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Old game music that doesn't sound like it could be done on old game hardware

G

ghibli99

Member
Phediuk said:
Gyruss for the Atari 2600 is just about the only 2600 game that has actual music that sounds good. And unlike Pitfall 2, it doesn't even use an enhancement chip; it's just good use of extremely limited hardware.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S08q8le7ajY
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Woah. Pretty sure this would have blown my mind back in the day.

Dreamwriter said:
I dunno if this counts, since the game never got released, but Mythri for Gameboy Color. Check it out:

https://soundcloud.com/magicaltimebean/mythri-gbc-original-soundtrack#t=39:08

If the link doesn't work right, the song I'm thinking of starts at 39:08. Orchestra hits and electric guitar on Gameboy!
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That's good. That's damn good.
 
L

lazygecko

Member
OnPoint said:
Some people prefer their music to be easy to digest, some people like something more complicated to process. I don't agree with the "then you've failed at music" part, but that's the beautiful thing about music -- there's something for everyone.
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It's just such a weirdly specific set of requirements to me. I am equally befuddled by people claiming that a movie does not have a plot if the protagonist(s) doesn't have token character development like having learned some moral lesson or overcome some inner fear at the conclusion. Or in the case of critisizing Follin's music for not having an easily hummable melody (which I disagree with, since there are plenty of great bluesy riffs that I think qualify as melodies), to me that's like saying you fail at movies if you don't have funny quotable one-liners.
 
S

system11

Member
Came to post about Tim Follin, but the good work has already been done.

Chris Huelsbeck was actually pushing more channels out of the Amiga than it physically had too with the Turrican games, but Tims abuse of the ZX Spectrum tops anything we're ever likely to hear again.

Here's the Amiga Turrican 2 title tune, the Amiga had 4 actual channels:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jcs-yyXsJwg
 
P

Peagles

Member
lazygecko said:
Was never quite a fan of the "this sounds/looks like it couldn't be done on the hardware" since most of the time that's just going to end up being whatever someone thinks is well crafted, rather than overcoming inherent technical limitations.

The one thing I am absolutely stumped by is getting multichannel music out of 1-bit beepers (ie the kind of thing that makes an obnoxious beep when you boot your PC)

Chronos
Click to expand...

Wow, that was amazing! Thanks for sharing.

Edit: Someone thinks there's no melody? What the? It's stuck in my head after one play through, and I intend to listen to it all day :p
 
Discomurf

Discomurf

Member
ghibli99 said:
The first time I heard Yuzo Koshiro's work in Super Adventure Island on the Super Nintendo, I thought, "How the hell is this possible?" I didn't know much about music/sound technology at the time. All I knew is that it sounded amazing, even if the game was very average:

Stage 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuvYG0PmgOc

Stage 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivt4F-e7zEw

Stage 5:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tq0XcJ3vmU

So '90s. :)
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Great stuff - SNES had such a great sound chip.
 
J

jett

D-Member
Donkey Kong Country, for sure. At the time, as EGM put it, it sounded like there was a CD inside the cartridge.

lazygecko said:
Was never quite a fan of the "this sounds/looks like it couldn't be done on the hardware" since most of the time that's just going to end up being whatever someone thinks is well crafted, rather than overcoming inherent technical limitations.

The one thing I am absolutely stumped by is getting multichannel music out of 1-bit beepers (ie the kind of thing that makes an obnoxious beep when you boot your PC)

Chronos
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Follin's work on the Spectrum is absolutely ridiculous and probably the best examples of what the OP asked for. Tim Follin is so missed in this industry. It's so sad that he mostly worked on either crappy games or unsuccessful games that went way under the radar. He really is a genius.

Kup said:
Pulseman (Megadrive):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0VU_D4Edmk&list=PLvNp0Boas722xT-ro9V7VpX87AYuQ28pw&index=4
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This is really nice, and doesn't sound megadrivey.

Phediuk said:
Geir Tjelta did some insanely smooth-ass music for C64 demos.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPghQqBFDPE
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I had listened to this before, but it's never not fantastic.
 
J

jett

D-Member
WaterWorld on the SNES is probably the best and most obscure game soundtrack ever.

andymcc said:
How so?
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I don't know, something about the lead I guess. Everything sounds clear and "neat." There's a lot of great examples in this thread to be honest.
 
H

Htown

STOP SHITTING ON MY MOTHER'S HEADSTONE
LGom09 said:
Solstice - Title Theme (NES)
Pretty interesting blog post on how this was achieved: http://retrogameaudio.tumblr.com/post/59280118624/amazing-blog-thank-you-for-it-what-are-your
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wow
UncleSporky said:
Lagrange Point for NES.

