It is! The music ambience striking you right out of the Vault (in the OG Fallout) adding to the oppressing atmosphere of the unknown made it why it was love at first sight with the game. The post-nuke feeling blended with the dystopian "Pre-War" atmosphere, all with the awesome music that was your sole companion (well until you hired Ian as your sidegun) through the game. The Vault Archives is indeed one that I also enjoy to listen when I want to listen to videogames soundtrack. Absolute perfect album.
Thanks Tim, for these lovely insights of Fallout's development, did you ever expect that 25+years later you would talk about it since it has become such an iconic game franchise
@@CainOnGamesyou should come and pay a visit to John Romero's Twitch streams. His office is a literal museum of notes, drawings, props, memorabilia, diskettes, magazines, etc, anything that he accumulated during the years of developing his games. During his streams he will show us the drawings he made for the artbox of Doom, or pages if cide he wrote for some if his early games. I am sure both he and the community will be thrilled to see you in the chat. I think he has spoken very well of your classic game in one of his streams.
@@ottol.1716 - what 3 ? There’s only Fallout, Fallout 2 and Fallout new Vegas … you mean those attempt from that company I don’t wanna name it but “ it’s just work “ those are not Fallout
@@alfmustdie28 Technically New Vegas is the real Fallout 3, if not for the cancelled Van Buren New Vegas would be Fallout 4 as it was originally intendd by the devs back in the day!
JT here... Haha! Tim, I remember that screechy Aephex Twin track that I hated. However, I did like the rest of the album, and eventually I did buy it. That along with Scorn and Brian Eno got me into ambient. Thanks for that!
You have absolutely no idea how important the F1+2 soundtracks are to a lot of us. One of my favourite albums of time, and has been on constant rotation for 20 years for me now.
yep, those 2 and Planescape: Torment too - I savor them for when I play the games though other tops: The 7th Guest Interstate '76 ^^these two I listen to not playing the games because of the style of games
He also mentioned *Jean Michel Jarre* which, while not part of his list, is not a name I had heard of previously and took me longer than I would like to admit to figure out the spelling for.
Musicians and composers deserve so much credit for their contributions to games! A good OST lives in your brain forever and keeps pulling you back to memories of playing the game.
I also help to set the tone of the game, often more than people realised. When the military ochestra-ish patriotic music horned in in Fallout 3, it just felt wrong.
Mark Morgan is a genius ❤. Dream town (Modoc) - this is the best soundtrack giving goosebumps, and just an incredibly charming melody, I'm only 32 years old, but I've been madly in love with her since childhood. I love your team very much, you have created an incredible world for many hearts.
please keep making entries about your fallout days. it is amazing to hear stories from the creator working alongside other masterminds to create a franchise that millions of us hold near and dear today.
Fun fact for the ones that don't know: Mark Morgan also did the soundtrack for Wasteland 3 and it's also absolutely fantastic! It fit the game so well, just like in Fallout 1 and Fallout 2.
great word, the best for the game and the continuing fallout - it's a word that allows itself to grow and yet retain its meaning that'd be a good sequel name "Fallout Continues"
Fallout soundtrack is the first one I hunted down online, downloaded, and burned to CD back in the day. Awesome to hear about the inspirations behind it...
Fallout was a big influence on me growing up. I remember watching my old man playing and the death screen and the desert track would scare the shit out of me when I was 6. This game is why I like ambient music. Fallout and STALKER have A+ soundtracks
My name is also Mark Morgan so it always gave me a tickle to see the name pop up in the opening credits. The music added so much to the atmosphere/vibe of the game too - glad to hear it just "clicked" having him on board
hey tim, looks like i owe you for indirectly introducing me to o'rang, scorn, and aphex twin! loved the soundtrack for the first two games and it definitely shaped my tastes for dark ambient music.
Спасибо Tim! И спасибо Charles Deenen! Mark Morgan сделал просто фантастический мир звуков. В его музыке столько деталей, которые создают нужное настроение для локации. Я обожаю «Dream Town» и ту деталь, когда слышно крик пролетающей птицы в небе. И нравится список твоей музыки. Обязательно послушаю то чего не знаю) Разделяю с тобой любовь к Brian Eno. Мне нравится перед сном включить альбом «Ambient 1: Music for Airports”.
This is so cool to hear! I’m an electronic music composer and producer, and when I first heard the Fallout 1 soundtrack I immediately thought of Aphex Twin, one of my main inspirations, and it got me inspired to learn about and work towards video game sound design and composing for games. So thank you (and Mark Morgan) for being part of the reason for my professional journey!!
Tim, you introduced me to Aphex Twin and that entire genre through Fallout 1 and that was a seriously cool addition to my life. Listening to Aphex as a 12 year old was pretty cool
I really can't thank you enough for doing these videos. Arcanum has always been my favorite game of all time, so hearing the stories directly from you is very big for me. Keep up the great work, and thank you enough for the 20 years of enjoyment your work brought me personally.
Tim, after so many years of reading about you in our polish magazines it's so good to hear you speak and interact with fans. I love your work and you probably have read it a thousand times over and over again... it changed my life.
"Moribund World" I think made it in as the official track title for the Fallout world map music, later reused in Klamath in Fallout 2. Thanks for sharing this information on the creation of the game. The atmospheric soundtrack was a big part of what Fallout is. Any chance at doing a video on Arcanum's soundtrack? I feel like that was the first well known game with a string quartet, it gave the game a different sort of atmosphere for sure.
I use to listen to the fallout 1 and 2 OST a lot back when, I think Mark Morgan contributions of the soundtrack made it unique as is. It really adds that emptiness and depressing feeling of the wastelands, Hearing this story was interesting so far from your prospective when it comes to the origins and inspiration for the music.
