When I was a kid in 7th grade, my friend brought in a cassette tape of the Monkey Island theme music which he had recorded using his Sound Blaster. It blew all of us away. I borrowed the tape and played it for my Dad when I got home. The very next day my Dad brought home a Sound Blaster 2.0 during his lunch break even though he wasn't usually quick to spend that kind of money. Such good times!
It's those memories that make this hobby so lovely. I worked my first summer job, a few weeks on a building site. I didn't enjoy it to be honest, was so happy to get out of there. But it got me the money to buy a Sound Blaster 2.0 and it was such a difference. I rushed home and tried every single game I had. Re-played Monkey Island 2 and Fate of Atlantis of course. Golden days, golden.
press E to pay respects because this PC speaker suffered greatly in this song. much like only sound I originally had for Ultima VI, where it was just crackling from the fireplaces and water fountains.
Internal speaker was the most technically impressive. It can only play one note at a time and it can only play pure sine waves. They managed to hide those two facts quite well.
Technically one can play fake 3 voice music or a 1-bit digitized samples on the PC squeeker ... the Apple ][ was doing it 20 years ago with Sea Dragon (speech), Karateka (fake 2 voice), and Castle Wolfenstein (speech).
I do remember some games doing digital sounds with the PC speaker. It's just a shame that IBM chose such a basic sound device. We should have had the three voices like the Tandy...
PhilsComputerLab I share your lament. "Blame" IBM for "all business and no play" :-( IIRC there was a gold game (Access Links?) which had digitized speech with the PC "squeaker"
Definitely was! And in a lot of ways, it still is. Working on that kinda hardware gives you a set of rules that are vastly limiting compared to modern music production. Those constraints is often responsible for the great things. It's very simple to make mediocre music for whatever purpose wether it be games or films or anything else with all the tools you have available nowdays. The vast majority of games that had the options to use a MT-32 is what that music was composed for. Other soundcard options was usually a mediocre "port" from that. Personally I have a music studio full of modern (and some not so modern) gear, but what I really miss from bitd was how to compose music within those constraints :). I really need to get myself a MT32 :).
They made an internal card version called LAPC-1.....The fun was playing with the MT-32 controls though, changing reverb, instruments, and the little messages like "INSERT BUCKAZOID" were a nice touch. It came down to around $300 before it went out of production in 1992.
destroyerofcomedy i was thinking the same thing. I remember writing my own games back in those days and trying to create intro music on the PC speaker. Mine didn't sound anything like that I can tell you. :) really impressive.
The PC Speaker was capable of some impressive sound (at the expense of have CPU usage) Pinball Fantasies, for example, played MODs using just the speaker. Look it up, sounds impressive considering the hardware.
Good point.....I mean if someone had the talent to fart the Monkey Island theme song I'd be beyond impressed. It's one of those tunes that can be distinguished easily no matter what sound card or emulator is used
Time Stamps for those who want to search: 0:10 - PC Speaker 1:27 - CMS (Creative Music System) / Game Blaster on Sound Blaster 1.5 3:08 - Yamaha OPL2 on Sound Blaster 1.5 4:50 - Roland MT-32 / MT-32 (Old) w/o Headphones
The Roland MT-32 was always the ultimate option in the sound card selector menu. We always tried to imagine how it would sound when we had make do with the PC speaker. I was then blown away by Monkey Island on my friends Amiga 500. The sound was incredible!
Whatever sounds best, the first version still brings me to tears. That's what I heard on my 386 DX40. You know why I came here? My daughter said she wanted to hear a new bed song. I had already used up my whole repertoire the last years. So this was the first that came to my mind and I could bring up the melody back from my long time memory. I just came here to check again. Awesome. Thank you.
This sounds like a superb bedtime song, I'm really happy you played this for your kid! In a couple of years, you'll play these games with her right? Believe me, I played this game with my dad before I knew how to talk and this tune is something that has been forever ingrained into my brain. I can get Alzheimer's and still remember this tune. I might not remember the context, but I will ALWAYS remember the feelings. I'm honestly just trying to forget I saw your username rn lol.
@@myfavoritemusic2428 Just for the record: I didn't play the song, i sang it ;) And the username is just some kind of... idk the correct term - youth sin? Should probably change it. "Bonobo Dictator" sounds nice doesn't it? Just kidding. I just like to offend "la bourgeoisie". A poor attempt to keep up some teenage rebellious spirit. Silly I know. :)
Oh man, I remember the introduction of Sound Blaster. That feeling of "Oh my god, wait a a minute, you mean that I can hear the music in Monkey Island and the guards shouting in Wolfenstein?" was incredible.
Yep!! A 350 pound man doing a backflip, even if it's extremely sloppy, will always impress me more than a 150 pound man doing a technically perfect backflip.
The programming was a real pain in the ass though. The whole thing was, after all designed to have just one (ONE!) note it could play, so to achive any other note or frequency you had to bombard the membrane with impulses. Essentially, you had to send it a signal to retract again before it could fully expand outwards to get a different frequency, and for every frequency you wanted that time was of course different. Programming to play music or even samples on the speaker was akin to trying to nail diarrhea to the wall.
