Twitch streamers go to great lengths to make their channels unique and interesting, but sometimes separating yourself from the pack is as simple as miking up your console to capture the sounds it makes while loading data from its disc drive.
Hungry Goriya is a retro video game collector who regularly showcases her collection on Twitch and YouTube. Over the last week, she’s been making her way through Skies of Arcadia, Sega’s cult-classic Dreamcast RPG from 2000.
While the stream has the requisite expertise and banter expected of an entertaining broadcast, Goriya also made the decision to put a microphone on the Dreamcast itself so folks could hear all the clicks, whirs, and charmingly belabored disc-reading sounds she was, turning her stream into a more immersive experience for fans of the old-school console.
“The idea initially came from my spouse, who is the brains behind all the stream tech,” Goriya told Kotaku. “He sarcastically mentioned that the Dreamcast’s loading noises were so loud that a microphone could potentially pick them up. We have extra equipment on hand here, so we plugged a second mic into the mixer and it came through clear as day on the audio output.”
It’s easy to get lost in Skies of Arcadia’s story of swashbuckling sky pirates during Goriya’s stream, but if you pay careful attention, you’ll notice the system’s distinctive mechanical loading noises when the Dreamcast boots up the game for the first time and sometimes while it loads new areas for Goriya to explore.
“People constantly mention that they can hear it during the streams,” Goriya added.
The noises made by the Sega console are so loud and unique that Goriya has made the console microphone an exclusive part of her Dreamcast streams, rather than providing audio for every retro platform she owns.
“The Dreamcast makes very distinct sounds, and it has triggered fond memories for people that grew up with the console,” Goriya said. “Something that just started off as a silly suggestion has turned out to be a surprise hit.”