This is a slightly odd one. In the comments of the previous Ultravox post I mentioned a game I vaguely remember from the time that had sounds similar to the explosion sounds in the very beginning of Ultravox's Vienna. That game was called Cube Quest. I remember being awed by it at the time because one, it was 3D, two, it had some of the most beautiful visual effects for the time, and three, the audio was strange and far more impressive than any arcade game I played before it - both the audio system of the cabinet and the sound effects and music. Very synth oriented vs. just trying to emulate given sounds in the game.I ran a quick search for Cube Quest and found this site. The game came out in 1984. On the site there are some interesting samples and video. It was a laser disc based game, so I assumed the audio was previously recorded, which could be the case for some of it, but I also found schematics listed here. In the first set of schematics, you can clearly see pages on the "Sound Synthesizer." I'm curious if anyone knows what kind of synth engine this had as well as any info on recordings that could have been done on the laser disc. In the second set of schematics you can see a parts list for "Mother Sounds."
BTW, if you click through to the site, each thumbnail will bring up a larger shot if you click on it. It was a really trippy game. It kind of had the vibe of Tron meets Logan's Run. Really bizarre and diverse as you can see in some of these screens. I specifically remember getting to the plants section to the left. Gameplay was a bit like Tempest on steroids, where you had to shoot geometrical objects coming out of the vortex. As I said above the sound effects were very impressive at the time. I remember the 
explosions sounding like the intro drums of Ultravox's Vienna.
Update: videos, via kroffe in the comments. Embedding is disabled for these so here are the links:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=4p081CnHDHo
http://youtube.com/watch?v=ikFNUA6Be4U
http://youtube.com/watch?v=1EwERR1bgWs
Found this also:
http://www.brightcove.tv/title.jsp?title=292663199&channel=288075
Starcade episode #98 - check last segment at 20.40 ;)
Update via Kathy in the comments:
"I own the original laser disc that was used to make the image. I worried that it might go bad, so wanted it captured.
Parts of it can be played on a regular Laser Disc player,like the attract videos you see on YouTube, but to make the game work, the tunnel images (all made by Able Graphics, an old pioneer in the graphics field for TV commercials) are interleaved images of stepping through the tunnel, every other frame (or so) was played forward, and then the interleaved images were played in reverse (and recorded in reverse) and a "loop" could me played that made the tunnel seem to go on forever. If you watch that on a regular Laser Disc player, it is a jumble of forward and backward images that do not make sense, and is over in less than a few second. The program steps through the interleaved images on the disc in the right order (forward and back) to make an endless loop of that tunnel.
There was audio on the LD as well, but only game sounds from the hardware played during the game while in a tunnel. The audio you see in YouTube videos are from the "splash" videos (attract mode) that played when the game was idle.
Sorry for being anonymous, but the LD was a copyrighted item! :-)"
wow i don't remember that one at all! Those graphics are so hot. I wish there were more audio samples available on the site. I also wonder if these games could actually be viewed on a regular Laserdisc player if you found an original game-disc... i have an old LD player and i kinda love the old thing. When it spins a disc up it sounds like a jet turbine.
ReplyDelete..or was that a jet-engine?
ReplyDeleteCube Quest made a bit of a splash a few years ago again when the 'long rumoured to be lost' ROM images were found for the GCE Vectrex. It was an adaptation of the game that never was quite completed, but how could it complete with full bandwidth NTSC with 44.1K digital stereo?
ReplyDeleteThe LD players used in video games were really quite good. I'd check your spindle motor bearing ortho, it shouldn't be making that noise ;-)
Here is a link to all the Pioneer player info and manuals used in video games:
http://www.dragons-lair-project.com/tech/ldguide/pioneer.asp
Cube Quest isn't listed, but I'm sure its player is here. A few months ago I saw an LD-1100 at a RE-PC for $5 in the 'junk' section. After thinking about it a few days I went back and it was gone ;-)
I'm happy with my consumer grade LD-S9 though (who wouldn't be? oh yeah, an HLD owner).
http://www.dragons-lair-project.com/games/materials/audiovideo/audio/cube02.mp3
ReplyDeleteThat sure sounds like Ken Nordine doing the VO.
At around that time, Yamaha was selling a 4-op FM synthesizer on a chip, which appeared in a number of mid-'80s arcade games (Marble Madness being one that I recall). Might that have been the synth chip in Cube Quest?
ReplyDeleteI suppose you've come across these too, otherwise - for your enjoyment:
ReplyDeletehttp://youtube.com/watch?v=4p081CnHDHo
http://youtube.com/watch?v=ikFNUA6Be4U
http://youtube.com/watch?v=1EwERR1bgWs
Thanks kroffe, I accidentally did a search on YouTube for CubeQuest without the space. Thanks for posting the links. I would have missed it.
ReplyDeleteFound this also:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.brightcove.tv/title.jsp?title=292663199&channel=288075
Starcade episode #98 - check last segment at 20.40 ;)
Awesome. Watching it now.
ReplyDeleteMan that was a blast from the past. Thanks for posting it. I remember being super impressed by Mach 3 at the time as well. Funny how you forget things over time.
ReplyDeleteI remember a period of time when I vaguely remembered the game Qube Quest completely forgetting the title. I figured I would never see it again and the memory would get lost in obscurity. One of those memories where you think it might have been something in a dream. I only played it a couple of times and never saw or heard of it again.
Thanks for finding the videos. Finally seeing the game in action itself was the icing on the cake. That and seeing Mach 3 again.
Looking into the schematics reveals nothing really interesting in the sound synthesis part. Core might be this "7521", which is an AD7521 12bit DAC. The rest around it is all digital, besides some opamps for sound mixing, there is no analog circuitry in it. It's just a sample-based sound output i think.
ReplyDeleteI own the original laser disc that was used to make the image. I worried that it might go bad, so wanted it captured.
ReplyDeleteParts of it can be played on a regular Laser Disc player,like the attract videos you see on YouTube, but to make the game work, the tunnel images (all made by Able Graphics, an old pioneer in the graphics field for TV commercials) are interleaved images of stepping through the tunnel, every other frame (or so) was played forward, and then the interleaved images were played in reverse (and recorded in reverse) and a "loop" could me played that made the tunnel seem to go on forever. If you watch that on a regular Laser Disc player, it is a jumble of forward and backward images that do not make sense, and is over in less than a few second. The program steps through the interleaved images on the disc in the right order (forward and back) to make an endless loop of that tunnel.
There was audio on the LD as well, but only game sounds from the hardware played during the game while in a tunnel. The audio you see in YouTube videos are from the "splash" videos (attract mode) that played when the game was idle.
Sorry for being anonymous, but the LD was a copyrighted item! :-)