So, I thought I'd do something cool for the holiday, as I've got time to blog when my University duties are diminished. A few weeks ago, I mentioned I'd finished Collins book, Game Sound. I've been thinking as well about this question: if I were to set up a class that examined game audio, what game music should I include? Of course, any teacher/writer is going to focus on those works that s/he knows and finds to be most interesting, memorable, and worthwhile. For me, those would be games in the Zelda, Final Fantasy, and Mario series, as well as others... notably RPGs and Action/Adventure games popular in the US when I was growing up. However, there are other games and genres that I don't know as well, but want to study more. Example: never drawn much to first person shooter games (although I did play Wolfenstein 3D), but this is a genre whose music I need to explore more.
My premise is this, dangerous as it may be: if Collins book would make a good textbook for a class on video game music, then perhaps the games she mentions in the book are notable ones whose music I should make sure to explore. I could say the same about a music text about other subjects and studies-- but, because of my training, the more classical and genre specific to my field of studies the music gets, the more my opinion and experiences would shape my thoughts over the highlights of the music. Game music isn't an academically studied field-- certainly not widely studied-- so, instead of just my gameplay experience, I'm using Collins expertise to determine which games might have important audio to encounter. A little heady, no? As a note, by some game titles, I've made a note of an important feature and others are just a title, but this doesn't necessarily correlate to how much attention she gives the game-- it's just just me making notes to myself. Without further ado, here is the list of games Collins mentions in Game Sound as they appear in the text:
Pong
Super Mario Bros
Halo
Computer Space
Paddle Ball, TV Hockey, Hockey TV, Astro Hockey, Winner, Leader (Pong clones)
Space Race (clone: Asteroids)
Barrel Pong, Gotcha (attract function of games)
Missle Radar, Jaws Man eater (moving toward realism)
Space Invaders, Asteroids (first continuous music)
Donkey Kong, Mario Bros
Rally X, Carnival (early repeating musical loops)
Sheriff, Battle Zone, Missile Command, Front Line (certain sound chips)
Alpine Ski, Jungle Hunt (four sound chips, sound plus effects)
Gyruss (five sound chips, one chip for Bach's Tocatta/Fugue D minor)
Speak n' Spell, Star Wars, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (voice effects)
Discs of Tron (stereo sound)
Tutankhamun, Miner 2049er, Jungle Hunt, Dig Dug, Congo Bongo (non-looping '82-'83)
Gyruss, Sewer Sam, Tarzan, Burger Time, Antarctic Adventure, Up N Down (looping '84)
Donkey Kong Jr, Popeye, Devil World (first home console releases w very short loops)
Frogger (first dynamic music), Cavelon, Dig Dug
Tapeworm (unusual melody by technological constraints)
Up N Down: arcade music vs Atari VCS version
Buzz Bombers (flight of the bumblebee)
Castlevania (Boss Music: poison mind)
The Legend of Zelda
Mike Tyson's Punch-Out! Gauntlet 2 (5th channel sampler)
Ultima (counterpoint in pulse channels)
Metroid ("Mother Brain", "Kraid"-- vibrato, echo effects)
Maniac Mansion (noise channel as radio static, skipping record)
Journey to Silius, Contra, Crystalis (5th channel used for music)
Ultima III
King's Quest
Times of Lore, Rock Star Ate My Hamster (random sequencing)
Lazy Jones
Zak McKracken (Chopin, Funeral March) Bringer of War (Holst, Mars) Wicked (Bach, C minor Prelude)
Frantic Freddie (Sylvers, Scott Joplin, Paul Simon, Beethoven, Queen, ELO)
Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show (Star Spangled, Oh Susanna, Yankee Doodle, Campton Races)
International Karate (Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence) Super Pipline (Dragnet)
Neuromancer, California Games (credit cover artists)
Mayhem in Monsterland, The Great Giana Sisters (NES style music/design)
Choplifter
Guerilla War (victims call out)
Space Harrier, After Burner, Ghouls' 'N Ghosts
Sonic the Hedgehog
Shadow of the Beasts
Toejam and earl: Panic on Funktron (music side scrolling game)
Looney Tunes: Desert Demolition (Mickey Mousing of music)
Shadow of the Beast II (rock and roll influence, MOD tracker)
Phantasy Star (RPG) Vapour Trail (shooter) Fatal Rewind (puzzle)
Pirates of Dark Water
Adventures of Dr. Franken (dance music early 90s)
Biker Mice from Mars (hard rock)
Barkley Shut and Jam (hip-hop)
Michael Jackson's Moonwalker, Joe Montana Football, Cliff Hanger, Demolition Man, Judge Dredd, Biometal, Ken Griffey Baseball, Adventures of Dr. Franken, Air Cavalry (include sounds from the artists, sporting event, movie, for cross marketing)
Super Mario World (layering)
