List of games Pre 6th Generation with Surround Sound

[austin532]

Despite systems Pre-6th generation era not supporting surround sound it seems that there are games that have a Dolby Surround sound option. Here is what I managed to dig up. I haven't been able to confirm all of these.


SNES:

Art of Fighting
Fatal Fury Special
Indiana Jones Greatest Adventures
Jurassic Park
Jurassic Park Part 2: The Chaos Continues
King Arthur's World
Samurai Shodown
Secret of Mana
Star Fox
Super Castlevania IV
Super Turrican
Super Turrican 2
The Flinstones
Vortex

Super Famicom:

Gekisō Sentai Carranger: Zenkai! Racer Senshi
Seiken Densetsu 3
Shin Kidō Senki Gundam Wing: Endless Duel
Star Ocean
Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together
Tales of Phantasia

PC Engine CD-Rom 2:
Super Darius
Rainbow Islands

CD-i:
The 7th Guest
The Lost Ride

3DO:

Creature Shock
Demolition Man
FIFA International Soccer
The Need for Speed
Return Fire
Return Fire: Maps O' Death
Road Rash
Shock Wave
Shock Wave 2: Beyond the Gate
Shock Wave: Operation JumpGate
Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger

Playstation:

The Adventures of Lomax
Alien Resurrection
Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare
Assault Rigs
Brave Fencer Musashi
Championship Bass
Chrono Cross
Codename: Tenka
Colony Wars
Colony Wars Vengeance
Colony Wars III Red Sun
Cool Boarders 3
Cool Boarders 4
Croc 2
Croc: Legend of the Gobbos
Dancing Stage Euromix
Descent Maximum
Fear Effect
Fear Effect 2: Retro Helix
FIFA 2000: Major League Soccer
FIFA 98: Road to World Cup
FIFA 99
FIFA Soccer 2002
FIFA Soccer 96
Final Fantasy Collection
Final Fantasy IX
Final Fantasy Tactics
Final Fantasy VIII
Formula 1
Formula 1 Championship Edition
Formula One 99
G-Police
Hugo: The Quest for the Sunstones
Jackie Chan's Stuntmaster
Jet Moto 3
Krazy Ivan
Madden NFL 2000
Madden NFL 2001
Madden NFL 2002
Madden NFL 2003
Madden NFL 2004
Madden NFL 98
Madden NFL 99
March Madness '98
Men in Black: The Series - Crashdown
Mission: Impossible
MLB 2001
Moto Racer
N2O Nitrous Oxide
NASCAR 2000
NASCAR 2001
NASCAR 98
NASCAR 99
NBA Live 2000
NBA Live 2002
NBA Live 2003
NBA Live 96
NBA Live 98
NBA Live 99
NBA Shootout 2000
NBA Shootout 2001
NCAA Final Four 2000
NCAA Football 2000
NCAA Football 98
NCAA Football 99
NCAA March Madness 2000
NCAA March Madness 2001
Need for Speed: High Stakes
Need for Speed II
Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit
The Need for Speed
Need for Speed: V-Rally
NFL Xtreme 2
NHL 2000
NHL 98
NHL FaceOff 2000
NHL FaceOff 2001
Parasite Eve
R4 Ridge Racer Type 4
Rascal
ReBoot
Red Asphalt
Resident Evil 2
Road Rash
Road Rash 3-D
Sentient
Shadow Master
Shipwreckers!
Shock Wave: Operation JumpGate
Sled Storm
Supercross 2000
Supercross Circuit
Syphon Filter 2
Tiger Woods 99 PGA Tour Golf
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2000
Triple Play 2001
Triple Play 97
Triple Play 98
Triple Play 99
Triple Play Baseball
Twilight Syndrome: Saikai
Twisted Metal 4
V-Rally 97 Championship Edition / Eagle One: Harrier Attack
VR Baseball '99.
WCW Mayhem
Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom
X-Games: Pro Boarder

Nintendo 64:

Banjo-Tooie
Conker's Bad Fur Day
Donkey Kong 64
FIFA 98: Road to World Cup
Hercules: The Legendary Journeys
Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine
International Superstar Soccer 2000
International Superstar Soccer 98
Jet Force Gemini
Ken Griffey Jr.'s Slugfest
The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Mickey's Speedway USA
NHL 99
Perfect Dark
Pokémon Stadium 2
Premier Manager Ninety Nine
Resident Evil 2
South Park: Chef's Luv Shack
WCW Backstage Assault

Dreamcast:

AirForce Delta
Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare
Pro Pinball: Trilogy

[Xan]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycwKB2zKeM4 many SNES games listed in the comments here.

