Why did old school games have sound tests?
 

I've been playing the Sega Genesis Collection on the PS2 and I've noticed that there is a sound test on most of the games.

Why? Was it designed to actually test the sound?

If so, why don't new games do it? (Or do they and I just haven't noticed?)

Did anyone actually enjoy the sound test?

Is it just a lame extra feature?

I know some sound tests have cheats in them, but I wouldn't think that would be the purpose of them.

WE use to enjoy them we would play them for crank calls, and what not. Strider was cool it the dramatic voice overs it was fun to here.

I liked listening to the music, but I'm not sure what the point of the sound effects were.

Maybe just a debug tool that developers never bothered to remove?

We didn't have "Live" back then so the sound test was the only way to keep us coming back to the game after we beat it.

The Streets of Rage games had sound tests so I could record them to cassette. :)

Some games for the GBA still have these sound test type things. It's probably a combination of debug tool/extra feature, where it was useful for the developers, but they thought users would enjoy having it, too.

Yep. These were used for debugging purposes, but removing them would require extra work, and it was kind of a neat "extra" anyway, so it made more sense to leave it in.

It also gave players the opportunity to compare music and sound effects in mono and stereo.