Halloween 2022 Music (Sierra)

[Tawmis]

Need music for Halloween? Let me help!

[Rath Darkblade]

Oh, man. Don't get me started on the GK3 pendulum. So many nightmares over solving that. Plus, so many nightmares over Gabriel screaming. Over and over and over.

Plus - what's that following up? It's the GK1 Theme! And the GK1 Nightmare ... and the Credits! Ah, memories. (But -- oh, those credits if you decide that Gabriel is an a-hole who leaves Malia to die. What a bummer).

But, but, but ... this is the Halloween music, and you have the Sierra symbol used in Quest for Glory 4, but you didn't use any of the QfG4 music? I may cry. (Nah, not really. Well, maybe just a little).

The Chernovy music. The Necrotaur music. Heck, even the "battle the bunny" music. QfG4 has easily some of the most "90s metal" music of any Sierra game. Plus, the music you hear at night, as you wander around Mordavia, is very spooky. And it didn't even rate? Aww!

Thanks for the trip down memory lane, Tawm.

(And speaking spooky music and Gabriel Knight: please, please sign this petition to resurrect Gabriel Knight and make the fourth game! It's just a tiny bit shy of the magic 5,000 signatures. Heck, I'm not sure what happen even if they'd make 5,000, but hey - the more the better, right?)

[DeadPoolX]

(And speaking spooky music and Gabriel Knight: please, please sign this petition to resurrect Gabriel Knight and make the fourth game! It's just a tiny bit shy of the magic 5,000 signatures. Heck, I'm not sure what happen even if they'd make 5,000, but hey - the more the better, right?)

Given that the definition of "adventure" in gaming is practically a nonsense term nowadays (applying to just about any game so long as there's some semblance of an adventure to be had at all, regardless of the game's actual genre) would you really want a new GK game to get made?

[Rath Darkblade]

Well ... if -- and yes, I know I'm speaking rhetorically, but just for the sake of argument -- if Jane Jensen somehow gained control of the rights to GK again, and was able to create the 4th GK game, wouldn't that be a good thing? And by "adventure game", I mean the type that used to be made in the 80s/90s -- i.e. find the right inventory items, speak to other characters, find how to use the inventory items in the right way, etc. etc.

The term "adventure game" is difficult to define precisely, but I hope I did an OK job above.
====================
As for making a 4th GK game -- why would that be a bad thing? (Warning: SPOILERS. To anyone who hasn't played GK3, look away now).

At the very end, after Madeleine finally warms up to Gabriel, Gabriel realises that it's Grace he wants. He dumps both Madeleine and (symbolically) his old self, but it's too late; when he arrives at the hotel room, all he finds is a letter from Grace, who has decided to go her own way.

Gabriel reads the letter, sighs, throws it away and walks away, ending the game.

So, Gabriel defeats the all-powerful and supernatural Montreaux, but what brings him down is something so down-to-earth as love. He's matured, but it was too late. It's a sad and powerful ending not just to GK3, but also to adventure games.

Gabriel saves the day one more time and rides off into the sunset, never getting the credit he deserved. He wasn't even that welcomed anymore, but saved the day anyway because that's the kind of man he was.

But sadly, it was all Gabriel's fault. He had his chance and he blew it.

So, I understand the ending. I understand that Gabriel and Grace would never live happily ever after and all that. But now I wonder: what's next? Would Gabriel ever find happiness - or even peace of mind - as a Schattenjager? What about Grace? Would she find someone who appreciates her? Will they ever see each other again? And if they do, what happens then?

So, yeah. A fourth GK game - one that addresses these questions - would be welcome, in my opinion. What do you think?

[Tawmis]

Oh, man. Don't get me started on the GK3 pendulum. So many nightmares over solving that. Plus, so many nightmares over Gabriel screaming. Over and over and over.
Plus - what's that following up? It's the GK1 Theme! And the GK1 Nightmare ... and the Credits! Ah, memories. (But -- oh, those credits if you decide that Gabriel is an a-hole who leaves Malia to die. What a bummer).
But, but, but ... this is the Halloween music, and you have the Sierra symbol used in Quest for Glory 4, but you didn't use any of the QfG4 music? I may cry. (Nah, not really. Well, maybe just a little).
The Chernovy music. The Necrotaur music. Heck, even the "battle the bunny" music. QfG4 has easily some of the most "90s metal" music of any Sierra game. Plus, the music you hear at night, as you wander around Mordavia, is very spooky. And it didn't even rate? Aww!
Thanks for the trip down memory lane, Tawm.
(And speaking spooky music and Gabriel Knight: please, please sign this petition to resurrect Gabriel Knight and make the fourth game! It's just a tiny bit shy of the magic 5,000 signatures. Heck, I'm not sure what happen even if they'd make 5,000, but hey - the more the better, right?)

I used the QFGIV icon for the Sierra symbol because I like how it looks; I originally wanted to use SQ6 - but it's spinning so it was hard to capture it straight forward.

As for not using music from QQFIV - I wasn't looking to create a 90s metal type thing. I wanted weird, creepy, frightening type music - which I didn't really see in QFGIV.

The video was done back in 2021 - but was thinking, because there's so much music, that maybe going forward I will try to do one every year (obviously not this year - way too much stuff on the home front going on) for too much spare time to be doing that.

So, yeah. A fourth GK game - one that addresses these questions - would be welcome, in my opinion. What do you think?

