WEBVTT - The History of Music in Video Games 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:02.960 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray. 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:08.920 It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With 0:00:09.039 --> 0:00:18.000 tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello again, everyone, 0:00:18.040 --> 0:00:21.400 Welcome to tech stuff. My name is Chris Polette and 0:00:21.400 --> 0:00:24.560 I'm an editor here at how stuff works dot com. 0:00:24.640 --> 0:00:26.960 And I just made the person sitting across from me 0:00:27.080 --> 0:00:31.360 crack up his name entitled our senior writer, Jonathan Strickland. 0:00:32.240 --> 0:00:36.040 But reverse that. Yes, I love the band, we all do, 0:00:36.159 --> 0:00:38.680 but there's other things in life, you know that's more important. 0:00:40.240 --> 0:00:43.240 M hm uh yeah. Actually we're not gonna be talking 0:00:43.240 --> 0:00:46.599 a lot about bands per se, no, but we are 0:00:46.640 --> 0:00:51.240 talking about music, definitely the history of music and video games. 0:00:51.440 --> 0:00:54.840 And I have an interest in this because, of course, 0:00:54.880 --> 0:00:57.400 you know, I'm I'm a gamer. I enjoyed playing video games, 0:00:57.880 --> 0:01:04.200 but I really had early on a very deep fascination 0:01:04.280 --> 0:01:08.720 and admiration for some of the greats in video game music. 0:01:09.000 --> 0:01:11.679 And you have to remember, Chris and I both come 0:01:11.760 --> 0:01:15.399 from an era in which home video games either had 0:01:15.600 --> 0:01:18.119 no music at all when they first came out, or 0:01:18.200 --> 0:01:20.360 or no sounds at all when they first came out, 0:01:20.600 --> 0:01:26.880 or the sounds were let's call them primitive. Well, I, well, 0:01:27.520 --> 0:01:29.600 I don't know. I think that's uh, that may be 0:01:29.680 --> 0:01:33.560 an oversimplification because we had well, you know, the early 0:01:34.720 --> 0:01:39.800 palm games Boop. You're right, that's incredibly sophisticated. I retract 0:01:39.920 --> 0:01:44.920 my statement. Beat Boop is an amazing, amazing soundtrack. Okay, okay, 0:01:45.600 --> 0:01:48.120 let's just point that out now. We We've talked about 0:01:48.160 --> 0:01:51.680 the history of video games in different contexts in many 0:01:51.680 --> 0:01:56.320 in many podcasts, um. And not to get back into that, 0:01:56.400 --> 0:02:00.440 but you know, video games are are several decades old, now, Okay. 0:02:00.480 --> 0:02:03.160 The first one that I found, according to my research, 0:02:03.680 --> 0:02:09.680 was Pong Nolan Bushnell's amazing video game Pong with Magnificent Octopus, 0:02:10.639 --> 0:02:14.480 his Magnificent Octopus. I actually, actually I I still enjoy 0:02:14.560 --> 0:02:17.680 Pong to something degree. It's very simple, but sometimes the 0:02:17.720 --> 0:02:21.000 simple games are are fun. I was just played exclusively. 0:02:21.040 --> 0:02:23.280 If there's no paint for me to watch dry, I 0:02:23.320 --> 0:02:28.480 love a Pong alright, well, alright, but yes, I actually 0:02:28.560 --> 0:02:31.000 do like playing Pong too. I'm just I'm grouchy because 0:02:31.000 --> 0:02:35.880 my medication is wearing of note to self, don't record 0:02:35.960 --> 0:02:40.600 more podcasts with with Jonathan when he's sick. Um. So yeah, 0:02:40.600 --> 0:02:43.079 Pong Okay, we're not talking a lot of soundtrack here, 0:02:43.080 --> 0:02:45.399 but it did have at least have noise. It had 0:02:45.480 --> 0:02:49.240 sound sound effects that went along with the ball hitting 0:02:49.560 --> 0:02:52.200 the paddle and then of course the ball missing the paddle, 0:02:52.320 --> 0:02:57.720 also hitting the walls and hitting the walls yes, boop whoop. 