SQ5 Soundtrack CD (for those who didn't hear about it)

[Spikey]

Hey folks,

 

Something occured to me. In my hiatus from the SQ community from 2007-present, I released a SQ5 Soundtrack CD in late 2010.

(Finally- I had a beta CD worked out in the days of the SSC and JT-mkI, circa 2005).

 

You can find it here:

http://www.sierramusiccentral.com/sq5cd/

 

For those who don't know me or my website, or are wondering why another soundtrack is out there, all previous (to my knowledge, 2) SQ5 soundtrack recordings were mostly just the original General MIDI audio recorded (in QuestStudios' case, there are a couple of additional enhancements, but mostly the original stuff).

 

This soundtrack recording is enhanced greatly over what you will hear in-game. I'm not bold enough to call it orchestral in quality, but it's certainly much more orchestrated from what the original resources are.

 

Additionally, it contains all the music from the game. Not all the SFX mind you, but all the music. There's even a bonus at the end that contains misc audio, and even an alternate death theme from the beta version of SQ5.

 

Anyone who wants the original MIDI files or my enhanced CD MIDI files (the latter probably won't be useful to most, but still, there if you want it), just hit me up.

 

Regards,

- Spike

[Troels Pleimert]

Awesome work! You has been plugged. Please pick up your complimentary orifice soothener on your way out.

[MusicallyInspired]

Nice work!

[Frede]

I like the SQ5 soundtrack a lot, but I don't think I ever listened to this. Will give it a listen later today ;)

[Dat Engineer]

On the subject of alternate themes Spikey, were you aware that there's an additional theme in Space Quest 4 for riding the patrol craft from the Super Computer back down to the streets of Xenon (instead of vice-versa, which is Stowaway)? Even though the player is most likely never going to do this, it surprises me that it's been omitted from most complete soundtracks of the game. I like that you've included all (as far as I know) of the alternate themes from Space Quest 5, though.

 

Personally I think the SQ5 alternate death theme sounds better than the original one.

 

I've never heard the StarCon alternate theme anywhere in the game. I've found it in SCI Viewer prior to the soundtrack's release, but maybe I haven't tried everything? Is it supposed to pop up if Roger doesn't go to the class/crest in time?

[Spikey]

Thanks guys, and thanks for the detailed feedback Mad, I don't get nearly as much as I would like. I really appreciate it. How you doing by the way. :)

 

It's funny you mention SQ4 themes, I'm actually working on a secret project which I may as well confess happens to be SQ4 (I finished the MIDI score yesterday, been working on it since April 1).

There's actually, I believe, 4(?) distinct pieces that cover you returning to the Xenon Streets, from the ship, to landing, to back in the manhole, to some 4th thing I've forgotten.

 

I originally had an "Additional and Alternate Themes" track laid out as track 42 in my revamped SQ4 CD, but I ditched it, since the only music I had in it was that 4 part "Return to Xenon Streets" medley. All other content (Back to SQ1, all the various pieces of intro sequence music, time travelling, Meanwhile in SQXII, Ms. Astro Chicken, and so forth) I believe I was able to fit into the 41 tracks, which IIRC totals 72:11 minutes.

 

I tell you what I did find- aside from some interesting things in the SQ4 beta yesterday, which had an alternate part of the intro time rip quasi-music, sadly only a few seconds, and a version of the Super Computer maze music that was the same but different instrument volume- but in the CD version, the copy protection music (which is unused in SQ4CD because there is no UIVPPP) has an extra loop which is I think the nursery rhyme "I'm a Little Teapot", which plays alongside the SQ theme. Sounds as hilarious as it, uh, sounds. You'll hear that one.

 

 

 

Back to SQ5- I can't remember now if there was an extra theme. There may have been some musical piece I left out for some reason, maybe one, but I have a feeling it's all there. The reason I did the alt track track is because there is a lot of music that only plays if you take the wrong option, and that doesn't flow in a musical soundtrack CD (unless it's Willy Beamish where you die even more than in a SQ game and there's different music for all of it- hey, you ever play WB? :) ). SQ4 just doesn't have enough.

 

 

SQ5 alternate death theme- yeah, I liked it too, was a little snazzier, has elements of the SQ5 theme if I recall. I have a soft spot for the original though. I just wonder why it was changed, given there's no reason to have a death theme that's over a minute in length.. all previous games' ones were about 5-10 seconds!

