Art by George Butler.
This episode was written and produced by Casey Emmerling.
For a special video game edition of our Guess That Sound competition, we invited three game audio experts to test their ears on 18 sounds from gaming history. Play along as they identify iconic fanfares, weapons, spells, power-ups, and some seriously tricky deep cuts. Who will claim the title of ultimate video game sound expert? Featuring Foley Artist and Sound Editor Joanna Fang, Senior Interactive Sound Designer Mark Kilborn, and Sound Designer and Composer Jeffrey Brice.
MUSIC FEATURED IN THIS EPISODE
Ryan James Carr - Talk 2 Me
NiK_neT_Art - Retro 8bit happy videogame music
DJArtMusic - So Happy With My 8-Bit Game
I'MIN - Fantasize
Twenty Thousand Hertz is produced by Defacto Sound.
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View Transcript ▶︎
[20K sonic logo]
[music in: Ryan James Carr - Talk 2 Me]
Every year on Twenty Thousand Hertz, we do a game show episode called Guess That Sound, where various people compete to guess various Mystery Sounds. It’s always hilarious and it’s so much fun for our team.
Today, we have something a little different… a special Video Game edition of Guess That Sound. These Mystery Sounds all come from video games, and the guests are three experts who work in game audio.
Unfortunately, the stars didn’t align, and I wasn’t available to join this recording. But our producers Grace and Casey did a fantastic job, and the whole thing is a riot.
So get ready to travel down the warp pipe, and see how many of these video game sounds you can guess.
[music transition into theme song: NiK_neT_Art - Retro 8bit happy videogame music]
Grace: Uh, hello everyone. We are thrilled and honestly like a little starstruck to have you all with us today. I'm Grace, the producer at our sound agency, Defacto Sound. I will be your host and also general cheerleader for the game.
Grace: But just so you all know who each other is, uh, I figured I would just read a brief bio of each of you.
Grace: First we have Joanna Fang, who is an Emmy-winning Foley artist and sound editor at Sony. A few of her game credits include Spider-Man 2, God of War: Ragnarok, and Horizon Forbidden West.
Joanna: Hi.
Grace: Then we have Mark Kilbourne, who is the senior interactive sound designer at Skywalker Sound. Mark has worked on multiple Call of Duty games, Forza Singularity, and many others.
Mark: Hello.
Grace: And finally, we have sound designer and composer Jeffrey Brice. He's worked on Disney Wish: Uncharted Adventure, Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond, and Blade Runner 2049 Memory Lab.
Jeff: Hello.
Grace: And with that, I will pass it over to our wonderful Supervising Producer, Casey, to say hello and explain the rules.
Casey: Thank you, Grace, and hello everyone. We're very happy to have you here.
[music in: DJArtMusic - So Happy With My 8-Bit Game]
Casey: All right. So the game is fairly simple. Each sound will have a possible score of three points, and we have two hints prepared for each sound, that you can ask us to read at any time.
Casey: So hint one will be the game's release year and the original platform it was released on. Now, many of these games have subsequently come out on many other platforms, but it'll just be what it first came out on. And then hint two is the context in which you hear the sound in the game.
Casey: So for every hint that we give, the point value for that answer goes down by one. So if the sound plays and you just immediately know what it is, go ahead and shout it out and guess it. If you get it right, you get all three points. If we give one hint, you'll get two points, and if we give two hints, you'll get one point.
[music out]
Casey: So are there any questions about the rules or how it's gonna work?
Joanna: Yeah, I have a question. So besides guessing the title of the game, do we have to be very specific about what action it is or what, like… what descriptive of the sound and how it's used in the game?
Casey: That is a good question. I mean, I think it would be great if you do know where in the game it happens, but if someone guesses the game right but no one knows the exact, you know, mechanism in the game that causes that sound, we'll still definitely award points.
Grace: Yeah.
Casey: Or if like, if one person knows the game and then another person knows the specific sound, maybe we could do some negotiating and do some partial points or something. So we're certainly open to negotiation.
Grace: Yeah, as listeners might remember from previous episodes, I'm very suggestible, and so if… if pitched properly, I will happily award…
Mark: So you’re saying there's a chance. Alright.
Casey: Exactly.
Grace: Exactly. Great question, though.
Jeff: I am fully expecting Mark to just blow Joanna and me out of the water.
Joanna: Oh, I'm fully expecting you to blow me and Mark out of the water.
Jeff: Okay.
Mark: I’m fully expecting to get fired for my lack of game sound knowledge at the end of this podcast.
Grace: Nooo!
Joanna: That's a very real fear. Very real fear.
Grace: Oh no!
Mark: My boss is gonna listen to this and be like, "You didn't know that sound? Come on, man."
Jeff: “I made that sound.”
Joanna: Yeah.
Mark: Oh gee, even worse.
Grace: Yeah right exactly. There will be no negative real life consequences to this episode, hopefully.
Announcer: Sound one.
[sfx: sound 1]
Jeff: Mario Kart 64.
[sfx: correct]
Casey: That's correct.
Grace: Incredible. Can I ask if you know which context you would hear this sound in?
Jeff: Yeah. So that's when you roll through an item block, that's the roulette sound as it's deciding what you get.
Grace: Wow. I mean…
Casey: You got it. I'm still learning everyone's voices. Was that Mark or Joff?
Jeff: That was Jeff.
Casey: Great
Mark: But I'll take the points. I mean…
Grace: Well done. Well done. So, that indeed was from Mario Kart 64. That is the item box sound. And variations of the sound can be heard in every Mario Kart game. And here is the first item box sound from the original Mario Kart on the Super Nintendo.
[sfx: Super Mario Kart item box]
Joanna: For a second there, I thought it was like a Nokia cellphone ringtone. Not gonna lie.
Grace: I know, right?
Joanna: Usually when I'm playing Mario Kart, it's while screaming at my partner, so I...
Grace: Honestly, same.
Jeff: You don’t hear much else.
Joanna: Yeah, exactly.
Grace: Yes. I'm blinded by my own fury. I can't hear anything. Whoa.
Announcer: Sound two.
[sfx: sound 2]
Joanna: Okay, what is that?
Jeff: I'm feeling arcade, but I'm not sure.
[sfx: sound 2]
Jeff: That could be an Undertale sound, but it's not.
Grace: Ooh, okay
Mark: It kinda has that vibe, yeah
Joanna: Yeah, 'cause the quality of the sound effect itself, I mean, I was trying to figure out what year it is. Um…
Jeff: Yeah.
Joanna: No, I mean, it sounds so clean, right? Like, 'cause if it's from a more retro game, if it's the original sound from the original release of it, then you'd expect to hear a little bit more, like, artifacting or just, you know, just some more indicators that it's, like, an 8-bit sound.
Joanna: Can we play it back one more time?
Grace: Mmm. Yeah
[sfx: sound 2]
Mark: Unless they recorded it out of an emulator, which would make it sound a lot cleaner than it should be. I'm probably overthinking it.
Joanna: Yeah, yeah. Mark, let's, let's focus on this part of this mystery sound quiz. “What was your signal path?”
Grace: This is great. And don't forget too, you're more than welcome to ask for hints.
Joanna: Mark, Jeff, are we ready for us to take a lifeline on this?
