prof_pangaea: the master (raptor rampage!)
[personal profile] prof_pangaea
does this bring back fond memories for anyone else?



so i was talking to a friend about this game a few days ago and how AWESOME the theme was, and she was like, "it was even better on the commodore 64", and i was like THERE WAS A C64 VERSION OF SKATE OR DIE OMG?! so i went searching and it turns out that skate or die was ported to the C64 and a few other consoles, but that skate or die 2 never was. dang! i wanted to hear the SID chip yelling "diediediediedie!!"

in my searches i found out the name of the composer, though, and it is rob hubbard, who is a musician who got interested in computers and software, taught himself assembly, and started coding and making video game music in the mid-80's. i went to the high voltage SID collection to try and find the mythical C64 version of skate or die 2, was reminded the thing has so many fucking songs on it it's impossible to find anything, and then found this great site, stone oakvalley's authentic SID collection, which has a great search interface (+ apparently non-emulated recording, which i wasn't aware HVSC had?). anyway, here are a few of rob hubbard's pieces that i found and really liked:

Rasputin: first song i clicked on after skate or die. it starts off weird and fun and gets faster and crazier as it goes.

Phantoms of the Asteroid [part 01]: adventurous, mechanical, spacey.

Phantoms of the Asteroid [part 04]: weird and experimental sounding. bleep bloop glitch.

W_A_R: epic, but not melodramatic. you feel like there's a big, sprawling story going on with this one.

Zoids: here is some drama! yes, i love that arpeggio!

Lightforce: atmosphereic but intense. reminds me a little of music from ecco the dolphin.


these aren't like the songs i sometimes link from places like 8bitcollective, etc; these are all from commercially released C64 games. very impressive. that's also why most of them seem to have really abrupt endings, because whoever was recording them probably stopped them before they stopped looping again. you can probably control that if you download the SID file instead of the MP3 and play it on a SIDplayer, but I don't know for sure because i haven't done that yet (the SID is the name of the sound chip in the C64, and it's got a gorgeous sound. if you're going to listen to game music, you can listen to an MP3 recording of the music, or you can get a played that will play the original sound file. that's what i have for listening to old NES and genesis music, and it's very cool since the music files are only a few kilobytes per song, and depending on the player you can manipulate and isolate the separate channels that the music is being produced in, which is loads of fun).

Date: 2010-01-31 04:22 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] zougla.livejournal.com
I like how if you don't really know what it's supposed to be saying it could be "ate our pie."

Date: 2010-01-31 04:22 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] zougla.livejournal.com
or maybe "ate or tie" I guess it doesn't really sound like a bilabial sound.

Date: 2010-01-31 05:30 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] prof-pangaea.livejournal.com
omg it is totally one of the first uses of digital vocals in video games, it can't help that it's not precise!

btw listen to this GORGEOUSNESS: http://ftp.df.lth.se/pub/media/soasc/MOS6581R4/MUSICIANS/H/Hubbard_Rob/Delta_T01.sid.mp3

Date: 2010-01-31 06:24 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] zougla.livejournal.com
I doubt this is an actual voice. It's probably formant beeps that they manipulated (which, btw is how our mouth makes consonants too, just saying) at the ends to make into something that sounds like a word. But you can't really manipulate a vowel formant into a "s" sound, since that is just noise pretty much.

Date: 2010-01-31 05:39 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] zougla.livejournal.com
That is pretty sweet. But the C64 version is Da Sweetness! :D

Date: 2010-01-31 01:31 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] kels.livejournal.com
it sounds like "gate or guy" to me. :)

Date: 2010-02-01 10:27 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] mysterylodge.livejournal.com
Thanks for making my morning! I totally rawked out to this over coffee, which kind of confused Dr. Mew. I'm still totally pumped, however.

::breaks out the emulators::

Date: 2010-02-02 12:27 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] prof-pangaea.livejournal.com
awwwe, confused dr. mew = cute.

we should hit up some bubble bobble some time. jesse has a copy on his old NES that we played the hell out of one afternoon. i'd say we should play some skate or die as well, except i was always complete shit at that game. i would watch my dad play and live vicariously through his already vicarious experience.

Date: 2010-02-02 02:18 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] mysterylodge.livejournal.com
Oh man. I would totally love to make tasty drinks and play classic console games with you anytime. <3 I'd even haul the TV down into the living room for that....

Let me know?

Date: 2010-02-02 01:01 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] prof-pangaea.livejournal.com
ps: i heard a cover of this tune on a gameboy demo years ago, and have loved it ever since, and just found out that rob hubbard wrote the original (er, and that there was an original): Commando (http://ftp.df.lth.se/pub/media/soasc/CSG8580R5/MUSICIANS/H/Hubbard_Rob/Commando_T01.sid.mp3). which is extra lame since i'm pretty sure that hubbard is credited at the end of the demo; i just didn't know who he was at the time.

Date: 2010-02-02 02:19 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] mysterylodge.livejournal.com
Definitely. The Commando theme is choice.

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