King's Quest IV, Police Quest III (TV/film composers as audio software improved)
Loom, The Secret of Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle, Sam & Max Hit the Road (SCUMM/ iMUSE)
Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge
Jill of the Jungle (noisemaker for player to hear game sounds ahead of time)
NARC
7th Guest
Myst
The Sims
Doom
Wolfenstein 3D
Thief: The Dark Project
SimAnt, SimCity 2000, The Sims 2
Tempest 2000 (commercially sold soundtrack)
Twisted Metal 4 (possible to insert your own audio CD)
Final Fantasy VII
Banjo and Kazooie
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess (speaker in Wii controller adds to bow/arrow 3D sound)
Simon, Touch Me, Super Simon, Merlin, Copy Cat, Einstein
Dance Aerobics, PaRappa the Rapper
Elite Beat Agents, Electroplankton
Donkey Konga, Guitar Hero, Beat Mania (controls represent game audio)
Pump It Up, Britney's Dance Beat, Dance Dance Revolution
FreQuency, SingStar
Computer Matician 3010
Aladdin
Pac-Man, Galaga, The Incredible Machine, Leisure Suit Larry (mobile versions)
Bejeweled Multiplayer, Ragnarok Mobile Mage
Sudoku
Tetris
Airborne (Ride of the Valkyries)
Warbears: Mission 2 (interactivity)
Star Trek Empire, Airfight, Dungeons and Dragons, Mazewar, Dungen
Ultima Online, EverQuest, Asheron's Call, Second Life
Lair, Gods of War 2, Metal Gear Solid 4, (composer comments)
Crash Bandicoot, Half-Life (blending)
Auto Assault, Onimusha 3: Demon Siege, Super Mario Sunshine (surround sound)
Grim Fandango
Man Eater, Shark Jaws
Wing Commander III, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (voice acting)
Journey's Escape, Revolution X, Motown Games' Rap Jam, Summer Heat Beach Volleyball, 50 Cent: Bulletproof (synergy with popular songs/artists)
Rise of the Robots
Inferno
Quake
Year Zero
Wipeout Pure (soundtrack game)
Adventures of Dr. Franken, Dracula Unleashed (Moonlight Sonata/Carmina Burana)
Rock n Roll Racing (lots of rock music)
Madden NFL 2003, Tony Hawk's American Wasteland, FIFA 2006 (synergy with pop music)
Driver: Parallel Lines
Downhill Jam
Electroplankton (a way to see sound)
Second Life
Asheron's Call 2: The Fallen Kings
Grim Fandango (sound effects)
New Super Mario Bros (timing of game effects to music)
EyeToy Kinetic
God of War (leitmotif)
Vib Ribbon (music creates structure of game play)
Need for Speed: Carbon
Halo: Combat Evolved (bored switch)
Anarchy Online
Ballblazer
Mario 64
Russian Squares
Lazy Jones
Multiplayer Battletech
No One Lives Forever
DOA: Dead or Alive
Showing posts with label Game Sound. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Game Sound. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 26, 2012
Friday, November 30, 2012
Surveying Literature: Karen Collins Game Sound
Over the holiday, I finished reading Karen Collins book, Game Sound. This is unquestionably the most comprehensive academic source on Video Game Music. Were one to seek a textbook for a course on Game Music, this book would be ideal, or if one were just wanting to learn more about game music, this is your best resource.
Collins traces game music development from the first computer games in garages to games released in the mid 2000s. Although the book was published in 2008, I didn't note that she referenced any games created after 2006, and of course, any game published in the last five years isn't included.
For my taste, Collins is light on musical description and heavy on the technological development of game music. However, for someone with a stronger background in electronics/computers, the technological focus might resonate more than it did with me. There are plenty of technical specifications for me to study and learn more about! I'd love to learn about an interactive tool where I can see, hear, and experience some of these old audio technical components. Eye opening for me is her description of the creation process of game audio and her description of the various jobs in game audio (sound designer vs composer, etc).
The biggest thing missing from the book is AUDIO. There's no accompanying CD or online listening with the book, probably due to the difficulty in obtaining rights to this music. In fact, very little of the book analyzes the game audio with the traditional musicological methods. Instead, Collins focuses on the different way that game music can be analyzed from most other musical genres, and she mainly focuses her discussion on the interactivity of game audio. This is to say that when watching a movie, you're a passive observer-- and the music happens the same way each time you watch it. However, in a video game, you're controlling the action and the progression of the music. The music and game sounds are directly responding to your controls. Perhaps one of the most valuable resources is the bibliography. I'm hoping to follow up with several of the sources.
