Muzax 8, 3rd and final part – Turrican or Chris Huelsbeck’s music references

In the third and final part of Muzax, dedicated to Chris Huelsbeck, you will hear music from the games "The adventures of Quik and Silva", "Apidya", "Jim Power: In Mutant Planet" and "Turrican 3" as they appear on Amiga, Atari ST, Super Nintendo and on audio CD.

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Content of broadcast:
Welcome to Muzax, the video games music broadcast.

Let's continue to discover music composed by Chris Huelbeck.

Highly appreciated in the 80s and the 90s, digitalized voices show off the skills of the developer/musician and produce amazing sound effects.
The intro of "The adventures of Quik and Silva" on Amiga is an excellent illustration of the use of digitalized voices.
We are now listening to the music you hear during the game.

The first CD of Chris Huelsbeck, called "Shades", was published by "synSONIQ" in 1991. It is a best-of of his most famous hits including R-type, Turrican and Shades, of course.

Apidya, a very well-designed production, is released in 1992. It is also a shoot 'em up game and unexpectedly the player doesn't pilot a spaceship but a bumblebee.
The music of this game was played by a symphony orchestra during the « Symphonic Game Music Concert ».
This event has been taking place several times a year since 2003 in Leipzig, Germany.
Let's go right to the heart of the game.
Let's go to level 4 with a completely different style of music.
We can easily identify the 90s music style.

« Jim Power: In Mutant Planet » is published by « Loriciels », one of the most dynamic French companies in creating and publishing video games in the 80s and the 90s.
At that time, Loriciels published famous personal-computer games. But unfortunately, just after Jim Power release, the company went into liquidation because of a large outstanding payment from its American distributor.
Now listen to the Atari ST version.
The style is different but the adaptation remains faithful to the original version.

Chris also made console versions for PC-Engine, Super Nintendo, Sega Megadrive and PC
The third episode of Turrican is called "Super Turrican" on Super Nintendo and "Mega Turrican" on Megadrive. Fans put pressure on them to produce a version for Amega. It was released under the name "Turrican 3".

When the golden age of 16-bit computers such as Amiga and Atari ST had passed, video game companies decided to release their new games on the latest generations of consoles and PCs.
Let's go to the first level of Turrican on Super Nintendo.
Of course Chris follows this evolution and composes music for games published on these new machines.
He also composed film and show music and brought out several audio CDs of his most famous hits.
Listen to the music from the end of Turrican 3 on the CD version.

Since the age of 17, Chris has composed the music for over 70 games.
In 1998, he left Germany and followed the company Factor 5 to California where he composed several pieces of game music for them, including those for the Star Wars series.

This broadcast dedicated to Chris Huelsbeck is now over. Thanks for listening and tune in soon for a new episode of Muzax.

Muzax 8, part 2 – Turrican or Chris Huelsbeck’s music references

In the second part of Muzax dedicated to Chris Huelsbeck, you will hear music from the games Turrican, Z-out, Turrican II and Gem’X as they appear on the Amiga, the Atari ST, and the Commodore 64.

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Content of broadcast:
Welcome to Muzax, the video games music broadcast.

Let's continue to discover music written by Chris Huelbeck.

« Turrican » was published in 1990 by Rainbow Arts. This game was a real blockbuster. We are now listening to the intro music as it appears on the Amiga.
Chris doesn’t compose the music on every device; they are adapted by several musicians.

Let’s hear the conversion made on the Atari ST by his counterpart Jochen Hippel.
The result is surprising and shows that the Atari ST, despite poorer characteristics than the Amiga, has a potential that only passionate senior programmers can highlight.
Let’s go back to the Amiga version.

While waiting the game levels’ loading, the player can listen to the famous music of the loader.

We are now ready to enter the first level of the game.

Let’s continue with the Amiga version produced by Chris Huelsbeck.
The game consists in the exploration of huge levels which are infested with enemies and traps in order to find the exit and so go to the next level.
The player moves a soldier through 13 levels over 5 worlds.

Still in 1990, « Z-out » is released. It’s a shoot’em up game having the same characteristics as the famous “R-type”. Chris writes the introducing music of the game.

