Tag Archives: nostalgia

Project MSG – The Retro-Punk Experience

Last month I was able to reveal a little about the game project that I’ve been working on. Shares, retweets, favourites, +1’s and feedback via messages and email from many of you has been both positive and very encouraging – thank you!

It seems that the ‘Project MSG’ logo made a strong impact. The response that I received, while not entirely unexpected, was rather more enthusiastic than anticipated. While I do concur that it’s a cool looking logo. And as the creator of this logo I would like to add that I do so in a humble and non-boisterous manner. What matters is that you love it!

ProjectMSG_WhiteBackground
I should consider taking t-shirt orders 🙂

The logo has managed to convey and stir up strong nostalgic feelings of 8-bit & 16-bit gaming memories for you lot. As if the mid-80’s or even early 90’s were no longer some forgotten bygone era. I have no intention in ruining those feelings and you can all rest assured that the official logo will still retain this flavour.

Fortunately, you didn’t just like the logo. There was a single screenshot of ‘stage 1-1’ of the game which managed to attain significant attention. Plus a fair amount in the twittersphere. Detailed pixel art graphics are gladly still welcome among retro game fans. This singular shot only gives a small glimpse of the game, but it’s enough to give a basic idea of the styling and gameplay.

Defining this project becomes easier as work progresses. While the initial brief described it as 2D shooting game with a cyberpunk theme. This is still true for the project today. However, newer aspects start to surface that were faintly observed in the initial stages of development.  Comparatively to, an alter ego of some kind, quietly hiding within the shadows of the dominant personality. Only to make itself known at a later date.

Perhaps it all boils down to the aesthetic choices. The clashing of pixel art and FM-synth generated music, while a natural fit gives out a far more raw electronic feel. Due to modern development techniques and increased processing power, we have become accustomed to games that are incredibly slick and shiny. Nothing wrong with this intrinsically. After all, I’m all for high production values and polish in the creation of video games. It’s just that this added fidelity often constitutes in a loss of a raw edge.

This rawness is ultimately part of the charm. It’s not just a retro-centric attribute that I’m pointing out here. It’s inherently punk in nature. Sticking out like a sore thumb, provoking the player that it’s nothing like those big-budget, overproduced but somehow sterile games. Project MSG wants to get dirty!

 

 

Looking Good

Nowadays we tend to refer to software as app(s) or application(s). Ditto for games or game software. Since I like to keep things retro, I will stick to software since it’s always been a perfectly good description.

My first home computer was an 8-bit microcomputer known as the Sinclair ZX Spectrum 48K. Yes, back in the early to mid 80’s computers would often be called micros or microcomputers. Later on PC or personal computer became the more popular term due to the rise of the IBM PC and compatible variants in the market.

The ZX Spectrum was a great little machine but rather primitive, especially by today’s standards. Nevertheless it’s renowned for it’s huge game library with some timeless classics. But I’m not writing this post to reminiscence about any specific games for this computer. Instead I’m writing this to point out the care that publishers took at packaging their software. Particularly the sleeve artwork.

GreenBeret_ZXSpectrum
The starts were aligned…the badass sleeve art represented the actual game very well

Most of the software on the ZX Spectrum came on cassette tape, it was a cost-effective method that ensured that original games were cheap at retail. In many cases only a tenth of the price of a diskette based game for the PC or any of the 16-bit computers gradually appearing, during that period. It was not surprising the Spectrum was extremely popular among teenage boys who had only very limited pocket money to spend on games.

Publishers were well aware of this and were smart when commissioning artwork that would make it’s way on the cover of each game. Arcade ports were massively popular back in those days. Such action-heavy titles required artwork that would fit the bill. Fortunately, the quality of artwork was of a very high standard. Very little or no computer graphics were used.

Yes, those are airbrushed breasts…don’t fap

While awesome game cover art is still produced these days. I feel there is an over-reliance on CG-art and game logos are becoming bland, boring even. The examples shown here, both are stunningly illustrated with insanely cool logos. Compare these fine covers to most of the current gen games sitting on stores shelves and you will see the difference.

 

 

 

 

 

FM Synthesis & Video Games: Trackers

For this series of FM synthesis music I want to go into a fair bit of detail regarding FM synthesis. Especially experimenting with FM synthesisers to make retro music. However this slightly shorter article is going to give a quick overview of the most popular method for creating retro FM game music.

deflemask
DefleMask is one of the most versatile trackers for those seeking to emulate the sounds of Sega’s Master System & Mega Drive consoles

One of the most popular ways to make chiptune music in this day and age is utilising trackers. Trackers are in essence a simplified Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) which rather than being laid out horizontally, for instance how Logic, Ableton, Fruity Loops and other DAW’s are, they are laid out vertically. Typical to trackers are the six following areas:

– Channels (tracks) (these run vertically down and from left to right)

– Notes

– Patterns

– Samples

– Effects

– Orders

There’s some great written and video tutorials online which go in-depth about using trackers so I won’t go into detail here. But essentially trackers work by ordering samples which have been pitched by note value into patterns and orders on the channels. Effects are then used to further enhance the programmed material. Effects in trackers however aren’t the usual reverb, delay, chorus, etc. that you may find in a DAW. But rather ways to add variation to the programmed notes in terms of pitch, stereo positioning and volume. Such effects include Arpeggios, Vibrato, Portamento, Tremolo and Panning.

As mentioned in the previous article there are a number of classic audio chips out there that were used in gaming systems. One chip that was specifically mentioned was the Yamaha YM2612 which was used notably in the Sega Genesis and Megadrive systems. This chip, along with others, have support from such trackers as DefleMask. Meaning you can program audio for specific chips using these trackers.

For further reading (and viewing) I have included some links below of both trackers and tutorials on using them.

Trackers:

http://woolyss.com/chipmusic-chiptrackers.php

http://www.delek.com.ar/deflemask

http://www.milkytracker.org/

Tracker Tutorials:

DefleMask Tutorial 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGCsrzaIFDE

Techniques Of Chipping: http://milkytracker.org/docs/Vhiiula-TechniquesOfChipping.txt

Making A Chiptune: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TYyDLElP4c

Throughout my years studying music composition and production I have learnt how to program synthesizers for certain projects. As part of this it was a wise idea to learn how to program FM synthesisers. FM synthesis isn’t as easy to get to grips with as subtractive synthesis but it does reap rewards once learned. So throughout future articles, I will discuss how to program FM synthesisers. In discussion will be programming various sounds and how to get the synths sounding retro. Part of this will be covering numerous techniques of how to achieve the retro sound by means of modern effects such as bitcrushing. But we will also look into what else can be done to give the synthesizers and audio the retro game sound.

Joe Gilliver – BA Hons (Ocular Audio)

Composer | Producer | Sound Designer

www.ocularaudio.com