Shot
Rear Admiral
This is a topic caused by a general frustration over "tiny" comments I sometimes see in various places on the internet when discussing Wing Commander's music. Despite the Amiga's version of the Wing Commander music being generally praised I have often seen a simple light hearted and good comment saying "loved the Amiga's music" replied to with a very short, sly, smart ass comment of "then you never played it with the MT-32" - As if any of them have played it with a real MT-32...
I really don't like comments like that that because I don't think it's that clear cut. "I" do have an MT-32... Which I got just to be able to play a game I love in a new light and see the charms it had to offer. I mean it's deeper with me, because I TRULY HATE the DOS FM music in almost every game. Sometimes I can sort of like it on the Sega Genesis, sometimes they did great things there... But Adlib... And Origin supported Adlib long after it died... Their "Sound Blaster" support for Wing Commander Privateer and WingIII ISSSS Adlib, even though I don't believe the Adlib card was supported anymore... They were definitely not utilizing what the Sound Blaster "could" do, and that's the story with most other companies.
I got a SoundBlaster AWE because I read it had MT-32 emulation along with sounding pretty damn good with the wavetable games it supported... Then I got it... Wing Commander didn't work with it, no protected mode games did, which was most games! Having grown up with the Amiga - In the mid to late 90's I was starting to want to see the games I used to play... and besides maybe Nesticle, there were no "well known" emulators... I'm pretty sure at the time most people were recommending Fellow for DOS as the Amiga emulator of choice, not WinUAE. At the time I really did not understand just how different games could be from system to system. Sometimes I'd play these games on DOS that I once played on the Amiga, and yeah, they "sort of" looked the same, some of them... Some of them looked terrible... But all of them sounded terrible!
I found a lot of appreciation for DOS because I did in fact grow up with it, just the later period of it. But having an Amiga and comparing it with what the PC people were doing back then... It still makes no sense why they won... lol... Anyway, while there are a select few people that I've found to REALLY love FM based tunes... They'll fight me to death over how much better an Adlib card is "technically" to an Amiga even... and I can't take them seriously because although I try to have empathy for others there is no part of my soul that can understand anyone that gets enjoyment out of the DOS FM library. Not only do I think the Amiga is better, I utterly HAAATE how terrible FM music sounds to my ears, it's like my ears are being (insert terrible word here). I honestly with all of my heart believe that the PC speaker (when connected to a sound card, not going through the actual internal speaker) sounded better than FM.
I HAAAD to get an MT-32...and it took me awhile to get... This was before this new patch thing came along that allows much of the MT-32 stuff to be used with just the synthesizer itself. I had to get the MT-32 for over a hundred bucks because you just don't see them enough, I had to get the MPU-401 MIDI control unit, also over a hundred bucks and also not seen very often... And then I had to get the IPC-T internal ISA card for the computer, ALSO over a hundred bucks!
I can say without a doubt that it is the pride of my computer collection, and yes, even over the Amiga... I mean I love the Amiga more have no doubt, but the Amiga never cost me that much (even after upgrading it a lot) and it certainly didn't need to be pieced together like that... Plus; well, the Amiga in my mind was always good... The MT-32 turned crap into gold... That was a big leap in terms of DOS hardware. By no means was the MT-32 perfect, it was never meant to be used on a computer, it just sort of turned out a few computer people (Sierra started it) got into designing games with that in mind and it became a computer thing. But in terms of being a musical synthesizer, the musical people never had any respect for the MT-32... Which is wroth noting, but I don't give a damn because it's HEAVEN compared to Adlib!
There were many things pushing me over many years to get an MT-32 despite the cost... But indeed it was my love for Wing Commander that had the last say... After playing the DOS versions and then playing the Amiga version one day; I had enough of that crap! I NEEDED that hardware... and it is my most treasured classic computing device because of how much it meant - to not only make what I thought was terrible sound good, but the actual effort expended to get the device itself is something I'll never forget.
