Aureal Semiconductor

But the game was only half the story because to hear it properly, you wanted a new sound card.

Creative's Sound Blaster Live came out at a hundred and forty-nine pounds, roughly three hundred today, and Diamond's Monster Sound MX300 with Aureal's chip inside was due at around a hundred, so about two hundred pounds now.

Three hundred modern pounds just to hear the footsteps behind you is, uh, a big ask, Lee, and that's before anyone's even mentioned the graphics card.

Was it the same story with the pictures as well?

Oh, I love that because suddenly the shots hang in the air, and you can hear how big the room is.

It makes the place feel properly concrete and empty, which is exactly what you want in an underground lab full of monsters.

Then finally, the Aureal card, like Diamond's monster sound.

It's a 3D system, traced sound bouncing off the actual walls of the level, so you could hear where a soldier was through a doorway.