The usual arrangement for a NES soundtrack was to use the two pulse channels for melody, the triangle channel for the bass and the noise channel for percussion/drums. The DPCM channel wasn't used. Then came SunSoft and turned this entire convention on its head. They delegated the bass to the DPCM channel, the two pulse channels for the melody (either two voices at a time, or using one track as the echo of the other one), and the noise + triangle channels were used together for the drums: the attack portion was done with the noise channel and the decay with the triangle channel, with a downwards pitch bend usually. That's why the kick drum, snare drum and the toms are so realistic (at least in the scope of NES music) By the way, the Simmons SDS-V drums (you know, with the hexagonal pads), used a very similar approach to synthesize their sound. (they had an analog sine wave generator instead of a 4 bit triangle, though)
Even Sunsoft used the DPCM channel for percussions in some games before using it for the bass line. And yes, they were one of the few japanese developers that used the triangle+noise channels for percussions, europeans used that quite a lot in their games tho.
"the attack portion was done with the noise channel and the decay with the triangle channel" in essence this makes it similar to the MT-32 and others, which use a sample for the attack portion and a subtractive synth for the rest. Obviously its a lot simpler and there's no samples but you have to think, that's crazy.
"The DPCM channel wasn't used." I don't even have much of a sense of what that means exactly but it hurts me to read it. A whole channel, capable of playing a decent-sounding tune, just ignored! Oh well, it's not like these people didn't normally crank out loads of awesome music no matter what unnecessary limitations some of them may have accepted.
Then the game starts and it gets even harder because even more kick ass music starts to play unfortunately you have to be really good to hear rest of the awesome music
This was written by Naoki Kodaka, the same composer as the Batman (NES/Genesis) soundtrack. Such incredible talent. Batman is one of my favorite NES soundtracks - up there with Bucky O'Hare, Megaman, etc.
Dude, I can't stand super hero stuff, but those 2 Batman games for NES by these guys are just stunning. Return of Joker on Genesis doesn't even look or sound HALF as good as the Nintendo version. I don't get it.
That man is Hara Nobuyuki, though he was more of a composer as far as I know. Here is the interview where it was mentioned: shmuplations.com/sunsoftmusic/
@@ZatohRondohoon3227 yeah. :( i sooooo know that magic feeling he's describing, when you're chasing the vision over the curve of the horizon with a friend or colleague. that feeling has been so special to me, the camaraderie of shooting for the stars, the f*cking crazy thrill of making the tiniest bit of progress!!! a man after my own heart
The best IMHO. I can't think of another game I regularly played (and enjoyed) mostly because of the music. It was a great game, but the music made it soooooooo much better.
I’ve been coming back to this soundtrack ever since I played this back in the day and it still absolutely SLAPS. Stage 2 is, hands down, one of the best all-time NES songs out there.
I've heard many NES soundtracks, and to me, nothing touches this one. I started this in my emulator, and was shocked by the depth this music has. Heck, even other NES legends don't have this kind of depth. I'll definitely need to pick up a real copy if I ever come across it for a decent price. Sunsoft was legendary with the NES soundchip, so I guess I shouldn't be all that surprised.
TheFredster32 Did I forget to mention that? I thought this used some kind of expansion chip at first, that's why I was blown away when I found out it didn't. Only thing close was Akumajou Densetsu, which used the VRC6 chip. The FDS didn't sound all that great in my opinion. Switch Leave it to Sunsoft.
+Gender Neutral Chibi Thing YH, THIS IS AMAZING, ONE OF MY BEST, HAV U CHECKED OUT THE SILVER SURFER NES SOUNDTRACK, THE GAME IS LAME, BUT THE SOUNDTRACK IS BEYOND EPIC! DEFINATELY A CONTENTER FOR TOP SPOT ^__^ =)
fuckin 12 thread CPu, 1080Ti, 7.1 audio with external HiFi amplifier, 55'' HDR 4K display, gigabytes of ram, terabytes of storage and what? Noting to beat this childhood experience. Those guys back then were artists, they had imagination, ideas and medium that was unable to put those into reality. They made the extra mile in every aspect to be the best. This resulted in work of arts, stunning achievements in many ways. This one is pure art in music. It's like playing an opera on frying pan, 2 jars with water and some lids in the kitchen. And this guy still played goddamn Mozart.
It is a fucking masterpiece. I played this game in '94 ish and it stuck with me. I had the whole soundtrack recorded on MC casette. It is overtime, ultimate example that we are capable of doing great thing out of nothing. How many of the current soundtrack do you expect to remember in 20 years? yup.
