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| Spoon 2100th Post
  
Platinum Carpet V.I.P- Board Master
    
    
    
    
    
|  "Re(8):game music revival thread" , posted Fri 28 Jan 06:00  
quote:
Gaijin games are often filled with soundtrack well composed but without personality, imitating Hollywood scores for movies.
Though using the label "Gaijin games" I find a little odd, it's not like I don't understand what you're saying.
The blockbuster games which really are trying to be movie-like certainly do have that Hollywood-like music, but I don't think that's all there is to it. The music in Halo is pretty unique in its combination of wailing electric guitars with symphonic stuff, and Halo's quite the blockbuster!
So let's have some interesting music from the good ol' days of PC gaming:
Cannon Fodder intro, that actually WASN'T in the PC version but the Amiga one.
Syndicate Wars and the Syndicate games were cyberpunk plain and simple. There's some Vangelis/Blade Runner inspiration in the music, but it's got a darker and more unsettling sound.
SimCity 2000's theme song was jazzy, upbeat, playful and urban. Pretty much perfect for what the game is about!
Ultima 7 had a lot of gems, but this one is nice and relaxing.
One Must Fall 2097 and the techno that I grew up with. I remember the first time my computer had a soundcard so that I could actually hear this song, I looked at the animated spotlights on the giant robot with its fist raised and thought that this was the coolest thing EVER.
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| Spoon 2101th Post
Platinum Carpet V.I.P- Board Master
| "Re(2):Re(10):game music revival thread" , posted Fri 28 Jan 15:56
The shareware title Overkill (published by Apogee! the kings of shareware!) had some of the most strangely mellow music in a shoot'em up.
It seriously reminds me of Border Down, which also had mellow music, though Border Down had one track in particular that sounded like it came out of SimCity 3000.
One thing about the PC games I played is that many of them were either of the sci-fi type, or the high fantasy type. I get the feeling that the high level of geek that was prevalent back then (seriously, BBS is like anything but mainstream) and the prevalence of the demo scene made really electronic, nearly stereotypically-techno music a very common thing.
Of course, there were also visionary games like Wing Commander that wanted all the drama and panache of a real space opera, and the technology behind the music was cutting edge at the time. Think about it for a moment; when was the last time you heard the words "cutting edge technology" when talking about MUSIC in games? We hear it all the time today with regards to graphics and AI and massive games, but very rarely with regards to music.
I was always surprised by how the character and feel of DOOM changed the moment you played it with music. It suddenly went from "kinda scary shooting game" to "LET'S ROCK!!!!!"
even though the tune is somewhat repetitive. It actually kind of reminds me of Super Castlevania 4 in that regard, where the moment I crossed the drawbridge, the music rocked out so hard that it was impossible for the game to feel scary anymore.
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| Gojira 2702th Post
PSN: Gojira_X
XBL: Gojiraaa
Wii: 80085
Platinum Carpet V.I.P- Board Master
| "Re(1):Journey to Silius" , posted Thu 10 Feb 03:07:
quote:
I simply can't engage in a conversation about game music without bringing up Journey to Silius:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBM-m82Za_0
I have to admit that I only found out about the game recently. I miiiight have read about it in EGM or even played it at the mall as a kid, but I don't remember. But g'dang it's got the richest production I've ever heard from the NES. It totally stands on its own merits, independant of nostalgia or kitsch value. It just sounds awesome and embodies the concept of DETERMINATION.
Ah, yes, Journey to Silius. The game was a fun - if simple - little run-and-gun in the vein of Contra but that soundtrack was so freaking powerful and bassy for a NES game. Especially the theme that starts up at 4:42, which was stuck in my head for years. Thanks for bringing it up again!
quote:
Incidentally, it was originally supposed to be the game for James Cameron's The Terminator. They lost the license, but you can still hear a twinge of the Terminator theme here and there in the deadly serious base lines.
Yeah, the main Terminator theme almost blatantly pops in during the opening sequence, though at the time of playing the game I was too young to have seen Terminator so I could only find it "bitchin'."
It's too bad, Sunsoft produced some really good movie-licensed games on the NES back in the day like Batman and Gremlins 2. Fun stuff with good soundtracks. Then in the SNES era they produced some of the best Neo Geo ports on the SNES and kind of disappeared.
[this message was edited by Gojira on Thu 10 Feb 03:18] |
| Gojira 2702th Post
PSN: Gojira_X
XBL: Gojiraaa
Wii: 80085
Platinum Carpet V.I.P- Board Master
| "Re(3):Journey to Silius" , posted Thu 10 Feb 11:57
quote:
sunsoft batman
Which one of their NES Batman games did you prefer, the first one, or Return of the Joker?
I always thought that the first one had a great platforming feel, interesting music, and some very well made sprites and BGs. The second one was a more straight-out shooting game, but the big sprites were so captivating.
Can't forget the cover of the Return of the Joker, either! It was a perfect image of the Joker! The Genesis version's cover seems so much blander by comparison.
I don't think I ever played Return of the Joker. It came out after I'd sold my NES to buy a Tetris Boy (and later a SNES with U.N. Squadron).
Batman was definitely a great platformer though. And hard, too. At least that's how I remember it, having played as a frustrated lad with no platforming skills. The music does a good job reminding me, because while I remember the first stage music very well, the later stage bgms I don't recognize at all! lol
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"Re(4):game music revival thread" , posted Wed 26 Jan 10:20
I don't seem to be able to think originality right now. 
so little time...
