NewRisingSUn
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Posts: 634
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« Reply #1 on: September 09, 2010, 07:11:07 PM » |
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Realms of Arkania 1 is probably the worst possible game to use for a sound card comparison.
Even though the game itself was programmed for PC, the music was originally composed by Rudolph Stember for Amiga. Only the Amiga music therefore counts as the "original" version. Immediately when it was first released, attic released a Soundtrack CD containing arranged versions of the music. Not only are they longer than the in-game versions as well as made from higher-quality instrument samples (obviously) than the Amiga tunes, there are also subtle differences in some pieces themselves, such as the city music ("Thorwal"). Most songs are also in a different key. The soundtrack CD contains one song unused in the game, "Down at the Blue", it lacks the short ship-traveling music.
RoA1 was first released in German on PC and Amiga, with the Amiga version providing the original music. The original German PC version played the actual Amiga TFMX tracks on Adlib, using FM instruments that didn't have much in common with the Amiga waveforms, but didn't sound bad at all if you didn't know the original. It did NOT support Roland MT-32. Dungeons have no music at all, only atmospheric sound effects (which are barely audible on Adlib, but clearly so on Amiga); neither do battle scenes have any music, only sound effects. It does have the original ship-traveling music.
When Sir-Tech released the English version of the game on floppy, they (apparently) insisted on MT-32 support. Only then was the music converted to XMI format. For this, they used the arranged CD versions, NOT the original versions. This sounded kind of okay on Roland, but downright appalling on FM, much worse than the original TFMX-based implementation. Being based on the CD arrangements, it lacks the original short ship-traveling music, playing the shop tune during ship voyages instead. However, Guido Henkel (who composed Star Trail's music) composed two new songs, one for dungeons (replacing the original pure atmospheric cue), another one for battles.
Both the German and English CD-ROM version incorporated the soundtrack CD, minus "Down at the Blue", as well as arranged versions of Guido Henkel's two new songs. The difference between the two composers is quite pronounced, as Stember used some professional sampler for his music, while Henkel only used an SC-55 for his two tracks. Again, the ship voyage music is missing.
As you can see, it's quite a complicated situation. Hm, maybe I should post samples...
Obviously, since the music was never composed for MIDI devices, this game therefore shouldn't be used for sound card comparisons.
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