hi

Heya

I agree- I wish Hitoshi Sakimoto made a lot more games, including RPGs using his Terpschorian sound driver.

Hitoshi Sakimoto is composer...Was he a programmer too?

That is a REALLY good sound drive.

Steamed Omens, a family recipe!

From what region?

@@NickRightAtYa of state Clock Tower!

a classic

Retro Soul I can say the same to Gaiares and Alien Soldier

+Retro Soul I see what you mean but there is nothing wrong with the Mega Drive having a more hardcore, edgier library! Some of the must play games on the system are the likes of Ecco, Phantasy Star, Alien Soldier, Herzog Zwei, Kid Chameleon, Dynamite Headdy or Ranger X but all these games are clearly not for everyone! And this, IMO, makes the Mega Drive all the more interesting :) btw Gauntlet is an awesome port and a cool game, especially in multiplayer.

Around more "peripheric" audience, we heard this. Lots of pirate copies and some of them never came to the gaming press at the time. Shit. I'm 39 yo and, while I think SNES has great OSTs (TMNT4, Axelay, Chrono Trigger, etc) I still prefer Mega Drive.

I'll add one to the list: Verytex. It has one of the best soundtracks in the Genesis library but is the most mediocre game I have ever played.

Totally agree

Absolutely. Sakamoto's Devilish soundtrack is a master class in chiptune composition.

Actually, no! It's just two FM channels with one of them being detuned by ten cents and delayed by a second, basically. This game's driver PCM capabilities aren't so good, so a choir sample would probably sound awful through the DAC channel.

FM can do choir sounds. There was a stunning one on the Yamaha Montage synth I had, obviously infinity more powerful FM in that than the Genesis.

+Hikaru Kitsune He's smart. When he runs out of FM channels to use for delaying effects, he uses the PSG instead. The Air Passage theme is an excellent example, as he actually uses an FM voice very similar to the square waves the PSG chip produces and _then_ uses the PSG to carry an echo for that patch. It's absolutely brilliant. And since there are still at least five other beefy FM patches being used for accompaniment, it sounds extra full.

+Hikaru Kitsune And In the Waterfalls level, I swear he used Arpeggios a la C64/European NES games on the PSG channels. could be wrong though, It's what I hear.

+Hikaru Kitsune And In the Waterfalls level, I swear he used Arpeggios a la C64/European NES games on the PSG channels. could be wrong though, It's what I hear.

+Dane Hansen WTF I run into you here too... Yes it's arps... pretty unusual for 16-bit game music as a whole if you ask me. This stuff was more common on the Amiga if we're talking about non-8-bit, non-consoles doing arpeggios.

+za909returns Interesting... hmm... well, hi ^^; Well, considering that the SEGA Megadrive has 9 sound channels and The Amiga only having 4, there is more of a reason for using Arps or Something I like to call "Auto chords" but either way, It's a really nice sound. Hitoshi Sakimoto is my favourite composer of the 16-bit console era.

Vysethedetermined2 Still one of the highlights of the entire Genesis/MD library of soundtracks. Absolutely phenomenal. Bravo.

+Vysethedetermined2 Technically, Devilish is up there for sure but is not alone, still among atmospheric music, Gauntlet IV or Master of Monsters are of the same level (both also by Sakimoto) and without solely sticking to atmospheric music, there are plenty of others Mega Drive soundtracks which are also up there such as Thunder Force IV, Batman & Robin, Castlevania Bloodlines, Vapor Trail, Elemental Master, Wiz 'n Liz or the unreleased Time Trax. And there are also all the unofficial works, just check out Savaged Regime or ChiptunedRaijin youtube channels to see what I mean. But music doesn't necessarily need to be crazy technical to be good, some of my favorite Mega Drive music are also the likes of Aero Blasters or Columns III which aren't especially technical but are still freaking sweet!

I'd put Verytex up on that list, too. Sakimoto used his own sound driver for the Gen/MD and was able to make it sound like the more fully-featured X68000 FM.

