User:Professor Chaos
From Video Game Music Preservation Foundation Wiki
Hi there! You came from a page you were interested in and wonder what the editor is like? Why he would write what he wrote, what you can expect?
Contents
Things I do
- I read all messages, just not always immediately know what to reply.
- I'm a programmer at heart and retrieve lots of info (even times) by reading machine code like novels.
- I prefer few big edits over many small ones. When I get tired of sticking on something too long, I keep drafts on my local drive, wrap unfinished parts with degree-signs (°) as a reminder, and copy-paste finished parts into the VGMPF. I try to say more in less, though I used to go too far and write unnatural or complicated.
- Instead of making in-game screenshots, try making videos! Using a lossless codec of course. Play comfy, extract frames later using VirtualDub or VLC.
Help appreciated
- Musical analyses like on Bionic Commando Theme or Player Touroku - Yuuyuu Jinsei (PCE). I'm "only" confident at history and technology like on Space Game - One Man and His Droid (C64) or The Purser Stole My Gun.
- Contact classic developers. I always hesitate, despite small success. Never had a Facebook or LinkedIn account, but they let me see pages anyway—sometimes.
- I can be really indecisive and unsure about how people want something. I feel it's best to read other editors' pages, experiment (and return later if I still like it), point out options in talk pages, and wait if others want to act or answer.
Sources
...for credits, interviews, narrowed-down release dates etc.
- archive.org: In the middle (not the top), enter the name of a game, person or device (better in double quotes), click Search text contents and GO. On the left, you can choose years; maybe move the mouse over DATE ARCHIVED and click Date Published. Remember OCR can misspell. For example, I found a bit more about Jochen Heß by typing "jochen heB" or "jochen hefi".
- amr.abime.net: Magazine review months (not only on Amiga).
- musipedia.org: Rather outdated, but the Flash piano did point me to several songs in Plum Duff (ZXS).
Writing history
Games and series
See also User:Professor Chaos/List of Interactive or Random Songs.
- ?: I haven't properly checked if the port has music.
- —: I didn't do anything there, I just acknowledge that the port exists.
- ...: Nearly finished, including text, but on hiatus... hopefully I'll refocus.
People and companies
...excluding voices. Approximately sorted by how much I added to their general or audio development section (most first):
- Created: Johannes Bjerregaard, Holger Gehrmann, Matthias Steinwachs, Markus Schneider, Julie Dunn, Peter Liepa, Ramiro Vaca, Karsten Obarski, Jay Derrett, Computec Media, Robert Allen, A.U.D.I.O.S.-Entertainment, Volker Strübing, Jeroen Kimmel, Markt & Technik Verlag, Jochen Heß, Binary Design, Hans-Hermann Franck, Karl Hörnell, Oliver Klaewer, Game-o-ware, Paul Norman, Paolo Galimberti, Petrik Salovaara, Idea, Robert Hartshorne, Andras Molnar, Bob Yannes, Gábor Pongyor, Marcel Donné, Musicon Design, Microillusions, EAS Software, Graham Jarvis, Newsfield Publications, Jean-Michel Jarre, Inhome Software, Péter Varga, Maarten Smit, Pablo Toledo, K-Byte, Bernhard Arenz, Pixel Painters, CSW Group, The Flexible Arts, Tobias Herre, Jeroen Soede, John Fitzpatrick, Steven Baumrucker, David Martin, Palladix, Ian Crabtree, Patrick Payne, Neil Higgins, The Programming Partnership, Vangelis, Graham Marsh, HUMM, Vladimir Kononenko, Paul Summers, The Beatles, Tommy Dunbar, Johnny Klonaris, Gábor Ligeti, Matthias Deutsch, Tamás Révbíró, Mark Harrison, Markus Müller, Joe Simko, Dietmar Heß.
- Expanded: Chris Hülsbeck, Clever Music, Jason Brooke, Rainbow Arts, David Whittaker, Charles Callet, Peter Clarke, Mark Cooksey, Rob Hubbard, Kris Hatlelid, Chris Grigg, Thomas Detert, Rudolf Stember, Keith Tinman, Bob Landwehr, Georg Brandt, Appaloosa Interactive, Barry Leitch, Andrew Cotter, Matt Gray, Paul Hughes, David Thiel (surname), HAL Laboratory, Ray Norrish, Roy Davis, Mike Webb.
