Blazing Lazers Audio Popping?

[Mgridgaway]

Hi all,

Picked up Blazing Lazers today, and for some reason the audio pops on certain stages. Specifically Area 5 (the Desert). Checked it out on an emulator and no popping.

What am I looking at here? Just normal? Something wrong with my TG-16? Something wrong with the HuCard?

[esteban]

Is it rhythmic (for example, is it linked to the drum sample), or does it seem random (no discernible pattern)?

[Mgridgaway]

It seemed somewhat more rhythmic, but I'll have to give it another listen. The audio popped in the sound test as well.

[Mgridgaway]

I went ahead and recorded a video. Sounds more random to me, but constant. This is the only game I've noticed it in.

[780racer]

Try it on a different TV, see if it does the same thing. It sounds a tad off, I do hear the pops, but it does happens at specific points (More of less... If I am hearing what you are talking about)

[Mgridgaway]

I've listened to it a bit more, and it sounds like it's popping on the beat after drum hits. Also, it sounds like the popping is on every track, but it's more/less subtle depending on the track. No other crts in the house but I'll try it on a LCD.

Edit: cleaned contacts again. changed tv, tried sega 1 power supply. no change.

[rxmage]

Sounds like it is on the drum beats to me.  As mentioned, try a different TV.  Could be just the speaker on the TV has crapped out or it is bottoming out on the bass.

[Mednafen]

FWIW, the HES rip is making popping noises with that music in (latestish) Mednafen.

[Mgridgaway]

I've watched a couple videos on Youtube and the popping is also present when they're actually playing the game on actual hardware. Guess it's normal?

[StarDust4Ever]

Looks pretty normal to me. I can barely hear the "pops". Could it be a cap issue? Some systems may have caps degraded moreso than others. For instance, my RF out looks almost pristine direct connected to CRT. Others claim their RF connections are roached but I wouldn't know what to compare it to.

Also are you using the mono RF connection or the stereo AV outs from the back panel? Stereo direct connection is almost always cleaner sounding. Ditto for my VA7 Model 1 Genesis. The RF, as well as the mono audio DIN output, are terrible. Sound grungy like it's being fed to a distortion amp. The stereo headphone jack set at half volume (5)? Pristine...

[Mgridgaway]

AV out the back. RF doesn't look too bad, but it's really red. Composite looks nice enough, but I want to get some component going.

[rxmage]

Have you tried another TV yet?

My guess would really be that your TV is the culprit.  Capacitors can cause audio issues in bass, but most often this is seen in the amp section where larger voltages are required to drive bass frequencies.  Given the age that CRTs are getting to, you could have an issue in the audio amp section of the TV or it could be the old age of the speaker.

I am not an expert by any stretch, but I have recapped over 20 TurboGrafx now.  Of those about a third truly had sound issues due to bad capacitors.  None of the units exhibited roll off of bass frequencies.  You generally see a decline across the full frequency spectrum.

Given the fact that TurboGrafx seem to have a pretty "quiet" audio pre-out, one generally has to increase the volume on the TV above normal listening levels.  Driving the amp section of the TV this much harder could result in the amp section clipping lower frequencies due to failing capacitors or simply causing a bad speaker to crackle. 

Now, if your TurboGrafx hasn't been recapped, it would be a good thing to do anyhow given how notorious the units are for leaking caps.

[StarDust4Ever]

i cannot speak for everyone but my Turbografx still has virgin caps and has pristine audio/video. Even the RF circuit is extremely clean when direct connected to the TV. I recently popped the top shield for the first time to install LED logo backlights, and I can assure you the bottom shield on mine that houses the components has never been opened. My NES still has all it's original caps; so does my SNES and Model 1 Genesis. I replaced the "Chiclet" filter cap and 7805 on my Atari 2600A (4-switch), but besides that all my consoles still have stock components in them.