0:02:58.160 --> 0:03:04.000 And to elaborate on that, before Palm came out, there 0:03:04.000 --> 0:03:08.600 were a few home game systems, but none of them 0:03:08.800 --> 0:03:13.880 incorporate sound. They were absolutely silent. Yep, yep. Now, UM 0:03:13.960 --> 0:03:17.520 one of the games that I had sort of forgotten about, 0:03:17.560 --> 0:03:21.360 and basically I went to UH in search of video 0:03:21.440 --> 0:03:23.959 game music history and I found it a really awesome 0:03:24.000 --> 0:03:26.200 timeline by Glenn McDonald out there. If you can find 0:03:26.240 --> 0:03:30.200 it should be pretty easy to find. UM. But he 0:03:30.480 --> 0:03:32.440 brought up one that I had completely forgotten and didn't 0:03:32.480 --> 0:03:34.440 think of as a video game, but and it's really 0:03:34.480 --> 0:03:37.520 I guess technically not but as an electronic game, Simon, 0:03:38.960 --> 0:03:42.880 And I didn't realize it was that old. UM. But yeah, Simon. 0:03:43.280 --> 0:03:48.480 It revolves around sound because you're trying to match the 0:03:48.520 --> 0:03:52.960 colors and and lights and sounds UM in a pattern. 0:03:53.080 --> 0:03:55.040 And it's a very very simple game. You just try 0:03:55.080 --> 0:03:57.040 to repeat it goes you know, from the first note 0:03:57.080 --> 0:03:58.960 to the second note of the third and you're supposed 0:03:59.000 --> 0:04:01.000 to repeat back the atter in it plays for you 0:04:01.040 --> 0:04:04.800 and until you finally miss one and it buzzes. It 0:04:04.840 --> 0:04:06.960 gets too complex for you to be able to follow. 0:04:07.240 --> 0:04:09.680 But but yeah, it's it's funny because I had I 0:04:09.720 --> 0:04:13.240 had completely not thought about that as an electronic uh, 0:04:13.280 --> 0:04:16.520 you know, a step in the history of electronic gaming 0:04:16.720 --> 0:04:20.240 and the sound UM. But the next one he mentioned 0:04:20.360 --> 0:04:23.680 was another favorite of mine back from my days hanging 0:04:23.680 --> 0:04:28.679 out at the skating rink, UM Tito's Gunfight UM, which 0:04:28.800 --> 0:04:32.560 was the first to use rather than using hardwired circuits, 0:04:33.440 --> 0:04:36.479 it used the actual microprocessor to make the sounds. Yeah, 0:04:36.520 --> 0:04:40.400 we should point out that these early game systems, everything 0:04:40.520 --> 0:04:43.480 was hardwired into the console. Like the Pong game. You 0:04:43.480 --> 0:04:46.400 couldn't play other games on that system. That's all it did. 0:04:46.880 --> 0:04:50.279 Let's play the variations of Pong, and so all the 0:04:50.320 --> 0:04:55.120 sounds that the console could make were hardwired into the circuitry. Um. 0:04:55.160 --> 0:04:57.840 There was nothing beyond that. And a lot of these 0:04:57.839 --> 0:05:02.360 early games like Simon, same thing. If you had assignment, 0:05:02.440 --> 0:05:05.200 It's not like you could suddenly play music. I mean, 0:05:05.240 --> 0:05:07.279 apart from music that would have four notes to it 0:05:07.360 --> 0:05:10.680 and a little noise if you got anything wrong wrong. 0:05:10.760 --> 0:05:13.440 You couldn't play a song on it, no, because it 0:05:13.560 --> 0:05:16.680 only had those four tones that was capable of making. Yes, 0:05:16.760 --> 0:05:22.480 now that's you know, in in contrast to two other machines. UM. Actually, 0:05:22.480 --> 0:05:24.120 it reminds me a little bit of Loops, which just 0:05:24.200 --> 0:05:27.239 came out in the last year. I have one of those. 0:05:27.320 --> 0:05:29.760 You do have loops, so do I. That's funny. I 0:05:29.800 --> 0:05:31.239 didn't know that, but yeah, you can. You can actually 0:05:31.240 --> 0:05:34.360 play music on that to some degree. But the sounds, 0:05:34.360 --> 0:05:39.680 they're far more advanced sounds on that. UM. Another system actually, 0:05:39.720 --> 0:05:43.719 one that I owned, the Attar, also had hardwired sounds 0:05:43.760 --> 0:05:46.680 on it. UM you were you were limited the people 0:05:46.720 --> 0:05:49.400 who would program games that would come on the cartridges, 0:05:49.400 --> 0:05:51.920 which are using ROMs you snap into place in the 0:05:51.960 --> 0:05:56.320 cartridge slot read only memory. Yes. Uh, the people who 0:05:56.320 --> 0:05:59.800 programmed games had to take advantage of the sounds that 0:06:00.000 --> 0:06:03.120 are hardwired into the console itself. It's a very limited 0:06:03.160 --> 0:06:06.880 sound library and so