Jeff: Yeah, sure
Mark: Yeah, I'm not gonna get this without a hint.
Grace: All right. So this was first released on Steam for PC in 2016.
Jeff: So it's not Undertale, 'cause that was 2015.
Grace: Wow, I'm so impressed. The detail!
Mark: Wow.
Joanna: Jeez.
Jeff: Um, it's... I wonder if it's an RPG of some kind?
Joanna: Oh, let's think. It sounds-
Jeff: What came out in 2016?
Joanna: It sounds like some…
Mark: It almost feels like a ghost sound, like a...
Jeff: Yeah.
Mark: I don't know if–I'm on the right track at all, but it kinda has that vibe.
Casey: Ooh.
Grace: I think, okay, I, we're, we are so there. We're so close. Can we think of the name of the game?
Jeff: Ghost. 2016. It's not Spooky's Jump Scare Mansion, is it?
Grace: It is not, but now I really wanna know what that game is.
Casey: Ooh I don’t know that one.
Joanna: Your superior knowledge of, uh, indie games is now of detriment. Um, no, uh…
Jeff: Yeah, it's... I'm, I'm mired in references here. There are so many games with ghosts.
Joanna: It wouldn't be Among Us. No, that came out much later. Um…
[sfx: sound 2]
Joanna: “Moo.”
Grace: I'll say, the game isn't about ghosts explicitly. They're just a feature, if that helps.
Jeff: It just has ghosts in it.
Joanna: Oh.
Mark: Okay.
Grace: And I can, I can give hint two if that would help, too.
Jeff: I'll take it.
Joanna: Yeah, let's do it.
Mark: Yeah, let’s go.
Grace: Okay. You might encounter this sound while mining.
Mark: Minecraft.
Jeff: No, the–2016.
Mark: No, it's not Minecraft 'cause that's–that’s too late.
Jeff: Uh, is it Terraria?
Casey: You're right in the right realm.
Jeff: It's farming. Farming, farming, farming. It's farming.
Grace: Ah we’re so close guys!
Jeff: I can't think of the game. I'm seeing the picture in my mind and I can't think of the name. Why can’t I–
Mark: Oh, uh, Stardew Valley.
[sfx: correct]
Grace: Yes! Yes.
Casey: There we go.
Jeff: Yes thank you.
Joanna: Wow.
Grace: Amazing. Amazing, amazing.
Mark: One point, alright.
Grace: We got there. We got there. Fantastic work.
Joanna: Good job.
Grace: So yes, this was indeed the sound of ghosts that you encounter in the mines of the game Stardew Valley.
[sfx: sound 2]
Grace: This cozy farm simulator was the solo passion project of creator Eric Barone, also known as ConcernedApe. He was the game's developer, programmer, composer, and sound designer. And we have a little clip of the charming Stardew Valley overture for you that we'll play now.
[Clip: Stardew Valley Overture]
Grace: Ugh. This makes me wanna go sit in my garden.
Mark: I feel calmed down now.
Jeff: It's very good.
Grace: It’s very zen.
Joanna: Yeah, I needed that. I needed that after fumbling the, uh, the question.
Jeff: I had the name of that game locked behind a big door in my mind palace, and I got every part of the key put together except for the name.
Announcer: Sound three.
[sfx: sound 3]
Joanna: What is it, Crash Bandicoot?
Jeff: Oh, no.
Joanna: Donkey Kong?
Grace: No, but good guesses.
Mark: Mmm.
Joanna: Wait, we don't get marked off if we just start throwing out video game names, right?
Grace: No, there's no con–sorry. There’s no consequences.
Mark: Banjo-Kazooie.
Grace: Nope, but good guess
Jeff: Not A Hat in Time.
Mark: Conker's Bad Fur Day. Gosh, it feels like a Rare software thing.
Jeff: Can you play it again?
Grace: Yeah.
[sfx: sound 3]
Joanna: It's got such a nice, like, world music sound to it.
Jeff: Yeah.
Grace: Yeah.
Joanna: That's why I went for Donkey Kong first…
Grace: Yeah.
Joanna: Like one of the N64 ones. But no, it sounds really clean.
Jeff: It's newer than that, yeah.
Joanna: Yeah.
Jeff: See, 'cause the other thing, this could also just be a RuneScape sound effect.
Joanna: I mean, it sounds really clean.
Jeff: Yeah.
Joanna: And it sounds like—I feel like this is, like some sort of like a UI element or something. I'm trying to think of what, how you'd use this sound.
Mark: Like a quest complete.
Jeff: You’ve collected something.
Mark: Or that.
Joanna: Quest complete, yeah.
Jeff: No, this is definitely a collection sound in, in my mind.
Casey: Collection seems like a good, yeah, good way to go.
Grace: Agreed.
Jeff: Yeah.
Grace: Do we want hint one or we don't, do we wanna puzzle through a little more?
Joanna: I think we could puzzle through a little more 'cause there's so many things it can be, right?
Grace: Totally
Jeff: Totally
Joanna: 'Cause like, the world music part of it lends itself to like almost like an exoticism to it, right? So I don't know, part of me is almost like, is it like Uncharted? Is it like a game that's riffing off of, like platformers from that era?
Grace: Mmm.
Joanna: Or is it actually just from a platformer? But I could just be wholly wrong.
Jeff: Donkey Kong Bonanza.
Grace: No, but I love where your head is at.
Jeff: Okay.
Joanna: Oh yeah, also that's another important question. So if we get the, like the franchise right, do we have–then we have to kind of whittle down to which one, right? Is that part of the game as well?
Grace: Yeah. Yeah, we'll–we can at least let you know that you're on the right track.
Joanna: Okay.
Mark: Tropical Freeze?
Grace: Um, just to, to help guide. But yeah, exactly.
Mark: Returns HD. I'm just gonna start naming Donkey Kong games.
Casey: I would say if you say the correct franchise, we will identify that it is the correct franchise. So, so far the franchise has not been said so far.
Mark: Oh, okay.
Joanna: Oh.
Jeff: Okay, cool cool cool.
Grace: Yes, exactly. Yeah.
Joanna: Oh wow.
Jeff: But it is a franchise.
Mark: Yes.
Jeff: Is this–is this–is this Breath of the Wild?
Grace: It is.
[sfx: correct]
Grace: Yes. Okay,
Jeff: Yes.
Joanna: Wow.
Grace: And can you tell us, can you tell us where you would hear this sound in Breath of the Wild?
Jeff: I'm not remembering exactly. I think this is when you get a Korok seed.
Grace: Oh my God.
Casey: You got it.
Grace: Amazing. That's it.
Jeff: Yes.
Joanna: Dude.
Mark: Wow. Nicely done.
Grace: Let’s go.
Jeff: Yeah. I would not have got there had you not said it wasn't a franchise.
Mark: I just wanna be clear, my wife is gonna yell at me when she listens to this podcast cause.
Grace: A lot of people will.
Mark: We both spent so many hours in that game, and she's gonna be like, "You doofus, how did you not guess that?" Uh, Like “Yeah. Sorry dear.”
Joanna: The whole PlayStation sound team is gonna be shouting at me at the end of this episode, I swear to goodness.
