Several Commodore 64 games players, and indeed, fans of the SID sound chip in particular, will have had some conversations over the years beginning with “I only bought this game because of the music” and in the first of this series we looked at those games where certainly they were apt enough, with great soundtracks masking in some cases a game that was not the best.
In the second part of this series, we will look at games re-released by Mastertronic where the sound ratings in Zzap! 64 scored higher than the overall game rating, with the biggest differences between the sound and overall ratings for the game mentioned here.
Some Notes about the Ratings
It is important to note that there are some caveats around the Zzap! 64 reviews and indeed the sound ratings, which we will be concentrating on.
- No adventure game got a sound rating, and no strategy game got a sound rating either.
- Not every game got a Zzap! 64 review, so there may be some games that may be missing – simply because they were not reviewed.
- Sound ratings also dealt with sound effects as well as the music, so if the game has superb sound effects or speech that would up the rating considerably too.
- Only games that had separate sound ratings will feature – later budget reviews just had an overall score and so a chunk of reviews between 1987 and 1991 were in that category.
- For re-releases, we will be looking at the sound ratings relating to the original review when released at full price – unless (as in two cases here) only the budget re-release was reviewed.
So, without further do, and in reverse order, here are the top 10 of Nice Music, Shame about the Game, for the Mastertronic Commodore 64 re-releases as reviewed by Zzap! 64:
10 – Geoff Capes Strongman (Ricochet, Rob Hubbard, Sound 49%, Overall 33%, Difference 16%)
Listen to Geoff Capes Strongman via DeepSID
Even though the game was not much home to write about, complete with over-reliance on joystick waggling, the Zzap! 64 reviewers were also very harsh on the Rob Hubbard soundtrack for this game too, stating that he managed to audibly annoy throughout. Indeed, most of the game themes are versions of The Lumberjack Song, Roll out the Barrel (or Skoda Lasky as it is originally known as), Entry of the Gladiators and Song of the Volga Boatman, which are more than passable to introduce each event, although they could have been longer to play during each one. Certainly, following on from Brian Jacks Superstar Challenge to licence sports people off the telly?
Did You Know?
Geoff Capes was originally a shot putter, and still holds the British record he set in May 1980, as well as winning two Commonwealth Games gold medals. He then won World’s Strongest Man in 1983 and 1985 and finished second in 1981 (to Bill Kazmaier) and 1986 (to Jón Páll Sigmarsson) hence the original release of the game being in the middle of his strongman era.
9 – Double Dragon (Mastertronic Plus, Charles Deenen, Sound 32%, Overall 15%, Difference 17%)
Listen to Double Dragon via DeepSID
Double Dragon was an appallingly bad conversion of the arcade game and one of Melbourne House’s early releases when owned by Mastertronic. Even at a budget re-release price, all the original faults of the conversion stood out. In contrast, the Charles Deenen music I thought got badly marked down – it certainly at least lasted three minutes or so as played on the title screen and resembles the music from the original arcade version, although only from the City Slums level. Certainly, had more time been afforded, other level tunes may have made it into the game and given the sound rating a boost too.
8 – Shamus (Americana, William Mataga, Sound 69%, Overall 51%, Difference 18%)
This is one of two games on the list where only the budget re-release was reviewed. Shamus had been released by Synapse Software in 1983 and got a UK re-release via Americana in 1986. For a game so old, it was a passable mix of maze exploration with some Robotron ideas, such as the electric walls, thrown in, but certainly had showed its age somewhat, hence the middling game rating. The main music is actually a pretty good rendition of the Funeral March of a Marionette, and proved so popular that it was used in the sequel Shamus Case II as well, along with the odd spot effect here and there giving you suitable atmosphere to the game.
7 – Fifth Quadrant (Ricochet, Paul Midcalf, Sound 55%, Overall 32%, Difference 23%)
Listen to Fifth Quadrant via DeepSID
This is the second of the two games where only the budget re-release was reviewed, so quite handy they feature together. As an arcade adventure, Fifth Quadrant tries to do something different but is somewhat spoiled by not having enough instructions to guide you to what to do, such as how to decipher the robot language using the terminals. It is a real shame as the title music itself is very enjoyable, with some nice melody and build up as it gives you a good introduction to the game itself, with a nice use of two voices to bring forth the harmony initially before the middle bridge break and towards a crescendo of an ending. If only this tune was used on a better game.
6 – Judge Dredd (Ricochet, Neil Brennan, Sound 37%, Overall 13%, Difference 24%)
Listen to Judge Dredd via DeepSID
This would be the first game to use the Judge Dredd licenced character, and the original Melbourne House game could have used the 2000AD licence so much better, but gave us a travesty of a platform game with some shooting. They even disliked Neil Brennan’s music and I can understand why to a degree – the main theme does sound a little too high pitched and whiny, which certainly may reach for the volume button somewhat quicker than expected, but the slimmed down version minus those parts sounds a lot better and maybe should have been used as the basis for a longer theme instead.
Did You Know?
