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NEC PC-Engine/SuperGrafx => PC Engine/SuperGrafx Discussion => Topic started by: spenoza on September 05, 2010, 03:44:45 PM
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OK all, I've decided to make a top 10 (and maybe an 11 - 20) of the "best" TG/PCE HuCard chiptunes. 10 minute video, 1 minute for each track I select, and some info on the game, stills, and some in-game footage for each game.
What are your favorite chiptunes and why? Is it because it's complex or technically impressive, because it uses great samples and instruments, or simply because it's a great tune/composition?
I may need help getting some interesting gameplay footage to accompany the tracks.
I only have a few games for my core, so I'm going to be relying on HES files for the audio. NEZplug+ via WinAMP sounds great and makes it REALLY easy to get this stuff to WAV format, except that the noise channel seems a little exaggerated. Is there a better HES player I could use or some way to "fix" the louder/more obvious noise channel issue in NEXplug+?
Some of my contenders so far (just listing games since it's hard to identify tracks by title or anything):
Parasol Stars - a couple excellent, upbeat compositions.
Dungeon Explorer - a couple nice compositions with some spooky/atmospheric instrumentation
Batman - good sampling with the music
Parodius Da - good use of PSG instrumentation
PC Denjin - good sampling and instrumentation
Magical Chase - last level track is FANTASTIC, one of my faves of all time, both for composition and instrumentation
Devil's Crush - composition
Coryoon - sampling and instrumentation
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I can't help with the tech stuff, but here's some greats off the top of my head:
Alien/Devil's Crush
Air Zonk
GunHead
I will edit more in later.
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Shockman/Shubibinman 2 is probably my favorite, it's very well done. I also love most of Impossamole soundtrack, though not all agree on that one. Legendary Axe 2 has some great epic sounding music, same music engine that was used for Dungeon Explorer, Bonk 1 & 2, Twin Cobra, & a couple others I believe.
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Some of my favs:
Tatsujin
Kyukyoku Tiger
PC Denjin
Magical Chase
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I'll (re)post my favourite Chiptunes:
Aldynes (a few of the songs)
Ankoku Densetsu / Legendary Axe II <-- in fact the best HuCard soundtrack of all.
Aoi Blink
Batman
Devil Crash/Crush
Dungeon Explorer
Maniac Pro Wrestling
Mesopotamia / Somer Assault
Neutopia I & II
PC Genjin / Bonk series (several good songs)
Soldier Blade
Super Star Soldier
Tatsujin
The Kung-Fu / Chinawarrior
Legend of Xanadu II
Puyo Puyo CD
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jackie chan & final soldier :)
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I've used a few of my favourites in my Game Blast video, if you want to know what any of them are, just ask. http://www.pcengine.co.uk/gameblast.htm
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Bonk 3 HuCard - Level 6-3 track
Air Zonk - Title screen track
Dungeon Explorer - Level 11 track
Batman - That, uh, one track
You WILL include all these tracks or I will boycott your video. There is simply no contest for these when it comes to HuCard soundtracks.
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Override
Batman
Son Son II
Metal Stoker
Time Cruise/Time Cruise II
1943 Kai
Dead Moon
Gradius
Salamander
Detana! Twinbee
Soldier Blade
City Hunter
Ninja spirit
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So, no advice on the best way to play the HES files, eh? I know Ootake will play them, but that makes it harder to catch the audio in a WAV file. They do sound different than when played with NEZplug via WinAMP, a little more subdued. I think it does some filtering though. Seriously though, all NEZplug needs is the noise channel ratcheted down in volume a little. Mednafen plays HES files, right?
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Winamp: Options->Preferences->Output->Disk Writer. Whatever would normally come out of the speakers goes to disk....
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My favorites so far:
Image Fight - Stage 3: A high-energy tune from a great game.
Super Star Soldier - Stage 8 and Final boss: The final stage track is a fantastic payoff... all the trouble of getting through the game earns you a final stage with awesome music. The final boss has awesome music as well!
R-type - Stage 1, Stage 2: Stage 2 is my favorite of the two, but the first track is cool as well. Stage 2's theme fits the stage perfectly and sounds phenomenal.
Keith Courage - Overworld: The overworld theme has a richness to it that can't be duplicated on the NES.
Blazing Lazers - Stage 5 (desert), Stage 8 (bubbles): Both of these tunes feature very cool bass beats.
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Level 1 of Aldynes
Parasol Stars level music
Stage 4 of Super Star Soldier
The town music in Fray CD
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In regards to nezplug, there is an "unofficial" version that is still updated by another person that goes by the name nezplug++.
http://offgao.no-ip.org/program/nezplug++.html
The thing about nezplug++ is that with every update, it seems to improve one systems emulation and screw up anothers. Overall though it's definately making the most progress for several of the chiptunes it plays. Check out various old versions, most updates are spot on for ~90% of the hes files I'd say.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but .hes files work just fine in any pce emu that flat out didn't suck, ie any that could load at least one commercial game. Button I and II would change "tracks" by jumping to addresses in the rom. I haven't gone that route often, but just renaming the extension from .hes to .pce was usually enough to get them working.
If you are going the emulator route, it's only worth it for the few hes files that are broken in all the .hes music players, otherwise setting up some hardware to capture the audio straight from the hardware is about the same amount of hassle.
I only went this route for games that use ADPCM, and the few that just plain didn't work for the longest in any plugin based player, or if they did, they were constantly being broken after a short update of being fixed. Final Lap Twin is one that comes to mind. After nezplug++ implemented ADPCM I have never messed with emulators to play .hes files since.
