Video Game Music

Here is an email I sent to the ClassicGaming.com mailbag back in 2000. I like the essay I wrote, so I will share it with you here, as it's lost forever in archive-land right now, and may even eventually be deleted:

From: Froggymee
Subject: Video Game music

Yea, I am finally writing to the mailbag after reading it for a very long time! This is in regard to video game music. I love the music from games. That is, the real, synthesized stuff. I'm not really into Redbook (CD) Audio. I like to be impressed by the computing power of the sound chip and the technical virtuosity of the composer/programer.

The first music from a game that I was impressed with was the music from "Digger", a Mr. Do!/Dig Dug clone by Windmill Software in 1983. The song was a cover of "Popcorn" by Hot Butter. All other sounds from my PC at that time (and for a long time afterward) were beeps and boops, but somehow Windmill was able to create multitrack sound that sounded like real instruments out my PC speaker. Later, games I got with the RealSound (tm) technology, were able to put digital sound out of my PC speaker too, but this method required a more powerful system then what I had (an 8088). To get past this problem, I would start the game in turbo (8 MHz!). This would trick the software into thinking that I had a more powerful system, and would start the game with the sound going, but then it would quickly stall, so I would be left with a jukebox. To actually play the game, I had to be in 4.77 MHz mode, which would bypass the sound procedures and be silent. Early on, I was also impressed with the music from Zelda on the NES, and I would like to play Rad Racer just to pause and listen to the "radio" (also on the NES).

On the SNES, I found it very cool that the composer used the same reoccurring theme through out the game "Super Mario World". On PC's, Adlib/Soundblaster FM Synthesis can create some awesome music. Especially check out the music from Tyrian, which even comes with a jukebox, and Continuum (also known as Alpha Waves in Europe). All of the instruments are programed as opposed to sampled, and I think that the composer is limited to 9 single voice tracks. Of course it doesn't sound real, but that is how it is supposed to be. The computer is the instrument. Another awesome PC method of music making is the MOD, originating from the Amiga. Unlike FM Synthesis, this uses sampled instruments. I personally enjoy making MODs.

I don't really like MIDI though. If I'm playing it out my keyboard hooked up to my computer, it is ok, but for the most part, they sound crappy. (How many people have a keyboard hooked up to their computers? Probably not many.) They lack the technicality that MODs and FM synthesis require, and on the hobbyist side of things, most MODs are exciting originals, while most MIDI's are crappy covers of pop tunes.

Lately, I have been getting deeply into the Commodore 64 music scene. The 6581 SID chip is one amazing synthesizer! Limited to just 3 channels, the composers still create masterpieces that are fully orchestrated and arranged. And it is very versatile, with a filter, infinite volume levels, and the ability to play both (analog?) programed instruments as well as digital samples. I am blessed to be in reception range of the only Commodore 64 music show on the radio in the world. I listen to KDVS 90.3 FM in Davis, CA, USA. But if you live too far away from Sacramento to get KDVS, never fear, they broadcast on the internet! You need to go to http://www.kdvs.org/ and listen to Hard Hat Mack's show "6581 SID". It airs every Tuesday from 8PM to 9PM Pacific time. This is some GOOD music. On a good, booming stereo, it sounds really neat! And he uses real SID chips as opposed to emulation. But emulation is not bad at all. In the meantime, while waiting for his show, I still enjoy SID music via an emulator. Please download a SID player and the High Voltage SID Collection. The High Voltage SID Collection is a very huge collection of 12,500 SID files arranged in subdirectories by composer, and is ever expanding as new songs are written! (the C64 scene is very alive!). It includes songs from demos, intros, games, and just for the sake of writing music. Go to http://www.hvsc.c64.org/ for more info and to get it (the download is only 20 MB zipped and expands to about 80:) And most of the *.SID files will have sub tunes for different parts of the game. Like "Commando" by Rob Hubbard has 3 songs in it. So there is a lot of music to listen to. And most of it is good.

I am getting tired (it is 3:30 AM! :) so I will close by listing a few arcade games I like the music from: Do Run Run, Gemini Wing, that short, single voice intro at the beginning of Phoenix, and (not classic, but good) the music for the London stage in Crusin' World (very early 90s British house:)

The email, along with other readers' submissions to the mailbag is located here:
http://classicgaming.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Articles.Detail&id=84

Peter

Continuum / Alpha Waves AdLib Music

In 1990, Infrogrames, the French video game publisher and developer, came out with Alpha Waves, or Continuum, as it was known in Europe and the US respectively. This was one of the first 3D polygon games, and there is something about the abstract, purely geometric qualities of early, non-texture mapped polygon games that captivates me. Their graphics are so simple, that they almost seem hyper-real, and thoroughly three dimensional. Not to mention that the game play for classics like Continuum, Stellar 7, Nova 9, Elite, Virus, Spectre, Spectre VR and Battle Zone is incredible, involving and immersive (nice alliteration, eh?).

