Worst music

[R-Tape]

I just fired up Turmoil to see if the tape worked. I'd forgotten just how grating the intro and in-game music is! It's not even one of those cheerful earworms, it makes me wince right from the off. Thankfully it was on my +2 so I could turn the sound RIGHT down and enjoy the game.

The AY on FORG want Love is almost likable, just insanity-inducing. Tie James Bond to a chair, pop a colander on his head, play him this tune, and he'll reveal the secret codes after less than 1 loop.

Booty is another similar example. You start off thinking 'well this is a jaunty little tune', and not before long you're putting gaffa tape over the beeper cover.

What are the other contenders for worse music, whether intro, in-game, beeper or AY?

[Mpk]

Drunk Policeman. It's real bad for your ears.

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/1531

[RWAC]

Manic Miner
I know this is probably sacrilege but the first thing I do when starting a game is turn off the music!

Tapper
As mentioned by Stuart Campbell in his arcade game thread, it really is that bad.

[XTM]

The Prodigy by Electric Dreams (YouTube link).

I mean, from a technical point of view it is pretty cool, but it's not exactly nice to listen too. If there ever was Speccy music where I'd want to use the word "cacophony" to describe it, well here it is.

[TMD2003]

Manic Miner
I know this is probably sacrilege but the first thing I do when starting a game is turn off the music!

You want sacrilege? I'll give you sacrilege.

Tim Follin may be revered as some kind of musical god, but I'm always reaching for the mute button as far as Bubble Bobble is concerned. There's nothing intrinsically wrong with the tune itself, in that all the notes are in the right place and in the right order (seeing as Eric Morecambe was already dead by this point so he couldn't intervene), but those tinny clangs that accompany every single note are all off-key, and they ruin it. If I was tone deaf I wouldn't mind... but I'm not.

And talking of Matthew Smith's efforts, I can't be the only one to notice that the tune of Jet Set Willy gets ever more discordant as it drops in pitch. Was this deliberate? "You lose lives, it makes the tune sound worse". Without a complete disassembly of the code I'd be willing to bet that it drops the value of HL by... "an amount" (which sounds like neither a tone nor a semitone to me), but every HL value is changed by the same amount, even though adjustments would need to be made to each note individually to keep the relative pitches correct. Am I right?

[Swainy]

The thing with a lot of beeper music is that it sounds a lot better on a proper 16k/48k machine coming out of a proper beeper rather than through a TV speaker on a 128k machine or via speakers on an emulator.

[XTM]

And talking of Matthew Smith's efforts, I can't be the only one to notice that the tune of Jet Set Willy gets ever more discordant as it drops in pitch. Was this deliberate? "You lose lives, it makes the tune sound worse". Without a complete disassembly of the code I'd be willing to bet that it drops the value of HL by... "an amount" (which sounds like neither a tone nor a semitone to me), but every HL value is changed by the same amount, even though adjustments would need to be made to each note individually to keep the relative pitches correct. Am I right?

I don't have the shadow of a doubt as far as this being intentional. The game is already quite a surreal experience, so you losing lives just edging that bit more towards failure in this ardous task, the music turning that bit more nightmarish complements this rather well.

[R-Tape]

Drunk Policeman. It's real bad for your ears.

I think I could grow to like it, but the game hurts a bit too. Every time I fire it up, there's something I need to remember that it's not a regular collect-em-up.

Tapper
As mentioned by Stuart Campbell in his arcade game thread, it really is that bad.

Ouch yes, that's more an accidental droning than music. Similar low pitch drone to Turmoil.

The Prodigy by Electric Dreams (YouTube link).

I mean, from a technical point of view it is pretty cool, but it's not exactly nice to listen too. If there ever was Speccy music where I'd want to use the word "cacophony" to describe it, well here it is.

Good shout. I like it in the same way. It's more Aphex Twin than Prodigy.

