Goog,
I know this topic is a bit old, but I was just combing through the archives, and I figured I'd point this out to you.

Yes, the biggest detriment to GBA sound quality is that tiny little buzzer speaker, but it's actually quite a bit better on the GBA SP than it was on the GBA. The speaker is a bit larger, better quality, and your thumbs aren't going to get in the way and distort the sound.

The *second* biggest detriment to GBA sound quality, however, is the GBA's own sound processor. It only supports six hardware audio channels, whereas the SNES had eight channels, and most newer consoles support 16 or more (The GameCube supports 16). This is why Capcom had to make adjustments to the music and sound effects in Zelda:LttP when they ported it to the GBA, since some of the effects (Teleporting to the Dark World, for instance) used wave transforms on several audio channels, likely requiring all eight to be active at once.

Shin'en Multimedia, the company making the Iridion II 3D engine for the GBA, also has what appear to be some pretty good devtools for audio development on the GBA which do some sample mixing in software before sending it to the audio processor, allowing developers to eke out a little bit more quality from the sound hardware, at the expense of some processor time. Needless to say, this isn't something you'd be likely to use in an intense shooter or a game with a 3D engine in it, as your CPU is taxed to the limit already.

Hope that helps. :)

-Cutriss

Hey Goog,

With a slight pause to sample a Japanese Aria of Sorrow (it's the best of the GBA installments, although it feels like the game was thrown together in six months) after completing both halves of Kartia (which was excellent), I started a new quest in Alundra, after not playing it for about five years. It's so good.

What's the team who made Alundra (and Landstalker) doing nowadays?

How about the team who made Kartia?

-Traks

Vangrant Story spoilage
>Here's a little issue to discuss with your friends:
>1. Bob dies.
>2. Bob comes back as a ghost.
>3. A necromancer comes along and animates Bob's corpse.
>4. Bob's ghost possesses Zombie-Bob.

This actually happened to Grissom in Vagrant Story. He was quite happy about it, until said Necromancer (none other than Le‡ Monde itself) started manipulating him. Poor guy.

So, now that I've filled your column with Vagrant Story goodness, here's some questions:

1. Do you agree that FFIIIj is one of the best things Square has ever created? It has everything FFI lacks, invented the job system, and has an incredibly deep plot. Everything about it just breathes perfection. Do you think it should have been brought to the US and Europe?

2. Not really RPG-related, but: ever played Puyo Puyo? It's a series of Tetris games, but there are a couple of RPGs based on it. It has cute slimes. You cannot resist the cute slimes.

~Solle

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