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.

My Gaming Audio History: Mike Tyson's Punch-Out (1987)

Punch-Out is a game I played SO much as a kid.  I could get to Mike Tyson, but I couldn't beat him-- although I had a friend who was able to.  I don't know if I ever really thought much about the music; the gameplay drew me in so intensely I was really focused on that instead of the music.  I doubt I got all the musical references as a kid: the Wagner, Bizet, and even if I replayed it today, I certainly still don't know the Russian song for Soda Pop-insky.

Of course, Punch-Out was first an arcade game before it was redesigned as a NES game.  Here's a video showing gameplay from the original '84 arcade game.  As you can hear, the theme from the beginning of the match is roughly the same as the NES version, as is the crowd cheering sound.  In fact, the arcade sound effects of the punches are pretty close to the NES version.  The NES version uses music in the background during the match, a common changeover between arcade games to NES games.  However, the NES version added the classical music references in to the intro music for some of the characters.  And, of course, the NES game doesn't have the spoken audio samples.  They would've simply taken too much memory.

One thing I'm really having trouble understanding is that Koji Kondo says in interviews that his first project with Nintendo was working on the music to the arcade version of Punch-Out.  However, he's not listed in the credits to the NES version.  If you give a listen to the arcade theme when the fights begin and compare it with the NES version, it's clearly the same with the only difference being perhaps one or two notes.  I don't understand how he's not credited at the end of the game or online as it's pretty clear that this is his music.  Also, the title music at the beginning of the game is by Mahlon Merrick, and was originally composed for the Gillette Cavalcade of Sports.  That said, I'm kind of glad to learn this because one thing I'm wanting to do is learn the truth behind the history of game music, and sort that out from internet belief.  This is hard to do since most of the info on game music is online-- but, for this project, at least, the wiki Videogame Music Preservation site has been pretty helpful (although, they don't mention Kondo as a composer for the NES game).  Thus, let it be known: the Punch Out title track is an arrangement of Merrick and the beginning of the round music for the fights is Koji Kondo.

I'm struck by how many of these early games us a I-bVI-bVII motion-- Castlevania used it.

Who created the audio experience?  According to the credits: Yukio Kaneoka-- who's already appeared on My Gaming Audio History for creating the Mario Bros audio, and Akito Nakatuka and Kenji Yamamoto.  Also, they've borrowed Merrick, Wagner, Bizet, de Lisle, Kondo, and traditional Russian as well.

What is the audio experience?  Numerous boxing match sound effects, from the comic like actual punches effects, to the crowd cheering at the beginning and in between rounds, and special effects gaining/using a star punch, etc.  Musically, each opponent is introduced with a theme-- some Kondo's normal theme-- and others, a fitting theme given their nationality.   I'd say that the homebase of this game is either C major/ A minor, which makes sense, since they're related keys.

How does the audio experience draw the player more deeply into the game?  The classic title screen boxing music gives an awesome historic feeling for anyone old enough to recognize it.  Otherwise, it's just a great game start.  Each opponent's theme gives a feeling of individuality and nationalism to their introduction.  The music during cutscenes is harmonically similar to the music during each fight.  While the player might not immediately identify this, it does bring a unity to the game audio.

Here's a link to the soundtrack (the uploader added a ridiculous amount of reverb for some reason, sorry!)

-Title screen: 22 sec.  C major.
-Glass Joe: 6.5 sec.  G major  La Marseillaise-- French National Anthem, Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle
-Start Round: 3 sec.  F major
-Background fighting: 32 sec.  A minor
-Win round: 5 sec.  C major
-Von Kaiser: 4 sec.  A minor  Ride of the Valkyries Richard Wagner
-Down for the count: 5 sec.  C major
-Title Bout: 5 sec.  A minor (major? w Picardy third at end)
-Piston Honda: 6 sec.  A minor
-Circuit champion: 6.5 sec.  C major
-Don Flamenco: 6 sec.  Ab major Carmen Overture  Georges Bizet
-King Hippo: 4.5 sec.  Bb major
-Soda Popinksi: 6 sec.  E minor  Song of the Volga Boatmen, read about it on wikipedia
-New Champion: 4.5 sec.  C major
-The Dream Fight: 4.5 sec.  G major
-Get Up Little Mac!: 5 sec.  A minor
-End game: 10 sec.  C major
-You Lose: 5 sec.  C minor
-Cut scenes/Training: 26 sec.  A minor (same progression as fighting)
-Game Over: 11 sec.  C minor (major w Picardy third at end)

Game Music Online: Audio Mentioned in G4 Top 100 Video Games of All Time: Part 4

Continuing my journey through G4's Top 100 Video Games of All Time whose audio was worthy of special highlighting in the series.  A best of the best list, if you will.  I'm having a blast getting to know these games, (re) experiencing their music, and thinking more about their soundtracks.  Hope you will too....


40 Space Invaders:  Tim Schafer: "I remember hearing... this thumping... strong bass sound.  You had this emotional reaction to it.  It was really the first to use audio in that way... to make you feel something."  Space Invaders is often cited for the first continuous soundtrack, as well as Schafer's credit for being the first game to use music to heighten the game play experience as the descending bass line and alien ship movements speed up.

37 Halo Combat Evolved.  Scott Porter  "There are certain songs you hear from games that just make you so happy or take you back to a time that was so awesome.  And every time I hear (sings the opening theme)...  the theme song is so incredible...."  Not a game I've played, but one whose music I'm currently listening to.

32 Mike Tyson's Punch Out.  "It was awesome watching him run along with his coach and that song..." (he sings the song) Danny Pudi.  I've been thinking about this cutscene music for a really long time and seeing this finally got me to look it up.  Of course the best one was the nighttime training-- love it!

I also watched this awesome video, a 40 min longplay of the Punch Out, to remind myself of the music experience.  When I hear this music, it strikes me as straddling the ear between arcade and home entertainment systems.  If it just played the transition music, start of the fight, winning fanfare, etc this game music could be for arcade.  However, once home entertainment systems started to become popular, game designers needed to create a more specific audio experience.  Presumably, a household only had a TV or two-- that's how ours was, at least-- and if someone were playing games in one room, it needed to create a continuous soundtrack with underscoring that builds tension and keeps players and observers engaged.

Also, I LOVE the classical music references: Glass Joe: La Marseillaise, Von Kaiser/ Super Macho Man: Ride of the Valkyries, Don Flaminco: Carmen Overture.  Is this kind of stuff happening in contemporary games, or have we lost these references?  Also read that Soda Popinski plays a Russian folk song-- wouldn't know it, but I do like how the music introduces each character.  I don't know if I recognized these musical themes as a kid, but much like the Looney Tunes episodes, I liked the music when I was a kid, and now, I get the musical references on a completely different level.


30 Super Street Fighter II Turbo.  "The best thing about Street Fighter II was all the sounds they made when you were fighting.  -Mo Mandel  I didn't play this Street Fighter, but I did play Street Fighter II on the SNES.  When my friends and I played together, we totally imitated these effects for our super powered punches and kicks.