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.

Listen to and download this podcast in MP3 format by clicking on this link. (comments in French)

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.

Listen to and download this podcast in MP3 format by clicking on this link. (comments in French)

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!

Muzax 11, part 2 - Shadow of the Beast, by Reflections Software

In the 2nd part of this Muzax episode dedicated to the games developed or released by Psygnosis, you will hear music from the games Ballistix, Blood money, Shadow of the Beast and Shadow of the beast 2 on the Amiga and Chrono quest II on the Atari ST.

Listen to and download this podcast in MP3 format by clicking on this link. (comments in French)

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

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

The first 16-bit game developed by « Reflections Software » is « Ballistix » released in 1989.
Despite its meticulous production, this futuristic ball-game doesn’t manage to dethrone « Speedball » the famous game developed by « The Bitmap Brothers ».

« Dave Jones », founder of « DMA Design », developed « Blood Money » from his bedroom.
Being passionate about arcade games, this young Scottish man wanted to afford players the same thrills as in shoot’em up games available in amusement arcades.
The Amiga version of the game has two floppy disks. The first one is entirely devoted to its spectacularly high-resolution introduction.
The second floppy disk has the four levels of the game on it. Every level is a huge planet that the player has to explore in order to rid it of hordes of enemies.
The game is carefully produced; it stands out from the crowd due to its introduction and also its theme music written by « Ray Norrish ».

After Ballistix, Reflections Software produces one of its most beautiful games on the Amiga 500, « Shadow of the Beast ».
The reputation of every Psygnosis game is preceded by the company’s logo: the famous purple owl.
When he sees this, the player expects a high quality game.

« Shadow of the Beast » is no exception to the rule.
With 128 colours displayed simultaneously, 13 levels of parallax scrolling backdrops, 50 images per second and numerous sprites - some of them enormous, the Amiga version is a real technical achievement.
The game was a great success and was adapted to go on around ten platforms.
Once again, the music is written by « David Whittaker ». It is one of his biggest hits.
He is called upon to write exceptional music. He has achieved this by using high quality instrumental samples.
Despite being fairly ordinary in terms of manageability and in interest-value, the Amiga version of this legendary game has received several awards.

« Chrono quest II », also called « Explora II » in France, was released in 1990 on the Amiga, DOS and the Atari ST.
This second episode is full of even more meticulous graphics and digitalized voices.

Just one year after the release of the first episode, « Shadow of the beast 2 » was released on the Amiga.
This second game has taken on board the criticisms of the first. This follow-up version turns out to be more thought-provoking and challenging.

The drawback, however, is that on a technical level the game is less impressive.

The second part of this broadcast dedicated to Psygnosis is now over. Tune in soon for the next episode of Muzax!

Muzax 11, part 1 - Music from Psygnosis games

The eleventh episode of Muzax is part of the mini-series “Famous music by video games companies”. The music you will hear is from games developed or produced by the company “Psygnosis”.

In the 1st part of this Muzax episode, you will hear music from the games Brataccas, Captain Fizz Meets the Blaster-Trons, Chrono Quest, Menace, Obliterator and Baal on the Atari ST, the Commodore 64 and the Amiga.

Listen to and download this podcast in MP3 format by clicking on this link. (comments in French)

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

Today, let’s discover the range of music found in games by the company “Psygnosis”.

Psygnosis was founded in 1984 by former managers of the company “Imagine Software”: Ian Hetherington and Jonathan Ellis. Psygnosis developed « Brataccas » in 1985.
This game is one of the first games released on the Amiga and the Atari ST.
As a matter of fact, you can easily recognise the very basic original sounds of the Atari.
They use high resolution graphics.
This technique is rarely used. It has a 640x200-pixel display which uses only 4 colours.

« Captain Fizz Meets the Blaster-Trons » was released in 1988. We are listening to the intro music on the Amiga.
The music incorporates several digitalized voices.
This technique was very fashionable at the time and was highly impressive. It established Psygnosis’ reputation for releasing state-of-the-art games.
The first games by this British company located in Liverpool are developed in-house, like Arena, Deep space, Terrorpods, and their first real success, Barbarian.
On the other hand, Captain Fizz is developed by an external studio: Papyrus Design Group.

« Chrono Quest » is produced by Psygnosis.
This game is well-known in France as « Explora: Time Run ». Actually, it is developed by “Infomedia”, another famous video game company from the 80’s and 90’s.
The Music is written by the famous musician, David Whittaker, whose style is recognisable in the different pieces of music in the Atari version.

The game « Menace » is developed by the studio « DMA Design » but produced by Psygnosis
This shoot’em up was released on the « Psyclapse » label on the Amiga, the Atari ST, DOS and the Commodore 64.
The game has 6 levels all featuring the same music.
Menace has a very basic scenario like most shoot’em up games.
Its strengths are in its graphics, its scrolling and its animations.

Still in 1988, « Obliterator » uses the same concept as the game Barbarian. But, this time, in a futuristic world.We have just listened to the title screen music from the Atari version. Now, here is the ingame music on the Amiga.
The player controls the hero using the buttons on the mouse.
The size of the sprites is pretty impressive for that era.
Actually, a sprite is an animated element such as enemies, projectiles or the hero himself.

« Baal » was released on the Amiga in 1989. This time, the game has multi-directional scrolling.
This technique allows the player to move his character in every direction.
Because of this the game becomes more wide-reaching, is richer and more complex than before, in turn, making the game last longer.

The first part of this broadcast dedicated to Psygnosis is now over. Tune in soon for the next episode of Muzax!