As Turrican had a great success, the episode 2 is released just one year later and Chris composes some of the best music he has ever written.
This second episode has technical characteristics even more impressing than the former episode. It has more colours, larger levels and more voices in the music, a nearly perfect multidirectional scrolling. It is not surprising that Turrican II is considered as one of the games the best completed.

Jochen Hippel is the creator of a routine on the Amiga called “Amiga 7 voice replay routine” that includes 7 voices simultaneously whereas this micro-computer has just 4 voices.
Chris reuse this technology in his own routine called « The Final Musicsystem eXtended » alias « TFMX », for intro and ending music of Turrican II.

Also developed on the Commodore 64, the music we are listening to is the one of the loader on this machine.

We are in the first level of the game listening to music in the Atari ST version adapted by Jochen one more time.
Let’s observe the versions from the Atari and the Amiga.

Chris produces in 1991 music for the game “Gem’X” on the Amiga, the Atari ST and the Commodore 64.
While listening to the music in C64 version, this second part dedicated to Chris Huelsbeck is finishing. Tune in soon for the next episode of Muzax!

Muzax 8, part 1 – Chris Huelsbeck’s music

The eighth broadcast of Muzax is part of the mini-series « Presentation of a famous videogame music composer ».

The pieces you will hear are composed or adapted by Chris Huelsbeck, a major composer in the videogame world.


In the first part of this broadcast, you will hear music from the demo of Shades and the games Bad Cat, The Great Giana Sisters, R-type, Grand Monster Slam and X-out on the Commodore 64 and the Amiga with a version by Machinae Supremacy.

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Content of broadcast:
Welcome to Muzax, the video games music broadcast.

Today we are going to discover the music of Chris Huelsbeck, a major composer in the videogame world.
“Shades”, his first composition on the Commodore 64, was the music which won him the competition organised in1986 by the German magazine “64’er” read by Commodore 64 fans. This was the beginning of a long career.

One year later, Chris has already composed music for 9 games. We are listening to “Bad Cat”.
Most of the sounds he uses are digitalized. These sound completely compared to the existing music on the Commodore 64 and provide a better sound quality.

One of his first big hits - the music for the game “The Great Giana Sisters” was released in 1987.
This game is very similar to the famous “Super Mario Bros game”. Too similar according to Nintendo who sued the game publisher Rainbow Arts and succeeded in banning its distribution outside Germany.
This tune/melody is used over and over. This is a cover version by the Swedish group “Machinae Supremacy”.
Despite being illegal, “The Great Giana Sisters” remains a reference in micro-computer games.

“R-type” is one of the most famous shoot’em up games and has been adapted for several consoles.
The arcade version has no music before the beginning of the game, that is to say when the title of the game appears and the player is asked to insert coins.
Chris is in charge of writing the intro music. We are listening to the Commodore 64 version.
He wrote another version for the Commodore Amiga in a completely different style.
The quality of the sounds he uses gives a real depth to the music. We can note through this composer’s various musical creations how important digitizing is to his creations.

Still in 1989, Chris writes the “Grand Monster Slam”.
This game is published by Rainbow Arts, one of the main companies he works for.

From the late 80’s, more and more video games have an animated sequence as an introduction to the game. Here is the intro music of “X-out”.
Progress made in micro-computer programming allows games to be more advanced in terms of the level of animation level but also terms of their graphics and music.
This requires a higher level of data storage and consequently it takes longer to load the game.
As a result some music is specially written to entertain the player while he is waiting.

Let’s listen to the X-out loader.
Used for short instants, this music is generally pretty repetitive.
As we listen to music from the 2nd level of this game, this first part dedicated to Chris Huelsbeck is coming to a close. Tune in soon for the next episode of Muzax!

Muzax 11, 4th and final part – WipEout, Destruction Derby, Formula One, the successes of Psygnosis

In the fourth and final part of this Muzax episode dedicated to the games developed or published by Psygnosis, you will hear music from the games WipEout, Destruction Derby, Formula One, WipEout 2097, Colony Wars, Rollcage and Lemmings Revolution on PCs and the Playstation.

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Content of broadcast:
Welcome to Muzax, the video games music broadcast.

Let’s continue our exploration of the music world of the games of the company “Psygnosis”.