you know what what you had 0:06:06.920 --> 0:06:10.599 to deal with was, you know, your standard and lots 0:06:10.600 --> 0:06:15.159 of little I still remember the McDonald brought it up, 0:06:15.160 --> 0:06:19.440 but I still remember the tank sound from combat that right, Yeah, 0:06:19.520 --> 0:06:22.080 there were there were various beeps and bloops that were 0:06:22.120 --> 0:06:25.279 at different pitches, so you could make some very very 0:06:25.360 --> 0:06:29.800 primitive music. Essentially would program it, hard program it onto 0:06:29.880 --> 0:06:33.000 the cartridge and that would tell the console, okay, make 0:06:33.080 --> 0:06:38.400 these noises. So this is still like besides the Gunfight game. 0:06:38.920 --> 0:06:43.000 These are more like Simon, and as far as music goes, 0:06:43.040 --> 0:06:45.599 they're more like Simon than they are a computer with 0:06:45.720 --> 0:06:50.159 a dedicated sound card or system for handling sound files. Yes, 0:06:50.279 --> 0:06:54.440 just just to to clarify, Gunfight was an our standalone 0:06:54.520 --> 0:06:57.080 arcade game, and so was the initial version of Pong. 0:06:57.520 --> 0:07:02.159 But there were Pong in its many many clones made 0:07:02.200 --> 0:07:06.200 it into the home and along with the UM But 0:07:06.360 --> 0:07:09.880 do you know what the the first UH system was 0:07:10.040 --> 0:07:13.120 that took advantage that didn't have to be hardwired on 0:07:13.160 --> 0:07:16.400 a home system. UH. If I had to guess, I'd 0:07:16.400 --> 0:07:19.840 say it was the NES UH. No, Actually it was 0:07:20.040 --> 0:07:22.480 another system that you probably did not have. I don't 0:07:22.520 --> 0:07:26.760 think you've ever mentioned having that. The Odyssey to UH 0:07:27.640 --> 0:07:33.920 had programmable stop laughing, had programmable cartridges and the programmers 0:07:33.960 --> 0:07:37.760 could encode sound a sound library on the cartridge itself. 0:07:38.520 --> 0:07:42.720 Um so, and it also had speech synthesis, which explained 0:07:42.720 --> 0:07:46.160 why it sold so well. Oh wait a minute, the 0:07:46.200 --> 0:07:50.760 Intellivision also had speech synthesis usually was pretty primitive. There 0:07:50.760 --> 0:07:53.240 were normally just a few words that each game would 0:07:53.240 --> 0:07:58.320 be able to do. I had B seventeen balm or 0:07:58.640 --> 0:08:01.160 that's exactly how it's on it too. I'm not if 0:08:01.160 --> 0:08:02.880 any of you guys had that game out there, you 0:08:02.960 --> 0:08:06.280 know what I'm talking about. Well, actually, uh, McDonald said 0:08:06.280 --> 0:08:09.920 that Major League Baseball was the first talking game. Did 0:08:09.960 --> 0:08:15.320 you have that one with Strike? Yeah? Yeah, I had 0:08:15.360 --> 0:08:21.280 that game as well. I'm not proud of this, it's okay. Well, 0:08:21.320 --> 0:08:23.960 you know what. At the time though, it was, it 0:08:24.040 --> 0:08:27.760 was a big deal and it's funny. Uh Uh. One 0:08:27.800 --> 0:08:29.720 of the things that he that McDonald pointed out in 0:08:29.760 --> 0:08:34.480 his timeline was, um, even though these systems were primitive 0:08:34.920 --> 0:08:38.760 in terms of sound design and soundscaping, uh, compared to now, 0:08:38.800 --> 0:08:41.680 I mean what we have now we've got actual songs 0:08:41.760 --> 0:08:46.920 from regular recording arts that are actually encoded into the game. Um. Well, 0:08:47.000 --> 0:08:52.320 even without that level of sophistication, they still provided um 0:08:52.360 --> 0:08:55.920 a lot of context and character and richness for the 0:08:56.720 --> 0:09:00.880 game player. Uh. He specifically mentioned Space Invaders because you 0:09:00.960 --> 0:09:04.720 hear the marching and and as they get closer and 0:09:04.760 --> 0:09:08.240 closer to the planet, it speeds up, and you hear 0:09:08.280 --> 0:09:10.800 the sound of it speed up, and then that you know, constant, 0:09:11.400 --> 0:09:14.160 you know, triggers your panic response. It does. And you 0:09:14.160 --> 0:09:17.560 wouldn't think, you know, yeah, that's that's kids stuff, that's 0:09:17.600 --> 