MAME Donkey Kong Sound

adamlevowitz

Just got my RetroPie and am playing Donkey Kong in the MAME enulator. I have music but no sound effects. I can see there is a dkong.zip file in the samples folder and there are files inside of it. I have unzipped it into the main samples folder. but still do not have any sound fx (that annoying mario walking)

Any ideas on what to do?

jtkblue

@adamlevowitz Maybe try getting the same ROM from a different site.

GreenGriffon

@adamlevowitz RetroPie doesn't come with Donkey Kong or sound samples. It sounds like you're using a third party image.
The rom has to match the version of MAME you're using.

barbudreadmon

@adamlevowitz https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3/read-this-first

steptoe

@adamlevowitz Do NOT unzip any samples, they MUST stay in the ZIP archive for the samples to work correctly. Same with ANY ROM. They HAVE to stay zipped for MAME to read it correctly. Don't change file names, nothing

MAME is VERY strict on naming and each update of MAME NEEDS the correct ROM set for that version of MAME, even if you have used a 3rd party image it should be set-up ready to use

The usual reason for samples not working is, as suggested, the wrong ROM or sample set for your version of MAME

If you can find out what MAME you are running, then you should very easily be able to find what sample set you need. Main one seem to be 0.37b5 as even a PI zero should run these without many issues and is easily found by searching

MAME versions don't usually work with any other ROM sets because between updates the ROMs may get redumped or better dumps that will only work with a specific version of MAME. MAME is about accuracy and preservation. The ROMs can actually be reburnt to EEPROM to get long dead arcade boards working again where ROMs are not simply available anymore

IanDaemon

@adamlevowitz
Donkey Kong is one of a few old MAME ROMs that is known to require a "samples" file. The samples file includes the sounds for Jumpman walking & jumping, Donkey Kong stomping in the beginning, etc.

In the folder structure you can place this a ZIP file which includes these sounds. Do not unzip the file, this screenshot just shows you the path and the contents of the zip file:

If you're curious a list of six MAME2003 ROMs are known to require a "samples" file. There may be more, but these six are Berzerk, Donkey Kong, Space Invaders, Mario Bros., Q*Bert, and Track & Field:

As someone mentioned before, MAME is picky on file names.