Giles N Posted March 28 Share Posted March 28 1 hour ago, GoldLeader said: Not Tuesday night at the Moose Lodge. Now I became really curious about this Moose Lodge - funniest ‘Inn’, ‘Tavern in Town’… or just some place out of Twin Peaks where nothing are what they seems… Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giles N Posted March 28 Share Posted March 28 (edited) 8 minutes ago, GoldLeader said: Not to mention that belt buckle...(For people re-using their old controllers in interesting ways) …oh, that one - the official Atari-Leather-Wear Belt, comes together with the Atari speakerpants, the Atari SteamPunk Gasmask and Boots. Comes of course in ‘Family Packs’ Edited March 28 by Giles N Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+GoldLeader Posted March 28 Share Posted March 28 8 minutes ago, Giles N said: Now I became really curious about this Moose Lodge - funniest ‘Inn’, ‘Tavern in Town’… or just some place out of Twin Peaks where nothing are what they seems… Actually an inside joke, but when have I let that stop me? There are a few lodges, clubs, and charitable, fraternal organizations around here...the Moose, the Elks, the Eagles (Which is right across from work and I know plenty of members, They asked me to join and I will later maybe)...Anyway, other than having delivered there, I don't know anything about them. I only know the Eagles, Shriners, and have family ties to the Masonic Temple etc....They just became one of many punchlines for one of my friend's jokes...Which some days are nonstop. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+GoldLeader Posted March 28 Share Posted March 28 @Giles N PS Do you have that saying in Norway? Which starts out, "You gotta get up pretty early in the morning..." (I worried that one might throw ya)... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Video Posted March 29 Share Posted March 29 I totally agree that music is rather lacking for atari. But I don't think Tia is to blame really, like others have said, atari era was often made by a single programmer. Nintendo really started the "music as the norm" in games, before nes, music was lacking on ALL consoles. It probably does help that nes had nice music hardware for its time, but look at things like pitfall2 and marble craze, and yeah, a good programmer CAN get good, even great music out of relatively shitty hardware. By the time Nintendo came out, games were mostly made by a crew, so you could have a dedicated music programmer. They could still do reboots of classic, which can be awesome (lemmings and castles of Dr creep, love them) but they often could do their own thing too. In our modern Atari era, even something like 2600 has a fair amount of programmers, perhaps we have some people good at programming music and could get a game programmer with them and see what happens? By the 7800, I'd definitely include music (or lack thereof) as a problem for Atari, but only one of them. Rehashing the same many years old arcade games was another, not that I have a problem with better remakes, but Atari was doing rehash arcades while Nintendo was doing s lot of original work. Couple that with shelving the 7800 when they should have launched it (or at least put more work into it when they decided to shelve it) and Atari had little chance. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+KaeruYojimbo Posted March 30 Share Posted March 30 On 3/28/2024 at 1:03 AM, GoldLeader said: the Eagles (Which is right across from work and I know plenty of members, They asked me to join and I will later maybe) Local bands used to play shows at the Eagles Lodge in the town where I grew up and the bar was between the entrance and the area where the stage was, so you'd walk past 4-5 retired guys just sitting there quietly nursing beers while loud-ass music was coming from around the corner. I never heard any of them talk, but I always imagined any conversations went something like this: Eagle #1: What's this band called again? Eagle #2: Dead Orchestra Eagle #1: Jesus! They're name's as terrible as their music. Eagle #2: Yeah, but it's still better than listening to my sister-in-law talk about her cats. Anyway, music is definitely a shortcoming for Atari, but it isn't their Achilles Heel. A long history of poor management and terrible decisions is their Achilles Heel. Lack of music is just a by-product of that. We didn't really expect music in games in the 2600 and 5200 years, but by the late 80's it was becoming common. A sizeable chunk of the 7800 library is ports of old (even then) arcade games. Even with dedicated musicians and better sound hardware, I'm not so sure a lot of developers were going to think to add a soundtrack to ports of Galaga and Robotron. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+GoldLeader Posted March 30 Share Posted March 30 4 hours ago, KaeruYojimbo said: Local bands used to play shows at the Eagles Lodge in the town where I grew up and the bar was between the entrance and the area where the stage was, so you'd walk past 4-5 retired guys just sitting there quietly nursing beers while loud-ass music was coming from around the corner. I never heard any of them talk, but I always imagined any conversations went something like this: Eagle #1: What's this band called again? Eagle #2: Dead Orchestra Eagle #1: Jesus! They're name's as terrible as their music. Eagle #2: Yeah, but it's still better than listening to my sister-in-law talk about her cats. Anyway, music is definitely a shortcoming for Atari, but it isn't their Achilles Heel. A long history of poor management and terrible decisions is their Achilles Heel. Lack of music is just a by-product of that. We didn't really expect music in games in the 2600 and 5200 years, but by the late 80's it was becoming common. A sizeable chunk of the 7800 library is ports of old (even then) arcade games. Even with dedicated musicians and better sound hardware, I'm not so sure a lot of developers were going to think to add a soundtrack to ports of Galaga and Robotron. haha Love it! Even with dedicated musicians and better sound hardware, I'm not so sure a lot of developers were going to think to add a soundtrack to ports of Galaga and Robotron. No they were not. haha... OK Now for something that was hilarious to read: Eagle #1: What's this band called again? Eagle #2: Dead Orchestra Eagle #1: Jesus! They're name's as terrible as their music. Eagle #2: Yeah, but it's still better than listening to my sister-in-law talk about her cats. Was this just a quick, generic example, with a made up band name, etc., ? Or did you by chance grow up in Wichita, KS? Because while on tour, we used to sometimes play at the Silver Bullet Club in Wichita, KS and the guys from a band called Dead Orchestra always showed up! (Nice guys ... heh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+KaeruYojimbo Posted March 30 Share Posted March 30 44 minutes ago, GoldLeader said: Or did you by chance grow up in Wichita, KS? I did, by chance, grow up in Wichita. But I never went to any shows at the Silver Bullet. What was your band called? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+GoldLeader Posted March 30 Share Posted March 30 2 hours ago, KaeruYojimbo said: I did, by chance, grow up in Wichita. But I never went to any shows at the Silver Bullet. What was your band called? Monastat 7 I know, I know,...Kind of makes Dead Orchestra sound like a Great name huh? haha 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+KaeruYojimbo Posted March 30 Share Posted March 30 30 minutes ago, GoldLeader said: Monastat 7 I know, I know,...Kind of makes Dead Orchestra sound like a Great name huh? haha I've heard worse. I almost went with Scroat Belly instead of Dead O. I hope you were you able to at least stay under the radar of the Monastat 7 lawyers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+GoldLeader Posted March 31 Share Posted March 31 (edited) We misspelled it by one letter! Never had a problem... Edited March 31 by GoldLeader The real stuff is called Monistat 7. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Sauron Posted March 31 Share Posted March 31 Music may have been a shortcoming for Atari on the console side, but most definitely not on the computer side. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roots.genoa Posted March 31 Share Posted March 31 4 hours ago, Sauron said: Music may have been a shortcoming for Atari on the console side, but most definitely not on the computer side. That's highly debatable as well unfortunately. Yes, the ST was used by professionals because of the MIDI compatibility, but its sound chip is actually not as good as C64's SID. There were awesome chiptune tracks on the ST, sure, but Amiga had better sound, no doubt about it (and I was an ST gamer). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
r_chase Posted March 31 Share Posted March 31 5 hours ago, roots.genoa said: That's highly debatable as well unfortunately. Yes, the ST was used by professionals because of the MIDI compatibility, but its sound chip is actually not as good as C64's SID. There were awesome chiptune tracks on the ST, sure, but Amiga had better sound, no doubt about it (and I was an ST gamer). If Tim Follin touched POKEY, maybe it would give Atari the boost it needed in terms of music back then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JPF997 Posted March 31 Author Share Posted March 31 (edited) 2 hours ago, r_chase said: If Tim Follin touched POKEY, maybe it would give Atari the boost it needed in terms of music back then. Tim Follin was a god in music making, I still get chills when I hear the Genesis Time Trax soundtrack, simply unbeatable. Edited March 31 by JPF997 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+swlovinist Posted March 31 Share Posted March 31 Agree that Atari is not known as much for its music, but there have been some great games that offer wonderful soundtracks with stock sound chips. With that being said, there are more options now with aftermarket support to make 7800 games with better sound epically with YM sound options. The Pokey soundtracks are also solid as well as many games offered on the 8 bit computer lineup. If anything, I think that the 8 bit computer line of games does not get enough recognition for music. Below is an example of what YM sound working on the 2600+ with the most current update. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giles N Posted March 31 Share Posted March 31 (edited) On 3/28/2024 at 8:45 AM, GoldLeader said: Anyway, - how did the 400 Mini-stick work out…? Many says it’s overall pretty dysfunctional…? Edited March 31 by Giles N 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giles N Posted March 31 Share Posted March 31 As to sound and music - it’s pretty obvious the hardware played a huge role here. Listing 5209-games which sounds very good for that era isn’t difficult: - Pengo - Pole Position - Resque on Fractauls - Ballblazer - Star Wars Arcade (although not much of the tune) - - - Really, most 5200 titles sounded arcadey for the home-console period 82-86. As soon as you get to 7800 non-pokey games, you have only a few that sounds decent enough as to music: - Ikari Warriors - Midnight Mutants - Scrapyard Dog - Dig Dug (?) - Food Fight (?) - Kung Fu Master (?) - Galaga (??) (?) = does these minimalistic repeats or intros count as background music…? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zzip Posted April 1 Share Posted April 1 On 3/31/2024 at 3:10 AM, roots.genoa said: That's highly debatable as well unfortunately. Yes, the ST was used by professionals because of the MIDI compatibility, but its sound chip is actually not as good as C64's SID. There were awesome chiptune tracks on the ST, sure, but Amiga had better sound, no doubt about it (and I was an ST gamer). Yeah the ST sound chip isn't bad per se, but it lacks variation.. You can immediately tell you are listening to YM2149 music. A lot of games did play digital samples through the YM, and even music (Starglider) they also figured out how to play Amiga-style MOD tracker music through it. However any digitized sounds played through YM never sounded as crisp or clear as it did on Amiga or STe Not that many games took advantage of MIDI music and probably only a small percentage of gamers had the hardware to play MIDI anyway. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giles N Posted April 1 Share Posted April 1 On 3/31/2024 at 5:50 PM, JPF997 said: Tim Follin Don’t forget David Whittaker either! Shadow of the Beast, Beyond the Ice Palace and others… Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+GoldLeader Posted April 2 Share Posted April 2 On 3/31/2024 at 5:16 PM, Giles N said: Anyway, - how did the 400 Mini-stick work out…? Many says it’s overall pretty dysfunctional…? Dysfunctional is being generous! It's Terrible! I sent it back! Even with, say, another controller,...I don't know enough about it, like remapping controls etc., I Don't even play games on PCs (for the most part)...They put 4 buttons on the ring of the joystick! Of course hitting these accidentally and crashing your game happens All the time, so I imagine you'd have to deal with that... It wasn't for me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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