[Einzelherz]

How did these systems output surround?

[austin532]

The same way they do it now. Dolby Surround is now called Dolby Pro Logic which I believe can use matrix sound to simulate surround sound by taking a 2 channel source and sending it to 5 speakers.

[Asure]

We could say that the information for center and rear speakers is "muxed" into the left/right signal. In a very clever way, so that you do not hear it when using a simple stereo or mono output device. In this case, it is analog audio, not digital, compressed bit.. etc. The details are on wikipedia if you need more info.

A processor uses the reverse math of the formula shown on wikipedia to decode (calculate) the extra sound channel information, which it can then output to center & rear speakers.

Also note the YouTube comment about the sound chip used in the Snes:

SNES SPC engine uses negative L/R panning values for FL and FR to get to the back speakers. Panning values for volumes with FL and FR are $00 - $7F and anything $80 - $FF is negative resulting in a back speaker effect.

Seems not everyone put the logo on the box, and the Snes itself does not seem to have it either. These days you pay royalty fees for encoder/decoder.. everything.

[austin532]

Seems not everyone put the logo on the box, and the Snes itself does not seem to have it either. These days you pay royalty fees for encoder/decoder.. everything.

Since that's the case then finding a complete list will take some time. What would define a game as having surround sound if there is no option for it or Dolby Logo present? The sound quality? I know quite a few SNES games sound like they are already in surround sound (DKC Trilogy, Mega Man X, All Squaresoft games, etc.) and the ones that do officially do support it (Jurrasic Park II, Samurai Shodown, King Arthur's World, etc.) sound great.

[Xan]

What would define a game as having surround sound if there is no option for it or Dolby Logo present?

The aforementioned back speaker panning, I suppose? I've never experienced this, but I'd imagine it would not always be obvious or even very useful in sidescrolling games. Shouldn't the receiver be able to determine what surround standard was used and display it, anyway?

I've also noticed that FFVIII and FFIX do have that Dolby logo on the packaging, but FFX doesn't have it. Supposedly the game has 5.1 in the FMVs (through S/PDIF), so the lack of a logo could have been a royalty related thing indeed.

[austin532]

Yeah, once I get my sound system fully hooked up I will test some games and see if they really do support Dolby.

Another problem is not going strictly by the cover art as some regions have the Dolby Surround Logo and some don't. Parasite Eve for example. The Japanese version has it but the US doesn't. I seriously doubt they would remove that feature when bringing it state side.

Same with FFX, Japan version has it but US and PAL don't. I believe the PS2 could only do DD 5.1 and dts during FMV intro's, cut scenes, and credits. Quite a few games seem to support Pro Logic II which is analog. I'm guessing the rest of the games are just 2.1?

[Unseen]

I believe the PS2 could only do DD 5.1 and dts during FMV intro's, cut scenes, and credits. Quite a few games seem to support Pro Logic II which is analog. I'm guessing the rest of the games are just 2.1?

IIRC GTA Vice City has an option to output dts-encoded sound during the actual game.

[Xan]

I read up a bit on this topic and Wikipedia seems to suggest that Dolby Surround was an early 3.0 standard which was superseded by Dolby Pro Logic (4.0), but Dolby Surround is still around as a term for encoding surround into stereo material. So are all of these games with "Dolby Surround" logos 3.0 or 4.0? If they are 4.0 why didn't they use the more precise Dolby Pro Logic branding? From that video I gather at least FFIV uses 4.0, but this is really a bit confusing. Furthermore it says Dolby Pro Logic II capable receivers can decode 5.0/5.1 (?) from 4.0 Dolby Pro Logic signals...