Grace: “How could you do this?”
Jeff: No, you know what it is about that sound? It's got that like, almost marimba-like quality that you hear in like Animal Crossing and stuff like that,
Mark: Yeah.
Joanna: Yeah.
Jeff: Where it's very, it's very musical, but it's actually an action happening.
Joanna: Yeah. You can hear the rattle, like the seed rattle. I know we have one of those here on our Foley stage, and we use it all the time for, like, little wooden intricate mechanisms. So it’s like…
Casey: Oh cool.
Grace: Oh, how cool is that?
Joanna: It’s so musical, you know?
Grace: Yes. Okay, amazing, amazing work, folks. So that was indeed the Breath of the Wild Korok Rattle. The sound occurs when you find a Korok.
[sfx: sound 3]
Grace: There are 900 of these little guys hidden around the vast open world, and the rattle sound is followed by this extremely adorable vocalization.
[Clip: Korok sound]
Jeff: Yeah. Yeah.
Grace: There it is.
Mark: See I would have recognized that.
Jeff: I would’ve gotten it immediately if I heard that.
Grace: Exactly. Yep, yep, I know.
Joanna: That just reminds us that if we played Breath of the Wild, we had 900 opportunities to learn this sound.
Mark: Yeah.
Grace: That's such a great point.
Mark: Uh, just twist the knife. Yeah.
Grace: Yeah, right, exactly.
Joanna: You and me both, man. You and me both.
Announcer: Sound four.
[sfx: sound 4]
Joanna: Oh, I got this. Half-Life. Half-Life.
Mark: Halo! Halo! Halo!
Joanna: Half-Life, it's right when the, when the experiment goes wrong in the very beginning at Black Mesa.
Mark: Ahh
Jeff: Resonance Cascade!
Joanna: Resonance Cascade. Yeah, you're pushing the cart. Is that it?
Mark: Yes.
Grace: I actually heard–did someone say “Halo 3?”
Mark: I said “Halo,” yeah.
Grace: Yeah, Halo, Halo 3. So that is the franchise, yeah.
Joanna: Woah.
Jeff: Okay, Yeah, yeah yeah. It was the beeping, it was the beeping.
Mark: Okay, so the beeping was for the shield. Yeah, it was for the shield failure.
Joanna: Oh my gosh, it reminds me too much of the HEV suit.
Jeff: Oh, okay.
Grace: Amazing.
Casey: I think it was, I think it was gotten.
Joanna: Oh my gosh. Mark
Jeff: Yeah.
Grace: I agree I agree. I think we've got it. I think we can ring the bell.
[sfx: correct]
Mark: Okay. I'll take the points.
Grace: All right. I'll take the point. Yeah, so it was the Halo 3 power drain, like the shield power drain. The device saps away shields and immobilizes vehicles.
[clip: Power Drain]
Grace: And to create the sounds for the game, the team recorded a lot of real world Foley effects. And here is the sound designer and composer C. Paul Johnson explaining how he made one of the door sounds.
C. Paul Johnson: I have a Subaru hatchback, and I recorded my hatch opening to get some kind of a sound that s–kind of goes up in pitch, and then you can manipulate it to sound big.
Jeff: I remember watching that video when it first came out.
Grace: Really?
Jeff: Do you know how many times I've recorded, like, the pneumatics on my car because of that video?
Grace: Really?
Casey: That’s awesome.
Jeff: Yeah, I use them in so many things
Grace: Oh. That's so cool. I love that.
Announcer: Sound five.
[sfx: sound five]
Mark: Pac-Man. Oh, no, Donkey Kong. Donkey Kong. No, Pac-Man. That is Pac-Man.
[sfx: correct]
Grace: Mark.
Mark: I second-guessed myself, but that's, yeah.
Mark: That's the little melody that starts when you, uh, start the game initially, before the first stage begins.
Grace: Yes! Yes!
Casey: You got it. You nailed it.
Grace: Wow, impressive. That was immediate. Yeah, so that indeed was the Pac-Man game start melody.
[clips: Pac-Man Game Start melody]
Grace: The theme was written by Japanese composer Toshio Kai. And when writing the music for Pac-Man, he drew inspiration from artists like The Allman Brothers, who were a favorite of the game's lead designer, Toru Iwatani
Jeff: That's very cool trivia.
Mark: The Allman Brothers, wow.
Casey: Not sure I would've been able to identify that from the–the game start melody theme. I would've been like, "Ooh, this is like totally an Allman Bros. lick,” but…
Grace: I know.
Mark: Yeah. Like, what?
Grace: Well, at this stage, we can ask Casey for a score check to see who's in the lead.
Casey: Okay, so right now we got Mark at seven, Jeff at six, Joanna not on the board just yet, but there's still lots of time, lots of sounds left.
Grace: There's still time.
Joanna: There’s still time.
Grace: We've seen meteoric rises in the second half, so do not worry, Joanna.
Joanna: Not like I was cramming in the, uh–it wasn't like I was on YouTube cramming sound effects into my brain.
Grace: No!
Jeff: Got those flashcards out
Joanna: Moments earlier. No.
Grace: Exactly
Jeff: “Top 10 video game sound effects compilations.”
Joanna: Yeah, yeah. I listen to it every night.
Grace: In preparation.
Announcer: Sound six.
[sfx: sound 6]
Jeff: It's not Brutal Legend is it?
Mark: Oh my gosh.
Grace: It is not.
Joanna: Wouldn't be Hades 2. No, that's too recent.
Jeff: No it wouldn’t be Hades.
Grace: Not Hades.
Jeff: It does rock, though.
Joanna: Yeah.
Grace: It sure does.
Joanna: That... Yeah, so what is that, a perfect fourth?
Jeff: No. It’s a fifth.
Joanna: That's a fifth, yeah. Can you play it back one more time?
[sfx: sound 6]
Jeff: Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. Nope.
Grace: A gr–a great movie. Yeah.
Joanna: It wouldn't be from a RTS... Would it be from a RTS game or... Trying to think of genre first.
Jeff: League of Legends.
Mark: Like maybe Civilization or something like that?
Casey: Yeah, not, RTS.
Jeff: Nah.
Grace: Not quite, yeah.
Joanna: It feels like Greek, like almost Grecian, you know what I mean?
Grace: Mmm!
Joanna: Like something about that perfect fifth.
Jeff: That's why I was thinking of Stray Gods.
Mark: Immortals Fenyx Rising?
Casey: Definitely, like, historical is a good direction to go in.
Grace: Definitely.
Joanna: Yeah
Mark: Assassin's Creed?
Grace: No, but like we're getting a little closer.
Joanna: God of War?
Grace: No, but great guess.
Joanna: No, No.
Jeff: Ca–can you imagine if you didn't get a God of War one?
Grace: Yeah.
Joanna: No, I mean.
Mark: Yeah.
Joanna: It could happen. It could very much happen. It could very much happen
Jeff: It could, it could.
Grace: We wouldn’t do that to you. It could. Um…
Jeff: It could, um.
Joanna: I mean, they said we're getting warmer when we started listing Assassin's Creed and God of War.
Jeff: History.
Mark: Yeah.
Joanna: So historical, what's a historical game from recent years?