 

Starcon alternate- Hmm. I never heard it in game either but I figured it was a demo that was unused. If Roger doesn't go to the crest in time, I think it's game over ,but maybe it is a more urgent 'Starcon Academy' tune to give more impetus to complete your objective. You may be onto something. Let me know ;)

 

One other thing- I forget if this has been mentioned, but SQ5 has a lot of GS drum changes, so part of the reason the orchestral drum sounds are in there is because I think it sounds cool and works with SQ5's music, but part is that Stevens/Clarke composed it that way, but sadly the game's driver blocks the MIDI messages from being sent and you get stuck with the 'Standard' drumkit for tracks that should have Roland GS's 'Orchestra'.

 

 

Enough from me tonight ;)

[Akril]

Hey, Alistair. It's great to hear from you again. Those soundtracks do bring back memories (not too surprising -- I was doing the cover art for them).

 

Hmm...I wonder how many other Sierra games have alternate/unused music tracks. I've seen a few unused tracks from KQ7 posted on YouTube, but other than that plus the SQ5 tracks that you mentioned, I don't think I've heard about any others.

[Spikey]

Heh.. I could post another rant-length post about them. SQ6 has a lot of alternate ones, for example (easily the most in SQ, and some full length ones). Generally speaking the later MIDI games had a lot more space size and so had a lot more resources left in (you know this from your general trawling I'm sure). We should start a thread on SMC.

 

According to my SMC archives, KQ7 has 28 unused pieces.. Zow, that's a lot. SQ6 has about 17. Although these figures are old and I know more about the resources these days,, that's probably pretty close. That's almost half a soundtrack's worth in just those two games. Although, they are probably the best examples too.

 

 

And, thankyou :)

[MusicallyInspired]

Fascinating read about the extra themes!

[Troels Pleimert]

Wow, I didn't know that. Any chance of you posting the unused SQ6 tracks somewhere?

[Spikey]

Yes, when I finish the project sometime in 2013 ;)

 

Naw, seriously, I'd have to dig it out. SQ6 has mostly reused themes that are slightly different, e.g. feature an additional intro or outro, or differ somehow from what is the final in-game piece.

 

But just for you Troels, since I don't have a life on Saturday night- here's a ZIP of what I have labeled as SQ6 unused tracks:

http://www.sierramusiccentral.com/assorted/SQ6U.zip

 

Some may be lemons, but I'm sure there's some good ones in there. The one that starts with whistles and ends with brass and is about 1-2 minutes long is an unused Orion's Belt Bar theme, I remember that.

 

 

 

Brandon: Thanks. Anything you're interested in specifically? I have loooong resources.

[Johnathon]

Very nice (Y)

[Dat Engineer]

Just glancing through some of the old posts, since they were quite long:

 

(unless it's Willy Beamish where you die even more than in a SQ game and there's different music for all of it- hey, you ever play WB? ;) ).

That game kicked my ass even with a walkthrough. What is it with the kiddy games being deceptively hard? Eco Quest 2 had this one section where I ended up reloading a save game dozens of times because I kept getting caught by Slaughter's goon...

[pcj]

EQ2 was less of a kiddie game than EQ1. I felt that EQ2 was definitely more a serious adventure, even though it was "edutainment"...still fun though.

[Akril]

According to my SMC archives, KQ7 has 28 unused pieces.. Zow, that's a lot. SQ6 has about 17. Although these figures are old and I know more about the resources these days,, that's probably pretty close. That's almost half a soundtrack's worth in just those two games. Although, they are probably the best examples too.

Wow -- considering how much other unused stuff KQ7 has in its files, I'm not all that surprised to hear it has that much unused music (out of all the generic animations of Rosella and Valanice, only about 18% of them were used in the actual game!). I'll have to start digging through some of those MIDIs and possibly add them to my SRF page...

 

And, thankyou ;)

You're welcome.

 

That game kicked my ass even with a walkthrough. What is it with the kiddy games being deceptively hard? Eco Quest 2 had this one section where I ended up reloading a save game dozens of times because I kept getting caught by Slaughter's goon...

I think Willy Beamish was a game where the protagonist just happened to be a kid and not a kids' game, per se. I'm not sure what the target audience was, but the game's tagline ("Imagine if you were nine again...knowing everything that you know now!") seemed to hint that it was meant for an older audience.

 

But yeah -- aside from Mixed-Up Mother Goose, Sierra's kids' games were certainly no walk in the park.

[Collector]

Edit. (This forum has no delete button.)

[Troels Pleimert]

But yeah -- aside from Mixed-Up Mother Goose, Sierra's kids' games were certainly no walk in the park.

