Why This Obscure Audio Codec Is a Perfect Fit for the N64
0 comments
- Points200
- Comments23
–Rank now
#11Peak rank
2Days on list
186Score · 7d
Nov 5, 2026First seen
Rank · 7 days
On Hacker News
- Points
- 200
- Comments
- 23
- Submitted by
- frostbyte7
- Posted
- Nov 5, 2026
- Site
- phoboslab.org
Story details from Hacker News ↗ · linked article on phoboslab.org.
Trending history
Why This Obscure Audio Codec Is a Perfect Fit for the N64 was first seen on Hacker News · Front page on Nov 5, 2026. Since then it has appeared in 79 checks on 2 different days. Its best position was #11 of 30, reached on Nov 5, 18:22 UTC. It dropped off the list after Nov 6, 11:52 UTC. The same link also trended on Lobsters, which raises its cross-platform score.
Rank history
Position on Hacker News · Front page at every check (lower is better).
Last 14 days
Best rank per day (UTC).
11
12
Oct 26today
Metric history
Platform metric as reported by Hacker News.
Where it trended
| List | Best | Days | Checks | Last seen |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hacker News · Front page | #11 | 2 | 79 | |
| LLobsters · Hottest The ULC Audio Codec is a Perfect Fit for the N64 | same link | |||
From the discussion
A few top-level comments from Hacker News, shortened. Read the full thread on Hacker News.
This codec would have been great 27 years ago! I suspect it wouldn't have gotten past the patent lawyers in 1999 though. It seems cute today but the entire codec space was a patent minefield, the N64 mp3 decoder was implemented twice (once based on the reference codec, once clean) with Nintendo/Rare then paying RAD…
In case anyone else got to the demo thinking the quality is awful -- the vocals are incomprehensible and keep cutting out -- it turns out it's like that in the original track: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1gVxKhdGPs&t=57s
It was all great until they mentioned LLM usage. The demoscene and homebrew scene is dying as we speak.
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Hacker News 2 days, best #11
Questions
Is Why This Obscure Audio Codec Is a Perfect Fit for the N64 trending on Hacker News right now?
Not at the moment. It was last on the list on Nov 6, 11:52 UTC, after 2 days of trending.
What is the highest rank Why This Obscure Audio Codec Is a Perfect Fit for the N64 reached?
#11 on Hacker News · Front page, on Nov 5, 18:22 UTC. Trendoday checks this list every 15 minutes.
How long has Why This Obscure Audio Codec Is a Perfect Fit for the N64 been trending?
It was first seen on Nov 5, 2026 and has been on the list on 2 days (79 checks) since.
How much discussion did it get on Hacker News?
200 points and 23 comments; submitted by frostbyte7 on Nov 5, 2026.