Acorn Lemmings music

[covox]

Intriguing. While I don't actually have an original Archimedes, I -do- have a whitebox StrongARM machine sitting in my spares cupboard which runs RiscOS 4 and MarsQuake pretty well. This thread has motivated me to hook it up and throw Lemmings/ONML at it.

[covox]

Bah. It would appear that bare metal Acorn apps from 1991 only work properly on an Archimedes (surprise!), and the 40mhz StrongARM in my cheap terminal box is just too much to handle.  And there I was wondering why it was so damn difficult to copy stuff from an ADF onto a real machine.

On the plus side, the music data appears to be stored as uncompressed SoundTracker mods all lumped together one giant SoundTracker mod plus a lookup table to indicate where each song starts, so it should be trivial to write a script which dumps the music  http://www.lemmingsforums.com/Smileys/lemmings/thumbsup.gif" alt=":thumbsup:" title="Thumbs Up" class="smiley" />

[ccexplore]

On the plus side, the music data appears to be stored as uncompressed SoundTracker mods all lumped together one giant SoundTracker mod plus a lookup table to indicate where each song starts, so it should be trivial to write a script which dumps the music  http://www.lemmingsforums.com/Smileys/lemmings/thumbsup.gif" alt=":thumbsup:" title="Thumbs Up" class="smiley" />

Cool.  I had a brief look at the data but didn't recognize the format right away since I'm not too familiar with MOD formats.  This new information would save me from having to record them manually as MP3s. http://www.lemmingsforums.com/Smileys/lemmings/cool.gif" alt="8)" title="Cool" class="smiley" />

[ccexplore]

Here're the Acorn Lemmings and ONML music in their original MOD format.  Because there are multiple songs in a single MOD, you'd need to find a specialized MOD player with the ability to start playing at particular song positions, such as http://sourceforge.net/projects/modplug/" class="bbc_link" target="_blank">ModPlug Tracker, in order to hear all the songs in a MOD past the first one.  I'll look into the task of separating out the songs into individual MODs sometime later.  (You can also try doing that yourself with ModPlug Tracker, which also supports other handy features like conversion to MP3 I think.)

For those who don't want to bother but still curious about the Acorn ONML music, here's a quick sample of tunes I recognized from its set of 26 tunes:  Three Blind Mice, William Tell, Greensleeves, Mary Had a Little LambO MacDonald Had a Farm, Trepak (Russian dance) from The Nutcracker, Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor (pretty recognizable organ music), and that slower 2nd half of the Circus theme in Lemmings 2.

[ccexplore]

The attached zip file has the Acorn ONML MODs separated 1 song per MOD file, thanks to the help of ModPlug Tracker.  I did the ONML ones first because of their uniqueness compared to Acorn Lemmings music.  There are a total of 26 tunes for Acorn ONML.  25 of them forms the regular cycle, while the last one is specifically for level Wicked 2 ("Introducing SuperLemming"), replacing the music from the regular cycle for that level.

[edit: Since weirdybeardy mentioned something about using the MODs for Lemmix, I might look into creating a version of ONML Lemmix clone with the Acorn MODs here, later.]

[weirdybeardy]

Since weirdybeardy mentioned something about using the MODs for Lemmix, I might look into creating a version of ONML Lemmix clone with the Acorn MODs here, later.

ccexplore, you are the best.  http://www.lemmingsforums.com/Smileys/lemmings/thumbsup.gif" alt=":thumbsup:" title="Thumbs Up" class="smiley" />

Intriguing. While I don't actually have an original Archimedes, I -do- have a whitebox StrongARM machine sitting in my spares cupboard which runs RiscOS 4 and MarsQuake pretty well. This thread has motivated me to hook it up and throw Lemmings/ONML at it.

MarsQuake! I loved that game!  http://www.lemmingsforums.com/Smileys/lemmings/laugh.gif" alt=":D" title="Laugh" class="smiley" /> There are quite a few Acorn-exclusive titles that evoke childhood for me... *nostalgic sigh*

[geoo]

The Beast tune sounded very familiar to me, but I couldn't track down where I listened to it first until now: I have a 'Tim Wright' directory with various modules, and amongst these also this tune, with the name "LEMMINGS (extras)".
Upon some research it seems that I found it first here: http://amp.dascene.net/detail.php?detail=modules&view=1885" class="bbc_link" target="_blank">http://amp.dascene.net/detail.php?detail=modules&view=1885

Does anyone know where it originates from? Tim Wright was also author to the music of Shadow of the Beast II and III, but this song isn't in the soundtrack of these. The name indicates that it is somehow Lemmings related; was it created prior to Acorn Lemmings and Matt Furniss used it as leftover?

[ccexplore]

The Beast tune sounded very familiar to me, but I couldn't track down where I listened to it first until now: I have a 'Tim Wright' directory with various modules, and amongst these also this tune, with the name "LEMMINGS (extras)".
Upon some research it seems that I found it first here: http://amp.dascene.net/detail.php?detail=modules&view=1885" class="bbc_link" target="_blank">http://amp.dascene.net/detail.php?detail=modules&view=1885

Does anyone know where it originates from? Tim Wright was also author to the music of Shadow of the Beast II and III, but this song isn't in the soundtrack of these. The name indicates that it is somehow Lemmings related; was it created prior to Acorn Lemmings and Matt Furniss used it as leftover?