Sweet to hear these ambient artists listed (fsol-lifeforms and aphex twin -selected ambient works vol 1 were life changing for me). Iirc (correct me if I am wrong) but I believe Mark said he didn't listen to aphex twin beforehand yet certain tracks in fallout 1 and even 2 I hear alot of tracks that sound influenced by aphex twin especially selected ambient works vol 2. Really wish modern gaming had revisted that era of gaming music... I remember for example ps1 and late gaming console games of the 90s had ALOT of jungle music, but that and ambient music (which seemed prevalent in pc games like fallout and thief and system shock 2) seems to be long forgotten.. The soundtracks of that era (especially the ambient)really created a oneric polygonic dream- like feel to alot of the games that feels timeless... they really help transport you into the game's world maybe I am rubbernecking in my comment, but modern game osts feel too fixated on "EPIC" orchestral backings and are so homogenous and indistinct that I just don't feel they are as memorable or "otherworldly" as the old PC/console game ost of some of the late 90s.
Wow, its actually kinda amazing. I feel like Fallouts OST was very formative for me (playing it around 14-16yrs) And that list of artists in your email overlaps my ambient work music tastes SOO much. Its very circular in that the influences you called out pointed me back to them years later in a roundabout way. Hats off to the audio team/Mark Morgan for getting the feel of those artists in his own way.
An absolute masterpiece by the legendary Mark Morgan! Been regularly listening to the Fallout music for decades - it never fails to inspire awe and a deep sense of mystery and wonder.
I love this so much because as a person who grew up with reverence for these games, my personal experience is that they materialize fully formed masterpieces and leave a lifelong impression. When you contrast that experience with the story of their creation it's so much more a human process, a list of influences all ambient with a side of depeche mode. Thanks, Tim!
Dear Lord, when you said Ventolin it immediately sent me back to my youth and that DAMN SCREECHING! Thanks for the great memory! And all the great memories I got from playing Fallout, to this day it is my favorite game of all time. I was a huge fan of Wasteland as a kid and Fallout perfectly filled the whole that Wasteland left behind for me.
Wanna say thanks for talking about this so much Tim. While the frank and insightful era of DVD commentary is gone, between you and JSawyer doing videos about game design in an open format like this feels like a continuity of that spirit in the medium of games.
The music was so good and added so much to the tone of the different settings. Most "modern" music somewhen starts to annoy you when hearing them over and over again in a game but the tracks from Mark.....i never got tired hearing them repeating again and again. Call it a sacrileg, but i even changed Fallout 4s music completly with the original tracks and it changed the tone of the game immediatly, so good where these tracks.
Fallout is what started my lifelong love for ambient music, as a kid playing it in the 90s the atmosphere it gave just blew my mind and to this day it's still my favourite videogame soundtrack of all time. Thanks for all the great work you and the team did on this now legendary game!
Your story of using music to block out office noise and chatter is so relatable. I had to do the same but was interpreted as too anti social as a result. I also love the Fallout soundtrack despite my first Fallour game being 3.
I recently got into Aphex Twin and so much from his Ambient Sounds EP sounded so familiar but I couldn't pinpoint it. Then I was re-listening to the Fallout OST (as I often do while working) and had that light bulb moment - I nearly jumped outta my seat! So glad you confirmed the connection. Probably my favourite game soundtrack of all time. So perfect 🙏🏼
Fallout soundtrack is one of my two favorite soundtracks of all times (other being "Blade Runner" OST by Vangelis). Back in 99, I looked up a way on how to extract the soundtrack from the game, burned it to a CD and must have listened it about thousand times throughout the years. I used to play it on a sleep timer when going to bed. For the past 6-7 years, whenever I would work in open space offices with other people, I would also spend most of my time with headphones, listening to ambient music, Fallout still up to this moment one of my favorite playlists. Thank you and Mark Morgan for producing this incredible and memorable soundtrack. One in a million.
Fallout 1 has my favorite video game soundtrack, with Amnesia Dark Descent, New Vegas, Super Mario Bros (NES), etc. Ambient music is really good, and I love creepy/horror ambient music, and Fallout perfects that. Ambient music really compliments the atmosphere of games and make games a overall better experience. I'm glad you could talk about the music of Fallout.
I loved this, music has always been close to my heart. I didn't really get into ambient music until I played Fallout.. You guys got me hooked. Thanks for sharing, Tim. 🙏🙂
I just discovered this channel through a website talking about your view and purpose on the Vaults of Fallout. Then, i came to watch it. Watched another one and another... Your way of talk really makes me feel i'm having a face to face conversation with you. Subscribed, for sure. And thank you, Fallout was presented to me by a good friend but he disappeared... Play Fallout kinda helped me on those times, got me inspired too. You look like an awesome person, Tim.
This retrospectively makes so much sense. Theres a video about what music mark morgan sampled/took inspiration from for the fallout ost and brian eno and aphex twin are prominent. Love what he did with the music
"Inspiration" is a nice way to put it, there are at least two tracks that are nearly 1:1 to tracks by Aphex Twin and Brian Eno. I love the Fallout music but Morgan was more of a DJ than a composer in the making of the soundtrack.
Hehe, blasting "Ventolin" in the office... ;) But amazing to hear Aphex, Techno Animal or Scorn were among the inspirations for Mark Morgan! Listened to all of those back then, maybe that's why the OG Fallout soundtracks resonated so much.
Mark’s music still stands out to this day, I regularly listen to it for work, and even other video games. Modded it in to bethesda’s fallout games as well, just can’t go without it
Fallout 1's score is like the audio equivalent of a nuclear shadow. That church bell you hear in the Cathedral, the garbled radio mumbling in the background in places like Shady Sands, the siren that dominates Necropolis. They all capture the moment the world ended just as much as they accentuate the decay and desolation of the post-apocalypse, and that's the most striking thing about it to me.
