Dear Reader:
Retro Game Challenge composer talks about staying true to Famicom/NES sound roots
A portion of an OriginalSoundVersion interview with composer Koji Yamada…
OSV: How accurately does the music and sound featured in Retro Game Challenge represent what could actually be with the Famicom? Does the soundtrack feature only 4 channels, with pulse waves, square wave, and noise channels? Even if this wasn’t the case, was it challenging writing a similar style?
Yamada: It’s true that I created the music with only 3 channels + noise channel. Since your site’s audience seems to know a lot about Famicom sounds I’ll skip the detailed explanations, but the number of tones is the same as the Famicom. However, for the sound generator we are using the PSG and the noise sound in the DS as is. Depending on the music we were utilizing, the Aiff data triangular wav had more Famicom-type retro feel to it as well. Also, not only the music but the dog bark and the princess’s scream were also created using the PSG. I was really amazed at how much flexibility the PSG source had.