Battletoads - Behind the Music

[nitrozsz]

 

 

Battletoads (the NES version at least) was a pretty damn good looking and good sounding game for its time. Of course we have David Wise, and incredible composer in his own right, to thank for the sound. I wanted to share this because this video has David Wise talking about the process of how the Battletoads music had to be recorded, and the limitations he faced when composing music for the NES (such as how many notes David was limited to). And you also get to see him playing some Battletoads music on the piano at the end

[Kadosho]

When I played Battletoads on the NES, the sounds were inspiring, and were very catchy. I find it a fun journey to see the composer bring those songs back to life, but in piano form makes it a whole new design. Even CellDweller improvised the theme song with David (incorporating his rocktronica / w Wise's sound design). It is a bold move to see a classic track return, and its composer still at it even today. I hope we might see Battletoads in a new form, to test our limits all over again. (and bring a slew of catchy songs too)

[batemanapproves]

Love stuff like this! Fascinating, with all the unlimited possibilities at our fingertips today, to hear about the limitations composers faced 'back in the day'! In spite of these limitations we still ended up with extremely memorable music loved by many!

[BjornIdentity]

Great interview. It's probably been said before, but I think limitations get stuff done! UUUGGGGHHHH, procrastination why do you rule my life. With VSTs we have endless possibilities. You can spend hours just choosing an instrument.

HEX codes on the piano keys? That'd actually make a cool piano XD

[BardicKnowledge]

Fun interview!  I'd never thought about labelling a keyboard with hex notation, but that's a really smart decision to help ease the conversion from musical understanding to code.