
“Just the Beginning of What We Can Do on Super Nintendo” - detcader
http://blog.attractmo.de/post/111642896790/this-is-just-the-beginning-of-what-we-can-do-on
======
drawkbox
There is a really good Synthwave / occasional SNES artist Mitch Murder from
Sweden.

Here some samples:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hugowO0sSrM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hugowO0sSrM)
(interceptor) or
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WJT0YJwx-k](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WJT0YJwx-k)
(terminator theme) or soundcloud
[https://soundcloud.com/daataa](https://soundcloud.com/daataa)

His Interceptor, Snow Crash
([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uaJapdiR8M](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uaJapdiR8M)),
Nocturne
([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giPm5SwlW0c](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giPm5SwlW0c)),
Remember When
([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lo4C9KpyCCo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lo4C9KpyCCo)),
Palmer's Arcade
([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWWRged4EM0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWWRged4EM0))
and Ravaged Skies
([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Lc5NFDKPqQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Lc5NFDKPqQ))
tracks are some of my favorites. Great focused coding music.

~~~
noir_lord
If you like this stuff then checkout

[http://reddit.com/r/futuresynth](http://reddit.com/r/futuresynth)

and
[http://redditplaylister.phoenixforgotten.com/](http://redditplaylister.phoenixforgotten.com/)
to auto generate a playlist form an arbitrary number of subreddits.

EDIT: by co-incidence Mitch Murder is right at the top at the moment :).

------
dividuum
It's amazing what's possible on old hardware. My favorite example is probably
the remake of the wonderful second reality demo. The original was released in
1993 for the PC
([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFv7mHTf0nA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFv7mHTf0nA)).
And then there's the C64 version
([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gbnlho7w3U](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gbnlho7w3U))
which was released 1997.

~~~
walkingolof
Then you will like Edge of Disgrace, probably the best C64 demo out there...
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kJz_XfbxX0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kJz_XfbxX0)

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gpcz
In the early 90s during the era of game copiers, people made crack intros for
Super Nintendo games and wrote SNES demos. I've been a fan of their music for
years since zophar.net used to have an SPC collection (I can't find it on the
zophar.net music page anymore, but you can find it from the archive.org
version at
[https://web.archive.org/web/20070306011147/http://www.zophar...](https://web.archive.org/web/20070306011147/http://www.zophar.net/zsnes/spc/)
\-- it's called "Public Domain SPC music"). An easier-to-access example is
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMOaN9SrR0M](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMOaN9SrR0M)
. As a lot of the work was done by pseudonymous people and it involved
underground scenes, it's hard to find reliable history about these groups.
However, there's enough homebrew SNES music from that era that I wonder if
someone wrote a tracker.

------
wodenokoto
What do we know today that we didn't know back then that makes these
optimizations possible?

~~~
byuu
We already know how to stream raw 16-bit uncompressed samples at 32KHz [1]; so
we have just shy of CD-quality audio already. There's really no way to make
things sound better than we have now.

The remaining enhancements are to optimize things: produce better sound while
using less ROM space, use less CPU power, and be able to still run as many
simultaneous sound effects as possible.

It took a long time to perfect because it's nuanced, but it's not a very
complex chip: it's around 20KB of C code to emulate its 32-stage state
machine. The only part of the SNES DSP that we don't fully emulate right now
is the slight decay rate (in the nanosecond range) involved when the MUTE flag
is enabled on a channel. And that's mostly because it's an analog component
and we don't have the right people to analyze that sort of thing properly.

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_60V8UdYEY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_60V8UdYEY)

~~~
rian
thank you for sharing byuu a+

------
everyone
I think after spending many many hours as a youth listening to music played on
a synth with a particular character and range of timbres (while playing games)
you become inured to it.

Music made using that synth just sounds particularly pleasing.

I didnt have a nintendo (so these demos dont really have that effect on me)
but I _did_ have a C64, so any music made with the sid chip seems to sound
better to me than it ought perhaps.

~~~
edeion
Tangent: I was recently wondering the same about pipe organ music. Its music
has a huge effect on me, wonderful sensations that sometimes cover all my
body. Never found anything to read about these sensations nor about the impact
of exposure to a given kind of music at a young age on how deeply you get to
like it.

------
jader201
As cool as the technology behind this is, I'm going to be that guy that is
very glad the soundtracks from classic SNES games sound the way they do vs.
how this demo sounded.

I guess the point of this is more about how to push the SNES hardware to its
limits in ways never done -- and again, that's super cool. But give me the
likes of Chrono Trigger, FFIV/VI, and Super Castlevania IV over this any day.

~~~
rian
it's art, there's no single metric for quality. you can like them both in
different ways. it's not a competition. try something new.

------
jamesmiller5
I first heard of cTrix from the gamewave podcast, episode 51.

[http://www.gamewavepodcast.com/episodes.html](http://www.gamewavepodcast.com/episodes.html)

His live performance of "Come along" is quite impressive. The "Viva Amiga"
film that is sampled hasn't been released yet.

