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Best BBC Micro game music |
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John Hoare |
Message #117315, posted by moss at 02:45, 18/4/2011 |
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Galaforce 2 has to be one of my favourites:
http://www.stairwaytohell.com/music/Galaforce2.mp3
Anyone else? |
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Andrew Rawnsley |
Message #117319, posted by arawnsley at 08:59, 18/4/2011, in reply to message #117315 |
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I can see (or rather, hear) why you like that one 
A thread like this can't be complete without a mention of the FireTrack music. That may have required sideways ram / master if memory serves, but it was great game music.
BoneCrusher with some nice beethoven, if memory serves (I forget the exact piece). |
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VinceH |
Message #117331, posted by VincceH at 11:50, 18/4/2011, in reply to message #117319 |
 Lowering the tone since the dawn of time
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I remember being very pleased with the music I came up with for a BBC game that was going to be called Parry's Run. (In fact, it was the first piece of music I'd ever come up with for a game).
The game itself was never finished as an 8 bit one, but some aspects of it did end up in two of the early Archimedes games I released.
Some of the ideas for the game that never even made it into the (at that point incomplete) level designs ended up being used in the awful Return to Exeria (supplied on the same floppy as the original version of Escape from Exeria), and the WIP levels themselves ended up forming the basis of the six levels of Guardians of the Labyrinth.
As for the music - that also ended up being used in Guardians; a track called 'Bandits' uses the melody. I have two versions of it here - not the original BBC beepy version, but a conversion of the 4 channel version (as used in the Guardians) and a 1993 8 channel version that was never used. |
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Martin Bazley |
Message #117338, posted by swirlythingy at 15:58, 18/4/2011, in reply to message #117315 |
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Galaforce 2 has to be one of my favourites:
http://www.stairwaytohell.com/music/Galaforce2.mp3
Anyone else? ...Erm, Galaforce 1? It was immeasurably better. Galaforce 2 was crap. |
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Nathan |
Message #117454, posted by Wrath at 21:07, 21/4/2011, in reply to message #117338 |
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The Ultron loading music. |
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Steven Gregory |
Message #117462, posted by thecellartroll at 00:24, 22/4/2011, in reply to message #117454 |
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Surely the opening classic from Granny's Garden which was enough to make even the mildest Primary School teacher seethe with rage!
I'd like that for a ring-tone. Anyone know if it is downloadable anywhere? |
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Jason Togneri |
Message #117463, posted by filecore at 06:27, 22/4/2011, in reply to message #117462 |
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I'd like that for a ring-tone. Anyone know if it is downloadable anywhere? If not, there are loads of people with copies (I have a copy for the Spectrum); I'm sure it wouldn't be that hard to record the tune. |
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Andrew Poole |
Message #117464, posted by andypoole at 08:29, 22/4/2011, in reply to message #117462 |
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Surely the opening classic from Granny's Garden which was enough to make even the mildest Primary School teacher seethe with rage!
I'd like that for a ring-tone. Anyone know if it is downloadable anywhere? Same site as the OP:
http://www.stairwaytohell.com/music/GrannysGarden.mp3 |
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Trevor Johnson |
Message #117470, posted by trevj at 18:06, 22/4/2011, in reply to message #117454 |
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The Ultron loading music. Icarus* title-screen (IIRC) music.
* Project Icarus? |
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Andrew Rawnsley |
Message #117472, posted by arawnsley at 19:48, 22/4/2011, in reply to message #117470 |
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Oh yes, that was a good-un too |
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Steven Gregory |
Message #117481, posted by thecellartroll at 23:54, 22/4/2011, in reply to message #117464 |
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Same site as the OP:
http://www.stairwaytohell.com/music/GrannysGarden.mp3
Ace. However I remember it being deeper in tone and far more grating than that when forced from the rough-as-hell BBC-B speakers...
And Jason, Granny's Garden on the Spectrum? Sick and wrong, sir, sick and wrong. Everyone knows that on the Spectrum you could only get as far as Treasure Island Dizzy and were stuck there forever because you forgot to drop and re-collect the f**king snorkel. Again. |
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Philip Webster |
Message #117514, posted by pwx at 15:14, 26/4/2011, in reply to message #117315 |
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I though the in-game music for Perplexity was OK. I never realised it predated the game until I heard a local ice cream van playing it...
I still don't know the name of the tune though. |
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Andrew |
Message #117551, posted by andrew at 18:22, 29/4/2011, in reply to message #117338 |
 Handbag Boi
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Galaforce 2 has to be one of my favourites:
http://www.stairwaytohell.com/music/Galaforce2.mp3
Anyone else? ...Erm, Galaforce 1? It was immeasurably better. Galaforce 2 was crap.
Wasn't G2 only released on compilation? This sounds fantastic for a Beeb track, although G1 sounded better from memory. |
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Andrew |
Message #117552, posted by andrew at 18:23, 29/4/2011, in reply to message #117331 |
Handbag Boi
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I remember being very pleased with the music I came up with for a BBC game that was going to be called Parry's Run. (In fact, it was the first piece of music I'd ever come up with for a game).