So despite all that, respecting the MT-32 THAT much because of how much better it made Adlib music sound... Well, "I" have the MT-32, and I "still" think the Amiga sounds better. - While I utterly respect anyone that disagrees with that, I do take exception to MT-32 fans thinking it's the "obvious" winner. I said previously I could not understand why anyone would like FM over either the Amiga or MT-32, and those people do exist... But for people who prefer the MT-32 over the Amiga, I can understand that because they are both quality sounding things. People can throw in your face the technicals all they want, how ever many MIDI channels the MT-32 had VS 4-8 PCM channels on the Amiga... To me that's a terrible argument to make because if you can listen to 30 children sing you a song - having them be out of sync, out of tune, not even wanting to be there - ORRR - You could have one person sing you a song WELL... I'd rather have the one person sing well.
The Amiga relied on samples from actual instruments, and even with the limitations of the system talented people crammed way more into it than what seemed technically possible. And beyond realistic stuff, it had it's own unique and good sound when it wanted that. I hear the intro to a game like Agony on the Amiga and I'm blown away at how this computer from 1985 is giving me a better sounding piano than some real pianos! I don't care what the sample rate is, I know when something sounds good and when it sounds like crap. The SNES also had a sampled based sound card, and while some of it is good, honestly a lot of it sounds like it came from a tin can to me, too much echo... So me hearing an SNES and then comparing it to the Amiga, it's like going from mono to stereo to my ears, although the SNES did have stereo, but you know what I'm getting at. On the "rare" occasions the Genesis sounded good, I felt it sounded better than the SNES. But the Amiga sounded better than them all to me. From the big things like an entire games musical score, to just the tiny intro music or just a sound effect... Having the Amiga add on just minimal sound effects in a game like Battletech, which used the PC speaker in DOS - I can't tell you how much extra enjoyment I get out of that.
Not everything sounded realistic with the Amiga, but everything sounded good... and when the people making music did take their time to do those extra samples, it was some sweet stuff. The MT-32, in comparison, for the most part sounds terrific with games. It's not often you think it sounds "bad"... Although it does happen. I do believe the MT-32 gave us more realistic sounding string based instruments, like the violin section when compared to the Amiga. But I have nothing against how strings sound on an Amiga, they sound great most of the time... But the MT-32 REALLY sounds great with those strings. Also with the drums, again, I love how the Amiga makes drums sound, but the MT-32 REALLY makes those drum rhythms sound great.
But it couldn't play a piano to save it's life. Guitars were pretty bad compared to the Amiga and the woodwinds were nothing special on it. I have gone through every instrument on my MT-32 and played them on a keyboard (that's in a video by the way should anyone care enough to ask about it) While there are a lot of gems (including a to DIE FOR Kyoto that I can't understand was not used more often) there are a lot of bad ones on there too... The MT-32 was a strange hybrid that was both sample based AND syntheses based. They call it L.A. Synthesis I believe, a very uncommon thing. The actual attack of the instrument, much like the Amiga, was recorded. However the sustain, the part that lasts the longest in most cases, that was FM actually. It combined the two thinking few would notice as a cost cutting measure... It was done because the MT-32 was "cheap" in terms of musical synthesizers, although quite expensive in terms of computer sound cards. Which is why in the end, regardless of your opinion on if the MT-32 sounds better than the Amiga or not, everyone should really take full stock in how few people had that thing.... While it did sound great, was it worth the price of your actual already too expensive computer when compared to the Amiga? All of that stuff needs to be heavily weighed when forming an opinion on something, it can't just be about the way it sounds, that's certainly important, but it does matter that almost nobody actually experienced Wing Commander on an MT-32 back in the day.