Speaking of Final Lap Twin, I still hum the one tune that plays during the practice tracks (iirc) in the rpg mode sometimes when I am driving. :oops:
Xanadu I and II have some of the best tracks period, and so many overall. Granted they don't represent some of the other feels and styles of many other excellent games' tracks, but Xanadu I had maybe 2 total redbook audio tracks and something like 60 EXCELLENT all around psg tracks. Xanadu II had less psg tracks, but still same top notch quality that falcom is known for.
I also recommend Bloody wolf, if it hasn't already been mentioned, it has some great action packed music fitting to the game overall. It also has a bit of variety in the music, and while I don't like some of the tracks as well, I think they fit their respective stages overall. The jungle stage's music is one that comes to mind. They also made good use of stereo, but only on the title screen. Blew me away as a kid, that and the game plays the sound something like 80% louder than any other I can remember.
The one dungeon explorer and a lot of others used sound very similar, you could even take the music from a lot and shuffle them around and no one would notice. Also Neutopia I and II and a ton of others (majority of hucards period) seem to be using the standard dev kit engine for sound, not that a lot didn't sound great. Definately a top 10 will be hard to narrow down, but for sure it needs to represent all the different kinds of awesome on the pce.
A lot on this list are certainly tastes of smaller groups, and if you took ParanoiaDragon's suggestion for Impossimole, I do believe you'd have a mob of angry pce/tg 16 fans show up to your door. Just run by your list before you set on it, if there's any dissention, believe me you'll know if something doesn't belong.
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Winamp: Options->Preferences->Output->Disk Writer. Whatever would normally come out of the speakers goes to disk....
Yeah, I know that. I don't know how I'll get audio to disk if I decide NOT to use WinAMP with NEZplug.
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Zeon, I didn't know about the more recent NEZplug++. Thanks.
The thing I'm keeping in mind is that top 10 is always based on opinions. And if it isn't too overly obnoxious to throw together a top 10, I expect one or more sets of 10 honorable mentions will follow. I don't expect everyone here to agree with my top 10. I would probably be disturbed if I had consensus, because I'd wonder what the hell happened to everyone in this forum. But I suspect everyone will find SOMETHING to like.
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Ootake: File->Output Wave File. Don't think there's a way to do it with mednafen.
I seem to remember doing stuff like that before, where you set your recording device to be wave out, and run both programs (player and recorder) at once....But I'm not positive about it. Been too long.
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The wav files output by Ootake are pretty legit. I use them and then shove them on my Ipod, lol.
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That newest NEZplug alteration actually sounds as good as I need it to. It eliminates the overdone noise channel problem and everything else is peachy. Now all I have to do is make adequate time for listening to make the final picks, throw together a playlist, and then dump it all to WAV. Oh, wait, then I need to find some way to capture gameplay. :(
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Oh, wait, then I need to find some way to capture gameplay. :(
if youre using an emulator:
save video with ootake while playing.
replay video and use HyperCam, etc, to capture it.
if you capture while playing, it'll probably be all jerky and you'll play poorly because of it :-/
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Soldier Blade, hands down...
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Here are some of my favourites:
Aero Blasters stage 6
Air Zonk stage 5-2
Aldynes stage 4
Bonk's Adventure 2-4
Bonk 3 Drool boss theme
Dungeon Explorer stage 6
Impossimole opening theme
Legendary Axe big boss
Sinistron stage 1
Soldier Blade stage 2
Super Star Soldier stage 2
Veiguis stage 3
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Thanks everyone for your track recommendations. As for recording video, I'm going to use PCEjin to record some play segments and use the build in encoder to output to video. PCEjin is the hacked GUI version of Mednafen developed by a few folks on tasvideos.org for their superplays. I suggest checking out the Bonk Tool-Assisted Speedplays people have thrown together there already.
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Anyone here know where I can find documentation for the custom m3u format that's used with many HES files?
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metal stoker
lost sunheart
dungeon explorer
final solider
not in any order but de, and metal stoker top 2
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OK, so after so much agonizing over which tracks to select, I still don't have a definitive list and many of them are starting to sound very much the same to me. Something about the sound library tells me they sound capabilities were criminally underused. Also, there aren't so many memorable melodies. Hell, compared to what was done with the basic NES sound chip, the lack of attention spent to the PC Engine's capabilities is downright criminal.
Also, I still need a heads up about the details of HES m3u formatting.
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OK, sorry about that little rant there. I had been listening to far too many tracks and they were all running together in my head (and my ears).
Anyway, I think I have selected the top 10 tracks. In no particular order, they are tracks from:
Magical Chase
Devil's Crush
Parasol Stars
Air Zonk
Bonk's Adventure
Dungeon Explorer
Blazing Lazers
Batman
Dragon Saber
After Burner 2
There were a lot of close contenders. But for now, download the MP3 file and give me some feedback. What would you do differently? How far off/close to the mark am I?
http://www.filedropper.com/top10noorder
Also, if you happen to know formal titles for the tracks or know the level numbers, let me know so I can properly name the tracks.
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Parodius Da - good use of PSG instrumentation
If only the actual game had a sound test...*cries*
and btw great music tastes especially with magical chase XD
also I really enjoy music to Taito's : Jigoku Meguri, hana taka daka!?, tatsujin, Kyukyoku Tiger
Dragon Saber I absolutely adore too plus bomberman 93