My Gaming Audio History: DuckTales (1989)

There's a bit of an interesting story behind this blog post.  I knew DuckTales was up next because I have a master list of all the games that I'm doing in this series and am working through chronologically. What I had forgotten was that I really wanted to play DuckTales Remastered and that it was coming out this summer.  Vince told me to download it before we left for summer work, but I forgot it existed until last night late.  I wanted to go to bed early, and right before bed, I was going to watch a longplay of DuckTales NES in preparation for this update.  When I started googling around for the composer of the music, all this stuff about DuckTales Remastered came up, and I ended up staying up until nearly 2 playing it.  And then today, I had to play it until I could buy all the music files in the gallery to see what that was all about.  Whew....  I've got sore thumbs!  

What a classic.  DuckTales was huge when I was a kid.  The TV show was big, there was a Mickey's Christmas Carol released when I was very young that I grew up watching with Scrooge in it and then the TV show came out about the same time as TMNT.  When the game came out, it was a must purchase; no question.  Like TMNT, the incorporation of the main DuckTales theme into the game was really critical to my liking it.  I'm sure if it played different music, I wouldn't have liked it that much.  Instead, when you started it up, it was almost like you were starting an episode of the show... or better yet, stepping into Duckberg yourself!

The game music is by Hiroshige Tonomura.  The DuckTales cartoon theme was composed by Mark Mueller, so that was only arranged by Tonomura for the game and the death music.  I love all this music, particularly Transylvania and the Moon, although all the themes are great.  The variety is amazing.  What game music and I know it SO well!  I played this game so many times it's not funny.  I don't think I'm going to bump into another score by Tonomura, but this one was enough to get me very interested in his music!  This game has just under five minutes of music.

Here's my normal break down of the tracks and any notes.  

-Title Screen: E major to F# major.  52 sec.  101 BPM.  Same form and key as the original TV show theme.  I really like the hook here, which is based on that bVI-bVII-I progression I keep bumping in to!  The TV theme is 89 BPM, this version is a bit sped up from that. Song form: Verse, Chorus, Bridge, Chorus Intro 2 A, B(4), C(10), D(6) C(14)

-Land select: A major.  3 sec.  

-The Amazon: C major.  38 sec.  113.  Intro(4) A B C D

-Transylvania: A minor.  43 sec.  Intro(3) A A' B  150.  BPM

-Back to Duckberg: Bb major.  17 sec.   (Intro2) A A'  Intro doesn't repeat.  Simple I-IV-V progression.  Sounds tropical!  129.  

-African Mines:  E minor.  30 sec.  A B.  128   Blues form.  A:i-IV-V-i-IV-i-V B: IV-i-V-IV-V-IV-i

-Himalayans: F# major.  36 sec. Intro(1) A B 113

-Invincibility: E major/ D major alternation.  1.5 sec.  

-The Moon: F# major.  50 sec.  Intro (12) A A' B(10) Intro doesn't repeat.  BPM 180.  uses bVI-bVII-I at the end, like the main DuckTales theme.  

-Boss: E minor.  18.5 sec.  Intro(4) A B Intro doesn't repeat.  i-iv   129 BPM.

-Land clear: A major.  4 sec.  bIII-IV-bVII-bVI-bVII-I. 

-Game over: E major.  Beginning of main theme, but ends with two 7th chords, Eb7-E7. 2.5 sec

A brief comparison of the music in DuckTales and DuckTales Remastered

I told myself I wasn't going to do this, but I did...  The remake audio is by Jake Kaufman.

In general, the music is remade in much the same way as the FF remake I examined closely a few days ago: instruments added, replacing the 8-bit sounds, keys are identical.  Interestingly here, almost all the tempos are exactly the same.  Intros are added sometimes, pieces are extended.  What makes this remake so artful is that the original presentation of the piece and the opening form is the same as the original (except for added intros, which seem very organic to the piece).  By this I mean, if you generally were to put on a track of the original NES, it would start and play for the first 30 or 40 seconds the same way as these new tracks.  Then, where the NES was limited with memory and needed to loop immediately, these pieces continue in variation format, almost as if it's a jazz group or a rock band letting different instruments take solos.