Finishing the book reinforced for me the importance of analyzing game audio and becoming familiar with its historical development from an aural standpoint. As far as I know, there isn't a lot of this sort of analysis yet which suits me perfectly, as it's the kind I'm interested in conducting. If you love game audio, I can't recommend this book enough-- but you'll likely be hungry for more specific musical analysis than is found in this work.
Collins traces game music development from the first computer games in garages to games released in the mid 2000s. Although the book was published in 2008, I didn't note that she referenced any games created after 2006, and of course, any game published in the last five years isn't included.
For my taste, Collins is light on musical description and heavy on the technological development of game music. However, for someone with a stronger background in electronics/computers, the technological focus might resonate more than it did with me. There are plenty of technical specifications for me to study and learn more about! I'd love to learn about an interactive tool where I can see, hear, and experience some of these old audio technical components. Eye opening for me is her description of the creation process of game audio and her description of the various jobs in game audio (sound designer vs composer, etc).
The biggest thing missing from the book is AUDIO. There's no accompanying CD or online listening with the book, probably due to the difficulty in obtaining rights to this music. In fact, very little of the book analyzes the game audio with the traditional musicological methods. Instead, Collins focuses on the different way that game music can be analyzed from most other musical genres, and she mainly focuses her discussion on the interactivity of game audio. This is to say that when watching a movie, you're a passive observer-- and the music happens the same way each time you watch it. However, in a video game, you're controlling the action and the progression of the music. The music and game sounds are directly responding to your controls. Perhaps one of the most valuable resources is the bibliography. I'm hoping to follow up with several of the sources.
Finishing the book reinforced for me the importance of analyzing game audio and becoming familiar with its historical development from an aural standpoint. As far as I know, there isn't a lot of this sort of analysis yet which suits me perfectly, as it's the kind I'm interested in conducting. If you love game audio, I can't recommend this book enough-- but you'll likely be hungry for more specific musical analysis than is found in this work.
Saturday, October 27, 2012
Playing Games: Music in FF7's opening
So I'm playing FF7, and as annoying as it is, I'm taking notes on the musical experience meanwhile. I've got a huge stack of post-its, a red pen from grading papers, and my brain and ears. So far, I've learned that there's very little written on game music analysis. Even with the little written, certainly one thing that's missing from discourse on this material is indepth analysis of music's influence on game play.
As I'm in the midst of reading Collins' books on Game Sound, I've got many academic arguments in my mind. Wondering particularly: how does the music influence the feel of the game play? the flow of the scene? how do the changes in the music interact with the visual experience? how does the music help to draw you into the gaming experience? Thus tonight's blog, a real time experience of me jotting my thoughts about the music and game play of the opening minutes of Final Fantasy VII. In the future, I'd like to explore this sort of dialogue as a realtime chat feature to allow discussion with others. For now, just noting the kind of things that come to my own mind may help establish avenues for future thought/ analysis. What do you think/ experience as you hear this music? Leave me comments!
The first thing you hear when you start a new game is, of course, the opening music of the game. The classic music from when you cross the Cornelia bridge from the first Final Fantasy. This video skips the opening and begins after the "new game" screen. It starts with the ambient noise of outer space. Music mimics the uncertainty as we pan through the unknown.
What's the first music cue? The appearance of Aeris face (:47). Union strings create emotion, feeling, importance, tonality (home base). Opening theme.
Notice Aeris footsteps echo as if on coblestone in an alley. This sound had to be carefully constructed to sound as shoe against stone in echoing alley. This game has clear attention to detail in precisely crafted sound effects.
This opening is a movie and incorporates Mickey Mousing, the idea of timing music and sounds to precise visual cues. For example, the first bike drives by at 1:08, breaking the shot on Aeris, and this moment is also the first percussive sound in the accompaniment. The accompaniment builds to 1:28, when the title screen appears. Timpani and drums herald its arrival. A melodic snippet is sequenced lower as the camera zooms back in to Avalanche's raid on the reactor, shifting the music to the next theme. The percussion enters as the last note of the previous material dies away, keeping flow with the single camera shot. Just like a movie with spotted cues, this opening video has a careful audio/visual construction.
1:58-- Opening Bombing Mission theme. Music is now continuous until 4:55 with no break for battles. This music is active.... 2:39 battle entry sound, but no music change. This music has sharp percussive beats and gives a feeling of urgency. By not introducing other music for battles, the music for the intro has more continuity. Excitement. Entering the Shinra buidling yields no music change but entering the reactor...