I know it sounds very cheesy, but the moment I bought my first sound card (a Sound Blaster Pro) and started trying all my games with that funky Yamaha OPL2 music... none of the technological advances that came in the next decades could match the emotion of hearing this for the first time. Particularly when I fired up Monkey Island, sounding like this 3:14 , I couldn't get enough of it.
I can so relate to that :D My first PC was a 386DX 33 MHz and PC speaker. I worked a summer job, and bought a Sound Blaster and was blown away. I shown this to a friend, and he also bought one right away :D
Not cheesy at all. I never owned a PC growing up so it was always so amazing to go to my buddy's house back in the late 80's and play games on his C64. All these other kids were blown away by the NES but all I wanted to do is play Below the Root on that C64 lol. Maybe it's because I knew eventually I'd likely get an NES but knew we would never get a PC
@Dude Spikey My family was tight on money so never had a computer until I was a senior in high school. Still had access to one at my friends house. I'd buy games and leave them over there just because they wouldn't do me any good at my house.
IBM beeper: one voice with either nostalgia or irritation and comes default with every IBM PC and XT game blaster: more voices and nice retro sound but a you actually needed to buy the damn thing Sound blaster: epitome of fm synthesis but a little expensive Roland mt32: midi quality sound but REALLY FUCKING HIGH PRICE (at least in 1988)
I've never played this game before, but this music makes me feel so nostalgic, it has some kind of magic capable of making anyone go back to their childhood, it's amazing
@@JaayPLP exactly !! Play it any way you can. For many, myself included, Monkey Island was life changing. I still think back on the first time I played it. It was the first game I didn't want to ever quit playing. I'd obsess with MI all day while I was at school. I'd rush home abs blow through my homework to be able to play it for 2 hours a night. I'd wake up early hoping to play it before going to school. I faked being sick several times just to see if I could figure out how to get a crew together so I could sail off to Monkey Island. Was the greatest feeling, beating this game all on my own, no hints, tip books, hell u didn't even know another person who even heard of this game let alone played it. Did it all on my own and I was beyond excited at first but then I was saddened once the journey was over
I think what's most amazing to me is what they were able to do with the PC speaker. That's how I played all these games, and yeah, the quality stinks, but they did such a great job, and the melodies were so strong and well-crafted.
Is it because when you found the treasure all you got was a lousy tshirt? Yeah, I was sore about that too, and when Stan ripped me off but hey, it sure felt good when I finally trapped him in a coffin so I guess i got even with him so cheer up :)
The contrast of creating something uncomfortable for the second speaker then relinquishing and beautiful is truly a fascinating trick of musical devices. Love it.
PC speaker wins the medal for trying it's hardest but the Roland damn, that was magical. PC speaker though, sends that nostalgic chill right down my spine, closest thing to a time machine I swear.
I just love the CMS / Game blaster sound. While the Roland MT 32 may sound like real instruments, the CMS / Game blaster is my favorite. Thank you Phil for yet another fantastic video. I love being taken back to a time where sound cards made a difference.
omfg i'm 8 and again and trying to convince my dad that the latest sound card is something that will be future proof and never need updating, unlike the VGA card!
I dont have the nostalgia that a lot of other people have of this, and as a matter of fact I've never played this game. But this music is amazing, and its incredible to hear what the same song sounds like eith better and better equipment. Great video!
Man this brings back good memories on all the MIDI song`s of games....later with Soundblaster AWE32 and 4MB simm modules to load some soundboards into was such a blast. If i could I`d still love to listen to the old midi`s with different boards loaded and experience how different the same tune sounded then. Thank YOU for publish this, sooo good. And of course man that Roland...I never knew how good that was!
It is impressive how many audio and video modes SOMI has. There are so many different combinations of ways it could have been played back in the day. If you had an ancient system you could be playing it in CGA with PC Speaker sound or if you had high end machine you could be running VGA with Midi sound. Or if you had a machine somewhere in the middle than it would be in EGA with Adlib Sound. I don't know of many other games that offered such a wide selection of both audio and video modes. Monkey Island 2 came out just a year later but dropped all the different video modes and didn't have as many audio modes either.
While the MT 32 certainly had the best sound overall. I am very impressed with how they managed to squeeze so much into the monophonic single voice beeper without loosing clarity. Literally sneaking in notes between notes to try to get it to sound like two or more different instruments when all they could do was to beep it in different frequencies.
Wow the Roland version is amazing. I was going to come on here commenting that the Amiga version sounded better than all the PC versions.. But erm. nope not this time sadly!
PhilsComputerLab well you know they use the old beeper speaker to play the games thats why they don't have any soundcards in the day if they were poor.
Man I love the CMS sound. Roland MT32 may be the objectively best (and is what I use most of the time) but CMS sounds like NES with some cartridge specific improvement chips. The sound makes me feel nostalgic and warm inside.
