Replacement Music Tracks For Space Fantasy Zone

[chany60126]

I think we can all agree that Space Fantasy Zone is a cool looking game. In case you may or may not know, a lot of the songs in the game are recycled and used in other levels as well. I just saw this as an opportunity for us to offer up suggestions as viable replacement tracks in case this game were to win the game boot poll and/or just for fun. Here is a video of the game so you can get an idea of how the game sounds:

It is ultimately Necro's decision about what to do with the game, but I am sure he'd be willing to read suggestions. Worst case scenario, we can pick and choose which songs we like and recreate the ISO for our own enjoyment.

Anyway, I'll start it off with Ope's suggestion of the warship theme in the NES game, Solar Jetman:

[VestCunt]

Are there any requirements to swap tracks?  Do they have to be the same length as the originals?

That Solar Jetman track is pretty sweet.  I was listening to tunes on the three Fantasy Zone SMS games today and thought that throwing one of them in the middle of the SFZ red book tracks would create a bit of a train wreck. 

Using tracks from similar-sounding PCE CD games would give a sense of continuity and help even out the dynamics.  I'd hesitate to use songs from very popular games (like Cotton) or quirky games with a signature sound (like Splash Lake), but sleepers would work well.  I heard some great candidates skipping through to L-Dis and Rainbow Islands today. 

Anyway, if people want to do this, I'd be happy to help with the technical work.  I could do lossless rips, good recordings, editing, time compression/expansion, and volume equalizing as necessary, if someone gives me a list of track sources and required lengths.

[ParanoiaDragon]

Who did the music for this game, was it T's Music?  If so, I saw first narrowing it down to the various games that T's Music did, & then looking for similar styles.  They seem to be at times, creatures of habit when it comes to instrumentation.  I'd say Dungeon Explorer2 & Cotton are built from the same mold.  Lords of Thunder, Sapphire, & Hyper Wars are built from there own mold.  So there may be a game or two that has a similar sound as SFZ.

[Tatsujin]

How about some music talented peeps in here make some kewl tracks to add?

[Nazi NecroPhile]

I'm all for doing this if we can find something fitting, but there's only one duplicate track that can be easily replaced.  Additional tracks would require recoding of the game, which is far beyond my abilities.

How about some music talented peeps in here make some kewl tracks to add?

That'd be much better than taking something from an unrelated game.  Failing that, perhaps something from one of the many releases of Fantasy Zone or Fantasy Zone II would fit.

[jlued686]

I'd say that in an attempt to keep it as authentic as possible, take one of the tracks from a different Fantasy Zone release.

[CrackTiger]

If music from another game is going to be used, I think that it should be the original Fantasy Zone tracks from Super Fantasy Zone.

[ParanoiaDragon]

I've been thinking, there's gotta be some Fantasy Zone arranged tracks lying around the internet.  I thought about the Sega Classics version, but it may just be the old FM, there is a Saturn version of Fantasy Zone, does anybody know if that had redbook tracks, & if they're arranged?  I'll try looking into the music for the Sega Classics Space Harrier, but, I doubt there is anything light enough for Space Fantasy Zone.

I do have a buddy at the Ancient Land of Ys boards, whose name is Gamemusicfreak, I'm gonna give him a PM & see if he has anything, or knows of anything that would fit.

[CrackTiger]

I've been thinking, there's gotta be some Fantasy Zone arranged tracks lying around the internet.  I thought about the Sega Classics version, but it may just be the old FM, there is a Saturn version of Fantasy Zone, does anybody know if that had redbook tracks, & if they're arranged?  I'll try looking into the music for the Sega Classics Space Harrier, but, I doubt there is anything light enough for Space Fantasy Zone.

I do have a buddy at the Ancient Land of Ys boards, whose name is Gamemusicfreak, I'm gonna give him a PM & see if he has anything, or knows of anything that would fit.

I have an album of arranged Sega songs and I believe that one of them is from Fantasy Zone. Maybe that track is from a full FZ album? Does the PS2 Sega AGES version have arranged music? I still doubt that an arranged FZ soundtrack would top Super Fantasy Zone's tunes.

