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Minibosses Rock Nostalgic 114

Posted by emmett from the insert-coin-to-continue dept.
skia writes "Chock full of yummie old-school NES goodness and metal guitar/drum beats, The Minibosses play your favorite songs from Metroid, Castlevania, and even Contra!" I've been listening to this for the past hour or so, and it's very cool. They've been around for a while. My friend Erik says he heard of them on Zophar's Domain.
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Minibosses Rock Nostalgic More

Minibosses Rock Nostalgic

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  • For the most part, I'll agree with you. But Super Mario Brothers and Tetris were two soundtracks whose catchiness and general coolness I recognized even back in the day.

  • Immediate addiction.

  • Don't forget the Aphex Twin! (Score:4)

    by rogerbo ( 74443 ) on Friday May 05, 2000 @12:51AM (#1090497)
    Want more video game beats?

    Find Aphex Twins, "Pac man power pill" and
    "tetris medley".

    Knowing this guy he's probably done some more
    video game inspired music but those are the only two I know of.

  • Anybody remember Herzog Zwei on Sega Genesis?

    That was a cool game, but not too many people realized it. It had a great mix of strategy and action, not to mention cool music, I still sometimes play it (badly) on guitar.

  • Man I made an audio tape way back in the day of all my favorite game music and demo music. Sometimes I would load games just to hear the tracks on the intros....

    Gotta go find it!

  • I had Forbidden Forest for the Commodore 64/128 and I must admit, that game had an incredible sound score. Especially for it's time. And the way the music changed depending if you are being attacked... What a great game that was...
  • I think it was Ultima 4 for the Commodore 64/128 that had a sah-weet music score. It was so darn good, it is playing in my head right now!
  • Heh. This is a good point. Most people think that 'its just video game music, who would actually want to listen to that stuff anyway?'
    Actually, comparing some video game MP3s i've got to some movie soundtracks laying around, i know which one would drive me crazy. Of course, when its a choice between Exdeath/Zeromus techno remix/One Wing Angel or listening to the soundtrack for Titanic it isn't that hard a decision.

    -Elendale (Of course, the signal-to-noise ratio of music out there is very poor...)

  • This is a good read [dadgum.com].
  • For the people who weren't at the geek pride festival, they had a band there (called 'Everyone', IIRC) which played video game music. It was, in fact, the only band that went on twice. They played the nostalgic tunes (Some Mega Man, some DragonWarrior) as well as some more recent music (Chrono Trigger, and the ever-present Final Fantasy series). Very enjoyable stuff!

  • It's called "Legend of Zelda" by The Rabbit Joint. MP3.com used to host it in their section dedicated to the Rabbit Joint, but it's gone now. (Maybe Nintendo saw a copyright violation?) Anyway, search on Napster for it -- you'll almost certainly find someone with it.
  • You can get the original music from a ton of games from Zophar's Domain [zophar.net] which is mensioned in the article. Look for the NSF, GYM, and SPC archives.

    Links to the archives:

    There are links to get players on the archive pages.

    There is actually a Linux SPC player released on the GPL, so you can actually play the songs in Linux! Otherwise, you'd need DOS or Windows. And AFAIK, there is NO support for these formats on other platforms, sorry!

  • I agree... Have you ever heard any of the orchestral arrangements of some of the game tunes? I have some Zelda and Mario stuff, among others, and some of it is *simply amazing*

    The Zelda theme is great, even in original form, and there's a lot that could be done with it. If only I had 3-4 more weeks for my Intro to Digital Music final project. (I have a pretty sucky re-arrangement for the Mario theme.)
  • Umm... have you heard what the RIAA wants us to listen to? Personally I'm breaking out my NES and listening to that...

    -Elendale (*grumble*)

  • I used to think the music they played at the end of Castlevania's one and two (don't remember about three) after you killed Dracula was original. Now I know better.

    Anybody here ever hear of Yngwie Malmsteen?

    Get Yngwie Malmsteen's Rising Force (1984 album - don't remember the title), and listen to track five (Icarus Dream Suite). About 5 minutes and 30 seconds into it, you'll hear something hauntingly familiar...that came out a year before Castlevania I.

    The only question I have is, did they both happen to use the same piece of classical music as a base for their songs, or did Konami license the song from him? (or did they just use it without asking?)
  • Will always be the Solstice title music.

    Anyway, I love my NES. I play it more than my N64. I clean it, care for it, scrub it's connectors so they always seat. I buy it new (used) games regularly. And it loves me back!
  • Bands cover one another's songs all the time with no problems. Our good friends metallica recently released a cd called Garage Days Revisited which was mostly covers of other people's songs. Virtually every concert I go to the bands play at least a couple of songs they didn't write. I don't know what the legal justification is but I am just saying there is a good precedent set for playing songs you did not write and getting away with it...
  • Yes, on the other hand, the limited selection of instruments was also a curse on many composers.