I have vague memories of the CMS sounds, but I never knew what it was called compared to the Yamaha OPL2 (which is what I also have fond memories of). Trying to find the right emulators for both of these sound cards had been my holy grail when it comes to using Cakewalk.
Back in the day when I had an XT clone with mono CTR (Hercules) and no sound card, I managed to get a MOD player that used the speaker. So, to make it sound better, I disconnected the small speaker and connected the audio out from that to an external (mono) AMP (using capacitors to isolate circuit) and I have to tell you, it sounded REALLY well for my budget....
I remember the first time I saw Monkey Island on PC it was using the PC Speaker. I usually played Monkey Island on the Amiga, so it was a shock at how bad the PC sounded.
I've been desperate to build an old DOS PC with an MT-32 ever since hearing how the Monkey Island theme came out of that thing ages and ages ago, back in the mid-90s, which was late even then
exactly, but nice to hear how it sound after all those year, that really the price was justified, even if not many of us could approach this card only by imaginating :p
I originally played Monkey Island 2 on a Windows 95 computer that had a general MIDI card. The only two options that worked for me were internal speaker and MT-32 (which gave hilariously mismatched voice selections on the GM card). I kind of miss it so I'll see if I can persuade DOSBOX or ScummVM to route the MT-32 sound out to an external device and specify Windows MIDI for a bit of nostalgia...
+misfits118 Thank you! I haven't done any sound recordings in some time. I'm thinking of combining some of my older videos, like putting all the Space Quest intros in one video so viewers can see how the games developed.
For a long time, I was skeptical about MIDI. Some of my best PC gaming memories used a cheap Sound Blaster Live card, and even after seeing side-by-side comparisons on this channel and LGR, it didn't seem like there was a big difference. But just a moment ago, going from Sound Blaster 1.5 to the MT-32 blew my mind!
Nostalgia and memories play a huge part. Monkey Island 2 will always sound more "right" on the Sound Blaster for me, although the MT-32 version is clearly better.
The last one is what I grew up with, but the earlier ones are very interesting to hear as well, its crazy how much a sound card made a difference to the sound of a game back in the day.
This is awesome, thanks for all the work and uploading. The PC-Speaker sounds better than I remember the early 90s on my fathers PC before I had a PC with soundcard. May be the speaker was too bad for the signal or my brain is now able for more signals, who knows..
@@Scioneer Yes, older computers had better PC-Speakers. Still pretty bad, but better than later PC-Speakers, which were tiny and really just meant as a beeping device to find boot problems when turning on the machine, because people were expected to use soundcards anyway once the computer booted.
i just love the cms one... it still retains the "8bit" sound and just makes me feel like happy... loce all of em but cms just hits the sweet spot for me
Personally... I played this game as a kid and it sounded exactly like the mt32 version... Brings back great memories. I still play this game from time to time.
I remember as a kid trying to map my soundblaster as MT-32 like "maybe it can work" on every game :p but "nope kid" ^^ If only I knew what hardware was, for me it was just magic! now I can enjoy, the MT-32 version, thanks for this edit!
Ooooooooooooooooh my god ! How long have i waited to hear THAT again !!! Ever since Win95 the midi instruments sounded off. I heard that as a kid on an SB16 with AdLib. The main Instruments became much too silent when i replayed it later on Win95 Machines. Thanks so much !! Awesome =)
This is a great demonstration of the principle of computer expansion cards that have now partly disappeared (even if graphics cards can still be considered extensions today, the vast majority of people have one, even an old one, and it's almost systematic if you buy a computer today) the motherboards of current computers can do a lot of things, including outputting good quality audio in a lossless format, or supporting high-speed wireless formats, whereas before it was almost mandatory to buy an extension separately from the computer and you had to add it yourself, most of the assembled PCs sold in stores now have integrated graphics cards (except for office computers). And it's especially impressive to see in this video how a type of extension that is very little used today (except in the professional field mainly) used to make such an audio difference between each sound card, each card had an identity like a car engine, was recognizable according to how the music sounded.
I remember back in the day always dreaming of a Roland sound card. Got an Adlib instead. Was actually great, as it required no fiddling with your memory in config.sys and autoexec.bat, since it had no drivers.
The SoundBlaster with both earphone playing different parts is really cool and I don't know if it is intentional or not but I like the result. Also if you have one earphone off it sounds interesting but the audio cuts out suddenly for parts where it swaps over. Anyway I like how it sounds and I think the SoundBlaster has the more interesting and fun audio.
Great comparison. I hated MIDI back then because the MIDI we got in normal home user sound cards was so sad. I appreciate it more than digital recorded music these days though.
Best setup at the time was using a mixer to combine a Roland MT32 or LAPC1 for instrumentds with a Sound Blaster for digital effects and voice samplings...Lucasarts Star Wars games sounded so good too!!
