They should realy making a new version for this game, but entire like the old version(in 2 D),only with new graphics,Capcom has made newer version for Bionic Commando (the Rearmed 1 and 2)in 2 D but with awesome graphics and gameplay.
I remember as a kid encountering this arcade game at the beach restaurant/bar in Italy where we used to always go in the summer. At the time it felt creepy, scary and insane. Only a handful of people could play it halfway well but I would either play or watch others pour 200 lira coins into the machine ("Quarters" of the era) with this otherworldly theme being the main attraction. Note by note, I have not forgotten it. Fast forward nearly 30 years and I use this song for the "battles" I have with my young children especially Nerf. The ups and downs of increasing and decreasing tension are terrifying and I often base my attacks on the cadence of the music. I have a friend who is a LEO (USCG) and another who had previous military service both of whom come over from time to time and we have Nerf wars with my sons. They tell me that with the lights low and with my kids presenting such small, fast, well trained targets that effectively shoot back it's one of their most adrenaline generating experiences they do even compared to the most challenging tactical situations they have run across in their work. This music really was a head and shoulders above most other video games; it's intense, electrifying and terrifying. It pumps you up and scares you, makes all your hair stand on end and want to kick some ass, even well past your childhood. Pleasure is pain, this is why people enjoy scary stories that frighten them around a campfire. Studies show that the brain waves of pleasure and fright are the same dopamine related surges, and this music brings it out in spades. CHAAAAARGE!!!!!!
I am 40 yrs old and listening to this still gives me the shivers. I recall how this heroic music would stir my imagination when I was a kid reading books like the Hobbit and then as a teenager and even now when I play LordOfTheRingsOnline I would/still play this while I wrote many a module as a Dungeon Master or played AD&D 2nd edition. Good Times!!
I remember my arcade days like it was yesterday. This was my favorite game. I always got goosebumps in the castle when 3:20 started playing and people around gathered to look over my shoulder at where this amazing music was coming from.
As an avid Tolkien reader in the mid 80s, my dad used to tell me that this game was LOTR based. I was only 8, so every coin I inserted in this fucking cabinet, I always believed that I was controlling Aragorn, hacking n' slashing the shit out the hordes of Sauron!!
+khyronbradford Your dad may actually have had good reason to say so. The background of Rastan's first stage is a partial copy of the painting The Pillars of the Kings by Greg and Tim Hildebrandt, which you can view here: a137.idata.over-blog.com/0/18/13/85/tableaux/argonath_hildebrandt.jpg Maybe your dad recognized it? When I first saw the painting in an art book my first thought was "That's Rastan!"
+BardicBroadcasts Holy fucking shit dude!! That image...the background on the first level were actually the Argonath!!!! My old man was right all the time. That makes Rastan the first action game based in LOTR. Many many thanks for the info, you just made the fucking day for me and my dad.
+khyronbradford awesome, for what its worth i think this game owes an awful lot of its imagery to the movie conan the barbarian as well. ive always considered this game an "unofficial" conan game
best game soundtrack of all time. played this game some 25+ years ago in college at the arcade. dropped quarters in daily until i mastered the game and could finish it competently. the bizzare yet wowsome music is what originally attracted me to play this game. strange dramatic music unlike anything i heard before. thanks uploader!
Some of the synth instruments in this song are completely unique and amazing. The composer really chose the best instruments. I’d like to do a remix/remaster of this song, but I fear some of the instruments are irreplaceable for this tune. Definitely one of the best arcade soundtracks ever created and the specific sounds fit like a glove.
I believe they were rightly trying to replicate instruments from the classical era such as the Lyre (plucked strings), the Cornu (horns) and the Aulos (reed flute, often played two at a time). If you check out some other videos of these instruments, the tones and textures are reminiscent. Although I've also heard of this soundtrack reminding people of the OST for the 1979 film Caligula-- it may have offered some inspiration for the Rastan music.😊
It always amazes me how the Japanese adapted American works and knew exactly how to do so in a way that respects and even enhances the original. This is exactly how an arcade adaptation of Conan should be made. They did many similarly excellent adaptations of Aliens, Blade Runner, and the Marvel superheroes.
Rastan = Conan...........musica epica buen representante del genero espadas y hechiceria............de niño como alucinaba ver jugar a ste juego y escuchar su musica en las salas arcades .....yo no podia ya q era super dificil jugarlo...........para mi es l conan de los videojuegos......buen juego para tal epoca q nostalgia sigue igual d dificil pero entretenido....grax👍
Goosebumps. Bloody goosebumps is what I get when I hear this soundtrack. Being that kid on the Rastan machine in the arcade (cool place with great games for you iGen's out there) when the music got loud meant everyone was watching you thinking "what the blazes is that game he's playing?" LOL
Crom, I have never prayed to you before. I have no tongue for it. No one, not even you, will remember if we were good men or bad. Why we fought, or why we died. All that matters is that two stood against many. That's what's important! Valor pleases you, Crom... so grant me one request. Grant me revenge! And if you do not listen, then to HELL with you!