    Once again, Nobuo Uematsu: How many of his songs have you heard and said "That's Uematsu."? His style hasn't changed, even when newer and potentially better sound technologies have come along. (I mean, come on, FF VII used MIDI. Ick.)

    That said, his style does kick ass. And personally, I will never forget the first time I plugged in my NES and heard Mario's theme.

    Boneshintai
  • Sure, I love the Castlevania remix the Minbosses have done, but they are not the only ones to love and remix video game-music. Check out www.emucamp.com/mhhg [emucamp.com] or perhaps www.mp3.com/mhhg [mp3.com] for some more. I think the original poster called their version "metal", I'd rather name it "hard-pop".
  • If you follow the instructions in this guide [parodius.com] , you can rip your own original music tracks from all those NES roms your *cough* friends *cough* have lying around on their computers. Why settle for a clean remix with proper instrumentation when you can relive the original cheesy 4-track goodness?
  • MIKE TYSON'S PUNCH OUT! It starts you at mike.
  • You're thinking of Gradius III... It was the SNES version of Lifeforce/Gradius. If you punch in the Konami code in Gradius 1, you get 30 lives. In 3, you blow up your ship. If you replace the Left right Left right with the top L, R, L, R buttons, you got the lives. And now, after that nostolgic moment, I'm going to shoot myself.

    I suck,
    Dusty Hodges
  • I always thought video game music rocked. Even at school when I was a kid, I thought Mega Man music was better than the radio. Nowadays, with RPGs and their stories stealing hte spotlight from movies and TV, their composers are getting their due. I applaud Nobuo Uematsu for using a then untapped medium for creating his compositions. I have a friend who's a music major, and doesn't like video games. I played him some classic FF6 music, and he was quite impressed. Right now, I'm playing Star Ocean 2 again, and I just ordered the soundtrack. I love Motoi Sakuraba's compositions for it.

  • My especial recommendations, in no particular order, are:

    • Last Ninja
    • Synth Sample
    • anything by Rob Hubbard (Kentilla, Delta, Flash Gordon/Captain Zapp, Gerry the Germ, Bump-Set-Spike, Warhawk...)
    • anything by Martin Galway (Comic Bakery title, Parallax title, Short Circuit title, Green Beret/Rush 'n' Attack tape-loader and title, Rambo: First Blood Part Two tape-loader and title...)
    • anything by Ben Daglish (Trap, Ark Pandora, Krakout, Bombo...)
    • anything by Chris Huelsbeck (Great Giana Sisters, Turbo Outrun...)

    Jeez, I'd better quit before I fill up the space, heh. Also check out http://www.c64audio.com/ [c64audio.com] for some quality remixes.

  • You're not crazy. The American Super Mario Bros 2 is a port of the Japanese game Doki Doki Panic, which is out there on the web, although you need an NES/Famicom emulator that can handle disk images. The "original" Super Mario Bros 2 made it into the SNES Super Mario All-Stars as the so-called "Lost Levels".

  • A band called Mr. Bungle, led by Faith No More's frontman, has already done this...Ass-kicking remake of the music in Super Mario Bros.
  • kb is a cool guy, i met him a couple times on demoparties.
  • And a very good coder.. as well as a person who loves to play the arrogant sucker in newsgroup ;) Didn't met him yet ... got to visit those german/dutch/danish demoparties one day.

  • Oh, if only these guys did Zelda!

    If anyone knows where to get some good zelda (music!) please reply. I'm sure you all agree, Zelda (music) haunts us all, 15 some-odd years after it came out.
  • I realize that this might be a bit off topic, but I am really curious as to how I could increase my "Slashdot" karma. Lately I have noticed that it seems to significantly affect relationships with my "uncool but pretty nerdy" friends, so obviously being a self-conscious american I started to care. Ever since i realized that nobody gives a shit about my point of view on slashdot and therefore doesn't moderate me up the virtual scale of existance I have become seriously depressed. As a side effect i have begun to use Windows on a consistent basis (to my own disadvantage and to spite all of the /. fans/members) and addtionally i have started to visit many disapproved information websites. I am not sure how other people deal with this kind of suicidal (turn on profiling) behavior, but I simply don't care anymore. Since nobody was going to give me any karma points my artificially (american) built up self-esteem has disapeared, therefore I will probably have to end my existance as Biggy and come up with a more hacker-like, karma friendly handle for slashdot.

    Goodbye,
    Biggy

    PS. And for all the hot nerdy girls out there, Biggy means 6'5" 195 lb jacked mofo with the abs of steel, who is a nerd/jock at a "decent" college.
  • The Death in Castlevania 3

    This fucker kept me from finishing the game even if I sure tried him several dozen times :(

  • Hu? (Score:1)

    by Skinka ( 15767 )
    I may be a little dumb but why not just play the damn games I you want to hear the muzac? The games still rock and they are very enjoyable with current emulators. Yeah, downloading the ROMs may be illegal if you don't own the game, but I'm pretty sure that whoever host these mp3s has not payed the game companies for using the music...

