Early VG industry survivor. Father. Coder. Musician. Designer. Producer. Whatever! Co-founder of Bit Managers and
@abylight
. Opinions are my own. Tweets en/es.
So the Game Boy is now 30 years old! I couldn't let this day pass without writing a bit about how much I love this console and how important it was to me. This is my trusty old Game Boy, still working after all that time. Warning, thread ahead.
#GameBoy
Today I received a reproduction of Radikal Bikers for Game Boy Color that I found on the second hand market. It's a game I made music for 24 years ago but was never officially released on the console. The Game Boy Color is the same one I used to compose the music.
So the Game Boy is now 30 years old! I couldn't let this day pass without writing a bit about how much I love this console and how important it was to me. This is my trusty old Game Boy, still working after all that time. Warning, thread ahead.
#GameBoy
For some reason, Metal Masters is my best known Game Boy soundtrack, especially in the U.S. It always ends up at the top of the most played list and has dozens of memes and versions on Youtube, even one with Japanese lyrics! Let me tell you a bit about it. Warning, thread ahead!
@redhistoria
@rauldevelop
Impresionante hallazgo! Me apena pensar que los que vengan después de nosotros solo puedan encontrar plásticos y muchos móviles…
@Thomas_Reinking
Sort of. In the old days you had to compose the music taking into account the huge limitations of the consoles; usually very few voices, memory, cpu and waveforms. Nowadays you are limited only by your imagination, or the restrictions you may impose for yourself.
From my last soundtrack for the GBA. I coded the music entirely in C an a PC (using a GBA sound chip emulator I also coded). Unfortunately on the real GBA it sounded very distorted 😅, but it was supposed to sound like this:
3 voices could be considered very few to create music, but even 2 can be enough! The trick is to use different instruments (using volume, tone and waveform modulation if possible) and fill every space available to create the illusion of having more channels.
I'm overwhelmed by the response to the Smurfs track repost and the amount of new followers. Hi everyone! I'll try to answer every question. You can listen to other of my old soundtracks on Soundcloud (link in bio) and the last one here (Game Boy style):
With the Nintendo 3DS eShop closing, there's only a few hours left to get the 3DS version of Cursed Castilla. :-( We worked so hard in that version! It even has all the maps converted to stereoscopic, and a nice secret arcade mode.
The recent experiments by
@yuzokoshiro
, porting his awesome track "They Are Back" from SOR4 (my favourite) to the SNES and the Megadrive, inspired me to dust off my old sound driver to create a version for the Game Boy, shared with his permission. Thanks!
Woah! What a great sounding remix, thanks! 🤩🎸🎶
I never would have thought I would get to hear this track performed so well when I coded it on a hot summer day in a swimsuit store's warehouse 32 years ago 😆
🎶New GaMetal Remix!🎶
Today's song is considered by many to be one of the Game Boy's greatest songs: here's the
@alberto_mcalby
classic "Metal Beat" from Metal Masters!
🔽Link to full video/song in replies below🔽
Devastated to read about Geoff Follin's passing of pancreatic cancer earlier this week. He and his brother Tim had a huge influence on me and it feels like losing a very close person. I'm speechless. May he rest in peace.
Geoff Follin had an unfairly little-known Youtube channel where he shared beautiful compositions of his own, the last one just from 3 months ago. Listening to his music now has a completely different meaning... Thanks for all the wonderful music. RIP.
Yesterday I had the honor to meet
@nishikazuhiko
, the genius behind the creation, among other inventions, of the MSX computer standard 40 years ago. I also enjoyed the great company of many friends and MSX lovers, and especially of my friend
@Gryzor87
. Thanks for the invitation!
For my Game Boy music fans (if any), here's a small gift - the track Welcome to the Hell, from Otto's Ottifanten - Baby Bruno's Alptraum for the Game Boy, (just) recorded directly from the Game Boy I used to compose it about 29 years ago.
It works! 🥹 Both the Amiga 500 and the discs used to compose Obelix's music for the SNES still work correctly. This computer is from the New Frontier days (1989). Now it's time to do a deep cleaning. The mouse already looks great after some cleaning.
Rebuscando en el altillo he encontrado estos discos que seguramente contienen los ficheros originales de parte de la música de Obelix para SNES, que compuse en Octamed. Me pregunto si aún funcionan y puedo extraer los datos... Ya tengo excusa para comprar un Greaseweazle V4.
I did the music for 28 published Game Boy games at the time (counting the previously unreleased Radikal Bikers, which has been released recently on the Evercade). I really wonder if any other musician did more for that system. Is there somewhere to check that? 🤔
Yay! Today I fixed the cassette player and managed to load Hostages on my “new” ZX Spectrum +2 computer, 33 years later. I was just 17 when I did the sprites and music for that game 😵💫
alberto josé gonzález making the most technically intricate and emotionally-charged chiptune music ever written for the game boy color tie-in game to Schplumpf Schtroumpfton, the beloved belgian newspaper comic from 1928
Noise. Noise! Today I want to talk about it. Not about any kind of noise, but 8 bit noise, and specifically Game Boy noise. Maybe you find it interesting. Warning, thread ahead!