Music and sound design is such a compelling and powerful element that is often overlooked in games or film. I've talked about it a good bit with Prey 2017 and the recent Cocoon.
Fun Fact: Mark Morgan, who was the composer for Fallout 1 & 2, also did some of the music for the point and click adventure game Zork: Grand Inquisitor. A version of the song Metallic Monks from Fallout 1 can be heard during the installation splash-screen (remember those!?) for Zork: Grand Inquisitor.
Also love the Fallout soundtracks. I recently stumbled on a youtube channel Dungeon Synth Archives. oof does that hit the spot for like 90s fantasy/ambient soundtracks. Love these videos btw, thanks for sharing!!
I love ambient music! One of the best ways for me to relax and fall asleep at night. I have a question for you, Tim, regarding music in video games. Question: Is there a game that you LOVE that doesn't have a good/memorable soundtrack? It feels like every game that I love has an amazing soundtrack, and I understand if you don't want to mention the name of the game, but you can answer with a Yes or No. //Leon from Sweden aka IKEA Island.
Hi Leon! The answer is yes, there are some games that I absolutely adore but that I turned off the music within a few minutes. Music is 100% subjective, so that isn't saying much about the quality of music in those games. It just didn't fit what I was seeing. Also, my great--great-grandfather was Swedish, so hej och välkommen!
Mark Morgan's Fallout soundtrack is absolutely awesome. It's one of my many favorite instrumental soundtracks I'll listen to and it not only takes me back in a nostalgic way - but just calms me and gives me a smile. Especially helpful when I'm WFH. :)
It would be great to see a more detailed video about your music tastes (especially about ambient music). Thx for a list of artist who influenced Fallout ost, will be checking them out right now.
Thanks for the list of bands! I generally play fallouts ambient music in my art classes for my students, I cant wait to check these out and use some of them in class!
Very cool, I remember listening to about half of those artists in the 90s too. Thanks to Spotify I re-discovered to all of them a couple years ago. So cool to pull up JMJ stuff he did in the 70s (though hard to listen to nowadays)
I'm really happy to see this video, having talked with a friend comparing "Vats of Goo" + "City of Lost Angels" to Brian Eno and Aphex Twin, ("Alternative 3" and Track #5 from "Selected Ambient Works Volume II" respectively. Also, the Ventolin mention is great; that one actually kept me from listening to "I care because you do" for a while, lol. Mark Morgan apparently once talks in an interview about a CD with unlabeled tracks he was once sent and asked to compose similar things; was it Charles who assembled that? If only the tracklist could be unearthed... ps: how are the ones that sound like "synesthesia" (Synæsthesia?) and "najimu" properly spelled? And that's 'O'Rang, right? Thank you.
Could you give some ambient recommendations or some of your favorite albums (including non-ambient)? Some of my favorite instrumental albums recently have been Brian Eno - Thursday Afternoon, Laurie Spiegel - The Expanding Universe, William Basinski - The Disintegration Loops. I would recommend checking out Mac Demarco's newest album or at least these more ambient song of his, 20190826, 20191229, and 20200229 2.
Hey Tim I just wanted to tell you Fallout was one of my favorite games in my childhood and it was such a scary game, the soundtracks really set the tone for it. I wish new games would keep that feel.
Man, I'm still looking for the soundtrack that plays during the Super Mutant Unity Ending in Fallout 1 when Vault 13 is under siege because it was so ominous and unsettling to hear.
My history with Fallout goes back to the pre-release demo, which came out when I was 17 years old, and in that demo there was no music, just a kind of desolate wind noise. I remember thinking at the time it would be kind of cool if the released game maintained that desolate feel and cut out music altogether, instead just using the unsettling noises of a dead world. Definitely glad you didn't go for that, in retrospect. I still listen to a lot of the ambient music from the original Fallouts. Anyway, Fallout 1 question. The Fallout wiki has cut ending slides from a few places that suggest the Master's army was supposed to not just destroy Vault 13 if you took too much time, as in the pre-patch version of the game, but also one-by-one destroy all of the other settlements in-between the Unity and Vault 13, like Junktown, Shady Sands and the Brotherhood of Steel. There's even a mod to add this behavior back in. Was this ever the intention? And if so, when and why was it cut?
@@CainOnGames Very cool! Many thanks! A related thought: Star Control 2 had a similar design, where (spoilers for a 31 year old game) you had a hidden timer you were racing against throughout the game to determine whether you could find a way to defeat the Ur-Quan before their Doctrinal Conflict ended. If you ran out of time, the Kohr-Ah would win the conflict and start going around the galaxy wiping out species one by one, and you could still complete the game while they did so, but when they reached Earth it was game over. You could also do a side quest which extended the amount of time you had by pushing the Utwig and the Supox to intervene in the Doctrinal Conflict, which feels similar to how you could extend the time you needed to find the water chip by hiring the water merchants, but only at the cost of cutting the amount of time before the Master's scouts found your vault. If having the settlements get destroyed one by one was part of the original plan, I'd be interested to know how much Star Control 2 was an inspiration for it.
Industrial Junk is my favorite track from the soundtrack. I must say, really, Fallout OST is 1 of my 2 favorite all time video game soundtracks. On the way up on most of my hikes I usually start off with my Fallout tracks beginning with Metallic Monks. It's just incredible music I could listen to on loops for hours. Even as ambient music goes I really haven't heard anything quite like Mark's music and I'm also a big fan of Aphex Twin.