  • Karma etc. ? (Score:3)

    by Biggy ( 111470 ) on Friday May 05, 2000 @01:18AM (#1090527)
    Is there a way on Slashdot to find out who has moderated you up or down? If not,I think that it would be a cool feature to expand upon our interrealtionship on slashdot.

    Biggy
  • That looks like a code from Mike Tyson's Punch Out!..

    I didn't remember where it took you exactly, I cheated on that using Google (apparently it takes you to Super Macho Man).. but I DID remember it was from punch out. :)

    Hhahahah.. Doc riding that bike... HAHAHAHAH
  • They say they need mirrors on their site - would someone please grab the songs and share them through gnutella so we can all help?
  • *had* to be the stage right before the last boss (the Count) when you have to walk through that empty castle, down all those stairs or whatever. I loved that music! Too bad they didn't put that in their Castkevania track, though their version stil kicks ass!
  • For my money, you'd have to go with "Genghis Khan II" for the best music. I played it so much one summer that even though it was fifteen years ago, my grandmother still sings the theme. The neat part is that as you took over new territories, the theme music would change to fit that region. Best yet!
  • ... if I had continued work on my code until it was completed. As it is, it's only pre alpha.

    I'm talking about the midi to guitar tab software I was writing around six months ago. You plug a midi in, and it outputs the guitar tab for any given midi track. Even drum. :)

    It's command line GPL'd software, written in C, compiles with GCC. Just like it should be. This is the first time I've released this piece of software, so have at it, my friends.

    Be sure to e-mail me any changes.

    Midi To Tab converter [dhs.org]

    Last year, some friends and myself got together to perform Super Mario Brothers songs for the school talent show. We dressed up as the characters and did a medley, which included Hammer Brothers, Underground, The Castle Song From Mario 1, the water tune from smb3 and a few others. It was pretty obvious that a program like the one I've written would have been a great help. :)

    Play your ass off.
  • What about cover bands that get paid hundreds of bucks a night to play music they didn't write? Are you saying that every cover band in the world should be sued by the bands they cover? At least the Minibosses offer all their tracks for free.
  • Hrm. I don't think this is a violatoin unless you don't own the games that you are downloading the songs from. I personally have made several CD's full of music from games that I own, and I 'll be in trouble if that's true.
  • If you thought minibosses were good, check out Nintendo Power. They have live mp3's and avi's of performances.

    http://nintendopower.freeservers.com
  • I've always loved game music, even back when it was the NES days and the songs weren't really complex - but I still loved them.

    Especially nowadays, it's great to be a game music fan...there's so many great composers out there (Uematsu, Mitsuda, Sakuraba, etc) that it's hard to go wrong.

    The best music seems to come from RPGs...mainly because the composers need to create epic themes to go along with the (generally) epic stories. Uematsu (composer of the Final Fantasy games) is usually the best known, and while his actual compositions are hardly matched, he's been using samples in his recent games (Final Fantasies VII and VIII) that don't really showcase the sound quality of the Playstation. If you have any interest in this sort of music, I HIGHLY recommend you pop over to GameMusic Online (http://www.gamemusic.com/) and check out some of their soundtracks - two of the best scores on the market are the Xenogears OSV and the Genso Suikoden soundtrack (the latter is one of the best overall soundtracks I've ever heard, for anything).

    Then there's some of the other stuff...Falcom is highly regarded for its music, and some of their orchestrated albums are simply mind-blowing.

    I highly recommend that you guys check out some of the music available - it's simply incredible what's being produced nowadays.

  • I found these guys a few months ago... Was starting to wonder when slashdot would pick up on them. ;) Really great stuff.

    It's become something of an obsession of mine to track down orchestrated game music.. What oft scares me is how _good_ it usually is. I can seriously recommend a few CDs... Final Fantasy Pray is an excellent collection of somber vocal tracks from the older games(and is simply among the best I have ever heard.. Anybody know of other songs in this cd's style?), Actraiser Symphonic Suite for good ol' SNES symphonic, to the more recent Celtic-styled Xenogears - Creid. There are very few you can go wrong with.

    Soundtrack Central [soundtrackcentral.com] has all you'd ever need to know on any of this, too. An archive of albums and reviews. Although it doesn't seem to be up right now. =P

    From Nobuo's old tunes throughout the first three NES FF games, to Megaman 3's catchy tunes, and even Ninja Gaiden 1/2's niftiness, the original versions are impressive. I have been ... rather unimpressed with the Linux based NES emulators, all being slow pieces of crap that don't do proper timing nor UI, so it's really not that enjoyable to hear/play on Linux. ;)

    Anyway, it's six am, I'm incoherent from lack of sleep. I'll stop babbling.

