Game Sound Effect Appreciation.

Post by **Mozgus** » Fri Oct 26, 2007 12:55 pm

This is an aspect of gaming that is extremely overlooked, even by myself. I've been thinking back on games that used creative, memorable sounds or voice clips for characters and objects. Time and time again, I find myself drifting back to Nintendo. They put good effort into their NES titles, but I think they really began to shine on SNES, and by N64 they perfected it. It seems like, while most other developers create sounds based on how they believe the action would sound realistically, Nintendo always pull some extremely bizarre noise out that you would never connect to the visual counterpart when experienced separately, but once you experience them simultaneously, the two elements are fused in your mind forever.

Think of the Thwomps, Koopa Troopas, Chain Chomps, and god yes, the Boos. I love the boos and everything about the Boos. That cackle they emit just gets me every time. I suppose the only realistic enemy sound effect would be Dry Bones, because it simply sounds like bones clacking together when you stomp him. I'd love to praise Yoshi here, but Yoshi is just a damn Pokemon essentially, saying his own name and nothing else.

Does anyone know of any sites that have game sound effect packages?

Post by **kinn** » Fri Oct 26, 2007 1:24 pm

I actually loved the voice samples in Bad Dudes vs Dragon Ninja. Also liked the impact sounds in Double Dragon too.

Post by **grittykitty** » Fri Oct 26, 2007 5:38 pm

don't some game sound files such as .spc files have sound effects as well as the music?

Fri Oct 26, 2007 7:28 pm

I personaly love the sound of Doom, its like once you hear the rasp of the Imps, you would just recognized what they are, and just lets you know what you are dealing with. Plus the sounds of Doom has been used countless times in games, TV, music, and movies though out the years.

Post by **RadarScope1** » Fri Oct 26, 2007 9:48 pm

You're right about Nintendo and their sfx. The ones from the classic games are almost instantly recognizable, even to lots of people who aren't "gamers." The coin sound or the boing sound from the Mario games are iconic.

On the voice sampling, I still smile a little bit when I think of the commander saying "Good luck" before each mission in Starfox.

Post by **Mozgus** » Fri Oct 26, 2007 10:24 pm

All Hail The New Flesh wrote:I personaly love the sound of Doom, its like once you hear the rasp of the Imps, you would just recognized what they are, and just lets you know what you are dealing with. Plus the sounds of Doom has been used countless times in games, TV, music, and movies though out the years.

Oh thats a good one. They were pretty creative on many of the enemy noises.

Post by **lordofduct** » Fri Oct 26, 2007 10:30 pm

I never really paid attention to how integral sound effects were as a child (and I was the kind of kid who stared close at the screen to watch all the little animation sets to see exactly how it was done... along with many other parts of the workings in a game). But then on the Saturn they released the Sonic Pack with all the Sonic games on it.

My freakin' GOD, the emulation of the sound from the genny onto the Saturn is awful. I then realized how important appropriate sound effects are, and how much you actually pay attention to them subconsciousily.

Post by **racketboy** » Fri Oct 26, 2007 11:10 pm

While they weren't anything spectacular, I really enjoyed the 16-bit Sonic sounds.
Each of the item boxes has a distinct sound and of course you had the bubble sounds for the underwater levels.
Many other levels had distinct sounds like the Casino levels and such.
Sonic CD blew me away when it was new....

Post by **Mozgus** » Fri Oct 26, 2007 11:18 pm

lordofduct wrote:My freakin' GOD, the emulation of the sound from the genny onto the Saturn is awful. I then realized how important appropriate sound effects are, and how much you actually pay attention to them subconsciousily.

I thought I was the only one who noticed this. I was so excited to get the Jam pack, but I found the games to be unplayable when the sounds were so inaccurate.

Post by **rsn9910** » Sat Oct 27, 2007 4:26 am

Thanks for a great thread idea

!

Awesome sound effects that spring to mind:

Impossible Mission / C64 - Hero screaming when falling in a hole. A classic.
Extase / Amiga - EVERY sound effect (they get better the further you progress)
Leander / Amiga - The sound effect of the smart bomb you detonate by ducking and holding button that flanging effect is pure genious
Swiv / Amiga - EVERY explosion in this game is just unbelievable
Kult aka Chamber of Sci-Mutant Priestesses / Amiga - The "voice acting" and fight sounds, amazing. They are fake gibberish voices, but fake voices never sounded this strange!
King of Fighters 95 / Neo Geo - Those punches just sounded ten times better than Street Fighter, but somehow doesn't sound as good on emulation IMO?!?!
Legend of Zelda / NES - The sound when you find a secret with a bomb etc... iconic.
Pac Man / Arcade - Pac man dying

(also background sounds on Ms. Pacman)

I probably forgot lots of great effects.

The Amiga seems to me the ultimate platform for game sound.
It had a good enough sound chip to support samples, but it was still early enough for developers to experiment with unusual ideas. With early I mean it was at a time before game sound became mainstream, together with the whole industry.