Parts of the end of the main theme for Judge Dredd would later form the basis for the title tune of a later Melbourne House game, Doc the Destroyer, released in 1987.
=4 – Conan (Americana, John Fitzpatrick, Sound 58%, Overall 32%, Difference 26%)
Conan was first released by Datasoft in the US and for some reason was more dependent on levels loading from disk – this despite being only seven screens of platform action and not that much to do with the Conan the Barbarian licence – hard to believe the same company brought you the much better Bruce Lee. The music is standard run of the mill John Fitzpatrick fare too – but at least here there has been some thought gone into the tunes themselves, with a common theme running through the two of the tunes and overall, some good melodies playing to get you in the spirit of things. The sound effects (especially the iconic ee-oo-ee effect) are the same as in Bruce Lee, which shows some laziness here.
Did You Know?
The re-release of Conan on Americana also got a full Zzap! 64 review too. Overall was marked down to 28% (most likely due to the cassette multi-load of the screens) and the sound down to 40%, which showed in just a year between reviews how much the sound expectations for the reviewers had gone up in that time.
=4 – Bazooka Bill (Ricochet, Neil Brennan, Sound 56%, Overall 30%, Difference 26%)
Listen to Bazooka Bill via DeepSID
Neil Brennan himself mentions this music in this game to be one of his favourites, and I cannot argue with that. The title theme has some suitably funky chords and plays nicely enough, and the in-game tune has plenty of frantic pace about it which really suits the whole theme of heading through the levels, Green Beret style. The game does though play like a very poor clone of said arcade machine, and you do wonder if the music was used in a better game whether it would have scored a much higher rating – it certainly deserves to in my book for the two good tunes that are present here. Interestingly, it was a short-lived venture for Melbourne House’s “Arcade” sub-label too.
3 – Viz (Tronix, Jeroen Tel, Sound 67%, Overall 40%, Difference 27%)
Licencing the adult comic into a game may have seen a daft idea, but Oink! had proved to be a decent effort, so a game with all the characters such as Roger Mellie, Billy the Fish and so on may have worked. Unfortunately, it was much better on disk as the horrendous multi-load killed it stone dead on cassette. In fact, Zzap! 64 on its original review had different ratings overall for cassette and disk – the one above is for the cassette version. Jeroen Tel had made a funky, bouncy, and catchy soundtrack too, complete with some nice little pieces for some of the sub-games and levels that you would encounter, and even a version of Barbara Ann by the Beach Boys in there too which was good fun. A classic case of the soundtrack deserving so much more than this.
2 – Rock ‘n’ Bolt (Ricochet, David Thiel, Sound 93%, Overall 61%, Difference 32%)
Listen to Rock ‘n’ Bolt via DeepSID
I do quite like Rock’n’ Bolt myself with the arcade and puzzle elements to get the girders in the right place bolted down and stop them from moving, but could understand why in the review that it felt that longevity might prove to be an issue after a while. They were unanimous in David Thiel’s excellent soundtrack though, which had plenty of little funky ditties that played throughout the levels to give you some lovely backing whilst you were concentrating during play, and that certainly added a lot to the presentation too. I particularly liked the one that reminded me of the Spy vs Spy soundtrack, with some nice common elements between the two.
Did You Know?
David Thiel would later go on to compose the music for Winter Games, released by Epyx, which had seven good pieces for the events, including a funky two-minute tune for the free skating that I still enjoy to this day, and fits in perfectly with the event in terms of timing but also getting the skater to jump and spin in time with the music too.
1 – Knucklebusters (Ricochet, Rob Hubbard, Sound 98%, Overall 56%, Difference 42%)
Listen to Knucklebusters via DeepSID
No surprise really that this one topped the list. The Rob Hubbard soundtrack has an epic seventeen minute in-game piece that resembles the in-game’s countdown timer, the plan being that the end of it would match the end of the game if you did not complete it in time. Unfortunately, the game was too fast to be playable, needing lightning-fast reactions or endless kicking to defeat the enemies, with it being a case of a demo coder trying to produce a game, adding slick presentation and music, and forgetting to put the game in. The overall rating is far too high for me (and indeed many others on Lemon64) and is a proper example of “nice music, shame about the game.”
Did You Know?
The title music from Knucklebusters was used in the loading screen for Mastertronic’s conversion of Gaplus, complete with graphic equaliser in the bottom right of the loading screen. You could have hacked out the music from that instead, meaning the music was an extra nice freebie included with a much better game – and you get it for just £1.99.
Final Thoughts
There are a mixed bag of games and soundtracks here, and by a variety of musicians too. In almost all cases, the tunes on offer are of at least reasonable to good quality, including a couple of the musicians’ favourites, and yet in some cases may have been a case of the music being, sadly, the only redeeming feature that made the game worthwhile. Certainly, for the number one contender, once that music was hacked out and present in a Compunet demo, spending ten pounds on the original release seemed pointless and at least at budget it sort of made a good excuse to buy it or the music (but see Gaplus above if you had an Action Replay cartridge or reset switch!) Some good tunes to check out and certainly made for an interesting selection this time around – and I hope you think so too.
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