Theme - Boulder Dash

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Theme
Composer Peter Liepa
Released 1984-0?-??
Title Origin Game Location

Theme is the very first and most memorable song in the Boulder Dash series, composed by the game designer.

Composition

Liepa programmed a minimalist editor, possibly using Forth on his Atari 800, and composed right there for the POKEY chip.

The creative composition process is unknown, but most phrases can arguably be connected to a game element: Notes going up for the cave appearing, notes going down for jewels falling down, notes jumping up and down for randomness, repeated notes for Rockford standing, and syncopated notes for Rockford tapping his foot.

Liepa has always wanted to use traditional notation and a piano. In 2009, he transcribed Theme from his source code using Noteflight in C minor.

Games

Boulder Dash (A8)

Platform - A8.png
Boulder Dash (A8)
Output - POKEY.svg
Output - POKEY.svg
Boulder Dash - A8 - Main Menu.png
Arranger Peter Liepa
Programmer Peter Liepa
Released 1984-0?-??
Length 0:17.09 (NTSC)
0:20.54 (PAL)
BPM 225 (NTSC)
187 (PAL)
Format SAP
Loops Yes

Theme appears and disappears together with the title screen. Once it plays twice (minus the last note), the attract mode begins. Whenever you press the OPTION key or move the joystick in port 1, it starts counting loops from 0 again.

Liepa's blog post suggests that the finished notes from his editor were converted (automatically or manually) to numbers in 6502 assembly source code. Theme plays in F minor and 16-bit, which is more in pitch but also reduces POKEY's 4 voices to 2. Liepa's music driver continuously runs envelopes on every note: decay on the melody, attack on the bass.

To record two loops plus 10 seconds, OPTION was pressed before the end of the 2nd loop:

  1. in Altirra 3.90 with NTSC.
  2. in Altirra 3.90 with PAL.

Boulder Dash (C64)

Platform - C64.png
Boulder Dash (C64)
Output - SID.svg
Output - SID.svg
Boulder Dash - C64 - Main Menu.png
Arranger Unknown
Released 1984-0?-??
Length 0:16.79 (old NTSC)
0:17.12 (NTSC)
0:20.43 (PAL)
BPM 229 (old NTSC)
224 (NTSC)
188 (PAL)
Format SID
Loops Yes

Basically same as Boulder Dash (A8). Liepa's music driver was easily adjusted to the Commodore 64, since both are based on 6502 assembly. The song data is identical, only attack had to be rewritten.

Clearly, the arranger tried to be as close as possible, yet was new to the SID sound chip: All square waves were changed to the softer triangle waves, the first three bass notes are softer, all others have a tremolo, and the tuning is very unusual (even for the C64).

It was recorded:

  1. in VICE 3.2 with C64 old NTSC. It is tuned at 453 Hz. On newer NTSC C64s, the song is 2% slower, which is assumed too similar for an extra recording.
  2. on a real PAL C64C with an 8580 R5 4091. It is tuned at 436 Hz.

Besides that, it sounds the same on every machine.

Due to fans modifying the original games to create their own caves, Liepa is involuntarily credited on 1118 Commodore 64 games (as of GameBase64 v16), sometimes with changed waveforms or backwards.

Boulder Dash (ZXS)

Platform - ZXS.png
Boulder Dash (ZXS)
Arranger Unknown
Released 1984-1?-??
Format AY


Boulder Dash (A2)

Platform - A2.png
Boulder Dash (A2)
Arranger Unknown
Released 1984-??-??
Format UNK
Loops No


Boulder Dash (CV)

Platform - CV.png
Boulder Dash (CV)
Arranger Unknown
Released 1984-??-??
Format UNK


Boulder Dash (PCB)

Platform - PCB.png
Boulder Dash (PCB)
Arranger Peter Liepa
Programmer Peter Liepa
Released 1984-??-??
Format UNK
Loops Yes


Boulder Dash (CPC)

Platform - CPC.png
Boulder Dash (CPC)
Output - AY.svg
Boulder Dash - CPC - Main Menu.png
Arranger Unknown
Released 1985-0?-??
Length 0:20.44
BPM 188
Format YM
Loops Yes

Basically same as Boulder Dash (A8) on PAL. Liepa's music driver was translated line-by-line to Z80 assembly. The song data and envelopes are identical, only the volumes were doubled and increased by 1. The attract mode is now only postponed by the currently selected controls; no longer by the RETURN key, and no longer while any company logo shows.

It was recorded in WinAPE Version 2.0 Beta 2.

Boulder Dash (MSX)

Platform - MSX.png
Boulder Dash (MSX)
Arranger Unknown
Released 1985-0?-??
Format UNK


Boulder Dash (BBC)

Platform - BBC.png
Boulder Dash (BBC)
Arranger Ian Waugh
Released 1988-0?-??
Format UNK


Boulder Dash (ELEC)

Platform - ELEC.png
Boulder Dash (ELEC)
Arranger Ian Waugh
Released 1988-0?-??
Format UNK


Links