5 – Impossible Mission (Ricochet, Electronic Speech Systems, 97%) – originally released by Epyx/US Gold
Listen to Impossible Mission via DeepSID
Another visitor. Stay a while. Stay forever! That was of course the iconic greeting that met you when you started Impossible Mission, and throughout the game, although only sound effects that intelligently detailed the movement of the robots, their laser fire, and your jump and run, those were all atmospheric. If you fell, the speech told you, and every hour you would be reminded by a “Destroy him, my robots” from Elvin Atombender. It is a classic game in all respects, and despite having only some excellent sound effects, the iconic speech (even more so if you manage to complete the game) really do set the scene for the game like no other, and deserves to be here massively for that alone.
Did You Know?
Electronic Speech Systems were based in Berkeley, California, and provided their speech synthesis for several Commodore 64 games including Ghostbusters, Cave of the Word Wizard, Kennedy Approach, 221B Baker Street, Desert Fox, Slapshot, and the second issue of Solo Flight. They became ESSTech and a third-party maker of sound cards for PCs.
=2 – Little Computer People (Ricochet, Russell Lieblich, 98%) – originally released by Activision
Listen to Little Computer People via DeepSID
For its time, Little Computer People was groundbreaking, in that you had to do all you could to look after the little person in their house – years before the likes of Tamogatchi and all that jazz. What made the game unique was that if you gave your character instructions, off he would go and do them – such as play a record (which happened to include a piece from Master of the Lamps in there) and also do the housework, play the piano (and some good piano renditions from that) and all sorts including celebrating Christmas with accompanying music. It is of course better on disk admittedly, but even on the cassette version there is still plenty to keep you occupied, and with some lovely tunes from Russell Lieblich to accompany the commands you issue, it really did feel like an interactive experience like no other, with the sound and music really enhancing the game.
=2 – Tetris (Mastertronic+, Wally Beben, 98%) – originally released by Mirrorsoft
The Commodore 64 version of Tetris came out before the arcade and the Nintendo Gameboy version, and although the game was just as addictive back then, what made this version stand out was a superb piece of progressive rock music by Wally Beben. At first it sounds like relaxing background music for the game, but the big surprise when the sampled organ kicks in around three minutes, and becomes the framework for the piece, is a real pause the game moment, with further progressions and builds throughout the epic twenty-five plus minutes of the soundtrack. One you may have wanted to listen to without playing the game and is an absolute all time classic use of the SID, and by some way Wally Beben’s best work.
=2 – Knucklebusters (Ricochet, Rob Hubbard, 98%) – originally released by Melbourne House
Listen to Knucklebusters via DeepSID
Knucklebusters as a game is sadly a case of a demo coder getting a good idea to show off their coding ability, but forgetting to put a playable game in. And whilst the title tune by Rob Hubbard sets the tone nicely, no one could have prepared for the close to seventeen minute in-game soundtrack, which was that long to be in time with the timer countdown for the base that you are escaping to be destroyed. This makes much more sense in the context of how the soundtrack builds up in-game to be more edgy and faster paced later, before a sense of resignation as the final part slows down before what assumedly would be an explosion of the base at that point. To this day it is still one of Rob’s finest ever pieces, and many people would buy the game just for the music (which the back inlay of the original even mentioned its 17-minute length)
Did You Know?
Mastertronic would later use the title theme from Knucklebusters to be the loading music to the conversion of Gaplus, with three little pulsating bars in time to each of the voice channels of the music as the game loaded.
1 – Crazy Comets (Ricochet, Rob Hubbard, 99%) – originally released by Martech
Listen to Crazy Comets via DeepSID
Simon Nicol’s take on the arcade game Mad Planets was a fun playable game, but what elevated that game even further is perhaps one of the most iconic Commodore 64 soundtracks of all time. Rob Hubbard got very funky with the main theme, and even managed to include some space sound effects and shooting noises along the way, before giving way to more funk and a great bass line which underpins the whole thing, along with those iconic Hubbard drums and snares that would become part of his trademark. It really does suit the game superbly and as a tune, has stood the test of time superbly well. It is perhaps one of the earliest examples of not just a tune suiting a game, but making the game its own – yes, it is that good.
Did You Know?
The high score table music from Crazy Comets was re-imagined as a hidden easter egg tune in the game W.A.R, released by Martech. If you entered your name in the high score table of W.A.R. as GO 159256, you would be able to hear it. That is also available to listen here via DeepSID.
Final Thoughts
With Mastertronic’s range of re-releases, this certainly meant that original release games came from a multitude of sources, meaning a very varied list of musicians to feature here. The speech from Electronic Speech Systems deserves praise for adding to the atmosphere of games so well, and with seven musicians featuring, shows that the SID chip could be well worked by so many well regarded (and in my view, some of them under-rated) musicians. There are also so many games here which are well worth a play if you have not done so recently, or ones where clearly the game was purchased due to the soundtrack also – as I said, an intriguing mix!
A mention too for the sound effects in Little Computer People – the doorbell chimes, the alarm clock rings, the shower and the toilet sound very watery, the bell on the typewriter when your LCP completed a line of text… There’s also the brilliant pseudo-speech, long before Simlish existed. Oh, and the classic “breaking the fourth wall” moment when the LCP knocks on your screen to get your attention!