AA2 _ week 01_ancient game sound

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Levels 1 - 5 on the Apple II

For a pre 1987 gameI have chosen Lode Runner, a 1983 platform game which I played as an Apple II game.

For this review I have sourced one video of gameplay from the Apple II, one video on C64, the windows DOS game modified for slower game speed, and the MAME version (arcade version emulation).

The general plot of the game is to collect boxes of gold, while avoiding enemies (by running and digging holes) and climbing along ladders and platforms. Upon collection of all the boxes the player then escapes by gaining the top of the screen.

The sounds are all synthesised, and of varying quality. The DOS version is the worst quality, then the Apple, then the C64 and MAME version being similar in quality.

All FX are based on the current action of the player (eg falling, digging) or by the actions of the player (enemy falls in dug hole). This implies limiting simultaneous sounds due to processing limitations - there are moments of simultaneous sound eg when an enemy falls in a hole during other player actions and the sounds are not clear (some sort of battle for supremacy happens).

There is general concurrence between the versions in sound types for various actions however they are all very different. The notable differences in sound versions include the C64 having a short melodic progression upon collection of all boxes (vs. a short tone for the Apple) and lacking a sound for enemies falling in a pit. The MAME version has a timer on the levels, and a warning tone begins sounding near the end of time.

As far as music goes -
MAME features non-stop background music, at least 2 music voices plus FX sounds plus timer. C64 video feaures a brief monphonic musical fanfare with the title screen. No musical content in the MS-DOS version nor on the Apple video.

References

Haines, Christain. 2008. 1. Introduction To Game Audio - AA2 - Game Audio - Planner.pdf

McDonald, Glenn. 2002, A brief timeline of Video Game Music, 2007,
.
Video game music, 2007, 2007, .

Summers, Jason. "Welcome to Jason's Lode Runner Archive."
http://entropymine.com/jason/lr/. (1 August 2008).

"Loder Runner."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lode_Runner. (1 August 2008).

dsby. "Lode Runner on the Apple II (Levels 1-5)."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7JY5nEOUGA. (1 August 2008).

DerSchmu. "C64 Gamevideo - Lode Runner Part 1/3."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iC4kT8nWQdg. (1 August 2008).

"MAME roms, L." ROMNation.NET.
http://www.romnation.net/srv/roms/mame/l.html. (1 August 2008).