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Extracting Midway DCS Audio

Technical discussion which is not directly related to VGM files. Talk about Hardware and Software.

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  • IG2004 Offline
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  • Joined: 2023-05-02, 7:56:19

Extracting Midway DCS Audio

Post by IG2004 »

For two years, I've always wanted to extract samples from Midway games that use DCS audio, such as Mortal Kombat II and Killer Instinct. However, I can't find any methods that seem to work. I found a resource called "Reversing Midway Arcade Audio with DeDCS" and heard about a tool called DeDCS, but I can't find a download link for this DeDCS tool. Does anyone have it? Either that or does anyone have another way to extract DCS audio? And if I've posted this in the wrong place, could you let me know? Thanks.
  • talent Offline
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Post by talent »

The easiest way is to use M1 - https://rbelmont.mameworld.info/?page_id=223. It's an older command-line app, but still works today. You'll also need to use the updated m1.xml file located here and the updated lists here.

Make sure your rom file is located in the roms folder, then use the following command-line to play the tracks: m1 -a <ROMNAME>. So to play Mortal Kombat II, you'd use:

Code: Select all

m1 -a mk2
The -a switch says to M1, let me play whatever is available. To manually find your sample, you'll have to skip through each track with the "+" key on your keyboard until you find what you want. Unfortunately M1 doesn't have an auto-detection track tool, so you might have to manually go through hundreds (or thousands) of tracks to find your specific sample. When you do find your sample, keep note of the track number because you can add your custom track to the existing list file located at lists/en/mk2.lst to make things easier with ripping later on.

Once you're ready to rip to WAV, run the following command-line:

Code: Select all

m1 -w mk2
All this documentation should be available in the M1 readme, but hopefully that helps somewhat.
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  • blitzlunar Offline
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Post by blitzlunar »

This is somewhat tangential to the topic, but is there a high-quality direct audio rip of Killer Instinct's soundtrack anywhere? I've had some mp3s for a long time but they are crappy lineout recordings - it must be possible to do better.
  • IG2004 Offline
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Re:

Post by IG2004 »

talent wrote: 2023-08-07, 1:34:46 The easiest way is to use M1 - https://rbelmont.mameworld.info/?page_id=223. It's an older command-line app, but still works today. You'll also need to use the updated m1.xml file located here and the updated lists here.
I'm glad you tried to help me, but I mean actually ripping the audio from the ROMs.

While typing this reply, I discovered a tool on github called DCSExplorer. It works. Now I can finally move on in my life.
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