That reminds me. Jane Jensen did Pepper's Adventures Through Time. I only played the demo, but I remember that thing being deceptively devious. No sekey madoule puzzle, though, but still. ;)

[Akril]

Jane Jensen was one of the designers of Pepper's Adventures in Time (along with Josh Mandel and Lorelei Shannon). Mark Seibert was the producer, though.

 

By the way, I had a listen to the unused SQ6 music, and 210.mid is actually a track from KQ7 (outside the Ooga Booga kids' house, possibly a slightly slower version)! Ironic, considering one of KQ7's unused tracks is the music from Cyberspace in SQ6. I wonder if there are any tracks from other Sierra games made around the same time mixed in there...

[Collector]

I suspect that Sierra used existing games as templates and stripped out resources, often leaving some remaining. This would explain why you often find resources from other games mixed in the resource file. If Sierra had used a blank template, they would have had to constantly update it, as they were continually adding features as needed. They even stored the source of the engine with the game's source to be sure that they could track all of the needed changes to the SCI interpreter for that game.

[MusicallyInspired]

There are a couple themes that are shared between games during the 95/96 era. One of the SQ6 bar themes has a guitar solo that is from LSL6, I think. Also, I'm sure I remember the theme to Polysorbate LX in the Graveyard section in KQ7. I guess because they were all mostly the same composer (Neil Grandstaff or Dan Kehler I can't recall) they decided to throw in some easter eggs.

[Akril]

I suspect that Sierra used existing games as templates and stripped out resources, often leaving some remaining. This would explain why you often find resources from other games mixed in the resource file. If Sierra had used a blank template, they would have had to constantly update it, as they were continually adding features as needed. They even stored the source of the engine with the game's source to be sure that they could track all of the needed changes to the SCI interpreter for that game.

 

That would make sense (after all, I used a template made from Adventure: The Inside Job to make the sequel). I've also found graphics from other Sierra games mingled with various different titles (an LSL6 death animation in SQ6, a SQ6-esque scene in KQ7, a larger version of the temple from KQ7 in Torin's Passage, Laura Bow 2 animations in Freddy Pharkas, Frontier Pharmacist, an FMV still from GK2 in Phantasmagoria).

[Dat Engineer]

And then in the SQ5 Beta, one of the Talk messages is copied over from Police Quest 1 VGA (and a developer comment even draws attention to that fact).

 

Also remember that many of the unused SQ6 MIDI tracks were in the gargantuan SQ6 demo. I believe that "unused Orion's Belt" theme you refer to is actually the 8-Rear theme in the demo.

 

Edit: Actually, I think I'm wrong about that MIDI theme. Never mind.

[Spikey]

No sekey madoule puzzle, though, but still.

Thou shalt not speak of the sekey madoule puzzle!

 

By the way, I had a listen to the unused SQ6 music, and 210.mid is actually a track from KQ7 (outside the Ooga Booga kids' house, possibly a slightly slower version)! Ironic, considering one of KQ7's unused tracks is the music from Cyberspace in SQ6. I wonder if there are any tracks from other Sierra games made around the same time mixed in there...

 

As MusicallyInspired touched on, the link is Dan Kehler and Neal Grandstaff, the composers for LSL6, KQ7 and SQ6. Collector's comment also seems pertinent.

 

One of the SQ6 bar themes has a guitar solo that is from LSL6, I think. Also, I'm sure I remember the theme to Polysorbate LX in the Graveyard section in KQ7. I guess because they were all mostly the same composer (Neil Grandstaff or Dan Kehler I can't recall) they decided to throw in some easter eggs.

 

Yep. KQ7 has the Graveyard music which is Poly LX in SQ6, and most notably SQ6 has the Elevator Ride music which is the Make-Up (Shablee) music from LSL6, and also the Orion's Belt Bar Theme 2 piece which is Thunderbird's theme in LSL6. I'm fairly sure there is at least one more SQ6 piece that is based off of a LSL6 piece. Maybe it's "Boot Liquor".

 

LSL6's resources also have the 'Tape Worm Ride" in there, and that game predates SQ6 by a good chunk o' time.

[Dat Engineer]

Wouldn't it be weird to hear the Police Quest 3 chase theme in Space Quest 5 when you're being pursued by WD40 on Kiz Urazgubi? I should try fiddling with the music resources and switching songs between games, recording videos of them to see if there's any dissonance.

[Spikey]

For those who want to continue the unused resources discussion, Akril started a thread on my forums about it:

http://forum.sierramusiccentral.com/index.php?topic=949.0