Hi Timothy! I actually was able to speak to Charles Deenen by email a few months ago! He's a fantastic guy, though he doesn't remember much about the development, given its been many years. It would be fascinating to learn more about him though. Him and Mark Morgan said that Fallout originally had another composer before Mark, but for whatever reason, they were dropped and Mark replaced him. Charles was unable to reveal the composer's name, likely due to an NDA, I'd assume? Perhaps you'd know more! Thank you for these awesome videos, I look forward to seeing more! :)
Fallout’s ambient tracks have totally been eclipsed by the oldies radio nostalgia, but the music in 1 in 2 has fantastic atmosphere. I’m glad to see Bethesda has at least included some of that same tradition even if it’s overlooked in the newer entries.
mark morgan is like a yeti, i have yet to find a video interview of him. if you can somehow get in touch with him and have a little chat in your channel, that'd be beyond amazing.
I love this! Fallout was one of those games that I think actually influenced my musical tastes a *lot* down the line. Just like with Arcanum and Bloodlines later on, it just had such a different flavor and really served to create an identity for the game. It really gave the game an additional dark and kinda scary layer. Especially when thinking back on the games, the music really had a huge part in the atmosphere. That was something I really missed in the modern Fallouts (though NV incorporated some of the old music and the new stuff was pretty cool and fitting for the game) The music really painted the whole background story of the world in Fallout.
Richard James claims making music scores for games is really hard to him as it confines him to what kind of sounds he can use, and due to that he doesn't like it, probably wouldn't of even accepted the deal even if given, but thats awesome he we suggested, he was in his prime back then. Thanks for sharing.
Hey Tim, thanks for this. It's awesome to hear about the development of the OG Fallout, and one of the most iconic IPs in gaming. Apologies if this has been asked, have you played Inxile's Wasteland sequels? I thought Wasteland 3 was excellent, scratched the top-down post apoc rpg itch at least. Do you think there's still a big appetite for those types of games?
One of the big reasons I've kept coming back to Fallout 1 and 2 is the music. It's one of those soundtracks that you feel couldn't have been any different. It really helped the entire tone of the game. That isn't all that common. Wasn't then and still isn't. The music creates, at least for me, the same kind of feelings that I get from something like Eduard Artemyevs "Stalker" soundtrack or parts of Mark Ishams excellent "The Hitcher" soundtrack. Eerie, desolate and beautiful.
I appreciate this one more than usual, as it always bothered me just how much online vitriol I've seen, regarding Mr Morgan's eponymous work on Fallout's OST. It's really great to hear the actual reasons behind the choices made for a change. And as far as I'm concerned - even after all those years I still haven't play a game, which would beat Fallout in terms of how... fundamental its score was, for its reception and ambiance. It's borderline synesthetic for me and I am not talking out of my ass here, because my very first contact with this series, was a pirated copy which didn't contain any music whatsoever. Obviously it did strike a chord so a seed was planted, BUT not enough to make me finish the game. Only after I've got a legitimate copy did all the pieces finally fall into place and I've finally, utterly lost myself in this incredible world for literal months. No other (gaming) title consumed me so completely ever before or since.
Mark Morgan's music for Fallout is outstanding. I often listen to the Vault Archives release even when I'm not playing the games.
It is! The music ambience striking you right out of the Vault (in the OG Fallout) adding to the oppressing atmosphere of the unknown made it why it was love at first sight with the game. The post-nuke feeling blended with the dystopian "Pre-War" atmosphere, all with the awesome music that was your sole companion (well until you hired Ian as your sidegun) through the game. The Vault Archives is indeed one that I also enjoy to listen when I want to listen to videogames soundtrack. Absolute perfect album.
I was ecstatic when I heard the original OST in New Vegas. It fit so well. I love it.
did it really though?
@@velDANTe Did it fit? Yes, I thought it was perfect. It's fine if you disagree.
@@bigvladgaming to me it sounded kinda uncanny. imo fnv is not as oppresive as original fos to justify using it
@@velDANTe Yeah, it totally did.
I love new vegas ambient music, especially the doctor mitchel theme song.
Thanks Tim, for these lovely insights of Fallout's development, did you ever expect that 25+years later you would talk about it since it has become such an iconic game franchise
I did not. I am glad I took so many notes while making it, though. Sometimes I'll read an old note and think "What? That's what happened?"
@@CainOnGames you never know what will become history. So lucky and happy to have you chronicle this stuff yourself
@@CainOnGamesyou should come and pay a visit to John Romero's Twitch streams.
His office is a literal museum of notes, drawings, props, memorabilia, diskettes, magazines, etc, anything that he accumulated during the years of developing his games.
During his streams he will show us the drawings he made for the artbox of Doom, or pages if cide he wrote for some if his early games.
I am sure both he and the community will be thrilled to see you in the chat. I think he has spoken very well of your classic game in one of his streams.
The background music from the glow … still give me chills literally chills, that’s why I’m still playing the original if I have the time
And in new Vegas you can use a mod to re listen those track, our last Fallout game
@@alfmustdie28 Fallout New Vegas was such a surprised blessing for a classic fallout fan after 3
@@ottol.1716 - what 3 ? There’s only Fallout, Fallout 2 and Fallout new Vegas … you mean those attempt from that company I don’t wanna name it but “ it’s just work “ those are not Fallout
@@alfmustdie28 3 was a typo. This never happened
@@alfmustdie28 Technically New Vegas is the real Fallout 3, if not for the cancelled Van Buren New Vegas would be Fallout 4 as it was originally intendd by the devs back in the day!
Mark Morgan is a wizard with music
His Wasteland 3 soundtrack speaks straight to my soul
JT here... Haha! Tim, I remember that screechy Aephex Twin track that I hated. However, I did like the rest of the album, and eventually I did buy it. That along with Scorn and Brian Eno got me into ambient. Thanks for that!