I think if she could have gotten it, she would have by now...
Instead, there was Mobius and Grey Matter.

Grey Matter, to me felt the closest to GK.

A shame more never came out of Grey Matter (or Mobius, which I've never finished either - think I got half way through both before life got in the way - both were enjoyable, but I found Grey Matter much easier to connect with)

[Tawmis]

Went ahead and found the time to make a volume 2... Rath will be happy.

Has some QFGIV music in it.

[Rath Darkblade]

Geez Louise! What's with the freaky mask to start this whole thing? It may be something from Sierra, but if so, I haven't seen it.

Of course I love any music to do with Gabriel Knight.

I'd never heard that music in Police Quest. Maybe it's because I'm an old fogey and played PQ back in the EGA days? Now I feel like Grandpa Rath. "Back in those days, you had nothing but PC speaker! And all you could get was beeps and boops if you were lucky! You kids nowadays don't know how good you have it! Grumble, mumble, complain!"

Ah, the QfG4 introduction with the tubular bells! And then there's the flyover the castle ... but no wolf-calls? Now I feel cheated. (No, not really - just messin'). The electric guitar solo in the QfG4 is good. (I'd say 'awesome', but Tawm's probably heard better)

Ah, yes - Mordavia Nights. Those long chords, and that sound effect that sounds like waves crashing on a beach ... creepy. Any idea what that effect is?

Ha! The QfG4 Monastery has some seriously creepy music. And the tubular bells are back again.

Er ... what is that FMV with the woman waking up in bed (nightmare, I presume) -- what game is that? I'd never seen that.

Thanks again, Tawm

[Tawmis]

Geez Louise! What's with the freaky mask to start this whole thing? It may be something from Sierra, but if so, I haven't seen it.
Er ... what is that FMV with the woman waking up in bed (nightmare, I presume) -- what game is that? I'd never seen that.

So - in the first one, I used a scene from Colonel's Bequest - when Laura goes in the shower and perishes.

So I thought, if I am going to do a second one - I want to do the same thing.

Use a Sierra game to set the mood.

That scene (both where the mask comes on) - and at the end - where she wakes up - are all a part of the Phantasmagoria 1 intro.

Oh, hey - let me link it for you!

[Rath Darkblade]

Yikes! I watched the first 3 minutes of that, and already decided to stop.

Now I know why I don't like horror

[Tawmis]

Just a gentle bump - if you need some Sierra themed Halloween music - this thread has it for you, from my channel. Go on and give it a listen!

[BBP]

I still wish there was a better version of Phantasmagoria... This is the best one I found.

[Collector]

Mark Seibert used to have a number of things on his site, including an MP3 of Consumite Furore. It looks like it was preserved on the Wayback:

https://web.archive.org/web/20051224162 ... urore_.mp3

[Tawmis]

I still wish there was a better version of Phantasmagoria... This is the best one I found.

Someone hit me up on Discord on how to better extract the music. May give that a try sometime.

[goatmeal]

I still wish there was a better version of Phantasmagoria... This is the best one I found.

Someone hit me up on Discord on how to better extract the music. May give that a try sometime.

Looks like the old GAP v1.32 Game Audio Player program can extract music, speech and sound effects as Phantasmagoria is one of several supported Sierra games. Just search the AUD, SFX, and SPK resource files.

However, you will be limited to the quality of encoding. Sadly, for one of my favorite scores ("Betrayal In Antara" -- who'd have guess? ), David Henry made the (self-admitted) rookie mistake of encoding ALL the audio for the game at 22 kHz mono, which is half that of CD-quality 44.1 kHz stereo...

Based on my experience using GAP: instead of reviewing each and every file, use the 'sort' option to place larger files at the top -- they will likely be music or speech, as opposed to much smaller special effects files.

[Tawmis]

Here's what they said (not including the actual files they shared) -

[8:04 AM]CJ: Hey
[8:04 AM]CJ: Not sure what you used to render the Midi from Phantas1 but good tips to get the best results :
Use the Sci Resource Viewer tool
Mount your Phantas CD containing the desired midi, open it in the tool, go to folder Sound
Select the desired snd file, set Track to 7 (General Midi), Patch to 4 (General Midi) and check "Upload"
Use a Midi mapper with the appropriate soundfont
Profit
[8:11 AM]CJ:
[8:12 AM]CJ: That setup allows uploading the custom midi changes for Phantas to the Midi player
[7:07 PM]Sir Tawmis: Oh, thank you very much! I will need to try this out. Because that mp3 sounds pretty damn sweet.
[6:07 AM]CJ: I will do a little experiment, to see if i can include the GS patch that the game sends to the midi device for instrument configuration
[6:34 AM]CJ:
Attachment file type: unknown
Sound912-7-no-gs.mid
10.67 KB
Attachment file type: unknown
Sound912-7-p4.mid
10.95 KB
[6:35 AM]CJ: Here are 2 examples
[6:35 AM]CJ: Sound912-7-p4 is the extract containing the GM patch
[6:35 AM]CJ: Sound912-7-no-gs has no patch
[6:35 AM]CJ: In my tests, reading the midi with the patch is setting the right config to the midi device
[6:36 AM]CJ: All the midi exports of the Phantas OST you can find online are missing the patch
[6:42 AM]CJ: The patch will set specific instrument config, volume, velocity changes, etc
[6:51 AM]CJ: Here is a perfect example of how the GM patch changes everything about the piece