![ZELDA ECHOES of WISDOM 😇45❤️ LASS und SPIELEN! | Smog langweilt sich im Tempel [2024]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/3iVT3_hjte4/mqdefault.jpg)
Someone give that PC speaker a medal.
no
No
No. The Roland MT-32 won! 4:50
It’s so cute it’s trying it’s hardest
Its R2D2 exited of the new release
When I was a kid in 7th grade, my friend brought in a cassette tape of the Monkey Island theme music which he had recorded using his Sound Blaster. It blew all of us away. I borrowed the tape and played it for my Dad when I got home. The very next day my Dad brought home a Sound Blaster 2.0 during his lunch break even though he wasn't usually quick to spend that kind of money. Such good times!
It's those memories that make this hobby so lovely. I worked my first summer job, a few weeks on a building site. I didn't enjoy it to be honest, was so happy to get out of there. But it got me the money to buy a Sound Blaster 2.0 and it was such a difference. I rushed home and tried every single game I had. Re-played Monkey Island 2 and Fate of Atlantis of course. Golden days, golden.
You have an awesome dad.
@@philscomputerlab I never got the chance to play these games as a child, so the fact the remasters exist is amazing.
AHH SOUND BLASTER!!! lol i remember those as if it was just yesterday :)
@@nandabun good on you for being able to appreciate the classics.
You: 0:15
The guy she told you not to worry about: 4:53
I guess I'm far more attractive than the guy she told me not to worry about.
aww its trying its best
In this particular song, and only in this one, PC Speaker version always wins.
@@gustavosantos106 WRONG! The Roland MT-32 wins.
@@BuddyBoy600alt I can concede it's the second best.
0:14 - Truly a heroic effort with the PC speaker
It sound way better than my speaker back in time, I remember my Olivetti 386 SX having not a very good one.
press E to pay respects because this PC speaker suffered greatly in this song.
much like only sound I originally had for Ultima VI, where it was just crackling from the fireplaces and water fountains.
Heroes never die. They just get replaced by better sound cards.
Internal speaker was the most technically impressive. It can only play one note at a time and it can only play pure sine waves. They managed to hide those two facts quite well.
not to mention internal takes *HUGE* CPU time
Square waves, not sine :)
Technically one can play fake 3 voice music or a 1-bit digitized samples on the PC squeeker ... the Apple ][ was doing it 20 years ago with Sea Dragon (speech), Karateka (fake 2 voice), and Castle Wolfenstein (speech).
I do remember some games doing digital sounds with the PC speaker. It's just a shame that IBM chose such a basic sound device. We should have had the three voices like the Tandy...
PhilsComputerLab I share your lament. "Blame" IBM for "all business and no play" :-(
IIRC there was a gold game (Access Links?) which had digitized speech with the PC "squeaker"
Roland mt-32 was the Rolls Royce of the sound cards. Superb
It was an external sound device
@@skinwalker69420 And forever we have called it a soundcard - even if the card is outside the computer in a box. Come on....
Definitely was! And in a lot of ways, it still is. Working on that kinda hardware gives you a set of rules that are vastly limiting compared to modern music production. Those constraints is often responsible for the great things. It's very simple to make mediocre music for whatever purpose wether it be games or films or anything else with all the tools you have available nowdays.
The vast majority of games that had the options to use a MT-32 is what that music was composed for. Other soundcard options was usually a mediocre "port" from that. Personally I have a music studio full of modern (and some not so modern) gear, but what I really miss from bitd was how to compose music within those constraints :). I really need to get myself a MT32 :).
It was 700 dollars... in 1987 :D
They made an internal card version called LAPC-1.....The fun was playing with the MT-32 controls though, changing reverb, instruments, and the little messages like "INSERT BUCKAZOID" were a nice touch. It came down to around $300 before it went out of production in 1992.
At least the PC speaker tries to have multiple voices, it's kind of impressive.
destroyerofcomedy yeah the pc speaker had to be ran by the CPU to time what sound it had to make
destroyerofcomedy i was thinking the same thing. I remember writing my own games back in those days and trying to create intro music on the PC speaker. Mine didn't sound anything like that I can tell you. :) really impressive.
The PC Speaker was capable of some impressive sound (at the expense of have CPU usage)
Pinball Fantasies, for example, played MODs using just the speaker. Look it up, sounds impressive considering the hardware.
Just did. Amazing stuff! I wouldn't have thought that was pc speaker even.
watch 8088mph demo :) just shows what early cga ibm pcs were capable of
Man that jump from PC speakers to a Gameblaster still blows me away 25 years later.
+theresin Yes it's such a unique sound.
It doesn't matter what's making it. This music will always be amazing.
It's a tune from my childhood that still elicits so much excitement. Favourite game series!
In chip music all about multiplexing.
Good point.....I mean if someone had the talent to fart the Monkey Island theme song I'd be beyond impressed. It's one of those tunes that can be distinguished easily no matter what sound card or emulator is used
Time Stamps for those who want to search:
0:10 - PC Speaker
1:27 - CMS (Creative Music System) / Game Blaster on Sound Blaster 1.5
3:08 - Yamaha OPL2 on Sound Blaster 1.5
4:50 - Roland MT-32 / MT-32 (Old) w/o Headphones
Thanks
SHould be pinned or chapters made :O
The Roland MT-32 was always the ultimate option in the sound card selector menu. We always tried to imagine how it would sound when we had make do with the PC speaker. I was then blown away by Monkey Island on my friends Amiga 500. The sound was incredible!