It appears most 80s consoles still have good working capacitors in them 30 years later, and it was really a period from early to late 90s that most of the "plague capacitors" were produced. Nintendo used only Japanese manufacturers for it's console parts up until the 6th generation so was largely unaffected. Most of the capacitor plague afflicted electrolytics originated from Taiwan or Indonesia or somewhere, resulting from a stolen formulation recipe which did not have the proper additives. Many of the stockpile of "bad" caps continued to be used in consumer goods into the early 2000s. For instance, I had a PC power supply with a bad cap that went BOOM unexpectantly one day. The motherboard was unharmed and $30 and a new power supply later I was back in business.

Many of the original US Turbografx consoles, as well as most PC Engine and Coregrafx units from Japan were largely unaffected as they were manufactured before the "plague." The CD ROM and Duos were manufactured during the beginnings of the "plague" era and thus have a high failure rate of the electronics, "rotten" gear issues aside. Another advantage to going hucard only is the higher reliability and affordability of the hardware. Perhaps the CD units are so much more expensive due to their high failure rates and people discarding hardware when it broke down.

[rxmage]

StarDust4Ever,

The TurboGrafx16 units do not have as bad of an issue with caps as the Duos.  The Duos are sitting time bombs if the caps haven't been replaced.  While it is not the best sample size to make judgments by, only one-third of the 20 or so TurboGrafx16s that I have replaced caps on actually had issues caused by the caps.  The two-thirds that didn't really needed the caps replaced were done so just because people like the idea that the caps have been replaced.  I think some of it is paranoia carried over from the Duos.   So, I don't think the cap issue with the TG16s is at an epidemic level...just something cheap and easy to do if you are inside working on one at the time.

You are dead on with the NES, SNES and Genesis.  I haven't seen those needing to be replaced too often.  My own Atari, Coleco Gemini, Colecovision, Genesis, and PSX all have their original caps and show no sign that they should or need to be replaced.

You are lucky with the RF connection.  I have a pile of RF modulators that I have removed to perform A/V mods.  Most of those don't work or don't work well.  The material that they made the RCA jack from is the cheapest material I think they could find.  They are either so oxidized or corroded that they fail to work.  I am sure that what part of the States they were in and the humidity levels there probably had a lot to do with the oxidation and corrosion.

I also keep thinking I want to do the LED mod to the logo.  Did you use an LED strip or just single LEDs?

[esteban]

Original Poster: I think the "popping" you hear = the slight "imperfections" that result from ambitious use of samples + PSG. Blazing Lazers / GunHed has a fantastic soundtrack, even with the the snap/crackle/pop.

[StarDust4Ever]

I live in humid Louisiana. I got my Turbografx from a seller on eBay in 2014. Can't remember which state it shipped from as the ebay link and USPS tracking are long gone, probably somewhere out west if I had to guess. I took a gamble actually. Seller said the RF was poor; this turned out not to be the case. My unit came with an original AC adapter and a very rusty Commodore 64 manual switch. I cleaned the RF out with mineral spirits and plugged in a gold plated RCA-RF plug, and direct-connected the TV coax to my telli set. Picture is honestly among the best of my RF out consoles, comparable to my SNES. There's a very slight amount of bleed on the right-hand edge of bright red objects, less than a pixel in width. In 2015 I bought a very slick looking 3D-printed AV booster alternative for $35 from a dealer on Etsy and I use the composite + stero output from that. Sadly this person no longer sells them. I wish they still did so I could recommend it to folks...

I also keep thinking I want to do the LED mod to the logo.  Did you use an LED strip or just single LEDs?

As for the LED mod itself, I bought out my local Radio Shack of white four-pin 3mm LED packages. Wanted 8 but they only had seven so I had to make do with what I got. I later realised I got robbed pretty bad buying all seven square mount LEDs they had, paying $5 each for parts I could have ordered online for 25 cents. I installed the LEDs on a perfboard PCB and supplied each one with a 100 ohm resistor because I don't trust them to stay in tolerance when parallel connected. The perfboard was cut to size, roughly 1x3.5 inches, and the whole assembly was covered in several layers of black electric tape. The PCB is held onto the case with velcro so it can be repositioned if need be. I used leftover pieces from the perfboard I originally cut to build up a platform for it to rest on so the LEDs didn't poke the backside of the decal. Because the LED board is too thick, I had to cut a rectangular hole in the top side shielding to allow the assembly to fit. I ran the black and red wires and soldered directly to the 7805 regulator. After I installed everything, I looked up a video tutorial on Youtube from Game-Tech

and realized I had way over-engineered my backlight mod. I took photos of it but haven't uploaded them online yet. I'll eventually upload them to a Flickr album and make a thread about it later.

