Crimson Twilight Recordings

I've spent some time recording the C64 music 'suite' that I wrote for an in-production and upcoming C64 CRPG called "Crimson Twilight", to be released by Arkanix Labs.

The music was written in and exported from GoatTracker v2.71 in .sid format, transferred to, played on and recorded using a real C64c with 8580 SID connected to a Dolby amp (with NR) in 'music' mode then input into a PC using gold leads.  The audio was captured using Audacity, with some noise reduction applied, the sound 'amplified' slightly due to lowish recording level and fade out added.

These recordings are the 8580 SID versions.  Versions for the 6581 iterations of the SID chip have also been written and will be recorded shortly.

The music track titles describe what the track will be used for in the game. All the tracks fade in the recordings fade after one play-through, but in the actual game they will loop continuously.

The music playlist should appear below, but if not can be accessed on SoundCloud here.

3D Galax Recording

A couple of days ago, C64CD released 'F15 D'Gamma Clone', an intro that featured a SID tune by me.  Information about the intro can be found here...

I wrote the music using a PC based tool called Goattracker.  The SID has been recorded using an 8580 SID equipped C64c, run through my Dolby amp.

The tune was started towards the end of 2018 after news of the death of Ben Daglish and was originally intended to be part of a tribute to him, but was unfortunately not completed. It has been finished recently for the above mentioned intro and is respectfully dedicated to his memory and legacy.

I've uploaded a recording to my SoundCloud account; listen to the tune's below. If the player does not appear, hear it on it's SoundCloud page here...

F15 D'Gamma Clone

T.M.R has been really busy with quite a few entries for the 'Intro Creation Compo 2019'!  His latest is called 'F15 D'Gamma Clone' and has been released using his C64CD label.  For this entry, I provided the SID music.

If you stalk follow T.M.R around the interwebs, you may have seen something similar to this before.  This intro is a 'conversion' of a crack intro that T.M.R coded for the Apple II, here.

On the C64CD site, T.M.R writes...

"The code and graphics are based on what was created for that original, Apple-flavoured release but with some reworking for the extra resolution of the C64 and converted to characters at the same time. The music was originally composed by Ben Daglish for the Amiga and Atari ST game 3D Galax, with the slick C64 conversion being used here being handled by aNdy.

The extra colour data and soundtrack for this C64 version mean that, if it were handled in the same way as the Apple II code did things, the final intro would have exceeded the competition’s 16K memory limit, but it’s worth noting dear reader that both machines are running at around the same speed so the C64 could have handled a more direct port."

As T.M.R mentions, the Goattracker written SID is a cover of 3D Galax by Ben Daglish, more specifically, the Amiga version of the tune.  I originally starting covering this tune towards the end of 2018, not long after the death of Ben and intended to use it in a dedication release, but unfortunately I just didn't have the time to complete it.

You can download the full intro from CSDb here.

You can also download it from this blog, which also includes the music as a stand-alone SID file, as well as in it's original Goattracker SNG file.  Click here.

You can read more about the intro on T.M.R's blogs here and here.

Alternatively, you can watch the intro in the YouTube video below!  If it doesn't appear, click here...

Funky Stars

There is an event on CSDb that has become almost annual now called the 'Intro Creation Competition'.  In this compo, entries must be created that could be an intro to something (such as a game crack) and must conform to a certain set of rules which I won't explain here, but if you're interested can be read here.

This competition is one of T.M.R's favourites and, since I've taken to coding on the C64 this past year, he suggested I take part.  I agreed but, not wanting to blacken the Cosine or Arkanix Labs names (C64 groups I'm a member of) in case I came last, I requested that it be released using T.M.R's other 'label', Commodore Crap Debunk (C64CD);  as a result, T.M.R has now made me a C64CD member!

Thus, after a few weeks of coding, pixelling and composing (yes, I did the lot!), C64CD has today released 'Funky Stars'.