Damn Right 😄 I Allways had an Soundblaster
couldn't afford one, but now I understand why :p sound like an enhanced version of every other card, despite all having their charm.
Amigas just blew PCs outbof the water at the time and nobody I ever met had a Roland 😂
Well, the Roland MT32 was sold alone for 695 USD in 1987, versus 699 USD for the Amiga 500 that same year.
Whatever sounds best, the first version still brings me to tears. That's what I heard on my 386 DX40.
You know why I came here? My daughter said she wanted to hear a new bed song. I had already used up my whole repertoire the last years. So this was the first that came to my mind and I could bring up the melody back from my long time memory.
I just came here to check again.
Awesome.
Thank you.
This sounds like a superb bedtime song, I'm really happy you played this for your kid!
In a couple of years, you'll play these games with her right? Believe me, I played this game with my dad before I knew how to talk and this tune is something that has been forever ingrained into my brain. I can get Alzheimer's and still remember this tune. I might not remember the context, but I will ALWAYS remember the feelings.
I'm honestly just trying to forget I saw your username rn lol.
Wise words, tightanus
@@myfavoritemusic2428 Just for the record: I didn't play the song, i sang it ;)
And the username is just some kind of... idk the correct term - youth sin?
Should probably change it.
"Bonobo Dictator" sounds nice doesn't it?
Just kidding. I just like to offend "la bourgeoisie". A poor attempt to keep up some teenage rebellious spirit.
Silly I know. :)
that is the most wholesome thing i've heard in a long time, i'll keep this in mind if it ever comes in handy
@@Wranuckl Sang it? What are the lyrics???
Oh man, I remember the introduction of Sound Blaster. That feeling of "Oh my god, wait a a minute, you mean that I can hear the music in Monkey Island and the guards shouting in Wolfenstein?" was incredible.
gustopo. PEON! (BM! BM! BM!)
This gives me nostalgia for something I’ve never known, heard or seen.
Go know it, hear it and see it, now.
There is still time to save your soul.
Yeah, I know right? I was born in 05 but this oddly gives me feels like I listened to it nonstop for year when I was 5. Weird, but I love this song.
I believe thats called “saudade”
you missed out.
But still can go for it
Im from 84's i will cry 🥲
The Roland sc sounds incredible but the fact that the PC speakers could hide its own « flaws » so well is truly impressive!
Yep!! A 350 pound man doing a backflip, even if it's extremely sloppy, will always impress me more than a 150 pound man doing a technically perfect backflip.
The programming was a real pain in the ass though. The whole thing was, after all designed to have just one (ONE!) note it could play, so to achive any other note or frequency you had to bombard the membrane with impulses. Essentially, you had to send it a signal to retract again before it could fully expand outwards to get a different frequency, and for every frequency you wanted that time was of course different. Programming to play music or even samples on the speaker was akin to trying to nail diarrhea to the wall.
in order
the original bop-0:07
the HD remix-1:32
the lofi remix-3:11
how it probably sounded when they were composing it-4:48
The initial PC speaker took me back to mi childhood, but the Roland MT-32 brought tears to my eyes. What a piece!
I know it sounds very cheesy, but the moment I bought my first sound card (a Sound Blaster Pro) and started trying all my games with that funky Yamaha OPL2 music... none of the technological advances that came in the next decades could match the emotion of hearing this for the first time. Particularly when I fired up Monkey Island, sounding like this 3:14 , I couldn't get enough of it.
I can so relate to that :D My first PC was a 386DX 33 MHz and PC speaker. I worked a summer job, and bought a Sound Blaster and was blown away. I shown this to a friend, and he also bought one right away :D
Not cheesy at all. I never owned a PC growing up so it was always so amazing to go to my buddy's house back in the late 80's and play games on his C64. All these other kids were blown away by the NES but all I wanted to do is play Below the Root on that C64 lol. Maybe it's because I knew eventually I'd likely get an NES but knew we would never get a PC
I felt the same way when I bought the AdLib card to replace the internal speaker!
@@crimsontide1980 huh, that's a real cool story, for real. I ain't old so I grew up with computers. ;)
@Dude Spikey My family was tight on money so never had a computer until I was a senior in high school. Still had access to one at my friends house. I'd buy games and leave them over there just because they wouldn't do me any good at my house.
I had sound blaster pro after I convinced my mum to buy me one when I passed 2 of my school exams 100%. After I got it all my exams went 50%.
lol
Priorities, man, lol
Man I used to reset the game multiple times just to hear this, it's a masterpiece no matter how simple the instrument or sound card for that matter
This is f*cking awesome how different these sounds are
+Danseba True
+PhilsComputerLab And the theme sounds incredible in every single version. So good :) Just like your video ^^
IBM beeper: one voice with either nostalgia or irritation and comes default with every IBM PC and XT
game blaster: more voices and nice retro sound but a you actually needed to buy the damn thing
Sound blaster: epitome of fm synthesis but a little expensive
Roland mt32: midi quality sound but REALLY FUCKING HIGH PRICE (at least in 1988)
@@michaellyga4726 Caps
You couldnt really appreciate how lush the Roland card sounded without listening to the other cards first
I know that MT32 takes the crown here, but PC Speaker did such an amazing job of having an illusion of more than 1 channel.
