Re: CRAP Poll: My Mouse Is...

On Wed, 05 Jun 2024 11:54:30 -0500, Zaghadka <zaghadka@hotmail.com>
wrote:

On Tue, 04 Jun 2024 18:50:01 -0400, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,
Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
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On Tue, 04 Jun 2024 18:31:47 +0000, ant@zimage.comANT (Ant) wrote:
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Justisaur <justisaur@yahoo.com> wrote:

On 6/3/2024 6:46 PM, Ant wrote:

Justisaur <justisaur@yahoo.com> wrote:

On 6/1/2024 11:53 PM, Ant wrote:

 

Do any of you still listen to MIDIs? I do once in a while: http://zimage.com/~ant/antfarm/files/music/music.html
That includes MOD, S3M, XM, IT, 669, FAR, etc. ;)

 

Not often any more.  I've got a pretty big MOD collection.  I may have
played some a couple times over the entire last year.

 
Ha, what are your favorites? Mine is the above link. ;)

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Here's a mixed and random selection of my most played
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[snip]
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I was more into techno:
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https://modarchive.org/index.php?request=view_by_moduleid&query=35623
https://modarchive.org/index.php?request=view_by_moduleid&query=51055
https://modarchive.org/index.php?request=view_by_moduleid&query=39913
https://modarchive.org/index.php?request=view_by_moduleid&query=46661
https://modarchive.org/index.php?request=view_by_moduleid&query=59635
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I actually have the mod of this one, but the archive only has an xm
https://modarchive.org/index.php?request=view_by_moduleid&query=41760
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I'm pretty sure the Crusader (Origin) games had mod files for their
soundtrack too.
http://www.mirsoft.info/wogm_download.php?data=YToyOntpOjA7czozOiIyOTMiO2k6MTtpOjE3MTc2MDYzMzI7fQ==
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(Haven't tried that zip yet.)
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I think System Shock and Crusader got me into this stuff, thus the focus
on techno. Orbital Flower was used in DX-Ball. Remember that game?

There was a brief period when tracker files looked to become the new
music format. It surpassed MIDI in sound quality (well, at least for
most MIDI devices people used on their PCs), had the flexibility of
MID sound, the sound files were smaller than raw WAV files, and used
less CPU time than something like MP3. It was the perfect sound format
for late-era 486 computing; high quality music, low impact on CPU and
storage.

But then CD-ROMs became the defacto storage (so file-size
considerations became moot), and CPU speed increased exponentially.
Thus, most of the advantages of tracker files vanished almost
overnight.

Still, there were a number of games that used the format. The
aforementioned "Crusader" games ("Crusader: No Remorse" (1995) and
"Crusader: No Regret" (1997)) used .MOD files. The Unreal games
famously used tracker music. Indeed, many of Epic Software's early
titles - including "Zone 66", "Jazz Jackrabbit" and "Epic Pinball"
used the format. So too did Microsoft's "Hellbender", Accolade's "Star
Control II",  Microprose's "7th Legion" and Paradox's "Age of Wonder"
games. ("System Shock" did not, however. It was old-school MIDI for
that game). It still shows up on occassion, although mostly as a nod
to the old-school feel of gaming (e.g., the 2019 boomer-shooter "Ion
Fury") rather than any real advantage of choosing that format.

These days, most people don't even know what tracker files are (then
again, many gamers have no idea what MIDI is either).  It's a shame,
because the format had a very rough and raw feel to it that blends
perfectly with a lot of games. It's quite distinctive, in a way that
WAV audio isn't.