Back in the early days of the computer game industry, the music, as well as everything else, had to be painstakingly programmed in by hand. Getting the music to sound anything like a real tune was hard enough, but getting the instruments to sound anywhere near authentic was almost impossible. Thankfully, as the 80’s turned into the 90’s, machines got bigger and better, and with a lot more resources to not only incorporate music, but to make a half decent job of reproducing the instruments as well.
At the time, the market leader in game music quality was the Commodore 64; which had three whole audio channels to play around with; while rivals Spectrum, Atari, Amstrad and PC had to make do with single channel ‘plinky-plonky’ music and sound effects. Then along came the Commodore Amiga (and thanks to stolen blueprints, the Atari ST), with new 16-bit technology, and up to 8 available audio channels to mix down to high quality stereo. In addition, the Amiga (and ST) were fully MIDI compatible; which essentially meant that a computer and a synthesizer would be linked directly to each other at last. It wasn’t long before the seasoned hacks of game audio realised the possibilities of this new solution, and began to experiment.
These are some of the most memorable theme tunes to come out of that five year period, before the CD brought studio sound to the world of gaming. Note: Due to the limitations of the Youtube media available, some of these soundtracks are cut short, are of poor quality, or do not represent the game graphics to their fullest or most fluid. This is the first of two lists which will eventually comprise the 20 best.
March, 2009:
Top 10 Soundtracks Created on the Amiga
American Drug War – the Last White Hope
The War on Drugs has become the longest and most costly war in American history, the question has become, how much more can the country endure? Inspired by the death of four family members from “legal drugs” Texas filmmaker Kevin Booth sets out to discover why the Drug War has become such a big failure. Three and a half years in the making the film follows gang members, former DEA agents, CIA officers, narcotics officers, judges, politicians, prisoners and celebrities. Most notably the film befriends Freeway Ricky Ross; the man many accuse for starting the Crack epidemic, who after being arrested discovered that his cocaine source had been working for the CIA. AMERICAN DRUG WAR shows how money, power and greed have corrupted not just dope fiends but an entire government. More importantly, it shows what can be done about it. This is not some ‘pro-drug’ stoner film, but a collection of expert testimonials from the ground troops on the front lines of the drug war, the ones who are fighting it and the ones who are living it.
Scholar Claims Dead Sea Scrolls ‘Authors’ Never Existed
Biblical scholars have long argued that the Dead Sea Scrolls were the work of an ascetic and celibate Jewish community known as the Essenes, which flourished in the 1st century A.D. in the scorching desert canyons near the Dead Sea. Now a prominent Israeli scholar, Rachel Elior, disputes that the Essenes ever existed at all — a claim that has shaken the bedrock of biblical scholarship.
Elior, who teaches Jewish mysticism at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University, claims that the Essenes were a fabrication by the 1st century A.D. Jewish-Roman historian Flavius Josephus and that his faulty reporting was passed on as fact throughout the centuries. As Elior explains, the Essenes make no mention of themselves in the 900 scrolls found by a Bedouin shepherd in 1947 in the caves of Qumran, near the Dead Sea. “Sixty years of research have been wasted trying to find the Essenes in the scrolls,” Elior tells TIME. “But they didn’t exist. This is legend on a legend.”
Link: Scholar Claims Dead Sea Scrolls ‘Authors’ Never Existed.
5 Ways ‘Common Sense’ Lies to You Everyday
Albert Einstein said common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by the age of 18. It is also a result of some pervasive and extremely stupid logical fallacies that have become embedded in the human brain over generations, for one reason or another. These malfunctioning thoughts–several of which you’ve had already today–are a major cause of everything that’s wrong with the world.
Do These Mysterious Stones Mark the Site of the Garden of Eden?
For the old Kurdish shepherd, it was just another burning hot day in the rolling plains of eastern Turkey. Following his flock over the arid hillsides, he passed the single mulberry tree, which the locals regarded as ‘sacred’. The bells on his sheep tinkled in the stillness. Then he spotted something. Crouching down, he brushed away the dust, and exposed a strange, large, oblong stone.
The man looked left and right: there were similar stone rectangles, peeping from the sands. Calling his dog to heel, the shepherd resolved to inform someone of his finds when he got back to the village. Maybe the stones were important.
They certainly were important. The solitary Kurdish man, on that summer’s day in 1994, had made the greatest archaeological discovery in 50 years. Others would say he’d made the greatest archaeological discovery ever: a site that has revolutionised the way we look at human history, the origin of religion – and perhaps even the truth behind the Garden of Eden.
via Link: Do these mysterious stones mark the site of the Garden of Eden?.
Derren Brown Interviewed by Richard Dawkins
The “Raiders” Story Conference
This readof the origional brainstorming session between George Lucas and Steven Spielberg where they are developing the Indiana Jones character is absolutely fascinating !
Hey, guys, you’re going to love this (and thanks, Viktor).
There is a link now available to download the 125-page transcript (in the form of a .pdf document) of the original 1978 story conference between Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, and Lawrence Kasdan for a little film called Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Some background first. Spielberg suggested that Kasdan write Raiders because he admired his Continental Divide script. Lucas agreed. Now, imagine with me: Lucas had just released Star Wars, the biggest film in the history of Hollywood and a cult phenomenon. Spielberg had just released Close Encounters of the Third Kind and before that, Jaws. Now Kasdan was called in to have a story conference with the biggest names in Hollywood who wanted to talk about their next blockbuster. The conference took place at the L.A. home of Jane Bay, who was Lucas’ assistant. They had 5 consecutive 9-hour days to talk about the story. This .pdf is a transcript from taped recordings of those meetings.
Interview With Peter Lamborn Wilson
If we take the net as a metaphor for that global society then it’s inevitable that Coca-Cola and Disney World will take over. Because that is the one world – if the net retains its anarchic quality, its egalitarianism, its horizontal structure, as opposed to its pyramidical structure, then a plurality of different personhoods are possible. True communicativeness, not so much communication as communicativeness, a quality of communication not just a spectacle of communication, with a deep heart to heart or what Sufi called a ‘breast to breast.’ It’s possible the net could be a tool for this, and that is why I have retained some interest in it, though I have become more and more cynical and pessimistic. In as much that the net will be taken over by the Coca-Cola culture, it’s just going to be another medium like all other media. If the net can resist the centralization of capital and the centralization of militarism then it could fight against false globalism for a real solidarity of peoples, but is this going to happen I don’t know.
