ROTT music variation

[leilei]

Over the released versions of ROTT there are significant changes to the FM instrument definitions used in Rise of the Triad.

Shareware 1.0 is the only version with stereo OPL3.

1.3 fixed modem code but muddled up the instruments in the process.

[MrFlibble]

Sorry for bumping, but I didn't know that until now I've mostly played the shareware v1.3.

Is the difference actually audible if you play it through DOSBox? Also, can you tell which version the high-quality records from Brandon Blume were based on?

[leilei]

Only the OPL instrumentation is affected. The difference IS audible in DOSBox.

There's just a huge amount of ignorance to this change, especially from young people

[MrFlibble]

TBH I missed ROTT completely back in the day; I've seen and played Wolfenstein 3-D and Heretic (and then also Quake) at my friends', heard a lot about Doom from a classmate who was nearly obsessed with it, read about Duke Nukem 3D in gaming magazines and later played both it and Doom in our school's IT class (I also remember Powerslave screenshots from a Sega Sturn borchure - it was still called Ruins). Blake Stone, ROTT (and many, many others) - I've only learned of those when I really got into retro gaming already in mid-2000's.

There are also some FPS games I vaguely remember from a TV programme about PC gaming that aired from mid-nineties till 1998. I think there was S.C.A.R.A.B. (I remembered the title due to my interest in Ancient Egypt), and also some other game that might have been Eradicator.

[leilei]

I don't know what that post is about, but i've started with FPSes in 1990-92, that general timeframe, but before Wolfenstein 3D.

Anyway, I should also mention the ROTT v1.3 CD also contains v1.2.

[MrFlibble]

I don't know what that post is about, but i've started with FPSes in 1990-92, that general timeframe, but before Wolfenstein 3D.

Heh, that was just some nostalgic rambling on my part, wrapped around the general idea that I got introduced to ROTT fairly recently and wasn't aware of the differences in music simply 'cause I haven't played the older releases extensively at all

Did you mean that the CD version had both v1.3 and v1.2 of Dark War, or that the v1.3 of Dark War has the v1.2 of The HUNT Begins?

[leilei]

Did you mean that the CD version had both v1.3 and v1.2 of Dark War, or that the v1.3 of Dark War has the v1.2 of The HUNT Begins?

Both Dark War

The 1.2 version was a 'play off the CD!' version, but they forgot to update that to 1.3 in the CD master. Oops!

[lemm]

What about the Heavy Metal Version?

[MrFlibble]

What about the Heavy Metal Version?

Ah, it's the official remix from the new game by Interceptor - at first I thought you linked to some fan-made rearrangement like this. The heavy metal version is okay but nothing special IMO, the style does not fit the original music too well.

Anyway, the topic here was originally about the internal instrumental changes in the MIDIs, not about the various remixes of the ROTT soundtrack.

[MrFlibble]

Recently I have noticed that the MIDIs from Duke Nukem 3D shareware have also been replaced with newer versions between v1.1 and v1.3d. I wonder if that was done for the same reason as with ROTT?

[leilei]

No, the MIDI data is the same. The timbres (which are hardcoded in the sound library linked into the engine binary) are changed.

[Malvineous]

Are you sure the timbres are hard-coded into the sound library? I thought this is what the D3DTIMBR.TMB file was for? It does contain 256 entries of 13 bytes each (128 instruments + 128 percussion) so it certainly looks like a set of Adlib/OPL instrument patches. But according to the list on the other forum this file wasn't modified between Duke 3D versions.

[MrFlibble]

I think leilei referred to ROTT, not Duke3D.

[Malvineous]

Oh sorry, my mistake - guess I should read more of the thread before posting next time