On entering the reactor (new screen) at 4:55, the music slows down to the "Mako Reactor" theme. Whereas before the state of the music earlier conveys to the player, "hurry up!, get pumped, go!" this music says: "calm down, you're doing well, explore." Mechanical sounds. Wondering: how does this music compare to Final Fantasy VI factory music? Bell chimes sound grandiose, cold. Syncopated and synthesized offbeats sound mechanical, weird.
6:42 is the first real battle music heard in the game. 7:05 the first victory fanfare/spoils music. Fanfare music is timed to last as long as victory movements (Cloud twirling blade, Barret pumping fist).
10:20-- At the reactor core, notice how the alarm sounds, and the return of the Opening Bombing Mission. This battle is going to be different, more challenging, more fast paced... To be honest, hearing the Bombing Mission theme here struck me as new boss music theme and I was surprised to learn it's the same Bombing Music from 1:58 replayed. If you heard it as a return of the Bombing Mission, then perhaps it serves as a reminder for you: oh yes, we're on a terrorist mission, we set off the alarm, timing is of the essence, get it done and out of here.
The impact of new music and the timing of when music is introduced at the beginning of a game cannot be overstated as a way to draw a player into the game and convey information about game play, characters, situations, etc.
As I'm in the midst of reading Collins' books on Game Sound, I've got many academic arguments in my mind. Wondering particularly: how does the music influence the feel of the game play? the flow of the scene? how do the changes in the music interact with the visual experience? how does the music help to draw you into the gaming experience? Thus tonight's blog, a real time experience of me jotting my thoughts about the music and game play of the opening minutes of Final Fantasy VII. In the future, I'd like to explore this sort of dialogue as a realtime chat feature to allow discussion with others. For now, just noting the kind of things that come to my own mind may help establish avenues for future thought/ analysis. What do you think/ experience as you hear this music? Leave me comments!
The first thing you hear when you start a new game is, of course, the opening music of the game. The classic music from when you cross the Cornelia bridge from the first Final Fantasy. This video skips the opening and begins after the "new game" screen. It starts with the ambient noise of outer space. Music mimics the uncertainty as we pan through the unknown.
What's the first music cue? The appearance of Aeris face (:47). Union strings create emotion, feeling, importance, tonality (home base). Opening theme.
Notice Aeris footsteps echo as if on coblestone in an alley. This sound had to be carefully constructed to sound as shoe against stone in echoing alley. This game has clear attention to detail in precisely crafted sound effects.
This opening is a movie and incorporates Mickey Mousing, the idea of timing music and sounds to precise visual cues. For example, the first bike drives by at 1:08, breaking the shot on Aeris, and this moment is also the first percussive sound in the accompaniment. The accompaniment builds to 1:28, when the title screen appears. Timpani and drums herald its arrival. A melodic snippet is sequenced lower as the camera zooms back in to Avalanche's raid on the reactor, shifting the music to the next theme. The percussion enters as the last note of the previous material dies away, keeping flow with the single camera shot. Just like a movie with spotted cues, this opening video has a careful audio/visual construction.
1:58-- Opening Bombing Mission theme. Music is now continuous until 4:55 with no break for battles. This music is active.... 2:39 battle entry sound, but no music change. This music has sharp percussive beats and gives a feeling of urgency. By not introducing other music for battles, the music for the intro has more continuity. Excitement. Entering the Shinra buidling yields no music change but entering the reactor...
On entering the reactor (new screen) at 4:55, the music slows down to the "Mako Reactor" theme. Whereas before the state of the music earlier conveys to the player, "hurry up!, get pumped, go!" this music says: "calm down, you're doing well, explore." Mechanical sounds. Wondering: how does this music compare to Final Fantasy VI factory music? Bell chimes sound grandiose, cold. Syncopated and synthesized offbeats sound mechanical, weird.
6:42 is the first real battle music heard in the game. 7:05 the first victory fanfare/spoils music. Fanfare music is timed to last as long as victory movements (Cloud twirling blade, Barret pumping fist).
10:20-- At the reactor core, notice how the alarm sounds, and the return of the Opening Bombing Mission. This battle is going to be different, more challenging, more fast paced... To be honest, hearing the Bombing Mission theme here struck me as new boss music theme and I was surprised to learn it's the same Bombing Music from 1:58 replayed. If you heard it as a return of the Bombing Mission, then perhaps it serves as a reminder for you: oh yes, we're on a terrorist mission, we set off the alarm, timing is of the essence, get it done and out of here.
The impact of new music and the timing of when music is introduced at the beginning of a game cannot be overstated as a way to draw a player into the game and convey information about game play, characters, situations, etc.
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