The Sound of the Game...

[Ash Armstrong]

Just to be clear, I came across the article in my regular Saturday morning read of the Guardian online. I know nothing about video games at all, and aside from a flirtation with Doom and Duke Nukem 25 years ago, don't play them at all. I'm aware composers are much in demand for music for them though..
Anyway, the mention of Yes and 60s psychedelia, a favourite music and era for me, caught my attention.

Has Yesmusic featured in other video games? Homeworld I know about of course, but again I know nothing of the game or anything. Any other tunes?

From the article:

“The first piece of music in the game that came together and made me think: ‘That’s it, we’ve got it,’ was the fight music in Updaam,” Salta says. He namechecks the bass groove on one of his favourite Yes tunes, Roundabout, as a starting point: “That kind of feel seemed perfect for what I was after and worked really well.” From there, Salta brought in his friend and jazz keyboard legend, Philippe Saisse, “who put down a ripping Minimoog solo” that gave him confidence that Deathloop’s sound was coming together."

[rabin105]

I know owner of a lonely heart was in grand theft auto vice city


beyond that I don’t know

[josuev80]

HotS, ISAGP, SSotS, OOALH, Roundabout, and ST are in the Rock Band series of games.

[Ash Armstrong]

HotS, ISAGP, SSotS, OOALH, Roundabout, and ST are in the Rock Band series of games.

Jolly good, though I know not of what you speak.

[tumnus]

I did computer soundtrack work for amiga games for several companies in the early 90s, and I interviewed Rick in december 1991 (in a pub in Kent, England!) the interview was for a japanese computer mag, and the interview came about because I'd chanced upon him at a computer trade fair just walking about on his own.

Turns out he knew a lot about the industry and home computing, and I nudged him towards Mark Of The Unicorn and Trevor Rabin as I knew he was using this, but at the time I didnt know if they were playing Yes war games (ie which side they were on!) - He was very enthusiastic and I was surprised that at that stage he already knew a lot about Trevor's process and MOTU recording (mainly from him just chatting with Trevor), he was a great interviewee and I still have the photo we took after! He referenced 'the next Yes' album a few times, there is another active thread which is explaining how that went down. A missed opportunity.

Anyway following on from this Rick had an idea of making a computer game music consortium, with him and a few games soundtrack guys, of which I was one. Sadly... you know how these things go! But he did do some work for Psygnosis I believe, im trying to remember the name of the game... Microcosm? something like that.

Anyway, it nearly became a lot more, but i thought it was relevant to bring up here as Rick was far deeper into that industry than i'd previously thought.

For me the game changed after Sony introduced the Playstation in 1995, with their resources and the CD and mp3 tech you could put actual recording artists tracks onto games. Big money came in and what was previously a quasi-cottage industry dried up and everything went to the big software houses. But i've no regrets, interesting times and for a while I was punching above my weight

[tumnus]

Im pretty sure it was december 1991, and the union tour dates coincide but it could have been 1992. It was the day after he played at chatham central hall. It was a monday i recall and we had the interview before the pub opened at 11am (he was staying at the norman conquest pub with his band - nice touch and quite real rather than a swanky hotel)