Re: MIDI (was Re: They're Making A New Doom)

On Wed, 12 Jun 2024 21:49:19 +0300, Anssi Saari
<anssi.saari@usenet.mail.kapsi.fi> wrote:

Mike S. <Mike_S@nowhere.com> writes:
>

On Wed, 12 Jun 2024 11:51:15 -0400, Spalls Hurgenson
<spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:
>

Of course, iMuse didn't really have much to do how the music
/sounded/. It was just a virtual composing system that altered what
music played depending on the action on the screen.

>
I know what iMuse is but to be honest with you, I never really noticed
it doing its thing back in the day so I never saw it as a big deal to
me personally.

>
I'm not sure if I would've noticed either. OTOH, my musician roommate
back then pointed out the kind of fanfare the music system played when I
shot up some enemy fighters in X-Wing. And after that I started noticing.

It may also depend on what version of X-Wing you played.

The original "X-Wing" soundtrack - especially the in-flight gameplay
soundtrack was pretty limited in scope. It was essentially "low-key
'waiting theme' and 'action them', with a few interludes to swap
between them, and the occassional short sting ("friendly
reinforcements arrived", "enemy reinforcements arrived", "important
ship destroyed", etc. Within any one mission, it was quite
interesting... but it was the same music for EVERY SINGLE MISSION.
Whether you were doing a hit-n-run on an enemy convoy, or taking out a
minefield, or strafing laser turrets on the Death Star run, you heard
the same tune. It could incredibly monotonous incredibly fast.

"TIE Fighter" (and later, "Dark Forces") improved on the formula by
offering more variety. Not only did they have different tunes for
different missions, but there was more variety WITHIN each mission
too. I think that later versions of "X-Wing" (there were three in
total) improved the music selection somewhat.

So if I sound a bit down about iMuse in "X-Wing", that's why. It was
not an impressive use of the system in that game. Later titles used it
far better (and, of course, it was also used in many of LucasArts'
adventure games too. In fact, IIRC it was originally for the first
Monkey Isle game)