Sounding Off
Oct. 20th, 2005 06:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pasitheaSo... Last week, I worked 30hours in a single sitting (from 9AM Thursday to 3PM Friday) After that, I slept.
The next day, I went to visit Ashy and the Atari was out but not connected. So we went out and found an RF switch and plugged it in and Hurray! It still works, even though I dropped it when moving it from the attic. The reset switch is broken off, but what's to worry about shoving a screwdriver into an electrical device between friends?
Anyhow, we played it and I got my butt kicked at just about every game except Video Pinball, though I mostly held my own at Outlaw.
It was so much fun but gawd the sound was annoying in a lot of the games.
Slowly, that's been percolating and got me thinking about audio. Audio is something I often tend to forget or at least be oblivious to. Suddenly, I wondered, 'What was the first video game with theme music?' A quick google search lead me to http://www.gamespot.com/features/6092391/p-2.html
I guess I have to step back and analyze, 'What do I consider music?" technically, the audio in Space Invaders and Asteroids is music. Not fantastic music by any means, but it is music. Of course, the real answer is 'Journey Escape', which I've never played and it's probably not entirely fair, since it's a game about the band Journey. 'SpyHunter' might be a better answer. This game definetely has music as opposed to a few bleeps played in a loop and I remember how impressive it seemed to me when I first saw it.
All this also gets me thinking about all the people I know who say or have said, "My friends and I are going to make a video game." Most have the graphical expertise and the programming skills, but I can't remember any offhand that have made plans for music. Nothing more than sound effects. Certainly, when I've built my own games, this has been a limitation of their scope. I think of the game in terms of images and sound effects and programming, but I've never really paused to consider the importance of music in making a good game, and yet, it's really an important aspect. Even for people who later turn off the music and listen to their own, their initial opinions about the game are influenced by the original score. This is important. It's what seperates a good game from a great game.
Definetely something to consider as I toy with the idea of building a couple of one-off flash games for my website redesign.
Reading this page also makes me want to get 'Seaman' and 'Kingdom Hearts' and try them out.
The next day, I went to visit Ashy and the Atari was out but not connected. So we went out and found an RF switch and plugged it in and Hurray! It still works, even though I dropped it when moving it from the attic. The reset switch is broken off, but what's to worry about shoving a screwdriver into an electrical device between friends?
Anyhow, we played it and I got my butt kicked at just about every game except Video Pinball, though I mostly held my own at Outlaw.
It was so much fun but gawd the sound was annoying in a lot of the games.
Slowly, that's been percolating and got me thinking about audio. Audio is something I often tend to forget or at least be oblivious to. Suddenly, I wondered, 'What was the first video game with theme music?' A quick google search lead me to http://www.gamespot.com/features/6092391/p-2.html
I guess I have to step back and analyze, 'What do I consider music?" technically, the audio in Space Invaders and Asteroids is music. Not fantastic music by any means, but it is music. Of course, the real answer is 'Journey Escape', which I've never played and it's probably not entirely fair, since it's a game about the band Journey. 'SpyHunter' might be a better answer. This game definetely has music as opposed to a few bleeps played in a loop and I remember how impressive it seemed to me when I first saw it.
All this also gets me thinking about all the people I know who say or have said, "My friends and I are going to make a video game." Most have the graphical expertise and the programming skills, but I can't remember any offhand that have made plans for music. Nothing more than sound effects. Certainly, when I've built my own games, this has been a limitation of their scope. I think of the game in terms of images and sound effects and programming, but I've never really paused to consider the importance of music in making a good game, and yet, it's really an important aspect. Even for people who later turn off the music and listen to their own, their initial opinions about the game are influenced by the original score. This is important. It's what seperates a good game from a great game.
Definetely something to consider as I toy with the idea of building a couple of one-off flash games for my website redesign.
Reading this page also makes me want to get 'Seaman' and 'Kingdom Hearts' and try them out.
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(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-21 03:53 am (UTC)I bought and restored a Spy Hunter a couple years ago found out WHY the music was so good. They had an entire 68000 processor (and remember this was '83) devoted entirely to playing the Peter Gunn theme music. The rest of the game was running off of two crummy 8-bit Z-80 processors and here was a 16 bit processor on a little board doing just the damn music! This little synth board was even capable of algorithmically 'jamming' on the theme if you lived long enough to hear it (this happens after lasting about 3 minutes without getting killed.)
I really hated to sell that game... it was so engrossing and playable. And Spy Hunter CANNOT be properly emulated. It's one of those games where you need the real cabinet to play it properly...
(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-21 04:22 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-21 06:33 am (UTC)Dig-Dug was definitely one of the first games with music.
The funny thing was that the music was keyed to your on-screen surrogate's
movements.
As long as he moved, the music played. When he stopped, no music.
I always thought that was cool.
I'd have to do some heavy-duty research to see exactly which game was the first with music.
And I just don't have the time.
I am still haunted by the Mappy theme...
(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-21 02:08 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-21 03:49 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-21 09:15 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-21 04:51 pm (UTC)