Surround Sound

A

APE992

Rather than post several times in each board I figured general would be the place to stash this. I recently heard there were a handful of SuperNES/Genesis games near the end of both consoles life games were released with surround sound support. Definately not discrete 5.1 but probably ProLogic or something similar. I knew of a few n64 games, saturn, dc and psx titles that supported it as well. Question is, does anyone know of games that support it and a sure fire method of getting the most out of the games?

EDIT: The handful of n64 games I've been able to identify are:

Star Wars: Rogue Squadron

Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

Gauntlet 3D

Resident Evil 2

Tonic Trouble

Rayman 2: The Great Escape

Ken Griffey Jr.'s slugfest

Perfect Dark

Donkey Kong 64

And interestingly all 3 star ocean games support surround as well. But only the 3rd is the one I know uses true ProLogic2.
 
Pro Logic 2 isn't really much better than Pro Logic 1, and Pro Logic 1 is only arguably better than stereo (actually, I think stereo is better, but that's another story). I have played OOT in surround, however, and it does add to the experience somewhat.

Star Ocean is the only SNES game I know of that supports it, but there are probably others. As for Genesis, I'm not sure, but I kind of doubt it. As far as getting the most out of the games that use it, pretty much just hook it up to any Dolby receiver/system... almost everything that supports 5.1 is backwards compatible with Pro Logic I & II.

edit - oh yeah, as far as the other systems go, I'm pretty sure Shadowman on the DC (& probably N64 support it) - at least it sure seems that way when I'm playing.
 
I don't really know anything about Qsound, but I believe it's a 'virtual surround' technology, that is, it attempts to create a more immersive environment using only 2 speakers. And several Sega CD games used it, including Ecco the Dolphin.
 
Sonic CD used QSound too. As well as anything CAPCOM did from the CPS2 and beyond. It's just a 2-speaker surround trick, using having a sound play on both speakers with a small delay between them that, along the volume differences, make it sounds as it's coming from outside the speakers, almost by your side. But you must be properly positioned in relation to the speakers to get the effect (I think Sonic CD's manual shows how to place the speakers). It also works with headphones.
 
I'm fairly sure that Pro Logic II is a fairly recent development (or at least more recent than the Genesis or SNES). I also HIGHLY doubt that either 16-bit system had enough power to use it.
 
I concur with the first statement, although I think the SNES could probably handle it (depending on the game), since Pro Logic I and II are basically the same thing - PLII just has stereo (and higher fidelity) surround channels as opposed to the mono of PLI. It may seperate the LFE channel as well, can't recall. The SNES' sound chip was very advanced and IMHO it would be able to create and mix the necessary channels without a problem.
 
"What about QSound? I know there were 32X/Saturn games that used this, maybe Sega CD as well."

Yeah, in fact, the qsound is a rec codec with the possibility to "rotate" some sounding-spots around the "point of hear" (to create a sort of 3D sound with only 2 speakers).

I found the official website 1 year ago. Funny to see that the Qsound tech is still here:

http://www.qsound.com/2002/technology/main1.asp

Have Fun...

Fonzie
 
I have never tried to see how well pro logic would sound on the genesis or snes. Pro logic will work with music and such that doesn't have surround, and you just have to try and see how well it works. I've tried several cds, and they usually sound pretty good, sometimes better than stereo, and sometimes, they don't. LPs seem to sound really badly on surround sound. Some of the classical music sounds really good in pro logic. Older music sometimes sounds very weak though.

My guess, without trying it, is that some of the games may sound ok, others may sound terrible. I'm not going to speculate much more on this, until I try it out myself, and you have aroused my curiousity.
 
Yeah, I personally wouldn't think it would be worth it on games that don't explicitly support it . Generally you'll just get a lot of the mix going into the center channel and not a whole lot else, even in PLII music mode.
 
Well, I just found a list of SNES games released in dolby 4 channel surround, incase anyone wants to check em out and hear how they sound. I still haven't found all of my SNES hookups. So, I can't test them out.

They are: king arthur's world, nba jam '96, samurai spirit, garo special, jurassic park, jurassic park 2, and the flintstones.
 
By 'Samurai Spirit' do you men Samurai Spirits, or is this some other game? I can't imagine SS utilizing surround, but...
 
Hmm, wow, I bet it was SS then. I should check and see if the Neo version has any bling bling effects.
 
I did a quick search about the neo version, and got one page that said it was in qsound. So, it's probably only the Super Famicom version that has it.. Not sure what the 3DO version has..

Technically, dolby surround/pro logic could be added to pretty much any cd-rom with a normal stereo soundtrack. I'd love to see some remixed sega cd soundtracks, mixed in dolby surround :/
 
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