[bitcraft]

The crispy aliasing of the audio has always felt cozy to me. It’s also a bit of a signature of the system, like the wobbly polygons on PS1. I appreciate that there are ways to change the sound, but it feels a bit rude to label it broken or defective.

[pezezin]

I strongly disagree here. I was so hyped for the GBA that I bought it on release day, only to be disappointed later. One of reasons is the lackluster sound; seriously, Nintendo had already built an impressive sound system for the SNES, and then the GBA just had a software-driven DAC? Why did the cheapened out so much?

Same as for the PS1, I always found the wobbly polygons and warping textures painful to watch.

[Andrex]

Sony made the SNES sound chip, and the GBA was power-constrained by AA batteries. Those are the two biggest reasons I can think of just off the top of my head.

[pezezin]

I know, but I think that a simple 8-channel ADPCM mixer would not have taken a lot of power, and would have resulted in much better sound.