FM synthesis was difficult to understand. When mastered it can do a wide range of sounds well.

I can relate.

The soundtrack went waaay above and beyond the quality of the actual game. It doesn't really fit it... but damn, is it a beauty to hear. I'm glad this soundtrack exists regardless of what game it's from. But this is just my opinion. I'm sure someone out there must've liked the unusually quirky gameplay.

@@plok7533 The soundtrack is fantastic!

In an old school Castlevania game would be great.

Better yet, in a proper Altered Beast sequel.

Bloodlines had good music but nowhere this sound quality.

I agree Bloodlines would be awesome with this music!

Still with some angel beats to it

There is a woman working on a portable Genesis VGM player: MegaGRRL Maybe you'd be proud of her work too.

It can be abrasive or sweet sounding depending on the composer and/or the programmer experience with FM sound chips, and the guys behind the games you mentioned and this one are sure people who understand how to work with it, most of them worked on PCs or arcades with similar sound source. FM is so versatile and with almost infinitely posiblities with sounds. Can't say this sound like an Amiga game, but sure there are tones used here that can sound like they were sampled.

hi

Not at all, the Gen Yamaha 2612+PSG combo were always capable of such a clear, full sound, it's that American developers used an awful sound driver for the Genesis called "Gems", which made practically every game sound like thin cracks and farts, thus creating the terrible fallacy that the Genesis "has bad sound". But in capable hands as we see here and other places (mostly Japanese games), it's quite fantastic and holds up very, very well.

Exactly. This game system DESERVED to have the Japanese make games for it but did they? NO. Tom Kalinske knew the system was FAILING in Japan compared to Nintendo and the PC-Engine, so what did he do? Simple- Hire AMERICAN and EUROPEAN developers to make games for the system which was a bad idea.

Well, having more devs produce games for your console isn't really a bad idea, but designing a piece of shi* sound driver and distributing that driver to every American developer...yes, that, was indeed an awful idea. So was the 32X, and arbitrary making games more difficult for god knows what reason, and launching the Saturn early and...you get the idea. Sega was a tragic mess of poor choices and decision making.

@@jeremym9011 Not all western devs made bad music on the Genesis. Red Zone was done by European devs, and that game had excellent music. There's quite a few more to choose from as well.

Must be an sign of signs omens

Yeah, lots of SNES games sounded like it was recorded in a plastic box.

Plok's boss theme shows it can do Megadrive style music with the right composer behind it. But generally, the bar for escaping the usual limitations on either system was set too high for most contract developers to even attempt.

Also American Developer: Dune II and Comic Zone.

And a big fucking pain in the ass because of those jellies locking you in place over and over. Took me decades to get past it.

Dayum son

I wasn't even playing the game, but when I was watching a longplay,when it got there, and they kept hitting the Salvador Dali masterpieces, even I got irritated.

It's one of the best underwater tracks on the Genesis too. I'm not sure it could sound as good on the Super Nintendo...

My favorite. If there was a ten hours version I'd listen to it whithout even losing my focus.

The composer is Masahiko Ishida(石田雅彦) . He also composed "Image Fight".

Yeah ma brada a masterpiece

Yeah it's that kind of game but in Devilish you have to cross a level as fast as you can because of time limit. You control 2 bars and one of them can be used vertically.

Hitoshi Sakimoto. O mesmo cara que fez a trilha sonora de Final Fantasy Tactics de PS1 e Odin Sphere de PS2, dentre váááários outros jogos. O cara é bom!

Midnight resistence and Verytex

Musically speaking I could guess to agree also too

The chords ma brada

Yeah usually the music is like the pilot to get you to introduce yourself to at least the intro of the game

Hitoshi Sakamoto

devilish!

Werewolf was a lost weekend for me. Good graphics, music and overall but it was bad. Hold B, charge "hadouken" and thas it.s

Different composer.

It absolutely the fuck is NOT a bad game.