My Gaming Audio History: Adventure Island (1988)

Adventure Island is a game I couldn't ever beat, but played a lot.  I don't remember why I got it; it could've been a gift, but it doesn't strike me as something I would've wanted to purchase myself.  Maybe it had a great review in Nintendo Power and I got sucked in by that.  I remember never loving it.  For me, it seemed to be a combo of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (with the skateboard riding) and Mario Bros (side scrolling platform game).  I did like that there wasn't a clock to make me feel rushed although after watching a longplay, I think that my problem might have been going too slowly/cautiously!  In terms of audio, that means no "hurry up" theme is needed, although as I just saw, Bubble Bobble didn't show a clock and still had a hurry up invisible timer.

When I watched this playthrough, I was reminded of how the NES drops a musical voice for sound effects.  In most cases (ie, games I've encountered), it's the harmony voice that drops out.  By this I mean: for the most part, NES soundtracks follow this pattern: melody, harmony (homorhythmic), bass, and percussion/noise.  The second of these channels, the homorhythmic harmony, drops out when there's an extra voice need for sound effects.  If you watch much of the playthrough, you'll hear this to be the case in Adventure Island.  It's also the case in Super Mario Bros, The Legend of Zelda, and many other games.

As best I can tell, this music is by another woman composer!  Jun Chikuma.  According to wikipedia, she wrote the soundtracks to Bomberman, Adventure Island, and Faxanadu.  I don't know these other two games, but I know this soundtrack well.  Cool to see another woman composing game music!

Here's a link to the soundtrack if you'd rather hear that than watch the gameplay, although there's plenty of benefit from both of the experiences.  I'm really glad that doing this research right now allows me to hear the soundtracks as well as see gameplay because I can experience the difference in the audio between the two, like the voices dropping out that I mentioned above.  Unlike those who think game music isn't meant to stand alone (and any game that's sold rights to its music to be used again or albums of the music as standalone products would probably agree), I think that game music is just fine outside of games.  The argument seems to me antiquated, like saying classical music is only good in a symphony hall or movie music is only worthwhile when played with the movie.  Plenty of folks enjoy it outside of those specific circumstances.  The reality for me is that music can be created very artfully in a situation (video game, movie, tv show, opera, chamber recital, etc) and still exist just as well in other situations where it's removed from that.  Consider Video Games Live!, which puts game music in an entirely new situation: the concert hall.  Those concerts seem to be doing very well and I'm hoping to talk to Tommy Tallarico about those situations more soon!

I would say that overall, Adventure Island has a homebase as F major.  Most of the keys indicate F as homebase.  I love that the end of the piece is related to the beginning motivically, but higher.  Clever!

Here's my normal breakdown of the tracks, keys, and any notes that immediately came to mind:

-Opening: F major.  24 sec.  Ends unresolved... (so you'll press the button to continue?)
-Main theme: F major.  2 sec intro (doesn't repeat) 26 sec main section A/B, does repeat
-Water theme: F major, 3 sec intro (dr), 13 sec repeating theme, I like the use of bII
-Cave theme: C major, 2 sec intro (dr), 10 sec main theme, notable use of bVI, also more chromatic
-Dark forest: E minor, 2 sec intro (dr), 14 sec main theme
-Mountain theme: E minor 2 sec intro (dr), 8 sec main theme
I-nvincibility: F major, 3 sec, annoyingly repetitive-- I-IV motion, compare Mario invincibility theme
-Eggplant: C major, 10 sec.
-Boss theme: 7 sec.  arpeggiates between e dim and f dim chords...  slight preference for hearing the f as home basefase?  or do I want to hear it that way based on other keys in the game?
-World complete: A major.  6 sec.

-Ending: G major.  16 sec.  (A one second intro, but this only plays once, so the intro is not really the same as the other tracks.)  The ending theme and the opening theme are related motivically.  The ending is in a higher key, though.  One could argue this was for a greater sense of achievement here at the end.  It's as if you've elevated from where you started.  Interesting effect I've not yet come across in the game music field yet, but it happens often in classical music.  

The following game music I wouldn't necessarily consider individual themes, rather short musical fanfares.  They all center around F: Death 2.5 sec, Game over 5 sec, and Level complete 3 sec.

All together, around 2 1/2 minutes of music.  Compared with Super Mario Bros, it's a virtually identical amount of music (I think Mario Bros has slightly more music).  Probably, these were intentional choices.  Interesting to see a second platform game so similar to Mario Bros in many ways.