Thursday 24 September 2009

Mega Drive Musical Madness



Put this together over the last couple of days. The mega Drive in the right hands pumped out some brilliant music, and this video is a sample of some of my personal favorites. I might make another one of these at some point if I get time, or maybe videos of the music from certain games like Decap Attack and Battle Mania 2.

8 comments:

Barry the Nomad said...

Excellent idea! And nice choice of tunes. Who knew a McDonald's game could have such good music? I'll have to put together one of these myself, so many awesome Mega Drive tunes.

Animated AF said...

Well that McDonalds game was the 2nd game developed by Treasure, and has the same composers as Gunstar Heroes and Alien Solder. I almost included another McDonalds game in there: Global Gladiators. Maybe next time!

Barry the Nomad said...

It's amazing how many gaming geniuses were behind licensed games back in the day. Cool Spot had Tommy Tallarico tunes and the Disney movie adaptations were spot on in music and animation.

Hairyman said...

Okay, so the Mega Drive's sound chip is not as powerful as the SNES's; big deal. What you've just proved is that in the right hands, the Mega Drive was still capable of producing some amazing tunes.

You guys should look at the Mega Drive Super Medley CD single. It's a great medley of Mega Drive tunes mixed together into an 8 minute masterpiece.

The single also comes with the same medley but using the original chiptunes. That mix perfectly demonstrates the versatility of the Mega Drive sound chip.

Animated AF said...

Yeah, I've heard that mix, it's very nice. I've always preferred the sound of Mega Drive games myself over SNES, but that's just me. In fact the only chip based music I prefer over Mega Drive is in your avatar: good ol' Amiga. :)

Hairyman said...

Good to see we're on the same page! Love the Amiga sound-chip. I find myself listening to Amiga chiptunes a lot. The Shadow of the Beast soundtrack is a personal favourite of mine.

I've never been a fan of the sound Nintendo's machines produce. I mean, the Gamecube and Wii do a good job but the GBA and DS have horrible sound. The GBA produces some really strange tones and the DS has always sounded very gravelly. The N64 produces some rather naff sounds aswell.

Barry the Nomad said...

I always found the SNES music to be too smooth. The Mega Drive felt more heavy, sharp and raw... my sort of sound.

Hairyman said...

That's an interesting way of putting it and I can certainly see where you're coming from.

Even though I've stated my preference for the Mega Drive and Amiga soundchips, there are certain tunes I do prefer on the SNES chip. The first stage music from Super Turrican (which is the same as the first stage music from Mega Turrican on the Mega Drive) is far better on the SNES than on the MD. Mainly because it has an Amiga-esque quality to it.