The pc speakers just came up hit me in the face with my childhood :)
I've never played this game before, but this music makes me feel so nostalgic, it has some kind of magic capable of making anyone go back to their childhood, it's amazing
Come on…. Its a sin not to play Monkey Island. Its ok to do it with the remastered one…
@@JaayPLP exactly !! Play it any way you can. For many, myself included, Monkey Island was life changing. I still think back on the first time I played it. It was the first game I didn't want to ever quit playing. I'd obsess with MI all day while I was at school. I'd rush home abs blow through my homework to be able to play it for 2 hours a night. I'd wake up early hoping to play it before going to school. I faked being sick several times just to see if I could figure out how to get a crew together so I could sail off to Monkey Island. Was the greatest feeling, beating this game all on my own, no hints, tip books, hell u didn't even know another person who even heard of this game let alone played it. Did it all on my own and I was beyond excited at first but then I was saddened once the journey was over
that pc speaker gave its all
mad respect
I think what's most amazing to me is what they were able to do with the PC speaker. That's how I played all these games, and yeah, the quality stinks, but they did such a great job, and the melodies were so strong and well-crafted.
Hi! My name's Guybrush Threepwood, and I want to be a pirate!
You looks more like a flooring inspector to me.
ASK ME ABOUT LOOM(tm).
Look behind you! A three-headed-monkey!
@@Pingwn I'm over this way.
A shoe seller name!
I'm crying. Tears are coming out of my eyes.
Like me each time i ear this music !
Having you been cutting onions?
We know what crying is you don't have to explain it
whippet1983 Out of your Eyes?! 0.o? My tears usually come out of my butt
Is it because when you found the treasure all you got was a lousy tshirt?
Yeah, I was sore about that too, and when Stan ripped me off but hey, it sure felt good when I finally trapped him in a coffin so I guess i got even with him so cheer up :)
With headphones, from 1:32 to 3:08 it's magic
C. Exposito more like earrape.
Indeed!!
Yes, the Creative Music System version has a kind of Chiptune/Gameboy feeling, but with lots of voices ;-) I also like it.
Agreed.
I love it. So deep, friendly and magical!
The memories! I remember when we upgraded from a 286 with EGA/PC speaker to a 486 with VGA/SB16. It blew my 12 year old mind!
486 with sound blaster was my first pc , i will cry 🥲
The contrast of creating something uncomfortable for the second speaker then relinquishing and beautiful is truly a fascinating trick of musical devices. Love it.
CMS is my favorite. The stereo effects on it are amazing.
PC speaker wins the medal for trying it's hardest but the Roland damn, that was magical.
PC speaker though, sends that nostalgic chill right down my spine, closest thing to a time machine I swear.
The first time I played Monkey Island was with a CGA monitor, and I only had a regular PC speaker. The game was still super fun and amazing.
Same, and it was still a completely magical experience!
Same here. Bought an Amiga 500 shortly after. The difference was night and day, both graphically and sonically.
Not bad for PC speaker... O.O
It's actually quite impressive, for one voice.
I was first made aware of this difference from a video on adaptive game scores and it's awesome to hear how different these all sound
I just love the CMS / Game blaster sound. While the Roland MT 32 may sound like real instruments, the CMS / Game blaster is my favorite. Thank you Phil for yet another fantastic video. I love being taken back to a time where sound cards made a difference.
omfg i'm 8 and again and trying to convince my dad that the latest sound card is something that will be future proof and never need updating, unlike the VGA card!
Just 8 and cussed already?
@@leonardelling8157 I think they’re saying this video brought them back to a time when they were 8
Thank you for doing this. It brought back many memories. 26 years since I first played the original. This video really put a smile on my face.
The music played with the Roland sound card is way better than any graphics card in the 1990s. This gives me the deeper atmosphere of reality.
I dont have the nostalgia that a lot of other people have of this, and as a matter of fact I've never played this game. But this music is amazing, and its incredible to hear what the same song sounds like eith better and better equipment. Great video!
Man this brings back good memories on all the MIDI song`s of games....later with Soundblaster AWE32 and 4MB simm modules to load some soundboards into was such a blast. If i could I`d still love to listen to the old midi`s with different boards loaded and experience how different the same tune sounded then. Thank YOU for publish this, sooo good. And of course man that Roland...I never knew how good that was!
It is impressive how many audio and video modes SOMI has. There are so many different combinations of ways it could have been played back in the day. If you had an ancient system you could be playing it in CGA with PC Speaker sound or if you had high end machine you could be running VGA with Midi sound. Or if you had a machine somewhere in the middle than it would be in EGA with Adlib Sound. I don't know of many other games that offered such a wide selection of both audio and video modes. Monkey Island 2 came out just a year later but dropped all the different video modes and didn't have as many audio modes either.
