Collins Audio Supplement 3-1: End of Arcades/Beginning of Home Consoles (Sega)

Here's the next part of the Collins supplement which corresponds to the beginning of Chapter 3.  As a reminder, I'm studying intensely through Karen Collins book, Game Sound, and am watching listening to (and watching) gameplay to all the examples she cites in the book.  If my earlier hypothesis was correct and the games listed in her book are primarily ones she was familiar with and played, then I now know that we played very different games.  Our ten year age difference, gender differences, and the fact that we had different consoles are probably all some of the reasons for this.  I, for instance, didn't have a Sega, and only played Sonic a few times at friends houses.  Neither did I know anything about the Commodore 64.  This project has been great at expanding my horizons into unknown game/ game sound!

Choplifter

I think I saw friends play this.  I definitely never did.  The arcade version I've linked to here has music that changes for each level, but the C64 version, like the Apple II original, only seems to have sound effects.  The game's sound effects are pretty noisy, so it's a little hard to heard the music in the mix.  Collins mentions this game because it was popular for longer than the average game.

Frogger was another game that was popular for longer than the average three month game lifespan, but I've already blogged about Frogger here, so I'm omitting it from this entry.

Space Harrier (1985)

This game, like the following two examples, is simply in a list of successful Sega arcade titles.  I don't think I've ever heard of it.  The main music has a sort of disco beat to it, which I quite like.  Short looping music for the boss battles, and an interesting contrast at the end of the game with a quite relaxed, calm theme for the ending music.  Hiroshi Kawaguchi composed the music.

After Burner (1987)

After Burner looks familiar, and I may have played a bit of this game, but games like this where lots of things are exploding and moving happening on the screen at once were never my forte, so if I played it, I didn't play it much.  As I'm watching more of these arcade games, I'm struck by how loud the sound effects are in relation to the music.  I think this might be because the arcades were such a noisy environment anyway, the sound effects needed to really pop out to grab your attention.  They often conveyed meaning about the game status more than the music did-- in arcade games, at least.  The only time I hear the music particularly well in this game is during the re-fueling moments.  This video is just Part 1/5.  Follow the video links if you want to see more.  Again, the music is by Hiroshi Kawaguchi.

Ghouls 'N Ghosts (1988)

I definitely watched friends play this game and perhaps played a bit myself.  I'm not sure if that was at the arcade, or on a home console version.  I definitely remember King Arthur running around in his underwear when he got hit!  I really like the music to this game and it's also the only game of the three that has the music in a good balance with the sound effects.  The beginning of the music for the last level reminds me very much of another castle/evil game music theme, but I can't put my finger on it. Hopefully I'll come across it as I continue working.  Tamayo Kawamoto composed the music (love a female composer!).  Part 1/3 below, follow the video links to see more.

Altered Beast (1988)

I may vaguely remember seeing this game at a friend's house.  Collins mentions this as being a pack-in game for the Sega.  The big leg up for Sega compared with SNES that I remember from being young was the more clear spoken dialogue.  That ability is definitely visible here, with lines like "Welcome to your doom," screams, and laughs, etc.  This is a game that I feel has a bit too much of the sound effects in the mix compared against the music.  It gives the arcade feel, but in a home (at least on this video) the ratio seems a bit off.  I didn't own a Sega, so I never really played any Sega game beyond the next one on this list.  

Sonic the Hedgehog (1991)

I definitely remember playing Sonic at friends houses, even though we didn't own a Sega.  Sonic was the funkier, cooler Mario alternative.  The sound in the game is pretty cool, starting right away with that "Sega" initial sound.  Such a contrast from the audio experience of starting a SNES game.  The music here is much the same as a Mario game, with music for different levels, stage clear, boss battles, invincibility, etc.  Interesting that the opening theme everyone can sing from the game is actually the invincibility theme!  It's fun to watch this gameplay through since I probably only saw the first few levels when I played with friends.  Masato Nakamura is the composer of this infamous game music.

Shadow of the Beast 2 (1992)

Here as in the next game on the list, Collins is talking about hearing the organ sound.  Watching this playthrough was definitely an underwhelming audio experience from what I expected.  I'm not sure I came away knowing which was the sound effect she intended to be heard.  In general, I feel again that sound effects overpower the music, which is pretty much just background ambience.  Tim Wright is the composer of this (and numerous other!) games.  While people online rave about this game music, I didn't go for it...

