Midi or CD-ROM audio?

[BetaRaddish]

Pretty much sums it up.

[(AU) Axton]

There are Both to select from, it defaults to the CD-ROM Audio from the beginning. Original CD-ROM Tracks are included and play fine.

[BetaRaddish]

Cool. I did like the Redbook audio more than the Midi on this game.

[Buck]

They are both awesome

[Afronaut]

I heard that the GOG version redbook audio didn't have the tracks by OhGr/Skinny Puppy or the one by Type O Negative. Is that the same here?

[AN BIFFED ELF!!!!]

Originally posted by Tek_Lynx:

OPL-3 And be sure to play it on a S3-virge, as its one of the rare games that used its dos 3d acel. Not sure if the steam version comes with its excutable.
On the orginal release you needed to send for it through snail mail.

S3D API emulation does not exist in any form whatsoever.


though PCem does partially emulate a S3 ViRGE card....

Originally posted by Afronaut:

I heard that the GOG version redbook audio didn't have the tracks by OhGr/Skinny Puppy or the one by Type O Negative. Is that the same here?

The Definitive Collection bundle version leaves out the Type-O Negative track and clips out that part after the "your ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ retarded" bit in the Skinny Puppy track. Hope the Steam version isn't based on that

[Camerooni]

S3 Virge - The worlds first 3D de-cellerator ;-)
My first 3D graphics card.. lol.

[Afronaut]

Originally posted by AN UPSET:

The Definitive Collection bundle version leaves out the Type-O Negative track and clips out that part after the "your ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ retarded" bit in the Skinny Puppy track. Hope the Steam version isn't based on that

Thanks AN UPSET. However, I just found something that makes me very happy indeed... my original Descent 2 CD-ROM from 1996!! Time to rip an MP3 playlist...

[Soot Leopard]

Anyone know which version of the CD soundtrack this release of Descent II uses?
It's interesting that the song in the gameplay trailer is one of the songs missing from the GOG release... but nowhere near 100% proof one way or the other.

[MWink64]

Originally posted by Camerooni:

S3 Virge - The worlds first 3D de-cellerator ;-)
My first 3D graphics card.. lol.

Don't remind me. I don't think it was my first 3D card but I'll never forget it. I'm not kidding, most games ran faster and looked better with software rendering than hardware rendering on the S3 ViRGE. It was the worst video card I've owned. Actually I think I still have it around here somewhere.

[Soot Leopard]

For the game to even read them they would need to be CD-audio tracks, I believe. Which is a version of uncompressed wav. Hopefully ripped directly off the CD and not re-encoded. If they're smart.
Even the GOG version of this game had uncompressed wav tracks though, so I don't think you need to worry.

The game definitely can't read ogg tracks without some kind of modification to the source code. I don't think ogg was even a thing in 1996 (could be wrong though :P).

[fickó]

Originally posted by kouzelnik.pokuston:

And quality of tracks? FLAC or lame GOG style 96kbpsOGG?

It's the same exact version as the one sold on GOG, only missing the bonus content (and that you have to buy both games separately instead of an $10 bundle like you could on GOG). They've even left a lot of GOG files in the folders of both Descent 1 and 2, the CD-ROM ISO is even named descent_ii.gog

[Star-X]

On a related note, am I the only one who preferred the Midi soundtrack over the Redbook Audio? The CD audio did not match up with the midis AT ALL, which meant that the musical experience was 100% different between the two; imo the Midis are far more pleasant on the ear than the Redbook audio's punk-ish rock. Mind you this is with the OPL3 soundtrack in Rebirth and/or playing on actual DOS; Windows 7's midi driver butchers the Descent midis.

That being said, modding can do wonders. Hate that redbook audio like a boss? Swap it out for a different CD. Voila, you are now listening to, let's say, Sonic CD's soundtrack while you bust up bots and/or annoying players. Rebirth/XL take this a step further and let you add a custom .OGG soundtrack, in case you want to go 100% disk free.

[Soot Leopard]

I actually prefer the General Midi versions of the songs to the OPL3, unlike in Descent 1. But I like both soundtracks. The midi soundtrack is what originally got me interested in Dan Wentz's work, and the redbook... I'm a fan of both Skinny Puppy and Type O Negative. The other tracks are good too, but it's those ones (and Larry Peacock's two songs) that stand out.

If this is the same soundtrack as the GOG version, well, at least it has one of the Skinny Puppy songs.

[Đeath’ş Aļļ | Horst Fuchs]

Originally posted by Splotchie:

Even the GOG version of this game had uncompressed wav tracks though, so I don't think you need to worry.

Are you sure? Every damned game with redbook audio i bought on GOG had that stupid 96 OGG format, which DOSbox can use as a placeholder of usual redbook audio.

And what's worse, some of them were obviously badly ripped. For example several Blood's tracks had last few seconds of previous track in their beggining. Some people reported that, but GOG never fixed that. Not much proffesional support i guess.

[Catfish]

Yeah, definitely need the true Redbook audio... I'm going to go try and find my original discs now :)