[Asure]

There is left, right, centre and rear in the old standard. Rear is mono, a single channel.
The later decoders have left, right, centre, rear left, rear right. (and a subwoofer)
If you want to make 5.1 from 4.0, you duplicate the two rear channels, and output that.

Dolby pro logic came later, and is as far as i can tell, only a different IC package, a single chip solution just like the professional stuff they used in movie setups back in the day.
They were just streamlining the device range it seems.

The reasoning behind logo / no logo / no title screen and no big advertising is unclear, but having worked in the media industry (media decoding, Dolby AC3, DTS, TrueHD and DTS-HD) i can tell you that these companies life from royalties these days. As everything can mostly be done by a single chip, or even in software, real time, you can create a device which decodes all with little to no effort. But putting a logo on the box requires memberships, fees, fees-per-device, fees-per-channel-you-can-decode. I would imagine this licensing dinosaur existed back in the day as well

Add to the confusion you already have about Dolby Pro Logic, Dolby Surround, Dolby Stereo, imagine what customers, game retailers, audio-equipment sellers must have had to deal with.. You do not want to loose a customer, because "That Dolby Stereo game might not play on my Dolby Surround tv".. 99% of these games were played on a mono tv with RF leads anyway.

The game companies opted for least resistance in most of these cases i guess.

[bobrocks95]

Dolby is terrible when it comes to naming things. Doly Pro Logic is just the name for the decoding process. Dolby Surround is then usually referring to the matrixed encoding scheme with a mono surround channel. I bet if you asked an engineer there he/she couldn't even explain it fully, it's a load of BS really.

Here is the most pertinent comment from that YouTube video for identifying games with Pro Logic support:

there are actually quite a few snes games to use it. DKC2 being another one, the SNES SPC engine uses negative L/R panning values for FL and FR to get to the back speakers. Panning values for volumes with FL and FR are $00 - $7F and anything $80 - $FF is negative resulting in a back speaker effect.

So the most accurate way to test if a game features surround encoding (assuming this information is accurate; I'm sure it's verifiable from another source) would be to run an emulator in some sort of debug mode that lists audio values, look at the hex it spits out, and see if anything falls into the ranges listed.

The same user posted another comment which explains his method of testing:

Yeah I didn't even know SNES was capable of surround till not even a year ago. I have here an SPC player that displays negative values for it, Jurassic Park, DKC, DKC2, Castlevania 4 and a couple others I know use it. If you listen closely to the bassline of Stickerbush Symphony from DKC2 at about 20 seconds in, you can hear the sound coming from "behind" you

I just don't know how much SPC players are. Might be necessary if emulators don't report audio values in the way we want them to.


A BIG NOTE is that Nintendo is known for making proprietary reverse-engineerings to avoid licensing fees, and they're great at it. The Wii U discs are for all intents and purposes blu-ray discs, but Nintendo didn't want to pay any fees so they made their own. Same with the Wii's version of DVDs- its disc drive could actually play DVDs and CDs with homebrew software, Nintendo just didn't want to pay licensing fees. So it's entirely possible that more games on the SNES than you might think utilize this work-around that Nintendo made themselves, which just happens to work the same as Dolby Pro Logic support once decoded (surprise surprise).


Some other SNES games people mentioned were:
Rise of the Robots
,NBA Live '96
Seiken Densetsu 3 (SFC)
DKC Trilogy
Castlevania Dracula X
Super Castlevania IV (as mentioned by the guy above)



I've also heard that a bunch of Gamecube/Wii games had surround encoding but didn't pay the licensing fee for Dolby Pro Logic II. Xenoblade Chronicles is one that seemed accurate (voices during cutscenes isolated fully to the main channel, which is apparently a pretty sure-fire sign of proper multi-channel encoding).

[austin532]

Aren't there a handful of SPC Player programs to choose from or do we need the real thing to 100% confirm if a game supports it or not?

