Thursday, March 7, 2019

MIDI Week Singles: "Titles" - Alien³ (NES)


"Titles" from Alien³ on the Nintendo Entertainment System (1993)
Composer: Jeroen Tel
Album: No Official Release
Developer: Probe Software


I guess this is really all I have about this track.  I never played Alien³ when it was released back in 1993, probably because I was too young to have seen the movie and did not really know anything about the Alien franchise other than this was a side scrolling action game.  But the music, woo!  And now that I know that Jeroen Tel wrote the music to both Alien³ and Bram Stoker's Dracula, I can really hear the similarities in the style of music.

What I like here, I like, is that there is no attempt at masking whatever the warbly MIDI instrument is supposed to be around the 50 second mark.  Sure some of the other MIDI instruments could be intended to be actual instruments, but for the most part, the music sounds more focused on the melody rather than trying to make the song sound like it's being performed by specific instruments.  I am of course making assumptions left and further left, but that is because I have yet to interview Mr. Tel.

Something else that I like, is that for the first 20 seconds, it sounds like pretty standard "Here's some generic-esque music to play until you actually start playing the game.  But by the time the song reaches 24 seconds, you are able to move past the title music and start the game, which is really a shame since the song repeats after 2:30.  That is a pretty long time for a song in a video game to play before it repeats (unless you're playing Ultima: Exodus) and the song just keeps getting better.



~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

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