Fatal Rewind (1991)

Another game I didn't know.  I can't find a complete playthrough of the Sega version, but below's a bit of the gameplay.  It has the same organ sound as the above game, but I'm not sure that's heard in this brief video.  There is a video of an Amiga longplay, but that wouldn't have quite the same sounds as the Sega.

Misadventures of Flink (1993)

Here's Collins mentions the same flute sound between Fatal Rewind and Misadventures, but I'm not sure I can compare the two.  I'm glad to watch this gameplay.  Unlike the previous two, this is the kind of game I'd have liked and played for sure.  I also very much like this soundtrack.  I've been trying to decide what the flute sound of note is.  I've heard something I'd describe as clarinet, but not flute...  In any case, it's been a cool chance for me to hear more game music I didn't know.  Even though some internet sites say David Lowe is the composer, the in-game credits list Matthias Steinwach as the composer.

Toejam and Earl: Panic on Funkotron (1992)

I hadn't ever heard of Toejam and Earl.  I watched that longplay of the original and LOVED it (the sound effect snippet of The Hallelujah Chorus is genius!).  It reminds me of Earthbound, which I love dearly, with the visuals as well as the text font.  I also watched a longplay of this second game, Panic on Funkotron.  Collins is mentioning this game because it has a music game in it, "Jam Out," which she describes as "Simon-type."  I can't find a video that features that mini-game though.  If you know of one, leave me a note in the comments so I can see what that game is all about.  John Baker composed the grooves for both of these games-- amazing composer!  Sad to learn he's one of the few game composers to have already passed....   Here's a shorter video to whet your appetite.

Collins Audio Supplement 2-2: Early PC Game Audio

This has been forever in the making...  If it takes you a long time to digest... well, it took me almost a month to work through it all and hear all this music/watch the gameplay.  Enjoy!

This series is continuing my audio journey through the games that are highlighted in Karen Collins game sound.  This entry corresponds with the end of the second chapter of the book, which is about the early PC gaming audio history.  I have to say, I've not played a single one of these games, so very cool for me to encounter them beyond a sentence in a book.  Probably that's due to the ten year age difference between myself and Karen Collins.  That's how quickly games come and go!  Now old games are being ported over to modern systems, so maybe there'll be a time when they can be played again, but there was a long while where it was difficult (if not impossible) to play some of theses old games or watch their gameplay as I'm doing in these cases.

Overall, I'm extremely impressed with the detail in them!  One advantage these old games have (in terms of education) is that they're a lot of reading.  I'm not sure the subject material here is appropriate-- or aimed at-- young players, but regardless, the games have a lot of witty writing and really present some fun scenarios.  Musically, this genre particularly reminds me of Looney Tunes cartoons with some references to old standard music (Chicken Reel is in Police Quest) as well as just blatant, ease to understand musical references.

Ulysses and the Golden Fleece-- no music beyond a beeping sound for dialogue progression and upon seeing different locations in your travels.

Mystery House-- no sound?

The Dark Crystal-- couldn't find gameplay footage of this game.  If you know of a link, let me know.

Space Quest-- Only melodic intro to the story.  Credits mention who did the graphics, but not the sound!  Sound effects.  Music in the bar, different tunes at different points.  Lots of sound effects for the casino slot gameplay.  And the same melody at the end of the game as the beginning.

Police Quest-- starts with the "Dragnet theme" sound-a-like (or at moments, literally the exact theme)  Music is mentioned in the credits at the beginning of the game by Margaret Lowe.  Two homorhythmic melodic voices and bass, plus a noise channel.  Similar to NES.  Various sound effects seem very similar to the other games.  Phone ringing is one of the best sound effects.  Enjoyed the music in the strip club.  Sounds for driving the police car around and unrealistic effects for opening and closing the doors constantly.  More sounds than the other games on the list so far.  Striking: Polyphony.  When you find the chicken in the police office, the game plays Daly's "Chicken Reel," which I know from Looney Tunes cartoons.  Birthday song in The Blue Room-- isn't it copyrighted?  Dramatic music for a shootout.  Music for Precious in Jail.  Bullets breaking glass.  Music for the ticker tape parade at the end of the game.  Here's a link to some of the Police Quest music.  Margaret Lowe-- more information needs to be recorded about her.  I can't find any sort of interview with her.  Why do online listings give Rob Atesalp as the composer for the game?  Who can help to sort out more information about this music?

