After near-a-month off, “Into the Score” is back with an awesome, yet moderately obscure game to cover for this episode! It’s”Shivers”, put out by Sierra in 1996 for the PC Platform. I won’t disclose too much, but I’m telling you… there are even graphics involved in this one! This is a score that you don’t want off your radar!
Hey, the shownotes load up the Betamod Radio homepage. Is this normal? What about the text file?
I remember playing the demo for this game off a PC gamer coverdisc years and years back, and always wanted to play the full game (though I missed the chance to ever do so). I recall the Ixupi being really silly and cartoony looking, and that broke the atmosphere for me, but I loved the puzzles and rest of the demo.
It’s a really cool choice for a score to study, since it’s such an offbeat and little-known game, and a nice contrast to the huge scores of the other games that have been covered. I’m rather fond of the textures and sound design that went into the game — some pretty neat stuff considering the technology available in 1996 when the game was released.
I’m also pretty excited to hear the podcast about the FF7 remix project that OCremix just released… I’ve been listening to it pretty much since it came out, and I’m looking forward to see what kind of aspects and songs you’re gonna draw attention to. It’s a monumental piece of work, and major kudos to anyone involved who reads this.
Anyways, another great episode of the podcast. It’s probably my favorite podcast out there, it’s just so damn refreshing to hear someone else geek out about music as much as I do. Keep up the awesome work, there are a few of us who are incredibly grateful for the podcast each month.
Hey guys, thanks for commenting!
To first address - Sam: Problem solved, apparently the lettercase is sensitive in each file - the file was called “Intothescore12.txt”, but the link was for “intothescore12.txt”… note the case of the first letter.
My bad, terribly sorry. but all is fixed now
Secret Bass: awesome to hear from you again! Andrew Aversa (zircon) and I recorded the interview a few days ago and let me tell you, it is one of the best interviews that I’ve ever had - you’re in for a treat! It should be up within 3 or 4 days!
Thanks again! Feel free to comment anytime!
Kenley
I’ve tried to download this episode a few times, and I’m afraid betamodradio.com might be down again. Thought I would alert you to this. Thanks for a great podcast!
Hey there, Matthew!
Thanks for the heads-up! It’s true, betamodradio.com is down… but alas, I have moved servers. While I am still part of betamod, I think that I just needed something more dependable - all is back up and is ready to go when you are!
Thanks for being patient and listening!
Feel free to comment, it’s great to hear from you!
Kenley
While this was generally a very good episode, there is a major point i do not agree on: the definition of “adaptive music”. I am not familiar with whether there is academic debate about terminology, but i think it really helps to distinguish ambient from adaptive music. If you look at what the terms generally mean (i.e.: etymology), ambient says “related to the surroundings”, while adaptation means “fitting in”. While, of course, all music in video games should fit the situations it accompanies, I still think there is an issue we need to deal with: video games are interactive (except for Metal Gear Solid 4, from what I heared; but that is not to the point…), so linear music has a harder time fitting in if it wants to really make sense. Just consider Morrowind, a horrible jukebox of tracks loosely related to the surroundings when one is on the road, except for a safe/danger state dichotomy. So, I would really suggest to consider adaptiveness to be contrastet with linearity. This left me pondering for a while whether it is already adaptive music if it is non-linear in any way, which would not be a very helpfull term: the first such change will occur once the player hits “start”. But then I found an article which gives a very fine definition (on page 3) of adaptive music revolving around gracefully handling (without ruining the music) that the exact game state progression, unknown and different each time a game is played, should be reflected in the music generated during play.
Specifically, this definition does not exclude being thematic, as long a you adapt your themes. (like the adaptation of the battle music speed in Zelda: Wind Waker to the proximity of the enemies).
The article follows, Episode 23 was cool.
http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20070417/clark_01.shtml , though I recommand reading at ‘2′ and read 01 last.
Maelkashishi - sorry for the long wait on the reply, I wanted to really soak in what the article was saying. You know what? It’s a good article! That’s not what I learned about “adaptive music”, especially from Guy Whitmore’s profile at the IASIG, but Andrew Clark (writer) makes some REALLY good points.
Perhaps what the Whitmore bio stated as “adaptive” was more about adapting the themes, like you said above. So, taking a theme and morphing it into whatever the scene around it was displaying? It’s hard to say - it’s two different views on the same thing, except that both seem to contradict each other…
Actually, I really like what Clark has said about adaptive music. Like a scientist, I am quite delighted to be wrong so long the answer is found, and I think that Clark has hit the nail on the head with this one. I’m glad you found this article, it’s a keeper!
Kenley
Hi! I really loved this game! I played it several years ago, and still remember most parts of it. Unfortunately i lost the CD….anyway, I wanted to ask you if you know if Guy Whitmore likes Bach? I’m asking because some of the songs in that podcast sound like a remix of Bach. The “clock tower” could well be a part of Bach cello suites and “lake exit” sounds a bit like a fuga…I don’t know…now that I’m writing these ideas down, it sounds very stupid…