@@marcins6071 atari 8 bit computer lines did not have many great games. So to see atari games with good music it makes me a proud former atari 130xe owner. Moved on to own MSX2 YAMAHA computer.
There's something unique about Atari square waves and its subsequent distortions. There is a slight decay on the waveform which looks very cool and sounds very smooth, on oscilloscope and human ears, respectively. This is why I prefer simplistic waveforms on Atari than Commodore 64 complex wave generators.
Hi, I am trying to get my head around the different aesthetics of some of this game/8-bit music (I know that terminology in itself is fraught) you seem like you have a good understanding and knowledge. What other 'console genres' do you recommend listening to?
@@ahilito I recommend the gameboy. gameboy music are usually cool, some of them actually resembles modern EDM. most of gameboy music were made using lsdj, a simple modern free software that most of my buddies used to make bangers. I haven't made anything on the gameboy personally but you should probably try to listen to some to infu work. he's a good guy and has recently neatly documented about how to overclock LSDJ. I wish I could copy and paste his channel link here but youtube always delete URL, so just search 'infu gameboy music'
Same. Three decades later I accidentally stumbled upon the original song which "inspired" the IK music and it was wonderful. Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence by Ryuichi Sakamoto
Jet Set Willy! Such a beautiful melody! Extirpator is a hidden gem! (I know it's a Saxon remix from C64, in fact) And then Draconus, International Karate and Warhawk, obviously.
Ah Boulder Dash, Draconus, Feud, Karate Championship, Jet Set Willy, Panther, Ninja, , Loco - those games had trully amazing music tracks in them - they still inspire me decades later :) Or the music on some Polish games - like Hans Kloss , Neron, Misja (Mission) or Władcy Ciemności (Lord's of Darkness).
Nostalgic Overload by Ballblazer - Title, Boulder Dash, Giana Sisters Remix, The Tail Of Beta Lyrae, Whistlers Brothers. I didn't know Warhawk but ok, Rob Hubberard is superb quality as always. I was missing Necromancer. Thanks for compiling.
First game I ever loaded up on my 800xl was colony! Great tune, great game that sadly you could never finish due to a glitch/bug. Also a favourite was an abbuc tune or two not on this list,. Gnome demo, and 'in space' demo. Done on the black magic music composer I believe. Great quality upload. Thanks!
I really like the A8's sound chip. In a lot of ways it reminds me of the NES and Gameboy's sound. I never really cared for the SID chip the the C64, but then that could just be the way people were using it.
I am also not much in the C64 musics, too many are not melodic and lose theirself in the arbitrariness of some effects. But I have found some melodic ones in a style very fitting also for the Atari 800 and included them in two compilations of mine: Best of Atari 800 and C64 music #2 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-GxDVlhfZGdM.html and Best of Various computer music ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE--4kOVeM6exk.html
I think w e need to distinguish nostalgia tunes from "best Atari 800 music". Those tunes , no matter how dear to our hearts they are, didn't even scratch the surface of Pokey's capabilities. This is why many retro fans, even Atarians, still think Pokey may bettered SID when it came to SFX but it was inferior in music. ASMA is a project where a huge collection of Pokey tunes can be found especially from the golden era of the Atari 8bit in Europe and to this day.( a commercial/homebrew community that fed the current homebrew scene). Composers like BeWu, Wieczor, Marucha, VinsCool, Triace, X-Ray, SaxX, 505,Miker Chiummo,V0yager, XTD, PG,DJ V, Makary, Caruso,Gnome Design, AceMan, Zilq, Miker, Poison, Raster, JimpackKulor, Greg, Benjy, Sandor, Cedyn, Lorien, Ce-Pumpkin and so many more elevated Pokey tunes to an other level but most Atari fans tend to ignore! Here in Europe(especially the Eastern and South) , we were lucky enough to enjoy our Ataris 8bit through the 90's and early 00s(while falling behind the race of home system evolution), giving us the opportunity to experience the true power of this system. Checking the above composers in ASMA's search engine (and use a good pair of large speakers) will give you a good idea on what the Pokey chip was capable of.
if you play Hardwired demo (Amiga), and then music from Panther... Shame that Amiga guy didn't give any credit to original composer (both versions are monumental though).
Question re: Ballblazer on here... I didn't own this game. Did it have the same tune every time? Quite clearly someone wrote a randomised widdle algorithm that goes up and down the scales and just let the crazy go. It's not a tune, it's like those terrible AI auto-compositions you hear online. Using the same seed every play would result in the same widdle every play.... using a different seed would have had different results on each load of the play screen.
The Atari 8-bit has a hardware random register. The tune uses this register to play random sequences, thus every play sounds different, especially noticeable in the ongoing rhythm part. I dont know if the usual Atari sound players for PC init this register with a true random value.
Over all Atari was better than the C64, for a start the C64 was next to useless for programming while the Atari had a Berry good programming platform, I speak as a computer programmer myself. Secondly colour and music was far better on the Atari. The C64 was more popular as it was sold a lot more strongly, mainly to people who never programmed or gave up due to the poor programming support on it, as a result more games was produced for the C64 but these were generally of a lower standard than Atari games.
