5 ms·

I grew up with a C64 and a big part of the charm, for me, was the sound chip and the noises/music it made. I can understand why that chip has such a cult follow

I grew up with a C64 and a big part of the charm, for me, was the sound chip and the noises/music it made. I can understand why that chip has such a cult following. Back then, when we had nowhere near the fidelity in graphics that we have today, these basic sound chips were used to add a lot of character to those early games. Today you have high profile composers like Hans Zimmer doing work for video games and everything in a AAA title is generally very well produced, but I still find myself firing up some of the oldies every now and then. Nostalgia, I guess.

bouncycastle 8y ago
When I was a kid, I would load up many of the C64 games just for the title screens & leave the music playing. Favourite ones were: turbo outrun, the last ninja. Good old times! LOAD "*",8,1
- uxcolumbo 8y ago
  I used to work with Ben Daglish, the composer of the Last Ninja tune I think. He was a programmer, but mainly did it to make money so he could make music... his real passion. Funny guy...
  - uxcolumbo 8y ago
    Just found out he passed away - this sucks - way too young. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Daglish https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Daglish Ben Daglish Remembered: Wastelands loader (Underworld, 2016) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qj6Amy1Bmeo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qj6Amy1Bmeo He is also in the "From Bedrooms to Billions" documentary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRsLOUYL3mk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRsLOUYL3mk EDIT: he wasn't just funny, I remember him as a very positive spirited guy.
    - bouncycastle 8y ago
      Oh, that's sad.. May his music live on. RIP.
    - bouncycastle 8y ago
      Thanks for the link to the interviews - it's great to picture the face to the artist. Here's my tribute to Ben: 10 PRINT "BEN IS GREAT" 20 GOTO 10
  - bouncycastle 8y ago
    Wow, thanks for sharing that anecdote. That's the thing - many C64 musicians were also great programmers, especially to get the impressive sounds they wanted out of the SID. Quote "If you wanted to be a videogame musician in the early 1980s, having a fantastic tune and even a Royal College of Music diploma meant nothing without some lateral thinking and a significant amount of programming skills, because the SID chip needed special software routines to turn its potential into sound. You had to know how to compose both melodies and machine code." https://theconversation.com/the-sound-of-sid-35-years-of-chiptunes-influence-on-electronic-music-74935 https://theconversation.com/the-sound-of-sid-35-years-of-chi...
kuzimoto 8y ago
People still make music using C64, NES, GameBoy, etc. Some pretty decent stuff out there if look around. For anyone else interested see https://chipmusic.org https://chipmusic.org which is a forum for posting and talking about chiptune-related things, or http://www.8bitpeoples.com http://www.8bitpeoples.com a label run by chiptune artists most of which I believe can be downloaded for free at 192.
- ne_jo 8y ago
  Woah, thanks.

bouncycastle 8y ago

When I was a kid, I would load up many of the C64 games just for the title screens & leave the music playing. Favourite ones were: turbo outrun, the last ninja. Good old times! LOAD "*",8,1

uxcolumbo 8y ago
I used to work with Ben Daglish, the composer of the Last Ninja tune I think. He was a programmer, but mainly did it to make money so he could make music... his real passion. Funny guy...
- uxcolumbo 8y ago
  Just found out he passed away - this sucks - way too young. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Daglish https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Daglish Ben Daglish Remembered: Wastelands loader (Underworld, 2016) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qj6Amy1Bmeo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qj6Amy1Bmeo He is also in the "From Bedrooms to Billions" documentary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRsLOUYL3mk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRsLOUYL3mk EDIT: he wasn't just funny, I remember him as a very positive spirited guy.
  - bouncycastle 8y ago
    Oh, that's sad.. May his music live on. RIP.
  - bouncycastle 8y ago
    Thanks for the link to the interviews - it's great to picture the face to the artist. Here's my tribute to Ben: 10 PRINT "BEN IS GREAT" 20 GOTO 10
- bouncycastle 8y ago
  Wow, thanks for sharing that anecdote. That's the thing - many C64 musicians were also great programmers, especially to get the impressive sounds they wanted out of the SID. Quote "If you wanted to be a videogame musician in the early 1980s, having a fantastic tune and even a Royal College of Music diploma meant nothing without some lateral thinking and a significant amount of programming skills, because the SID chip needed special software routines to turn its potential into sound. You had to know how to compose both melodies and machine code." https://theconversation.com/the-sound-of-sid-35-years-of-chiptunes-influence-on-electronic-music-74935 https://theconversation.com/the-sound-of-sid-35-years-of-chi...

kuzimoto 8y ago

People still make music using C64, NES, GameBoy, etc. Some pretty decent stuff out there if look around. For anyone else interested see https://chipmusic.org https://chipmusic.org which is a forum for posting and talking about chiptune-related things, or http://www.8bitpeoples.com http://www.8bitpeoples.com a label run by chiptune artists most of which I believe can be downloaded for free at 192.

ne_jo 8y ago
Woah, thanks.