OOOOH, now I gotta go watch the Real Conan movie again! Conan, what is best in life?...To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their women!"
Really weird music that enhances the atmosphere. That castle music is weird piece of art. Seems like bunch of strange noises at first, but put into unknown gloomy castle makes it... uh, too bad you can't have the same feeling like the first few times. And the ending music and scene, what will happen next, with hero, with castle, how big is the world anyway??? Makes you dive into imagination.
Exactly, when I first saw Rastan I have been literally blown away -- I was at the time living in the Conan world -- by reading Howard's books and Savage Sword of Conan comics. And of course I knew the excellent Conan the Barbarian movie.
It is Conan. Notice the Font of Rastan is the same as the one used for Conan. Taito was half way done with the game but couldn't get the rights. So they had to change the name from Conan to Rastan.
I can never get enough of these retro games. People are always saying "that games old, those graphics suck, blah blah fuking blah." It's a good game. Deal with it.
I only discovered this game again about a week ago. I am 50 now and remember this game and Double Dragon at HE college. I would happily spend 10p I think on this game. College, best time of my life and these 2 games.
Can't think of any other music that sounds close to this, either in the arcade or otherwise. Such an inspired composition with odd, but appropriate instrumentation.
Role playing to video game music? Hell, I thought I had made that discovery up. 35 years old & I adore the music of games for the purpose of writing, role playing, & when I am rendering illustrations! Great to be among friends here!
I can't tell you how many times I died on this game to never get past the first stage lol. The song still gets a visceral response from me all these years later because I remember being so pissed as a kid everytime I lost. I was trying to find the name of this game forever.
Eventually got to the point I could beat the game on one quarter but that took some doing. 40 years later I've never forgotten the epic music this game has. Some of the games of this era had good tunes too, I also am a fan of Black Tiger's (Black Dragon in Japan), music as well as others.
My all time favourite childhood game ever! 10p and i would clock the game in 45 mins, grab a hubba bubba & a can of quottro on way home. Great 80"s :-)
always liked this game because it was a regular kick and punch game so you didn't have to learn much, but it was also really colorful and freaky. the song was a plus too
Such fun playing this game just embarrassing because the arcade was extremely loud and it’s could be heard across 2/3 of Peter Pipper Pizza on a Friday night. 😂 I think it had 6x9 speakers overhead
2:58 If I could play well enough to get to this part of the soundtrack @10 years old I would get the same sense of gratification as when I beat any game. The music is so phenomenal with the fire everywhere. Unbelievable.
Blast from the past. Great memories pumping all of my hard earned bday money into this machine. I sucked at the game mainly because I was so blown away by the epic music and at the time, awesome graphics.
This music goes so much harder than the Rastan on the screen did. The onscreen Rastan was constantly in Bat Country and swung a sword at the speed of a cruiseship turning. The Rastan pictured by this composure could not have been reproduced on arcade screens at the time because of all the swooning that would happen and that artists could not fathom that many muscles on a human body.
As crazy as it may sound, this was the one Sega have where I actually preferred the SMS version over the Arcade/Genesis version (I know there was no Genesis version for this game).
I remember playing this when I was maybe 12 and trying to memorize the first song because I liked it so much. I was so happy when the internet became popular and I could listen to the Shadow Of The Beast 3 (Amiga) soundtrack after maybe 10 years.
Video Games Live had this in their classic games opening medley and their version definitely did this game justice, but sadly last time I went the medley didn't have this.
Awesome Music and Graphics, especially the second part of the first level where you go through the castle. The best I could ever do was beat the first boss.
thank you for uploading this masterpiece. how did you rip the music without the in-game sound effects? i'd like to do the same thing with other games using mame, is it possible?
00:31 always give me the creeps. When I was 10 I first played this and couldn't sleep cause of that. I'm 33 now, and the music from cadash in the first level gives me the creeps.
muito loko meu,u dj aí junto todas na sequencia certinha kara,detonô:essas musiqinhas do rastan mi levam ao passado ;eu xego até viajar nas musiquinha ...parece qi eu to naquela época
@OcielGarciaBustos Amen to that, friend. :) At least there's one silver lining to being around 20 years after Rastan was in the arcades: With today's MP3 players, laptops and audio-ripping software, ripping copies of Rastan's music (as well as the tunes from every other great, bygone arcade game out there) and playing them during D&D games is easier than ever. I tried to do that with cassettes, a clunky tape recorder and a Black Tiger game back in the 80's. Cassettes suck.
Those damned bats in the dungeons sucked! could never get away from them. But yeah, this has to be in the top 10 80's video game music. simply amazing music!
I remember playing this game when I was only chin high to the joysticks, I think this and Sinistar where the first games Iever played... ahh to have ben a kid in the 80's