  • MP3s (Score:2)

    by / ( 33804 )
    And anyone who's too lazy to do it himself can find plenty of mp3s [caltech.edu] available.
  • The select cheat went something like this:
    • Pick up Elec Man's weapon.
    • Zap someone with it.
    • While the shot was still on the hit zone, hit Select to pause the game.
    • Hit Select again to unpause and zap the bastard a second time without firing another shot.
    • Repeat.
    INSANELY useful on that rock monster. :-)
  • I actually did the same thing for one of my own school talent shows a few years back. We had someone up on stage playing the actual video games (Super Mario Bros., Zelda, and Dragon Warrior) while we played arrangements of all the music that I had rewritten for piano, drums, and bass in time with whatever the person was doing on the game...on SMB we did the main theme, the underground, the water level, and the castle, plus the star-invincibility music and the flagpole music...we even had the "time's running out" sound effect in there...ah, sweet nostalgia. Unfortunately I've lost all the sheet music I'd written out for this...(although I still know all the piano parts and play them whenever I get the opportunity). Of course, I did this before the video game music archive had come into existence, so I actually had to figure out all the parts the hard way...

    Actually, I'd long been thinking about writing piano solo arrangements of all the music, recording it, and releasing a CD, but I was somewhat concerned about possible copyrights on the original music and had no idea who I would even try to contact to get permission...
  • This is the perfect example of why mp3 is so great. Here we have a band with immense talent, posting full tracks as high quality mp3s. They are also now taking orders for their CD.

    How many of you geeks that are waxing nostalgic over these tracks are going to help support this band? This a a perfect case for us to push for mp3s as a vehicle for promotion, and I think we need to make sure and put the collective money of the /. community where our collective mouths are, and buy those $9 cds from the Minibosses. I know I will.
  • No, because MS is still making money from Windows 98.
  • The soundtrack from Final Fantasy Tactics- you can get the mp3s from most ss sites.
  • I remember thinking how cool it was that a mainstream band was actually inspired by a video game. If you listen closely you can hear the Space Invaders sound effects playing behind. Plus its a damn good instrumental track.

    I'll have to fire up Napster when I get home and snag a copy for old times sake. I actually own a cassette tape I copied from a friends album way back in Junior High, so thats a legitimate use, right? ;-)
  • Ahh.. I see what you meant now. The game companies are not making any money off the music anymore. I thought you meant that the Minibosses weren't making any money.

    Anyway, it's still at best a "gray area" of the law. If the companies involved wanted to, they could probably lobby the government to prosecute the Minibosses. But of course, they probably wouldn't bother unless they thought it was financially important.

  • Contra! (Score:3)

    by Ermit ( 27328 ) on Thursday May 04, 2000 @10:56PM (#1090546) Homepage
    Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, B, A, select, start...

    awwww yeah, 30 lives.

    oh how I miss the good old days..

    ~Steve
    --
  • No, it's fair use if you do it yourself for personal use. It's copyright infringement if someone else does it for you (see: RIAA vs. my.mp3.com).

  • that code worked in all the konami games.

  • video game music = real music (Score:3)

    by ism ( 180693 ) on Thursday May 04, 2000 @10:59PM (#1090549)
    sometimes when i play my music, people will comment how it sounds like a video game, and intend it as an insult. i find it amusing how movie scores are considered "real" music while video game music often is not, although they do the same thing -- create an atmosphere. in fact, video game music composers have a harder time in the respect that the timing and length of the 'scene' is variable.

    i loved the music from contra, and contra 2 even more. in fact, i wrote in to konami to ask if they had sheet music. i didn't get a reply. =(

    best music from a video game, i think, would be ninja gaiden 2.

  • whoa. (Score:1)

    by Didel ( 177906 )
    Good thing I read Penny-Arcade [penny-arcade.com] today before this guy posted it to slashdot, and I beat the rush. Good music, especially enjoy Castlevania. ah, memories.
  • Yeah, but does anyone remember what this code is from, and what it does:

    007-373-5963

    Who knows how many countless megabytes NES games are holding in my brain...


    --
    "And is the Tao in the DOS for a personal computer?"
  • Yes, but on Contra you got 30 lives. How sad that I remember that; even more sad is that it was the only way my friend and I won the game.
  • but does it come on record? i've been waiting for these songs for years.

    and i'm not going out to get one of those new fangled 'compact disc' players, it doesnt look like they're going to be around long. I'm safely betting 'cds' are going to be just like beta videos. I'll stick to my 8 track tapes and LP records thanks.
  • God, it's late.