[ParanoiaDragon]

Isn't Super Fantasy Zone also just FM though?  Or am I thinking of something else...?  BTW, you have some unanswered PM's on the Frozen Utopia site    Oh, & as for the PS2 one, I'm pretty sure it's just the original music from the arcade, though I haven't checked just yet, been busy & super tired.

[SignOfZeta]

Best fucking Space Harrier related track ever:

[ParanoiaDragon]

Flew threw the Saturn FZ, & I think atleast track 22 could be used for SFZ.

[Tatsujin]

HAHAHA at that guy

That geezer @ 2:09 is thinking...... Did I leave the gas on.... Oh God..... The gas........ what shall I do... I left the gas on...... Shall I run home? then @ 2:49 he remembers that his cooker is electric. And @3:36 his mate next to him Falls in love with that Girl and tries to impress her by falling asleep

[chany60126]

Flew threw the Saturn FZ, & I think atleast track 22 could be used for SFZ.

Do you know of any web links that have this song available to listen without having to download an entire Sega Saturn rom?

[Nazi NecroPhile]

Are there any requirements to swap tracks?  Do they have to be the same length as the originals?

It looks like they have to be the same length.  The result of shortening track 8 was that it started playing track 9 at its end instead of looping back to the beginning.

[ParanoiaDragon]

Flew threw the Saturn FZ, & I think atleast track 22 could be used for SFZ.

Do you know of any web links that have this song available to listen without having to download an entire Sega Saturn rom?

Not that I've been able to find no.  When I have a minute I'll rip track 22 & find somewhere to host it for people to listen to.  There is a vocal version of it available on youtube, so I can post the link for that:

Necro, I have done track switching for various games in the past, & I've been able to get them to loop correctly, maybe this game is more anal about that.  If need be, for any track selected for this, I can go in Sound Forge & make it the exact length of the programmed track.  I can either fade it out, or cut & paste if it has an actual ending to the song.  So, I'm available for that.

Some other links I've found, haven't had time to do more research on these yet though, & I'm sure we don't want every level to be a variation of Opa Opa!

Edit-Gamemusicfreak also suggested Super Fantasy Zone, but also showed me this link!  This may be what we need!! http://mushi.net/eng/pfze.html

[Keranu]

I cast my ballot to use the Keith Courage soundtrack.

[ParanoiaDragon]

Ok, just spent some time with the PS2 versions of Fantasy Zone & Space Harrier.  I cannot find any arranged tracks in Fantasy Zone(doesn't help that there's no sound test), it seems to be all FM from the arcade, with maybe the exception of the tune while you pick up coins from the dying boss.  Space Harrier deffinitly has arranged tunes, no doubt.  However, 2 problems.  There is no sound test mode to take them from, & also, I'm not sure if the mood of the songs is right for Space Fantasy Zone, though, I could be wrong, it's just not quite as light as SFZ's music  Still, if we do some searching, we could probably find someone who's ripped the Space Harrier ost.

I'm leaning towards that one guy who did the music for an imaginary sequal to Fantasy Zone, that music seems to capture the spirit of the Fantasy Zone games very well imo. http://mushi.net/eng/pfze.html

[SignOfZeta]

If you are just looking for music from Space Harrier or Fantasy Zone, there are programs that will play music from the arcade ROMs and render them straight to disc. I can't think of what they are called, but they work really well, even on games that are not actually supported fully in MAME yet.

[CrackTiger]

I cast my ballot to use the Keith Courage soundtrack.

If only Keith Courage had more tracks, that would be pretty awesome. The Alpha Zones theme would perfectly suit the action of SFZ.

[ParanoiaDragon]

I've been thinking some more about this.  And I believe I could try to use the same technique for this, that I did for Mysterious Song.  Basically, if we want to use Super Fantasy Zone music, I could add my own sounds from my keyboard, also I could mess with various sound channels of the Super Fantasy Zone music & overlap them to give them a fuller sound, & I could try to overlap some beats in the same vein as Space Fantasy Zone, over the Super Fantasy Zone songs(I hope all that makes sense).  I think this is very doable.  Though, I will have to use my backup keyboard, as my regular keyboard is in the shop(my dining room) being cleaned/repaired.  I haven't had much enthusiasm to actually do the work on it, it's quite a drag to take apart.