Technical
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- Miscellaneous:
- Assembly
- AY-3-8910 - Channels
- NTSC/PAL - Recording Guide
- PlayMOD
- Pulse code modulation - sections
- Sound Wave - Envelopes, Filters, Hard Sync, Ring Modulation
- Amiga - some cleanup, added clock and mixing info
- Amstrad CPC
- Atari 8-bit - speaker
- Atari ST - MIDI, screen resolutions, TOS
- SNDH - Technical
- TFMXMMTEX-Editor
- BBC Micro
- Commodore 64 - starting from loaders, all except two addon names
- 6581 - most
- DeepSID
- Magic Voice
- SID - infobox, first and third paragraph
- SID - Recording Guide
- Drivers: K-Byte (C64 Driver), Rob Hubbard (C64 Driver), Unknown C64 Driver, Source (C64 Driver)
- Editors: All of 'em! Except Dr. T's KCS and Music Construction Set.
- Commodore 128
- DOS - general music and sound
- AdLib Sound Driver - most of general, version history and technical
- AdLib Visual Composer - edited third of general
- KSM - tempo info
- LDS - availability info, different icon
- OPL2 - modes, vibrato and tremolo
- PC-Soundman - half
- PlayROL - half of general
- Sound Blaster 16
- VCL - infobox, technical, rewrote general
- Plus/4
- VIC 20
- Windows - MIDI
- ZX Spectrum - loudspeaker
- Peripherals: ADD-ON, Fuller Box, ZXM Sound Box, 3-Channel Sound Unit
Personal
Favorite composers
- Chris Hülsbeck (more on Amiga than on C64, like quite some people say)
- Dan Froelich
- Jason Brooke (as a musician, too, but more as a programmer)
- Jochen Heß
- Julie Dunn
- Karsten Obarski
- Markus Schneider
- Martin Galway
Favorite songs
Uh, way too many to mention... so better get started! More on Editor's Favorite Songs.
| Song | Game | Arranger | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1988 |  |
Title | Firefly (C64) | Fred Gray |
| 1988 | |
All | Lazer Tag (C64) | Jason Brooke |
| 1988 |  |
All except Spherical I | Spherical (AST) | Stefan Jeworowski |
| 1990 | |
High Scores | X-Out (C64) | Ramiro Vaca, Adam Bulka, Michael Hendriks |
| 1990 | |
All except Menu | StarTrash (C64) | Chris Hülsbeck, Ramiro Vaca |
| 1990 | |
Title, In-Game | Stone Edge (C64) | Markus Schneider |
| 1991 | |
All | Vincent (C64) | Frank Schäfers |
| 1991 | |
Title | P.P.Hammer (C64) | Thomas Detert |
| 1991 |  |
Modern Arts (OPL2) - Rock'n Roll (DOS) | Rock'n Roll (DOS) | Jochen Heß |
| 1992 |  |
Boss Panic, Ending, Credits | Apidya (AMI) | Chris Hülsbeck |
| 1992 |  |
(I Can't Play The) Violin | Murder Makes Strange Deadfellows (DOS) | Paul Norman |
| 1993 | |
Song 1-1 | God of Thunder (DOS) | Roy Davis |
| 1994 | |
Title, Credits | Saliva Kid (C64) | Rene Kretzschmar |
| 1994 | |
Story | Cheeky Twins II (C64) | Jan Krolzig |
| 1995 | |
World Atlas | Atlas (DOS) | Unknown |
| 1995 | |
All | Rollin (DOS) | Karsten Koch |
| 1996 | |
funny | Charly the Clown (DOS) | Steffen Kleinke |
| 1996 |  |
All | Gene Machine (DOS) | Ian McCue |
Platforms
I LOVE to be able to mute voices and see notes and instrument settings. Not these boring fractals in Windows Media Player and Winamp.
To me, learning a platform consists of 4 parts: CPU, audio, emulators, and the "community". I only want the most accurate emulators and pedantically compare them with YouTube videos of real machines. The "community" is hardest: Who and what are the most popular composers, editors, working styles, magazines, exclusive games? I can understand audio code on about every platform, yet compare how much I could write about the Commodore 64 and how little on the Commodore 16.
