BAGEL: The Space Bar audio problem (original bug)

[kennethkahn]

ScummVM version 2.9.0

Starting with the attached saved game, enter the door directly next to the shuttle bay lift. The resulting audio sounds like a mix of two separate speeches over laying each other. The caveat though, it appears that the speech(es) can vary. Sometimes you only get a single speech which sounds OK. Most of the time though you get this mix of two overlapping. You get the same affect if you just click to examine the bay lift doors before going through the doors. I'm attaching 2 audio files that display this behavior. I'm also attaching a save file you can use that should start right at the moment before either event.

Just to be clear, this double voice problem isn't just isolated to the above scenarios. I've run into it in other places while exploring.

I'm running a version of the game I own the original Windows 95 disks for. I copied all the files from the CDs to a directory on my laptop.

I'm running Windows 11 Pro 23H2.

[kennethkahn]

The videos containing the audio I mentioned were too big to attach. I've placed them on my Google Drive at

​https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/11Ig9XE_5YRAeWjPHweD5Z-OI4_RPVV1v?usp=sharing

[kennethkahn]

Can you tell me if there's any status/update on this? I'm anxious to continue playing the game.

[kennethkahn]

Still waiting for any status. Is anyone actually looking into this?

[kennethkahn]

Still (foolishly??) waiting for any status. Is anyone actually looking into this?

[kennethkahn]

Still (foolishly??) waiting for any status. Is anyone actually looking into this?

[rufusroc]

Two points about this issue:
a) For me it is limited to the Soldier 714-Z-367 flashback section. It seems that there is a chance for a randomly selected voice audio sample to play at the beginning of each turn. If the user takes many turns quickly (e.g. by moving several times in quick succession) then it is possible for more than one audio sample to start playing such that two samples are played concurrently.
b) I have been able to reproduce this using the original spacebar.exe provided by Steam, so I think it is not a ScummVM-specific issue - maybe it happens more often in ScummVM but I cannot be sure. I reproduce by starting a new game, then entering the Soldier 714-Z-367 flashback then rapidly moving around the starting areas.

I think this issue should not deter anyone from playing the game; it is somewhat irritating but only happens in one section. I encountered a few other cases where vocal audio sample can be played simultaneously (e.g. selecting the "listen" action on the TV in SeedRot's flashback), but in all cases I was able to verify that the issue also occurred with the original exe.

[kennethkahn]

Thanks for finally getting back. I appreciate your detailed explanation. My guess is this game was made for much slower CPUs so when played on a much faster CPU (like most modern computers like my laptop) I can see it "getting confused" by too fast movement. I'll try to see if moving slower fixes the problem.

[tag2015]

Thanks for testing. Setting normal priority as this is an original bug