to put it in the MAME directory.

Just to be sure, make sure the big DIP switches on the main MiSTer DE10 Nano board are in the correct position.

thorr wrote: ↑Tue Jul 16, 2024 10:40 pm

Just to be sure, make sure the big DIP switches on the main MiSTer DE10 Nano board are in the correct position.

Yep thanks familiar with that catch

elrubioVS wrote: ↑Mon Jul 15, 2024 7:33 pm

UPDATE: I've not yet got the Digital IO board but i have noticed more oddities (remember that this is a fresh build of MiSTer).

• All games on the Irem cores & Tecmo cores produce no sound through the Analogue IO 3.5mm audio jack (HDMI audio works fine)

• Shadow Dancer does not receive an INSERT COIN input even after it allows me to define the INSERT COIN button in the config

Obviously i've not been able to check all games but sound works absolutely fine for most other games as does the INSERT COIN button and functionality.

I'm starting to think that i may have a faulty ram module... Does anyone else agree with that assessment?

Response from wickerwaka:

I would be surprised if RAM was the issue here. None of the audio functions on the IREM cores uses SDRAM other than sample playback and HDMI audio is functioning fine. I suspect this is an issue with your IO board. The most recent M72 update includes framework changes to support the new 9.2 IO board and it's possible that your IO board is non-standard in some way and isn't being detected correctly.

Have you tried something like SNES, NES or NeoGeo? They have also been updated to this new framework version. JT cores have not yet been updated so if you are still getting audio in those that would be a clue too.

The Shadow Dancer issue is likely something unrelated.

I've ordered a new Digital IO board. Will report back with the results.

dickhardpill wrote: ↑Mon Jul 15, 2024 9:07 pm

Do you have the most recent jtbeta.zip?

You were right it was related to jtbeta.zip

Just to round this post off, the Digital IO board fixed the issue. My Analogue IO board must have grown a fault.