AR MUSIC Tape:

The enclosed tape has a number of AR songs converted to play on the Amiga. The problem with converting old Atari songs is they were all composed knowing that there would be but four voices. Waking up one day with a computer like the Amiga and moving out of the realm of the 4 fource square wave music thing into the world of instrument samples and no realistic memory constraints, is a bit overwhelming. I must say that in many of the cases here presented, I never really had the time to fine tune what you are about to hear. So hang in there... If you recall the tunes, I guess I've succeeded.
I've included background on each tune, more than you ever wanted to know about AR songs. *chuckle*

GANTHEM 1:45 [AR - City]
Ganthem was written at Datamost while Phil and I were being courted to sign a contract allowing them to distribue "The Tail of Beta Lyrae" (our first game), have Phil do copy protection for them and me to write game music for their other releases. Phil was checking out the place and I found a spare Atari and sat down and wrote Ganthem. At the time I wasn't sure what it would be for. The inspiration for it was the slave powered boats in the Ben Hur movie. I could picture that guy setting the rowing pace by pounding the drum below decks. Aside from that, I wanted to write an anthem. Well it didn't turn out to sound like an anthem, so I put a "G" in front (I wrote it) and figured nobody would know what the title meant... I was safe. :)

HAVEN (Sanctuary) 2:30 [AR - Dungeon]
Haven was written around the time the acrinim story found on the web page was written. The lyrics and the melody came to me at the same time. Like Thoreandan, Haven was an attempt to write some period type music for the medieval atmosphere of the City and Dungeon. Please excuse me for the Beatle-esque ending... Couldn't help myself *chuckle*

MOMENTS 2:00 [AR - City]
While Phil and I were working with Datamost, we were phoned by some fellows in northern California who had caught wind of our work on Alternate Reality. Being farmiliar with Beta Lyrae, they wanted us to sign with them for Alternate Reality. They flew to Hawaii and we entertained them in my home. Because we had little to show on AR (Phil had the beginning of the 3D walk thru, but no monsters), the visit became nothing much except a demo of the music (with words on screen etc). Well Moments was done and I recall one of the Advertising people that came along, helped me with some of the words. This is one of those songs that maybe worked better on Atari. I claim no brilliance in drumming and... Well I could use help in that area.

ARMOR 3:36 [AR - City & Dungeon]
I seem to be alone on this, but this is without question, my favourite song in AR. In it's first incarnation (Atari 8bit), the integrating the hammer blows into the music and the lament of the song... I could feel the blacksmith's labor. The version recorded here, I like even more. This ARMOR not only has the blacksmith's hammer, it also has him placing the hot blade into the water (sizzzzle). Even though it has no bridge, as a musical piece it has one of the more complex melody(s) in all of AR music. In the second verse you can hear a trumpet laying down a new melody, while the old plays in the background. The third verse is highlighted by yet another (although sparse) melody line (high pitched). After this verse, as the song appears to climax, a dream sequence commences and the blacksmith's hammer gets louder and louder with the final beat of the song being his putting the blade in the water (sizzzzzzzzzzzzle).

INTO THE FRAY 2:22 [AR - Dungeon]
Someone once told me that it was very difficult in western music to write a song in 5/4 or 7/4 time. Well that's not true... I sat right down and wrote Into the Fray (7/4 time). In this version, you can hear the water dripping into puddles on the floor of the caverns you are walking through :)

DWARF DANCE 1:15 [AR - City]
Just as goofy as the little people this was meant to depict. Children always like this song.

WAVES 4:06 [AR - City]
This song along with the AR theme was debuted at the Consumer Electronics Show, January, 84, in Las Vegas. Phil and I had a special rig and version of these great tunes that used 8 voices (we sunched two Ataris together). Interesting sideline to this is that a fellow game writer saw the AR 3D graphics demo and decided to drop work on his then current project and move to finish another one he called Bard's Tale. True Story.

GREMLINS 1:13 [AR - Dungeon]
The Troll song was already done and I knew I needed another song in a similar vein to cover the Gremlins. As time was running out, I finally finished this little ditty.

TROLL 2:22 [AR - Dungeon]
Actually, I cheated on this one. I had written this for another project, that I ended up not needing. This song was written as Baby Dinosaur. It had lyrics like:
Baby dinosaur is walking down the street
Look'n kinda hungry think it wants to eat
If you're in its way...
Don't stay.
Oh well, it fit in the Troll area just fine in Dungeon. By the way, this tune has had more work done on it than most. I needed this for another project and was able to devote a bit more time to this Amiga version.

AR THEME 3:33 [AR - City]
Don't expect to enjoy this one. I've not had time to do a version of this that captures and appeals to those who liked the 8 bit Atari version. Maybe someday.

DEATH :57 [AR - City & Dungeon]
Silly, but seemed fitting to throw this on the end of the tape :)

Thanks for indulging me,

Gary Gilbertson
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