This intro is so called because the music within it is a SID cover of an Impulse Tracker tune called 'Funky Stars' (but also know as 'Hybrid Song') by Quazar of Sanxion.

This little project has been quite interesting in the fact that one of the compo rules says that the intro must be 16K or under in the same block of memory.  This is not something I'm used to, so was an interesting challenge, particularly since my Goattracker SID ended up being over 3.5K in size.  Whoops!  To squeeze everything in to the same block, I ended up doing little tricks such as assembling the screen data straight to $0400, amongst other things.  Thanks to T.M.R for his guidance on this!

There was also some new learning here for me.  I've always been fascinated by the use of 'raster bars' on the C64 and although I knew it was something to do with writing colours values to each scanline, I've never previously attempted it until now!

Anyway, enough of the waffle!  If you would like to see the intro in action on an emulator or real hardware, it can be downloaded from CSDb here or direct from this blog here.  The download also contains the ACME source code and all work files, including the SID tune in it's Goattracker .sng format.

T.M.R has also written short pieces on his own blog here and on the main C64CD blog here, as well as recording a video of the intro in action.  The video should appear below, but if not can be found on YouTube here.

Gamerz Xtreme Theme Recording

A few days ago, Cosine released 'Gamerz Xtreme Intro 2', a C64 intro featuring music by me.  Information about the intro can be found here...

I wrote the music using a PC based tool called Goattracker.  The SID music from the intro has been recorded using a 8580 SID equipped C64c, run through my Dolby amp.

I've uploaded a recording to my SoundCloud account.  Listen to the music below; if the player does not appear, hear it on it's SoundCloud page here...

Gamerz Xtreme Intro 2

Cosine has released "Gamerz Xtreme Intro 2" which features a new SID tune by me!  T.M.R coded this intro after a request by Psycho Stick and will be used on the "Gamerz Xtreme" streaming channel, which I believe is moving from Twitch over to Mixer.

According to T.M.R on the Cosine website:

"..the final version of this [intro] was delivered in source code form with a configuration file and build script so, along with being able to add new text for the scrolling message, Psycho Stick could also tweak various visual elements including the raster effects. As the scrolling message notes, it's like an intro maker but without a user friendly interface... This intro would be valid as an Intro Creation Competition (ICC) entry since it only occupies the first 16K of RAM, but it's possible for the scrolling message to extend outside those boundaries if the need should arise."

T.M.R also has a personal blog entry sharing further thoughts about the intro.  Read that here.

As for the music, I was asked by T.M.R a few months back to compose an original tune and was given "S-Express" by C64 legend Jeroen Tel as a reference.  From this tune I surmised that a late 1980's sound was required, thus the "Gamerz Xtreme Theme" (as it became known to me) features quite simple sounding instruments with no filter use or effects. As was customary in the late 80's, the bass line and drums share a channel, while arpeggios chirp away on their own channel and a simple synth lead claims the third channel.  Hopefully I achieved the "sound" I was aiming for!

As mentioned above, T.M.R seemed insistent that the final intro build fit the requirements of an ICC entry, so while composing it occurred to me to set a similar challenge for myself.  There is a compo on CSDb called the "Crack Intro Music Competition" which, like the ICC compo, has a set of "rules" for music.  I followed these rules so in the end the music in this valid ICC entry is also valid for entry in the stand alone music compo!

And now the downloads; multiple sources as usual!  Grab the intro from CSDb here or from the Cosine website here.  If you fancy grabbing the intro as well as the music in SID format, along with the original Goattracker music work file for you to poke and prod, download from this blog here.

T.M.R has recorded a video of the intro in action.  It should appear below, but if not can be viewed on YouTube here.

Unused Shmup Tunes

Inspired by the music selectors that used to appear on C64 magazine cover tapes back in the day and because I had some unused tunes taking up space on my hard drive, I've (funnily enough) coded up a music selector, released today by Cosine!  It's rather awkwardly called 'The Unused Shmup Tune Selector' or 'Unused Shmup Tunes' for short.