King's Quest-- first "3D" graphic adventure game.  Uses Greensleeves and Do Your Ears Hang Low as well as white noise and a few other sound effects.  Mainly silent gameplay.  No ending music!

Leisure Suit Larry--  Music by Al Lowe-- beginning of the credits.  This is the first of these games where I've seen the composer credited.  How Dry I Am (The Near Future- Irving Berlin) plays when you trade the whiskey to the drunk guy for the remote control.  99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall plays when the drunk shows up outside the Quikimart.  Interesting music for the disco dance floor.  The Quikiwed chapel plays Aura Lee-- though probably a reference to the Love Me Tender (Elvis).  Uses Sousa's Star and Stripes for the fireworks at the end of the game.  No mention of these cover songs.  I really quite like this game and the audio for it.  Certainly not a kids game, though!


Short Circuit-- not able to find much here.  Collins notes the simplification and adjustment of sound between the movie version and the C64 version.

Times of Lore-- couldn't find a playthrough C64 version playthrough without talking over it, but I was able to find videos of music from the game.  The 5th of these tunes sounds familiar to me...

Rock Star Ate My Hamster-- Allistar Brimble.  Has a bluesy feel for the opening theme.  Interesting game where the gameplay is about the workings of the music industry.  Haven't heard of this game or seen anything like it before-- are there other games where the music business is a part of game play?  Collins is mentioning the game because when you "practice," the music is "chosen from a random combination of 16 sequences."  I have to remember to tell Vince about this when he's back in the country; he'll love that one of the playable singers for hire is a pseudo Kyle Minogue (Bimbo Baggins).

Lazy Jones-- How cool to make a video game about a character who plays video games?  Kind of like a Truman Show sort of video game.  One of the first games I've encountered to give a sound for footsteps.  The music is interesting here, most notably because it has such seamless transitions from one section to another.  Instead of making hard cuts with sound effects in between (imagine going down a pipe in SMB to the underground theme), the music here finishes playing the current music theme before transitioning to the next theme.  Since it all has a similar pulse and sound, that's easy to do in this game.

Zak McKracken--  Collins mentions that this plays Chopin's Funeral March.  I couldn't find a playthrough with that, though presumably it would be on one where the player dies.  Watched an find an FM version playthrough, which could have different music.  I only really noticed two things: the Indiana Jones theme when you play the kazoo and the "Eastern" sounding music.  Here's the intro:

Wicked-- Arcade like sound effects that match the gameplay.  I heard the Bach C minor WTC Book I prelude reference, although it's not an exact duplicate, it's almost a sound-a-like track.

The Great Giana Sisters--  So close to Super Mario Bros that Nintendo sued to have it pulled from stores.  I can't decide if I think the music is quite a bit like SMB or not.  The graphics, even the sound effects are, but the music?  I'm not convinced the audio is a copycat...

Frantic Freddie-- the only two tunes I recognized initially from this gameplay video were the opening to Beethoven's 5th symphony and Scott Joplin's Maple Leaf Rag. Collins notes the following themes which appear in it: Paul Simon's Kodachrome, Queen's Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Electronic Light Orchestra's Don't Bring Me Down, and Sylver's Boogie Fever.  According to my internet search, a couple more of these numbers are also Joplin rags: The Easy Winners and The Pineapple Rag.  Whether the remaining game tunes are covers or original compositions, I don't know, but it'd be great to find out definite answers...

Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show-- uses many American folksongs.  Collins notes the Star Spangled Banner, Oh Susanna, Yankee Doodle, and Camptown Races.  I also heard the overture to Rossini's William Tell in this gameplay video.

Super Pipeline-- Collins notes the use of the Rozsa/Schumann Dragnet theme.  It is a warning  gameplay, but a YouTube comment pointed out that the title theme was Debussy's Golliwog's Cakewalk-- totally true, but I didn't even catch it when I was watching!  The wikipedia page notes the use of the Dance of the Cuckoos, Paganini's Caprice 24, and Sky's Tuba Smarties.  Covers were easier on the C64 because of its better audio capabilities.