The MT-32 was great in terms of DOS sound devices, but it had issues that truly made the musical press hate that thing. For some reason, despite using attack samples for most instruments, they seemed to have forgotten about the piano... It's the grand daddy of them all, it is the most important instrument to mankind, it is the FIRST question asked about the quality of a musical device. How does the piano sound? The MT-32? Pretty damn bad. And I guess even though designers could input their own stuff into the MT-32, for some reason I have never quite understood, because Roland did not have an actual sample of a piano I guess nobody else could make their own either, or they just never sounded good! The Fat Man did the best "piano" I ever heard for the MT-32 and that was jazz during Wing Commander II. Although it's the best I've heard on that device, it's only impressive because I know it's "supposed" to be a piano, both because of Jazz playing a piano and because the MT-32 actually gives the message of "my piano" when that music starts. - But if that same song was played without those things, still sounds more like an electric keyboard to me.
I was never disappointed in the way the Amiga sounded. Although I love the MT-32 there are things about it that I was disappointed in. But the crux of the story is the simple fact that so many people do still say "but that Amiga music!" when referring to Wing Commander. By now it has to be obvious that it's not simply because they never heard the MT-32. They get it, in fact I got it enough to buy one myself. The Amiga soundtrack to Wing Commander is truly great and special. It's not just impressive in terms of getting all of those MIDI channels crammed into the Amiga, but it actually sounds awesome in its own right. Sierra never really cared about the Amiga, I've seen comments from them in magazines saying how much they LOVE the Amiga, how much they care about it (despite their ports I guess for some games there were more buyers on the Amiga than DOS), but they never showed they cared because they had the most laziest way of porting games to the Amiga. It's a shame... And while the Amiga music to Sierra games does sound better than the FM stuff, it's obvious it does not sound better than the MT-32... Why? Because the lazy bastards just sampled the MT-32 itself for the Amiga! That's like making a copy of a copy, it's not going to compare.
Wing Commander got actual samples of real instruments, it sounds good. So does the MT-32, but I do believe it's ever so more nuanced than people just not having heard the MT-32. The MT-32 is very subtle in spots, like in the opening fanfare before it starts to blow up again. The entire barracks scene is very subtle on the MT-32. It's all very realistic, the Fat Man was not using any instruments that were bad, he knew how to make that thing shine! - and it is the original, which does matter to me... But the Amiga music is still great while being so damn bold! The acoustic bass in that slow section of the fanfare is barely audible on the MT-32 despite having a big sub-woofer for my system. It's "sort of" in the left speaker, but not completely... The barracks music is very "meh" to me, and I just save my game and go on. The Amiga in comparison makes that bass noticeable and puts it all in the left speaker, it's the center piece for that chunk of music and it's background on the MT-32. Some people may not like how the Amiga, for the most part (although it didn't HAVE to be that way) had most sounds in either the left or right speaker completely, most of the time it was not "centered". I understand that... But for me the three dimensions of sound the Amiga always shoved in my ears, I couldn't get enough of it. Anybody here experience ASMR? The Amiga gave that to me as a kid because of that hard panned music. The stuff came from all over the place to your ears! The barracks, a place to save and move on from... Best music from the game in my opinion but I can only say that about the Amiga version.
That was a hell of a long post to state something simple, but that's the way I do it. Yes, I grew up on the machine and it's how I first heard Wing Commander... I loved it then, I love it now... But I recognize not everything on the Amiga sounds better than the MT-32, and I very much love the MT-32... To me they are both great ways to experience music. I prefer both of them over the digitized music George Oldziey did for the Kilrathi Saga, which I also had back then. Perhaps nostalgia bumps it a little in favor of the Amiga for me, which is why I utterly understand people that do think the MT-32 sounds better. I can't fault you for your opinion on what sounds better to your ears... AS LONG as you don't fault me for my ears either. I feel we should all agree they are both kick ass, and just bash the FM stuff together as one big family... Who's with me?!
I wouldn't be surprised if a couple people got super angry because of what I said about FM music... To me it makes no sense, it "has to be" about nostalgia in order to prefer that, because... I'll just never understand, and I did grow up with FM stuff too... There is no game I can say I utterly prefer in FM over the MT-32, the Amiga, or General MIDI. I'm sorry if it offends anyone, I don't wish to start a war on that, I'm just trying to better illustrate my opinons on the MT-32 VS the Amiga by letting others understand the distaste I have for FM.