The Cosine PETSCII logo was pixelled with and data exported from 'ChillED', a soon to be released C64 cross-dev screen editor.  Although I handled all the code, I must confess I was helped over the code finish line by T.M.R with regards that damned MSB thing.

These tunes, as usual, were composed in Goattracker and were originally planned for use in a shoot 'em up game that T.M.R was "planning" as part of a re-write to his existing assembly language tutorials... but, as is often the case with T.M.R, those tutorials ended up being pushed onto the back burner buy other projects and are currently being rather euphemistically referred to as a "work in progress".  Those are T.M.R's words from the Cosine website, not mine! :D

There's nothing amazing going on here code-wise, but as a relative newcomer to 6502, I'm pleasantly surprised how easy it is to recycle sprites, with up to 24 sprites being displayed on occasion in the logo 'pulse' and star field.

The music selector can be download from this blog here.  The download contains the .prg file to run on a C64 or emulator as well as the ACME formatted source and all binaries and work files, including the music files in their original Goattracker .sng format.

It can also be downloaded from the Cosine website here or from the CSDb here.  If you are so inclined, all the files are also available from GitHub here.

T.M.R has written a short piece about the release on his blog here and recorded a video of the music selector in action and uploaded it to YouTube.  The video should appear below, but if not can be viewed here.

Super Galax-I-Birds Recording

A few days ago, C64CD released 'Super Galax-I-Birds', a new C64 gallery blaster featuring code, graphics and music by yours truly!  Information about the game can be found here...

I wrote the music using a PC based tool called Goattracker.  The SID music from the game has been recorded using a 8580 SID equipped C64c, run through my Dolby amp.

I've uploaded a recording to my SoundCloud account which includes the title track, a 'get ready' style hit, the in-game tune and another short 'game over' style blast.  Listen to the music below; if the player does not appear, hear it on it's SoundCloud page here...

Stardust Music Recording

Yesterday, Arkanix Labs released 'Stardust Music', my new C64 8580 SID music collection.  Information about the collection can be found here...

I wrote the music using a PC based tool called Goattracker.  The SID's have been recorded using a 8580 SID equipped C64c, run through my Dolby amp.

I've just uploaded a recording to my SoundCloud account; listen to the tune's below. If the player does not appear, hear it on it's SoundCloud page here...

Stardust Music

Arkanix Labs has released my small collection of C64 8580 SID tunes called 'Stardust Music' which are covers of music from the Amiga game 'Stardust'.  The original Amiga tunes were written by Risto Vuori.  The SID's have been released within a little music selector featuring a C64 version of the Stardust logo, that I pixelled years ago, and a new charset font in the scroller.

The C64 code to display this was originally provided by T.M.R and was used for some earlier, simple releases.  On this occasion however, I've actually pulled my finger out, learned some 6502 assembler and added code to detect machine type the music is running on (PAL/NTSC/Drean), key detection to be able to select the tunes and sprite display to show various pieces of information.

The machine detection alters the display and the music played, since PAL and NTSC machines run at slightly different speeds.  It was a nice coding challenge.

Special thanks must go to T.M.R and Moloch for their ongoing 6502 coding mentoring, help and support!

The music collection can be downloaded from CSDb here or direct from this blog here.  Both downloads offer a .d64 disk image for C64, both PAL and NTSC SID 8580 files and the music in it's original SNG Goattracker format.  The download from this blog also contains the graphic files in their original formats.

EDIT: Rudi has added an entry for Stardust Music on Pouët here...

EDIT 2:  It seems someone has taken the time to make a video of this little music selector and put it up on YouTube.  The video should appear below but if not, it's on the page here...

Sgrechian Recording

Yesterday, Cosine released 'Level One', an entry into the 'Crack Intro Creation Competition 2018' on CSDb.  The intro features a new C64 8580 SID tune called 'Y Sgrechian o Jarre' which I wrote a couple of years ago.  Information about the  C64 intro and compo can be found here...