Custom Yamaha sound hardware that is almost equivalent to the chips Sega was using. Sounds completely unreal for NES. This is probably going to be the one of the most notable examples you can find, it's vastly beyond anything else you can do on the console.
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double wow
 
O

OnPoint

Member
lazygecko said:
It's just such a weirdly specific set of requirements to me. I am equally befuddled by people claiming that a movie does not have a plot if the protagonist(s) doesn't have token character development like having learned some moral lesson or overcome some inner fear at the conclusion. Or in the case of critisizing Follin's music for not having an easily hummable melody (which I disagree with, since there are plenty of great bluesy riffs that I think qualify as melodies), to me that's like saying you fail at movies if you don't have funny quotable one-liners.
Click to expand...

I don't think you're wrong. I think that poster is allowed to have their own values. I like prog stuff, I like 4/4 verse-chorus-verse stuff, I like ambient stuff, the list goes on... some people have narrow views on music, sometimes depressingly so.
 
O

OnPoint

Member
GooeyHeat said:
Summer Carnival '92 Recca is one of my favorite examples. Between the PCM samples and the general focus on rhythm (as opposed to most chiptunes that have strong melodies), it's hard to believe that it was not only on Famicom, but used no custom sound chips at all.
My favorites:
RECCA (Title Screen)
HYDE (Stage 2)
CRISIS (Boss)
Having music like this while also being the fastest, most intense shooter on the Famicom is truly amazing to me.
Click to expand...

I assume they were using DPCM then for the samples. That can add so much depth. Konami made great use of it for games like Contra with the drums, and even Tecmo with Ninja Gaiden.
 
V

vgamer1

Member
M

MagnaderAlpha

Member
Regarding Tim and Geoff Follin, first booting up the Spider-Man X-Men game, the title screen, alone, sold me on the music quality. I remember inviting my friends over and as soon as they heard the guitar, they were blown away that the SNES was capable of such music.
 
D

Dragoon En Regalia

Member
lazygecko said:
The 251 chip in the X68K is almost identical to the 2612 chip in the Genesis/Mega Drive. The only notable differences are two extra channels (but lacks the extra 4 the Genesis gets from the PSG) and a noise LFO. But that noise LFO alone, which might seem like an insignificant curiosity at a glance, makes one hell of a difference in the kind of timbres you can achieve. Especially when it comes to drums and percussive sounds, which the 2612 typically had a tough time with.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/66640537/utabi46b.mp3
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/66640537/utabi55f.mp3
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/66640537/utabi57c.mp3

These are all 100% programmed FM on the X68K. No PCM samples are used for anything. You can only dream about achieving the same results on a Genesis. You can get something close in certain instances using the the often neglected SSG envelopes, but that's still far from as flexible.
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Insane work. All I know is Nitta made very creative use of the PC-98, MSX, and X68000 sound chips up through 1995. Good thing you're going to render my half-baked audio knowledge redundant in these threads from now on. :)

Raegal said:
While Ys IV was already mentioned, it's worth noting that the first Ys started the tradition of amazing audio way back in 1987.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38dR1YYulio
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Yonemitsu's arrangements didn't arrive until 1990 for the Tubro-Grafx 16 CD version of the game. Here's the original game's PC-8801 soundtrack from Koshiro and Ishikawa w/unused music; Ys II is just as impressive. I'll always prefer Sorcerian's massive score to both Ys games', though... a must-listen for Koshiro fans.
 
E

ElectricThunder

Member
Damn, I got next to nothing in the face of all this---fair bit of stuff I've no recollection at all of having come up in roughly similar threads even! Definitely filing this thread in the bookmarks to pour over in more detail...

However...these 2 fan works remain baller, and more recently this other thing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIr1A8Ki1B4 Brandish VT Unused Demo OP music PC-98



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qjz9X27h1vk FFVII Cover using a juiced MSX

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTraSI6LMaI Streets of Rage III on a Roland MT-32 fused with a Sharp X68000
 
D

deedeedaydee

Banned
AtomicShroom said:
Man I hate Tim Follin's music. It sounds good. Like, the sonority of it is very nice. It has that special aura to it. But that's it. The actual songs, their composition, the songs as a whole once you get past the nice-soundingness, they never go anywhere. They don't have any structure... it's like just a mish mash of random riffs just ducttaped to one another without any build up, rhyme or reason. There's no choruses, no melody, nothing catchy, nothing memorable, and certainly nothing that can be hummed. I'll never understand why people like it...
Click to expand...

This is catchy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiaK58H9p9Y&index=1&list=PLF167DE762D231EC1

Catchier than the original by far:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAdKg3yPmj8
 
R

RedToad64

Member
I'm surprised no one has mentioned Secret of Mana yet. Not really a fan of the game but I was always impressed by how "advanced" the audio sounds. I would post some examples but I'm on mobile.
 
S

SatelliteOfLove

Member
Follin haters? On MY internet?!?!

RedToad64 said:
I'm surprised no one has mentioned Secret of Mana yet. Not really a fan of the game but I was always impressed by how "advanced" the audio sounds. I would post some examples but I'm on mobile.
Click to expand...

Ah yes, Kikuta's famed 3D sound. Another master that didn't get enough time in the spotlight. Still, there is another "Shining" game coming out soon, and with it, another Kikuta masterpiece (composition-wise, not technicals-wise of course).
 
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