Is title screen music expected?

[+Random Terrain]

Whether it's in games for the Atari 2600 or NES, most music irritates the crap out of me while I'm playing because it's fairly short and repetitive (and on the Atari 2600, it's usually way off-key too). It's like some kind of torture. In the game I'm almost done with, I don't have to worry about that because both channels have sound effects. There's no room for music, even if I wanted it.

 

But what about the title screen? Do I need to add some kind of 'music' to that? It couldn't be longer than 20 seconds since the game jumps to auto-play. What do you think? Come up with a 20 second tune or forget about it?

[GroovyBee]

Its up to you as the homebrew author at the end of the day. If you have the ROM space then put some title page music in. If you can't create a tune that fits your game theme, just leave it out.

[RevEng]

A tune isn't required, but it might be cool to have some kind of sound effect. I'm thinking along the lines of how a lot of arcade games do for their attract mode.

 

It doesn't have to be overly in-yer-face - a single note or noise played a few times with decaying volume to simulate echo, or a low-volume phasing effect.

[+Random Terrain]

Its up to you as the homebrew author at the end of the day. If you have the ROM space then put some title page music in. If you can't create a tune that fits your game theme, just leave it out.

A tune isn't required, but it might be cool to have some kind of sound effect. I'm thinking along the lines of how a lot of arcade games do for their attract mode.

 

It doesn't have to be overly in-yer-face - a single note or noise played a few times with decaying volume to simulate echo, or a low-volume phasing effect.

Thanks. I'll try a few things and see how they sound.

[Emehr]

As a player, I would rather have no tune than a bad tune. Good sound effects during game play are more important, IMO.

[jrok]

A tune isn't required, but it might be cool to have some kind of sound effect. I'm thinking along the lines of how a lot of arcade games do for their attract mode.

 

It doesn't have to be overly in-yer-face - a single note or noise played a few times with decaying volume to simulate echo, or a low-volume phasing effect.

 

+1. Almost none of the arcade classics I loved had music in either attract mode or during play. Or, if they did have some music, it wouldn't be a repeating loop, but just little incidental tunes here and there (Donkey Kong, for instance).

 

Continuous title screen music might be nice for polish, but if there's background music in the game itself, it:

1)better be a very groovy tune and

2)shouldn't replace in-game sound effects.

Edited November 29, 2010 by jrok

[+Random Terrain]

Almost none of the arcade classics I loved had music in either attract mode or during play. Or, if they did have some music, it wouldn't be a repeating loop, but just little incidental tunes here and there (Donkey Kong, for instance).

That's what I'd like to stick with.

[+Gemintronic]

My Opinion:

 

2600 games really didn't put any effort into music so it's not expected for authenticity. Coming into the NES and SMS era that most of our audience lived in the end-user DOES expect music. With the bare minimum music construction feature of VisualbB a full soundtrack is quite a task.

 

My middle ground has been to make a very basic ditty during the title screen. I've never made an attract mode but I think at most no music and only sound effects would do.

[+Random Terrain]

I've never made an attract mode but I think at most no music and only sound effects would do.

Every Atari 2600 game I can remember playing had silent auto-play, so I'm going with that too. It worked out because I needed to use the sound effect variables for the score/high score flip during auto-play anyway.

 

Now that I won't have to come up with some complicated tune, looks like the first draft of my game might be done within the next few days. Then once the complaints and suggestions come in, I can work on the final version.

[Chris++]

I admit that I question the need for a title screen in the first place. It's not something you play; it's purely for cosmetic purposes. The existence of a game is for playing. The person who's chosen to play a particular game knows its name anyway. I've always wondered why code is so often used up -- on a system that imposes very limited space -- just for something to look at before the actual game starts.

 

And I'm with you, in terms of music. I don't even keep the music on during modern games; I prefer the sound effects only. I'm not listening to the stereo (to which I like to lend all of my attention, when I do); I'm playing a video game! What's really behind that is that many people like everything to emulate movies. Why? Games are interactive, not passive like films.

 

Ultimately, of course, the artist's first responsibility is always to himself, not the recipients of what he's made. If they happen to like it too, it's a pleasing coincidence. But you're the one who's doing all the work, so enjoying the very process of creation is the "point," I'd say. Finished products are nice to arrive at, in a separate context; but it's an awful lot of one's life to spend on creating if the process itself isn't the most enjoyable part.

[+LS650]

Game play rules, title music drools! Concentrate on making a game that is fun to play; I couldn't care less about the title page or title music.

[+Random Terrain]

I admit that I question the need for a title screen in the first place. It's not something you play; it's purely for cosmetic purposes. The existence of a game is for playing. The person who's chosen to play a particular game knows its name anyway. I've always wondered why code is so often used up -- on a system that imposes very limited space -- just for something to look at before the actual game starts.

If your game has a higher resolution title screen, people are more likely to goo their pants. And although people say that graphics don't matter, if you use flicker so you can have more multicolored sprites on the screen, even more pants will be ruined.

 

If you have the ROM space and ability, make it as pretty as possible as long as it won't hurt gameplay. If you gave me two versions of the same game where one was pretty (Imagic/Activision graphics) and the other one looked like you were dragging cement blocks around, I'd choose the pretty game every time. The game I'm trying to finish isn't pretty, but maybe I'll improve over time.

[toiletunes]

With a title screen, a player has a chance to adjust brightness/contrast before gameplay. Likewise, with some sound (not neccessarily music) a player can adjust volume before it's too late. I don't know if you can even adjust contrast with modern televisions, but some sound would be nice to make sure there is sound.