Grace: I would say it's somewhat historical.
Casey: Yeah.
Joanna: Oh, okay. Interesting.
Grace: With, with yeah, a little bit of fantasy in there.
Casey: Fictionalized.
Grace: Yeah.
Jeff: Baldur's Gate?
Grace: No, but that's a–that's a great guess. We're, we're closer.
Jeff: Okay.
Joanna: What a world to live in if that was your history.
Jeff: It's not.
Grace: I know right? What a cool world.
Joanna: Oh, uh let's see.
Jeff: I'm gonna put a, a vote out there for hint number one.
Grace: A hint.
Joanna: Yeah, let's do it.
Grace: All right. So this game came out in 2015 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows PC, and subsequently won Game of the Year.
Jeff: Hmmm.
Grace: Do you wanna hear it one more time now that we have the clue?
[sfx: sound 6]
Mark: Is it The Witcher?
[sfx: correct]
Grace: Yes, it is The Witcher!
Joanna: Yo.
Jeff: Oh wow, wow.
Grace: Yes, it is The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, which is one of my personal all-time favorites.
Jeff: Good guess, Mark.
Mark: I was really just thinking of historical RPGs from the 2010s. Like, I don't recognize the sound.
Grace: You know what? You got it. Paid off.
Joanna: “Historical, historical.”
Grace: Yeah.
Joanna: Is the w–would we consider The Witcher historical?
Jeff: They said fantasy. They said fantasy.
Casey: Well, I, you know, I was just meaning like, medieval-esque type vibe.
Grace: Yeah, right, right.
Joanna: Yeah, I mean, it is folklore. Yeah
Grace: Right, exactly. Yeah, folkloric for sure.
Grace: So I was gonna see if anyone thought that they could maybe pull the context. If not, I can certainly reveal.
Mark: I have no clue.
Jeff: Is that when you complete a quest?
[sfx: correct]
Casey: Ooh.
Grace: Yes. Amazing. It is when you complete a quest. Yep, well done.
Casey: I’ll give you a bonus point for that one, Jeff.
Jeff: Yeah!
Grace: Woo-hoo!
Mark: There you go.
Grace: So yes, that is indeed the quest completed fanfare from Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt.
[sfx: sound 6]
Grace: The game's soundtrack combines orchestral score with performances by the Polish folk metal band Percival. The band's name comes from Percival Schuttenbach, a character from The Witcher book series. And here is a clip from one of their iconic tracks called “Silver for Monsters.”
[Clip: Silver for Monsters]
Casey: Should try to get them on the pod.
Grace: Ugh, the vocals are just so, like, next level. They're great.
Joanna: Yeah.
Announcer: Sound seven
[sfx: sound 7]
Jeff: Pokémon Red or Blue.
Joanna: Po- yeah
[sfx: correct]
Grace: Yes! Oh my gosh. Immediate.
Mark: Nailed it
Jeff: Yeah.
Casey: What is it in those games?
Jeff: Hold on. That is the, uh, Level Up sound effect.
Grace: That's right.
Joanna: Wow.
Grace: The–the evolution. Well done. That was immediate.
Jeff: Yeah.
Grace: I'm so impressed. That was indeed the Pokemon Red or Blue evolution sound.
[clips: Pokemon Red Evolution Sound]
Grace: And this melody was created by composer and sound designer Junichi Masuda, who made some of the most iconic pieces of music in the Pokemon franchise, like this battle music.
[clips: Pokemon Battle Music]
Jeff: Do you want a fun fact about the sound in those games?
Casey: Of course
Grace: Always.
Jeff: So the Game Boy at that time only could support four sound channels at a time, and it was all being generated on the chip. So you weren't actually, like, really putting any s- like, WAV files into the game. So if you remember ever playing a battle and then, like, when a Pokémon would show up to fight, the music would drop out suddenly, that's because it had to steal the channel to play the sound effect from the music.
[clips: Pokemon Battle]
Jeff: And then it would come back in after the fact.
Joanna: Oh, interesting
Grace: No way
Jeff: Yeah.
Casey: That’s awesome
Grace: That’s so cool.
Jeff: I think you could only ever be hearing four things at a time on the Game Boy.
Grace: We love a fun fact here at Twenty Thousand Hertz.
Jeff: That's actually on the T-shirt.
Grace: That's right, “we love a fun…” Honestly, it's a great idea. Kay, gotta print new shirts.
Announcer: Sound eight
[sfx: sound 8]
Mark: That feels like a Super Mario Brothers sound, but I can't place it.
Jeff: Could I hear that again?
[sfx: sound 8]
Mark: Maybe not.
Joanna: Sounds like a fire, some sort of fire magic effect with a–with the vocal in the back.
Casey: Ooh, you are...
Grace: Y- yep.
Mark: Yeah
Jeff: Baldur's Gate 3.
[sfx: correct]
Grace: Yes.
Joanna: Wow.
Grace: And okay, I feel like we have to combine both of those answers. Any–any idea what it could be for?
Joanna: Casting Fireball.
[sfx: correct]
Jeff: Yeah.
Casey: Yeah. Yeah.
Grace: Yeah. Yep.
Mark: There you go
Grace: Amazing.
Casey: You got it.
Grace: Yep.
Casey: I'm just gonna split the points there and give you each 1.5.
Jeff: Okay, fair enough.
Grace: Totally cool.
Joanna: Thank you. I really appreciate it.
Mark: I am regretting not playing that yet.
Grace: I know. It's–it's still on my list, shamefully. But yes, that was Baldur's Gate 3. And that is the sound of, casting Fire Bolt. This was specifically cast by the character Shadowheart. In the game, characters chant in Latin when casting spells. So in this case, Shadowheart says, "Ignis," meaning “Fire.”
[sfx: sound 8]
Grace: And here's the same character's voice when casting the spell Cure Wounds. And she says, “Te curo,” meaning “I cure you.”
Clips: Te curo.
Grace: There we go.
Mark: Sounds a little less like Mario in that one. I still can't believe I guessed Mario, but whatever.
Jeff: Yeah that was my first thought. I thought it was like a Mario Galaxy thing at first.
Casey: Yeah, it could be like Ness or something.
Grace: Totally.
Jeff: Yeah.
Joanna: Yeah. Something about the way the voice was lifted.
Casey: Yeah.
Joanna: Almost felt cute.
Jeff: PK Fire.
[Clips: PK Fire]
Joanna: Yeah, exactly.
Casey: Exactly, exactly.
Grace: Oh my God. Really took me back.
Announcer: Sound nine.
[sfx: sound 9]
Jeff: Half-Life?
Grace: Not Half-Life.
Jeff: It's–it's a first-person shooter from that era.
Mark: No idea.
Casey: Not a first-person shooter.
Jeff: Not a first-person shooter.
Grace: Not yeah, not a first-person shooter.
Joanna: Huh.
Grace: We can play it one more time too, or we can play it as many times as you want, yeah
Joanna: Yeah, please
Mark: Yeah, please.
[sfx: sound 9]
Joanna: In my head it sounds like an 8-bit helicopter or something. Like elevator action or something when you load in.
Jeff: It's not Metal Gear.
Joanna: N- uh, I don't think so.
Grace: It’s not Metal Gear.