    Glad they have freebies to download. I have decided to make many copies of Institutionalized by Suicidal Tendencies and rename them into things likeMetallica - Breath Blows for Maggots (Studio Boot Upcoming Album) and then log in to Napster and then get whined on by those loosers! Hah...

    God, it's late.

  • Some other classics that I would love to see these guys make:

    Tetris (200+ lines starting on level 19, baby!)
    Super Mario Bros (#1)
    Zelda 2
    Megaman!


    --
    "And is the Tao in the DOS for a personal computer?"

  • What is the use of all this nostaligia? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Yeah, sure, we all hanker after the games we played as a youth but the one things those games certainly never had was good musuc. The games of that era were marked by tinny, repetitive annoying tunes which pissed you off after five minutes of playing, and yet people are now claiming that they are "classics"! It's amazing how your memories of the past change over time really.

    Please people, get over this pointless reminiscing and go and listen to the great scores being laid down for today's games. They're far better than the old 8-bit mono "beep and plunk" music found in old games.

  • Doesn't the creepy Castlevania music remind you of those days when you would try and convince your mom that the 10 hours you just spent slashing zombies is actually improving your hand-eye coordination? Of coarse increased hand-eye coordination yeilds faster typing skills and that means you have more valuable 'job skills'. I would say anything if I thought it would keep that power cord from being locked away(I bought a spare though). ;)

  • Anyone?

    I really miss those. If I'd ever had that time for playing :I

  • Well, now it's official. No Slashdot regular will ever get laid again. We managed for awhile by sounding smart, but nothing can counteract this.

    We'll have to settle for tech groupies who trade sexual favors for processor time. Quick, somebody port breasts to linux!


    ---
    Dammit, my mom is not a Karma whore!

  • When it comes to old skool stuff, nothing beats Commodore 64's SID tunes... Absolutely superior stuff.
  • the giant turd second to last in original mega man.. guy was a bitch to kill without the select cheat.
  • Although your interpretation of my message was pretty funny it did nothing for your karma. Plus it probably turned off most of your gay friends. Sucks for you (oops, no pun intended)

    Biggy
  • Hardly a fair comparison though. The SID was a much better sound chip.
  • Don't about the the other two but you can get a brilliant CD from Bobby Prince music [bpmusic.com] which has 20 tracks of the MIDIs from Doom I and Doom II. All the music is played by him on some high-end synths with some additional remixing and orchestration. It makes a really great Quake CD as well - all the tracks are ordered for Quake I/II play.

    Bobby Prince is one of the nicest guys around as well. His Web site used to have loads of trivia about id, the making of Doom and what inpiration the different tracks had. He also had some white papers on music, atmosphere in games, sampling and composing. When I ordered the CD, I had to send cash because I was between credit cards. I couldn't get change for the exact amount so I sent him a bit more than the price. Lo and behold, I get *two* CDs for the price of just more than one - plus a nice personal letter from his wife. Made my day...

  • he's also a member of elitegroup. but under a different name.

  • Find Aphex Twins, "Pac man power pill" and "tetris medley".

    Heh, given the disturbing videos to his songs "Come to Daddy" and "Windowlicker" I'd hate to see the videos for those songs :) Miniture Tetris blocks and Pacmen with Richard D James faces. Aaaagh!

  • Well said. I've fallen so much in love with some game soundtracks, that, as soon as I got a CD burner, on of the first Audio CDs I made was one with the music from Ultima VII (both parts).
    Basically I just got the .MIDs, rendered them to .WAV using Timidity and the Gravis patchset and burned that on to a nice CD.

    --
    The world is divided in two categories:
    those with a loaded gun and those who dig. You dig.
  • I stream vg mp3 music off my server so I can listen to it at work. I do have a few anime cd's up as well but it's mostly vg music.

    I have about 1300 songs and 27 different soundtracks. Of them, my favorite has to be Xenogears. (I even have the osv in my car, I just can't stop.... =)
  • Thanks for pointing out such a good site, the other people just suggested crappy ones but this
    www.vgmiusic.com kicks ass

    Thanks Alot

    Jainith
  • In Mike Tyson's Punch Out, it takes you to Tyson, and in the regular Punch Out, you get to Mr. Dream.
  • That was a lifesaver, and so was ABBA in the Ikari Warriors games. I still remember the code my friends and I got for Castlevania II that takes you right before Dracula:
    GSGU KUEI V5I0 HQKM
    Even after like 13 years I remember that stuff. Sick sick sick.
  • except lifeforce, i think. up up down down left right left right b a *AAAAAAAAAAAAGH*
  • Hmm, the night time music from Simon's Quest, it's called "Bloody Tears" I believe. (There is a good version of it out there.. but there are so many versions it is hard to find and you'll have to search around. Just try "Bloody Tears" and Castlevania in Hotbot.) It also shows up in the Genesis version soundtrack... and there may be a way to get it to play in the game but I don't know what it is. I used to know at least one trick to get different music to play when you were 100% powered up in Castlevania Bloodlines but I forgot it (it had something to do with a significant date set up using sound effects and soundtrack numbers in the sound test, maybe the first Castlevania's publishing date.. I don't remember).

