Best game music/sound

[berarma]

I feel this is frequently neglected in games and also in best-of rankings.

I'd like to know your votes for best game music/sound of all time. I'd consider menu and in-game music separately because of the challenge differences. Maybe also favourite music/sound author. Name as much as you want.

I could only enjoy beeper music back in the day. Some of the most praised games today are Robocop, Typhoon, Glider Rider,... What's yours?

[Einar Saukas]

Firefly

[MtM]

I've yet to hear anything better than that on the Spectrum technically or musically, though the Heartland theme was pretty good.

Considering it was early 1984 too I think, mind-blowing at the time to hear the Spectrum making that sound.

Sandy White / Angela Sutherland - where are you now? Take a bow wherever you are, the Spectrum Gods smile down on you.

[MtM]

That is not far off though in truth, I think it's my favourite Tim Follin tune.

[stupidget]

I've said it once, or maybe 1000 times, and I'll say it again but the menu tune in Ping-Pong is an absolute classic.



Other notable mentions are:

Fairlight
Heavy on the Magick
Any of the tunes from Head over Heels (128k)
Marauder (128k)

[Morkin]

A couple of my favourites:

Dynamite Dan
Dynamite Dan II

Rod Bowkett is a proper musician, and you can tell. Just happened to be a decent programmer too

Both menu tunes are nicely done, but I particularly like the way that the in-game sound, for both games, intermingles sound FX with various little ditties, triggered when you pick up different sorts of object. Not sure I can recall what other games did that.

[Stefan]

Pretty much everything by Joe McAlby, starting with:

- Hostages
- North & South

[Stefan]

Also pretty much everything by Tiny Williams / Sound Images.

[worcestersource]

I don’t know who wrote the tune to Hewson’s Netherworld but that was quite an opus.

Menu tunes from:
- Robocop
- Chase HQ

I prefer the Speccy’s rendition of the tune from Rainbow Islands than on other formats.

12 year old me was enamoured with the music from Future Games so much so that I put it on a mix tape. Was that a Tim Follin special?

[Joefish]

I'm still impressed by Fairlight.
That Special FX player has a bit of an off-putting buzz to it (possibly because it uses interrupts to control the drum effects, which puts the note timing off a bit). And the old Wham! Music Box that did 2-channel music just sounds like 2 crude beeper notes at the same time. But this sounds way better than simple square wave beepers; have they got some sort of volume shaping control here? There also seems to be some sort of frequency variation effect too - it can play a few bars of music, then play the same melody again but sounding somehow like chords or accompanied by a different instrument, as well as the second baseline. Has anyone disassembled this player to see what it's capable off?



The tune was already done before on C64 game Wizardry: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8mKUIQjpvA

[Rorthron]

I'm still impressed by Fairlight.

The tune was already done before on C64 game Wizardry: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8mKUIQjpvA

I didn't know WIzardry used the same music, but are you sure Wizardry came first? SC has an August 1985 release for Fairlight. The first reviews of WIzardry seem to be in November 1985.

[berarma]

I'm surprised by the number of beeper music fans. I'm not too fond because it's normally too noisy although they did some impressive things I wasn't aware of. I though Renegade had good music for the beeper but I'm proven it falls short. Specially impressed by the clean sound in Ping Pong with several voices. It was always appreciated that some developers dedicated some time to get the best out of the speaker.

Now I'm playing more AY games on emulators and one that sounds very good is Ghostly Capers. Immersive and playful in-game music.

[worcestersource]

I don’t know who wrote the tune to Hewson’s Netherworld but that was quite an opus.

Menu tunes from:
- Robocop
- Chase HQ

I prefer the Speccy’s rendition of the tune from Rainbow Islands than on other formats.

12 year old me was enamoured with the music from Future Games so much so that I put it on a mix tape. Was that a Tim Follin special?

Need to add Where Time Stood Still, Thanatos and the Cybernoids.

[Oloturia]

Wonderful game, wonderful music too.

[Matt_B]

A couple of favourites from Tim Follin:

[TakuikaNinja]

See if this sounds familiar to the Commodore folks...

[R-Tape]

Firefly

Not keen. I really like some of Joffa's music, but I can't stand the 'squelchy' engine.

Dynamite Dan
Dynamite Dan II

A masterpiece, and the only reason I've heard of Mozart's Rondo Alla Turca. The sound is smooth and flowing when it needs to be, and I love how he manages to approximate the powerful piano clonks. As you say, Rod Bowkett is great all round with music and sound effects.

[R-Tape]

It looks like we're on a beeper riff here. The intro music on Xecutor is one of my favourites. It may be simple, but it's a clean sound that feels hopeful and mournful at the same time.

[PQR]

I always liked the music in Stephen Crow’s games, with their sustained notes and “flanger”-like effect.

Not to forget that the in-game effects are some of the very best too. Those teleporters and gates in Starquake. Or the clink-clink sound in Firelord.

Wizard’s Lair
Starquake
Firelord

[Jbizzel]

Toobin

The light corridor

[sn3j]

Robin of the Wood


Brilliant tune that sounds even better on a real Speccy, than emulated.

Gyroscope


Features 3 tunes which all sound like AY, though it's indeed beeper.


Brian Bloodaxe


The BB tune kept the Speccy vibrating so hard that the audio cord almost popped out by itself.

[clebin]

Here's a question: How come AY music sounds so different on the CPC from the Spectrum? Is there some kind of hardware filter or amplifier involved?

Spectrum AY music often sounds thin and weedy like that Firefly tune, whereas the CPC seems fuller and more resonant, more arcadey in a way. The CPC has always sounded a lot better to my ears and I tended to prefer a good beeper tune over the 128k music.

[TakuikaNinja]

I don't think any of the YouTube videos linked here so far contain AY music...?
How about we confuse people further with this one?

[AndyC]

Here's a question: How come AY music sounds so different on the CPC from the Spectrum? Is there some kind of hardware filter or amplifier involved?

Spectrum AY music often sounds thin and weedy like that Firefly tune, whereas the CPC seems fuller and more resonant, more arcadey in a way. The CPC has always sounded a lot better to my ears and I tended to prefer a good beeper tune over the 128k music.

Clock speed. The AY in the CPC is clocked lower than the one in the Speccy

[XoRRoX]

A few of my favourite AY tunes:

Aufwiedersehen Monty
Glider Rider
Platoon
Nemesis The Warlock