The time has come for a reboot, remake, or remaster (it’s subjective, innit) of the venerable What’s That Game: Audio Edition thread! The previous iteration had a tendency to seize up for months at a time, because as has now been scientifically proven, it’s dang hard to guess an audio clip. To make this one flow more smoothly, there’s a new game rule in play:
- Should a week pass without a guess or a new clue, the forum has collectively lost, darkness has prevailed, and anyone may hijack the thread with a new game to guess. [1]
Beyond that, the game works like the other “What’s That Game” threads:
- The quizzer posts an audio clip of which to guess the game of origin, and may freely post more audio clips and clues as time goes on.
- Whoever guesses it correctly becomes the next quizzer, and posts the next audio clip.
We also have some guidelines – these aren’t hard-and-fast rules, per se, but it’s a boon to keep ’em in mind:
- Try to pick games that people are likely to be more than passingly familiar with – unlike in the screenshot threads, there’s little to no way to search up a game based on audio.
- A clip may be as long as you please – it could be just one bit, but it’s easier to guess a minute of gameplay audio.
- It’s helpful to pick clips with particularly iconic elements – voices are the easiest to guess, followed by sounds that it’s clear what they are (“That’s a camera shutter!”), followed by frequently played jingles and sound effects. Music might be helpful if it’s a soundtrack people might listen to, or a song that plays often in-game.
- Don’t hesitate to include a text clue with your audio clip, if you want – that could allow guessers to search!
- Try to toss in a new clue/clip if there hasn’t been a guess in 4+ days. Or earlier, of course. (No worries if you can’t do that, though – we’re busy peeps.)
- If a week passes without a guess or a new clue, feel free to reveal what the game is! That’s more fun for e’erybody.
Naturally, feel free to talk in the thread as well; mebbe discuss the games. Not every post has to be a guess.
Not sure how to record game audio? Expand this for a how-to!
The forum accepts uploads in the .opus, .ogg, and .mp3 audio formats, so you can host your files right here! Just drag ’em into the editing window.
As for recording, whether you’re playing on PC or on console, why not use the recorder app on your phone? It’s a game – pristine audio quality isn’t mission-critical! If you would like to record a high-quality audio clip from your PC, however, you might use:
-
Linux:
- Install Reco.
- Set “Record from” to… “System audio” or whatever it’s called. I’m not on Linux; don’t look at me. I wish I was on Linux.
- Record!
-
Windows:
- Install Audacity.
- Set up Stereo Mix or WASAPI loopback.
- Record!
-
MacOS:
- Install BlackHole.
- Set up a “Multi Output Device”.
- Record audio using QuickTime, using this new Multi Output Device as the “microphone”.
Of course, the audio doesn’t have to come from a game being played live – it might as well be taken from, say, a YouTube video.
Of course, the quizzer can choose to toss in another clue and reset that timer even after a week has passed. ↩︎