Wha??? Dude you are totally wrong on most of this. Atari 800xl, 400 and then 800 were my first computers, and currently I have a 65XE. I have also owned several C64's and have coded for all of them. I have no clue what you are talking about "C64...useless for programming.." and "...Atari...good programming platform..." I am assuming you aren't talking about Basic, since both were garbage - C64 no graphics or sound commands in Basic, while Atari had the slowest version of Basic of any machine even though its CPU was one of the fastest. If you are talking about Basic... then you are not a computer programmer. If you are talking about Assembly, which you should be, then they are almost identical as far as programming utilities. Both have some very good Assembler/monitor and other utilities. I started programming on the Atari, but when I got a C64 I was blown away on how much more powerful the VIC 2 chip was than GTIA/Antic, and how much more capable Sid was than Pokey for music. Pokey is great for percussion and Bass and SFX, but Sid was better for everything else. Vic2 - more and better text modes with hardware scrolling and better color capabilities. - more and better sprites Sid - multiple waveform types (yes, it is useful for a lot of stuff) - multiple filters - much more useful generally than distortion with polynomial counters - ring modulation - makes very useful metallic sounds. - much better frequency resolution. (pokey has 8bit note resolution only and sometimes channels interfere with each other and pull things out of tune) "Poor programming support" - I had all of the official Atari programming manuals, they were very good, but paled in comparison to the Commodore C64 Programmers Reference manual. And yes there were over 3 times as many C64 and compatibles sold than Atari 8bit machines. That means that a lot more people tried programming on the C64, that doesn't mean the C64 is worse because most weren't good coders. If you compare garbage on one to treasure on the other it makes no sense whichever direction you go. Compare actual well done ports on one system to the other, and be honest, you will find that both systems are very evenly matched because although the Atari has slightly less capable video and audio, its faster CPU allows it to generate many of the same effects. An example of that is sprite multiplexing - both systems can multiplex sprites to allow many more than the 4 hardware ones of the Atari, 8 of the C64, but that has to be done in software using the CPU and since the Atari has a faster CPU it can do that a bit better, while still keeping everything else going. HOWEVER that actually requires careful coding and hence a better coder. Say you have 2 entry level coders, on the Atari he can do 4 sprites with as much ease as a C64 coder can do 8. A higher level coder can easily have 64 going on both, an conceivably have an easier time on Atari, because he has more CPU cycles to spare. What this really comes down to is nostalgia and preference, very subjective things. I think objectively C64 has the better video and sound, but also objectively, Atari's faster CPU allow it to keep up. So the subjective "Pokey sounds so awesomely grungy" does stand, because Pokey is great, but is it actually objectively better, no, it is not.
As an computer programmer I have been programming on all platforms since the 80s and I am still doing so, I was referring to the poor implementation of basic was no use for people learning to program for the first time. I didn’t find the Atari if you knew what you was doing any slower than others computers at that time, while the C64 simply didn’t support its own features resulting in everything being peaks and pokes. Yes I did also program in machine code and I had several programs published.
@@bitset3741 Lets put some things straight for both sides. the C64 has superior programming, color and memory management plus during its commercial life it had a superior software library by all aspects. That said, the Atari 8bit had a far better architecture in terms of speed, 3d graphics, color palette and sound technology. SID was the BEST synth ever used on a home computer but it was just that, a synth chip which was a dead end for the industry. On the other hand Pokey chip was the first Hybrid PCM chip ever used on a home computer. Many of its features found in 2 of its channels can be also found in Paula's 4 channels (Jay Miner has elaborated on the evolution of his ideas on those two chips, available talks on youtube). ASMA project is a good way to get familiar with Pokey's amazing capabilities. Vic2 was a great graphic chip with amazing color capabilities in Hires modes but even if it was more modern it couldn't compete with ANTIC/GTIA 3d and pseudo 3d capabilities, not to mention their color palette. Most modern ports of great titles on the Atari(Stunt Car racer, Yoomp, Total eclipse, Pang, Bomb Jack, Prince of persia, Galaga Space harrier) are just superior in graphics, fps and superior or equally good in sound. I do think that new loading mediums can push machines above their limits (i.e. Sonic on C64) but we need to consider that the Atari system was designed during the 70s and gives a hell of a fight in all aspects with all more modern 8bit machines. The only major issue I see with the C64 is that its graphic and sound chip are really really good but monotonous. The majority of the games tend to have this dirty "grey/purple" look and most tunes have the aesthetic of "80s porn music". To be clear, it was great to have a cut down Roland synth chip as a sound generation in a home computer, but its amazing "out of the box" sound capabilities forced most composer to use them as they were resulting to similar results. Great bass and atmospheric effects the same recipe again and again. On the other corner of the ring, the large color palette and Pokey's diverse character still makes people to guess wrong on which system that is.