[R-Tape]

And talking of Matthew Smith's efforts, I can't be the only one to notice that the tune of Jet Set Willy gets ever more discordant as it drops in pitch. Was this deliberate? "You lose lives, it makes the tune sound worse". Without a complete disassembly of the code I'd be willing to bet that it drops the value of HL by... "an amount" (which sounds like neither a tone nor a semitone to me), but every HL value is changed by the same amount, even though adjustments would need to be made to each note individually to keep the relative pitches correct. Am I right?

I don't have the shadow of a doubt as far as this being intentional. The game is already quite a surreal experience, so you losing lives just edging that bit more towards failure in this ardous task, the music turning that bit more nightmarish complements this rather well.

I'm getting fuzzy with the details, but isn't this something to do with accounting for the number of lives being printed at the bottom? The more lives that need printing, the longer the main loop, therefore the different the sound. I remember this being mentioned in an interview with Matthew Smith somewhere.

[R-Tape]

The thing with a lot of beeper music is that it sounds a lot better on a proper 16k/48k machine coming out of a proper beeper rather than through a TV speaker on a 128k machine or via speakers on an emulator.

Thankyou for forcing me to dig out my rubber keys - I'd not done that in ages! I just loaded up Turmoil on it (worked first time ) and I have to say it didn't sound that different, but maybe it didn't grate as much. That could be due to being quieter and more muffled. As you say I can imagine some tracks sounding better on a proper beeper.

[Juan F. Ramirez]

Being quite a cool game, the strident music of Bruce Lee is not its best feature...

[Ralf]

Target Renegade. Sorry.

I mentioned it before here and there. It's slow, sleepy and totally unsuitable for a dynamic beatemup.
Bad music in a great game.

[Morkin]

Automania is a pretty painful one.

Booty is another similar example. You start off thinking 'well this is a jaunty little tune', and not before long you're putting gaffa tape over the beeper cover.

I've mentioned it before, but my personal grudge with Booty isn't its repetitive nature but that it gets a couple of notes wrong.

There's a bit that isn't quite right, where there's a gap that shouldn't be there, and a couple of missing notes.

[DouglasReynholm]

This thread is leading me to the dawning realisation that my ability to just filter out any and all annoying background noise is due primarily to growing up playing games on the Speccy.

[R-Tape]

Automania is a pretty painful one.

Ouch that one definitely has a comparable wince factor to Turmoil, and both invovle assembling cars

I've mentioned it before, but my personal grudge with Booty isn't its repetitive nature but that it gets a couple of notes wrong.

That's exactly the kind of cocksure posturing Mr Bond would come out with before singing like a canary

[Alessandro]

Mermaid Madness

[Swainy]

Target Renegade. Sorry.

I mentioned it before here and there. It's slow, sleepy and totally unsuitable for a dynamic beatemup.
Bad music in a great game.

Ralf, have you ever had a listen to the C64 versions music? Personally I think that it’s just a case of the music not working so well on the AY chip.

[Nick]

My favourite bad game, Super Gran, has some pretty grating in-game music

The 128k version of Spellbound has a tune that, although not bad in itself, isn't nearly as good as either the Knight Tyme or Stormbringer AY music.

[Ralf]

Ralf, have you ever had a listen to the C64 versions music? Personally I think that it’s just a case of the music not working so well on the AY chip.

I've checked it just now. Yep, it's better. The same melody but quite a different mood.

My feeling is that AY generally isn't the best thing for "tough" music. If SID (C64 music chip) is Metallica then AY is Modern Talking

[R-Tape]

I've checked it just now. Yep, it's better. The same melody but quite a different mood.

I've never had a problem with the Target: Renegade music. Maybe it could be slightly lower pitched, but I think the mood it sets is just right. It's a bit eerie and you wonder what's coming next when the next group of baddies is due.

That C64 music is pretty good tho.

My feeling is that AY generally isn't the best thing for "tough" music.

I have to agree. I've had to adapt my musical tastes to fit the Speccy (never been a fan of synthi-pop or happy hardcore), but Slubberdegullion really channels "tough".