Continuum stands above the others in its creativity and scope; this wasn't just a game, it was a meditative, even spiritual experience. You play a craft that bounces from platform to platform in a maze of 256 rooms. Groupings of the rooms represent different emotions or activities of the mind, and the game indeed does induce a dream-like response from the player (hence the European title, Alpha Waves).

One of the key aspects to the game is the music. Frédéric Mentzen scored the game, and the compositions that he coded for the Yamaha OPL2 chip, as used on the AdLib and SoundBlaster soundcards, is gorgeous. Many games of the late-80s/early-90s have awesome FM-synthesized music, which is completely ruined by wave-table soundcards, that MIDI-fy real synth music and turn it into very cheesy soundtracks, with horribly bad "realistic" samples of conventional instruments, loss of dynamics and complete loss of filter data. But on a true FM-synth soundcard with an OPL2 or OPL3 chip, the music of these games can be of great quality. Of all the AdLib soundtracks I enjoyed, on a real FM-synth, not a simulating soundcard, Continuum's music is my favorite. It's title track became a song in the soundtrack of my youth. I still hum the theme song from time-to-time, and I liked the music so much, that about a decade ago, I plugged the output of the soundcard into a tape recorder and recorded a tape of Continuum music! Interestingly enough, it was the PC Speaker beeps and boops version of the song I originally fell in love with, and when I finally heard the AdLib version, I was blown away!

I feel it very worthy to publish some tracks, and eventually all tracks, to the game, especially since after an exhaustive web search, I found nowhere the music from this game archived on the web (though other games enjoy the benefit of their Adlib musics being shared on the web).

I post these song data files in the DRO format, ie I recorded the OPL commands as the game was being run in DOSBox. Thus these files only consist of data that triggers an OPL chip to sing. You sill need to obtain an Adlib emulator. I highly suggest AdPlug, which can be easily used as a plugin for your WinAmp program. If you want to use it as a plugin for WinAmp, then following links after clicking AdPlug above will take you here. Installing the plugin is as easy as copying the in_adlib.dll and adplug.db files to your Winamp\Plugins directory. (Mini edit: If you're using Linux, you most likely can play AdLib music files natively - try Audacious)

The songs are:
Alpha_Title.dro
Alpha_Dream.dro
Alpha_Energize.dro
Alpha_Relax.dro
Alpha_Meditate.dro

The four tracks after the title track are soundtracks for a sampling of the various groupings of rooms one could call levels in the game. These are meant to loop over and over. In the future, I will get all 12 level soundtracks posted, as well as possibly post better versions of the current ones (fix start and cutoff times). A problem I rarely encounter is sometimes an instruction will carry over to the next song, creating a note that doesn't stop. This is easily fixed by restarting the song.

For more information about AdLib Music, check the following websites:

Malfunction's FM Synthesis Heaven - Huge zipped archive of AdLib music playable with AdPlug here (note, to get the archive, you'll have to fix the typo '\' to a '/')
melcom's ChipTune Archive - Another even bigger zipped AdLib archive!
AdPlug / AdPlay
AdPlug download
www.oplx.com - Has another AdLib emulator, but this one only plays the D00 files made by the Vibrants tracker
AdLib Music Archive
http://www.ninjacode.org/audio_museum/pc_adlib/ - Just discovered this collection, and added it to the list in an edit. And look! It has Continuum! :)

For more information about Alpha Waves / Continuum:

Continuum at MobyGames
Frederic Mentzen at MobyGames
In depth history of coding Alpha Waves by Christophe de Dinechin, lead programmer.

Enjoy the music!
Peter

Incognito

I've received inquiries into this style of music I dig that used to be called Acid Jazz, so perhaps I shall share a few videos from my favorite British funk-jazz band, Incognito. Incognito was on Gilles Peterson's Talkin' Loud label, the man who coined the term Acid Jazz, and thus Incognito is pretty representative of one aspect of the Acid Jazz sound:

Here is the Roger Sanchez deep house remix of Givin' it Up with Maysa Leak on vocals:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nogEBPALXkg

A house remix of Out of the Storm (so soulful!!!! nice hand percussion):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ewkB6MmLAM

A deep house remix of Always There with a special guest, the legendary Jocelyn Brown, on vocals. Song originally by Ronnie Laws, covered by Side Effect, covered again by Incognito, and remixed by David Morales:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hejXcKFcnFY

Back to Maysa Leak on vocals, here's Marrakesh, quite possibly my favorite Incognito song, straight with no remix:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7nqEOgV77E

Enjoy the groove!

2:15 AM

2:15:24 04/16/08
Status: READY
CMD>

CMD>NEURO_SIM > OUTPUT_TRIAL_1.TXT

Initializing...
Begin simulation...
..&&s sou** dl.
12 2A 88 1F 73 AA 5E
...23 fji

ERROR...SIMULATION ABORTED! (12998)
.................................................
.................................................
.........................................override

Status: SELF-AWARE_