The game itself was never finished as an 8 bit one, but some aspects of it did end up in two of the early Archimedes games I released.
Some of the ideas for the game that never even made it into the (at that point incomplete) level designs ended up being used in the awful Return to Exeria (supplied on the same floppy as the original version of Escape from Exeria), and the WIP levels themselves ended up forming the basis of the six levels of Guardians of the Labyrinth.
As for the music - that also ended up being used in Guardians; a track called 'Bandits' uses the melody. I have two versions of it here - not the original BBC beepy version, but a conversion of the 4 channel version (as used in the Guardians) and a 1993 8 channel version that was never used. Was this a text adventure? |
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VinceH |
Message #117557, posted by VincceH at 13:15, 30/4/2011, in reply to message #117552 |
Lowering the tone since the dawn of time
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Parry's Run.
Return to Exeria
Escape from Exeria
Guardians of the Labyrinth. Was this a text adventure?
Which one? 
But seriously - no, none of those were. |
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Martin Bazley |
Message #117563, posted by swirlythingy at 21:56, 30/4/2011, in reply to message #117557 |
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What happened to Exeria? I found it yonks ago on an already quite elderly Acorn User CD, completed it, and felt rather smug. I didn't know there was a sequel...
One thing I remember about the Soft Rock products on that CD was that a lot of the graphics were corrupted in some way - usually degenerating into random noise halfway down. It didn't look like a compression issue, because the affected ones (such as the "You have escaped from Exeria!" banner) were vanilla sprites. In fact, recently, just for a laugh, I decompressed the Exeria ingame graphics, and (apart from apparently being padded out with a whole lot of junk) they worked perfectly. |
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VinceH |
Message #117564, posted by VincceH at 22:43, 30/4/2011, in reply to message #117563 |
Lowering the tone since the dawn of time
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What happened to Exeria? I found it yonks ago on an already quite elderly Acorn User CD, completed it, and felt rather smug. I don't remember it ever being on an AU CD, other than perhaps a five level demo version (it had forty levels) if the CD included the old 3.5" cover disks.
If the claims of one reviewer were to be believed, incidentally, you should be well chuffed for completing it - because they claimed level one was impossible. It wasn't - they were just wrong.
I didn't know there was a sequel... Pretend you still don't. It was rubbish. 
One thing I remember about the Soft Rock products on that CD Products? Was there more stuff on the CD?
was that a lot of the graphics were corrupted in some way - usually degenerating into random noise halfway down. Interesting. The first versions (of Exeria, Return, Guardians, Drop Rock and Switch) were pure BASIC (plus either RM sound effects or RM music using Coconizer), and vanilla sprites.
There were later, versions of some, which had varying degrees of rewrite (Exeria and Drop Rock, for example, were completely rewritten) - but again, still in BASIC and still with vanilla sprites.
At the time I was selling them, I don't recall anybody ever reporting the sort of problem you describe.
It didn't look like a compression issue, because the affected ones (such as the "You have escaped from Exeria!" banner) were vanilla sprites. And, um, they weren't compressed, so...
In fact, recently, just for a laugh, I decompressed the Exeria ingame graphics, ...that's very strange.
and (apart from apparently being padded out with a whole lot of junk) they worked perfectly. If I was to guess, I'd say (if it's the full version) I might have granted permission at some point, and whoever compiled the CD modified it for some reason.
But if so, I've completely forgotten.
I'd be interested in seeing this version - do you still have it? |
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Martin Bazley |
Message #117565, posted by swirlythingy at 00:02, 1/5/2011, in reply to message #117564 |
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It's the rewritten version (filename !Exeria2_R), on AUCD4, and it had 40 levels. Example of graphic corruption attached.
I can't remember the entire catalogue, but the other ones I considered worth copying to my hard drive were !Floopy and !Guardians. The former suffered from a similar problem.
I could email the copies I have to you, but I'm afraid they're not exactly in mint condition, as, in my ten-year-old wisdom, I took it upon myself to "fix" the glitches. (The attached one survived only because even I couldn't convince myself I could make a top-quality undetectable repair.) |
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VinceH |
Message #117567, posted by VincceH at 09:51, 1/5/2011, in reply to message #117565 |
Lowering the tone since the dawn of time
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It's the rewritten version (filename !Exeria2_R), on AUCD4, and it had 40 levels. The _R suffix indicated the RiscPC version, with the new machines being what prompted a rewrite. If memory serves I took a while to get around to doing it - gosh, how things change. 
Example of graphic corruption attached. 
I can't remember the entire catalogue, but the other ones I considered worth copying to my hard drive were !Floopy and !Guardians. The former suffered from a similar problem. How strange. Again, Floopy's graphics were pure sprites - though the game itself was written in C (using Beebug's Desktop C if memory serves). I would have liked to have updated that one, but I've no idea where the source code got to.
As an aside related to my comment that one review of Exeria said level one couldn't be done, there was a level in Floopy that, originally, couldn't be done - I'd accidently put an extra fixed block on that level, after play testing and before release.