If SID (C64 music chip) is Metallica then AY is Modern Talking

Don't knock Germany's most successful pop duo! (according to Wikepedia)

[R-Tape]

Mermaid Madness

Ouch! You'd think this is where a publisher would step in and have a diplomatic chat with the author: "sometimes, less can be more"...

My favourite bad game, Super Gran, has some pretty grating in-game music

Double ouch music. I haven't had the pleasure of playing SuperGran yet, but I've yet to read a single good thing about it!

EDIT - tell a lie, I just found your post here!

[Lee P]

Automania is a pretty painful one.

Booty is another similar example. You start off thinking 'well this is a jaunty little tune', and not before long you're putting gaffa tape over the beeper cover.

I've mentioned it before, but my personal grudge with Booty isn't its repetitive nature but that it gets a couple of notes wrong.

There's a bit that isn't quite right, where there's a gap that shouldn't be there, and a couple of missing notes.

I vaguely remember fixing the out of tune notes years ago, but couldn't work out how to tighten the loop afterwards, so to speak. I'll have to dig through my old WoS posts to find it.

[Lee P]

And talking of Matthew Smith's efforts, I can't be the only one to notice that the tune of Jet Set Willy gets ever more discordant as it drops in pitch. Was this deliberate? "You lose lives, it makes the tune sound worse". Without a complete disassembly of the code I'd be willing to bet that it drops the value of HL by... "an amount" (which sounds like neither a tone nor a semitone to me), but every HL value is changed by the same amount, even though adjustments would need to be made to each note individually to keep the relative pitches correct. Am I right?

I don't have the shadow of a doubt as far as this being intentional. The game is already quite a surreal experience, so you losing lives just edging that bit more towards failure in this ardous task, the music turning that bit more nightmarish complements this rather well.

I'm getting fuzzy with the details, but isn't this something to do with accounting for the number of lives being printed at the bottom? The more lives that need printing, the longer the main loop, therefore the different the sound. I remember this being mentioned in an interview with Matthew Smith somewhere.

Hmmm, not sure, the tune is still 128 beeps in total. The later 'Halls of the Mountain King' versions of JSW didn't have this feature, or at least mine didn't.

I think TMD is right that it changes HL, which changes the pitch by odd amounts. I've fiddled about with the music data before and have a feeling that the lower the value, the higher the pitch!

[PROSM]

I'm getting fuzzy with the details, but isn't this something to do with accounting for the number of lives being printed at the bottom? The more lives that need printing, the longer the main loop, therefore the different the sound. I remember this being mentioned in an interview with Matthew Smith somewhere.

Hmmm, not sure, the tune is still 128 beeps in total. The later 'Halls of the Mountain King' versions of JSW didn't have this feature, or at least mine didn't.

I think TMD is right that it changes HL, which changes the pitch by odd amounts. I've fiddled about with the music data before and have a feeling that the lower the value, the higher the pitch!

Yep, TMD's right (well, half-right, since JSW only uses 8-bit values for its note pitches). In [mention]SkoolKid[/mention]'s excellent disassembly, you can see that the code to adjust the pitch of the note is as follows:

Code: Select all

LD A,(34252) 	; Pick up the number of lives remaining (0-7) from 34252
RLCA 		; A=28-4A - this value adjusts the pitch of the note that is played depending on how many lives are remaining (the more lives remaining, the higher the pitch)
RLCA
SUB 28
NEG
ADD A,(HL) 	; Add the entry from the tune data table for the current note

... so as you lose lives, the delay value for the note has an increasing offset added to it, distorting the pitches and making the music gradually slide out-of-tune.

[R-Tape]

I vaguely remember fixing the out of tune notes years ago, but couldn't work out how to tighten the loop afterwards, so to speak. I'll have to dig through my old WoS posts to find it.

Here's a zip containing asm and snapshots of the original Booty music and Morkin's fix. I can look at the data and see the difference, but I can't hear the difference! I'm not sure I'll ever understand sound & music.