Commodore Remix

I hope this hasn't been done a thousand times before (sorry if it has) but this seemed like a good place to post.

I'm currently in the planning stage for writing an article on the C64 music scene ("then and now") for a national magazine, and wanted to include within it a "top 10" of C64 music.

In order to put it together I was hoping you C64 music fans would be so kind as to help my by sending me your votes for what, in your opinion, form the top three pieces of original (not remixed) C64 music.

For each vote I would like the artist and the game in which the music appeared (I don't want to go into the detail of individual sub-tunes). Hopefully I'll get enough votes to put a worthwhile top 10 together.

If you would like to participate, please post your three votes in this thread or email me at "c64music (at) adam dawes dot {com}".

Many thanks,

YO ADAM !!!! DOOOOOOOOD !!

Ok nada prob... here goes.... my top 10 - based on catchiness rather than technichal ability and sound.

1. Ocean Loader - Martin Galway
2. BMX Simulator - David Whittaker
3. Warhawk - Rob Hubbard
4. Thrust - Rob Hubbard
5. Stormlord - Tel+Bjerregaard
6. IK+ - Rob Hubbard
7. Hunters Moon - Martin Walker (i think)
8. Marble Madness - no idea
9. Delta - Rob Hubbard
0. Hawkeye - Jeroen Tel (i think)

Sorry its 10 and not 3 but im statisticly insane you see .. the guys here will vouch for me

So... Adam, why so few posts man - Hey, ya doing BitLIVE this year ? Hope so...

01. Thrust & Sanixon by Rob Hubbard
02. Trap by Ben Daglish
03. Loopz by David Whittaker
04. Ocean Loader V2 by Martin Galway
05. Demonic by Neil Baldwin
06. Max Headroom by David Whittaker
07. Arkanoid by Martin Galway
08. R1D1 by RATT
09. Knuckle Buster by Rob Hubbard
10. Panther by David Whittaker


cheers ifadeo

Hard.

1 - Ben Daglish - Last Ninja: First level theme
2 - Martin Galway - Rambo - Title theme
3 - Matt Gray - Last Ninja 2: Streets loading theme

...and many many more ofcourse. I'd probably change that list many times if left to my own devices. But I shall leave that as is.... for now!

Feekzoid wrote:Hard.

indeed!

1 hubbard - commando (title)
2 tel / maniacs of noise - turbo outrun (title)
3 vaca / hülsbeck / hartwig - turrican (title)

/arvid

1- Phantoms of the Asteroid - Hubbard
2- Monty on the Run - Hubbard
3- Nemesis - Hubbard
4- Rambo - Galway
5- Trap - Der ah ger lish
6- Sanxion - Hubbard
7- Delta - Hubbard
8- Battle of Britain - Hubbard
9- Spellbound - erm, who did this? oh yes.. Hubbard :o)
10- One man and his Droid - Hubbard

(can you see a pattern ?)

AdamDawes wrote:For each vote I would like the artist and the game in which the music appeared (I don't want to go into the detail of individual sub-tunes). Hopefully I'll get enough votes to put a worthwhile top 10 together.

The fact you refer to games leads me to the worrying conclusion that you may omit to mention the exciting PD scene, which arguably produced some of the very best C64 music (and, indeed, some of my favourites).

Anyway, my three as of this moment:

1. Luminous/Moz(ic) Art (PD)
2. Retrograde/Steve Rowlands (from the game Retrograde)
3. The Puma/JCH (PD)

CraigG wrote:The fact you refer to games leads me to the worrying conclusion that you may omit to mention the exciting PD scene, which arguably produced some of the very best C64 music (and, indeed, some of my favourites).

Again a good point, Craig. Some of my favourites are tunes done for something other than games - the demo scene, for example, has some fantastic tracks to choose from. The Dutch Breeze demo is one of my favourites but just failed to make my selection.

I've tried to put together a top 3 but failed miserably and got as far as a top 20. I've listed them in order of artist as checked via SidPlay.