------
yupferris
yo, ferris here; never thought I'd see this stuff on hacker news! Thanks for
all of the kind words! (and some of the less kind ones too, hehe :D)

P.S. ALL YOUR SNES ARE BELONG TO US =D

------
leeoniya
some of the stuff made on the z80 [1] sound chip is killer

[http://freemusicarchive.org/music/download/f7b05ff1cb6ed7425...](http://freemusicarchive.org/music/download/f7b05ff1cb6ed7425258dfb7d6bd05d42832cc37)

[http://freemusicarchive.org/music/download/6b16b446d8b0b8717...](http://freemusicarchive.org/music/download/6b16b446d8b0b871730d918a7c8cfe270a4d51fa)

much more: [http://www.8bitpeoples.com/](http://www.8bitpeoples.com/)

[1]
[http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zilog_Z80](http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zilog_Z80)

~~~
kayamon
Z80 is just a CPU, it doesn't have a sound chip.

~~~
leeoniya
ah sry, i remember the z80 being mentioned in that context. maybe it was ZX
Spectrum's Yamaha AY-3-8912.

[http://www.worldofspectrum.org/projectay/gdmusic.htm](http://www.worldofspectrum.org/projectay/gdmusic.htm)

------
frou_dh
Impressive audio. Back at the time, it struck me that the MegaDrive/Genesis
had a real "harshness" to both its colour pallette and audio when compared to
the SNES. Both had lots of great games of course.

~~~
zinkem
I'd actually love to see this done on a Genesis. The Genesis had an FM
Synthesizer in it's sound chip, made by Yamaha.

The Super Nintendo has a distinctive and pleasant sound that I like, but only
outputs a 32khz signal.

I really like projects like these using old sound chips as instruments.

~~~
ANTSANTS
I agree, I love FM and will always think good FM or "real chiptunes" are more
impressive than good sample-based synthesis, because you can't just lean on
your sample library. There are a few Genesis trackers out there, including
Deflemask[1], vgmmaker (which sadly, the author took down because he got tired
of dealing with unappreciative jerks, so you'll have to Google a bit to find a
copy), and YMDj [2] (a "native tracker" that runs on the Genesis itself)

[1] [http://www.delek.com.ar/deflemask](http://www.delek.com.ar/deflemask)

[2]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTDiPqkoFnc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTDiPqkoFnc)

A little over a year ago, Titan released a demo for the Genesis called
Overdrive, and, well, it's fucking amazing, go watch it:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQqJm14sHRY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQqJm14sHRY)

------
yupferris
also to anyone who wants to hear more about this stuff, I'll be giving a talk
about it at NVScene/GTC next month :D

[http://nv.scene.org/2015/speakers/#ferris](http://nv.scene.org/2015/speakers/#ferris)
for more info ^^

------
personlurking
Reading this led me to want to know if there are still people working on new
games for the SNES (by hacking the system). Here's a 2014 article on this, in
case anyone else is interested.

[http://animalnewyork.com/2014/meet-people-making-new-
games-a...](http://animalnewyork.com/2014/meet-people-making-new-games-atari-
super-nintendo-virtual-boy/)

------
detcader
Henry Homesweet had the first elix track ("Nu") in his 2014 Essential Chip
Mix, which is indeed essential:
[https://soundcloud.com/henryhomesweet/essential-chip-
mix-201...](https://soundcloud.com/henryhomesweet/essential-chip-mix-2014)

~~~
sowhatquestion
Good stuff, thanks for sharing!

------
enneff
cTrix is one of the most accomplished Chiptune musicians. His recordings are
great, but his live shows are where he really shines. This live set from Blip
Festival a couple of years ago is exemplary of his best performances:
[https://m.soundcloud.com/ctrix/ctrix-live-blip-festival-
nyc](https://m.soundcloud.com/ctrix/ctrix-live-blip-festival-nyc)

------
tomphoolery
It's pretty cool that cTrix has captured and uploaded these demos for the
world to see. Here's his channel where some other elix demos can be seen.
"Smash It" is pretty sweet!
[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgG3Nvp86j1WaHaLwjoVJZg](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgG3Nvp86j1WaHaLwjoVJZg)

------
skrebbel
> _elix is a two person combo comprised of cTrix, a chiptuner who hails from
> the land down under, and ferris, a Norwegian who creates EDM that spans
> multiple genres, including chiptunes._

Minor nitpick, but Ferris is an American who lives in Norway.

~~~
yupferris
yep, this is true :) I tweeted at the author about that at least

------
ddingus
Nice!! I was unaware of this. Great effort, and fun chip tunes.

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matznerd
When are they touring SF?

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slaction
This shit looks worse than normal SNES games. Great work.

------
pthreads
Damn you Simpsons! The only thing I could think of when I read this was "Hi
Super Nintendo Chalmers!"

