Quoted from TigerLaw:The manufacturers really struggled with what they could do with the technology limitations. Compressed sound that is low quality was thing that burdened many 90’s games. Heck, even LOTR got the compression treatment and that was in the 00’s.
LOTRs sound was more just Stern's cheapness. LOTR came out in 2003 and was essentially still using a sound system designed in the early 90s. Not only that but it was using a mediocre emulated version of said sound system. Why they didn't just redesign it when they spent all the money to get it emulated? Who knows. I don't think they got rid of it entirely until SAM came out. Meanwhile it had already been surpassed twice before the new millennium had even started by DCS and DCS2. Three times if you count Capcoms system. I don't know about everyone else but the sound on the later three still sounds pretty acceptable to me even today. The BSMT was able to limp along for a while with rom size increases. But it definitely should have been replaced by the mid to late 90s let alone the early 00s.
Pillager, MN
