The "Surround in Video Games" Thread

QuadraphonicQuad

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One pet peeve I do have is when the music in these games are stereo and the surround is only delegated to the sound effects. I do suppose synths coming from everywhere in the room would break the immersion?
 
@fredblue I didn't realize you're such a massive gamer! Good I made this thread, eh?

Speaking of horror, I tried Alien: Isolation in 5.1 and it was so spooky I couldn't get through it...I didn't even get to meet the Alien!
oh yes, i used to be a voracious video gamer, games were a big part of my life for many years 💘

however i've moved several times in the last 10 years and in the process got rid of all my computer games on cassette tapes and floppy disks and the 8-bit machines and reluctantly thinned out my Japanese titles on the MegaDrive, PC Engine & Super Famicom down to very few now.

i still kept a fair bit of stuff mainly PAL UK/Euro things but also American and Japanese exclusives on the MD/Genesis, TG16, Saturn & Dreamcast and hung onto at least one example of every console i had from around 1989 (i used to have multiple units of my favourite machines "just in case" 🤷🏻‍♀️ the backups had to go during one of the moves which i still don't think i've fully recovered from tbh 😭 )

so anyway tucked away now are my original Mega Drive, Mega CD, TurboGrafx16, PC Engine, SNES, N64, PS1 & various handhelds and games for all those systems.

i currently have my Saturn, PS2, PS3, PS4, XBox 360, Dreamcast, GameCube, Wii & WiiU all hooked up to my main HT system and i do still play all of them, although my spidey senses are not what they were and once my vision started going tits up i came to play less and less.

oh yes! it's a wonderful thing you've done creating this here thread! 💝thank you very much! 😍
 
This old timer still dabbles with Microsofts Destiny 2. On my Xbox Series One X
In gloriarse Dolby Atmos.

And it's a cracking mix.
The graphics are really cool 😎 too.

I'm seeing how long I can last before the kids on the block start wiping me out.

Although to be fair I mainly play PVE.

Gotta keep the kid in me, alive.
 
did you guys pick up any of the official mini consoles released the last few years?

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ohh they're so GD cute! 🥰 i've reboxed them now but i had them all up and running at one time, so convenient and such a hoot! 😋 toot toot! 🥳
 
Where do people find time for all this stuff? I don't have enough time to do what I want even without this stuff.
The beauty of retirement.
It does take some juggling, especially with looking out for our grandson George
And my allotment
And watching sport
And listening to music
And
And :D
 
Where do people find time for all this stuff? I don't have enough time to do what I want even without this stuff.
folks here sometimes used to ask this back when i was posting a lot on QQ about hoovering up all the old OOP titles; how do you find the time to listen to it all!?

(i suppose in hindsight we all approach collecting whatever it is we're into almost like a game really with a strategy on how to play the system to find games, music, movies, etc..!? ..but i guess that's for another thread/day! 🤔 ).

anyway my answer is the same now as it was then; i really don't have the time but i have to actively make the time, otherwise it's a waste of time pursuing getting the discs/games/films or whatever it is.

yes, it's a selfish pursuit but my hobbies are like therapy, so without going out of my way to make some "me time" to follow them i just know i'd go bananas.. so everyone's a winner in the long run, you could say 😋🍌

sometimes it means prioritising the hobbies over socialising, skipping some sleep or forsaking the odd meal or three but a geek's gotta do what Nintendon't! 🧐 err.. a nerd's gotta do what a nerd's gotta do! 🤓 umm.. when the microchips are down, you gotta take a byte! 😫🤷🏻‍♀️🙃

where were we? 😅 oh yeah.. GAMES!! 😂🤤💘
 
The beauty of retirement.
It does take some juggling, especially with looking out for our grandson George
And my allotment
And watching sport
And listening to music
And
And :D

I've been retired over 10 years, and I seem to have less and less time because my evil brain keeps coming up with new and wonderful ideas. Now perhaps this!
 
The beauty of retirement.
It does take some juggling, especially with looking out for our grandson George
And my allotment
And watching sport
And listening to music
And
And :D
My dad told me that six months after I retired, I would be so busy that I’d wonder how I ever had time to go to work. He was so amazingly correct!
 
I wasted a lot of time playing video games: so much that I swore them off to focus more on real life. The original Counterstrike half-life mod was pretty awesome though, we would have marathon sessions after work. The immersive surround was well done especially for the time. Every time I hear this Italian opera music it brings me back:



Unreal was good too: very immersive sound & the game engine is still used today, although it's been updated. Sometimes I'd just wander around the worlds exploring, taking in the details built into the various levels.

Then I got heavily into online racing simulators: 60's & 70's Formula One & then Sportscars. Surround sound is pretty essential for keeping track of cars around you, so it's always been part of the game package. A decent wheel & pedal setup is mandatory too.

Compared to arcade style racing games, it takes a lot of skill to set up your cars & learn the tracks. Which can be a disadvantage if you just want to jump in a car & race. Competing online was especially challenging as you're racing against real people who've spent hours tuning their car setups & learning racing lines.

Grand Prix Legends was a gamechanger when it came out, simulating the 1967 Formula One season. It's ancient but people are still playing it today, with graphics upgrades.

GT Legends came later: better graphics, weather, and great physics. I got into modding & building cars for that: it's popular in Europe where leagues are still running.

http://www.altbierbude.de/
Here's a few cars I made: I generally did replicas of real cars that actually existed, but I did have some fun with Jimi & his L88 Corvette. Although I found out later his was a blue hardtop.

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That's a full Marshall stack in the passenger seat, based on photos of the actual amp he used at Monterey 1967.

This was based on the album cover for "hey little cobra" by The Rip Chords: which was a real car raced by Dan Gurney and Phil Hill, at Sebring 1963

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The coolest thing is being able to drive around real historic racetracks that have long since been demolished or modified: Targa Florio (!!), Spa '67, Riverside, Rouen, LeMans '70, Monza, and many others. And there's still people building cars & tracks, downloadable to use for free.

Before watching races in real life I'd often do a few laps on the track, so you get a better understanding of what the drivers were dealing with. Makes a huge difference when you know the track. In fact after lapping Mid-Ohio in my real car, the instructor was so impressed he took me out for hotlaps in his C7 Grand Sport ( me as a passenger ) which was pretty gobsmacking. That was a fast car!!

New generations of games come with better graphics & more features, and are even more addictive. So I stay away from them :D I have too much crap I need to do IRL.
 
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Here's another fictional car I did for fun:

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I did a lot of historic corvettes, here's a montage of some more somebody put together: that yellow one was in the film "Le Mans"

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If you're into 60s & 70s vintage sports cars it's worth checking out: GT Legends is on Steam, or you can download the installer manually from a few places. I think archive.org has it too. The company is long out of business, sadly. I probably runs really well on modern PC hardware. The car & track mods are easy to install: you just unzip & copy them into the correct game directory.

Some of the tracks are spectacular & a *lot* of work goes into them. As I said, it's a blast to drive around those old courses. Dundrod, Mosport, Watkins Glen, Daytona. The Isle of Man TT course is out there too.

And here's a demo clip I just grabbed on youtube:

 
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