0:09:19.959 no big deal. It really does have an effect, and 0:09:19.960 --> 0:09:22.080 it has effect on how you feel when you're playing 0:09:22.120 --> 0:09:25.719 the game and increases your uh, your desire to kill 0:09:25.760 --> 0:09:28.360 off those little buggers so you can face another wave 0:09:28.400 --> 0:09:30.360 of those little buggers. And some of the early ar 0:09:30.440 --> 0:09:32.679 kid games like well, you know, things like pac Man 0:09:33.080 --> 0:09:37.440 and Donkey Kong had their little, little tiny elements of 0:09:37.520 --> 0:09:39.760 music to them. It was almost like a jingle for 0:09:39.840 --> 0:09:43.359 a commercial in the sense that it was not terribly sophisticated, 0:09:43.400 --> 0:09:47.440 not terribly lone, but very very catching. Right do do 0:09:47.440 --> 0:09:51.600 do do do do do? Yeah, you can do that 0:09:51.679 --> 0:09:53.520 if you if you try that to someone and they 0:09:53.559 --> 0:09:55.559 do that what Chris just did. That means that they 0:09:55.559 --> 0:09:57.560 were around in the early eighties and they played a 0:09:57.559 --> 0:10:00.760 lot of Donkey Kong yes um Unfo Sinately, as I 0:10:00.800 --> 0:10:03.559 was doing research for this podcast, I got sidelined by 0:10:03.640 --> 0:10:06.680 VG Music dot com is the video game Music Archive, 0:10:08.000 --> 0:10:10.719 and it has all those different files that you could 0:10:10.760 --> 0:10:13.640 listen to the music from those video games. There's a 0:10:13.679 --> 0:10:16.480 good hour of my life that just disappeared, and I 0:10:16.520 --> 0:10:19.360 don't know where it went. Well, let's do you mind 0:10:19.440 --> 0:10:20.960 if I if I skip ahead a bit. I mean 0:10:21.320 --> 0:10:23.160 we're talking about a lot of the Arcade games and 0:10:23.160 --> 0:10:25.960 a lot of the the like Atari bas games. But 0:10:26.000 --> 0:10:29.240 really the Atari system was pretty primitive. I was just 0:10:29.240 --> 0:10:31.640 gonna ask you a triviuta, a quick trivia question. Hit me, 0:10:31.720 --> 0:10:35.960 do you know? Really I'm grouchy. He never says that 0:10:36.000 --> 0:10:37.959 I will take it out on tyler Um. He had 0:10:38.040 --> 0:10:42.200 one thing to do today. Okay, So do you know 0:10:42.360 --> 0:10:44.960 who wrote the music for Donkey Kong? I do not. 0:10:45.400 --> 0:10:50.200 It was, in fact Miyamoto San himself, Miamoto, Yes, Shigeru 0:10:50.440 --> 0:10:53.600 Miyamoto who wrote the music for for Donkey Kong on 0:10:53.640 --> 0:10:57.920 a small electronic keyboard, according to UH. According to Glenn McDonald, 0:10:58.040 --> 0:11:03.080 so Miyamoto is a giant the game industry. But I 0:11:03.120 --> 0:11:05.560 had no idea. And it's it's funny to show you that. 0:11:05.559 --> 0:11:08.600 That again shows you what how ground level he was. 0:11:08.640 --> 0:11:11.559 And this whole thing, well, the reason why I was 0:11:11.559 --> 0:11:13.679 going to skip ahead, was that if if we want 0:11:13.720 --> 0:11:17.640 to talk about home consoles, which really, yeah, we eventually 0:11:17.679 --> 0:11:20.800 are going to be focusing mostly on the console system 0:11:20.840 --> 0:11:24.120 because you know, the arcades eventually faded from popularity, not 0:11:24.160 --> 0:11:26.640 that they don't exist anymore, but in the United States 0:11:26.679 --> 0:11:30.079 they're few and far between, and the development for games 0:11:30.120 --> 0:11:33.040 tends to be more focused on the home market than 0:11:33.080 --> 0:11:35.480 on the arcade market in the United States. There's still 0:11:35.480 --> 0:11:39.679 places like Japan arcades are huge, but um not in 0:11:39.720 --> 0:11:42.480 the United States so much. Well, I wanted to talk 0:11:42.520 --> 0:11:47.679 about the original Nintendo system and how it was kind 0:11:47.720 --> 0:11:52.160 of a huge jump ahead of everything else. Now, one 0:11:52.200 --> 0:11:55.040 of the reasons why when I say huge jump ahead, 0:11:55.080 --> 0:11:58.640 I mean it's primitive compared to today's consoles, but at 0:11:58.640 --> 0:12:03.040 the time was a big deal. It had four whole 0:12:04.040 --> 0:12:09.560 channels