July 1st, 2008 niki
So I could get my hands on this hard to find 1993 CD-ROM version. I was pleasantly surprised to notice it indeed had redbood (CDDA) tracks, and here they are.
They were arranged from Charles Deenen’s compositions by Eric Heberling. The main theme sounds more like the early PC version while the shire theme surprisingly sounds exactly like the SNES version. I’m sad the arrangements aren’t that great too, as they lose much of the atmosphere of the originals by using an almost constant “blaring trumpet” synth style. Well, it’s still pretty cool to have new versions. :3
Most ingame tracks are very long and loop a bunch of times. Track 5 sadly skips a lot, which I’ll try to fix if I can find another ISO. Tracks 6 to 16 contain dialogues.
Enjoy ~
>> Download <<
!!! 31-08-2008 edit: Track 5 updated with a repaired copy provided by Sagi ~
Posted in Interplay LotR, Medieval-ish, Video Game Music | 3 Comments »
June 6th, 2008 niki
Listening again to Stronghold music made me rip that one. Quite similar to the Stronghold rip, except longer and contains actual medieval/renaissance compositions as well as some more synthy stuff.
Special tracks and medleys anciently accessible online on the game’s official site were added to the tracklist.
Expect something different next time, and enjoy ~
>> Download <<
Posted in Medieval-ish, Video Game Music | No Comments »
June 6th, 2008 niki
Excellent music to an excellent game. Stronghold is a medieval castle battle simulation, and it looks as gorgeous as it sounds. Very medieval sounds here too.
What’s in this archive are 22khz ogg files converted from the game’s weird raw format. You can also find mp3s of a slightly enhanced version that was edited by Robert Euvino himself at Stronghold Heaven.
Enjoy ~
>> Download <<
Posted in Medieval-ish, Video Game Music | No Comments »
June 3rd, 2008 niki
As avid fans of the book, me and my brother bought the SNES version of this in the early 90ies. Offended by both the image it gave of Tolkien’s work and the horrible gameplay, it was one of the few games we actually resold. If one positive thing we remembered though, it was the music …
Years later, internet is here and I’m in my early web scouring moments. I discover the wonderful SPC format, and naturally searches, among tons of others, for Interplay’s Lord of the Rings music. In vain, since it turns out some weird drivers make the game music undumpable.
After a while, armed with a SNES emulator, action replay codes and a wave recorder, I decide to record the game music myself. I’ll go through the game in a couple hours to discover it contains a grand total of 4 tunes, all of which accessible in the first 20 minutes of the game … unless of course the last Moria level featured something new or the game actually had an ending theme, which I doubt. I’ll probably never know since the game froze while entering the Moria. A common bug happening even on true SNES hardware, I read … ~_~
Anyway, the music, while short, is still great especially the main theme. It was composed by good old Charles Deenen, whom I actually discovered at that time by the way.
Searching around, I noticed other versions of the game existed, and recorded the C64 and Amiga versions as well. They sound very much alike without being completely similar. They’re also completely ripped off Basil Poledouris’s Flesh + Blood score, unless it’s actually a traditional medieval composition, which I also doubt. Nonetheless pretty awesome too, and included in this archive.
What’s now missing is the PC DOS recording, which could be full of Adlib greatness. And of course the one and only sequel of that intended trilogy: the Volume 2 also on PC DOS.
In the meantime, enjoy ~
>> Download <<
Posted in Interplay LotR, Medieval-ish, Video Game Music | 2 Comments »
May 29th, 2008 niki
Those are recordings of the DOS versions of Might & Magic 3, 4 & 5. Very atmospheric, melodic, medievalish chiptunes which are perfect to listen to late at night. Personally spent countless hours doing so, at least. 4 and 5 are specially remarkable, and were both composed by Tim Tully.
Those recordings were done by Lord Skylark. Many thanks to him ~
>> Download <<
Posted in Medieval-ish, Video Game Music | No Comments »
May 20th, 2008 niki
Here’s a short recording of the music from Castles II on the Amiga. It was composed by Charles Deenen, a western video game music composer favorite of mine. Not That I like everything by him, but his most medieval sounding works are truly delightful to my little ears. So yeah, another medieval-ish chiptune release, there.
Enjoy ~
>> Download <<
Posted in Medieval-ish, Video Game Music | No Comments »
May 16th, 2008 niki
I am a big listener of Medieval music in general and, as I said already, like medievalish chiptunes a lot. I think simple chiptunes with their clear separated sounds are very appropriate to render medieval music constructions, like it’s also the case with Baroque harpsichord or organ melodies.
Anyway, here are recordings of the music from the PC88/98 versions of Ultima 3, 4 5 and 6. As a medieval and video game music listener, I couldnt not love music from the Ultima games, and the Japanese retro PCs versions stand among my favorites. Those were ripped from Rophon’s S98 game logs.
Enjoy ~
>> Download <<
Posted in Medieval-ish, Video Game Music | No Comments »
May 12th, 2008 niki
Here’s a short Amiga game recording. I love medievalish chiptunes, as you’ll probably notice …
>>Download<<
Posted in Medieval-ish, Video Game Music | No Comments »
So I could get my hands on this hard to find 1993 CD-ROM version. I was pleasantly surprised to notice it indeed had redbood (CDDA) tracks, and here they are.