Joanna: Watch this be like Mega Man or something. I feel like there's some—there's something staticky about it or electrical, but I feel like that might just be.
Casey: Yo.
Grace: Ooh, okay!
Mark: Yeah
Joanna: Like electricity, “d-d-d-d-d-d,” you know, like zapping. I'm…
Jeff: Oh, no, I... Is it?
Grace: Okay, Joanna’s orbiting.
Joanna: Is it like, is it a Mega Man X sound? Is that like the...
Jeff: Is it the Contra?
Casey: Nope.
Grace: Nope.
Joanna: Okay, lightning. Um, Okay, I, I don't know. I–'cause like low-key, I think we all know that it's an early video game. It's gotta be from like, pre-2000s.
Jeff: Yeah, not Metal Slug.
Joanna: No, not Metal Slug.
Jeff: Double Dragon?
Grace: Not Double Dragon.
Casey: Not Double Dragon.
Joanna: Oh is it Street Fighter with Blanka?
Grace: Alas.
Joanna: Is it Blanka from Street Fighter? No.
[sfx: correct]
Grace: Yes!
Casey: You got it!
Jeff: Yeah, nice.
Mark: Oh
Joanna: Yes. Oh my gosh. Oh.
Grace: Let's go!
Jeff: Good work
Grace: No hints needed. Amazing.
Joanna: Oh, dear, dear goodness.
Mark: Well done.
Joanna: Oh my gosh, finally.
Jeff: Yay Joanna.
Grace: Wow, tota- I-
Jeff: Yay!
Grace: So impressed. You’re just like, “I got it.”
Grace: Yes, that is indeed Super Street Fighter II. That is Blanka's electric thunder move.
[sfx: sound 9]
Grace: When the other player gets zapped, they do the classic thing where they start flashing and you see their skeleton.
Grace: Blanka al-
Jeff: Nice.
Grace: Blanka also had some great vocal sounds that we'll play right now.
[Clips: Blanka Vocals]
Joanna: That was me in between wrong guesses three questions ago.
Jeff: Ah.
Grace: This is real footage.
Joanna: Yeah. No, it–it's so funny, 'cause this process of hearing this sound, it's like reminds me of like the reverse of what I do when I'm sound designing or creating Foley.
Jeff: Mhm.
Joanna: Where it's like you see the image and you hear the sound in your head, and then, uh, my job's to then go recreate whatever I heard in my head. Whereas this one, it's like hearing the sound and trying to recreate the image. Um…
Grace: Oh that’s so interesting.
Joanna: Yeah, so when you said it was electricity, I was... And that it was an early game, I was just like immediately started cycling, “What has that same pulse, that same movement?” And then it just–I see Blanka in my mind's eye, so…
Grace: Totally. That’s amazing. I love that.
Casey: That was a great pull.
Grace: All right, so we are officially halfway through our game, so I'm gonna ask Casey for the scores again
Casey: All right. So we have Jeff in the lead with 11.5, Mark in second with eight, and Joanna in third with a strong 4.5. So lots of…
Joanna: Whew!
Casey: lots of gameplay to go
Grace: There's still time.
Jeff: I am so stressed out right now.
Grace: No! Okay, play the Stardew Valley–play the Stardew Valley theme again to calm us all down.
[Clips: Stardew Valley Theme]
Jeff: Ah, that's what I needed. Ahh.
Mark: Yes
Grace: There we go
[music in]
Announcer: It's a close game, but who will be victorious? That's coming up after the break.
[music out]
[MIDROLL]
[sfx: musical sting]
Announcer: Sound ten.
[sfx: sound 10]
Jeff: Among Us. No.
Grace: No
Casey: Nope
Joanna: It reminds me of, the guitar from "How Soon Is Now" by The Smiths. The very beginning, there's like a guitar that lurches back down. Can you play it back one more time?
[sfx: sound 10]
Joanna: Yeah, it sounds haunted.
Grace: Mm-hmm. Yes, definitely the right direction.
Joanna: It's definitely like a real sound that's being sampled and played back, so...
Jeff: Yeah.
Joanna: And not just something that's generated off a chip. I just wanna figure out what era. This is P–
Grace: Mmm.
Joanna: This has gotta be like, what? PS1, Sega Genesis-era? I'm trying to think.
Jeff: Yeah it would have to be…
Joanna: Have to be.
Jeff: just for the sampling capacity.
Joanna: Yeah.
Jeff: I feel like it's probably more like a PS2-era thing.
Joanna: Silent Hill?
Jeff: Resident Evil?
Mark: Resident Evil?
Grace: Would it help to know that it was later than PS2 era?
Joanna: Oh, whoa. Okay.
Jeff: Yeah, it, it would help, actually.
Casey: And that the game itself is not a scary game.
Joanna: Oh!
Grace: Exactly. I think that's a good direction. Not a scary game.
Jeff: Not a scary game.
Grace: But a scary element.
Joanna: “Bleh.”
[sfx: sound 10]
Jeff: Spooky’s Jump Scare Mansion.
Joanna: It's a fun game. It's a fun game. It’s not that spooky.
Jeff: It’s a fun game. It’s a very fun game.
Grace: That's gonna get like so many downloads on Steam now after this episode.
Jeff: I–I think it’s not on Steam. I think it's an itch.io thing only yeah.
Grace: Oh, really? Oh gotcha.
Joanna: Um…
Jeff: Not a scary game, but it has scary elements.
Mark: Is it a Mario game?
Joanna: Yeah, it wouldn't be Luigi’s Mansion
Jeff: Oh.
Grace: Not a Mario game.
Casey: No. Should we go with hint one?
Grace: Yeah, we can go with hint one. So this was released on PC in 2011.
Jeff: Hmm. I played a lot of Team Fortress around then, so I don't remember much else.
Joanna: I'm at the OfficeMax in Pasadena, California. I am… I am, like, in college, but I'm walking through the OfficeMax, and I'm looking through the PC game section, and I see… Um…
Mark: Skyrim.
Joanna: Yeah, watch it be like Oblivion or, or, ugh….
Mark: Yeah.
Joanna: Some sort of... I would love to know the genre, I think. Let's take a hint.
Grace: Okay, so hint two. This is a sound you might randomly hear while exploring dark places.
Jeff: Hmmm.
Joanna: Uh-oh.
Mark: Was Minecraft in 2011?
[sfx: correct]
Grace: Ding, ding, ding.
Joanna: Whoa!
Jeff: Ah
Mark: Really?
Grace: Yeah. Can you–
Jeff: None of us are Gen-Z, that’s the problem.
Mark: My kids play it.
Grace: Can you pinpoint where you might hear the sound?
Mark: Oh gosh. What's, is it–is that place called The Nether, the creepy area that they're... Like, I don't know. My kids are always trying to build a portal to that so they can go fight the Ender Dragon.
Grace: Those are–
Jeff: Yeah
Joanna: Or, i-is it when the, the day-night cycle shifts?
Grace: So these are great guesses. So it's the cave ambience.
Joanna: Oh.
Grace: So this is one of 23 potential sounds that you may hear when you're exploring the caves in the game.