for music. Well, when you think about it, was 0:12:09.840 --> 0:12:13.800 came out in the mid eighties and four channel stereo 0:12:13.920 --> 0:12:16.880 was kind of a big deal. Yeah, And you've got 0:12:16.880 --> 0:12:19.920 to remember that most of these game systems had one channel, like, 0:12:20.200 --> 0:12:22.240 so if there was a sound effect, it had to 0:12:22.280 --> 0:12:26.080 interrupt the music or so if there's so like when 0:12:26.160 --> 0:12:28.760 Mario would jump in Dulu, do the they'tle thing it 0:12:28.760 --> 0:12:32.600 would it would interrupt the music in the middle of it. Um. So, 0:12:32.600 --> 0:12:35.040 so having a system that would allow you to play 0:12:35.120 --> 0:12:37.360 four channels of sound was a big deal. Now, one 0:12:37.360 --> 0:12:40.400 of those channels was usually used for sound effects, and 0:12:40.440 --> 0:12:44.840 the other three would be used in various forms for music. UM. 0:12:44.880 --> 0:12:49.360 I read about game composers who would try and try 0:12:49.520 --> 0:12:52.720 figure out ways to make a a four note chord, 0:12:53.040 --> 0:12:55.520 which is hard to do if you've only got three channels. 0:12:56.520 --> 0:12:59.040 So what they would do is they would do a 0:12:59.400 --> 0:13:02.880 instead of doing a true chord, they would do essentially 0:13:02.920 --> 0:13:06.200 a broken chord. They would play the notes back to 0:13:06.240 --> 0:13:09.520 back so quickly that to us it sounds almost like 0:13:09.600 --> 0:13:13.160 they were played simultaneously. So so you would get the 0:13:13.240 --> 0:13:16.679 effect of the chord without actually truly playing a chord. 0:13:17.200 --> 0:13:20.880 And then there were other game developers who would allow 0:13:21.000 --> 0:13:23.640 for music to take over and then when a sound 0:13:23.640 --> 0:13:26.720 effect comes in, it would drop one channel out of 0:13:26.720 --> 0:13:31.120 the four out so the sound effect could take place. Um. Yeah, 0:13:31.120 --> 0:13:34.440 because typically, uh, you know, I'm sure a lot of 0:13:34.440 --> 0:13:37.600 our musician listeners are going to say, well, would you know, 0:13:37.720 --> 0:13:42.040 chord really only requires three notes, but you would want, um, 0:13:42.080 --> 0:13:46.880 the richness and depth of additional octaves in there too, right, 0:13:47.400 --> 0:13:51.559 And and I want to mention one guy in particular 0:13:52.240 --> 0:13:57.360 as really being instrumental, if you will, for you in 0:13:57.440 --> 0:14:00.480 the development of video game music as far as as 0:14:00.520 --> 0:14:03.120 its effect in the game industry. I'm interested to see 0:14:03.120 --> 0:14:08.360 who this is. Cochi Condo, the composer for both Super 0:14:08.400 --> 0:14:13.000 Mario Brothers and Legend of Zelda. And that's the reason 0:14:13.040 --> 0:14:16.920 why I'm singling out Cochi Condo. And please people don't 0:14:17.000 --> 0:14:19.120 write into me and tell me that I should talk 0:14:19.120 --> 0:14:21.200 about some other composer, because we're gonna talk about a 0:14:21.200 --> 0:14:23.920 few others before the end of this. But the reason 0:14:23.920 --> 0:14:26.680 why I wanted to single him out and mentioned him 0:14:26.760 --> 0:14:31.720 is because, uh, he sort of created this this idea 0:14:32.120 --> 0:14:35.920 in the video games of different environments having different soundtracks, right, 0:14:36.360 --> 0:14:39.560 so when you moved from one environment into another, you 0:14:39.600 --> 0:14:43.280 would get a new uh tune playing in the background, 0:14:43.760 --> 0:14:46.360 and this would enhance your your video gaming experience. That 0:14:46.440 --> 0:14:48.960 was Super Mario Brothers. It was pretty simple. There was 0:14:49.040 --> 0:14:50.960 one tune for when you were above ground, and there 0:14:51.000 --> 0:14:53.760 was one tune when you were in the dungeon levels, 0:14:54.280 --> 0:14:55.920 and then I think there was a different one when 0:14:55.960 --> 0:14:59.200 you were underwater. So the interesting part there is that 0:14:59.360 --> 0:15:03.320 this this really gave composers for video games