I wrote the music for the intro using a PC based tool called Goattracker.  The SID has been recorded using a 8580 SID C64c run through my Dolby amp.

I've just uploaded a recording to my SoundCloud account; listen to the SID tune below. If the player does not appear, hear it on it's SoundCloud page here...

Level One

Cosine has released 'Level One' today featuring a small SID that I wrote a couple of years ago.  'Level One' is an entry into the CSDb 'Intro Creation Competition 2018' organised by Didi.

From the Cosine website:

"T.M.R's final entry into the 2018 Intro Creation Competition is Level One, a game-flavoured release with full screen scrolling and twenty six characters of text in the two black bands above and below it. The graphics in the centre of the screen were drawn to use Extended Background Colour Mode which reduces the font to 64 characters but gives four possible background colours for each character; this means there's five colours in play but the code doesn't have to scroll the colour RAM."

"Despite being the last ICC 2018 entry produced by T.M.R this was actually the first one started a few days after the competition was announced. The intro was built around prototype versions of the border area code."

As with the music for 'Oldest Style', the music was originally written for the CSDb 'Crack Intro Music Competition 2017', but ended up not being used because it was too long and didn't work well on a 6581 SID; it was written with 8580 in mind.  It has been finished and used here instead

The name of the music is 'Y Sgrechian o Jarre', which is Welsh for 'The Scream of Jarre'.  Named because of the BBC style radiophonic type 'scream' at the start and as I was writing it, some sounds/patterns in it reminded me of Jarre's 'Calypso 1' from 'Waiting for Cousteau'.

The intro can be downloaded from the Cosine website here or it's compo entry page on CSDb here...

You can also download the intro direct from this blog, with the .zip file including not only the demo on a .d64 image, but the music as a .sid file to run through SIDPlay or similar and the music in .sng format which can be loaded into Goattracker, the utility in which it was composed.  Just click here...

T.M.R has also recorded a video of the intro in action and uploaded it to YouTube.  The player should appear below, but if not watch it here...

Paranoimia March Recording

Yesterday, Arkanix Labs released 'Paranoimia March', a new C64 8580 SID.  Information about the SID can be found here...

I wrote the music using a PC based tool called Goattracker.  The SID has been recorded using a 8580 SID equipped C64c, run through my Dolby amp.

I've uploaded the recording to my SoundCloud account; listen to the SID tune below. If the player does not appear below, hear it on it's SoundCloud page here...

Paranoimia March

Arkanix Labs has released my new C64 8580 SID tune called 'Paranoimia March', which is cover of the classic music from the Paranoimia Amiga cracktros.

The SID has been released in a nice little 'wrapper' consisting of a 3 colour bitmap logo (drawn a few years ago, see information here) and new charset font based on the text from Star Trek:TNG, rendered in UltrafontPC.

As with the 'Loopit-C64-Ever' release a couple of days ago, the C64 code to display this was provided by T.M.R and has been used with his permission here for this release.  I did make some minor modifications to the code including fixes for screen flickers when running under NTSC (thanks to Moloch for testing), but not really enough to warrant me crediting myself with coding!

The SID can be downloaded from CSDb here or direct from this blog here.  Both downloads offer the C64 PRG executable version (PAL and NTSC flavours), a SID file and the music in it's original SNG Goattracker format.

Loopit-C64-Ever Recording

Yesterday, Arkanix Labs released 'Loopit-C64-Ever', my new C64 8580 SID.  Information about the SID can be found here...

I wrote the music using a PC based tool called Goattracker.  The SID has been recorded using a 8580 SID equipped C64c, run through my Dolby amp.

I've just uploaded a recording to my SoundCloud account; listen to the SID tune below. If the player does not appear, hear it on it's SoundCloud page here...