I'm not the only one who can't stand FM (a whole lot of people agree with me on that one), it's just so hard for me to put myself in anyones shoes when it comes to that. With the MT-32? I do understand it, it's a great device. - But I have heard several people over the years respond to a comment praising the Amiga sound in Wing Commander with a very simple, kind of trollish, certainly arrogant comment of "Try the MT-32 if you think that." - As if any of them actually had that thing, as if their experience with the MT-32 is not utterly based on the emulation of it. As if they know something nobody else knows about... I mean not everyone knows about the MT-32, but I think it's fare to say everyone here does. I sincerely doubt anyone who came into Wing Commander thinking the Amiga version sounded fantastic, having no experience with DOS, I doubt any of them would change their mind on that even if they had the MT-32 right in front of them. - And they both sound a little different in-person VS emulation by the way. Neither one of them have perfect sound emulation if you ask me. - Nostalgia is one thing but it's a statement when the people that did have the Amiga so strongly feel the love for that music.
So this was is just a long and drawn out piece just saying for anyone who thinks it's obvious, is it really? Have you really taken time to play the Amiga version? It's the best port of Wing Commander, and it's also special in a lot of ways. I recommend playing the 16 color version because it's unique VS the CD32 version which really only changes the music, that's not enough in my eyes. The graphics looking so good in 16 colors (try EGA out to truly understand how good the Amiga is - or even just the console ports which had more colors) is an experience all fans of Wing Commander must have. I played it on a slow ass Amiga 500 back in the day and I had no clue it was slow... I can still play it as a matter of fact, because it's a damn good game. I do play the DOS version more often, because it's the overall best experience when all is said and done, but the Amiga is oh so special and deserves to be taken out once in awhile. I understand liking the MT-32 more, but the snide replies to fans of the Amiga music must go, because they're both great. I would hope this long write up from a guy who has both of them physically, who loves both of them, and still loves the Amiga... Because it sounds good and it puts its own spin on the fantastic original. Thanks to all that read. - Really not directed at anyone in particular, I was just inspired to write because that is something I've seen from various places over the years.
I really don't like comments like that that because I don't think it's that clear cut. "I" do have an MT-32... Which I got just to be able to play a game I love in a new light and see the charms it had to offer. I mean it's deeper with me, because I TRULY HATE the DOS FM music in almost every game. Sometimes I can sort of like it on the Sega Genesis, sometimes they did great things there... But Adlib... And Origin supported Adlib long after it died... Their "Sound Blaster" support for Wing Commander Privateer and WingIII ISSSS Adlib, even though I don't believe the Adlib card was supported anymore... They were definitely not utilizing what the Sound Blaster "could" do, and that's the story with most other companies.
I got a SoundBlaster AWE because I read it had MT-32 emulation along with sounding pretty damn good with the wavetable games it supported... Then I got it... Wing Commander didn't work with it, no protected mode games did, which was most games! Having grown up with the Amiga - In the mid to late 90's I was starting to want to see the games I used to play... and besides maybe Nesticle, there were no "well known" emulators... I'm pretty sure at the time most people were recommending Fellow for DOS as the Amiga emulator of choice, not WinUAE. At the time I really did not understand just how different games could be from system to system. Sometimes I'd play these games on DOS that I once played on the Amiga, and yeah, they "sort of" looked the same, some of them... Some of them looked terrible... But all of them sounded terrible!
I found a lot of appreciation for DOS because I did in fact grow up with it, just the later period of it. But having an Amiga and comparing it with what the PC people were doing back then... It still makes no sense why they won... lol... Anyway, while there are a select few people that I've found to REALLY love FM based tunes... They'll fight me to death over how much better an Adlib card is "technically" to an Amiga even... and I can't take them seriously because although I try to have empathy for others there is no part of my soul that can understand anyone that gets enjoyment out of the DOS FM library. Not only do I think the Amiga is better, I utterly HAAATE how terrible FM music sounds to my ears, it's like my ears are being (insert terrible word here). I honestly with all of my heart believe that the PC speaker (when connected to a sound card, not going through the actual internal speaker) sounded better than FM.