Dark Side - Wally Beben (Hagar)
Total Eclipse - Wally Beben (Hagar)
Sweet - Johannes Bjerregaard
Trap - Ben Daglish
Darkness Comes - Feekzoid
Sly Spy - Geoff Follin
Gauntlet III - Tim Follin
Parallax - Martin Galway
Game Over - Martin Galway
Dominator - Matt Gray
Driller - Matt Gray
Vendetta - Matt Gray
Flash Gordon - Rob Hubbard
Beyond The Forbidden Forest - Paul Norman
Last Ninja 3 - Reyn Ouwehand
No Mercy - Markus Schneider
Digi-Piece for Telecomsoft - Jeroen Tel
Turbo Outrun - Jeroen Tel
Secret Project - Martin Walker
Dominion - Martin Walker

Currently listening to the Beyond The Forbidden Forest music while I type this so that one is probably a top 3 contender. It is so hard to narrow down a No.1 because the vast majority of the SID music is of such a high standard.

Paul

Thanks for all your votes guys, please keep them coming!

To respond to a couple of questions:

Matrix: Hello mate, how's it going? Been quiet of late as I'm experimenting with what "retro" game to remake next now that my last project is finished, so I'm deep into C++ and physics engines at the moment. I definitely hope to be at the next BITLive, the last one was too great for words.

CraigG: To be honest, I was intending to only include games. I'm very aware of the demo scene (and was heavily involved in it in the Amiga days).

The reasons behind my decision are: (1) I don't know that the readership would be particularly aware of the demo scene, (2) there are so many thousands of quality demo tunes that the votes would most likely be too widely distributed for anything to get more than a couple of votes, and (3) I think the demo scene is something that deserves far more than a passing mention, it deserves another article all to itself. Don't know whether that will happen but I could barely scratch the surface here.

I'm looking forward to seeing more votes!

Thanks,

But it would be OK to nominate music from a recent C64 game (would it have to be commercial or does freeware releases work too?), since the article will talk about C64 music then and now?

Anders,

You can vote for whatever you like, but I'll only be including the ten that get the most votes.

The "now" bit is primarily referring to things like C64Audio, BIT CDs and live events, this message board, remix.kwed.org, etc. but you can certainly vote for recent releases, commercial or otherwise, if that's what you consider to be best.

Ok, so Jukka in the newsgroup understood you correctly about the "now" part. Anyway, my current top three should be, in no particular order:

• Delta (ingame) - Rob Hubbard
• Tetris - Wally Beben
• Heart of Africa - Dave Warhol

Paul Chapman wrote:Again a good point, Craig. Some of my favourites are tunes done for something other than games - the demo scene, for example, has some fantastic tracks to choose from. The Dutch Breeze demo is one of my favourites but just failed to make my selection.

I've tried to put together a top 3 but failed miserably and got as far as a top 20. I've listed them in order of artist as checked via SidPlay.

Dark Side - Wally Beben (Hagar)
Total Eclipse - Wally Beben (Hagar)
Sweet - Johannes Bjerregaard
Trap - Ben Daglish
Darkness Comes - Feekzoid
Sly Spy - Geoff Follin
Gauntlet III - Tim Follin
Parallax - Martin Galway
Game Over - Martin Galway
Dominator - Matt Gray
Driller - Matt Gray
Vendetta - Matt Gray
Flash Gordon - Rob Hubbard
Beyond The Forbidden Forest - Paul Norman
Last Ninja 3 - Reyn Ouwehand
No Mercy - Markus Schneider
Digi-Piece for Telecomsoft - Jeroen Tel
Turbo Outrun - Jeroen Tel
Secret Project - Martin Walker
Dominion - Martin Walker

Currently listening to the Beyond The Forbidden Forest music while I type this so that one is probably a top 3 contender. It is so hard to narrow down a No.1 because the vast majority of the SID music is of such a high standard.

Paul

Gave it some more thought as to a top 3 from the 20 I listed. BTFF has, reluctantly, got shoved down to 4th place.

Eventually gave you what you asked for, Adam.

1. Parallax - Martin Galway
2. Vendetta - Matt Gray
3. Gauntlet III - Tim Follin

Paul

Fair enough points regarding the demo scene, although I see that as being very much linked to what's going on now (indeed, some of the people from said scene are composing the remixes on the R64 CDs). Maybe in your top 10 you should therefore state clearly that it's a top 10 C64 games tunes, but using better words and less of them.

A revised top 3, composed of game tunes only:

1. Retrograde: Steve Rowlands
2. Delta: Rob Hubbard
3. Parallax: Martin Galway

As I did not want to give all the first entry to Matt (as usual), I add even other authors:

1) Last Ninja II - Matt Gray
2) Yie ar kung fu II - Martin Galway
3) The Great Giana Sister - Chris Huelsbeck

bye
S.T.