[sfx: Minecraft Cave Sound]
Grace: Minecraft uses a hidden mood level that increases while you're in a dark place. When it reaches its maximum level, one of these random sounds will be triggered, creating a sense of danger and fear.
Jeff: Mm
Grace: And here's another cave ambience sound effect.
[sfx: Minecraft Cave Sound]
Grace: Just getting real spooky.
Jeff: I’m spooked.
Joanna: I think, yeah, J- uh, Jeff, you and I were in college when this game came out, right?
Jeff: Yeah.
Joanna: Like we were busy.
Joanna: I just doxxed Joff and I's birth year just now.
Mark: And meanwhile, “Get off my lawn.”
Casey: Uh.
Joanna: Yeah, yeah, meanwhile
Grace: Yeah right yeah.
Jeff: Oh.
Announcer: Sound eleven.
[sfx: sound 11]
Jeff: Agh.
Joanna: Oh.
Jeff: World of Warcraft.
Grace: Not World of Warcraft
Casey: No.
Jeff: StarCraft.
Grace: Not World of Warcraft
Mark: Diablo?
[sfx: correct]
Grace: Yes.
Casey: Ding ding ding.
Jeff: Mm
Mark: It's got a very…
Grace: Yeah
Mark: It's got a very Blizzard-y vibe to it, so alright.
Joanna: Yeah
Grace: Mhm
Jeff: I guessed all the other Blizzard games.
Mark: Yeah. Like I could, I don't think I could tell you which one it is or what it's for, it just…
Jeff: Diablo II.
Mark: It's got that, Blizzard feel to it.
Joanna: Yeah, it’s–
Mark: Okay cool
Grace: It is Diablo II.
Jeff: Yeah
Joanna: Is it fire?
Grace: Yeah, anyone, anyone
Jeff: No, It's op- I think it's opening a portal?
[sfx: correct]
Grace: Well done. Yeah, so…
Joanna: Wow!
Grace: So this is the Diablo II town portal cast sound. So in the game, players leave town to fight hordes of monsters, but they can use teleport scrolls to open a portal back to town.
[sfx: sound 11]
Grace: And the sound that plays when you enter the portal is just as iconic.
[sfx: Enter Portal]
Casey: Nicely done. I'm gonna split the points there since, Mark, you said Diablo. Jeff, you specified Diablo II, and you got the portal, so it's... That seems fair to me.
Jeff: Ooh.
Mark: Cool.
Grace: Yeah, it was a team effort.
Jeff: High five, Mark. [sfx: clap]
Joanna: Oh, they.. that came through. Wow.
Grace: Wow. That's really good.
Casey: It worked!
Jeff: We have really long arms.
Mark: That's the extent of my Foley skills.
Grace: Wow, guys.
Announcer: Sound twelve.
[sfx: sound 12]
Joanna: Apple eating, but for what.
Mark: Yeah.
Grace: Ooh.
Joanna: So definitely consumption sound, but what, for what game?
Grace: Yup
Jeff: Is that a zombie?
Mark: Is that the head crabs in Half Life?
Joanna: Is that Resi-
Jeff: Is it–
Joanna: Hmm.
Jeff: Is it Left 4 Dead?
Grace: Who said “zombie?”
Jeff: Jeff did.
Mark: Jeff did.
Grace: Yes. Jeff. Yes. Now can you name the game?
Mark: Dead Rising?
Jeff: Project Zomboid.
Mark: Uh, Silent Hill.
Grace: Nope.
Joanna: Uh can you play it back one more time?
[sfx: sound 12]
Jeff: Mmm.
Mark: It's really short, way too short for–
Jeff: Runescape.
Mark: a game even in the 360 era. That feels like it's probably earlier.
Grace: It's a little more whimsical than most games with zombies.
Joanna: Oh, okay.
Jeff: Oh, Plants vs. Zombies
[sfx: correct]
Grace: Yeah that's it.
Jeff: Plants vs. Zombies
Casey: Nice.
Mark: Oh there you go.
Joanna: Wooh! Good job.
Grace: Yes. Well done. Well done.
Jeff: Yeah.
Grace: That is the zombie eating sound from the game Plants vs. Zombies.
[sfx: sound 12]
Grace: In the game, you grow plants on your lawn to defend against waves of undead enemies. As the zombies chew through your plants, you hear this sound, which was created by lead composer and sound des- sound designer Laura Shigihara.
Joanna: Wow.
Grace: I feel like, Casey, we could maybe split points?
Casey: Jeff you got zombies and the, the title. But Joanna.
Grace: Yeah.
Casey: I’m going to give you a point for “eating.”
Grace: Totally. Yeah. Yeah.
Joanna: That's the story of my career. “Get points for eating.” Yeah.
Grace: You know? The dream.
Announcer: Sound thirteen.
[sfx: sound 13]
Jeff: Was that you, Grace?
Joanna: No, that was me actually. No.
Jeff: Oh, okay. I couldn't tell.
Grace: Can you imagine?
Jeff: if the sound started or not.
Joanna: Yeah, yeah.
Grace: Oh my gosh.
Joanna: “Me mama, Me mama.” W- uh, let's
Grace: Me muh muh me!
Joanna: Play it back one more time?
[sfx: sound 13]
Joanna: It sounds like Animal Crossing. It sounds like one of the characters talking to each other.
Jeff: It sounds like Beaker from the Muppets.
Grace: Oh my God, it really does.
Joanna: Or like Simlish.
Grace: Yes. No one's gotten it yet.
Joanna: “Me muh muh muh”– I can’t even do it
Jeff: Hmm.
Joanna: Um
Grace: Me me me me me.
Jeff: Do it slow.
Joanna: Me, ma, ma, ma. Me, ma, ma, ma.
[sfx: sound 13]
Mark: Is it Luigi's Mansion? I'm gonna keep guessing that, but like…
Jeff: Oh Mario’s was…
Mark: It almost reminds me of…
Jeff: Yeah.
Grace: It is not,
Mark: Okay.
Joanna: I wanna figure out genre 'cause goodness
Grace: Okay.
Joanna: gracious, that feels so stylized. It feels like something Nintendo would do. But, um…
Mark: Yeah,
Jeff: This is a sound that I've heard before and I cannot place what it is.
Joanna: Quick, Jeff, list every game you've ever played. Go. We'll get it right eventually.
Grace: We got plenty of time.
Jeff: Okay.
Joanna: Yeah, so much time.
Jeff: J- Joust.
Joanna: Oh my gosh, okay, we're starting back there. No, um…
Grace: Oh, wow.
Joanna: Let's burn a lifeline. Let's figure out... I, I…
Grace: Yeah.
Joanna: Don't know, what do you guys think? What should we know? The, the year, or should we know the genre? Or, yeah.
Jeff: Do we get the pick?
Joanna: The use case. I don't know
Grace: You know what? You certainly can. Yeah, would you rather know the year and console, or would you rather know, like a little bit about where it's used?
Jeff: I–I think where it's used.
Grace: Okay.
Mark: Yeah, I would agree with that.
Grace: Okay, cool. Our hint is gonna be there are 46 of these creatures that make this sound hidden all over the fallen kingdom in this game.
Jeff: Uh, is it a Jiggy? It's not Banjo-Kazooie, right?
Grace: It is not.
Casey: Good guess.