I HAAAD to get an MT-32...and it took me awhile to get... This was before this new patch thing came along that allows much of the MT-32 stuff to be used with just the synthesizer itself. I had to get the MT-32 for over a hundred bucks because you just don't see them enough, I had to get the MPU-401 MIDI control unit, also over a hundred bucks and also not seen very often... And then I had to get the IPC-T internal ISA card for the computer, ALSO over a hundred bucks!
I can say without a doubt that it is the pride of my computer collection, and yes, even over the Amiga... I mean I love the Amiga more have no doubt, but the Amiga never cost me that much (even after upgrading it a lot) and it certainly didn't need to be pieced together like that... Plus; well, the Amiga in my mind was always good... The MT-32 turned crap into gold... That was a big leap in terms of DOS hardware. By no means was the MT-32 perfect, it was never meant to be used on a computer, it just sort of turned out a few computer people (Sierra started it) got into designing games with that in mind and it became a computer thing. But in terms of being a musical synthesizer, the musical people never had any respect for the MT-32... Which is wroth noting, but I don't give a damn because it's HEAVEN compared to Adlib!
There were many things pushing me over many years to get an MT-32 despite the cost... But indeed it was my love for Wing Commander that had the last say... After playing the DOS versions and then playing the Amiga version one day; I had enough of that crap! I NEEDED that hardware... and it is my most treasured classic computing device because of how much it meant - to not only make what I thought was terrible sound good, but the actual effort expended to get the device itself is something I'll never forget.
So despite all that, respecting the MT-32 THAT much because of how much better it made Adlib music sound... Well, "I" have the MT-32, and I "still" think the Amiga sounds better. - While I utterly respect anyone that disagrees with that, I do take exception to MT-32 fans thinking it's the "obvious" winner. I said previously I could not understand why anyone would like FM over either the Amiga or MT-32, and those people do exist... But for people who prefer the MT-32 over the Amiga, I can understand that because they are both quality sounding things. People can throw in your face the technicals all they want, how ever many MIDI channels the MT-32 had VS 4-8 PCM channels on the Amiga... To me that's a terrible argument to make because if you can listen to 30 children sing you a song - having them be out of sync, out of tune, not even wanting to be there - ORRR - You could have one person sing you a song WELL... I'd rather have the one person sing well.
The Amiga relied on samples from actual instruments, and even with the limitations of the system talented people crammed way more into it than what seemed technically possible. And beyond realistic stuff, it had it's own unique and good sound when it wanted that. I hear the intro to a game like Agony on the Amiga and I'm blown away at how this computer from 1985 is giving me a better sounding piano than some real pianos! I don't care what the sample rate is, I know when something sounds good and when it sounds like crap. The SNES also had a sampled based sound card, and while some of it is good, honestly a lot of it sounds like it came from a tin can to me, too much echo... So me hearing an SNES and then comparing it to the Amiga, it's like going from mono to stereo to my ears, although the SNES did have stereo, but you know what I'm getting at. On the "rare" occasions the Genesis sounded good, I felt it sounded better than the SNES. But the Amiga sounded better than them all to me. From the big things like an entire games musical score, to just the tiny intro music or just a sound effect... Having the Amiga add on just minimal sound effects in a game like Battletech, which used the PC speaker in DOS - I can't tell you how much extra enjoyment I get out of that.
Not everything sounded realistic with the Amiga, but everything sounded good... and when the people making music did take their time to do those extra samples, it was some sweet stuff. The MT-32, in comparison, for the most part sounds terrific with games. It's not often you think it sounds "bad"... Although it does happen. I do believe the MT-32 gave us more realistic sounding string based instruments, like the violin section when compared to the Amiga. But I have nothing against how strings sound on an Amiga, they sound great most of the time... But the MT-32 REALLY sounds great with those strings. Also with the drums, again, I love how the Amiga makes drums sound, but the MT-32 REALLY makes those drum rhythms sound great.