[bobrocks95]

I didn't think of loading an SPC Player program or rom since I didn't know anything about them prior to this. Should be great for this though!

[Strider77]

Darius on PC Engine CD is in surround... The logo etc are on the case.

[austin532]

Updated.

[bobrocks95]

I have additional confirmation that the SNES has Pro Logic support for more games than were listed. A Japanese wiki for an SPC Player program mentions this:

Level: (Left, right) is the channel volume. 80 ~ FF will be in opposite phase.

This confirms what was said by someone on that YouTube video earlier in the thread, since the same hex values are mentioned.

Then, looking at the Wikipedia page for Dolby Pro Logic, I see this:

When a Dolby Surround soundtrack is created, four channels of sound are matrix-encoded into an ordinary stereo (two channel) sound track. The centre channel is encoded by placing it equally in the left and right channels; the rear channel is encoded using phase shift techniques, typically an out of phase stereo mixdown.

Which means I'm fairly certain those out of phase sections are interpreted by a Pro Logic receiver as being surround channels. The only song I was able to confirm hitting values 80 and above was Stickerbrush Symphony from DKC2. I'm either not looking in the right place, or I need an SPC Player that will more accurately tell me the volume levels of tracks; any suggestions?

[MSZ]

A BIG NOTE is that Nintendo is known for making proprietary reverse-engineerings to avoid licensing fees, and they're great at it. The Wii U discs are for all intents and purposes blu-ray discs, but Nintendo didn't want to pay any fees so they made their own. Same with the Wii's version of DVDs- its disc drive could actually play DVDs and CDs with homebrew software, Nintendo just didn't want to pay licensing fees. So it's entirely possible that more games on the SNES than you might think utilize this work-around that Nintendo made themselves, which just happens to work the same as Dolby Pro Logic support once decoded (surprise surprise).

Nintendo didn't make the discs themselves, they paid Panasonic to make those discs(Panasonic were also one of the big developer of DVD and BD). Their partnership actually began back in the GameCube days, the GC disc is based on the 8cm MiniDVD. And last but not least, they even had their own version of GC called Panasonic Q.

[ED-057]

SFC Tales of Phantasia

[darcagn]

I actually noticed this a few weeks ago... I used to play all my SNES games in pure stereo mode on my receiver, but then one day turned on DPLII on my receiver and noticed that a lot of the games sounded fucking fantastic in that mode. I figured that DPLII just contained really good fake up-mixing algorithms, but I guess that isn't the case then.

[Einzelherz]

So if I ran the audio from my scart cable out of my SNES (does it matter which chipset?) straight to my surround soundbar setup, I should be able to pull dobly surround out of it?

Seems my surround bar has Dolby Digital and DTS. I don't know if that's the same thing.

[bobrocks95]

So if I ran the audio from my scart cable out of my SNES (does it matter which chipset?) straight to my surround soundbar setup, I should be able to pull dobly surround out of it?

Seems my surround bar has Dolby Digital and DTS. I don't know if that's the same thing.

1) A surrround mix can be made from any stereo source if your sound system supports Pro Logic or Pro Logic II. Only certain games seem to have truly implemented it though. I'm looking into a more scientific method of confirming if a game supports it officially, only thing I can confirm with the SPC Player I'm using is Stickerbrush Symphony. I need suggestions on a better SPC Player or if receivers exist that detect an encoded pro logic signal (if this is even possible?).

2) None of the SNES hardware matters, all it is is the volume encoding in the games themselves.

3) Dolby and DTS are competing companies, most receivers will support technologies from both to be as inclusive as possible.

Nintendo didn't make the discs themselves, they paid Panasonic to make those discs(Panasonic were also one of the big developer of DVD and BD). Their partnership actually began back in the GameCube days, the GC disc is based on the 8cm MiniDVD. And last but not least, they even had their own version of GC called Panasonic Q.

I did know that, I just phrased my statement very poorly, sorry. The point is they don't like paying licensing fees and have a track record of getting around them, so "hidden" Dolby Surround encoding isn't an unlikely thing.



