Amiga music?

[ThunderPeel2001]

Where is the Amiga music? The developers clearly had some issue with the original music. They picked the worst possible version (the PC midi files -- erhg)! And they described it as "8-bit mode" -- even though Flashback is a 16-bit game -- odd.

Delphine Software (the original developers) were actually a music studio. Their games had AMAZING music for the time on the Amiga, but instead of it being included, it's been oddly butchered. Argh :(

And the cutscenes used POLYGONS (yes really), which means they could have been perfectly upscaled (like Another World Remastered) without need for any filters. For some reason the cutscenes are actually stretched AND distorted. Sigh :(

Almost a perfect remaster! Almost.

[Psycho__99]

flashback was originaly developed for the megadrive, soooo happens that those 8 bits sounds and musics are the original ones and explain why the amiga seen on the weeb page seems to playback slower

[ThunderPeel2001]

It was finished and released on the Amiga first *shrug*

[Game1Retroz]

Postat inițial de hexaae:

MD and Amiga had similar score but Amiga music was by far the best of all of course. There is no doubt about it. Amiga was capable to play real samples at a decent frequency. Hear yourself the difference:

Amiga
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNTnRM77XuE
MD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMXJBS6n44M

Sega CD and 3DO had better music IMO.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6dHm44nQ3I

[GAVade™]

This is a port from the SNES version, the worst one regarding sound files :(

[hexaae]

A strange idea is coming to mind... Well... if the game uses an mp3 maybe it could be changed with an MP3 version of the Amiga version...

[ThunderPeel2001]

Sadly it doesn't. It just uses MIDI files :(

[hexaae]

... however, I must say the new menu music isn't that bad, a mix of the MIDI + Amiga version IMHO.

[Risingson]

Hm
- Yep, flashback is in heart an Amiga game, as it uses a limited colourful Amiga palette which was not touched for any other port.
- Amiga was a expensive deluxe device (wonderful for platformers and shoot em ups). I don't think it was more popular than pcs in 1992, mostly when sound cards started to be popular and the vga graphics were showing a lot of strength (plus hires 640*480*16 games). But I truly believe that Amiga users gathered only with Amiga users to validate that anything, music or games or anything, was better on the Amiga. They still do. They still negate the existence of tracker based music in DOS games. They will negate the existence of affordable sound cards. They will defend to their graves that tracker music will be always better than FM music. Even MT-32 music in Sierra games.
- Having said that, the music of the PC port is atrocious, even on MT-32. The music on the remake is [EDIT} sometimes the PC music for opl2 (a very lazy port) or a kinda recorded one based on the Amiga one. Yep, the Amiga tracker music is the better one of the ports, but not the sound...
- Because the sound in Flashback is atrocious in any port. It is one of my favourite games, played it many times in all kind of emulations, and the sound is the lowest of the low res. I remember in the pc version there was an option for high resolution sounds, which was and still is a joke. And somehow in the console versions they did not improve it.
- And in this new version they managed to make the sound even WORSE. Samples that do not play, a jungle that sounds more like a funeral...

Anyway, still playing this game under dosbox because even the reminiscence port gives me many issues with the sound (and to me is more straightforward than loading the Amiga version, which also has loading times)

But guys, really, at that time every game was its own world. One game could be perfectly coded for DOS and Adlib and have really awful Roland or Tracker music (Dune). One game could look way better in EGA than in VGA (Monkey Island, Indy 3) though VGA had more colours. Many, most of the platformers were better done in Amiga but some DOS ports came from people from the demoscene that knew how to do smooths scroll and .mod music (the Epic games, Turrican 2...), and long long long etc. Part of the fun was/is to dig and decide for you which is the best port of any game.

[Tygerboi]

Postat inițial de Game1Retroz:

Postat inițial de hexaae:

MD and Amiga had similar score but Amiga music was by far the best of all of course. There is no doubt about it. Amiga was capable to play real samples at a decent frequency. Hear yourself the difference:

Amiga
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNTnRM77XuE
MD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMXJBS6n44M

Sega CD and 3DO had better music IMO.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6dHm44nQ3I

I agree - the Sega CD / 3DO music is actually pretty good; most definitely better than both the Amiga and the Megadrive versions, which both sound hideous in those video links. I'm a massive Amiga lover, but there's no denying that the 3DO version wins the quality battle by a mile. I don't like the splash screen though - the actual human face jars with the style of the game.

[ThunderPeel2001]

Yikes. No. The QUALITY of the samples is better in the Sega CD version, but that doesn't mean the MUSIC is better.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHf22UhCnVE

Worse samples, but a better song.

Either way, I'd like to have the CHOICE between all versions, then everyone could be happy.

[hexaae]

Postat inițial de Midnight Rush:

the Sega CD / 3DO music is actually pretty good; most definitely better than both the Amiga and the Megadrive versions, which both sound hideous in those video links. I'm a massive Amiga lover, but there's no denying that the 3DO version wins the quality battle by a mile.

Not at all. Amiga music is far better and more epic then the "ambient-synth" version of CD. I agree with ThunderPeel2001: higher quality samples alone (of course, it's a CD music track!) doesn't make it automatically "the best".

[GasiorZaglady]

Postat inițial de Fiend:

Postat inițial de ThunderPeel2001:

Where is the Amiga music? The developers clearly had some issue with the original music. They picked the worst possible version (the PC midi files -- erhg)! And they described it as "8-bit mode" -- even though Flashback is a 16-bit game -- odd.

I agree. The Amiga music and sound effects were much better.
However, the description "8-bit" would be correct for the Amiga music. It's sound chip produced 8-bit output. It doesn't really apply to midi files though, as their samples depend on the sound card, so they're not at a fixed rate.

The code (on the Amiga) would have been 32-bit.

I think SEGA CD version added so much life to the game. Great music playing in the background all the time was a game changer. I played originally on Amiga but SegaCD version - when you actually play it with music is hands down the best flashback version. The only downside is ugly rendered cutscenes and menu. Also keep in mind that flashback on amiga is nowhere as smooth as it was on Sega. I dont want to even raise 50hz in EU...

[GAMING_Alligator]

Thank you for posting this. I thought the "remastered" music actually sounded less good than I remembered it from the Amiga version. I was wondering if I was gas-lighting myself or something.

[The Faceless Man]

All of the music in this game is ass. There wasn't even a consistent theme song until Fade to Black arrived.

[GAMING_Alligator]

Postat inițial de Psycho__99:

flashback was originaly developed for the megadrive

Well sort of. According to Wikipedia, it started development for the Mega Drive first, but then was released for the Amiga a full year before the Megadrive version.

So heck knows what those development streams actually looked like inside Delphine Software.