But it couldn't play a piano to save it's life. Guitars were pretty bad compared to the Amiga and the woodwinds were nothing special on it. I have gone through every instrument on my MT-32 and played them on a keyboard (that's in a video by the way should anyone care enough to ask about it) While there are a lot of gems (including a to DIE FOR Kyoto that I can't understand was not used more often) there are a lot of bad ones on there too... The MT-32 was a strange hybrid that was both sample based AND syntheses based. They call it L.A. Synthesis I believe, a very uncommon thing. The actual attack of the instrument, much like the Amiga, was recorded. However the sustain, the part that lasts the longest in most cases, that was FM actually. It combined the two thinking few would notice as a cost cutting measure... It was done because the MT-32 was "cheap" in terms of musical synthesizers, although quite expensive in terms of computer sound cards. Which is why in the end, regardless of your opinion on if the MT-32 sounds better than the Amiga or not, everyone should really take full stock in how few people had that thing.... While it did sound great, was it worth the price of your actual already too expensive computer when compared to the Amiga? All of that stuff needs to be heavily weighed when forming an opinion on something, it can't just be about the way it sounds, that's certainly important, but it does matter that almost nobody actually experienced Wing Commander on an MT-32 back in the day.
The MT-32 was great in terms of DOS sound devices, but it had issues that truly made the musical press hate that thing. For some reason, despite using attack samples for most instruments, they seemed to have forgotten about the piano... It's the grand daddy of them all, it is the most important instrument to mankind, it is the FIRST question asked about the quality of a musical device. How does the piano sound? The MT-32? Pretty damn bad. And I guess even though designers could input their own stuff into the MT-32, for some reason I have never quite understood, because Roland did not have an actual sample of a piano I guess nobody else could make their own either, or they just never sounded good! The Fat Man did the best "piano" I ever heard for the MT-32 and that was jazz during Wing Commander II. Although it's the best I've heard on that device, it's only impressive because I know it's "supposed" to be a piano, both because of Jazz playing a piano and because the MT-32 actually gives the message of "my piano" when that music starts. - But if that same song was played without those things, still sounds more like an electric keyboard to me.
I was never disappointed in the way the Amiga sounded. Although I love the MT-32 there are things about it that I was disappointed in. But the crux of the story is the simple fact that so many people do still say "but that Amiga music!" when referring to Wing Commander. By now it has to be obvious that it's not simply because they never heard the MT-32. They get it, in fact I got it enough to buy one myself. The Amiga soundtrack to Wing Commander is truly great and special. It's not just impressive in terms of getting all of those MIDI channels crammed into the Amiga, but it actually sounds awesome in its own right. Sierra never really cared about the Amiga, I've seen comments from them in magazines saying how much they LOVE the Amiga, how much they care about it (despite their ports I guess for some games there were more buyers on the Amiga than DOS), but they never showed they cared because they had the most laziest way of porting games to the Amiga. It's a shame... And while the Amiga music to Sierra games does sound better than the FM stuff, it's obvious it does not sound better than the MT-32... Why? Because the lazy bastards just sampled the MT-32 itself for the Amiga! That's like making a copy of a copy, it's not going to compare.
