MegaRace Music IntroPossibly some of the best videogame music from the early '90s were tunes from games for the PC. And MegaRace was no exception. Stephane Picq's musical compositions for MegaRace have a very futuristic feel to game and most of the time, it's the only audio that's being played! So, in reality, the music from MegaRace, is a very important aspect of the game. The music uses a special sound card that can be found in IBM computers from 1989-1994: the AdLib sound card. Before I go any further, I would like to talk a little bit about the AdLib sound card. AdLib IntroThe AdLib sound card is a very important sound card in PC history, because this card came out a couple of years before general MIDI was founded. It's sounds are based on the Yamaha OPL-2 synthesizer, and thus this means that the AdLib sound card is completely different from a MIDI sound card. Instead of MIDI having couple of file extensions that are associated with it, AdLib has scores of file extensions! MegaRace uses the Herad System (*.SDB or *.AGD files) file extensions developed by Cryo's Remi Herbulot. These are also the exact same files that Cryo used for Dune, not to mention the same musical composer, Stephane Picq. These files are also compressed in *.HSQ files, in the program's main *.DAT file. There is a program called UNHSQ from the same people who bought us RDOSPLAY (I'll get to that in just a minute), that decompresses the HSQ file, but unfortunately I cannot find this program on the internet.But, if AdLib was such a important sound card in PC history, how come I don't hear about it today? Well, when AdLib came out in 1987, it was the standard in sound cards, as it was one of the only sound cards for the IBM PC. But then, came Creative Labs' SoundBlaster sound card. Now, while you're thinking that because SoundBlaster had support for digital sound, that Creative Labs overtook AdLib, that's actually not the case, because SoundBlaster didn't have the capablity to produce digital sound until Creative Labs released Sound Blaster Pro. Believe it or not, it was the fact that AdLib didn't have support for a joystick, that cost them big time. You want to listen to MegaRace's music right? Well, unfortunately, AdLib music support is rare and hard to come by, but I have looked high and low and found these amazing AdLib-related website that you should check out: AdPlug RDOSPlay AdLib Music Archive Rdos AdLib Catcher DOSBox AdPlug, a plug-in for Winamp, is the lastest and greatest AdLib Player, by Simon Peter. You gotta check this site out! RDOSPlay is the first generic AdLib player. Unfortunately, the site hasn't been updated since 1997 (!). However, it's got a lot of info about AdLib's many file extensions. AdLib Music Archive is your best bet for additional AdLib music! Very cool website! Check it out! Rdos AdLib Catcher is for catching AdLib music for playback in RDOSPlay. DOSBox has it's own OPL command catcher built into its game emulator. I use DOSBox to emulate MegaRace, and so I also use DOSBox to catch the AdLib/OPL commands from MegaRace. I'll upload some of this "captured" data soon. But if you want to listen to MegaRace in a regular audio format, then check out this: MegaRace music in Ogg Vorbis Format This is studio-quality recordings of ALL of the music in MegaRace. The music was recorded by Talus from Kohina.com (GREAT JOB, TALUS!). Also, this is the music recorded an old DOS computer with a genuine SoundBlaster v2 card. This is not emulated music! You gotta download this! Here are the RAW captures of all of the music from MegaRace! To play them, you must have AdPlug AND Winamp installed on your computer. I captured these myself using DOSBox. RAW Captures of MegaRace AdLib MusicNew San Maeva Factory Land Skyholder Fractalian Space Terminal CityThere is also a Full Motion Video from MegaRace that features a really nice musical piece in the end. The MP3 below captures this FMV in its entirety. Music from Full Motion VideoMegaRace FMV EndingTo go back to the MegaRace page, please click on the link below. Back to MegaRace |