Realistic Game Audio Has Us Pining for Beeps of Yesteryear
Last week, a sound clip Web site made some Internet ripples with two notable retro collections: Super Nintendo and Sony’s (SNE) PlayStation. Combined, the two collections feature more than 1,500 “I remember that” clips uploaded by site users. Most of the files are no more than one or two seconds long, but their footprint is immediately felt by players. Why is that?
“Retro gaming sounds like these helped define millions of childhoods and made an impression when they were most sensitive–during one’s formative years,” says Scott Steinberg, a videogame insider and author of Videogame Marketing and PR. “As such, they instantly evoke a sense of nostalgia that warms the heart and causes the occasional involuntary thumb twitch.”
Steinberg tells Ars these sounds were also heard a lot more than in modern games. Not by design, but by requirement. “Old-school games were harder–necessitating more plays–and consumed at a point in most players’ lives (their grade school/teen years) when disposable income was minimal,” he argues. “This prompted players to spend countless hours with popular titles to get more bang for their buck, and thus exposed everyone to more plays of each jingle than is common today.”