Necromancer-- Devo's Some Things Never Change.  It seems that this was the theme song to Necromancer for the C64.  Here's a link to gameplay footage, although I think this tune got edited out of the gameplay in this case.

California Games'-- Louie Louie.  Finally found some gameplay with this title music attached!

Mayhem in Monsterland-- Collins writes about the short music loops similar to a Nintendo style.  Particularly she notes the longer overworld music and shorter four bar boss music as similar (perhaps to SMB?).  "Cheery," "poppy" sound effects.  I'm giving this a full listen as I get ready for bed tonight.  The graphics definitely have a similar feel to SMB!  The opening theme reminds me of the Tiny Toons Theme Song!  

Collins Audio Supplement Supplement 2-1: Beginnings of Home Console Audio History

Continuing to listen to the audio of the games in Collins' Game Sound to make sure I've really heard the progression of audio gaming history.  Here are the links I've been exploring recently.

Pong for the Atari.  Very primitive, but iconic, sounds....

Space Invaders for Atari.  I think I've mentioned this before on the blog, but comparing the original arcade sound against the Atari sound below shows the big contrast in the audio capabilities of the different mediums.

Tapeworm for Atari.  Here she's pointing out how bizarre the theme song is at the beginning of game play, based on the limitations of the Atari tuning.

Burger Time for Atari.  Collin's contrast here is how the two audio channels available with the TIA chip for the Atari VCS didn't allow the bass and the treble voices to sound in the same key.  Again compare the arcade version and hear the missing bass line-- the second channel is used instead for sound effects.  This game definitely doesn't have the same harmonic unity that would arise later.

Up 'N Down for Atari.  Wow.  Collins explains that the music is "changed from a bluesy F-sharp minor groove to a very unsettling version based in C minor with a flattened melodic second."  That's basically a music scholarly way of saying it sounds like shit.  This is quite possible the worst game audio I've ever heard.  The port of this music is incredibly dissonant and shows very little care for being a positive audio experience for the player.  Was there QC with this game audio?  Give a listen to the arcade version to clear this from your ears and I hope you won't ever hear the Atari version again.  I warned you:

Super Mario Bros, The Legend of Zelda, and Mike Tyson's Punch-Out for NES.  I've featured both of these on the blog before, so I'll skip posting videos on the page, but these games and their music are dear to me.  The NES audio setup with five channels, two pulse waves, one square, a noise, and a sample channel possible (but rarely used) were classic.  MTPO made use of the sampler channel for the scratchy sounding speech.  Gauntlet 2 used this feature a bit more successfully, although I'm still not able to understand what is said very easily.  Not a game I know, it's interesting to me that there's really only music at the beginning of each level.

Ultima (III) for NES.  Here's an early RPG I don't know.  Collins points out how in the battle music, all three channels of the NES sound were used to create chords.  Definitely a different compositional approach since all the voices sound in homorhythm.  Contrast this with the counterpoint in the overworld music.

Castlevania for NES.  Castlevania's battle music uses the bass voice as the melody and arpeggiation in one of the square wave voices to fill out the harmonies.  Again, I've already featured this game on the blog I'll skip posting a video about it here, but here's a link to gameplay.

Metroid is a game I never played but definitely want to.  One of my good friends in undergrad would always go on about how great the music to Metroid was.  I watched a longplay of the game about a month ago and definitely was impressed with the audio experience.  Collins includes an excerpt of this longer interview between Alexander Brandon and Hirokazu "Hip" Tanaka.  If you watch a longplay of Metroid, notice that there's not really a melody until you beat the game... that's by design, of course.  Give a listen to any portion of the gameplay, and then switch over to around 50:25 to hear the contrast. I also learned from this interview that the Famicom had an additional audio channel from what the NES did, so the music sounds slightly different on that system.  Compare the end of Metroid on the Famicom with the below NES video to hear what I mean.

Manic Mansion for NES.  This is an incredible game that I was terrible at but loved.  Hope to play it again soon.  Here Collins is pointing out uses of the noise channel.  Here it is radio static and a skipping record.

Journey to Silius for NES.  Collins says that this is an "example of samples taking on the role of bass, such as in Journey to Silius (in which the triangle channel is used like Linn drum toms.)"  I don't know this game well at all, but below is some gameplay and here's a link to the soundtrack.