You have absolutely no idea how important the F1+2 soundtracks are to a lot of us.
One of my favourite albums of time, and has been on constant rotation for 20 years for me now.
yep, those 2 and Planescape: Torment too - I savor them for when I play the games though
other tops:
The 7th Guest
Interstate '76
^^these two I listen to not playing the games because of the style of games
Absolutely 💯💯
Brian Eno
Aphex Twin
Synæsthesia
Nijiumu
Techno Animal
Future Sound of London
.O.rang
Scorn
(Depeche Mode)
Mark Morgan
What no boards of Canada?
Vangelis
He also mentioned *Jean Michel Jarre* which, while not part of his list, is not a name I had heard of previously and took me longer than I would like to admit to figure out the spelling for.
Musicians and composers deserve so much credit for their contributions to games! A good OST lives in your brain forever and keeps pulling you back to memories of playing the game.
I also help to set the tone of the game, often more than people realised. When the military ochestra-ish patriotic music horned in in Fallout 3, it just felt wrong.
atmosphere+mood creating+shaping, it's magical
"Window licker" is still one of my favorite Aphex Twin songs, the video that came with it is lovely absurd, but the song is absolutely solid.
Mark Morgan is a genius ❤. Dream town (Modoc) - this is the best soundtrack giving goosebumps, and just an incredibly charming melody, I'm only 32 years old, but I've been madly in love with her since childhood.
I love your team very much, you have created an incredible world for many hearts.
please keep making entries about your fallout days. it is amazing to hear stories from the creator working alongside other masterminds to create a franchise that millions of us hold near and dear today.
Everything about the music of Fallout speaks to me. It’s part of the reason I fell in love with the game🥰
Fun fact for the ones that don't know: Mark Morgan also did the soundtrack for Wasteland 3 and it's also absolutely fantastic! It fit the game so well, just like in Fallout 1 and Fallout 2.
I had to stop playing W3 I found it so cliched and forced and badly directed+written ) :
I backed it too
The name Fallout I always found interesting. Being its has radioactive connotations, but it is also about the fallout of ones actions on the world.
great word, the best for the game
and the continuing fallout - it's a word that allows itself to grow and yet retain its meaning
that'd be a good sequel name "Fallout Continues"
consequences
also, 'fallout' of the vault
Fallout soundtrack is the first one I hunted down online, downloaded, and burned to CD back in the day. Awesome to hear about the inspirations behind it...
When Tim Cain mentions an artist you haven't heard of:
"Write that down, Spongebob, write that down!!"
Fallout was a big influence on me growing up. I remember watching my old man playing and the death screen and the desert track would scare the shit out of me when I was 6. This game is why I like ambient music. Fallout and STALKER have A+ soundtracks
Mark Morgan is my favourite video game music composer, his work on Fallout, Torment and Wasteland is top notch.
My name is also Mark Morgan so it always gave me a tickle to see the name pop up in the opening credits. The music added so much to the atmosphere/vibe of the game too - glad to hear it just "clicked" having him on board
hey tim, looks like i owe you for indirectly introducing me to o'rang, scorn, and aphex twin! loved the soundtrack for the first two games and it definitely shaped my tastes for dark ambient music.
Спасибо Tim! И спасибо Charles Deenen! Mark Morgan сделал просто фантастический мир звуков. В его музыке столько деталей, которые создают нужное настроение для локации. Я обожаю «Dream Town» и ту деталь, когда слышно крик пролетающей птицы в небе. И нравится список твоей музыки. Обязательно послушаю то чего не знаю) Разделяю с тобой любовь к Brian Eno. Мне нравится перед сном включить альбом «Ambient 1: Music for Airports”.
This is so cool to hear! I’m an electronic music composer and producer, and when I first heard the Fallout 1 soundtrack I immediately thought of Aphex Twin, one of my main inspirations, and it got me inspired to learn about and work towards video game sound design and composing for games. So thank you (and Mark Morgan) for being part of the reason for my professional journey!!
The music of Fallout added so much to the atmosphere. I can't think of Fallout without the music playing in my head.
It is perfect for the atmosphere in game
Tim, you introduced me to Aphex Twin and that entire genre through Fallout 1 and that was a seriously cool addition to my life. Listening to Aphex as a 12 year old was pretty cool
I really can't thank you enough for doing these videos. Arcanum has always been my favorite game of all time, so hearing the stories directly from you is very big for me. Keep up the great work, and thank you enough for the 20 years of enjoyment your work brought me personally.
Tim, after so many years of reading about you in our polish magazines it's so good to hear you speak and interact with fans. I love your work and you probably have read it a thousand times over and over again... it changed my life.
"Moribund World" I think made it in as the official track title for the Fallout world map music, later reused in Klamath in Fallout 2. Thanks for sharing this information on the creation of the game. The atmospheric soundtrack was a big part of what Fallout is. Any chance at doing a video on Arcanum's soundtrack? I feel like that was the first well known game with a string quartet, it gave the game a different sort of atmosphere for sure.
I use to listen to the fallout 1 and 2 OST a lot back when, I think Mark Morgan contributions of the soundtrack made it unique as is.
It really adds that emptiness and depressing feeling of the wastelands, Hearing this story was interesting so far from your prospective when it comes to the origins and inspiration for the music.
Sweet to hear these ambient artists listed (fsol-lifeforms and aphex twin -selected ambient works vol 1 were life changing for me). Iirc (correct me if I am wrong) but I believe Mark said he didn't listen to aphex twin beforehand yet certain tracks in fallout 1 and even 2 I hear alot of tracks that sound influenced by aphex twin especially selected ambient works vol 2. Really wish modern gaming had revisted that era of gaming music... I remember for example ps1 and late gaming console games of the 90s had ALOT of jungle music, but that and ambient music (which seemed prevalent in pc games like fallout and thief and system shock 2) seems to be long forgotten..