that really 0:15:03.360 --> 0:15:05.880 gave them a shot in the arms, saying, oh, you know, 0:15:05.920 --> 0:15:08.320 this can be more than just adding a little extra 0:15:08.400 --> 0:15:10.520 element into a video game. It's more than just the 0:15:10.720 --> 0:15:13.840 icing on the cake. There's there's an element here that 0:15:13.880 --> 0:15:17.640 can be intrinsic to the video game playing experience. Now, 0:15:17.680 --> 0:15:21.440 at the time, most of the composers for video games 0:15:21.480 --> 0:15:26.760 were working exclusively with one developer, and in a way, 0:15:26.880 --> 0:15:29.960 actually some of the earliest video games, the composers were 0:15:29.960 --> 0:15:32.440 people who were just on staff who happened to also 0:15:32.480 --> 0:15:37.000 be musicians. So, you know, in the video game industry 0:15:37.040 --> 0:15:39.640 when it first started out, they didn't have the resources 0:15:39.720 --> 0:15:43.280 or the cloud really or the prestige to attract quote 0:15:43.360 --> 0:15:47.400 unquote real composers. Now, I say quote unquote because I 0:15:47.480 --> 0:15:49.680 consider the guys who came up with these video game 0:15:49.720 --> 0:15:52.240 tunes to be real composers, because I mean a lot 0:15:52.280 --> 0:15:55.520 of these tunes I'm still a big fan of. Yeah, 0:15:55.760 --> 0:15:58.280 you're you're speaking of people who are dedicated to composing. 0:15:58.320 --> 0:16:02.240 That what they do, that's that's their main And then 0:16:02.560 --> 0:16:04.880 eventually you got to a point where video game developers 0:16:04.880 --> 0:16:09.560 would be able to hire someone who specifically specialized in music, 0:16:09.720 --> 0:16:12.800 but even then they were another person in the company payroll. 0:16:12.920 --> 0:16:16.120 It's not like you commissioned someone to compose music for 0:16:16.200 --> 0:16:20.320 your video game. The thing that makes the video game 0:16:20.400 --> 0:16:24.680 music really interesting that I think uh kachy Condo uh 0:16:25.000 --> 0:16:29.080 kind of launched was this idea of the interactive experience, 0:16:29.120 --> 0:16:34.040 and that things that the player does changes the environment 0:16:34.080 --> 0:16:36.400 in some way, and in this case, it would change 0:16:36.440 --> 0:16:38.280 the music that's playing in the background depending on where 0:16:38.320 --> 0:16:43.520 the player was. And that's fundamentally a different experience than 0:16:44.040 --> 0:16:48.560 composing music for either a film or just composing music period, 0:16:48.600 --> 0:16:53.440 like creating a symphony, right because in those it's the 0:16:53.480 --> 0:16:57.120 audience is passive. There's nothing the audience can do that's 0:16:57.160 --> 0:17:00.920 going to alter the progressional music sort of causing a 0:17:00.960 --> 0:17:04.080 scene at a life symphony. Don't do that, by the way, 0:17:05.560 --> 0:17:07.399 I've done hundreds of years ago. I don't want to 0:17:07.440 --> 0:17:09.240 do that anymore. I'm tired of being thrown out of 0:17:09.240 --> 0:17:12.280 all the symphony halls in the United States though I 0:17:12.280 --> 0:17:14.200 couldn't you know what to him, but throughout the Opera 0:17:14.200 --> 0:17:18.399 House in Sydney. So anyway, the there's a goal the 0:17:20.240 --> 0:17:22.160 it's it's it seems like it would almost be closer 0:17:22.200 --> 0:17:26.080 to movie music and in a lot of ways than 0:17:26.119 --> 0:17:29.520 it would be to traditional symphonic music, because it's programmatic, 0:17:29.560 --> 0:17:31.760 it has a it has a theme to it, and 0:17:31.920 --> 0:17:34.680 it actually is helping tell the story. Right, It's meant 0:17:34.680 --> 0:17:37.960 to help elevate the experience. But even with movie music, 0:17:38.200 --> 0:17:43.040 you still have a set, uh set series of events. Right, 0:17:43.520 --> 0:17:48.000 that's exactly exactly. But but to just to elaborate on 0:17:48.000 --> 0:17:50.080 your point, the reason why it's even different from that 0:17:50.240 --> 0:17:52.840 is the second time you watch that movie, that movie, 0:17:53.280 --> 0:17:56.040 unless you're