Tag Archives: nostalgia trip

Bass Cadet 01 – Thunder Force IV

Welcome to my new weekly feature – Bass Cadet.

Every week I will be showcasing a piece of music that’s relevant to the retro enthusiast right here on Bass Cadet. Requirements and criteria for a me to cover a single track, album or even a live performance are as follows:

  • Composition must be strictly electronic.
  • The production may be for a game or any other medium but it must be able to work as a game soundtrack.
  • Vitally important for all compositions to be instrumental but samples and singing are permitted, provided they are a good match.
  • Experimental compositions are allowed but they must be listenable.
  • It may be an old or new production but it must sound positively retro.
  • Last but not least, it must sound great!

Now that I’ve got that out of the way, let’s kick off this week’s feature with something awesome. Technosoft (also known as Tecno Soft) were the code house behind the truly remarkable Thunder Force series. They were also know for the astounding sound work on their game releases.

Thunder Force IV on the Sega Mega Drive (Genesis for those in the U.S.) is one of my favourite horizontal scrolling shmups of all time. It’s just one of those games that strikes the right balance between visuals, sound and play mechanics. A masterpiece bar none.

Since TFIV was developed for the Mega Drive the music is obviously using the system’s Yamaha YM2612 FM-based chip. The previous article covered FM-Synthesis and gave some excellent examples of it’s applications.

However, Thunde Force IV is the standard-bearer for FM-Synthesis on the Mega Drive. Composed by Takeshi Yoshida, Toshiharu Yamanishi and Tomomi Otani they managed to put that little Yamaha chip through it’s paces. If you click on the video above, the results speak for themselves. Fusing techno-jazz with metal, this can only be described as 16-bit cyber thrash, space orchestra. Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An Introduction to FM Synthesis & Ocular Audio

As someone that grew up with arcade games and 80’s synthpop music, I cannot hide my fondness for FM Synthesis. This was the sound of the future and in a somewhat mystical way, still is.

It can sound tinny, aggravatingly metallic or warm and bass-heavy. Aural landscapes that are representative of both happy, fuzzy worlds and those that are dystopian. Light and darkness all produced in an embedded range of chips manufactured by Yamaha. These chips would find a home in Yamaha’s famous DX7 digital synthesizers, arcade boards and PC sound cards from AdLib and Creative Lab’s early Sound Blaster range.

Yamaha's DX7 - The Workhorse Of Many Hit Songs
Yamaha’s DX7 – The workhorse of many hit songs

Enough can’t be said about all the sounds that were coming out of all these synthesizers, arcade cabinets and sound cards. Sounding incredibly synthetic, plastic even. And somehow they became relevant in a sea of naysayers. Melodies were supposed to be the preserve of the musician who could actually play real instruments, not some midi punk.

In a sense, keyboard players and sound coders were in all likelihood working harder than the average traditional musician. Many electro/synthpop bands were notorious for spending hours on end, tweaking the settings on their synthesizers to get a unique sound- they could call their own.

At the other camp, programmers would often hand code sound routines in assembly in order to fit in the music. Given the memory limitations of home computers, consoles and arcade systems during that time period, this was not exactly an easy task to achieve. Not to mention that FM synthesis is known for it’s quirks and complexity.

Over the past few months I’ve come into contact with a composer that specializes in audio production for games and film. Joe Gilliver – BA Hons of Ocular Audio has been kind enough to write the next article for my blog, which will cover FM synthesis deeper. Joe is based in the UK and is currently working on a project called Black Shuck.

Apart from demystifying FM synthesis, Joe has also written this article which gives greater insight of his current project at Gamedev.net.

 

 

 

 

 

This Is For Retro Lovers

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Welcome to the official site of 16-BIT Shock. It’s great to have you here and hope you will find much of value in the coming weeks and months. There’s plenty in store for those with a penchant for some retro gaming goodness.

Expect a blog that will be updated regularly, primarily for game project updates as well as other related topics. Straight to the point, expect a wider scope of subject matter to be covered, beyond the boundaries of gaming.  It wouldn’t be out of place to talk about the intricacies of an electronic medium such as video games, without referencing electronic music. The two go together like hand in glove that it would be a missed opportunity to ignore the connection.

And there’s much that’s positively retro in music these days as much as it is in gaming. An auspicious occurrence which is one of the reasons 16-BIT Shock came to be. A love for explosive, colourful, pixelated worlds with an ear to synthesized melodies are the raison d’etre.

Capturing the purity, the nostalgia and perhaps even some of the pretentiousness of a bygone era and reflecting that into today’s digital spaces.

Stay Righteous, Stay Retro!