8-bit Dungeonsynth BBC Micro

Another journey into the strange world of 8-bit Dungeonsynth this time the sonic delvers have unearthed arcane tracks from the cobwebbed catacombs of the abandoned BBC Micro software archive.

Perversely all tracks here are cover versions. By virtue of the dark sorcerous arts of programming in assembler code these otherwise otherwise innocous pieces of music have metamorphosed into something uncanny and unnerving.
 

The Stranglers "A Midnight Summer Dream" played by a melancholic android harpsicord atomaton. The D&D medieval fantasy imagery of Spellbinders endless twisted, turning corridors - each rendered in wonderful 1-bit colour,  summons Dungeonsynth vibes.

Franco-electronica  band Space's 1977 chart hit Magic Fly rendered on a Texas Instruments SN76489 sound chip by Byte the Apple is a cold, downbeat piece of atmospheric electonica, evoking vast cavernous tracts of frostbitten wilderness and melancholic tortured birdsong.

Yorkshires finest synthpop duo Fiat Lux scraped into the top-40 in 1983 with thier track Secrets. Byte the Apples cover version ventures into melodious spheres not usually associated with Dungeonsynth,  but creates an atmosphere of ghostly spirits crying in grey stone graveyards, pining for their lost souls. There's some grim bass sounds lurking in the sinister depths.

Update: Youtube Playlist Crypt of the Dungeonsynth

[RFM] Hero Quest The 8bit Soundtrack

A brief musical interlude in the programming of Radio Free Magnamund, and indeed an extra dimensional trip  to the music of the computer game of the board-game that is Heroquest. Adaptive media being something of a theme developing here...

For your listening pleasure, the HeroQuest soundtrack.

Heroquest Title Theme 

Heroquest In-game Track 1 

Heroquest In-game Track 2 

HeroQuest soundtrack was composed by Barry Leitch. At turns wistful and melancholic, HeroQuest is oddly downbeat for its role-play-lite dungeon bash. While Heroquest was a multi-platorm release (Amiga, Atari ST, and PC) and these doubtlessly allow for greater subtlety of sound the constraints of 8bit gives it a darker edge - and there is something about the confines of dungeons and minimalism, be it the narrow multi-choice of gamebooks or the ANSII graphics of nethack, or the restricted physical spatial configuration of the Heroquest board.

While, the eletronica of proggy synth-based horror music soundtracks from the 70s and 80s - the likes of John Carpenter, Goblin  are firmly stuck on the dungeon-crawl playlist - they have a kind of cold sparseness that permeates the sound, that is amplified by the reduction into 8-bit computer music.

The unreleased Nintendo version by Neil Baldwin is decidedly more upbeat than it's home computer alternatives, but by no means lacking in quasi-medieval atmosphere, and well worth a listen (the other tracks are on Neils site), especially the final track...

Nintendo Hero Quest Final Track

The worlds of HeroQuest and Magnamund are bridged only by he arcane artistic powers of Gary Chalk, original artist of the Lone Wolf series, and card art for Hero Quest. We'll be returning to Magnamund to further the adventures of remedial rangers and diabolical wizards next week, assuming the Nadziranim magic doesn't lead us astray...

I Cast: Dimension Door!

Nemesis The Warlock Animation!

Tony Luke recently released these still-shots from a his 1987 Nemesis The Warlock animation...

Blitzspear

Nemesis and Ro-Jaws

Nemesis

Moody, cool, noir and impressive as the photos are, after a little digging I found that these were actually shots of Tony Lukes student film, which isn't really impressive, moody or noir. It is quite cool tho, especially as it guest stars some rather familiar little plastic people...

Meanwhile, here's Rob Hubbards epic 8-bit Dungeon Synth Theme tune to C64 deathpile platformer classic Nemesis the Warlock:

and to complete the thing here's Shriekbacks frankly full on post-punk proto martial industrial 40k pop hit:  Nemesis.

Obligatary amazon link Nemesis