Contra for NES.  Uses sample channel as percussion.  I've featured this game before, so I'm going to leave it at that with a link to gameplay if you want.

Crystalis for NES.  This also uses the sample channel as percussion.  This isn't a game I know at all, so I'll have to give it a more thorough listen soon.  For now, here's a link to the soundtrack and some gameplay below.

Collins audio supplement: An arcade audio history

Today I've been watching game play videos of some classic arcade games as I re-read the opening chapters of Collins Game Sound.  I'm marveling in how the internet makes it so easy right now to conduct this kind of research!  Thank goodness!-- the availability of this information is incredible!  I'm doing this in part because I plan to use Game Sound as my course text book and I want to be able to easily find links to these videos-- and also to make sure I've heard and fully understood the history of game audio as she presents it.  I can't find a couple of the gameplay videos so far and I probably won't link to footage from every example, but I will in most cases.  Other videos won't embed here, so I've posted links.  These videos correspond with the beginning of many of the examples in Chapter 2 of Game Sound.  The games here start with sound effects only and progress to having music at the beginning/ end of games, and then finally to having fairly continuous music and sound effects.

Computer Space (1971)-- first mass produced arcade game.  Advertising boasted interactive space battle sounds.

Pong (1972)-- first arcade hit.  Interesting to think Nolan Bushnell was asking for cheering and hissing of a crowd audience as you played.  Yet all that was possible were those iconic blooping and bleeping sounds.

Collins notes a drive toward realism in game audio throughout game audio history, as well as several examples early in the advertising of games.  Here in this video for Man Eater (1975), you can hear the "screams" of the swimmers as they're eaten.  

Space Invaders (1978)-- first continuous music that speeds up as gameplay progresses.  

Asteroids (1979)-- music here also speeds up, but as I play this game, I feel a disconnect between the music and the gameplay that I don't with Space Invaders.  Whereas Space Invaders' music gets faster at the same time the gameplay gets harder, there's a point in Asteroids toward the end of each screen where the music is very quick-- which I experience as trying to keep me agitated-- and the gameplay is actually getting simpler, since almost all the asteroids are destroyed.  

Rally X (1980) -- one of the earliest games using looping music.  A simple 6 bar loop, 4 in I (Bb as it plays here) and 2 bars in vi (G minor).  That movement from tonic down a third strikes me as a fairly common progression that would later occur in several games (Castlevania and Punch-Out, for instance).  

Carnival (1980)-- uses Juventino Rosas's "Over the Waves." (if you're impatient, go to :46 for the start of the tune).  I always think of this song in connection with Mary Poppins when Bert is acting out being on a tight rope (2:23) and also recently encountered this tune as I was doing some research on the cutscenes in Number Munchers.  I love how the music rises a half-step with each iteration and speeds up!  This must be one of the first uses of classical music in a game.

Frogger (1981)-- an early game to incorporate "dynamic music." Used at least 11 different gameplay songs.  Really cool to re-read this after having forgotten it and then discovering Frogger on my own a few weeks ago via my Buckner and Garcia research.   The music here doesn't loop-- it appears that the tracks play and simply switch to another track if you've not gotten your frog to safety by the end of the track.  When you get your frog to safety, this also launches a new track.  Unquestionably groundbreaking, interesting game audio.  

Gyruss (1983)-- continuing with the classical music in games, Gyruss makes extensive use of Bach's Tocatta and Fugue.  The music here, like Frogger, strikes me as sounding pretty incredible...  

Collins draws a distinction between games that have non-looping audio in '82 -'83 like Tutankhamun, Miner 2049er, Jungle Hunt, Dig Dug, and Congo Bongo and games in '84 whose audio primarily loops.  (Although Collins says these don't loop, several of these seem to loop to me-- Jungle Hunt for sure, Dig Dug only plays music when you move-- so if you move for long enough, it will loop-- and Congo Bongo, though mostly silent has looping percussion.  Maybe we heard different versions, which have totally different audio.)  '84 looping audio games: Gyruss, Sewer Sam, Tarzan, Burger Time, Antarctic Adventure, and Up N Down.  Collins: Hardware was mostly the same, thus this was an aesthetic choice.  

Finally, Star Wars (1983) was a fairly good incorporation of spoken word from sampled speech chips as well as music from the movie.  In fact, in the commercial for this game, the recognizable Williams' themes are one of the first selling points!