The soundtracks of that era (especially the ambient)really created a oneric polygonic dream- like feel to alot of the games that feels timeless... they really help transport you into the game's world
maybe I am rubbernecking in my comment, but modern game osts feel too fixated on "EPIC" orchestral backings and are so homogenous and indistinct that I just don't feel they are as memorable or "otherworldly" as the old PC/console game ost of some of the late 90s.
Wow, its actually kinda amazing. I feel like Fallouts OST was very formative for me (playing it around 14-16yrs) And that list of artists in your email overlaps my ambient work music tastes SOO much. Its very circular in that the influences you called out pointed me back to them years later in a roundabout way. Hats off to the audio team/Mark Morgan for getting the feel of those artists in his own way.
An absolute masterpiece by the legendary Mark Morgan! Been regularly listening to the Fallout music for decades - it never fails to inspire awe and a deep sense of mystery and wonder.
I love this so much because as a person who grew up with reverence for these games, my personal experience is that they materialize fully formed masterpieces and leave a lifelong impression. When you contrast that experience with the story of their creation it's so much more a human process, a list of influences all ambient with a side of depeche mode. Thanks, Tim!
Dear Lord, when you said Ventolin it immediately sent me back to my youth and that DAMN SCREECHING! Thanks for the great memory! And all the great memories I got from playing Fallout, to this day it is my favorite game of all time. I was a huge fan of Wasteland as a kid and Fallout perfectly filled the whole that Wasteland left behind for me.
Wanna say thanks for talking about this so much Tim. While the frank and insightful era of DVD commentary is gone, between you and JSawyer doing videos about game design in an open format like this feels like a continuity of that spirit in the medium of games.
Thanks for creating these videos, Tim! Good to see you after so many years! -Burke
Hi Burke! I hope you’re doing good, and welcome to the channel.
The music was so good and added so much to the tone of the different settings. Most "modern" music somewhen starts to annoy you when hearing them over and over again in a game but the tracks from Mark.....i never got tired hearing them repeating again and again. Call it a sacrileg, but i even changed Fallout 4s music completly with the original tracks and it changed the tone of the game immediatly, so good where these tracks.
Fallout is what started my lifelong love for ambient music, as a kid playing it in the 90s the atmosphere it gave just blew my mind and to this day it's still my favourite videogame soundtrack of all time. Thanks for all the great work you and the team did on this now legendary game!
Your story of using music to block out office noise and chatter is so relatable. I had to do the same but was interpreted as too anti social as a result. I also love the Fallout soundtrack despite my first Fallour game being 3.
I recently got into Aphex Twin and so much from his Ambient Sounds EP sounded so familiar but I couldn't pinpoint it. Then I was re-listening to the Fallout OST (as I often do while working) and had that light bulb moment - I nearly jumped outta my seat! So glad you confirmed the connection. Probably my favourite game soundtrack of all time. So perfect 🙏🏼
Marc Morgan is a genius.
One of the best electronic albums out there fallout ost...
And i have a huge electronic collection.
Forever grateful.
Fallout soundtrack is one of my two favorite soundtracks of all times (other being "Blade Runner" OST by Vangelis). Back in 99, I looked up a way on how to extract the soundtrack from the game, burned it to a CD and must have listened it about thousand times throughout the years. I used to play it on a sleep timer when going to bed. For the past 6-7 years, whenever I would work in open space offices with other people, I would also spend most of my time with headphones, listening to ambient music, Fallout still up to this moment one of my favorite playlists.
Thank you and Mark Morgan for producing this incredible and memorable soundtrack. One in a million.
Legendary Music Ngl.
Fallout 1 has my favorite video game soundtrack, with Amnesia Dark Descent, New Vegas, Super Mario Bros (NES), etc. Ambient music is really good, and I love creepy/horror ambient music, and Fallout perfects that. Ambient music really compliments the atmosphere of games and make games a overall better experience.
I'm glad you could talk about the music of Fallout.
I loved this, music has always been close to my heart. I didn't really get into ambient music until I played Fallout.. You guys got me hooked. Thanks for sharing, Tim. 🙏🙂
I just discovered this channel through a website talking about your view and purpose on the Vaults of Fallout. Then, i came to watch it. Watched another one and another... Your way of talk really makes me feel i'm having a face to face conversation with you.
Subscribed, for sure. And thank you, Fallout was presented to me by a good friend but he disappeared... Play Fallout kinda helped me on those times, got me inspired too.
You look like an awesome person, Tim.
Thank you Tim, I am obsessed with Fallout's ost
This retrospectively makes so much sense. Theres a video about what music mark morgan sampled/took inspiration from for the fallout ost and brian eno and aphex twin are prominent. Love what he did with the music
"Inspiration" is a nice way to put it, there are at least two tracks that are nearly 1:1 to tracks by Aphex Twin and Brian Eno. I love the Fallout music but Morgan was more of a DJ than a composer in the making of the soundtrack.
One of my favorite soundtracks of all time, still listening to it once in a while
Mark's music is still my favourite of any game or genre that I've played in my life, thanks for making it possible.
Hehe, blasting "Ventolin" in the office... ;) But amazing to hear Aphex, Techno Animal or Scorn were among the inspirations for Mark Morgan! Listened to all of those back then, maybe that's why the OG Fallout soundtracks resonated so much.
Omg the fact that you mentioned FSOL makes SO much sense, I can totally hear it!
Mark’s music still stands out to this day, I regularly listen to it for work, and even other video games. Modded it in to bethesda’s fallout games as well, just can’t go without it
The Fallout soundtrack was such a vibe. So atmospheric and memorable and it fit the setting so well.
