Homebrew Emulators on Wii and Dolby

[CaptainKoloth]

Hello all:

I've gotten big into audio lately. It's not perhaps commonly known but the SNES and N64 actually both did surround via various forms of Dolby Surround, meaning they matrixed the surround sound into a stereo signal that could be decoded by a proper receiver.

Does anyone know if any of the Wii emulators (interested in Not64 and SNES9X GX in particular, but the question is general) accurately reproduce the stereo signal such that, if the Wii is connected to a receiver, the surround information can be recovered? This is a pretty technical question and I'm not actually expecting to get the answer (somehow when I've asked this in the past it devolves into a discussion of whether Dolby is "true" surround, which is not what I'm asking) but i thought I'd give it a shot! Unfortunately there are to my knowledge no surround test modes with games from those generations so it's not something one can easily check even if you have all the appropriate audio equipment.

 

[KleinesSinchen]

Indeed a very specific question. But an interesting one, that is sure.

No idea about SNES games – means: I don't think I have any games with surround sound.

A quick test with Wii 64 (NOT64 isn't on my SD for quick testing) showed inconsistent results.
A lot of the later N64 Rare titles have Dolby Surround so I loaded up Donkey Kong 64 and Banjo Tooie.

With DK64 the result was not quite good. One of the tutorial mini games (four bonus barrels right at the beginning of the game) let's you throw some barrels wherever you want. I'm pretty sure the smashing sound when a barrel breaks is supposed to come from the rear speakers if thrown behind the camera (direction like "out of the TV"). It didn't work. Needs verification with actual N64. And some more testing.
Banjo on the other side seemed to work. In the first area is a small lake around "Spiral Mountain" and at one point is a loud waterfall. Swimming next to the waterfall and turning the camera full circle made the sound come from left → center → right→ rear → left. (rear part not perfect though)

Whether Dolby Surround or Pro Logic (II) can be considered "true" surround isn't very interesting for me. I always enjoyed it - especially Pro Logic II games on GameCube can sound really good (Star Wars Rogue Leader is nice (and opposed to the N64 titles has a test where a Tie Fighter flies around and can be heard). True surround or not: I wish it was still an option on the Wii U so I could get some kind of surround with my old non-HDMI Dolby receiver (from year 1999).

 

[CaptainKoloth]

Yes, GC does have good test modes for Rogue Squadron. Makes it much easier to test.

 

[gZa]

If the emulators are outputting a stereo signal (and no reason why they wouldn't) then your equipment (if it has a Dolby Pro Logic processor) would take the stereo signal from that and produce the desired effect.