I could email the copies I have to you, but I'm afraid they're not exactly in mint condition, as, in my ten-year-old wisdom, I took it upon myself to "fix" the glitches. (The attached one survived only because even I couldn't convince myself I could make a top-quality undetectable repair.) In retrospect, it's probably not worth it - I would have had the CD myself, which means it's probably still here somewhere.
I wonder if AUCD4 was one compiled for charity? ISTR granting permission a couple of times for stuff to be included on charity CDs, though I don't remember the specifics.
Either way, my money is on someone involved in compiling the CD as the graphic-breaking-culprit. |
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richard cheng |
Message #118353, posted by richcheng at 16:13, 22/7/2011, in reply to message #117315 |
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I forget its name, but there was a game where you controlled a ball which rolled forever diagonally upwards and to the right. You had to avoid hazards and whatnot. Like a marble-themed ripoff of Zaxxon.
That had awesome music. |
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VinceH |
Message #118355, posted by VincceH at 17:14, 22/7/2011, in reply to message #118353 |
Lowering the tone since the dawn of time
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I forget its name, but there was a game where you controlled a ball which rolled forever diagonally upwards and to the right. You had to avoid hazards and whatnot. Like a marble-themed ripoff of Zaxxon.
That had awesome music. Phaethon? |
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Andrew Rawnsley |
Message #118364, posted by arawnsley at 21:33, 22/7/2011, in reply to message #118355 |
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Think Phaethon was an Archimedes game onwards But good music in it!
I remember the marble game he's on about though, but can't recall its name.
Speaking of marble-type games with good music, Inertia had a fun ditty or two on the Arch. I recall there was a Beeb version, although I suspect it lacked the music. |
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Philip Webster |
Message #118501, posted by pwx at 11:54, 25/8/2011, in reply to message #118364 |
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The BBC version of Inertia has no music, and very rudimentary sound effects. |
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Tokyoracer |
Message #118504, posted by tokyoracer at 00:59, 26/8/2011, in reply to message #118501 |
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I don't know if it counts but the music from "Demo 128" by The Master for the BBC Master (obviously) has the best music I have heard from a BBC computer. |
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Andrew |
Message #118510, posted by andrew at 20:43, 29/8/2011, in reply to message #118501 |
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The BBC version of Inertia has no music, and very rudimentary sound effects. I'm sure it does and there was a similar game from Impact IIRC but I never played it. |
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Philip Webster |
Message #118521, posted by pwx at 23:18, 3/9/2011, in reply to message #118510 |
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The BBC version of Inertia has no music, and very rudimentary sound effects. I'm sure it does and there was a similar game from Impact IIRC but I never played it.
Inertia for the BBC has no music. Inertia on the Archimedes does, and it's good music - composed by David Postlethwaite, who also coded both versions of the game and did music for a few other 4th Dimension games.
The similar game released by Impact is Orbital. It's not really especially similar other than that it features an isometric viewpoint. The gameplay is quite different. |
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Stephen Scott |
Message #118551, posted by sa_scott at 13:21, 5/9/2011, in reply to message #118521 |
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Some of the Daniel Pugh renditions of 80s songs, such as Pet Shop Boys' Domino Dancing, were excellent. They were on either Disc User, or Fast Access.
But - staying on topic - I thought Galaforce was great. Hmmm, worst? The endlessly repeating ditty in Ravenskull got on my nerves. |
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Philip Webster |
Message #118572, posted by pwx at 17:02, 6/9/2011, in reply to message #118551 |
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Some of the Daniel Pugh renditions of 80s songs, such as Pet Shop Boys' Domino Dancing, were excellent. They were on either Disc User, or Fast Access.
But - staying on topic - I thought Galaforce was great. Hmmm, worst? The endlessly repeating ditty in Ravenskull got on my nerves. +1 to the Daniel Pugh stuff. Galaforce has great music, and I think the Superior Interactive rereleases for Windows have the same music - must go back and check sometime.
I *hated* Ravenskull, but it's one of those BBC games that people seem to rave about for some reason. The similar top-down adventure 'Pipeline' has repetitive-ish music as well, but I don't recall it being particularly unpleasant. |
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Andrew |
Message #118632, posted by andrew at 12:54, 11/9/2011, in reply to message #118521 |
Handbag Boi
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The BBC version of Inertia has no music, and very rudimentary sound effects. I'm sure it does and there was a similar game from Impact IIRC but I never played it.
Inertia for the BBC has no music. Inertia on the Archimedes does, and it's good music - composed by David Postlethwaite, who also coded both versions of the game and did music for a few other 4th Dimension games.
The similar game released by Impact is Orbital. It's not really especially similar other than that it features an isometric viewpoint. The gameplay is quite different.
I forgot about Perplexity and that Inertia was by 4D. I was thinking about another isometric game from Superior which was more like Orbital and definitely had music on the BBC Micro.
[Edited by andrew at 13:58, 11/9/2011] |
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Phil Mellor |
Message #118640, posted by monkeyson2 at 21:49, 11/9/2011, in reply to message #118632 |
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I forgot about Perplexity and that Inertia was by 4D. I was thinking about another isometric game from Superior which was more like Orbital and definitely had music on the BBC Micro Vertigo, on Play It Again Sam 16? |
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