I still listen to it today.
I was about 13-14 when I played Fallout 1 and 2 for the first time, and the music has really stuck with me.
Fallout 1's score is like the audio equivalent of a nuclear shadow. That church bell you hear in the Cathedral, the garbled radio mumbling in the background in places like Shady Sands, the siren that dominates Necropolis. They all capture the moment the world ended just as much as they accentuate the decay and desolation of the post-apocalypse, and that's the most striking thing about it to me.
Top priority channel for me! I was raised on first two Fallouts and other crpgs from that era so this insing is priceless.
Modocs track makes me tear up like nothing i can discribe, i cant really explain it, aside from thank you Mark Morgan
Love the ambience music in fallout soundtrack, Traders Life is my favorite ❤
Music and sound design is such a compelling and powerful element that is often overlooked in games or film. I've talked about it a good bit with Prey 2017 and the recent Cocoon.
Fun Fact:
Mark Morgan, who was the composer for Fallout 1 & 2, also did some of the music for the point and click adventure game Zork: Grand Inquisitor.
A version of the song Metallic Monks from Fallout 1 can be heard during the installation splash-screen (remember those!?) for Zork: Grand Inquisitor.
"Khans of New California" from Fallout 2 lives rent-free in my head.
Also love the Fallout soundtracks. I recently stumbled on a youtube channel Dungeon Synth Archives. oof does that hit the spot for like 90s fantasy/ambient soundtracks. Love these videos btw, thanks for sharing!!
first time i heard the music in fallout, i knew someone over there was listening to aphex twin.
Some of it is bordering on plagiarism, but yeah.
I love ambient music! One of the best ways for me to relax and fall asleep at night. I have a question for you, Tim, regarding music in video games. Question: Is there a game that you LOVE that doesn't have a good/memorable soundtrack? It feels like every game that I love has an amazing soundtrack, and I understand if you don't want to mention the name of the game, but you can answer with a Yes or No.
//Leon from Sweden aka IKEA Island.
Hi Leon! The answer is yes, there are some games that I absolutely adore but that I turned off the music within a few minutes. Music is 100% subjective, so that isn't saying much about the quality of music in those games. It just didn't fit what I was seeing.
Also, my great--great-grandfather was Swedish, so hej och välkommen!
Mark Morgan's Fallout soundtrack is absolutely awesome. It's one of my many favorite instrumental soundtracks I'll listen to and it not only takes me back in a nostalgic way - but just calms me and gives me a smile. Especially helpful when I'm WFH. :)
It would be great to see a more detailed video about your music tastes (especially about ambient music). Thx for a list of artist who influenced Fallout ost, will be checking them out right now.
I knew it! the first time I ever heard Scorn I knew it has some connection to Fallout music. Now I know for sure
Thanks for the list of bands! I generally play fallouts ambient music in my art classes for my students, I cant wait to check these out and use some of them in class!
Very cool, I remember listening to about half of those artists in the 90s too. Thanks to Spotify I re-discovered to all of them a couple years ago. So cool to pull up JMJ stuff he did in the 70s (though hard to listen to nowadays)
I'm really happy to see this video, having talked with a friend comparing "Vats of Goo" + "City of Lost Angels" to Brian Eno and Aphex Twin, ("Alternative 3" and Track #5 from "Selected Ambient Works Volume II" respectively. Also, the Ventolin mention is great; that one actually kept me from listening to "I care because you do" for a while, lol.
Mark Morgan apparently once talks in an interview about a CD with unlabeled tracks he was once sent and asked to compose similar things; was it Charles who assembled that? If only the tracklist could be unearthed...
ps: how are the ones that sound like "synesthesia" (Synæsthesia?) and "najimu" properly spelled? And that's 'O'Rang, right? Thank you.
Search for Synaesthesia - intelligent dream and Nijiumu
oh wow now that you mentioned it, i all of a sudden can really hear the similarities to future sound of london in the fallout ost!
Could you give some ambient recommendations or some of your favorite albums (including non-ambient)?
Some of my favorite instrumental albums recently have been Brian Eno - Thursday Afternoon, Laurie Spiegel - The Expanding Universe, William Basinski - The Disintegration Loops.
I would recommend checking out Mac Demarco's newest album or at least these more ambient song of his, 20190826, 20191229, and 20200229 2.
The FO sound-tracks basically helped form me as a musician. I wouldn't make the music I make without that history.
Aphex Twin, Boards of Canada, Autechre, Plaid, LFO, Squarepusher... all that late 90's to mid 2000's WARP Records stuff. Love it all!
Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works Vol 2 is my favorite ambient album.
Hey Tim I just wanted to tell you Fallout was one of my favorite games in my childhood and it was such a scary game, the soundtracks really set the tone for it. I wish new games would keep that feel.
Mark's OST was my first ambient music. Then I got the idea and already listened to Brian Eno, Aphex Twin etc
Man, I'm still looking for the soundtrack that plays during the Super Mutant Unity Ending in Fallout 1 when Vault 13 is under siege because it was so ominous and unsettling to hear.
You're killing it with these videos and I love your work. Massive fan of Arcanum, but also Fallout and Outer Worlds too! Keep it up is all I can say.
For about a week now, I wake up, make a coffee and go on youtube to check if Tim released a new video :)
My history with Fallout goes back to the pre-release demo, which came out when I was 17 years old, and in that demo there was no music, just a kind of desolate wind noise. I remember thinking at the time it would be kind of cool if the released game maintained that desolate feel and cut out music altogether, instead just using the unsettling noises of a dead world.
Definitely glad you didn't go for that, in retrospect. I still listen to a lot of the ambient music from the original Fallouts.
