Several weeks ago I mentioned that I was considering writing an
article about games which have particularly good soundtracks and/or
sound effects. Due to a less than overpowering response to the
mention I gave in an earlier article, I did not feel any great rush
to complete the article. On the contrary, I waited a while, since
waiting would give me more time to discover games with great
soundtracks. While a good soundtrack will not make a game by
itself, these games are all good enough with the speakers off that
their good audio effects are added bonuses, not the only bright
spots in otherwise dismal games.
My personal favorite when it comes to sound effects and music is
WarCraft II. From the first time I played it, on a friend's 486
(before it came out for Mac), I was highly impressed by its music.
It is similar to many games set in medieval lands in its general
sound, but much better than most I have come across. One game set
in a similar time which I also seem to recall having good music was
Castles: Siege and Conquest, but I cannot say for sure, because it
has been a while since I played that game, and I do not own it to
go back and see.
The music does a very good job of building the right atmosphere
for this game. As an added bonus, Blizzard figured out something to
do with the large portion of the CD, which at that time was rarely
filled by the game - they made WarCraft II's music actual CD tracks
which are also playable from almost any CD player.
The WarCraft II expansion pack which appeared a while later
introduced a few more good tracks. And, while not as strong as the
music, the sound effects of WarCraft II are also above average.
Running a close second to WarCraft II is Wolfenstein 3D.
Although this game is now several years old, I cannot think of any
similar game whose music tops the music of Wolfenstein 3D. I had
originally played this game on some Intel machine, probably a 386.
When one of my friends got a shiny new Performa 6116CD and let me play Wolfenstein
on it, I was highly impressed. Not only did the graphics look
nicer, but the game had a captivating soundtrack. Somehow, as with
WarCraft II, the hard, fast-paced music of Wolfenstein did a very
good job of completing the atmosphere.
One more modern game of the same genre which also has pretty
good sound and music is Unreal Tournament. While I do not put the
audio effects on the same level as the music of Wolfenstein
(especially for their respective eras), its music is pretty
impressive, especially when playing through powerful speakers.
Another aspect of Unreal Tournament that I like is the taunts
generated by the computer players. While they were annoying at
first, the random cries of "My house!" "Boom!" and "You be dead"
have grown on me to the point where I consider them an
indispensable part of the game.
Another game which I first saw on that Performa 6116CD was the
original Descent. Descent is another of those games from a couple
years ago which includes a CD filled with several tracks of quality
music. My personal favorite is track 2. Some of the 13 tracks which
form the Descent soundtrack have a sound reminiscent of popular
bands such as Limp Bizkit and Metallica, minus the lyrics. Others
are more techno sounding. This CD is one of the few game CDs which
I have known people to listen to in their audio CD players. If you
do not have Descent, it can often be found as a part of a bundle or
on clearance at a good price, due to its age.
Over the past two years, the Heroes of Might and Magic series
has been one of my favorites. My introduction to the series was
with Heroes II, which has good (but not great) music and sound
effects. Only recently was I able to find a copy of Heroes I. Like
Heroes II, it has some good tracks. Both Heroes I and II use CD
audio for nearly all of their sound effects, meaning that while you
can play them in an audio CD player, you will have to search
through up to 50 tracks, most of them sound effects only a few
seconds long.
When it came out, I was one of the first to buy Heroes III for
the Mac. Heroes III has some of my favorite music of any computer
game. In Heroes III, there are eight types of towns, each
associated with a different type of hero. Each town has its own
soundtrack. While almost all of them are fitting, two of my
favorites are the soundtracks for the Necropolis and Inferno town
types. Unfortunately, Heroes III does not continue the tradition of
using CD audio.
One company that can not be forgotten is Sierra. While they are
currently not very strong in the Mac market, they have released
many titles over the years. Their fantasy adventure games have had
some of the most memorable soundtracks. Some members of the Kings
Quest series will run on quite old Macs. I will admit that the
oldest one in the series that I have played is King's Quest V, but
I expect that some of the older ones might also have high quality
soundtracks. Newer Sierra adventure games such as Quest for Glory V
also have good sound effects and music. I believe that Sierra even
sold a separate soundtrack for Quest for Glory V, much as is done
with movies, although I have never seen a copy of it.
Last, but not least, I will mention the game Classic Tennis.
This is a game that I played way back on the Mac Plus. I think it
filled a whopping 735 K. The reason that I still remember it is
because it was the first game I ever played that talked - it used
recorded voices to announce the score.
What a long way games have come since then. They will certainly
continue to improve. Maybe in 20 years someone will be writing
about games that have especially good taste effects. Who knows?