Actually, the download of the MOD from that website shows that this MOD seems to have the exact same size as the "AcornLemmingsMusic_Specials.mod" I ripped from Acorn Lemmings.  I haven't done a full binary comparison or even listen to it yet (partly because I'm not on my home computer right now), but I'll bet you that despite being misattributed to Tim Wright on the website and suggested to originate from Amiga, the MOD you are referring to is actually none other than what's ripped from the Acorn game, and contains all 4 "special" music.  The labeing of that MOD as "LEMMINGS (extra)" is also telling because that's basically the internal name in the MOD I ripped from Acorn.

[Mr. K]

Ccexplore for president!  Awesome effort.

Is that really Yakety Sax in the SuperLemming music?

[geoo]

Actually, the download of the MOD from that website shows that this MOD seems to have the exact same size as the "AcornLemmingsMusic_Specials.mod" I ripped from Acorn Lemmings.  I haven't done a full binary comparison or even listen to it yet (partly because I'm not on my home computer right now), but I'll bet you that despite being misattributed to Tim Wright on the website and suggested to originate from Amiga, the MOD you are referring to is actually none other than what's ripped from the Acorn game, and contains all 4 "special" music.  The labeing of that MOD as "LEMMINGS (extra)" is also telling because that's basically the internal name in the MOD I ripped from Acorn.

In fact, you're right. Having only played this module in DeliPlayer, I didn't notice it contained more than that one track. Opening in foobar2k shows all 4 special tunes. I did a binary comparison and apart from a few bytes different scattered all over the file, the only other difference is that they overwrote the first bits of text containing the names of the first two samples (b2bal2, hihat5) with the supposed authors Tim Wright and Brian Johnston. In fact, the other Lemmings file from that site (merely named 'LEMMINGS') contains all the other Acorn tracks from Lemmings 1.

I guess this problem is solved then. http://www.lemmingsforums.com/Smileys/lemmings/smiley.gif" alt=":)" title="Smiley" class="smiley" />

[ccexplore]

Is that really Yakety Sax in the SuperLemming music?

Took a trip to Wikipedia to figure out that Yakety Sax is indeed the same tune they used for comedic chase scenes in The Benny Hill Show (that's what I usually associate the tune with), and so yes, it really is Yakety Sax.  Though definitely a uniquely arranged version of it, since they also threw in snippets of the opening of the Lemmings 2 Circus theme somewhere in the second half of the tune.

Given that Yakety Sax is typically used in TV and film for comedic chase scenes (particularly where the action is typically shown sped up from normal everyday speed), it is cunningly and humorously fitting for the sped-up SuperLemming level. http://www.lemmingsforums.com/Smileys/lemmings/wink.gif" alt=";)" title="Wink" class="smiley" />

[Mr. K]

Is that really Yakety Sax in the SuperLemming music?

Took a trip to Wikipedia to figure out that Yakety Sax is indeed the same tune they used for comedic chase scenes in The Benny Hill Show (that's what I usually associate the tune with), and so yes, it really is Yakety Sax.  Though definitely a uniquely arranged version of it, since they also threw in snippets of the opening of the Lemmings 2 Circus theme somewhere in the second half of the tune.

Given that Yakety Sax is typically used in TV and film for comedic chase scenes (particularly where the action is typically shown sped up from normal everyday speed), it is cunningly and humorously fitting for the sped-up SuperLemming level. http://www.lemmingsforums.com/Smileys/lemmings/wink.gif" alt=";)" title="Wink" class="smiley" />

Kinda surprised it got in, though.  I'm pretty sure it's still under copyright (its from the 60s), and I doubt they paid for the rights or anything just because of the reason Lemmings games used public domain content to begin with.
Also, it's interesting to note that the L2 Circus music (Entrance of the Gladiators) in there is in the original as well!

[ccexplore]

Good point about the copyright.  I'll need to re-listen to the Acorn version back home later tonight to see how closely it resembles the actual original Yakety Sax arrangement, although it clearly resembles the tune enough to be instantly recognizable.  I suppose they could've tried to claim http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use" class="bbc_link" target="_blank">fair use in that case.  Keep in mind that since it was Matt and not Tim and Brian that did the Acorn music, perhaps Matt and whichever company did the port for Acorn ONML just didn't quite have the same mindset regarding copyrights as Tim and Brian (and DMA) did.  (That is, whereas the original steers wide clear of anything potentially problematic, the Acorn folks might have been more willing to skirt at the fuzzy gray edges.)

[covox]

The second ONML track reminds me of http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfKYNsR7W4A" class="bbc_link" target="_blank">this sketch...  http://www.lemmingsforums.com/Smileys/lemmings/tongue.gif" alt=":P" title="Tongue" class="smiley" />

If forced to choose at knifepoint, I'd take the 6 standard ONML tracks over the 16 new ones, but it's still a cool find nevertheless. In particular, the ones with more than four looped bars of music are pretty good.

[ccexplore]

If forced to choose at knifepoint, I'd take the 6 standard ONML tracks over the 16 new ones, but it's still a cool find nevertheless. In particular, the ones with more than four looped bars of music are pretty good.

Definitely one of my major complains too, that the Acorn music (both for Lemmings and ONML) tends to be too short.  Perhaps they're trying to cut down on cost by making everything fit on one disk?  I guess it has to be, as otherwise it isn't clear why they'd bother to redo the ones for Lemmings when it turns out the music is MOD-based just like the Amiga.  Then again, we're talking about a development team that apparently feels the need to spend the time creating 220 levelcodes not only by hand, but actually also trying to make it all English and even fit with the level numbers (at least for a while). http://www.lemmingsforums.com/Smileys/lemmings/undecided.gif" alt=":-\" title="Undecided" class="smiley" />