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 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

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 5 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 5 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.