Thanks Phil. I wasn't aware if the CMS version. You can really here the stereo separation on it!
While the MT 32 certainly had the best sound overall. I am very impressed with how they managed to squeeze so much into the monophonic single voice beeper without loosing clarity. Literally sneaking in notes between notes to try to get it to sound like two or more different instruments when all they could do was to beep it in different frequencies.
Wow the Roland version is amazing. I was going to come on here commenting that the Amiga version sounded better than all the PC versions.. But erm. nope not this time sadly!
Ha, yea, the Roland was a proper music device. Quite expensive also. Basically nobody had one :)
well at least that makes me feel a bit better :) haha
I ran the Roland version on AWE-32 through it's emulation mode... jaw hit the floor!
You can play the pc version with the roland on the amiga thanks to scumm....
PhilsComputerLab well you know they use the old beeper speaker to play the games thats why they don't have any soundcards in the day if they were poor.
The Roland has the others beat by a mile, but the cms sound blaster 1.5's surround sound makes it a lot more entertaining to listen to.
Completely agree, I think it’s the one that most fits the “pixely art” style of the game.
I personally like the Yamaha OPL2 thru Sound Blaster.
Thanks ! Hit me right in the nostalgia.. amazing timeless theme in all its variations !
at first Noodle had my curiosity but now. . .
*YOU HAVE MY ATTENTION*
I really like the Game blaster version, love the bass
Yeah, it's like a groovy NES version.
Man I love the CMS sound. Roland MT32 may be the objectively best (and is what I use most of the time) but CMS sounds like NES with some cartridge specific improvement chips. The sound makes me feel nostalgic and warm inside.
Exactly, it sounds so warm and fuzzy :)
I have vague memories of the CMS sounds, but I never knew what it was called compared to the Yamaha OPL2 (which is what I also have fond memories of). Trying to find the right emulators for both of these sound cards had been my holy grail when it comes to using Cakewalk.
@@Echo81Rumple8386box has CMS support
Back in the day when I had an XT clone with mono CTR (Hercules) and no sound card, I managed to get a MOD player that used the speaker. So, to make it sound better, I disconnected the small speaker and connected the audio out from that to an external (mono) AMP (using capacitors to isolate circuit) and I have to tell you, it sounded REALLY well for my budget....
So awesome! - for some weird reason, I really like the Game Blaster (SB 1.5) version.
Ofc. The Roland version sounds awesome!
Man I had goosebumps when I heard that CMS tune the first time!
The Roland MT-32 beats out the competition here with no problems. Sounds great!
Back in the days when a sound card was a big deal.
That Yamaha OPL2 is what I heard as a child, and although it pales in comparison to the Roland, I do believe it has the most charm, by far.
Same. I'm trying to find an emulator plug-in of that for Cakewalk so I can write music using the Yamaha OPL2 sounds.
I remember playing this game as a kid, My older siblings had this game. I played this game and finished it as an adult.
I remember the first time I saw Monkey Island on PC it was using the PC Speaker. I usually played Monkey Island on the Amiga, so it was a shock at how bad the PC sounded.
this old computer sound awakes instantly te magic of this beautiful time in me.
This was no less than very emotional. Thanks for posting this.
I've been desperate to build an old DOS PC with an MT-32 ever since hearing how the Monkey Island theme came out of that thing ages and ages ago, back in the mid-90s, which was late even then
Wow, the Roland MT-32 was miles ahead. It was so expensive for regular/non musician users, though.
exactly, but nice to hear how it sound after all those year, that really the price was justified, even if not many of us could approach this card only by imaginating :p
I still remember when resonant frequencies in the monkey island theme made the PC speaker go haywire. :-)
i so want a modern version of the mt32.
check out MUNT
The MT32 was before General MIDI, so it wont play MT32 Music files like in these DOS games correct in the slightest.
I originally played Monkey Island 2 on a Windows 95 computer that had a general MIDI card. The only two options that worked for me were internal speaker and MT-32 (which gave hilariously mismatched voice selections on the GM card). I kind of miss it so I'll see if I can persuade DOSBOX or ScummVM to route the MT-32 sound out to an external device and specify Windows MIDI for a bit of nostalgia...
how to set up munt with dosbox ruclips.net/video/j_5RWxHHVvE/видео.html
Roland still makes 100 different midi expanders. . .
That's the second best music compilation i've ever heard !
How appropriate, they play like a cow.
What a time that was, looking back with tears in my eyes
I love that someone has done this. Thank you!
+misfits118 Thank you!
I haven't done any sound recordings in some time. I'm thinking of combining some of my older videos, like putting all the Space Quest intros in one video so viewers can see how the games developed.
For a long time, I was skeptical about MIDI. Some of my best PC gaming memories used a cheap Sound Blaster Live card, and even after seeing side-by-side comparisons on this channel and LGR, it didn't seem like there was a big difference. But just a moment ago, going from Sound Blaster 1.5 to the MT-32 blew my mind!