After years of development, Melkhior’s Mansion is finally out, and it’s free! It’s been great to work with super talented and nice people like
@EricRetro
and
@hot_piping
. All the music has been made with waveforms from my old GB soundtracks. Hope you like the game!
I have spent some days adapting my old ZX Spectrum code from 30+ years ago to modern compilers, and I've found some things I didn't remember. Among all of these there are some (very) early stages of my Compact Editor 😭 I was 16~17 year old when I started coding it...
Most interesting cheat is - at the license screen just input L,L,L,R,L then wait for the next screen. Instead of Language select menu there will be 7 screens with names and pictures of the developers.
I have never been in the "demo scene", but that didn't stop me from creating my own demo at the age of 17 (which nobody saw), with music I had done up until then like Hostages or the ZX to MSX adaptations. It was one of my first programs done in assembler.
#MyFirstGamesJob
was in 1988 at the age of 16, for an unreleased ZX Spectrum Gunstick game named Pim Pam Pum. I earned about 150€ for doing the graphics and opened my first bank account. Still didn't know how to make music back then. My drawing abilities haven't improved.
I have checked with great joy that the keyboard I used to make music in the old Bit Managers times still works perfectly. Actually it seems to be in better shape than me...
Most tracks of the Asterix & Obelix soundtrack for SNES were composed with it.
#gamemusic
#oldtimes
Found a box with some of my old stuff in bad shape 😢. Commodore Amiga 500, PSX, SNES and Megadrive v2 with a development cartridge, probably Spirou, from the time I did the soundtrack for the Game Boy and Game Gear). Will any of these still work?
I've added ASIO support to a program I coded 22 years ago to make music for GBA, because I miss coding and why not. This is a synth that simulates the MKS4AGB sound system from Nintendo on PC in real time, to be used with any sequencer. It has no latency now!
Let's see if I get this right... Is this guy asking me to provide him MIDI files of my compositions (which I don't have) because he can't compose, so he can commercialize them? 🤔
At last I have a working Amstrad CPC 6128 and I can read my old disks with graphics for North & South, Hostages and Acid Killer 😃 Most of the disks still work perfectly fine! Next stop: MSX.
I still have all the original binary files from my old soundtracks, originally composed in my ZX Spectrum tracker. Here you can see how I listen to some of the 1st Turok for GB tracks using an AY player, and also I can read them again in the editor.
Twitter doesn't allow to attach audio files, but allows video. I did a small script to convert audio to still video using ffmpeg, so I can share things like probably the first track I ever did with virtual instruments, too many years ago. 1/2
For my Game Boy music fans (if any 😅), here's a video with two discarded tracks I composed for Obelix for the Game Boy. It also shows my GB emulator. None of these have been shown before. Full details in the video description in Youtube!
I've got the best gift from the amazingly talented
@stepickford
. Looks and feels awesome in the hands, thanks Ste! Completely in the mood right now...
Ensuring that all the music will sound great on the Amstrad CPC version of The Sword of Ianna. The clock on the CPC sound chip is 0.7% lower than the ZX and MSX, making a lot of difference to vibratos, noises and glides that need to be corrected to sound (almost) the same.
After recovering all data from the 35+ years old floppy disks, I have managed to compile one of the first games (second?) I did graphics and music for at New Frontier, unpublished and never seen alive before. I can't stop smiling 😊
This is beautiful and emotive. A country that is proud of its videogame music to the point of showing it to the world in such an important event. Not happening anywhere else!
Una música compuesta y programada en el almacén trasero de una tienda de bañadores (vacía), cerca de la playa, en Cubelles (Barcelona) durante 1992~93. Recuerdo el gustazo de poder poner los altavoces a tope por no tener vecinos a quienes molestar. Igual por eso salió así...
“Acid Killer” was the second (unreleased) game I did graphics and music for, at age 17. I managed to convert and compile the FULL game from the code found in one of these 5.25 disks 😄 More news soon!
Originally our game supported 7 shades of gray by cleverly changing the palette on each frame, taking advantage of the persistence of the GB's LCD. It looked amazing (for a GB), but Nintendo didn't allow us to use the technique arguing future compatibility.
I bought a Game Boy flash cart, but for a good reason! I’d like to record all my old soundtracks from the original files and the console I used to compose them. The components of my original GB are now old and exhibit an interesting analogue distortion.
I couldn't end this without posting a link to the Soundcloud where I have recorded music from some of my old Game Boy soundtracks for your enjoyment. Now for other 30 years more!
