Saturday, September 17, 2011

The first King Arthur, and Dolby Surround




After doing the work on the Head Related Transfer Function, I was moved to writing the software and utilities for the newly formed sound department at Argonaut.

The first game I worked on was a SNES game called King Arthur's World.

Towards completion date, Jez San (Argonaut founder) asked us to try and make space for Dolby Surround encoded samples.

Instead I spotted a hack that effectively meant that by controlling the volume registers on the SNES's dedicated sound chip, the game software software could control a sounds position in 3-D.


This was of virtually no use in King Arthurs World as it was a 2-D scrolling game, but the weather sound effects game from all around you, and the opening chords spin round the room...


We then had Dolby come and visit us, and in the end King Arthur was the first game to carry the official Dolby Surround Sound Licence.

This resulted in Dolby promoting the game for us, and I was interviewed for Home Entertainment magazine Autumn 1993 edition.

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