Jeff: Is it Yooka-Laylee?
Joanna: No, Jeff, that's a musical instrument. Um.. let me think. Uh, 46, 46 of them. “Me, ma, ma, me, ma, ma.” And you catch them in the fallen kingdom. Okay.
Joanna: Oh, is it–is it Hollow Knight?
[sfx: correct]
Grace: Yes.
Jeff: Oh it is! Aww it is!
Grace: It is!
Mark: Nice.
Jeff: Ah it is.
Grace: It is!
Joanna: Yeah.
Grace: And do you know who the cute little guys are that make this sound?
Joanna: Aren't those like the little… cute little worm guys that you pick up?
Jeff: Grubs.
Grace: Yes!
Casey: You got it.
Grace: Yup, yup you got it.
Joanna: Thanks. Woo.
Grace: You got it. Yep. Amazing.
Joanna: Yeah, no, my partner was so obsessed with Silksong and Hollow Knight that…
Grace: Yeah
Joanna: I would, I would, fall asleep to her playing it, like in bed with her on the Switch.
Grace: Aww, so you're like...
Joanna: Yeah, so…
Casey: That’s awesome.
Joanna: So it just subconsciously just rolled into my brain.
Grace: You heard it in your dreams.
Joanna: Yeah.
Jeff: If the sound was awoo, I would've gotten it immediately.
Casey: Is that the fleas in the in Silk Song?
Jeff: Yeah, yeah, it is.
Grace: Yeah.
Casey: Yeah. “Awooo!”
[sfx: Silksong Fleas]
Grace: So cute. yes, this is indeed, the “Free Grubs” in Hollow Knight. Yeah, it's the sound of a grub being freed.
[sfx: sound 13]
Grace: The game features a side quest to locate these cute little worms who are hidden all over the world, and then once you find them, they're returned to the Grubfather, who has a similarly fun voice.
[sfx: Grubfather]
Grace: What if I told you that was just me? No, I'm kidding.
Jeff: I thought it was you from the beginning, Grace.
Grace: Ho ho ho ho. Oh my god.
Grace: All right. So we have five sounds left, which means we're gonna check with Casey to see where we're at with scores.
Casey: All right. We currently have Jeff in the lead with 16, Mark in second with 10.5, and Joanna closing the gap with 7.5.
Grace: Alright.
Casey: Also, I just made this up and I'm gonna roll with it because we make up the rules as we go along. For the last five sounds, these sounds are gonna be worth double points.
Joanna: Oh my gosh, wooh.
Mark: Oh my gosh.
Jeff: I'm gonna lo- I'm gonna lose.
Grace: I love it.
[sfx: Cave Sound]
Jeff: Do you see what I mean? You see what I mean?
Mark: That’s ominous.
Joanna: Ooh.
Announcer: Sound fourteen.
[sfx: sound 14]
Mark: Donkey Kong.
[sfx: correct]
Jeff: Ugh.
Grace: Yup.
Joanna: Wow. Yeah.
Grace: Amazing. Immediate.
Joanna: Good job.
Jeff: Mark didn't even need it to finish.
Grace: Didn't even need a... Yep.
Grace: And do you know when this is played?
Mark: See, when you play games from when I was a kid! Yeah, it's when Mario...
Grace: Yeah exactly.
Mark: Actually, I can't remember if it's just Mario dying anytime, or if it's just on the last life, but yes.
Grace: Yeah. Yep, that's the jingle that plays when you die in the original Donkey Kong arcade game.
[sfx: sound 14]
Grace: This game was a pivotal moment in gaming history as it was the debut of both Donkey Kong and Mario. The composer and sound designer on the game was Yukio Kaneoka, who also worked on the original Mario Brothers arcade game as well as Excitebike and Ice Climbers.
Announcer: Sound fifteen.
[sfx: sound 15]
Jeff: Sonic.
[sfx: correct]
Joanna: Whoa.
Grace: Wow! Right away.
Mark: Yes. Oh, I should have guessed that earlier.
Grace: Well done.
Jeff: Jumpi–jumping off a trampoline or a spring.
Mark: Yep.
Grace: Yes.
Casey: You got it.
Grace: Yep. Amazing. Yep.
Jeff: The reason why I know that so well is 'cause I spent like six days trying to remake that on a synth.
Casey: Oh really?
Grace: No way, really?
Jeff: Yeah, there was a, like a small indie project I was working on. They were like, "We want this to sound like Sonic." And then I had to figure out how it was made, and it took so long.
Grace: Oh, that's so cool.
Casey: Did you crack the code?
Jeff: For the most part it's a, it's an FM thing. The–the Segas all FM synth chips, so yeah.
Grace: Super cool.
Mark: And if you want truly nerdy, nerdy stuff…
Grace: Yes we do.
Mark: You can actually buy cartridges you can connect to some of these old systems and then play the internal chip using MIDI as if it was a synthesizer.
Casey: Oh that’s cool, I didn’t know that.
Joanna: Oh yeah.
Jeff: Yeah.
Mark: So there's one for the Genesis, there's one for the NES. It's, it's nerdy fun if you're trying to make old-school sound effects.
Jeff: Yeah.
Grace: Ugh.
Casey: Oh that’s super cool.
Grace: Oh my gosh.
Joanna: So cool.
Grace: Well, yeah, well done. This was the spring sound effect from Sonic the Hedgehog.
[sfx: sound 15]
Grace: The sounds for the game were created by Hiroshi Kubota and Yukifumi Makino. Other iconic effects for the game include the Jump, Checkpoint, and Ring Loss, which we'll hear now.
[sfx: Sonic SFX]
Jeff: That last one hurt.
Announcer: Sound sixteen.
[sfx: sound 16]
Joanna: Oh, Fortnite. Uh,
Grace: Yes!
Joanna: Drinking the potion? Yeah.
[sfx: correct]
Grace: Yes.
Jeff: Nice.
Casey: You got it.
Mark: Nailed it.
Grace: Oh, amazing.
Jeff: Nice.
Joanna: Yeah.
Grace: Well done.
Joanna: My Foley mixer plays that game at lunch sometimes, and he plays it in 5.1 in one of our sound suites, and it is like… I hear everything in, like, in HD. It's so great.
Jeff: That’s gotta be pretty cool, honestly.
Grace: That's amazing.
Joanna: Yeah yeah.
Grace: That's so great.
Joanna: Guzzling, guzzling those shields.
Grace: Yep, indeed. It is the Fortnite shield potion.
[sfx: sound 16]
Grace: As you might guess, drinking one replenishes your shield level. Shield potions are apparently sweet-tasting, since the AI assistant character Lana says, "Well, aren't you sweeter than a shield potion?"
Jeff: Aww.
Grace: Aww.
Joanna: High calorie.
Announcer: Sound seventeen.
[sfx: sound 17]
Jeff: Quite metallic, I say.
Joanna: Was it World of Warcraft?
Grace: Mm-hmm. It is not World of Warcraft.
Joanna: Oh, shoot
Jeff: Is that God of War?
Grace: It’s not God of War.
Joanna: Whew. Thank goodness. Uh, yeah.
Grace: Yep.
Grace: Oh, thank God.
Jeff: I mean, “No, Jeff, of course not.”