@@JayByrd83 yeah but they werent very technically impressive. they were very simple (yet still very good). the closest thing they had to the others was the fact they used triangle percussion quite a lot. i agree that they are one of the bests, but far from #1 imo
Это как бы должна быть игра про Терминатора. Ток лишилась лицензии. И очень жаль. Другая контора которая выпустила Терминатора, лучше бы самоликвидировалась
Я в начале 90-х занимался ремонтом в том числе и NES - подобных приставок, китайцы их наплодили всяких немеряно тогда. У нас ещё была одновременно с этим студия кабельного ТВ. Принесли как-то приставку в ремонт вместе с картриджем с этой игрой, на нём были ещё какие-то, но малое количество и довольно технически навороченные (не из серии 999999 в 1), картридж полноразмерный и тяжёлый, я его ради интереса открыл, обнаружил кучу микросхем, из них пару аж в DIP40 корпусе. Приставку естественно починили, отдали владельцу. Игра эта впечатлила по качеству музыки настолько, что подключил магнитофон и записал саундтрек, заодно её прошёл =)
STAGE 2 THEME .... goddamn .... first verse wow , then a second verse ( are we sure we're still on nes) then the THIRD VERSE ( how is that even possible on nes ). today games sure lack this kinda theme!
Thirty years I’ve waited to simply play this and listen to it when I wanted without battling through one of the most difficult games of my past. Goddam thank you!
Может это и объясняется ностальгией, но мне такой звук нравится больше чем любая современная музыка. Не маловажную роль и сама мелодичность играет, тогда реально могли в мелодию.
The composer of this album is Naoki Kodaka (小高直樹). Now a professor at Daido University, a private university in Japan, he teaches music theory and computer-based music
We picked up this game at a local flea market in '93 or '94 (it was before I had a super) for probably $5 or less. It's a definite classic and one of the few games I'm going to hold onto, even though my NES has been safely shelved for eternity. NES emulation is just too accessible to worry about cartridges at this point. I'm so glad my parents bought old niche games though. So many unsung classics I got to play back then.
When I found dirty cartridge containing this game with broken case in my friend's house in 1997 and plugged it in into my pirate Dendy console for the first time... When I heard THIS I was literally SHITING BRICKS.
0:55 I bet this bootleg Terminator tune was there even before they lost the license. Because to my knowledge, Sunsoft never used actual movie themes in any of their licensed games. They always compose original music that sound similar at best.
This is true, and intriguing! I guess in other games like Batman or Gremlins 2 they only had the rights to use the characters and names, it's not uncommon for the soundtrack of a movie to have its own rights, independently from the movie. Maybe this time they were allowed to play with the Terminator theme...
i remember this game n playing it as a kid amazing story thats as good as the game play thats as good as the music thats as good as the anything about it might just need to make a poster about this game just so anyone who asks will have to play thru it just to understand thanks for posting!!
This game may have had one of the longest main menu themes in a pure action game predating the first Touhou games, and in a time and on a system where pure action games were lucky to have looping main menu themes at all!
Okay, I have to admit it, they should have composed something different for "Title" but read all of this before you rage at me. They have "Stage 1 & 5," "Stage 2," "Stage 3," and "Stage 4" but "Title" sounds way more like "Stage 5" to me. It's a full song and it feels just right for the final level of a video game. Has a great buildup and gets you all excited to punish the villain. It is wasted on the title screen of this video game. I want a ROM hack that puts it on Stage 5 and either make an original arrangement for the title screen or mute it.
Why not have it as both? That way, stage 5 is still a reprise. I don't think it's wasted as a title theme, though. The title screen song is often thought of as the main theme, and it's not uncommon to have it as one of the best tracks in the game.
@@bfish89ryuhayabusa I suppose. Either way, it should've been the theme for the fifth stage, even knowing the first stage theme is my favorite, I feel like it was a waste for the fifth stage to not use the title screen.
@@Medachod I think it was planned to be a stage theme, it really sounds like a stage theme. Maybe the game was supposed to be longer, back when it was still a Terminator game in development. I feel like the title screen music was supposed to be the final stage theme and the intro music would have been the title screen BGM. When they lost the Terminator licence they rushed the game not to loose to much money on it and they made poor choices with the level design of the two last levels imo, and I think they needed a title screen music that wouldn't be used in the stages, so they choose the music intended for a scrapped stage.... Maybe I am totally wrong, this is pure speculation. I think it would have been nice to keep the title music as it is but also use it for the final stage, it d make it a true Journey to Silius theme song.
А чё? Новых комментов нет? Так я подтверждаю! Божественно! Ничего прекраснее в жизни не слышал. Ну может за исключением Ninja Gaiden 4-2 и Kage ending! А! Конечно Batman от Сансофт!
Considering the quality of the 1980s Japanese pop music found on RU-vid it's not a surprise their compositions were often superior to what you can find in European or American video games.
When people approach western music from an outsiders perspective, they are more free innovate on those genres by adding their own, outside of the echo chamber.
Ironic that this game came out in 1992 and I didn't even learn of it until 2016. A great deal of the music here wouldn't be out of place in a mega man game (though it's actually better than most of the mega man music anyway).
HA, I know right? Capcom and Konami had amazing sounding 'instruments' for their games, while the only unique thing Nintendo did was add a sampled drum to SMB3. Even today, Nintendo's in-house games have horrible quality music. It sounds like Nintendo bought a cheap-ass orchestral sample pack in the N64 days and haven't updated it since.
This extends to the SNES as well, Koji Kondo generally took a basic approach to composition even if he had a great sound chip at his disposal, with much less layering and texture as well.
@@excrono yeah I guess they did not push the metal to the limit like people did with C64 and later Amiga / DOS games... just listen to some tracker music it blows your mind