Bas Braster Recording

Yesterday, Cosine released 'Oldest Style', an entry into the 'Crack Intro Creation Competition 2018' on CSDb.  The intro features a new C64 8580 SID tune called 'Bas Braster' written by yours truly.  Information about the intro and compo can be found here...

I wrote the music for the intro using a PC based tool called Goattracker.  The SID has been recorded using a 8580 SID C64c run through my Dolby amp.

I've just uploaded a recording to my SoundCloud account; listen to the SID tune below. If the player does not appear, hear it on it's SoundCloud page here...

Oldest Style

Another Cosine release today featuring a short tune by me!  'Oldest Style' is an entry into the CSDb 'Intro Creation Competition 2018' organised by Didi.

T.M.R has (kind of) billed this intro as a 'sequel of sorts' to a Cosine entry to the same competition from 2014 and he explains that while it may look simple, the code...

"jumps through quite a few hoops in order to make an otherwise silly technique work, using unrolled code and waiting for the C64's raster register to change before updating over 184 scanlines. There's further unrolled code updating those routines as well to animate them so this intro decrunches from $0400 to just shy of $3fff."

The music was originally written (along with a couple of other unfinished efforts) for the CSDb 'Crack Intro Music Competition 2017', but ended up not being used because it was too long and didn't work well on a 6581 SID; it was written with 8580 in mind.  It has been finished and used here instead, having been given the name 'Bas Braster' which is Welsh for... well, just look it up...

The intro can be downloaded from the Cosine website here or it's compo entry page on CSDb here...

You can also download the intro direct from this blog, with the .zip file including not only the demo on a .d64 image, but the music as a .sid file to run through SIDPlay or similar and the music in .sng format which can be loaded into Goattracker, the utility in which it was composed.  Just click here...

T.M.R has also recorded a video of the intro in action and uploaded it to YouTube.  The player should appear below, but if not watch it here...

Bat-Tro Recording

Back in 2017, Cosine released a small demo called MD201703 - The Bat-Tro.  Information about and a download for the release can be found here...

I wrote the music for the demo using a PC based tool called Goattracker.  It is a cover of the level 1 music 'Gotham City Street' from the 1990 SEGA Megadrive game 'Batman'.  The SID has been recorded using a 8580 SID C64c run through my Dolby amp.

Listen to the SID tune below; if the player does not appear, hear it on my SoundCloud page here...

My Lucky Number (SID in Progress)

Here is a 'work in progress' C64 double speed SID cover of a 2018 Amiga mod called 'My Lucky Number' by Virgill.  The track is being covered using 'Goattracker'.

This is only a test recording of part of the track, taken from my real 8580 SID equipped C64c and passed through my Dolby amp.  There is still much work to be done on the remaining part of the tune and lot's of tinkering with the sounds / instruments. The SID will hopefully be used in a future C64 production of some sorts, either from Arkanix Labs or Cosine.

This cover has the 'blessing' of Virgill.  Please listen to the original Amiga version (from a 2018 Amiga intro) here...

If the player doesn't appear below, hear the SID on my SoundCloud page here...
 

Uridium 2 Music Covers (SID vs. POKEY)

Here are my C64 SID and Atari 8bit POKEY covers of Jason Page's loading music from the amazing Amiga game 'Uridium 2' by Andrew Braybrook.

The SID version was written and released in 2015 as part of a C64 music collection called 'SID Doing Paula', a collection of Amiga mod covers written in Goattracker.  It was a 'hidden' bonus tune. The SID has been recorded using a 8580 SID C64c run through my Dolby amp.  Information about the original C64 collection is here...

The POKEY triple speed cover was released in 2018 as part of the 'New Years Disk' collection arranged on the AtariAge forum.  It was written in RASTER Music Tracker so I could get my head around the POKEY chip. The original Atari 8bit demo in which the tune is featured is here...

The original Amiga version can be found on SoundCloud and YouTube.

If the players don't appear below, hear the music on my SoundCloud page. The SID page is here and the POKEY page is here.