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[jarrody2k]

Recently I was in a nostalgic mood, so I downloaded the mod music for Flashback. Raphael Gesqua took atmosphere and bottled it into 8-bit four channels and I can't help but compare his efforts to even next-gen games. One of the modules could be a modern pop song or ballad (maybe I'm going too far?) but I'd find it hard to believe if he didn't have any sort of formal accreditation in composition.

I'm curious to know what other game module composers people like and what they liked about their music.

Also wondering if anyone knows what Raphael does nowadays? (Is he even alive?) and are there any other games that featured really cinematic and moody songs like the ones in Flashback.

[B00tDisk]

jarrody2k wrote:

I'm curious to know what other game module composers people like and what they liked about their music.

I'm not sure who did the music, but Hired Guns's score is one of the best I've ever heard, bar none.

Coming in at close second is the manic industrial licks of the freeware game Intruder Alert, a Berzerk clone available on Aminet. In fact, the .MED track is called "Krezreb". Please don't step on that cow!

DOOM, while not (strictly) an Amiga game has some fantastic Midi music. E1M2 (or -M3) is just creepy.

[Calen]

Thats easy, Turrican 2 :-) it uses some custom format i think and also only uses 3 channels for the in game music IIRC as one was kept for sound effects. Fantastic music and even more fantastic given the extra handicap.
Chris is a musical genius though.

Flashback did have wonderful atmospheric effects/music.

[LinchpiN]

http://exotica.fix.no/tunes/unexotica/composers/Raphael_Gesqua.html

Kevin.

[Cymric]

Turrican 2's music is certainly very good. But there are other games (and demos). When the music suits the atmosphere in the game, I like it. Leander's title music is beautiful. Fire & Ice has a great catchy intro, plus wonderful background music. Soccer Kid and Robocod had you humming along as well, despite their utter simplicity. And the brutal rock of The Killing Game Show made you really edgy, although the game itself was pretty yucky. As far as demos are concerned There Can Be Only One: 'Desert Dream'.

[LinchpiN]

"war has never been so much fun!"

say no more :-)

what a tune!

[jarrody2k]

_LinchpiN_ wrote:
"war has never been so much fun!"

say no more :-)

what a tune!

Haha, yeah, so true. Few songs used real voice samples with such comic results! Especially where games needed to fit on floppies. It really amazes me that people on PCs and Apples were putting up with beeps when the Amiga sported musical scores comparable with movies.

The coming of CDs and soundblaster on the PC was when the Amiga's dominance over multimedia began to dwindle. Pure depth of content was enough of a selling point. Bit of a shame really. The CDTV was a pretty poor response (not a console, not a PC) but a brave one. The CD32 was too little, too late. *sigh*

After that you could chuck several CD quality songs in a game. Parents bough PCs for their kids because it had Encarta... and kids put up with ####e like Commander Keen (which I admit was pretty fun for a PC game). 1994 was a sad year. SVGA was the nail in the coffin. The PC with all its inferiority, was still enough to please the masses. Amiga was dead.

[jarrody2k]

B00tDisk wrote:

I'm not sure who did the music, but Hired Guns's score is one of the best I've ever heard, bar none.

[... snip ...]

DOOM, while not (strictly) an Amiga game has some fantastic Midi music. E1M2 (or -M3) is just creepy.

I'm listening to the music from it now. Very demo style music. It's very consistent with the slap bass and guitar riffs in there. Interesting to see they used med to make the tracks.

But now that I think of demo music, there was an awesome 60 k module that was on hacker groups title screen. It was absolutely awesome. You wouldn't believe the size of it if you listened to it. All the sounds are top quality but used wisely and it is incredibly well composed. Somewhere between jungle and techno. I found it on my hard disk.... it was called "Dream Off" apparently. Verrrrrrry awesome. 60k and one of the better sounding tracks I've heard. Also found a link at back to roots:

http://www.back2roots.org/Music/Files/HMC%2C1/

Other games that sported pumping tracks were Super Stardust and Project X. Both very slick titles.

Doom also is quite memorable. But then all those midi tracks from games like doom, duke nukem, descent etc. all have that cruisy feel that only the most poxy and lifeless synthesised drums and melodies could produce.

[jarrody2k]

I came across this link and many others on a google search. But his status was as best described as 'retired' from the scene. It seems we have lost his talent into the ether. I'd imagine he would have migrated to 'professional' composition (ie. the stuff that makes more money), or the worst possibility is that he is no longer alive? God knows how old he was!

Jarrod

[jarrody2k]

Cymric wrote:
Turrican 2's music is certainly very good. But there are other games (and demos). When the music suits the atmosphere in the game, I like it. Leander's title music is beautiful. Fire & Ice has a great catchy intro, plus wonderful background music. Soccer Kid and Robocod had you humming along as well, despite their utter simplicity. And the brutal rock of The Killing Game Show made you really edgy, although the game itself was pretty yucky. As far as demos are concerned There Can Be Only One: 'Desert Dream'.

As I was saying to B00tDisk, my favourite mod from the demo/hacker scene would have been Dream Off. For 55k it kicks serious bum.

A lot of the platformers on the Amiga really came into their own with music... often there would be a lot of different styles and motifs mixed into big epic modules. Very fun and kept the game interesting. The biggest epic was in Settlers. One big mofo song that went for several minutes... hours could go by where you hadn't turned off the music and hadn't really gotten sick of it. I sometimes hum parts of the song at work when it's really silent. It seems indelibly imprinted on my mind.

Leander's music and that Desert Dream song definately have a lot of different styles melded in. Not too bad. I'm still sticking by Flashback though

Soccer Kid wasn't a bad concept I thought. I loved doing the little back kicks and standing on the ball and the move where you hoik the ball over with a back flip (there is a name for that move... not watching the sport much I'm pretty niave to the terminology). But I don't remember the music that well....

Jarrod

[Calen]

there is a name for that move

Kill your back kick if done wrong :-)

It's known as a bicycle kick or an over-head kick.

Desert Dream is a masterpiece, but then again alot of Games music and Scene music was on the Amiga.

[jarrody2k]

Calen wrote:

Kill your back kick if done wrong :-)

It's known as a bicycle kick or an over-head kick.

Desert Dream is a masterpiece, but then again alot of Games music and Scene music was on the Amiga.

I was talking about two separate moves then (I'm not sure if that got across well or not). But yes, bicycle kick, I knew that! Grrrrr... But that back kick.. you could press the button and quickly pull in the opposite direction to which Soccer Kid was facing (or perhaps that's in the wrong order) and he'd be facing forward but kick the ball behind him. I used to love doing it. Don't know why. *shrug*