Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
quality of arcades versus consoles was clearly superior in favor of arcade
games, by the end of the eighties, the distance was closing fast.
Although arcade games had short, jaunty music themes, because of
the action-oriented nature and general lack of character development,
it tended to be the sound design that became well known, and passed
into the cultural language, such as the Pac-Man dying sound that we
mentioned before. Add to that memorable sounds from games like
Defender , Joust , Tempest , and many many others.
FM Emerges, MIDI Helps Out Too
Earlier we talked about the basics of FM synthesis. Although FM
synthesizers could produce really innovative sounds and ef ects, in
game consoles they showed up as chips by Yamaha (who purchased the
technology from the inventors, John Chowning and Max Mathews) with a
number of preset sounds that tried to emulate acoustic instruments. FM
was better than analog synthesis at modeling plucking or striking such
as for mallet instruments, harps and electric pianos. However, it too came
with a lot of limitations—thin, unrealistic sound, no i ltering (although
adjustment of algorithms and levels under the hood could produce
variations in timbre). Volume changes and fades were potentially more
possible, although game developers initially only rarely used them.
Since MIDI was introduced in 1982 and debuted i rst in the Yamaha DX-7
FM synthesizer, the association of MIDI with FM instruments has been
an ongoing phenomenon. In game consoles it seems to have started
with the Yamaha YM2612 FM chip, a six voice FM chip i rst found in the
Sega Genesis console. This chip could be programmed to play via the
game's memory via MIDI and could even use patch data from compatible
Yamaha FM synthesizers to create the sounds. This meant that composers
could create or use particular patches they liked on their FM synths, and
transfer it over to the sound card via MIDI System Exclusive messaging,
and the game would use the patch data to play its sounds in the game.
Nifty! The early game consoles like the Sega Genesis even featured stereo
sound, though this was often distorted and improved only later.
Why Use MIDI?
The answer, once again is—i le size! MIDI i les are tiny, since they contain
no sound—MIDI is just a series of coded commands that tells sound
how to play. So, if your sounds are small and compact, you can create
a tremendous amount of music and sound for very little footprint.
Although MIDI in games is somewhat less used, especially at the AAA
level, it still plays a huge role in the creation of the media itself.
 
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