"Aquarium" would definitely not feel out of place in a Castlevania game. Michiru Yamane was involved in this particular track, so everything makes sense.
"Memoire" sounds a lot like a Castlevania ending theme as well. I wonder if she was involved there too. There's no doubt that the brilliance of Konami's musical library comes from her, and from the other individual composers...
For me, the main difference between japanese composers and european composers (back in the day) is: european composers were people who loved games, work hard for them while in japan they were musicians who love music who were composing tracks for videogames.
Sadly so. I remember talking with a lot of japanes composers about their VG work, and they weren't too happy to talk about them - big names like Takayama Hirohiko, Iwata Masaharu, Masuno Hiroyuki. The only one who was very open about his work was Yoshida Kenji from Nichibutsu. He still does some arrangements on his classic Terra Cresta tracks.
I was surprised to find that Kenji Ito never played any of the SaGa games featuring his work, and in fact only plays sports games. I think this attitude is part of the reason for the overall quality of Japanese VGM though (at least from the glory days--they certainly aren't making tunes like this OST any more).
It depends too. I guess for many of them, their parents sent them to pretty prestigious music schools and were expecting them to pursue "bigger goals" for lack of a better term, and so video game compositions were kind of a stepping stone or way to make money while they pursued their main aim. But there are others who love their work on games, like Yoko Shimomura (herself an avid gamer since childhood).
alienspacebat Holy #@%$, you're absolutely right! You have just enrichened my experience, thank you so much! Also, I can even place the Star Wars music now I've heard this. You are awesome.
Mars was also covered by Tomita, whose album cover was "used as an inspiration" to Galaga's logo. Diamond Head also used that intro in their song "Am I Evil". This song was covered by Metallica and performed by the all Big Four at the end of the homonimous tour. Dangerous liasons!
The influence of classical music on early VGM reminds me of the classical covers guys were doing in the late 70s and early 80s with analog synthesizers--those albums like "Switched-On Bach," and etc. It also reminds me a lot of Yellow Magic Orchestra. There was definitely a love of elaborate composition and a kind of overall sophistication to game music that seems to be lost now. A lot of the supposedly "retro" chip music that you hear in throwback indie games these days seems grossly childlike in comparison to what the Konami sound team was doing here. Like, overly cute and simplistic rather than technically rich and complex. Maybe it's just a result of video gaming becoming too much of a mainstream hobby...
Konami SCC (which is basically a mini synthesizer) in tandem with the standard AY-3-8910 MSX PSG. The 'roaring' effect is done by changing waveforms on the fly as the tone is playing.
Quite possibly composed by Michiru Yamane, I'm sure she composed Aquarium too (that totaly sounds like it should be on a Castlecania Game). Specialy cuz she composed a counterpart for it on many castlevania games! It's called Aquarius.
I clearly remember the first time I saw this game, ~23 years ago. It was running on a friend´s MEGARAM without SCC, and I was puzzled by the weird-sounding drums-only soundtrack. About a decade ago I got my own SCC, and it *ROCKS*.
I own this soundtrack on original CD. Bought it new in London on a school trip. I also bought the metal gear 2 soundtrack that day. I still listen to them, glorious 😊
This soundtrack is mixed with 8 MSXs, each one pronouncing one note! This is the reason why the sound pressure is different from the original. (このサントラは8台のMSXを1台1音で発音させてミキシングしてあります 音圧がオリジナルと違うのはそのせいです。)
great composers from Konami. Tsuyoshi Sekito (I think he made music for Metal Gear 2 too), Michiru Yamane and Yuji Takenouchi they really knows how to tweak the SCC chip around :)
Wow this soundtrack existed BEFORE THE SUPER NINTENDO. I can't even believe my own ears while listening to this. No surprise one of the composers, Tsuyoshi Sekito, went on to make the incredible soundtrack for Brave Fencer Musashi too.
MSX was heavy supported by konami. This is one of the reason konami fans should find a MSX emulator and roms for it as you'll experience some great titles from the golden age with konami. MSX sound chip had some amazing sounding music but the scrolling was overly choppy,other than that I consider myself lucky to discover the greatness that is MSX. I
yes. the acting was great but I espionage very boring and the MGS series is no exception. Nothing wrong with it but isn't what I want in a konami title.
Gradius V was ok. I found it to be stupidly hard much like Ikaruga. I think if Konami made the game without treasure it could have been better and more balanced. So ONE game that was good in 2k5 but there isn't anything else. Lords of shadows wasn't a true Castlevania title IMO (got the pc version and was horribly disappointed how much got seperated from castlevania) in fact my circle calls the game "Devil God of Rygar" because it's a mix of those games in one. While I don't MIND that LoS borrows from those games but it just goes to show konami's laziness. Take a look at their track record as of late. Metal Gear and Castlevania. Long before that we had "Axelay,Goemon (Mystical Ninja), Rocket Night Adventuers (back when it had attitude and didn't look like garbage) and much more. I can see why gamer's find this acceptable. Nintendo,SNK,Capcom,Ubisoft,Activision all do the same thing by rehashing and releasing the same two franchises without trying new things or following up with forgotten games or franchises,which would benefit the gamers who grew up with this stuff and now losing interest because it's all about what makes money and most gamers are fucking shallow and don't care for anything creative thus these games sell because "Durr dey look gud wit HD GFX OMG L33T!". Why am I going on a tangent about this? I feel heartbroken that one of my favorite hobbies has gone to shit and it still pisses me off that a great name like konami has been tarnished for killing off some games that could have grown into something much more.
MSX has the best sound of all 8bit machines. SCC, FMPAC and MSX-AUDIO are amazing when joint with PSG... Moonsound is amazing too... MSX is the best 8bit machine ever
this game is actualy amazing especialy the last stage and the fact that its made for MSX which is supposed to be sucks at hori scrolling this game deffo deserve to be praised the music is amazing the graphics is really good and the scrolling is smooth for MSX 2 konami surely is the best video game company back then its sad that people only know the shitty things they done nowadays or MGS btw this game is like the prequel for xexex which made by konami too
They "misused" the VDP adjust registers to fake HW hori scrolling on the MSX 2. Run this game on a MSX2+ (which does support real hw hori scrolling) and the popping off and popping on the sides disappear.
Too bad this game does not feature hidden warp point, secret weapon upgrade and multiple endings. It would be even better if this game could have those great ideas from msx nemesis games.
Segaware The Doraemon Space Manbow 2 ? Only do i know "Manbow 2", and it is not official, and i would say its quality is pretty high as a fangame. What i was talking about was Space Manbow itself. The sprites are vivid and colorful, the animation and scrolling are smooth, but quite a few fun elements such as warp points, secret weapons didn't come along (instead we get to see some enemy and stage designs which is obviously "borrowed" from R-type), which is really a pity.
Yes. Even as a child I really missed the variety of weapons and upgrades found in the Nemesis (Gradius) / Salamander saga. Great game though. The smooth scroll was a truly advance for the era.
Oh I see, you're playing a disk version? In that case you need a separate SCC chip to get music. The game originally was on a ROM with that chip included, and I assumed you meant that you have the original. I think your solution for the preservation of floppies is fine, by the way.