    I like the Super Nintendo version of this theme best.

    Of course, the first Nintendo game I can remember buying where I found the sound test was Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos. I really liked the music in that game... oh, and the "cinematic" cut scenes:

    What shall we do about the Ninja Dragon, sire?

    Nothing.
    No further need of him, at least not for now.
    I wish that had been the one to come out for the Lynx rather than the confusingly plotted Ninja Gaiden III though that was better than nothing, of course...

    Hrmph, that reminds me, I was one of the ones who pre-ordered Castlevania: Sympathy of the Night got skimped out of the soundtrack and art book, bleah! That was a poorly planned fiasco... Oh, and I was irritated that Kefka's themes didn't show up on the free soundtrack CD that came with the Final Fantasy Collection for Playstation... oh well...

  • Go here [wco.com] It's Bungle Fever. Mr Bungle is a band with Mike Patton (Faith No More's lead singer before they broke up!!) and buddies who play some ass kickin music. One of the videos on this site is a live cover of the Theme to Super Mario Bros. Excellent. You need vivo to play it though. There is a MP3 of the same song on the site too!!! Check them out.. leimy
  • Video game music is classic! The old tunes are so catchy, and kick ass! Even before the NES came out was an album called "Pac Man Fever", which was in praise of the early arcade games' music. It had clips of the 'cheesy' game sounds, but then an entirely different song singing about various aspects of the games.

    On a different note, my friend back in college said that his gauge of a musician was whether or not they could play the music from Super Mario Bros I. To this day I still admire the SMB I music. While the waveforms used by NES (5 channels : triangle, pulse (2 i think), noise channel, and digital channel) were quite limiting, the NES games did some remarkable scores just with these limitations.

  • Check out Evil Adam [mp3.com].

    He's done a remix of Radio Free Zerg (from Blizzard), an original Terran Music theme from Starcraft, and a cover of the Demon Stalkers opening music. (anyone else remember that game?)

    He also did Evil de Chocobo, but the bastard didn't add the bass line yet. Check out his website, email him, and tell him to hurry up! Grrr...

    Also, Frag Music [fragmusic.com] has good links/news.
    --
    Peace,
    Lord Omlette
    AOL IM: jeanlucpikachu
  • You wrote:
    if you've ever seen a scene out of a movie without music, you know how critical music is to setting an environment.

    I agree with your point, but wanted to comment that there are some superb movie scenes that are made -better- by the lack of background music "enhancing" the dramatic effect.

    The chase scenes in Ronin for example are accompanied by nothing but the rev of the engines and the squeal of tires. I pointed this out to friends while we watched for the express purpose of showing that we don't NEED dramatic scores crammed down our throats.

    Then there is the stark silence of Eraserhead which just adds to the desolation (fwiw, I don't like the movie, but this device works well for what it's meant to do).

    I agree with you that orchestration for its own sake is hollow, but I don't think anyone here on /. would view Star Wars the same way without the Opening Theme or the Imperial March.

    Rafe

    V^^^^V
  • Please people, get over this pointless reminiscing and go and listen to the great scores being laid down for today's games. They're far better than the old 8-bit mono "beep and plunk" music found in old games.
    To be somewhat pedantic, NES isn't really 8-bit audio. No, there is no digital APU in the NES (well, there is one channel of digital audio). Basically there are 5 audio channels for the NES (2 pulse, 1 triangle, 1 noise channel, and 1 digital channel). So, the first four channels of those listed above are ANALOG! That's why it's a difficult task for emulators to get the sound right. It's hard to guesstimate the bandwidths and parasitics of the analog audio channels. Check out this link [simplenet.com] for some more description of the innards of the NES.

    Personally, I've always thought NES music sounded pretty cool. Of course the digitized sound output sounded like crap most times it was implemented, but the music otherwise was pretty cool (IMHO of course).

    The games of that era were marked by tinny, repetitive annoying tunes which pissed you off after five minutes of playing
    And no, most of the time, the music didn't piss me off after 5 minutes. In fact it really made the game that much better, creating various moods and overall enhancing the game play. Perhaps when you're given the task of writing music for a very limited system (ie, 5 channels), you really do your best to exploit it as much as possible.

  • Simon's Quest was the best Castlevania of all time!

    Man, why don't they make any more like that? All those "secret endings" and stuff. :)

    It's sort of weird that way though, with the first sequels to games; they fiddle and experiment with the style, and on the next sequel, they go back to the old format. (Well, Super Mario Bros 3 was different than the first, but more normal than the second, ah well)

    Or maybe I'm just crazy...

