TurboGrafx-16: From Chip Tunes to Red Book Audio

[timewarpgamer]

My latest focus has been video game music. The medium is near infinite, even when you constrain it to 8- and 16-bit consoles. Anyway, I recently posted some features on TG-16 Title tracks (pretty general) and my favorite shoot 'em up soundtrack ever, Lords of Thunder (rather specific). You can find them here:

http://timewarpgamer.com/features/music_tg-16_titles.html
http://timewarpgamer.com/features/music_lords_of_thunder.html

What do you think?
Anyone else a fan of TG-16 audio?
Other favorites?
How do chip tunes hold up against the SMS, NES, and Mega Drive?
How does the TG-CD match up agains the Sega CD?

[Wraith Storm]

What do you think?
Anyone else a fan of TG-16 audio?
Other favorites?
How do chip tunes hold up against the SMS, NES, and Mega Drive?
How does the TG-CD match up agains the Sega CD?

I have always loved the Turbo Grafx audio. Both PSG and Red Book compositions.

Naoki Kodaka's Batman soundtrack for the NES is an absolute classic. Sunsoft recomposed the music from the first stage of the NES game for the TG Batman game and it sounds FREAKIN' awesome! It kicks in on level 5 or somewhere around there. It sounds soooooo good hearing the classic NES song pumping through the Turbo's sound chip!

And you are correct sir, Lords of Thunder has one of the greatest Shmup OSTs of all time. I LOVE me some metal and Lords of Thunder embraces the musical genre better than most bands of the era. Multiple guitars playing in harmony, reverberated drums, thumping bass and most importantly DAMN GOOD RIFFS!

The Sega CD also had its share of radical rocking Red Book audio (Alliterations are fun, kids!). Eternal Champions: Challenge From the Dark Side was jaw dropping. It had a HUGE variety of music styles and all of them were composed to perfection. The music from the hidden character Blasts stage was incredibly good. It sounded like they stole some classic rock song and V-masked it. Then there was the Dark Champion's stage. The music was a thick chugging composition that sounded like it could easily be a Stone Temple Pilots B-side.

[runinruder]

Nice job on the articles, timewarpgamer. I, too, am a big fan of the Blazing Lazers title screen theme.

It would take me forever to list all of the Turbo soundtracks I love, so I'll just list a few that don't get as much attention as I think they deserve: Cyber Core, Cyber Knight, Psycho Chaser, Psychosis, Sinistron, Son Son II, Spiral Wave, Anearth Fantasy Stories, Efera & Jiliora, Gain Ground SX, Hellfire S, Nexzr, Psychic Storm, Rayxanber II, Shape Shifter, Tenshi no Uta, Tenshi no Uta II.

[retro junkie]

The Turbo is my favorite system of all time. It remains my number one game console. I think that Gate of Thunder has some great tunes also. Soldier Blade is another one that comes to mind. As also Galaga 90. There is a lot of good solid tune among the chips. Against the Mega Drive, I think the Turbo can stand face to face and not blink.
:band:

[Arkhan]

The WSG (Waveform Sound Generator! Its better than PSG!) in the PC Engine is probably the most sophisticated chip of any of the consoles.

The only thing better than it is the Konami SCC and that's only because its a few years newer, so the waveform data is 8 bit instead of 5 bit. Other then that its practically the same damn chip! :)

I think what makes it so great is the ability to use both 32-byte waveforms (which sound alot warmer and blend well with each other), along with envelopes to shape the waves. Or you can use samples (for drums/stuff). Plus the per-channel stereo panning makes it have alot of depth if you use it!

It really gives it a leg up vs. the NES, SMS, and Genesis. Regular PSG sometimes sounds too chirpy, and FM in the wrong hands sounds awful *cough* IREM *cough cough*.....

As for the CD audio.... I don't even think there is a comparison. Lords of Thunder, Gate of Thunder, the Valis series, and Ys on TG-CD pretttttttty much destroys any possibility of the sega cd being better.

thats not to say the sega cd has crap music. There are a lot of good soundtracks (Ecco, Shining Force CD, Vay, Android Assault)... I think the reason its not as good is that the library itself isn't as good. Too many dippy FMV games!

[AB Positive]

I too love the audio on the TG. I would often put in Keith Courage just to hear the kick-ass intro on it. Bomberman, BM93, the Bonks... Blazing Lazers, I can't actually think of a game on the TG-16 with bad sound...

... oh wait. Strip Fighter II. OK, so there's one. :D

[timewarpgamer]

Naoki Kodaka's Batman soundtrack for the NES is an absolute classic. Sunsoft recomposed the music from the first stage of the NES game for the TG Batman game and it sounds FREAKIN' awesome! It kicks in on level 5 or somewhere around there. It sounds soooooo good hearing the classic NES song pumping through the Turbo's sound chip!

Whoa! Batman for the NES is one of my favorite games for the console--one of precious few games I've taken the time to actually review (http://timewarpgamer.com/consoles/nes/batman.html), and the music is astonishingly good. I had no idea that the TG-16 Batman featured any of the same tracks. Very cool. I will definitely check it out.

[Arkhan]

yeah its too bad the PCE game doesn't exactly capture the action of the NES one... :(

[Wraith Storm]

yeah its too bad the PCE game doesn't exactly capture the action of the NES one... :(

True. But it was still an interesting take on the Batman franchise. It's Pacman style gameplay really geld with me. It reminded me of Fantasy Zone: The Maze on the Sega Master System, which I also enjoyed.

[Arkhan]

Its interesting and fun... but I still wish PCE would have gotten the action packed batman it deserves.