Anyway, Fallout 1 question. The Fallout wiki has cut ending slides from a few places that suggest the Master's army was supposed to not just destroy Vault 13 if you took too much time, as in the pre-patch version of the game, but also one-by-one destroy all of the other settlements in-between the Unity and Vault 13, like Junktown, Shady Sands and the Brotherhood of Steel. There's even a mod to add this behavior back in.
Was this ever the intention? And if so, when and why was it cut?
Good question. An answer will take some research and possibly some phone calls and emails. I will answer in a video, possibly with a guest.
@@CainOnGames Very cool! Many thanks!
A related thought: Star Control 2 had a similar design, where (spoilers for a 31 year old game) you had a hidden timer you were racing against throughout the game to determine whether you could find a way to defeat the Ur-Quan before their Doctrinal Conflict ended. If you ran out of time, the Kohr-Ah would win the conflict and start going around the galaxy wiping out species one by one, and you could still complete the game while they did so, but when they reached Earth it was game over.
You could also do a side quest which extended the amount of time you had by pushing the Utwig and the Supox to intervene in the Doctrinal Conflict, which feels similar to how you could extend the time you needed to find the water chip by hiring the water merchants, but only at the cost of cutting the amount of time before the Master's scouts found your vault.
If having the settlements get destroyed one by one was part of the original plan, I'd be interested to know how much Star Control 2 was an inspiration for it.
Industrial Junk is my favorite track from the soundtrack. I must say, really, Fallout OST is 1 of my 2 favorite all time video game soundtracks. On the way up on most of my hikes I usually start off with my Fallout tracks beginning with Metallic Monks. It's just incredible music I could listen to on loops for hours. Even as ambient music goes I really haven't heard anything quite like Mark's music and I'm also a big fan of Aphex Twin.
Hi Timothy! I actually was able to speak to Charles Deenen by email a few months ago! He's a fantastic guy, though he doesn't remember much about the development, given its been many years. It would be fascinating to learn more about him though.
Him and Mark Morgan said that Fallout originally had another composer before Mark, but for whatever reason, they were dropped and Mark replaced him. Charles was unable to reveal the composer's name, likely due to an NDA, I'd assume? Perhaps you'd know more! Thank you for these awesome videos, I look forward to seeing more! :)
Fallout’s ambient tracks have totally been eclipsed by the oldies radio nostalgia, but the music in 1 in 2 has fantastic atmosphere. I’m glad to see Bethesda has at least included some of that same tradition even if it’s overlooked in the newer entries.
mark morgan is like a yeti, i have yet to find a video interview of him. if you can somehow get in touch with him and have a little chat in your channel, that'd be beyond amazing.
I always thought that Mark Morgan was the one who chose to use Aphex Twin samples in the Fallout OST. Turns out it was Tim all along.
I love this!
Fallout was one of those games that I think actually influenced my musical tastes a *lot* down the line. Just like with Arcanum and Bloodlines later on, it just had such a different flavor and really served to create an identity for the game. It really gave the game an additional dark and kinda scary layer. Especially when thinking back on the games, the music really had a huge part in the atmosphere. That was something I really missed in the modern Fallouts (though NV incorporated some of the old music and the new stuff was pretty cool and fitting for the game)
The music really painted the whole background story of the world in Fallout.
Metallic monks and traders life are so good
Richard James claims making music scores for games is really hard to him as it confines him to what kind of sounds he can use, and due to that he doesn't like it, probably wouldn't of even accepted the deal even if given, but thats awesome he we suggested, he was in his prime back then.
Thanks for sharing.
Fallout's soundtrack - one of the best OST's in history of videogames. Perfect ambient, 10\10.
I really hope one day you will have the opportunity to work on another Fallout game in the franchise!
'Metallic Monks' is My favorite Classic Fallout Ambience hands down 😌👌
Hey Tim, thanks for this. It's awesome to hear about the development of the OG Fallout, and one of the most iconic IPs in gaming.
Apologies if this has been asked, have you played Inxile's Wasteland sequels? I thought Wasteland 3 was excellent, scratched the top-down post apoc rpg itch at least. Do you think there's still a big appetite for those types of games?
Mark Morgan is a PHENOMENAL producer
The highwayman travel music is so good, I love how they used some of the old ambient music in fo new vegas aswell.
One of the big reasons I've kept coming back to Fallout 1 and 2 is the music. It's one of those soundtracks that you feel couldn't have been any different. It really helped the entire tone of the game. That isn't all that common. Wasn't then and still isn't. The music creates, at least for me, the same kind of feelings that I get from something like Eduard Artemyevs "Stalker" soundtrack or parts of Mark Ishams excellent "The Hitcher" soundtrack. Eerie, desolate and beautiful.
can you also go over the music for arcanum, because I LOVE that background tracks for that game so much.
Tim what do you think of Inon Zur's music? I think his soundtrack for New Vegas is just absolutely iconic
Hi Tim, these videos have been great, thank you
I appreciate this one more than usual, as it always bothered me just how much online vitriol I've seen, regarding Mr Morgan's eponymous work on Fallout's OST. It's really great to hear the actual reasons behind the choices made for a change.
And as far as I'm concerned - even after all those years I still haven't play a game, which would beat Fallout in terms of how... fundamental its score was, for its reception and ambiance. It's borderline synesthetic for me and I am not talking out of my ass here, because my very first contact with this series, was a pirated copy which didn't contain any music whatsoever. Obviously it did strike a chord so a seed was planted, BUT not enough to make me finish the game. Only after I've got a legitimate copy did all the pieces finally fall into place and I've finally, utterly lost myself in this incredible world for literal months. No other (gaming) title consumed me so completely ever before or since.