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6/22/2025, 1:33:10 AM
>>11815761
>I think they didn't really "make" different soundtracks but had software translate it.
That entirely depends on the game. Tons of retro games have soundtracks crafted for a range of hardware. It isn't possible to simply feed a PC speaker tune into a program and get a Gravis Ultrasound rendition that makes full use of the hardware or sounds remotely good.
Final Fantasy VII is an example I've been thinking about recently, since it always gets shit on for having bad music compared to the PS1 version. Yet that was the basic ass General MIDI soundtrack included as a fallback in case you couldn't play anything else. Unfortunately, Square decided to sample that version using the default Windows soundfont for future PC releases and taint everybody's opinion of the PC version. Yet the original disc-based PC release had FOUR different versions of the soundtrack on the disc (along with variously-sized soundfonts), each crafted for different hardware. The Yamaha XG version is the likely intended experience, yet very few people actually had the setup to play it back in the day (or even now). There's also one designed for the Sound Blaster AWE64, which generally sounds worse than the XG version but has the USP of One Winged Angel having its vocals, which are missing in every other version.
A ton of effort was put into making it as good as possible by the devs at the time, working with what high-end audio hardware was available on PC and customizing the soundtrack to its strengths. And all for nothing, since it was largely unheard and is pretty much totally forgotten, and will always be remembered by most as the version with the shit music. No wonder they didn't bother for the FFVIII PC port.
https://youtu.be/49ibqCOVKsg?t=1289
>I think they didn't really "make" different soundtracks but had software translate it.
That entirely depends on the game. Tons of retro games have soundtracks crafted for a range of hardware. It isn't possible to simply feed a PC speaker tune into a program and get a Gravis Ultrasound rendition that makes full use of the hardware or sounds remotely good.
Final Fantasy VII is an example I've been thinking about recently, since it always gets shit on for having bad music compared to the PS1 version. Yet that was the basic ass General MIDI soundtrack included as a fallback in case you couldn't play anything else. Unfortunately, Square decided to sample that version using the default Windows soundfont for future PC releases and taint everybody's opinion of the PC version. Yet the original disc-based PC release had FOUR different versions of the soundtrack on the disc (along with variously-sized soundfonts), each crafted for different hardware. The Yamaha XG version is the likely intended experience, yet very few people actually had the setup to play it back in the day (or even now). There's also one designed for the Sound Blaster AWE64, which generally sounds worse than the XG version but has the USP of One Winged Angel having its vocals, which are missing in every other version.
A ton of effort was put into making it as good as possible by the devs at the time, working with what high-end audio hardware was available on PC and customizing the soundtrack to its strengths. And all for nothing, since it was largely unheard and is pretty much totally forgotten, and will always be remembered by most as the version with the shit music. No wonder they didn't bother for the FFVIII PC port.
https://youtu.be/49ibqCOVKsg?t=1289
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