Wing Commander got actual samples of real instruments, it sounds good. So does the MT-32, but I do believe it's ever so more nuanced than people just not having heard the MT-32. The MT-32 is very subtle in spots, like in the opening fanfare before it starts to blow up again. The entire barracks scene is very subtle on the MT-32. It's all very realistic, the Fat Man was not using any instruments that were bad, he knew how to make that thing shine! - and it is the original, which does matter to me... But the Amiga music is still great while being so damn bold! The acoustic bass in that slow section of the fanfare is barely audible on the MT-32 despite having a big sub-woofer for my system. It's "sort of" in the left speaker, but not completely... The barracks music is very "meh" to me, and I just save my game and go on. The Amiga in comparison makes that bass noticeable and puts it all in the left speaker, it's the center piece for that chunk of music and it's background on the MT-32. Some people may not like how the Amiga, for the most part (although it didn't HAVE to be that way) had most sounds in either the left or right speaker completely, most of the time it was not "centered". I understand that... But for me the three dimensions of sound the Amiga always shoved in my ears, I couldn't get enough of it. Anybody here experience ASMR? The Amiga gave that to me as a kid because of that hard panned music. The stuff came from all over the place to your ears! The barracks, a place to save and move on from... Best music from the game in my opinion but I can only say that about the Amiga version.
That was a hell of a long post to state something simple, but that's the way I do it. Yes, I grew up on the machine and it's how I first heard Wing Commander... I loved it then, I love it now... But I recognize not everything on the Amiga sounds better than the MT-32, and I very much love the MT-32... To me they are both great ways to experience music. I prefer both of them over the digitized music George Oldziey did for the Kilrathi Saga, which I also had back then. Perhaps nostalgia bumps it a little in favor of the Amiga for me, which is why I utterly understand people that do think the MT-32 sounds better. I can't fault you for your opinion on what sounds better to your ears... AS LONG as you don't fault me for my ears either. I feel we should all agree they are both kick ass, and just bash the FM stuff together as one big family... Who's with me?!
I wouldn't be surprised if a couple people got super angry because of what I said about FM music... To me it makes no sense, it "has to be" about nostalgia in order to prefer that, because... I'll just never understand, and I did grow up with FM stuff too... There is no game I can say I utterly prefer in FM over the MT-32, the Amiga, or General MIDI. I'm sorry if it offends anyone, I don't wish to start a war on that, I'm just trying to better illustrate my opinons on the MT-32 VS the Amiga by letting others understand the distaste I have for FM.
I'm not the only one who can't stand FM (a whole lot of people agree with me on that one), it's just so hard for me to put myself in anyones shoes when it comes to that. With the MT-32? I do understand it, it's a great device. - But I have heard several people over the years respond to a comment praising the Amiga sound in Wing Commander with a very simple, kind of trollish, certainly arrogant comment of "Try the MT-32 if you think that." - As if any of them actually had that thing, as if their experience with the MT-32 is not utterly based on the emulation of it. As if they know something nobody else knows about... I mean not everyone knows about the MT-32, but I think it's fare to say everyone here does. I sincerely doubt anyone who came into Wing Commander thinking the Amiga version sounded fantastic, having no experience with DOS, I doubt any of them would change their mind on that even if they had the MT-32 right in front of them. - And they both sound a little different in-person VS emulation by the way. Neither one of them have perfect sound emulation if you ask me. - Nostalgia is one thing but it's a statement when the people that did have the Amiga so strongly feel the love for that music.
So this was is just a long and drawn out piece just saying for anyone who thinks it's obvious, is it really? Have you really taken time to play the Amiga version? It's the best port of Wing Commander, and it's also special in a lot of ways. I recommend playing the 16 color version because it's unique VS the CD32 version which really only changes the music, that's not enough in my eyes. The graphics looking so good in 16 colors (try EGA out to truly understand how good the Amiga is - or even just the console ports which had more colors) is an experience all fans of Wing Commander must have. I played it on a slow ass Amiga 500 back in the day and I had no clue it was slow... I can still play it as a matter of fact, because it's a damn good game. I do play the DOS version more often, because it's the overall best experience when all is said and done, but the Amiga is oh so special and deserves to be taken out once in awhile. I understand liking the MT-32 more, but the snide replies to fans of the Amiga music must go, because they're both great. I would hope this long write up from a guy who has both of them physically, who loves both of them, and still loves the Amiga... Because it sounds good and it puts its own spin on the fantastic original. Thanks to all that read. - Really not directed at anyone in particular, I was just inspired to write because that is something I've seen from various places over the years.
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