In 1995, Psygnosis developed and published one of the most famous imaginary racing games: “WipEout”.
Psygnosis, which was bought by “Sony Corporation” two years earlier, focused its activity more and more on developing games for PCs, for the Saturn and for the first Sony game console, the “Playstation”.
These devices offer new technical possibilities thanks to the addition of a CD player.
Until then, music was generated by sound processors. Real audio tracks replaced them.
WipEout illustrates this with its electro music style.

“Destruction Derby” was released in 1995 on the Playstation and PC.
This new hit is a car racing game or, more precisely, a stock-car game.
The aim is not only to win races but also to destroy your opponents’ vehicles.

“Formula One” was developed by “Bizarre Creations” and was released in 1996.
The key to a successful console is to offer a large range of games.
With the purchase of Psygnosis, Sony was able to release high-quality games on its console.
Formula One is one of the Playstation’s blockbusters. Its success led to the release of a sequel each year.

Still in 1996, the sequel to « WipEout » was released on the Playstation.
Named « WipEout 2097 » or « WipEout XL », the game was also released on the Saturn, Windows PCs and the Amiga.
Moreover, this game is the last one published by Psygnosis on this machine.

« Colony Wars » is a space shooter game and was released in 1997.
Surprisingly, in the same year, Psygnosis released another game of the same genre called « G-Police ».

« Rollcage » is another imaginary racing game and was released in 1999.
That year, Psygnosis which had 250 employees became a subsidiary of “Sony Computer Entertainment Europe”.
Lots of reorganization took place, some studios were sold or closed, others merged.
The famous development studio located in Liverpool was renamed “SCE Studio Liverpool”.

The Lemmings were back in the year 2000 in “Lemmings Revolution”.
This cult series was made up of about ten episodes which sold more than 20 million copies.

After 16 years of existence, Psygnosis stopped developing games .
After having produced or published many games that significantly influenced the videogame world, the purple owl took its leave.

This broadcast dedicated to Psygnosis is now over. Thanks for listening and tune in soon for a new episode of Muzax.

Muzax 11, part 3 – The Lemmings, the first great success of DMA

In the 3rd part of this Muzax episode dedicated to the games developed or published by Psygnosis, you will hear music from the games Lemmings, Awesome, Leander, Shadow of the beast 3 and Lemmings 2: The Tribes on the Amiga and Microcosm on the Amiga CD32.

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Content of broadcast:
Welcome to Muzax, the video games music broadcast.

Let’s continue our exploration of the music world of the games from the company "Psygnosis".

The "Lemmings" appeared on the Amiga in 1991 and was a real hit.
Developed by "DMA Design", this game of strategy was brought out on around twenty different consoles.
The Lemmings are small green-haired creatures who wear blue dresses.
The player has to guide them to the exit of each level by making them dig, climb or build steps etc as necessary.

"Awesome" is a action/strategy game which takes place in outer space.
Before even starting to play, the player gets the feel of the game thanks to a pre-calculated 3D introduction.
The capacity of the consoles of the time were not able to support detailed real-time 3D animations.
That is why pre-calculated 3D is used in order to give optimal graphical execution.

In 1991, Psygnosis released "Leander".
This game is the first one to be produced by the British studio "Traveller's Tales".
Right from the beginning, the production quality attracts attention.
Like most action/platform games, the scenario is pretty basic.
Leander is very pleasant to play and stands out from the others by its graphics, its animations and its music.
"Shadow of the Beast III" was released in 1992 on the Atari ST and Amiga.
This third and last episode of the series is, once more, exceptionally well produced.

Despite this, it was not such a big success as the first episode.

In 1993, Psygnosis published "Lemmings 2: The tribes".
The success of these tiny creatures allowed the British company to invest in research and development and to fully contribute to the creation of the new generation games on CD-Rom.

"Microcosm" is a shoot’em up.
This game, developed and published by Psygnosis, is released on platforms equipe with a CD player such as the 3DO, the Mega-CD and the Amiga CD32.
The bigger companies were envious of Psygnosis’ fame.
In 1993, at the dawn of the 3D era and of the CD-Rom, Sony Corporation bought out Psygnosis.
This is how the Japanese company got ready to release its first television console: the Playstation.

The third part of this broadcast dedicated to Psygnosis is now over. Tune in soon for the next and last episode of this series about Psygnosis!

Happy new year 2009

On behalf of Muzax, I wish you a very happy new year 2009 filled with happiness and passion!

Tune in soon for the next episode of Muzax!