Help identify game's music tracks \ VOGONS

Help identify game's music tracks

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First post, by ludicrous_peridot

Posted on 2025-04-28, 07:14

ludicrous_peridot Offline

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Joined: 2020-05-28, 10:51

Hey folks

I have recently been fiddling with a 1995 DOS game Black Zone which uses CMF music. It's a bit strange how the game mixes well known compositions with something that sounds original... so having just found out about Voyetra MusiClips (while reading on the CMF format, actually) and how games like Word Rescue used that for background music, it made me wonder how much of the music in Black Zone is really original?

That's when I am turning to you folks for advice or help. If those with good ear for old MIDI tracks were curious and gave it a listen, would be extremely grateful, if you let me know you hear similarities to something you may have heard/remembered.

The tracks can be found here

My impression so far is that track2 may have been an original composition (it simply stands out from the rest, e.g. if you check the file contents itself, and feels somewhat unfinished), but all the rest... I am doubtful about.

Thank you!

GA-G41M-Combo G41/ICH7 - Core 2 Quad Q9550 - DDR3 1033 - Radeon RX570 - YMF744 (Cobra) - X3MB (Buran)
Beetle/M/i815+ICH2 - Celeron 566Mhz - Opti 924 (Typhoon Media)

Reply 1 of 3, by leileilol

Posted on 2025-04-28, 10:56

leileilol Offline

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Probably not all entirely original....

track1 - sounds a lot like ZARDOZ.CMF (1990, also appears in Zeux) but trimmed
track3 - DARKMOON.CMF (1990, also appears in Zeux)
track4 - BARDOM4.CMF (1991, also appears in Outlaw 1994)
track5 - DUNGO.CMF (1992, also appears in Zeux)
track6 - MOONLIGH.CMF (1992)

long live PCem

Reply 2 of 3, by ludicrous_peridot

Posted on 2025-04-28, 22:33

ludicrous_peridot Offline

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Many thanks, this is quite awesome.

I took your hint and found another one: track 9 - BALI.CMF
I also ran into BARNDOM6.CMF which matches track 4 too.

Was quite surprised by the way that DUNGO has a dedicated page about it...

GA-G41M-Combo G41/ICH7 - Core 2 Quad Q9550 - DDR3 1033 - Radeon RX570 - YMF744 (Cobra) - X3MB (Buran)
Beetle/M/i815+ICH2 - Celeron 566Mhz - Opti 924 (Typhoon Media)

Reply 3 of 3, by ludicrous_peridot

Posted on Yesterday, 20:46

ludicrous_peridot Offline

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Joined: 2020-05-28, 10:51

Thanks to the wonderfully useful details provided by @leileilol (I really didn't have a clue where to start),
I think I have a summary for the tracks, minus track2:

Track 1 - Title ditto - while it sounds very similar to the introduction from ZARDOZ.CMF from 1990, and even uses the same instruments, the MIDI events differ, beyond simple reordering.
Track 2 - Introduction
Track 3 - Background music - DARKMOON.CMF from 1990 (probably from "CMF MUSIC COLLECTION FOR SOUNDBLASTER", 1992)
Track 4 - Background music - BARDOM6.CMF from 1991 (probably from "CMF MUSIC COLLECTION FOR SOUNDBLASTER", 1992)
Track 5 - Background music - DUNGO.CMF by Dan Froelich
Track 6 - Background music - Piano Sonata 14 (aka Moonlight Sonata) by Beethoven (probably MOONLIGH.CMF which came with Sound Galaxy NX sound card software)
Track 7 - Background music - Nadia's Theme by Vorzon, Botkin (probably NADIA.CMF which came with Sound Galaxy NX sound card software)
Track 8 - Background music - Silent Night, Holy Night, a Christmas carol, sounds identical to SILENT.CMF from 1990 ("CMF MUSIC COLLECTION FOR SOUNDBLASTER", 1992), only simultaneous MIDI events are in different order
Track 9 - Background music - Bali (Ha'i?), probably BALI.CMF which came with Sound Galaxy NX sound card software
Track 10 - Background music - The First Noel, a Christmas carol, sounds identical to NOEL.CMF from 1990 ("CMF MUSIC COLLECTION FOR SOUNDBLASTER", 1992), only with several phrases repeated, resulting in a longer composition, and those matching having simultaneous MIDI events in different order
Track 11 - Background music - Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, a Christmas carol, sounds identical to HARK.CMF from 1990 ("CMF MUSIC COLLECTION FOR SOUNDBLASTER", 1992), only with extra (unused) instruments added to header, and simultaneous MIDI events in different order
Track 12 - Background music - Bengawan Solo, an Indonesian song (probably BENGAWAN.CMF which came with Sound Galaxy NX sound card software)

GA-G41M-Combo G41/ICH7 - Core 2 Quad Q9550 - DDR3 1033 - Radeon RX570 - YMF744 (Cobra) - X3MB (Buran)
Beetle/M/i815+ICH2 - Celeron 566Mhz - Opti 924 (Typhoon Media)

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