Soundchip Tribute

[Kamahl]

Changed the first post:
- New structure
- Systems which had the chip are now mentioned
- A big number of songs were changed
- Game and Song title in the description
- Basic chip capabilities described
- Added the Wonderswan and Lynx

[sheath]

Carried over by invitation from the SMSvNES thread.

I honestly cannot think of anything on the Master System that sounds better than Golvellius, for folks who think bass and echo is what the PSG lacks I really don't get it being overlooked.

Set to 480p!


That Master of Darkness Thames River song just doesn't sound anywhere near this good to me. It is way too repetitive too.

[tisurame]

About the SN76489 sound chip, the GG Shinobi OST is wonderful. It's really hard for me to find something I like using this sound chip, but since we are talking about Yuzo Koshiro music, everything is possible...







I also like this Ninja Gaiden tune...

[Kamahl]

Replaced Ristar with Golvellius on the first post (Golvellius is a lot better).

[tisurame]

Replaced Ristar with Golvellius on the first post (Golvellius is a lot better).

Golvellius is really good. I'm still trying to decide if the FM version is better or not.

[Kamahl]

Well, looking at it from a technical standpoint the PSG is better by far.
Golvellius has really good PSG but pretty average FM.

For an example of how good the master system should sound with FM, see the number one song for the YM2413 (Mark III / MSX) on the first page.

[Alianger]

Some western composers did a pretty good job with the SMS chip, getting some decent bass and drums out of it:

Alien 3 (Furniss)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dS9gD38HnJA

Road Rash (Furniss)
http://www.youtube.com/user/Adam0607...91/huPCXZOMEVc

Sega Chess (Furniss)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyvfZQ-Uk84

Trivial Pursuit (Furniss)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TR9wDxaYCfo

The Flash (Jeroen Tel)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6qyl7dwXtw

Global Gladiators (Tallarico)
http://www.youtube.com/user/Adam0607...71/P9J9u8N1rIs

Battlemaniacs (?)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjjeUgm8whk

Arena: Maze of Death (?)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEjgNvJH8ic

There's also TinTin in Tibet, Ottifants and Smurfs which sadly I don't have any good examples on.

[kool kitty89]

I was just thinking of how much better used the YM2413 was on the MSX and SMS than the full OPL2 counterpart was on PCs . . . but actually, it seems like the few examples of Japanese arcade games using the OPL2 also fall short of many YM2413 tracks (albeit still much better than the average Ablib track in PC games) . . . though given how few OPL2 arcade games are out there, I guess that's not a great comparison either.



Edit: checked out the new front-page selections.

Nice additions (including Wacky Wheels ), though I'm not sure Blazing Star is a good example for the Neo Geo since that uses "lazy" streaming ADPCM tracks rather than synth music. (like quite a few late-gen games did on that platform)


Edit2:

Are you sure the lynx uses samples (a la PC Engine, N106, etc) . . . I asked Tomaitheous about this before and got the impression that the Lynx has a more conventional PSG (somewhat like POKEY actually).

However, it does feature linear 8-bit per-channel volume control, allowing each channel to be written to as a direct DAC via volume modulation. (again, similar to POKEY, but 8-bit rather than 4-bit)

[Kamahl]

Are you sure the lynx uses samples (a la PC Engine, N106, etc) . . . I asked Tomaitheous about this before and got the impression that the Lynx has a more conventional PSG (somewhat like POKEY actually).
However, it does feature linear 8-bit per-channel volume control, allowing each channel to be written to as a direct DAC via volume modulation. (again, similar to POKEY, but 8-bit rather than 4-bit)

"8-bit DAC for each channel (4 channels × 8-bits/channel = 32 bits commonly quoted)"
It also has normal PSG stuff, but I can't find any details on it.

Nice additions (including Wacky Wheels ), though I'm not sure Blazing Star is a good example for the Neo Geo since that uses "lazy" streaming ADPCM tracks rather than synth music. (like quite a few late-gen games did on that platform)

I need to find a substitute for it. Have any ideas for OPL2? Or should I just post the entire wacky wheels soundtrack there like I did for the ricoh chip with sonic cd ? (I could use a replacement for those too)

[kool kitty89]

"8-bit DAC for each channel (4 channels × 8-bits/channel = 32 bits commonly quoted)"
It also has normal PSG stuff, but I can't find any details on it.

I'm pretty sure that's "DAC" in the same sence as the YM2612 in the MD.

[Kamahl]

I'm pretty sure that's "DAC" in the same sence as the YM2612 in the MD.

It is.

EDIT: Updated the Neo Geo section, it's finished now, and no streaming ADPCM

[kool kitty89]

Magician Lord and Alpha Mission 2 seem like the most FM+SSG heavy Neo Geo games . . . or at least the best sounding examples of the FM+SSG-heavy ones.
Kind of like what a normal home console might have sounded like with the YM2610 (ie without crazy amounts of ROM to work with -and thus only modest use of samples).

Also, both have kick-ass fist stage music
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mphggLdXGuY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuVa8pWY5Ks

Oh, and I'll thrown in the playlists again for the hell of it:
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_lis...E368DB0755CCD7
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_lis...AE467C9BFDF664

And why not a link for Wacky Wheels too:
http://www.youtube.com/user/Teppica#...C4FC2F42B84DD6
(why the hell couldn't more DOS games have sounded like that??? . . . or like that with PCM added too )

I first thought it was using the OPL3, but it seems to be all OPL2. (nice use of that 2-op FM, and something that actually sounds better than the better sounding YM2413 tracks . . . and even pretty good nexed to some of the better MD tracks)

[Kamahl]

Update: Changed some songs, genesis section is still not fully to my liking, but has more impressive tunes now (How did I forget Devilish?!?! HOW?!?!?!).

[saturndual32]

I love this thread. But its missing the Atari Jaguar. I know that its supposed to have a very powerful (for the time) and flexible sound system, but in my opinion, Jag games usually had weak music, kinda like weak examples of AMIGA type music. And from what i could hear, they didnt even go beyond the AMIGA 4 channels. And if the MOD type stuff was usually weak due to memory constrains, maybe someone should have come up with an FM engine, i wonder how good it could have been at it.
Also we are missing the 3DO sound chip, that one i know even less about, i remember reading on an interview with one of its creators, saying that the 3DO (or Opera as he called it), had better sound than Playstation. Maybe he only meant the output quality or something like that.
There is also the Virtual Boy, Neo Geo Pocket, the mighty Tiger Pocket.com.
I wish i had the knowledge and media to add to this thread, but i dont, so hopefully someone will post some info about these consoles sound system.

[Kamahl]

As you might have noticed I didn't add any 5th gen system or up . The chips are a bit too powerful (and no good examples of that power).
I'd like to add Virtual Boy and the Neo Geo Pocket, but finding good music examples for them is tough.