Nostalgia and memories play a huge part. Monkey Island 2 will always sound more "right" on the Sound Blaster for me, although the MT-32 version is clearly better.
Lots of memories with this one..
To come inside and play this with a cup of tea as the snow fell outside was an awesome escape.
Love this OPL2 sound! It reminds me my old AdLib!
Now I need to hear all of them at once
That was the best piece of music is heard in 20 years! Love it^^
The last one is what I grew up with, but the earlier ones are very interesting to hear as well, its crazy how much a sound card made a difference to the sound of a game back in the day.
This must have been a ton of work! Great work man, brings back memories.
Oh, to have been one of the lucky few to have heard this on a Roland sound card back in the day
Omg, the PC Speaker sounds like a ZX Spectrum version of Monkey Island! That’s amazing!
This is awesome, thanks for all the work and uploading.
The PC-Speaker sounds better than I remember the early 90s on my fathers PC before I had a PC with soundcard. May be the speaker was too bad for the signal or my brain is now able for more signals, who knows..
The PC speaker is routed through a Sound Blaster. That does make it sound somewhat nicer :)
Thanks for this information. I did not know about the difference before
Also some PC speakers are the older, nicer 2 inch speaker found in small radios, While others are little piezo beepers.
@@Scioneer Yes, older computers had better PC-Speakers. Still pretty bad, but better than later PC-Speakers, which were tiny and really just meant as a beeping device to find boot problems when turning on the machine, because people were expected to use soundcards anyway once the computer booted.
Man the Roland does an epic job. Improved the score!
i just love the cms one... it still retains the "8bit" sound and just makes me feel like happy... loce all of em but cms just hits the sweet spot for me
What is really cool is this is just the intro tune. A ton of music awaits you when you properly play the game...
Personally... I played this game as a kid and it sounded exactly like the mt32 version... Brings back great memories. I still play this game from time to time.
My dad used to play this When I were A kid
Were you guys like really rich or something? The MT-32 came with quite the price tag!
I remember as a kid trying to map my soundblaster as MT-32 like "maybe it can work" on every game :p but "nope kid" ^^ If only I knew what hardware was, for me it was just magic! now I can enjoy, the MT-32 version, thanks for this edit!
Ooooooooooooooooh my god ! How long have i waited to hear THAT again !!! Ever since Win95 the midi instruments sounded off. I heard that as a kid on an SB16 with AdLib. The main Instruments became much too silent when i replayed it later on Win95 Machines. Thanks so much !! Awesome =)
Glad you liked it :D
This is a great demonstration of the principle of computer expansion cards that have now partly disappeared (even if graphics cards can still be considered extensions today, the vast majority of people have one, even an old one, and it's almost systematic if you buy a computer today) the motherboards of current computers can do a lot of things, including outputting good quality audio in a lossless format, or supporting high-speed wireless formats, whereas before it was almost mandatory to buy an extension separately from the computer and you had to add it yourself, most of the assembled PCs sold in stores now have integrated graphics cards (except for office computers). And it's especially impressive to see in this video how a type of extension that is very little used today (except in the professional field mainly) used to make such an audio difference between each sound card, each card had an identity like a car engine, was recognizable according to how the music sounded.
If none of these are played in my funeral, I'm not attending
I remember back in the day always dreaming of a Roland sound card. Got an Adlib instead. Was actually great, as it required no fiddling with your memory in config.sys and autoexec.bat, since it had no drivers.
Hi! My name's Guybrush Threepwood and I want a Roland MT-32! XD
Thank you for the video. Loved hearing these
We bought a sound blaster to play Myst (windows 3.1) and I remember the difference when loading Monkey Island back up again!
The SoundBlaster with both earphone playing different parts is really cool and I don't know if it is intentional or not but I like the result. Also if you have one earphone off it sounds interesting but the audio cuts out suddenly for parts where it swaps over. Anyway I like how it sounds and I think the SoundBlaster has the more interesting and fun audio.
The first version is actually using ONE MONOPHONIC channel. Only one note at a time. That is impressive.
Ahhh the good ol' PC speaker, what a legend.
Great comparison. I hated MIDI back then because the MIDI we got in normal home user sound cards was so sad. I appreciate it more than digital recorded music these days though.
Do you know the Trust 32 16-bit card? It had true SB16 compatibility AND good sounding software MT32.
I didnt heard sounds till i get the Sound blaster card, old times love this game
The Soundblaster is the best one
my dad had a roland mt32 in those years. and after a soundcanvas. i remember my friends being crazy to listen thoose themes!!!
Best setup at the time was using a mixer to combine a Roland MT32 or LAPC1 for instrumentds with a Sound Blaster for digital effects and voice samplings...Lucasarts Star Wars games sounded so good too!!
Ah yeeaaahhh! Love me those pc speakers blips and bloops! That sound takes me back. Good choice of music too!
That's why i love MT-32!
Like the 1st and 2nd the most.