  • Or is it the first of the Dr. Wily boards, where the monster turns into blocks one at a time, and runs through you to the other side? That guy was sort of amorphous like a turd. It was a pain to beat, but there was a specific pattern to how the blocks transferred to the other side.


    Thats the one. Twon documented the select cheat quite well. Select is pause in MM1, and damage would be recounted after every pause. You had to be careful to not be damaged while you're doing it else you'd die too. But, in most situations wail on that pause and bosses go down. :) Works in some of the old sunsoft classics too (blaster master, uncle festers).
  • Yeah, the good old days. I played so much Steet Fighter 2 on the SNES my thumbs still ache. I remember when Mortal Kombat came out. I could not, for the life of me, play that game. My fingers only wanted to do SF2 moves.

    I also remember the all nighters my friends and I did playing Final Fantasy 2. We managed to complete the game in 33 hours in one sitting.

    Married now and working 9 hours a day - how things have changed.

  • MAME emulates sound too. (Score:3)

    by Gridle ( 17502 ) on Thursday May 04, 2000 @11:22PM (#1090582)
    The Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator [mame.net] (also XMAME [mame.net] available) project includes sound emulation support for just about every classic arcade game that it emulates. Not to even mention that its sound cores seem to be the best ones available, for example the YM-2151 emulation is the most accurate sound simulation ever written.

    Check out also Qplayer [emulationworld.com] (For standalone playing of CPS2 system games' sounds and music) and NeoJukeBox [terra.es] (For standalone playing of Neo Geo music and sounds).

  • Game music is goood!! (Score:5)

    by Krilomir ( 29904 ) on Thursday May 04, 2000 @11:28PM (#1090583)
    Most people don't even consider it music, but I do. You don't believe it if you haven't tried, but you can download tons of game music from mp3.com or napster. Just try a few search for Final Fantasy, chrono trigger, super mario, metroid, zelda, etc.

    Unfortunately, most of the napster stuff is copyrighted and only sold in Japan and from expensive import websites.

    Here are a few good links to sites that sells game soundtracks:
    Game Music Online [gamemusic.com]
    SoundtrackCentral [soundtrackcentral.com]
    synSONIQ [synsoniq.com]

    I haven't bought anything yet, but I consider buying a few ablums from Game Music Online.

    Before I knew about these sites or napster, I downloaded MANY game midi files from the web. Believe me, they sound great with SBlive! if you have the right soundfonts [personalcopy.com] installed.
    Videogame Music Acrhive [vgmusic.com] - more than 10.000 midifiles I think, PC, SNES, NES, Genesis, Commodore 64 - you name it!.

    I'm glad to see people like Minibosses do some game music and make some of it free. Can't wait to here it (I'm a big fan of the Metroid soundtrack!).

  • I've had exactly the same problem. I write a great deal of MIDI, and everyone comments that it sounds "like video game music".

    Of course, the old 8-bit Nintendo had a lot of limitations - there were only four tracks (square wave, triangle wave, percussion, and "voice") so essentially you were limited to two instruments, a drum track, and sound effects. But I think that what's really striking is that most people can remember the catchy Nintendo tunes as well or better than most radio singles of the same era. I think the simplicity of two-and-a-half track MIDI can somehow burn itself into our minds better than three overlaid vocal tracks, two guitars, a bass, drums, and a keyboard.

    And I want to go on record as saying that "Legacy of the Wizard" contained some of the best music ever. Ever written in the history of mankind.

  • It's All About The Melody (Score:3)

    by Effugas ( 2378 ) on Thursday May 04, 2000 @11:45PM (#1090585) Homepage
    Video game music grew out of a restricted environment--literally where only a few extremely simple instruments had to be chained together to create music compelling enough to encourage continued playing.

    This is no small thing--if you've ever seen a scene out of a movie without music, you know how critical music is to setting an environment. And if you've ever heard any of the last boss music that Nobuo Uematsu has hacked together over the last decade, you know: Kick Ass Music Makes A Difference. And in my mind, unique melodies make the song.

    Think about what you hum when you remember a tune. You ain't humming the beat, though the lyrics might stick in your head. It's the melody that grabs you. And, to be blunt, early video games didn't have the resources to have anything *but* melody. I think my favorite quote out of Nobuo lately is something along the lines of, "Sure I could spent a bunch of time looking through directories finding the perfect trumpet sample...or I could just create a new melody."

    That's not to say, mind you, that orchestration is not a beautiful thing. I'm listening to the Minibosses' doing Castlevania, and I'm enjoying myself greatly. (Incidentally, the fact that they have a FAQ question on Mega Man 2 and no other game is awesome.) Considering Castlevania is probably one of the world's most remixed soundtracks(up there with Final Fantasy and Street Fighter 2), these guys have done a standup job.