[TurboXray]

Are there any requirements to swap tracks?  Do they have to be the same length as the originals?

It looks like they have to be the same length.  The result of shortening track 8 was that it started playing track 9 at its end instead of looping back to the beginning.

I took a look at the game after reading this thread. The game uses minutes:second:frames mode to start and end CDDA tracks for playback. I searched and found 10 fixed pieces of code that load CDDA tracks. Are there more than 10 levels? It's possible to convert this over to 'track number' mode instead of time stamp offsets. That way track lengths won't matter (you just need start and stop numbers).

[TurboXray]

Not interested?

[ParanoiaDragon]

10 levels sounds about right.  However, I noticed that every level uses the same song.  There seem to be 2 version's of Opa Opa used, & each level alternates which version it uses.  From what I recall, there are no other level tracks, so, we'd deffinitly need more, & coding I'm sure would be required to add more audio tracks to the game, unless NecroPhile just wants to stick to the 2 alternate level tracks?  Plus there's the issue of the other tracks that end early.  Some of them could just be looped, & then faded out.  But there were a few that are short lil' tunes that are more.....unique(for lack of a better word), & I don't have any clue on how they could be fixed, other then someone recomposing them.  If someone did that, it'd be nice to find similar sounds on their synth/tracker/etc. to blend in.

[Nazi NecroPhile]

Not interested?

Oh, was that an offer to do the work?  Hell yeah I'm interested!

There are nine stages: currently stages 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, and 8 share track 3; stages 3 and 6 share track 8; and stage 9 (boss only) has its own tune.  I'm all for giving each stage its own tune or alternating tracks or whatever, but what about the intro animation and title screen?  Can music be easily added to them too?

[Arkhan Asylum]

How about some music talented peeps in here make some kewl tracks to add?

This is my thinking.  I don't want to hear other games tracks in it.  If were going to make the effort to boot it, might as well make the songs unique so its obeytastic.

I could offer up some of my patented dance pop music that sounds like the love child of an 80s club and video games.  Me and paranoia could do it up.


I shouldve jumped into this conversation sooner.

[TurboXray]

Not interested?

Oh, was that an offer to do the work?  Hell yeah I'm interested!

There are nine stages: currently stages 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, and 8 share track 3; stages 3 and 6 share track 8; and stage 9 (boss only) has its own tune.  I'm all for giving each stage its own tune or alternating tracks or whatever, but what about the intro animation and title screen?  Can music be easily added to them too?

Ok, I'll hack/convert the play routines over to track method (no time limitations except normal CD track stuff). As for assigning each stage its own track #, I'll have to play through it, make notes, then hack. If I can identify the intro and title area, then I can add play tracks for those too (that would be the last thing to do, though).

[TurboXray]

Ok, I'm about to write this new playback routine. Level 1-8 will have individual track #'s (level 9, the last level, is just boss music). But what about bosses? Do you want to keep the arrangement the same or give each boss a unique track as well?

 Also, do you want me to remove the 'select' cheat?

[CrackTiger]

Ok, I'm about to write this new playback routine. Level 1-8 will have individual track #'s (level 9, the last level, is just boss music). But what about bosses? Do you want to keep the arrangement the same or give each boss a unique track as well?

 Also, do you want me to remove the 'select' cheat?

I'd like to see the stage skip cheat removed for a more polished, less beta feeling version.

[TurboXray]

So how does this work? I take it that providing a link to the new data replacement track and cue file are a no-no here. So is there someone I need to PM the link to? Who's going to be the main contact for this, then?

[Nazi NecroPhile]

But what about bosses? Do you want to keep the arrangement the same or give each boss a unique track as well?

I don't have my notes in front of me (I'm at work), but I think one track plays for all the bosses (excepting the final boss).  I don't think there's any need to change that.

Also, do you want me to remove the 'select' cheat?

That'd definitely be nice, but can it be left in until the last minute?  I wanna test on real hardware before sending discs off for pressing, but I ain't good enough to get past level six legitimately; I can test in Mednafen and abuse the save states if it's best taken out now or if you've already done it.