Occasionally, I peek at platforms I've never seen for real, typically when I notice something I know from elsewhere, like my all-time favorite comic series. Not all platforms hold my interest long, though. The best indicator will be the technical column:
| Technical | Personal | |
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How it all began. Around 1987, my father heard of "the new C64". 4 years later, he filmed me playing Boulder Dash (C64)! Another 6 years later, he dictated my first BASIC program and gave me books. I read On the Edge: The Spectacular Rise And Fall of Commodore a few years before Martin Galway recommended it on his (formerly public) Facebook page. My tunes. |
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I've had many PCs since 1992, but my oldest now is the left one. I wish we had kept more, they would come handy for recording now. But it was typical: Nobody thought that retrogaming will be a thing. My older MIDI keyboard works fine with the SB16. I'm not yet ready to record from Roland and Windows (unless definitely made for its dumb built-in Ad Lib driver). |
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I made a clean rip of Impossible Mission II (NES), but on the whole I'm sure the NES community does not need me. Other platforms need me. | My father bought us one in the 1990s, though to this day, I have only 8 games. As I got into programming, consoles couldn't cut it. They got a renaissance in early 2002, when I discovered the NESticle emulator, which really taught me about waveforms and vibrato. Seeing that the NES is 6502-based was a relevation: Could I write NES games? Found many technical docs, homebrew sources, switched between NESten and FCE Ultra, did a few rips, and indeed a few ports of games and songs. All junk. Lost interest in mid-2004. But FCE's debugger rocked! |
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See NES. Plus Super Game Boy. I actually watched TV commercials for a while, which is really why my mother drove me to Toys "R" Us and we bought Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island (SNES). | |
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Learned and disliked its custom Z80. Reconciled when I saw that the real Z80 has index registers. | Handhelds are the best! This must be why I have 16 games, two Game Boys from my siblings (no idea if they still work), and a Game Boy Color. |
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WinUAE since 2000 (not 4.9...). Started using DeliPlayer in late 2002. Composed using Modplug Tracker from 2003 to 2004. Used the Winfellow emulator for a while, because it had a debug button and I didn't care for accuracy then. Nowadays using Delix (rev. 9). For videos, set Capture before filtering on, Video Microsoft Video 1, compression quality 100, and data rate off. | My brother had one around 1993, probably an Amiga 600. Not even he remembers what happened to it. I loved watching him and his pals play until it was all just Hired Guns (AMI). Myself, I played The Great Giana Sisters (AMI) and acknowledged Chris Hülsbeck's compositions before I did on the C64.
Just before lockdown 2020, my other brother lent me an Amiga 500, in turn lent from someone he hasn't met in 20 years. Most disks don't work (or maybe the disk drive broke on my watch...). Everyone seems to experience that 5'25" last much longer than 3'5"! |
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While I don't get how anyone can prefer these color clashes so much over the C64, I know when to be impressed. See Savage (ZXS) and Astro Marine Corps (ZXS)! |
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First saw this strange platform in VICE 1.x... |
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First saw it in VICE 1.x. Boy, was it ugly. |
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Best AY-3-8910 platform, because stereo! |
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Found the ST's combination of graphics and audio surreal. |
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Martin Galway. 'nuff said. | |
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Cool OPN2! | |
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Coded a MOD player without effects in NO$GBA, to see if I can. | My father got my mother a Nintendo DS with Brain Age (NDS) for her birthday in 2008. Later we got another DS and a 3DS. I loved Brain Age, Professor Layton and Rhythm Heaven (NDS). And Giana Sisters DS (NDS) until I touched the end-of-level flag without collecting all crystals. Thought I'm grown up? |
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Can't get my head around Apple, like there's more than meets the eye. | Pick'n Pile (A2GS) doesn't work at all. |
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Would rather recheck emulators before doing another page. | |
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Overrated, even for a console. :P Stella's debug colors are great fun! Always wished C64 emulators had that. |
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Characteristic noise basses. |
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Somehow likable, especially the colors! Worse audio than expected, except Daley Thompson's Star Events (CP4). |