    Orchestration applied to a song with core melody that rocks rocks. Orchestration for the sake of orchestration alone(unfortunately, many film scores) is empty.

    Then there's this ridiculous remix of Fithos Lusec from Final Fantasy 8 [rpgamer.com]. This is just in a whole 'nother category.

    Yours Truly,

    Dan Kaminsky
    DoxPara Research
    http://www.doxpara.com

  • I keep listening to those amazing sid tunes all the time.... and it's not nostalgia, I've never had any c64. The sound/melodies just kick ass.

  • Oh how I remember the summer of '89 when i popped in final fantasy and beat that tough (I was 6...) rpg. Final Fantasy 1's music was probably the best NES music of all time, and has been the inspiration for most of the series songs. I like the updated orchestrated versions of classics because it shows what we could have done if we had the equipment back in the day, and it brings back the memories of the games we loved. The best thing about music back in that day was that because there wasn't enough memory to hold entire songs, it would use tricks to keep few minute songs doing different things after hours of play. Come on, how many of you popped in a game, refused to press start to see how fast mega man's beat would go if you left it going till midnight.

    English: Fry's 30 day money back guarentee
  • ". I'll stick to my 8 track tapes and LP records thanks."

    Get with the times, man. The new format is gonna be the Pocket Rocker!

    (For those of you who don't remember, that was a goofy mini-cassette device that was around in the 80's)

  • Some of my favorites... (Score:3)

    by pb ( 1020 ) on Friday May 05, 2000 @12:08AM (#1090590)
    Look, everybody, here's a legitimate use for Napster and Gnutella! Anyone who got these songs want to mirror/share them, 'cause I can't get them from the site!

    Now on to my rantings...

    Boy, those games rule...

    Anyone remember that the NES emulator from Japan for Windows ("PasoFami", I think) used MIDI for its output? It let you change the samples for the four channels, and at the time I also had a software midi synthesizer, so let's just say that Mario and Zelda sounded kinda funky, in a good, remixed way. :)

    Later, I 'ripped' the intro music from Zelda (as a .WAV, using Nesticle, back when I ran DOS natively...) and converted it to an mp3. (hey, chill, I bought the game fair and square when it came out. :)

    Who can forget the music from Final Fantasy, especially seeing as how the "Battle Victory Music" hasn't really changed! I love those songs in all of their incarnations, but I think I have a soft spot for FF2. (FF4J for the purists, not NES, I know, I know...)

    I saw that they had music from Castlevania, but what about Castlevania 2? That had some awesome music, especially for 'night-time'.

    ("WHAT A HORRIBLE NIGHT TO HAVE A CURSE")

    Also, yes, Metroid ("JUSTIN BAILEY") had some awesome music, and especially Super Metroid, although that doesn't count here. :|

    Also, I loved Megaman 2, and I've heard some techno remixes from that and some of the others. (some *much* worse than others, but Flash Man was funky. :)


    ---
    pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate [ncsu.edu].

  • Comment removed (Score:3)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Friday May 05, 2000 @02:48AM (#1090593)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • www.pushove.com/song.mp3
    A tribute to the 8 bit system of yesteryear performed by Dayeight (me on vox and coathanger on shopping cart) and Darth Omega backing vox and gee-tar) outside of wallmart. so-so quality.

    I'm making a page for it soon, with lyrics and the like. Also got a great article on video game music from Electronic Musician to put up.

    and check out my band, http://www.mp3.com/bratwurst for some spoken word core music, with a touch of digital hardcore.
  • It's really simple. Post things that the moderators like. Every time you get moderated up, you get a karma point. Conversely, if you are flaming or trolling, expect to *lose* karma.

    Note: what the moderators like is interesting and/or insightful information. It takes a while though -- I've been on Slashdot for a year and a half, posting (on average) once a week and my karma is only 28. (That means that 1 out of every 3 of my posts has been moderated up by one point, but the other 2 have not.) On the other hand, I have *never* been moderated down.

    What is important is to NOT worry about karma -- just jump in when you have something meaningful to say. Let karma take care of itself.

  • I play a bit of guitar on the side, and had a friend of mine once (haven't seen him in over a year), who was able to play the entire themes to Tetris and Zelda on the bass. He would ad lib just a little, and add some more rhythm to them, it was great. In retrospect it would've been really cool to create songs 'based on' those themes. Add my guitar, and my fiance's flute to the mix, and there you go. Good memories.

    At the very least, it was certainly an effective way to get a jam session started.

  • more videogame mp3s (Score:3)

    by neurocide ( 179122 ) <neuro@plazma. n e t> on Friday May 05, 2000 @12:34AM (#1090607)
    check out http://remix.overclocked.org. [overclocked.org] for a bunch of remixed video game music.. grabbed everything from there myself, tons of really great stuff.

    neuro/efnet/#cnm [celebs-n-models.org]

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