watching some really weird choose your own adventure 0:17:56.080 --> 0:17:58.159 thing is going to progress the exact same way, so 0:17:58.240 --> 0:18:01.840 that the first time clue any and the hundredth time, okay, 0:18:01.960 --> 0:18:04.320 sure clue the end of Clue for those of you 0:18:04.359 --> 0:18:07.080 who don't know, Clue came out in four starring Tim 0:18:07.160 --> 0:18:11.640 Curry and it was phenomenal and had three different dings. Um. 0:18:11.680 --> 0:18:16.160 But but apart from that, in most situations, the the 0:18:16.200 --> 0:18:18.159 eight hundredth time you watch the movie is going to 0:18:18.200 --> 0:18:19.560 be the same as the first as far as the 0:18:19.560 --> 0:18:24.080 progression of scenes go, barring director's cuts and all that mess. 0:18:24.119 --> 0:18:26.800 So in other words, the composer does not have to 0:18:26.880 --> 0:18:33.160 create musical segues or musical themes that will be incorporated 0:18:33.240 --> 0:18:36.199 or perhaps mixed in with other themes based upon what 0:18:36.280 --> 0:18:41.639 the characters going through. So this is also the era 0:18:41.800 --> 0:18:45.959 in which I think, possibly because a lot of us 0:18:45.960 --> 0:18:47.920 grew up with this type of music, but I think 0:18:47.920 --> 0:18:53.120 this era is also what inspired, um, what would later become. Uh. 0:18:53.280 --> 0:18:57.359 You know people who play these kinds of video game 0:18:57.440 --> 0:19:02.280 scores for others as you know, a symphonic piece and things, 0:19:02.280 --> 0:19:05.440 because some of this music is just so memorable for us. Uh. 0:19:05.480 --> 0:19:08.639 And I wanted to mention, um the work of no 0:19:08.760 --> 0:19:14.280 Boo Boo Yomatsu, is that the guy who did Final Fantasy, 0:19:14.800 --> 0:19:17.639 because that for so many people, is that's like a 0:19:17.680 --> 0:19:20.800 big deal, the definitive video game music for a large 0:19:21.000 --> 0:19:23.359 portion of the players out there. Not me because I 0:19:23.400 --> 0:19:25.720 like playing games, that makes sense. But you know, people 0:19:25.720 --> 0:19:28.359 who enjoy Final Fantasy. I don't know what's wrong with you, 0:19:28.440 --> 0:19:32.600 but they're all I'm on medication. Yeah, blame it on 0:19:32.640 --> 0:19:38.480 that direct your hate mail too, Um, but no, they 0:19:39.400 --> 0:19:45.000 but yeah they Final Fantasy has soundtracks available. Um, and 0:19:45.240 --> 0:19:48.280 you know, I don't know that when all of this 0:19:48.440 --> 0:19:50.840 started when the video game craze started, people would have 0:19:50.880 --> 0:19:54.680 assumed that this's you buy a soundtrack for a video game. 0:19:55.280 --> 0:19:58.760 Maybe not, but it happens, and it's not unusual anymore. No. 0:19:58.880 --> 0:20:02.920 In fact, and and there are live performances video everything 0:20:03.000 --> 0:20:07.640 from I've seen some great a cappella renditions of classic 0:20:07.720 --> 0:20:11.160 video game music where they run through several like including 0:20:11.160 --> 0:20:14.200 Super Mario Brothers and the Legend of Zelda, and and 0:20:14.200 --> 0:20:16.520 and you know the classic games of the NES era 0:20:16.920 --> 0:20:19.520 all the way up. Yeah. See, that's that's all from 0:20:19.520 --> 0:20:21.920 this period. So I think that's this That period is 0:20:21.960 --> 0:20:25.320 really when it's taken off to the point where it's 0:20:25.359 --> 0:20:28.960 something that's noticeable, right and then so so the NES 0:20:29.000 --> 0:20:33.639 really helps set some standards. The next big leap was 0:20:34.320 --> 0:20:38.199 probably from in n with the introduction of the Sony PlayStation. 