Dreamcast games with verified surround sound

[Yharnamresident]

Finally managed to hook up my Dreamcast to my home theatre. So I will be personally verifying which games have surround sound, whether its undocumented or documented(says on game case).

The most common format is Dolby Surround(Pro Logic I), because the Dreamcast was discontinued before Dolby Pro Logic II became popular in 2001/2002.





Undocumented:
-Virtua Tennis(lots of centre channel use)
-Sega GT(actually uses rear channels for rival car noises)
-Test Drive Le Mans(surround effects seem to be amped up during replays)
-Metropolis Street Racer(game intro sounds impressive, but the rest of the game has rather scarce surround effect)
-Tokyo Xtreme Racer 2(the music is mixed in surround like Ridge Racer V)
-Ikaruga(the game has constant surround effects, can/should be cited as a Dreamcast game with full surround sound)

Documented:
-NHL 2K
-NHL 2K2

I will be updating this list as I go through more games

[Yharnamresident]

Added Tokyo Xtreme Racer 2

I've come to the conclusion that most games use Dolby Surround encoding, what depends is if they actually do anything impressive with the encoding.

[Yharnamresident]

I've discovered something substantial that makes me glad I made this thread.

Ikaruga is absolutely loaded to the brim with surround effects. Its a quantum leap over the other games I've tried. Stuff like corridors opening, enemies falling off screen, entering new areas, its very well done. This game must be included in any Dreamcast surround sound lists.

[GohanX]

How are you verifying that they were actually created with surround encoding? Pro Logic or DTS surround modes in a receiver can apply processing to pretty much any stereo source, doesn't mean the designers were giving the faintest thought to rear channels when they were designing the audio. Try going through time in Sonic CD, it sounds pretty amazing in surround but I can guarantee you Sega did not give the slightest care to surround sound in 1993.

[Yharnamresident]

How are you verifying that they were actually created with surround encoding? Pro Logic or DTS surround modes in a receiver can apply processing to pretty much any stereo source, doesn't mean the designers were giving the faintest thought to rear channels when they were designing the audio. Try going through time in Sonic CD, it sounds pretty amazing in surround but I can guarantee you Sega did not give the slightest care to surround sound in 1993.

Well it should be pretty obvious that I'm relying upon my personal observations. AKA take it with a bit of salt. I will say that a lot of the things I mention are practically impossible for the receiver to come up with on its own.

[Team Andromeda]

Try going through time in Sonic CD, it sounds pretty amazing in surround but I can guarantee you Sega did not give the slightest care to surround sound in 1993.

Yeah NiGHTS on the Saturn can give some great surround, while not supporting in it. In 1993 SEGA seemed more focus on Q-Sound I did like how some EA Mega-CD games used Surround sound officially.
FIFA on the Mega CD was quite impressive in sound sound

[Yharnamresident]

Yeah NiGHTS on the Saturn can give some great surround, while not supporting in it. In 1993 SEGA seemed more focus on Q-Sound I did like how some EA Mega-CD games used Surround sound officially.
FIFA on the Mega CD was quite impressive in sound sound

Thanks for the idea TA, there also has to be surround sound list threads for the Saturn and Sega CD. I will eventually create them if they aren't already created.

[Ecco]

How about Ecco on Dreamcast? I bet it's loaded with surround-sound effects...

[Ecco]

Yeah NiGHTS on the Saturn can give some great surround, while not supporting in it. In 1993 SEGA seemed more focus on Q-Sound I did like how some EA Mega-CD games used Surround sound officially.
FIFA on the Mega CD was quite impressive in sound sound

^I never really checked specifically for surround sound effects, but years ago, I remember that FIFA on Sega CD, had really nice sound effects in general. The crowd cheering real audio recordings. I remember the audio was relaxing, and realistic.

[Yharnamresident]

How about Ecco on Dreamcast? I bet it's loaded with surround-sound effects...

Well personally I lack the motivation to check, that game genre just isn't my style. But maybe TA has a Dolby receiver hooked up where he could check.

^I never really checked specifically for surround sound effects, but years ago, I remember that FIFA on Sega CD, had really nice sound effects in general. The crowd cheering real audio recordings. I remember the audio was relaxing, and realistic.

The possibility of surround sound on the Sega CD never popped in my head, even though its clearly a good match for it, CD storage space and multiple PCM channels.

[Team Andromeda]

Well personally I lack the motivation to check, that game genre just isn't my style. But maybe TA has a Dolby receiver hooked up where he could check.

The game doesn't support Dolby in software/hardware. You do get some nice effects mind (but its not coded in) it's just a quirk of using a sound system
There's some nice Q-Sound support in the likes of D2, Pen Pen, Sonic Adv mind . I'm not sure if they were brought over to the USA/Pal versions

[Baloo]

Is there a comprehensive list of the retro video games that support Dolby Pro Logic and QSound for Genesis, SNES, Saturn, Dreamcast, Gamecube, etc? And can a Dolby Pro Logic receiver support games that have QSound abilities?

[roce]

Some N64 games also support Dolby something-or-other surround sound.

[Joe Redifer]

Anything that has sounds in the center channel simply means that some of the sounds are in mono. All mono sounds will come through the center channel. In fact ONLY mono sounds will come through the center channel. Surround sound is almost as simple. The sound must be in mono (same sound and volume in the left and right audio signal) but that sound is out of phase, meaning that sound in the left channel will be 180º out of phase with that same sound in the right channel. The receiver sends it to the surround speakers. Lots of sounds can do this accidentally.

Q Sound is stupid as it relies on the person being directly between the two speakers. Don't turn your head or move. Even if you don't the effect is underwhelming at best. If you wanna hear great surround from only two speakers, play PSVR with headphones.

[Team Andromeda]

Q Sound is stupid as it relies on the person being directly between the two speakers. Don't turn your head or move. Even if you don't the effect is underwhelming at best. If you wanna hear great surround from only two speakers, play PSVR with headphones.

I don't think it was stupid, but a product of its time for the home and Arcades. The effect did work well on my old Nicam Stereo TV and I think some games did it a lot better than others; Ecco on the Mega CD was really good and I also got some good effect with Pen Pen on the DC, where it really did give a wide sound space . Not a game changer or anything but a nice effect from just a basic set up and it meant one could use RGB Scart lead on the DC.

I was disappointed to see SEGA who the time, were such a forward thinking and tech corp, give so little support for surround sound with the DC and Saturn in Hardware or its games (I take it Dolby asked a lot?) I did enjoy playing NHL 2K2 in Surround sound back in the day, one of the few SEGA games to support it. I got to give credit to RARE on the N64 when it came to Dobly support early in too

All that said SEGA 5.1 in SEGA GT 2002 and SpikeOut was some of the best use of the format. The sound effects in Spikeout were bone crushing and crystal clear and the 5.1 in SEGA GT the best ever you could even hear the engine purring LOL