Cover Songs in 8-Bit Video Games

CONFERENCE PRESENTATION FOR
THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION
FOR THE STUDY OF POPULAR
MUSIC (IASPM.CA).

Karen Collins, University of Waterloo

Why so many cover
songs,and why did
they disappear?

8-Bit? Isn't that
like, so... 1984??

8-Bit Games
= Revolutionary + Influential

The Apple II wasdesigned around games

How games have led to improtant innovative developments: the rise of the PC based on games, apple II designed around games, and sequencing software developed from game audio.Steve Woz on BreakoutA lot of features of the Apple II went in because I had designed Breakout for Atari. I had designed it in hardware. I wanted to write it in software now. So that was the reason that color was added in firstso that games could be programmed. I sat down one night and tried to put it into BASIC ... I got this ball bouncing around, and I said, Well it needs sound, and I had to add a speaker to the Apple II. It wasnt planned, it was just accidental ... So a lot of these features that really made the Apple II stand out in its day came from a game, and the fun features that were built in were only to do one pet project, which was to program a BASIC version of Breakout and show it off at the club.37 Games responsible for driving consumer interest in PCs

Jack Connick, ...And Then There Was Apple. Call-A.P.P.L.E. (Oct 1986): 24. From http://apple2history.org/history/ah03.html#x1.

Commodore broughtPCs to the home marketthrough GAMES

8-Bit Games
= Revolutionary + Influential

Techniques developedby composersled to the creationof modern sequencingsoftware.

8-Bit Games
= Revolutionary + Influential

Not covering...artist-based games

Not covering Chiptunes

FOCUS

Uses of other people's music(cover versions) in 8-BitGames for seemingly randomreasons....

What is 8-BIT?

Bit = Binary Digit (a 1 or 0)

X-bit = number of simultaneous 1s or 0s
the CPU can handle

an 8-bit computer can process 8 bits of data at the same time.

Approx 1970-1990

I Am 8-Bit

I Am 8-Bit

I Am so NOT 8-Bit

A Few Examples of Cover Songs in 8-Bit Games

licensed tracks

unlicensed pop covers

unlicensed film covers

traditional songs

classical music

California Games
(1987)
(licensed Kingsmen)

Frantic Freddie (1983)
(unlicensed pop)

Int'l Karate (1986)
(unlicensed film)

Buffalo Bill (1989)
(traditional)

Acid Drop (1992)
(classical)

So, why covers?

8-bit sound chips

2 or 3 tone channels (usually + 1 noise)

subtractive synthesis

some had envelope generators

some had set waveforms

coded in assembly or BASIC

Limited frequency ranges

Up N Down (Sega 1983)

Arcade Version

More on difficulty: sound chips in the 1980s

Atari VCS (2600)

Up N Down (Sega 1984)

Comparison of sound chip with previousfive-bit pseudo-random frequency divider, capable of dividing a base frequency of 30 KHz by 32 values. Starting with one base tone, that frequency was then divided between one and 32 to obtain the other notes in the tuning set, or note options available to the composer. To compound the problem, there were slight variations between the frequencies on the NTSC (the North American television broadcast standard), and PAL (the European format), versions of the machine.

Editing the trackto the technology...

Remove or substitute vocals

Loop track

Remove instrument parts

Simplify parts (e.g. Harmony)

Substitute notes

And that's
just the hardware!

Making a beep in assembly

Beep PROC USES AX BX CX
IN AL, 61h; Save state
PUSH AX
MOV BX, 6818 ; 1193180/175
MOV AL, 6Bh; Select Channel 2, write LSB/BSB mode 3
OUT 43h, AL
MOV AX, BX
OUT 24h, AL; Send the LSB
MOV AL, AH
OUT 42h, AL; Send the MSB
IN AL, 61h ; Get the 8255 Port Contence
OR AL, 3h
OUT 61h, AL; End able speaker and use clock channel 2 for input
MOV CX, 03h ; High order wait value
MOV DX 0D04h ; Low order wait value
MOV AX, 86h ; Wait service
INT 15h
POP AX ; restore Speaker state
OUT 61h, AL
RET
BEEP ENDP

From Using Assembly Language by Allen L Wyatt From Using Assembly Language by Allen L Wyatt

Focussing on difficulty of writing audio for games in early days

What this meant ...

Writing music was VERY time consuming.

Game developers didn't have time:
product lifecycle short, competitive

Music was done by programmers*

Geeks...

... are not Rock Stars...

The time to
development... and
the lifecycle

In the game world,The programmer
was God.

(Larson)

Note there was no tying of musicto content of the game...

or a rather
spuriousconnectionat best...

...uh, Water Music?

Captain Comic (Color Dreams 1988)

Flight of the Bumblebee underscores a level that contains bees as one of the enemies, use of the Blue Danube waltz on the moon level of the game is a specific reference to the use of the piece in Kubricks 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), The Marche Militiare, a jaunty martial piece, accompanies a desolate spaceship, and Bachs Toccata and Fugueone of the most immediately recognizable pieces of old classical music, a topic to which we will return in the second case studyprovides the backdrop to a level taking place inside a high-tech giant computer.

Captain Comics songs:

Borrowing from classical music.

SHEET music.

Thanks to Will Gibbons atUNC for this note

Lack of musical knowledge on part of programmers led to borrowing from classical music

Grey Areas are Great

Copyright's
grey areas in
the age of 8-Bit

A Summary: Why
Cover Songs?

programmers were not musicians

the programmers made the decisions

there was very little time

the technology made it difficult

copyright's grey areas made it easy

So...

Where have allthe covers gone?

A Changing
Industry...

Nintendo...a
Conscious Effort
to be Different

A New Game Music Aesthetic

An attempt to
adapt...(or emulate)

New Technology...Redbook Audio in Games

2007 Tarriff 22A

A Summary: Why did
covers (mostly) end
with 16-Bit?

game industry had changed

game music had matured
and developed its own aesthetic(s)

technology had changed

Copyright laws more rigid

Still want more??

Ashgate, UK 2008

MIT Press, US 2008

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