I just realised it's been 25 years since I composed my first and only soundtrack for the Super Nintendo! I enjoyed composing for the SP700 so much... I wish I had the chance to do more works for it. Remember it's always for you to enjoy it here:
Somehow my name ended up written on a vinyl of one of my favourite soundtracks from one of my favourite games, composed by two of my favourite musicians and incredibly illustrated by one of my favourite artists. This is definitely my favourite thing in the world!
#Plok
And now if this thread reaches at least 200 likes, I'll be sharing the game's soundtrack recorded on the same Game Boy I used to compose it 31 years ago, at the best quality! 😃
For some reason, Metal Masters is my best known Game Boy soundtrack, especially in the U.S. It always ends up at the top of the most played list and has dozens of memes and versions on Youtube, even one with Japanese lyrics! Let me tell you a bit about it. Warning, thread ahead!
The ZX Spectrum +2 I bought recently seems to work fine, though the video is not great and the cassette needs servicing. This is actually the first time I hear my music for The Sword of Ianna in the real machine at home ❤️
Happy to see Toby Fox (Undertale) mentioning Smurfs Nightmare as one of his favorite game soundtracks, mentioning that “it’s amazing for some inexplicable reason” ❤️
@bloopledebleep1
@Thomas_Reinking
Absolutely, in my case. I feel more comfortable dealing with technical restrictions and trying to get the most of them. That’s where the fun is!
New family member! 😍 The C64 was the first computer I saw at my uncle's, and what triggered my interest in games at a very young age. I have had many ZX Spectrums over the years but never a C64. I'm happy to finally have one and enjoy it (after some restoration).
#WhatAGameDevLooksLike
Hi! I’m Alberto (McAby) and I’ve been doing game stuff since I was 16. Maker of earworms that stick in your brain since your childhood. Sorry! I do many things, but now I’m giving sound life to our newest game. Please wishlist it!
In today's chapter of "Facts nobody asked about", I'll talk about the Game Boy waveform editor I coded in Compact Editor, the ZX Spectrum 128 tracker I used for composing my old 8 bit soundtracks. I got tired of writing waveform values in the code without seeing their shape.
El cáncer, que no entiende de ideologías políticas, ni clases sociales, ni razas, ni religiones, acaba de apagar la llama de una persona maravillosa y muy querida de la familia. Solo digo, aprovechad el tiempo, sed buenos con los demás y no discutáis por tonterías.
All these years I was convinced that my only published music for the ZX Spectrum 48k was one I made for Light Corridor, but I just discovered that I also made Mystical's menu music for the beeper 😳 I completely forgot about that!
It's been 18 years since I last composed music in pure Game Boy style. Well, not anymore! Here's a unheard track used for a good cause and a great game, and it has a story behind. More to come!
#GameBoy
#Retro
#Gamedev
#Chiptune
Another one recovered from the old Game Gear audio source files, well known from The Smurfs and endless source of Smurfs Collab videos in Youtube. They are still being made these days... 😳
I almost finished recovering stuff from my old ZX Spectrum tapes. It's been great to find more of the first graphics I ever did for a game at New Frontier when I was 16 - Pim Pam Pum, for the Gunstick light gun. That was the start of all! Here are some new graphics:
Contra (コントラ) was the first Game Boy game I bough along with my old and trusty console 29 years ago. I still think it's one of the most playable and technically impressive games for the system, made by the same great team as Castlevania II. But that face looks familiar... 🤔
Noise. Noise! Today I want to talk about it. Not about any kind of noise, but 8 bit noise, and specifically Game Boy noise. Maybe you find it interesting. Warning, thread ahead!
Found a very old mono recording of an experiment I did with one of my Tintin 2 tracks for Game Boy (Tension) mixed with my long-missed Roland JV-1080. I'll try to find the project files...
Thanks to emulation I can still play some of my ancient OctaMED tracks from the 90's. I used mainly this to sequence the soundtrack of Obelix for the SNES via MIDI into the dev kit. You may recognise the track, it's from a game I loved so much and composed by Tokuhiko Uwabo ❤️
Much is said about how CRT televisions affected the graphics of old video games, but the same can be said about the sound. The body, amplifier, speaker and interferences of the old TVs could have a big impact in the sound. A simple short spike could create a powerful bass drum!
🚨Saturday gift!! Recorded straight from the console I used to compose it about 30 years ago (gasp!), and in all it's ageing capacitors glory, here's the Menu theme for Otto's Ottifanten - Baby Bruno's Alptraum, originally composed for a Pinocchio game.
Today I read in a nice article about the Asterix games I did music for, that the producer though that the "waaaaaa" sound from Asterix GB falling through a hole was a sample. It was not! It was just a couple of waveforms well modulated. Modulation in sound is KEY. Take note!