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[nkarafo]

Recently i discovered some channels that have videos and links of game music files in their original quality, before they were compressed into the games.

AFAIK, the authors of these restorations search for the samples from the equipment used to record the original soundtracks and recreate them without any lossy compression.

The results are pretty amazing.


Here are some of my favorites from a channel that has many of them:







Grand Kirkhope himself had uploaded a few uncompressed Goldeneye songs, but this channel has a few more he didn't release.


There's also this guy who restored most of the original SNES DKC trilogy. Here's a playlist of DKC2:




I'd like to find more of this stuff. More channels and links for similar projects. Apparently this is a thing for a while now and i need to find everything. So post more links please!

 

[skit_data]

Very fascinating, thanks!

 

[nkarafo]

Here are a couple more from another channel (browse it for more)








This is how this game would sound from Koji Kondo's own audio tools....

 

[Rentahamster]

That's my jam

 

[p_xavier]

Here are a couple more from another channel (browse it for more)








This is how this game would sound from Koji Kondo's own audio tools....

Wow, these are amazing, just imagine if we would have gotten the SNES CD (instead of the CD-i...).

Edit: And that SMW box-art is false advertisement, it's 96 exits, not levels.

 

[Mobile Suit Gooch]

The OG Ratchet and Clank games on PS2 OST were my jam.

 

[NeoIkaruGAF]

Here are a couple more from another channel (browse it for more)








This is how this game would sound from Koji Kondo's own audio tools....

DAMN.

One of the reasons LTTP never won me over completely has always been the music. So muffled, so compressed. It’s a perfect showcase of the audio weaknesses of the SNES. But these... wow.

 

[YCoCg]

Josh Mancell, the composer at Naughty Dog for Crash Bandicoot and Jak & Daxter series, has been uploading pre-console mixes for years on his SoundCloud: https://m.soundcloud.com/joshmancell

 

[synce]

To me this feels like upscaling or filtering old games. Yeah it's sharper but it wasn't intended to look (or sound) like that and personally I find the results ugly in both cases. I think most artists designed with hardware limits in mind. It's why no one ever sold "uncompressed" albums for old games. You got a CD of what was on the cart, or a specially arranged album.

 

[McCheese]

I need Dolby lossless Dire Dire Docks.

Surely the composer's would listen to it on the console itself quite often during composing? They had SFC player dev carts to assist in previewing what the tracks would sound like on real hardware. So I find the "this is how the composer intended it to sound" stuff a bit of a reach

 

[Kuranghi]

The width of the stereo and the separation of elements is fantastic. Only downside I would say is the xylophone (I think?) part in Goldeneye - Dam reveals more than you could ever hear so it doesn't sound like what you're/I'm used to.

Amazing stuff though, love it.

Reminds me of the difference between of the Speedball 2 title track from Amiga vs. an "imageworks" version:






Original still has a certain charm of course, but its the same as what I was getting at above with the Goldeneye track.

 

[a multicultural team of v]

To me this feels like upscaling or filtering old games. Yeah it's sharper but it wasn't intended to look (or sound) like that and personally I find the results ugly in both cases. I think most artists designed with hardware limits in mind. It's why no one ever sold "uncompressed" albums for old games. You got a CD of what was on the cart, or a specially arranged album.

This goes for graphics too, honestly in general there is way too much revisionism that goes on when it comes to old games.

 

[Raploz]

This entire playlist with remastered Mario Kart 64 songs:

 

[nkarafo]

This entire playlist with remastered Mario Kart 64 songs:

Good quality but not even a single loop