Also to add onto the official list, Seiken Densetsu 3 on Super Famicom has a surround sound option in-game.

[austin532]

Also to add onto the official list, Seiken Densetsu 3 on Super Famicom has a surround sound option in-game.

Yep, it sure does. It called Wide Stereo in the game.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

There were a couple of PC Engine game titles with built-in Roland Sound Space (RSS) audio capability to simulate dimensional sound using just a simple two speaker setup:

Konami's Snatcher and Tomomeki Memorial come to mind.

Not to mention that some of the Pioneer LaserActive LD game titles had built-in RSS support from the get-go as well.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[austin532]

5 more added to the list.

Indiana Jones Greatest Adventures
Secret of Mana
Super Castlevania IV
Star Fox
Star Ocean

Other SNES games I suspect support surround sound:

Actraiser
Actraiser 2
The Addams Family - Pugsley's Scavenger Hunt
Axelay
Breath of Fire
Breath of Fire II
Civilization
Drakkhen
E.V.O.
Illusion of Gaia
Knights of the Round
Nosferatu
P.T.O.
P.T.O. II
Secret of Evermore
Skyblazer
Soul Blazer
Super Ninja Boy
Super Star Wars
Super Star Wars The Empire Strike Back
Super Star Wars The Return of the Jedi
Terranigma
Tetris Attack
U.N. Squadron
Uncharted Waters
Y's III Wanderers from Y's

[bobrocks95]

5 more added to the list.

Indiana Jones Greatest Adventures
Secret of Mana
Super Castlevania IV
Star Fox
Star Ocean

Other SNES games I suspect support surround sound:

Actraiser
Actraiser 2
The Addams Family - Pugsley's Scavenger Hunt
Axelay
Breath of Fire
Breath of Fire II
Civilization
Drakkhen
E.V.O.
Illusion of Gaia
Knights of the Round
Nosferatu
P.T.O.
P.T.O. II
Secret of Evermore
Skyblazer
Soul Blazer
Super Ninja Boy
Super Star Wars
Super Star Wars The Empire Strike Back
Super Star Wars The Return of the Jedi
Terranigma
Tetris Attack
U.N. Squadron
Uncharted Waters
Y's III Wanderers from Y's

Is all this still going with official advertised support/in-game options, or is it also including reverse phase mixing?

[austin532]

Indiana Jones has the Dolby Logo in game, Secret of Mana, Super Castlevania IV, Star Fox, and Star Ocean have supposedly been tested. Nothing is 100% yet although they certainly sound like they are in surround sound.

The rest are games that sound like they have surround sound support to me despite not having an option or Dolby logo for it.

Have you been able to 100% confirm if any game has surround sound whether it be true 3.0/4.0/5.0 or phase mixing? If so I will edit the list by putting confirmed next to the game as well as the method used.

[Einzelherz]

You can add "Tactics Ogre: Let us cling together" to the list. It has a menu option and it produces surround on my setup.

[bobrocks95]

Indiana Jones has the Dolby Logo in game, Secret of Mana, Super Castlevania IV, Star Fox, and Star Ocean have supposedly been tested. Nothing is 100% yet although they certainly sound like they are in surround sound.

The rest are games that sound like they have surround sound support to me despite not having an option or Dolby logo for it.

Have you been able to 100% confirm if any game has surround sound whether it be true 3.0/4.0/5.0 or phase mixing? If so I will edit the list by putting confirmed next to the game as well as the method used.

I can confirm that any channel volume settings in the range 80-FF produce out-of-phase sound that the Pro Logic algorithm interprets as being for the rear speakers.
I cannot confirm what games use those volume ranges without a different program, but I haven't gotten any suggestions on what I can use. I don't mind digging through songs for all the theorized games, but I'd like a more objective way of doing it.

[austin532]

You can add "Tactics Ogre: Let us cling together" to the list. It has a menu option and it produces surround on my setup.

Which version? original Super Famicom, Saturn, or Playstation version?