Joanna: Yeah, what are you talking about? It's definitely not something that… Um…
Grace: Let's play it one
Mark: Oh my gosh
Grace: more time just in case.
[sfx: sound 17]
Joanna: Sounds dark and foreboding.
Grace: Mmm.
Joanna: Like a–like it’s a forge–It’s clearly anvil or like a forging sound, so… Can we get a hint?
Grace: Of course. Do we want the release date and console or the context?
Jeff: I like context.
Mark: I do too.
Joanna: Yeah.
Grace: Context, cool. So this is played when you do something morally questionable in the game.
Joanna: Oh, uh, Fable? No.
Grace: Not Fable.
Joanna: Knights of the Old Republic?
Grace: Not Knights of the Old Republic.
Jeff: Mass Effect.
Mark: No.
Grace: Nope.
Mark: Dragon Age?
Grace: Nope.
Joanna: Was it Fallout?
Grace: Not Fallout. Not Fallout. Good guess though.
Casey: No.
Grace: Good guess, though.
Joanna: I’m trying to think classic CRPGs where you have a morality system.
Mark: The Elder Scrolls?
Grace: Not Elder Scrolls.
Casey: Fallout is sorta kinda…
Jeff: Binding.
Casey: like at least a similar type of game?
Joanna: Okay.
Mark: The Outer Worlds?
Grace: I would say whereas Fallout is, like, futuristic, this
Casey: Yes.
Grace: is more historical.
Casey: Yes.
Joanna: Oh that word,
Grace: This is truly historical.
Joanna: “historical,” again.
Grace: Yeah. But, like, actually historical, not like The Witcher.
Casey: Yeah.
Joanna: Oh it'd be like Age of Empires?
Casey: Newer in history than that, more recent.
Grace: Right. Right. Yeah yeah yeah.
Joanna: It wouldn't be Assassin's Creed.
Mark: BioShock?
Casey: No.
Grace: Nope, not Assassin's Creed, not BioShock. I can also reveal year if that would be helpful too.
Jeff: Yeah, sure.
Grace: Okay. So this was released in 2018 on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
Mark: Now I'm thinking on immersive sims. Was it in Red Dead Redemption 2?
[sfx: correct]
Grace: Yes!
Jeff: Ahh, nice.
Joanna: Wow good job.
Mark: There we go.
Grace: Well done. Do you have a guess of like where it's used?
Mark: When you do something morally questionable?
Grace: Wow, how did you know? How could you have guessed?
Mark: No, gen- genuinely, genuinely I don't remember. I was just thinking of games from that time period that had morality and…
Grace: Yep. Yeah, so it is indeed the Honor Loss sound from Red Dead Redemption 2. It plays when your honor level drops after you do something dishonorable, like robbing or attacking an innocent NPC. And it's now used as a meme in TikTok videos to dramatize someone doing something bad.
Joanna: Ohhh.
Grace: like eating the last slice of pizza.
Jeff: Well I mean, that's absolutely fair.
Grace: So dishonorable.
Jeff: Yeah.
Joanna: Wait, wait, wait. Well, let's, let's, let's see if it works. “Oh, man! There's one more slice of pizza. I should eat this. Om nom nom nom nom.”
[sfx: sound 17]
Jeff: Ah.
Grace: So effective.
Joanna: Wow,
Mark: Nice.
Casey: It worked.
Joanna: Kids these days.
Grace: So effective. All right. So we are, uh, approaching our final sound, but before we do that, I'll ask Casey for a final score update.
Mark: Oh no.
Casey: Okay. Jeff, we have 22 points. Mark, we have 17.5, and Joanna, 13.5.
Mark: So if I instantly get this sound with no hints, I win. Otherwise, Jeff wins.
Casey: If Jeff instantly gets it, yes. If Joanna instantly gets it, she gets second, and it'll be a close… close one for second and third. So yeah, there's a few ways it could go.
Announcer: Sound eighteen.
[sfx: sound 18]
Jeff: Hmm.
Mark: Why? Why do I know that? Oh my gosh. What is that?
Joanna: Let’s play it one more time?
[sfx: sound 18]
Jeff: World of Warcraft?
Grace: Yes.
Joanna: Oh God, it was on the tip of my tongue. Geez.
Casey: Well… Close.
Grace: Can you name which one?
Jeff: Um, I'm gonna say that's an orc.
Grace: Or sorry, can you name which Warcraft it is from?
Jeff: Oh so it's not World of Warcraft.
Casey: Correct.
Jeff: Is it Warcraft III?
Casey: No.
Joanna: Warcraft II.
[sfx: correct]
Grace: It is, yes.
Casey: Yes.
Grace: So yeah, it, this, this,
Joanna: Oh, I win, just kidding no.
Grace: From behind!
Jeff: I believe that's what we call a “steal.”
Grace: A steal.
[sfx: sound 17]
Mark: Excellent.
Grace: Oh man. Yes, this is, uh, from Warcraft II. It technically did appear in Warcraft III, so we'll allow it. Does anyone know what we're hearing? The ogre mage is correct. Do we know, like, what we're hearing?
Joanna: It’s when they're–they're casting, is that what it is?
[sfx: correct]
Grace: Yes, it is the Bloodlust spell cast by, an ogre mage, in Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness.
[sfx: sound 18]
Grace: The spell sends its target into a frenzy, and is one of the most powerful abilities in the game.
Jeff: Yeah.
Grace: The spell is also in the sequel Warcraft III and the most successful MMORPG of all time, World of Warcraft. And here's how that sounds in that game.
[sfx: World of Warcraft: Bloodlust spell]
Grace: All right, Casey, are you ready to announce our winner?
Casey: Yes. So on that last one, I'm going to split the points since Jeff, you got the franchise Warcraft, and Joanna, you got both the game Warcraft II and the casting element. So final scores, we have a close third and second with Joanna at 16.5 and Mark at 17.5, and Jeff as the winner with 25 points. Well done.
[sfx: Pokemon evolution]
Jeff: Whoo.
Joanna: Wow
Grace: Whoo hoo!
Jeff: Whoo.
Grace: Yay!
Jeff: And it's all because of Spooky's Jump Scare Mansion.
[music sneaks in: I'MIN - Fantasize]
Grace: And that's our secret sponsor for the game.
Casey: This episode is not sponsored by Spooky’s–Yeah.
[laughter fades out]
[music downbeat]
Twenty Thousand Hertz is produced out of my sound agency, Defacto Sound. Hear more at defacto sound dot com, or by following Defacto Sound on Instagram.
Casey: This episode was written and produced by the Twenty Thousand Hertz team.
Other Voices: It was sound designed and mixed by Jade Dickey.
Thanks to our guests, Joanna Fang, Mark Kilborn, and Jeff Brice. To learn more about their work, follow the links in the show notes.
Finally, subscribe to my Youtube channel Dallas Taylor dot mp3. Over there, I meet with audio pros in their creative spaces… from the set of Jeopardy, to backstage at Hamilton on Broadway, to the sound vault of Disney Imagineering, and so much more. You can also find bite sized versions of these videos on Instagram and Tiktok under that same name, Dallas Taylor dot mp3.
Thanks for listening.
[music out]