So how does this work? I take it that providing a link to the new data replacement track and cue file are a no-no here. So is there someone I need to PM the link to? Who's going to be the main contact for this, then?

PM the link to me please.

[TurboXray]

PM the link to me please.

Will do

[TurboXray]

PM and link sent.

 Also, just an idea but what about PCE mouse support? I recently got a real pce mouse to test out with (instead of using emulation for my mouse testing code). Might be kind if fun to play this game with mouse controls.

[Arkhan Asylum]

Also, just an idea but what about PCE mouse support? I recently got a real pce mouse to test out with (instead of using emulation for my mouse testing code). Might be kind if fun to play this game with mouse controls.

You should play Space Harrier on the C64 using the mouse in joystick mode, and get back to me on how fun that was.

hint: its not very fun.

[Nazi NecroPhile]

PM and link sent.

Woo-hoo!  I look forward to testing out some tracks.

Also, just an idea but what about PCE mouse support? I recently got a real pce mouse to test out with (instead of using emulation for my mouse testing code). Might be kind if fun to play this game with mouse controls.

I can't imagine it playing very well with a mouse, so it's likely not worth the effort.  My mouse is terribly lonely and underused though, so I wouldn't say no (assuming that 'normal' controls would be unaffected).

[TurboXray]

Hmm, true. Without acceleration functionality, using the mouse in place of the game pad directionals would be slow. And of course the game would have to be further hacked to accommodate acceleration of the main char.

[Arkhan Asylum]

Im telling you all you have to do is use a mouse on a C64 with space harrier for the full effect of how bad it sucks.

Especially using an old ball mouse.  You run out of room before you know it and you're frantically lifting your hand up like a dipshit to find more space to keep rolling around.

[Nazi NecroPhile]

Good news: Bonknuts's fix works great!  Each level has its own track and sounds great using the imaginary Fantasy Zone sequel music linked by P.D. above. 

Bad news: the guy that made said music doesn't want it used for such a project as this (copyright infringement issues).  I can understand his concerns, yet I'll still be crying in my cheerios tonight. 

I'd hoped this was settled, but we're back to needing tunes.  If P.D., Ark teh Lad, and anyone else with mad skillz wants to gang up and gang bang some remixes of Super Fantasy Zone tunes or has any other ideas, I'm all ears.  I'm a beggar not a chooser.

[allyourblood]

I'm willing to attempt at least an original track or two for this project. Completely original, no borrowing or covers. I'm curious about what styles everyone thinks will fit best? Ultimately, we're going to want it to be cohesive, so it wouldn't do to have chip tunes slammed up against J-dance or whatever... or would it?

I plan to use the existing track for inspiration, at least in terms of tempo and melodic vibe. I typically am used to darker and heavier electronic music, but this will be a fun challenge. I'll try to scratch up a few very short demos and post them here in a few days. From there, perhaps you folks can offer advice on what fits and what doesn't, and we can sort of go from there.

Work is picking up for me, so I'm not sure how much time each week I can dedicate to this, but as long as no one's in a hurry, I'm definitely on-board to help. Even if you folks don't like any of my stuff, I'm still willing to help in any way I can.

[Nazi NecroPhile]

Check out the other songs in SFZ and music from other games in the Fantasy Zone and Space Harrier series for inspiration too.

[ParanoiaDragon]

I'll gladly help, but it'll take me awhile.  I'm knee-deep in JB tunes, & I've got ALOT more to make for just that one game.  I would probably try to do some kind of mashup's(for lack of a better term) using the Super Fantasy Zone music.

[allyourblood]

I'm still working on this. Work has been mad this week so I simply haven't had more than a few moments to spare. I started a couple tracks, laying the groundwork and whatnot. Hopefully I can post some demos in the not-too-distant future.

[MotherGunner]

Would some Machinae Supremacy be too much?

How about Onimusha?

[Arkhan Asylum]

Would some Machinae Supremacy be too much?

yes.

[JoshTurboTrollX]

Jets n' Guns is a great Gate of Thunder tribute!