[rxmage]

I also keep thinking I want to do the LED mod to the logo.  Did you use an LED strip or just single LEDs?

As for the LED mod itself, I bought out my local Radio Shack of white four-pin 3mm LED packages. Wanted 8 but they only had seven so I had to make do with what I got. I later realised I got robbed pretty bad buying all seven square mount LEDs they had, paying $5 each for parts I could have ordered online for 25 cents. I installed the LEDs on a perfboard PCB and supplied each one with a 100 ohm resistor because I don't trust them to stay in tolerance when parallel connected. The perfboard was cut to size, roughly 1x3.5 inches, and the whole assembly was covered in several layers of black electric tape. The PCB is held onto the case with velcro so it can be repositioned if need be. I used leftover pieces from the perfboard I originally cut to build up a platform for it to rest on so the LEDs didn't poke the backside of the decal. Because the LED board is too thick, I had to cut a rectangular hole in the top side shielding to allow the assembly to fit. I ran the black and red wires and soldered directly to the 7805 regulator. After I installed everything, I looked up a video tutorial on Youtube from Game-Tech

and realized I had way over-engineered my backlight mod. I took photos of it but haven't uploaded them online yet. I'll eventually upload them to a Flickr album and make a thread about it later.

Good deal.  I look forward to the thread with photos.  To OP, sorry I derailed your thread!

[StarDust4Ever]

Good deal.  I look forward to the thread with photos.  To OP, sorry I derailed your thread!

Thread:
https://www.pcengine-fx.com/forums/index.php?topic=21076.0

Pics:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/30203515@N04/sets/72157669550796415/

[Mgridgaway]

It's fine! I found the cap talk interesting. I'm chalking the sound issues up to what Esteban said. The fact that 2 other YouTube reviews had the same popping noise is too unlikely to be just a coincidence. Maybe one day I'll get another unit to test it against.

[rxmage]

You got me curious now.  I'm going to have to play some Blazing Lasers on my Everdrive to see if I get the same popping sound.

[Groover]

I tried playing Blazing Lazers today on my Turbo Express. Sadly I couldn't reach Area 5. I am very rusty on this game. Of what I did play it sounded fine.

[rxmage]

I tried playing Blazing Lazers today on my Turbo Express. Sadly I couldn't reach Area 5. I am very rusty on this game. Of what I did play it sounded fine.

Oh yeah, I just plain suck at a lot of games.  But, it doesn't hinder my ability to enjoy the games!

[StarDust4Ever]

I tried playing Blazing Lazers today on my Turbo Express. Sadly I couldn't reach Area 5. I am very rusty on this game. Of what I did play it sounded fine.

Oh yeah, I just plain suck at a lot of games.  But, it doesn't hinder my ability to enjoy the games!

I made it to stage seven once. Blazing Lazers isn't too hard once you get into it but you've got to practice on it and learn how to best utilize the powerups. Tons of options and never a dull moment anywhere in the game. And stage one is a great starter level even if you can't progress beyond it.

Stage four is probably my favorite with the giant exploding brains, and the ice crystals in stage six a close second. Stage five is likely my least favorite in the game. The bouncing pyramids are super annoying, and why they have to stick a desert level smack dab in the middle of a space SHMUP? It simply feels like stage five belongs in a different game altogether.

Also I gotta give props to stage seven. Stage seven is very similar to stage one with the same sprites and music, but the difficulty is ramped up on steroids. I wish there were a cheat code so I can start there. Never made it to stages eight and nine, but that's something else to enjoy when the time comes.

[Mgridgaway]

You can just access the sound test by holding select and pressing left then right repeatedly until it comes up.

[rxmage]

You can just access the sound test by holding select and pressing left then right repeatedly until it comes up.

Well, yeah...sure, you could do that...
lol!