View source for QSound

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'''{{PAGENAME}}''' is the original name for a three-dimensional audio technology created by QSound Labs. Following the release of a second revision, the technology is often referred to as '''Q1'''.

QSound "widens" the range of stereo sound, and so is best used with a pair of stereo speakers spaced apart from the television. For video games, the benefits were more significant in arcade environments, where speakers would be mounted to arcade cabinets in the correct position to ensure the best quality audio, though if positioned properly, similar effects can be achieved in the home.

While primarily backed by [[Capcom]], which held a stake in the technology and used it in all of its CPS2 arcade boards, Sega began using the technology in 1993 for its [[Sega Mega-CD]] game library{{magref|edge|1|61}}, starting with ''[[Ecco the Dolphin]]''{{magref|edge|1|64}}, before signing a deal to incorporate it in [[Sega 32X]] and [[Sega Saturn]] games{{intref|Press release: 1994-12-07: QSOUND IN SEGA 32X TM AND SATURN TM}}. QSound-enabled games were still in production as late as the [[Sega Dreamcast]], though by the turn of the century, the technology had largely been abandoned.

[[Nintendo]] used a competing system, [[Dolby Surround]], in many of its SNES games around this period, however this requires audio equipment with a Dolby Surround decoder and is only fully realised by a set of speakers placed behind the user (i.e. it is "surround" sound, whereas QSound is just an enhanced form of stereo). Later the [[Sega Saturn]] and [[Sega Dreamcast]] would support Dolby Surround too. Both technologies have been superseded by more advanced surround sound setups.

==Games utilising QSound==
===[[Mega-CD]]===
{{BulletPointGameList|category=Mega-CD games with QSound support}}

===[[32X]]===
{{BulletPointGameList|category=32X games with QSound support}}

===[[Saturn]]===
{{BulletPointGameList|category=Saturn games with QSound support}}

===[[Dreamcast]]===
{{BulletPointGameList|category=Dreamcast games with QSound support}}

==Albums utilising QSound==
*''[[Sonic the Hedgehog Boom]]'' (1994)
*''[[Sega Music Group: 1995 Sampler]]'' (1995)
*''[[Ecco: Songs of Time]]'' (1996)
*''[[Sega Power Cuts 1]]'' (1996)

==References==
<references />

[[Category:Middleware]]