0:20:39.520 --> 0:20:41.360 So I mean this is a big leap, okay, there 0:20:41.400 --> 0:20:45.320 there there were, Yeah, there were incremental improvements with the 0:20:45.400 --> 0:20:48.240 systems between the NES and when the PlayStation came out. 0:20:48.240 --> 0:20:50.600 Don't get me wrong, Um there were and there were 0:20:50.600 --> 0:20:53.359 some great video games songs that came out during that time. 0:20:53.359 --> 0:20:56.600 But when the Sony PlayStation came out, that allowed up 0:20:56.640 --> 0:21:01.440 to twenty four sampled voices. Yes to play um now 0:21:01.680 --> 0:21:06.000 again in the in the previous generation, and yes, you 0:21:06.000 --> 0:21:10.159 could only play discreet sounds capable that that that the 0:21:10.200 --> 0:21:14.040 machine was capable of sending to the TV. The PlayStation 0:21:14.080 --> 0:21:17.119 allows you to actually sample music yep, and even and 0:21:17.359 --> 0:21:20.960 even to let you use effects like looping in reverb 0:21:21.640 --> 0:21:23.800 what you you couldn't do before. And it and it 0:21:23.960 --> 0:21:27.640 also you know, had CD equality c D quality audio 0:21:27.760 --> 0:21:31.120 since rather than using cartridges as so many of these 0:21:31.119 --> 0:21:34.000 other games did in the past, we were actually dealing 0:21:34.000 --> 0:21:36.679 with an optical disc and it allowed for three different 0:21:36.680 --> 0:21:40.240 types of music within video games. The first one bad 0:21:40.280 --> 0:21:43.919 and carible. You could argue that the first one was 0:21:44.560 --> 0:21:49.600 musical instrument digital interface middi midi uh now miny is 0:21:50.080 --> 0:21:53.280 it's essentially like a language really uh and depending upon 0:21:53.320 --> 0:21:57.000 the synthesizer that's in your UM what I was just 0:21:57.040 --> 0:21:59.120 going to mention, you know, some of them are very 0:21:59.160 --> 0:22:02.359 tiny and give you the force, good lord, So not 0:22:02.480 --> 0:22:08.320 the many Glorians, um, I do hate them. Passion that 0:22:08.400 --> 0:22:14.280 birds brighter than the exploding suns, so so many, so many. 0:22:14.359 --> 0:22:17.040 You know. It's it's a like any any device in 0:22:17.119 --> 0:22:19.879 a computer that has a synthesizer in it can play 0:22:19.920 --> 0:22:25.280 back the information stored in a MIDI file and um, 0:22:25.320 --> 0:22:29.720 depending upon the synthesizer, it all sound different in each machine, right, 0:22:30.119 --> 0:22:32.880 So it's so many is not like a standardized sound 0:22:32.880 --> 0:22:36.400 as a standardized way of recording, like of presenting music. 0:22:36.440 --> 0:22:39.040 It's kind of like a piano role an old player piano. 0:22:39.600 --> 0:22:42.040 So you have two different player pianos, and one of 0:22:42.040 --> 0:22:43.919 them is in the style of grand piano, and one 0:22:43.920 --> 0:22:45.719 of them is in the style of a honky tonk piano, 0:22:45.800 --> 0:22:49.879 and you put the same role of piano player paper 0:22:49.920 --> 0:22:52.240 in them. One of them is gonna sound very different 0:22:52.280 --> 0:22:56.360 from the other, even though they're both playing the same notes. Okay, 0:22:56.400 --> 0:22:59.679 so the Sunny PlayStation was capable of playing mini music. 0:22:59.720 --> 0:23:04.880 It was also capable of playing mods or digital modules. Yes, 0:23:04.960 --> 0:23:09.720 I remember that now. It's worth noting that some computers 0:23:09.880 --> 0:23:14.760 had been using these different types of formats for years, 0:23:14.800 --> 0:23:19.240 but they weren't really common in home video game consoles, 0:23:19.280 --> 0:23:24.639 probably because the hardware I'm guessing hardware needed uh to 0:23:24.880 --> 0:23:28.480 do that was probably going to be pretty expensive comparatively 0:23:28.480 --> 0:23:32.000 in computer games. This this ability had been there for 0:23:32.080 --> 0:23:34.720 years because this is the era when we've already got 0:23:34.920 --> 0:23:38.520 sound cards for computers like sound Blaster and Roland and 0:23:38.560 --> 0:23:40.760 all those devices that would come out, and you would 0:23:40.760 --> 0:23:43.560 you would actually install the sound card into your computer, 0:23:43.600 --> 0:23:46.000 which would give your computer the capability of playing back 0:23:46.040 --> 0:23:48.560 these kinds of sounds plug speakers and to them, and 0:23:48.600 --> 0:23:51.800 the need to have that music. This was before computers 0:23:51.800 --> 0:23:55.280 would come standard with sound cards. Now, most times if 0:23:55.320 --> 0:23:57.160