Briefly, and specifically: The Title music and the stage select music are identical to the original.  In the case of all the stage music, it begins exactly the same as the NES version (except for an intro in The Amazon and an added vamp in Transylvania); but in terms of form, the first parts of the pieces are the same.  Then sections repeat and the form breaks a bit as the loops continue.  In many cases, this means the regular harmonic progression continues and various instruments riff over the top.  A cool way to make this music sound almost jazzed out or rocked out, giving various instruments a solo moment.  The Himalayans and The Amazon have slightly different endings from the originals: at the end of its loop, the Amazon augments the ending rhythmically the first three times so that it overlaps the start of the next section, only the last fourth ending is the regular tempo.  The Himalayans have a drum breakdown right before the loop returns.  The most interesting change in my opinion is the reharmonization at the end of the moon loop.  These harmonies are really interesting and it reminds me of being in church and hearing the organist play that same old hymn you've known for years with crazy chords underneath!   Probably my favorite thing about the remake is the moon music played during the credits on the piano.  I want the sheet music to this!

If you're interested in more about the remake and its music, here's a link to a Capcom duckumentary.  

I've left my notes on the DuckTales Remastered tracks below:  

-Remastered: Same.  

-Land select:  Identical.  

-The Amazon: 2:50. Form: Intro (8) A B C D Intro (16) A A'(flute riffs) A'' B' B C D(ending extends, overlapping start of C) C D(extends) C D(extends) C D (regular ending).   113

-Transylvania: 3:10.  Intro(3) (Vamp 4) A A' B B(add) A A A A' B B A A A A

-Back to Duckberg:  46 sec.  129 Intro2 A A' A A' A A'

-African Mines:  1:44 sec.  Intro(last bar 3) A B A' B' C'' A''  Intro doesn't repeat 130.  slightly faster.

-Himalayans: 1:48 Intro(1) A B B A' A''(piano riffs) C Breakdown(3) Intro loops 115 slightly faster.  

-The Moon: 2:41 Intro(12)  A A' B(10) A(adds instruments) A' B C C A(harmony) A'' A'' A(harmony changes, F# major-alt- Ab over F# bass) A'(extended harmonies-- interesting!) B'  Intro doesn't repeat.  180 BPM.  

-Boss: 1:03.  1 sec drum lead in.  Drums Intro A B A' B' A A B B A B  Intro doesn't repeat.  129 BPM

Playing Games: DuckTales Remastered

The next game up in My Gaming Audio History is DuckTales, and when I was just looking for something about it, I saw that the Remastered version is out.  I haven't even pressed start yet, but sitting here on the title screen, I LOVE the fact that the first two bars that play are a sample of the original music.  Completely recognizable to me since I played this game so many times as a kid.  Then the music bursts into a modern sound, first a new drum track comes in, then more background instruments, suspended cymbal roll and: "DuckTales!" comes in with the full sound of modern gaming.  It's an historic audio montage in the opening seconds of gameplay.

I was going to try to go to bed early, but now I just might be up quite a while....

Update:  I've played DuckTales Remastered for a little more than six hours now.  I think the audio is very well done.  Incredible updating of the pieces, yet it stayed true to the original.  I like that there's voice acting, but feel at times that the voices sound as if they were recorded in a box.  That to me could've been improved.  The cutscenes also pulled me out of the gameplay a bit.  I loved how their background music continued to reference themes from the game music and the main theme, though.  It's a brilliant game that I've enjoyed.  I think it just goes to show that these old games are classics for a reason.  The gallery with music purchases is the perfect incentive to bring replay value to the game.  I couldn't stop playing until I had purchased all the music possible.  (The tracks made it a lot easier to do the next entry!)  Overall, a great update, particularly in the music area.  Well worth the time and purchase as I know I'll play it again.  And Vince'll LOVE it when he gets home!