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Masahiro Sakurai refused to add Dolby Surround to a Kirby game because players had to sit through the logo (www.videogameschronicle.com)

submitted 4 months ago by simple@lemm.ee to c/games@lemmy.world

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[-] CaptDust@sh.itjust.works 12 points 4 months ago

The context is Kirby Air Ride, a racing spinoff. Not that it changes much, but it is fully 3D and a genre that can take advantage of surround sound.

[-] the_artic_one@programming.dev 2 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

~~That came out on GameCube back when we were all still using composite cables that didn't support surround anyway.~~

Edit: Apparently I was misinformed, still KAR was such a casual arcadey game that I'm sure it got more benefit out of quick startup than it would have from surround support.

[-] RightHandOfIkaros@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

This is not true at all and demonstrates a profound misunderstanding of how surround sound worked.

Nintendo 64 games like Donkey Kong 64 and Conker's Bad Fur Day supported surround sound. Even Star Fox on the SNES supported surround sound. All through composite cables.

It works by encoding multiple channels into two channels, so it can then decode those channels to send the proper signal to the proper speaker. For Dolby specifically, you need a Pro Logic compatible receiver, which could decode that signal. If you don't have a Pro Logic compatible receiver then you will only hear stereo output.

[-] the_artic_one@programming.dev 1 points 4 months ago

Well TIL.

profound misunderstanding of how surround sound worked

You got me, I didn't know anyone who even owned a surround sound setup in the gamecube era.

[-] Grangle1@lemm.ee 0 points 4 months ago

Exactly. Until around 2005 with the advent of affordable HDTVs and the war between HD-DVD and Blu-Ray, anything more than what came stock with your TV, which was usually standard definition picture and stereo sound, was something of a luxury. Sound bars were only really starting to become a popular thing.

[-] Norgur@kbin.social 1 points 4 months ago

oh, it was the racing game? I must have gone through the text too quickly then. Yet, if we're pragmatic: How many people would have really enjoyed that game (which wasn't stellar to begin with) more with properly encoded surround sound, and how many would have enjoyed it a tad less because of the annoying logo spam on startup? I don't think Surround-Sound-enjoyers were the target audience for that one.