"Sonic Boom!"
Arnold's shout came through the speakers, though the poor recording conditions had already introduced a noticeable amount of distortion.
Ethan frowned as he pondered.
He had been so focused on recording those iconic character voice clips that he had almost forgotten the most important problem.
They couldn't play them back!
At this stage, the vast majority of arcade machines used audio chips manufactured by either Texas Instruments or Yamaha. Their core method of generating sound relied on layering various synthesized waveforms together to imitate different sound effects.
That was why arcade games typically consisted of nothing more than electronic "beep-boop" sounds.
Human voices, however, were complex nonlinear waveforms. Those two chips simply couldn't reproduce them.
Sam scribbled calculations onto a sheet of paper and finally arrived at a rough estimate.
"If we want to add audio playback capability, the bill of materials will increase by nearly fifty dollars."
That alone was practically the price of an entire CPU.
"The biggest issue is storage."
Sam's eyes swept across the estimated component list.
"Every audio clip takes up a huge amount of storage space. It'll make the game's total size ridiculously large."
Simply put, the additional storage media was where the real money would be spent. Scratching his head, Sam picked up the prototype motherboard from the table.
It contained only a Yamaha YM2151 chip. They had already tested it earlier, and the synthesized results had been far from satisfactory.
"So is it really worth spending all that extra money just for a few voice clips? If you ask me, we could just make a more impactful 'BAM!' sound effect. Same impact, only five bucks!"
"No, Sam."
Ethan rejected the suggestion without hesitation.
"This is the soul of the character. It's absolutely indispensable."
Sam sighed helplessly. Having known Ethan for so long, he understood all too well how stubborn he was when it came to creative work. Convincing him was simply impossible.
But if they kept dragging this out, development would inevitably fall behind schedule.
"So... do you actually have a solution?"
Ethan silently closed the system panel before him and glanced out the window.
It was still early. There was enough time.
"Not yet."
"But by this afternoon, I should."
"...?"
...
University of Southern California, Electrical Engineering Library.
Ever since his business had taken off, Ethan rarely returned to campus. Even so, the library remained a treasure trove worth exploring.
Looking over his system attributes, Music Composition had always been his lowest stat.
There wasn't much he could do about that. After all, the current state of audio technology offered him very little room to demonstrate his abilities.
But now, it finally had a purpose.
[You gained insights from reading Computer Sound Technology. EXP +1.]
[You gained insights from reading Computer Sound Technology. EXP +1.]
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from NovelPhoenix. Please report it.
...
[You gained insights from reading FM Frequency Modulation. EXP +1.]
...
[Ding!]
[Your understanding of digital audio has reached a professional level.]
[Skill Acquired:]
[Digital Audio Master]: [Music Composition (Synthesis) +10, Music Composition learning efficiency++]
Snap!
Ethan closed the book.
He had already found the perfect solution.
When he returned to the GAMENOVA studios, Gerald and Sam were gathered around the motherboard, discussing something intensely.
"Mm-hmm, I see. That's brilliant, Gerald."
"Oh, it's nothing. Just experience accumulated over the years."
Hearing movement at the entrance, Sam looked up and immediately brightened.
"Ethan! Gerald came up with a really good idea. Take a look."
"Yes. Sam already explained the requirements to me. We can borrow the same approach used in graphics processing by splitting the audio workload across two chips."
Gerald pointed at the diagram he had sketched.
"One YM2151 will handle synthesized sound effects and background music. The second chip can be an MSM5205, which will decode prerecorded audio..."
Ethan raised an eyebrow and leaned closer to examine it carefully. Sam and Gerald's approach was quite interesting. They had expanded the existing architecture from the hardware perspective.
Although it appeared to add another chip, it drastically reduced the amount of storage required.
"Not bad."
"But I found another solution as well."
Ethan smiled.
His approach differed from theirs. Instead of solving the problem through hardware, he had attacked it through algorithms.
"I call this technology the 'Vorbis Codec', an audio compression algorithm."
"Huh?"
Both men froze, especially Sam, who knew Ethan had only been gone for one afternoon.
"Give me a moment. I'll need to write a program for it."
Half an hour later...
"Sonic Boom!"
Arnold's deep voice rang clearly through the speakers, sounding almost no different from before.
Sam's eyes widened in disbelief as he replayed the recording over and over.
"The voice quality barely dropped at all... Th-That's absurd!"
"Of course, this algorithm consumes a small amount of processor performance."
Ethan compared the storage usage before and after compression, the difference was huge.
"But compared to storage costs, I believe that's a far cheaper trade-off."
This technology wasn't something he had invented out of thin air. It was based on the same technology used by the OGG audio format in the future.
If they wanted to compress it even further, they could simply reduce the audio sampling rate by several more levels.
In fact, even if they cut the sampling rate in half again, these voice samples would still utterly crush almost every arcade machine currently on the market.
"Besides, we don't need to sample every single sound."
Ethan looked at Gerald's dual-chip proposal.
"We're still going to use Gerald's solution. We'll only use sampled audio for each character's most important special moves and victory quotes."
That way, storage usage could be compressed to an extremely low level.
Even when the game was eventually ported to home console cartridges, everything would still fit comfortably.
Speaking of special moves, Ethan turned toward Gerald.
"Gerald, since you're here, I take it there's been some progress on what I asked for?"
"Of course."
Sam looked back and forth between the two of them in confusion, completely unable to follow their cryptic conversation. Not until Gerald opened the case he had brought and took out its contents.
"I built this prototype according to the specifications you described. See if it's the same thing you meant by a 'joystick.'"
"A joystick?"
Sam curiously examined the obviously handmade piece of hardware in front of him.
"Why don't we just use Atari's four-way joystick or the standard eight-way mechanical joystick?"
Having played so many games, there was no way he wouldn't recognize a joystick. The device had already been used in flight simulators back in the 1970s.
And as for video games, it was hardly anything new within the industry.
Ethan replaced the original control panel with the new joystick, grabbed the ball top, and spun it around in two quick circles before nodding with satisfaction.
"Because this thing can roll motions!"
The movement path of an ordinary eight-way joystick was square.
This one, however, had been designed specifically for executing fighting game motion inputs.
...............
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